Assassin's Curse (8 page)

Though the intelligence was four days old, the trail of bodies Jeda had left behind made up for the time lost.
 
The slums were still in an uproar about the six bodies--a gang of toughs and two women--all found murdered on the same day with no apparent connection.
 
The rumors abounded.

There’s a murderer about, take care where you go...

I hear say it was a demon that run off with that poor widow woman’s babies...

It was the guild, no doubt, but you didn’t hear me say it…
 

Mave’s interest was piqued at that last rumor and followed the man who had said it.

***

It is an awful feeling to wake up and not know where you are.
 
When he first started to come around, the old man’s thoughts were confused.
 
He couldn’t see anything and so thought it must be night, but then he felt something covering his eyes and a terrific pain in the back of his head.
 
Then he tried to move and, although he could feel his hands and legs, he couldn’t move them.
 
That was when the first feelings of fear began.

I’m still breathing so somebody wants me alive.

With an effort of utmost willpower, he pushed his fear down and waited to see what would happen next.
 
He had lived in the slums for most of his life and knew somebody must want something from him.
 
That’s when it came back to him in a rush.
 
The big guard from the duke’s constabulary had come to look at the room where the young woman had been murdered days before.
 
He had been cleared of any wrongdoing days ago and was tired of these constables coming around poking into his business, so he hadn’t answered any of the big man’s questions.
 
What he couldn’t quite understand now was why he was gagged and tied up like this.

That bastard must have hit me and tied me up.
 
He won’t get away with
this,
even the Duke’s men can’t break their own law.

Mave watched as the fat landlord woke up.
 
The initial realization of his predicament was whetting Mave’s perverse appetite and so he let the old man stew for another few moments.
 
As the old man calmed down and sat still, Mave got up and removed his blindfold.

The first thing the old landlord saw was a young woman bound and gagged to a chair exactly like him.
 
She looked at him with wide, panicky eyes, but he refused to let her fear reach him.
 
He looked around and saw that he was in the same room he had been showing that bastard constable.
 
That’s when he noticed him standing off to the side.
 
Questions or not, this was going too far and he would lodge a complaint against these heavy-handed tactics.
 

“Hmmmphhffggmmm.”

Mave looked at the fat man trying to talk around his gag and laughed.
 
“Oh, you had your chance for that already,” Mave replied, pulling out a long, wicked-looking knife.
 
“Maybe, just maybe, I’ll give you another chance later.”

The young woman squirmed in her chair and looked pleadingly at the landlord, hoping that he held the secret to their freedom.
 
Unfortunately for her, nothing could have been farther from the truth.

“You remember those questions I asked you before, don’t you?” Mave asked.
 
“Keep them in mind as you watch what happens next.”

Mave walked to the fat man and laid the blade against his face.
 
He drew it down lightly along the man’s cheek, leaving a thin, bloody line in its wake.

“Now that’s just the teaser,” Mave continued.
 
“Here’s where the real fun begins.”

He turned quickly and walked over to the young woman.
 
She had seen and heard everything and struggled against her bonds.
 
Mave grabbed her by the hair and twisted it in a knot in his fist.
 
He yanked it back, exposing her throat, and leaned the knife against it.
 

The old man’s eyes widened in alarm at the thought of the young girl’s throat to be cut, but he let out a sigh of relief as Mave lowered the knife a bit.

“Now that would be too quick, wouldn’t it?” Mave said, looking over his shoulder at the old man.
  

He started to release the girl’s hair, but suddenly wrenched her head up and, viciously slicing upward with the knife, severed her exposed ear.
 
She screamed and screamed through her gag.
 
Though she tried to wrench her head away from Mave’s grip, he did not let go.

“No, no, no.
 
Nothing so quick as a sliced throat.
 
You’ve probably seen hundreds of those, haven’t you?”
 
Mave turned the girl’s head to ensure the fat man saw the bloody mess.
 
He took the knife and ran it across his tongue, smearing the girl’s blood on it.
 
The fat man rolled his eyes and the waves of panic set in.

“See, now I have your attention, but too bad for this one, it’s a little too late.”
 
Mave took his knife and cut down the front of the woman’s threadbare smock.
 
She wore nothing underneath and the old man’s eyes goggled at the sight of her nakedness.

“Now that’s even pathetic to me,” Mave said.
 
“Look at you staring at this young girl’s naked body while she’s in pain.
 
Shame on you.”

The old man cringed at Mave’s chastisement and began to worry again about his own predicament.
 

“I wonder how you’ll answer my questions now, huh?”

“Hmmmphhffggmmm.”

“Oh, I’m just not sure I have your full attention quite yet.”

The old man tried to talk around the gag but it was stuffed too far into his mouth.
 
He struggled and tried to bounce in the chair but to no effect.
 
He watched helplessly as Mave stood in front of the naked girl.
 
He saw the poor girl’s eyes pleading and crying, but it had no effect on this monster.

“You know, he could have prevented all this,” Mave said conversationally to the young, frightened girl, pointing with his knife at the old man, “but he had to be a smart one, he did.
 
He started lying right from the start and that began all of this.
 
Now I know
you’re just an innocent bystander
in all this… unless, of course, you know something about the young woman that was murdered here a few days ago?”

The girl shook her head violently.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” Mave replied, “
so
I’m just going to use you as I planned all along.
 
You will be the incentive for the fat man’s honesty.”

With that Mave sliced diagonally down the woman’s chest, leaving a gaping wound that began to bleed profusely.
 
The young girl writhed in agony and moaned through her gag.
 

The old man tried screaming through his gag and tears streamed down his face as he saw the damage Mave had inflicted on the young, innocent girl.

Mave looked over at the landlord.

“Now you be quiet over there.
 
You’ll get your chance to talk again when I’m finished here.”

Mave knelt down and laid his knife across the girl’s foot, directly over her toes.

“Now watch carefully.”

Mave slowly leaned into the blade, slicing off one toe after another.
 
The young woman screamed again and finally passed out from the pain after her second toe was cut.

The old man began to tremble as he watched Mave torture the young woman.
 
Mave picked up a bucket of water he had stashed and threw some on the young woman to revive her.
 
The old man began to moan as he watched Mave move to another part of her body.

After nearly an hour of precise and horrendous torture, Mave finally stepped away from the ruined body of the young girl.
 
She had died and was of no more use to him.
 
He was blood-soaked and a bit tired from his labors, but the terrified looking old man lent him a renewed sense of purpose.
  

“Now, shall we have our little talk again?” Mave asked, moving over and removing the old man’s gag.
 
The old man had to turn his head and retch out the remains of his breakfast.
 
He had long since thrown up the contents of his stomach, but the gag had prevented him from spitting any of it out of his mouth.

“I’ll tell you anything,” the old man pleaded, “please don’t hurt me.”

“Now that’s more like it,” Mave said, smiling and obviously pleased by the response.
 
“Let’s get right to it then.”

For the next 20 minutes, the old man answered each of Mave’s questions fully and honestly.
 
He told him everything he knew about the young woman and the night of her murder.
 
He also told him he had seen Jeda leave that morning with the twins, but had not told anyone else that bit of information for fear of being incriminated in the murder.
 
He told Mave that, the last he saw of Jeda, he was moving off toward the market.

“I believe you,” Mave said when the old man finished talking.

The relief in the man’s eyes was palpable when he heard Mave say those words, but he was utterly shocked when Mave lurched forward and drove his knife into his chest nonetheless.

“But… but I told you everything I knew,” the old man sputtered.

“I know, but you did lie to me first and I hate when people lie to me.”

The old man died with his mouth agape.
 
Mave pulled his knife out and wiped it on his tunic.
 
He took off the uniform of the Duke’s guard he had been wearing and threw it at the old man’s feet.
 
He then cleaned off his face and hands with the remains of the girl’s dress.
 
He had worn some old clothes under the uniform that would allow him to leave the slums unnoticed.
 
Satisfied that he was clean of any bloodstains, he turned and looked over the room once more.
 
The sorry remains of the young girl, the dead landlord, and a guard’s uniform discarded between them should make quite a story for tomorrow.

Just let them try to figure this out,
Mave smirked.
 
He turned and quietly shut the door to the room and left the slums of Constantine.
  

Although Mave did not understand everything that had happened, one thing was clear.
 
Jeda had taken the babies and left.
 
At this point, he did not care why Jeda had run, but now that he knew he was alive, his job was to track him and bring him back to the guild.
 

Tracking Jeda turned out to be easier than Mave thought; it was hard for a man traveling along with two infants to disguise or hide his passage.
 
By careful questioning, Mave learned that Jeda had stopped at the farmer’s market and bought some very telling items before taking to the road.
 
He had bought supplies for travelling--dry goods, milk, water, and blankets--but what was most interesting was what he did not buy.
 
He bought no heavy furs, which dismissed the northern route with its freezing climate, and he had not bought enough water to cross the desert.
 
That eliminated the eastern route with its long stretches of arid wasteland.
 
To the west was the ocean, but if Jeda had planned a water trip he would not have needed any supplies, so that left only the southern route for Mave to follow.
 

After leaving a message for the masters, Mave began tracking him to the south.
 
He was confident that Jeda could not get very far even with a four-day head start.
 
It would be impossible for him to travel very fast with two young infants in tow.
   

***

Jeda looked around at the small village and silently cursed Miriam again.
 

Damn, this sucks.
 
Years of putting up with the shit that bastard Mave heaped on me, years that I took everything he dished out, years that I took it and prevailed, all for nothing.
 
He thought he could beat me down, but that never happened.
 
I took everything he dished out and more.
 
Couple more years and I would have been better at anything he did; I just needed a little more time.
  

That damn witch did this to me.
 
The masters warned me about her, but I was too cocky.
 
I felt the wrongness before I ever entered that room.
 
Damn, what was wrong with me?
 
Why didn’t I listen to myself?
 

Jeda vaguely remembered Miriam’s instructions, but why she had told him to go south and look for village healers was beyond his comprehension.
 
The first village he came to had an old crone who took one look at him and the children and literally turned him out.