Assassin's Curse (4 page)

“I want that witch dead,” Catherine replied, “but I know your coven will never harm her.
 
If you catch Miriam, you’ll only cloister her away from the justice she deserves.
 
I swear that will not happen.”

“What will you do?”

“Something you and your kind will not,” Catherine replied, turning her back on Elizabeth and staring out over the gorgeous vista.
 
“I will hire the assassin’s guild to take care of her and bring my grandchildren to me, just as Tomas wanted.”

Elizabeth stood quietly, mulling over her sister’s proposal.
 
In one way, the situation could not have worked out better.
 
Catherine would hire the guild to silence Miriam forever and bring the twins back.
 
With Miriam’s death, no one would ever know of her part in Tomas’s death.
 
Once the twins were safely secured at the estates under Catherine’s care, they would be within easy reach of Elizabeth’s influence.
 
Of course, if she wanted to properly influence them, she would have to become a regular visitor here, but that should not be too difficult because, after all, she was family.

“Catherine, take care that you don’t set things in motion that you will regret later.”

Catherine whirled on Elizabeth with a vengeance.
 
“My son was brutally murdered by that witch; a woman who professed to love him.
 
You said yourself that she killed him and nearly killed you in the process.
 
I will regret nothing except the time it takes to find and take her life like she did my son’s.”

“But the children will need a mother,” Elizabeth replied.
 
“They’re so young and innocent.”

“Yes, they are innocent,” Catherine replied thoughtfully, “but I am a mother too. Two little girls will be no difficulty.
 
They are all I have left of my beloved Tomas and I want them here.
 
I will raise them as they should be raised, as scions of the House of Berkshire.
 
I’ll be damned if I let that witch take them from me like she took Tomas.
 
It’s the least I can do for my son’s memory.”

As Catherine continued her rant, Elizabeth held herself still and attentive.

Yes, you do that little sister.
 
It will save me the trouble of killing that witch myself.

“I will contact the guild and contract them to kill that bitch.
 
I will tell them to bring my granddaughters here to me, unharmed, and I will give them a king’s ransom as payment.
 
They will not fail me.”

“Catherine, I will support you in anything you do,” Elizabeth said.
 
“I feel the same as you do about the twins.
 
I will gladly sacrifice my time to help you raise them in the manner in which they deserve.”

“Thank you, Elizabeth,” Catherine replied.
 
“You are a good sister.”

Jeda leaned against the wall with his beggar’s cup in hand.
 
He was barefoot and dressed in rags that barely covered his rangy frame.
 
The mud, dirt, and blood smeared on his face and hair were stark reminders of the harshness of slum life.
 
Though the blood was not his own, no one would get close enough to see through his ruse because of the stinking odor emanating from him.
 
The stink was so bad that one of the city guards came his way after receiving complaints from the local merchants.
 
It seems Jeda might have overdone his disguise a tad.
 
Anyone downwind from him quickly vacated the area and the merchants were beginning to fear a loss of customers.

“Damn man, you stink,” the guard yelled at him, “enough to make the strongest stomach heave.
 
Clean yourself up in the bay before coming to beg here again or you’ll enjoy the inside of the lockup.
 
Then you’ll get a bath you’ll never forget, whether you like it or not.”
    

The guard did not stay around any longer than he had to.
 
Jeda had chosen his disguise because he was not from around here and it afforded him the best opportunity to stay in one place without arousing suspicion.
 
There were about half a dozen beggars on the fringes of the marketplace, some looking worse than Jeda, but definitely none that smelled as sweet.
 
They all recognized him as a newcomer, but they kept their distance as long as Jeda stayed well away from their potential
marks
.
 
It was interesting that those least able to afford handouts were the most generous in their charitable contributions, while the rich seemed to hold onto their coins tighter than a drowning man would a lifesaver.
 
There would always be a divide between the haves and the have-nots, but everyone had to eat and the food market was the one place where everyone eventually came.
    

Though Jeda’s position was further away from the market and closer to the slums, it still afforded him a clear view of the buyers and gawkers.
 
He waited patiently, watching as the rich and poor alike came and went about their daily trips to buy food, knowing that if she were still in the city, she would eventually come here.
 

Constantine was a beautiful city, full of cobbled streets lined with trimmed trees and bushes that surrounded the city parks.
 
The parks were open to all of the city’s weary citizens for rest and relaxation, as long as one did not have the look of a beggar or a thief.
 
Those of that ilk were kept strictly to the poorer streets and marketplaces by the city guard.
 
The parks had many winding paths throughout them, showing off the wonderfully decorated gardens full of colorful and aromatic flowers, meticulously maintained and cultivated by an army of caretakers.
 
In the spring, the smells of windflower and apple blossoms graced the air, while the fall brought on its own fare of exotic orchids and carnations.
 

Constantine was a marvel of
engineering,
its streets built in concentric rings, with the innermost rings devoted to official buildings and the mansions of powerful, noble families.
 
Each intersection was marked with a great fountain or the statue of a great hero, mostly forgotten now, while the outermost ring was a thirty-foot-high wall designed to protect the city and its inhabitants from both land and sea incursions.
 
It was truly one of the gems of the kingdom, but like all great cities, Constantine had its darker underbelly.
 

Actually, Constantine had four.
 
The city had two major avenues running through it, neatly bisecting the city into equal-sized quadrants.
 
Each quadrant was referred to by its compass point and the residents often referred to themselves by that as well.
 
It was not uncommon for people to call themselves a
northwesterner
or a
southeasterner
and each area had its share of communal pride.
 
Each quadrant had its share of nobility, merchant class,
working
class and, of course, slums.
 
Walls were constructed around each quadrant slum in an effort to stem the tide of filth encroaching on the better parts of the city.
 
This worked better than anyone could have imagined, giving the poor and destitute, thieves and murderers, prostitutes and the lost a place they could call home.

Each quadrant of the city also boasted a different market, where all manner of goods and services could be bought.
 
The busiest of all was the farmer’s market located in the southeastern quad.
 
At most times of the day and night, one could find farmers and hawkers of all sorts selling every conceivable type of food one could imagine.
 
It was the one place where Jeda knew he would have his best chance at discovering if the witch was still here within the city.

It wasn’t long before his patience paid off.
  

***

Miriam froze for a split second while examining a piece of fruit.
 
The feeling of being watched assaulted her witch senses.
 
She hesitated but a moment before putting the fruit back down and smiled at the farmer.
 
“I don’t think the babies will eat this,” she said.

The old farmer nodded as Miriam walked slowly toward the next stall.
 
Today wasn’t the first time she had felt the presence of a watcher, but the other times had turned out to be part of the normal perversion of the streets she lived on.
 
Those times had never felt like this.
 
This was something different, something sinister that seemed to be hunting her specifically.
 
This felt like a violation, and Miriam had to exert all her strength and self-control to tamp down the anxiety and fear growing inside her.
 

Oh gods,
she cried silently to herself,
they’ve found us.

Her heart was racing and her breath quickened as she realized the danger she and the twins were facing.
 
The babies, finely attuned to her feelings, felt her distress and began to fuss.
 
Miriam stopped and swiveled the rear papoose around so that both infants rested on her chest.

“Shhh, hush now, no need to fuss, we’ll be home soon,” she said in soothing tones while rubbing their small backs.
 

Listening to her calming voice, the babies soon settled down and Miriam continued on as if nothing had happened.
 
The last thing she wanted was to alert her watcher that he had been spotted.
 
She was scared and she clasped her hands together to keep them from shaking.
 
She had prepared herself for this moment and knew what she must do next.
 
After a few more stops for her daily rations, she headed back to her small room.

Although she had no clue
who
had found her, it didn’t really matter.
 
Her discovery had been inevitable, especially with the number of groups hunting for her and the twins.
 
She chided herself for not leaving the city immediately, but it was too late now.
 
She breathed in the scent of impending rain as she made her way home, and glanced up at a darkening sky before entering her run-down building.
 
It would be a foul night, one unfit for man or beast, but one that Miriam hoped she had sufficiently prepared for.
 

***

Jeda leaned further back into the shadows of his wall when he saw Miriam momentarily freeze.
 
He thought she had spotted him, but when she calmly continued her shopping, he relaxed and continued his surveillance.
 
His disguise was nearly perfect, but there was always a chance of discovery and he could not afford to take any chances.
 
After all, she was a witch and no stranger to the dangers of the hunt or killing.
 
Her dead fiancé was testament to that.
 
Now that he had located her, he would not lose her.
 
He watched from the shadows as she bought her food and made her way into the walled areas of the slums.

It was easy to follow her after that.
 
The ebb and flow of traffic around the market made tracking her a simple chore.
 
It was her movement into the slums that surprised him most.
 
At first, he thought that she would have sought more appealing shelter in the inner city, but after a moment’s reflection, he saw the cunning in her choice.
 
No one would think to search for her in the destitute and dangerous streets of the slums.
 
Jeda took care to move with the crowds, ensuring he would remain invisible to anyone watching.
 
He followed her back to the tenement where she had a room and waited across the street, spying for any movement or unusual activities.
 

After watching the streets around her building for some time, Jeda approached an old woman sitting on the stoop of the tenement.
 
At first, the old woman spat and yelled at him to get away.
 
He was disgusting looking and smelled like the pits of hell, but after he flourished a copper coin in front of her, she decided she could bear his smell for a few short questions.
    

“Yeah, I know who you’re talkin’ about,” the old woman answered Jeda’s question, greedily eyeing the coin he held up before her.
 
“She lives by herself, got no man or anybody except them babies of hers.
 
Cry all time them babies do, keeps me awake ‘til all hours of the night.
 
Yeah, I know ‘em.
 
Room’s on the second floor, in the far back corner.”

Jeda tossed her the coin and she deftly snatched it out of the air, pocketing it with practiced ease.
 
The old woman squinted at Jeda.
 
Why would a beggar care about the woman and her brats?
 
Where did he get the money he paid her?
 
There was wrongness about him and she quickly ambled down the road, but unfortunately, the attentiveness that kept her alive in many sticky situations would be her undoing today.