Invisible Assassin (16 page)

Minna-Satu smiled and glanced around to ensure that no one was paying attention to their conversation. "Blade is the Master of the Dance in Jondar, but all Jashimari assassins can perform the Dance adequately, it is a requirement."

Kerrion watched the assassin float over the floor on blurring feet, the rattle of his boots blending into a simple tune. "I know little about the secret society of Cotti assassins, perhaps I should find out more. I would enjoy watching such a performance again, yet doubtless Blade will not oblige. Strange that no professional dancers have ever come up with anything to rival this."

"They are all concerned with grace and poise, balancing on one foot and leaping about in odd poses. This dance stemmed from an act of self-defence. Its purpose is to hone the skills of agility and strength as well as speed."

Kerrion nodded. "I can see where it would be most beneficial in those things. And he does this every day?"

"This is how he exercises."

"Impressive."

Blade rounded out his performance with a series of sideways leg flicks, performed one last foot clashing leap, and fell to one knee, his chest heaving. Straightening, he walked off the floor, a heavy silence following him. The King stepped forward and clapped, and the stunned nobles joined in. The assassin ignored it as he strode from the room, pausing at the door to remove the metal pieces from his boots. Minna watched him leave, knowing that he was angry with her.

Out in the hall, Blade shucked his jacket, sweat prickling his skin after the spate of strenuous exertion. He headed for his rooms, planning to change out of the unwanted finery and into something more comfortable. Rounding a corner, he stopped in surprise. Ronan walked towards him, looking smug. The Prince spotted Blade and grinned as he approached.

"Ah, if it is not the Jashimari fop. Had enough of the party already? Does your slut not want you on hand to lick her toes when she demands it?"

Blade ignored him, setting off down the hall again. Ronan stepped into his path. "I have a message for your assassin, plaything. I know you know where he is, so you can tell him that I have his sister, and if he does not show himself, I shall kill her."

Blade eyed the Prince. "You are lying. The assassin has no relatives."

"Oh, yes he does. I have just had her brought here from Indala, where she belonged to Lord Dorgon. Alenstra, I believe her name is. You can tell him -"

The assassin stepped towards Ronan. "Show me."

Ronan smiled. "Certainly."

The Prince turned and walked down another corridor for a short distance before he pulled open a pair of ornate doors and entered an indoor garden filled with sunshine, palms and pools stocked with bright fish. Six guards and two young princes waited there, looking bored. Alenstra sat on the floor between the guards, bound and gagged. The Prince had not yet tortured her, from the looks of it, but he would have no qualms about doing so if the assassin did not make an appearance, at which time Alenstra would tell him everything. Blade turned to Ronan, cold with fury, and the Prince studied him with renewed interest.

"So, I was right. She is the assassin's sister. Fetch him here, or she dies."

Blade controlled himself with an effort. "If I fetch him here you will die. I advise you to let her go at once."

"No, I do not think so. She is the only way I am going to flush out that cockroach, and I will have his head."

"Let her go."

"Or what?"

"I will kill you."

Ronan laughed. "You, a neutered plaything? I want the assassin, fop, or she dies." He gestured to the guards, and one gripped Alenstra's hair and held a knife to her throat.

Blade knew that if he killed Ronan now, the guard would slit Alenstra's throat, and taking the Prince hostage would be worse than folly. She could not flee the palace alone, and he would not escape Jadaya with the Prince as his hostage once the alarm was raised. If only he could walk away as he would from anyone else. He was willing to sacrifice himself, but it would not save her if he fought, for her relationship to him would condemn her. The situation was untenable, but there was a chance that Ronan would be so pleased to capture him that he would spare Alenstra.

Blade released one of the daggers in his sleeves, letting it fall into his hand. "I am the assassin."

The Prince's eyes narrowed. "You may think me a fool, but I am not as stupid as that."

"Let her go."

"When I have the assassin."

"You have me," Blade said. "Harm my sister, and you will die so slowly that you will beg for the end."

Ronan studied him, looking amused and disbelieving. "You? A beardless fop, an assassin?" He gave a bark of laughter.

"Shall I prove it to you?" Blade raised the dagger, and Ronan's eyes widened. Blade continued, "I would have killed you in the Queen's rooms, had she not ordered me otherwise. Release my sister or die, the choice is yours."

"If you are the assassin, show me your mark."

Blade tugged open his collar, and the Prince stepped back. "You are the one who is going to die, murderer! Drop the dagger or they slit her throat."

Blade glanced at the knife poised against Alenstra's throat and her desperate, tear-filled eyes pleading with him to save her, just as his younger sisters had done so many years ago. He had failed them, and now had a chance to save the one who had survived. He opened his hand, and the dagger clattered to the floor. Alenstra sagged with relief, and Ronan grinned.

"Excellent. Now it is you who will die slowly, and not even the King can save you. These witnesses will testify to your admission that you are the Jashimari assassin, and you will be executed for the deaths of my brothers, in Cotti fashion, which is, I assure you, excruciating. And now, I think your sister is redundant. She has served her purpose well." He glanced at the guards. "Kill her."

"No!"

Blade leapt towards the men who held Alenstra, but the soldier drew the knife across her throat in a swift stroke. She slumped, her life gushing out in a crimson flood. The assassin released the second dagger from his sleeve and flicked it at the man who had just slain his sister. The soldier fell backwards with a gargled cry, clutching the hilt that protruded from his throat. Blade bent and yanked two daggers from his boots as Ronan recovered from his astonishment and yelled, "Seize him!"

The assassin charged the guards, taking on all five in a suicidal rush into their midst. As they drew their swords he slashed two across the throat and stabbed a third in the heart. The other two lunged at him, their blades whispering past his ribs. He twisted and leapt, lashed out with a foot and broke a man's jaw with a soft crack. A sword slid along his ribs, opening a gash that forced a grunt from him. He turned, slashed with a dagger and found a soft target. His assailant staggered back, clutching a bleeding arm.

Blade spun, almost slipping in the blood that covered the floor. His eyes found the Cotti Prince who had just ordered his sister's death. With a growl of rage he charged Ronan, ignoring the sword that the Prince drew with a hiss of steel. The swiftness of his attack ensured that the Prince did not have time to raise the weapon, and prevented Blade from impaling himself on it as he flung himself at Ronan, sending him crashing to the floor with the fury of his attack. The assassin lacked the advantage in close fighting, Ronan outweighed him and was stronger, but he no longer cared. He stabbed the Prince in a frenzy, not caring where his blows landed, inflicting wounds in Ronan's arms, shoulders and chest.

Ronan roared and struggled, his sword useless at such close quarters against Blade's maniacal attack, and the assassin moved too fast, a veritable storm of slashing steel. A modicum of sense stole into Blade's crazed mind, enough to make him change his target and stab Ronan several times in the gut, making the Prince scream.

The two wounded guards, one nursing a broken jaw, the other an injured arm, rose and staggered towards the fray. The assassin whipped around and hurled a dagger that stopped one man dead in his tracks, then jumped up as the last soldier charged at a shambling run. With one dagger left, he could not afford to throw it, so he kicked the man in the throat as he spun aside. The soldier crumpled and lay still, and Blade found himself alone with the groaning Prince, his brothers fled long before. Ronan clutched his lacerated belly, writhing in a pool of blood. Blade walked over and stared down at him. He took no notice of the blood that soaked his own shirt and dripped from the hem of his trousers.

Ronan raised a hand. "Do not kill me!"

The assassin knelt beside his victim and flipped the Prince onto his stomach, then stabbed him twice in the back, on either side of his spine. The Prince shouted and sobbed, begging for his life, and Blade pulled him onto his back again.

"I always keep my promises," he grated. "It will take you a long time to die."

Rising to his feet, he walked to Alenstra's crumpled body and knelt beside her, lifted her and rolled her onto her back. He removed the gag and cut the ropes that bound her wrists, arranging her hands over her breast in the manner of burial. The Prince whimpered while Blade closed her staring eyes with a trembling, blood-smeared hand. He kissed her brow and straightened to gaze down at her, his face twisted with anguish.

"Find joy in the Everlasting, Alenstra. I am sorry... I failed you... forgive me."

Blade stroked the hair from her brow while he studied her face, committing it to memory. Pounding feet in the corridor heralded a crowd of nobles that the young princes had summoned from the banqueting hall. They rushed to fill the doorway, stopping there to gawp at the carnage.

Kerrion pushed his way to the front, a sweep of his eyes taking in the bloody tableau. The crumpled forms of six soldiers lay huddled on the floor, one groaning. Ronan lay in a pool of blood, clutching his belly. The assassin knelt beside the still form of a dark-haired woman, stroking her face. Ronan rolled onto his side and levered himself onto one elbow.

"Call the guards!" he cried. "I am betrayed!"

Kerrion broke from his trance and strode forward to kneel beside his brother. "Lie still." He turned to shout at the crowd, "Call a healer!"

"Summon the guards!" Ronan yelled. "He tried to kill me! He is the Jashimari assassin!"

Kerrion glanced at Blade, whose bowed head and dejected stance told the King that the assassin had resigned himself to death at the hands of the Cotti soldiers when they came. He longed to shout at Blade to flee while he had the chance, but could not without compromising himself before the witnesses. Instead he looked down at his brother, pretending great concern for Ronan's plight. In truth, the sight of his brother's pain did sadden him, and not all of his concern was feigned.

Six soldiers, summoned by a panic-stricken noble, pushed through the crowd and hesitated when they encountered the terrible scene. The King paid them no heed, but knelt beside his brother and directed him to lie still until the healer arrived, holding Ronan down when the Prince tried to move. The soldiers glanced around, but without anyone to point out the perpetrator and no orders, they made no move.

Minna pushed her way to the front of the muttering throng, using her elbows to good effect. She gasped and raised a hand to her mouth in horror, her eyes wide. Ronan spotted the soldiers and pointed at Blade.

"Kill him! He is the assassin!"

The soldiers started forward, and Minna realised what was about to happen as Blade raised his head. His hands remained upon his sister's body, and a dagger lay on the floor beside him. His eyes were the empty, bleak greyness of a stormy sky on a windy winter's day. The soldiers drew their swords with a hiss of steel as they advanced.

Minna shouted, "Blade, run!"

His eyes met hers, and she read a flash of anguish in their depths.

"Go!" she cried.

When Blade bowed his head, Minna picked up her skirts to dash ahead of the soldiers, swinging around before them to block their path. The leading man thrust her to the ground and raised his sword to finish her off.

Kerrion leapt up. "Hold!"

The black hilt of a dagger sprouted from the soldier's throat, and he crumpled. Minna twisted to face the assassin, who stood, looking uncertain.

"Run!" she shouted again.

The soldiers charged past her, swords raised. Blade pivoted gracefully, belying his injury, and sprinted across the indoor garden.

The nobles blocked the room's only door, and no other way out remained but for the vast windows on the far side. Blade had no idea what lay beyond them or how high above the ground they were, nor did he much care. He flung himself through the nearest with a crash of shattering glass.

The wind tore at him as he fell, and he twisted, cat-like, to get his legs under him. The ground rushed up in a blur, then his feet hit it with a jarring impact, his knees buckling to absorb the shock. He flung out his hands, but the grass hit him in the face.

Chapter Nine

Kerrion went to Minna and helped her up, pulling her into his arms. She clung to him, and the soldiers turned from the smashed window and headed for the door.

"Is he dead?" he demanded.

They stopped and saluted. One said, "He lies still, Sire. We'll go and make sure."

"Before you do, I must ensure that none of you make the same mistake as your comrade." He nodded at the dead soldier who had raised his sword to Minna. "Any man who harms my wife shall perish at my hand, is that understood?"

The soldiers fell to their knees, bowing their heads. "Yes, Sire."

"Doubtless he would have heeded my command, but I would have killed him anyway."

The nobles at the door muttered at this statement, and Kerrion turned to glare at them. "Any who would find fault with that may speak now or remain silent!"

The muttering died away, then one man said, "She was trying to protect the man who injured Prince Ronan, Sire."

Kerrion released the Queen and stepped towards them. "He was a Jashimari lord, and he was goaded into this confrontation. My brother slew his sister before his eyes."