B008P7JX7Q EBOK (45 page)

No!
With
the aid of the railing Adrian made it to his feet. The tears that spurted from
his eyes came mostly from shame now. With a yell of outrage at his own
weakness, he thrust an arm towards the girl, as though to shove her aside like
a branch in his way. The girl went flying away, rolling across the bridge and
striking the stone railing. Adrian stared from her to Connor in dazed surprise.
His cousin lay on the ground, coughing hoarsely and rubbing his throat. He
looked to Adrian with a mixture of gratitude and awe. The girl was soon getting
unsteadily to her feet. She stared at Adrian in perplexed wonder, and then a
deep anger settled over her features.

She ran towards him, and he braced himself,
unable to recall how he had done what he’d just managed.

5

Connor attempted to shout out a warning but
found the pain circling his throat too great to speak. For a moment, he watched
in uncertainty as Iris rushed towards Adrian. His eyes scanned the bridge
frantically. He saw Leah struggling to stand, and Alexis being punished by the
other assassin. Nothing that could help Adrian.

A sparkle of light in the fading afternoon
caught his eye.
Alexis’s gun!
He glanced back across the bridge. Iris
had nearly reached Adrian, and now she wielded a knife in each hand. Connor
scrambled to his feet and ran for the gun. He reached it and grabbed it,
surprised by its weight. His mind wanted to demand what he thought he was
doing, but Connor didn’t think of anything as he whirled around with the gun
leveled before him.

He saw Iris kick Adrian savagely against the
railing and draw one knife back. He willed her to stop, unaware of the tears
that were collecting in his eyes now that the decision lay before him. “
Please
stop, Iris! Please! Don’t do this!”
If Iris heard his shouts she paid him
no mind.

Her hand slashed down. Connor’s finger squeezed
the trigger. A clear shot rang out in the evening.

For a few moments the sound stilled all activity
on the bridge. Iris turned her head to look at him, the gun still leveled
before him, and from his peripheral vision Connor could see the other assassin
and Alexis looking towards him as well.
I missed! God, help me, I missed.
For a moment Iris met his unsteady gaze, and again he willed her to stop. He
was trembling all over. Iris broke the tableau as she immediately turned back
to Adrian and raised her knife.

Again Alexis’s gun broke the silence of the
evening.

The second shot seemed louder than the first,
but perhaps it only sounded like that because of the accompanying screams.
There was Iris’s scream as she was flung back against the stone railing, her
robe trailing in the air, and that of the other assassin.

“
IRIS!
” the man screamed, a raw and
desperate edge to his voice .

Connor’s gaze shifted from where Iris lay
breathing in shallow gasps to Adrian’s stunned face, and back again. The gun
dropped from his hand, and he didn’t pay it the slightest mind as he began to
walk towards where Adrian stood with Iris at his feet.

Connor knelt beside her, wincing at the sight of
blood around her mouth. Her small face stared up at him, surrounded by her
shoulder-length wave of black hair.

"You ... lied," she croaked, and
coughed blood. Her tilted green eyes stared at him accusingly.

 "I didn't," Connor said, and found
that he was in tears. “I really did think of you as a friend.”

"I never had ... a ... friend," she
spoke in a weak whisper. "Only ... Amon." Tears escaped her eyes and
rolled down her cheeks as she spoke the other assassin’s name.

"I'm sorry," Connor whispered. He was
aware of Adrian kneeling beside him and trying to comfort him, but it all
seemed far away.

"Thought ... perhaps you ... were ..."

"I am," Connor told her, pleading with
her to believe him. "I am."

Iris smiled weakly, no less beautiful for the
blood around her mouth. “Good -- goodbye, Con….”

Connor stared into Iris's glazed eyes,
penetrating the dull sky above. He saw the tears running down those smooth
cheeks, and lost himself.

He wept as he held her head in his arms.

6

“
IRIS!
”

Amon watched in disbelief as the girl was sent
flying back. She hit the stone railing and collapsed to the ground. For a few
moments he forgot the Legionnaire before him, and simply stared towards his
daughter. She was breathing shallowly, and he knew her then to be dead. He felt
a cold anger ignite within him as he watched the life leave her with every
breath. He let out a harsh cry and kicked the Legionnaire savagely, sending him
sprawling.

“You sons of whores!” Amon spat at him, kicking
him further. They would all die now, he decided. To hell with his orders to
simply catch the Ascillian boy. He would cut up the bastard before him and slit
the throats of the two little runts and hang them from their necks over the
bridge, and he would tear the girl’s face right off. He would cover this entire
bridge with their blood.

He would slaughter them all for killing his
daughter.

7

I'm sorry. Hamar ... Owain ... Michael ...
I'm sorry. I tried.

The thought came to Alexis clearly amidst the
pain. He lay on the ground, and in his failing vision he saw the dim outline of
the assassin standing over him against a sky that was somewhat brighter than
all else around him. He closed his eyes and felt at peace, as if all his
worries had been washed away with the blood that his wounds bled. There was
silence all around him. Blessed silence after the gunshots. Alexis could only
guess at what had been the result of those shots, and pray that the boys were
all right. He could feel the presence of the assassin striding towards him, and
knew that the approaching footsteps meant his death. He lay his head back, too
weak to struggle, and drifted further from the pain amidst the silence.

And then the silence was broken by a single loud
crack.

Alexis opened his eyes and saw the dim shape of
the assassin stagger forward. Another loud crack caused the assassin to jerk
around and to collapse to the ground beside him.

Alexis stared in numb amazement at where the
assassin had been standing. He saw a small form there, holding his gun and
pointing it at the man lying beside him.

“There has been enough misery this day,” Leah
said. Her voice sounded choked.

Alexis turned his head and looked at the man
lying beside him. He closed his eyes.
It’s over. God, please let it be over.

8

Adrian made his way to where Alexis and Leah
were on legs that felt as weak as willow reeds. He led Connor with one hand on
his arm. The sun had set, no more than a thin lining in the distance that would
diminish within a moment, and dusk had rolled over the world. Leah helped
Alexis to his feet, handing him his weapons. For a moment they stood there
together, looking around at the aftermath of the brief fight. Then they turned
and limped away.

None of them spoke as they hobbled across the
bridge, Adrian and Connor assisting one another and Leah lending support to
Alexis with one arm around his shoulders. Adrian looked back once, at the two
corpses that still lay there, black robes fluttering in the rising wind, and
then returned his gaze before him.

The city surrounded them, and he thought:
We’re
safe
.

Thank you for reading. I hope you
enjoyed this story. Stay tuned for the next installment in this series,
The Dark
Half
, due out in the fall.