Assassin's Curse (33 page)

He stared stoically at the young girl in front of him, wondering what he should do with her.
 
If Mave had learned nothing else during his years of exile from Constantine, it was that he could be wrong in his perception of others.
 
Learning that from Jeda, whom Mave held in such high contempt, had been a bitter pill to swallow.
 
Mave had never thought the girl would amount to anything.
 
She might be a trained assassin, but her skills lay in subterfuge and stealth.
 
She had little of the hardened skills that came from physical prowess or martial training.
 
In Mave’s eyes she would always be weak, but then again, she did lay this priceless gift at his feet.

After all these years, fate has finally smiled down upon me.
 
I will kill that traitor on sight and deal with the guild later.

“Sister Mary,” he began.
 
“You have done well.”

Mary almost let out a pent-up breath at his words… almost.
 

She stood in front of Mave in agonizing silence, not knowing if the news she had brought pleased him.
 
It was not easy working under a Brother assassin like Mave.
 
She had never been able to read him or understand him in all the time she had served him.
 
He was a stone-faced killer who was never to be underestimated.
 

“I am pleased with your report,” Mave continued.
 
“Because of the information you gathered, the guild will finally remove a stain that has tarnished our honor for far too long.”

Mary practically beamed at the praise from her mentor.
 
Her stance, however, never wavered.
 
She stood stoically still while Mave spoke.

“For your reward, you shall lead the team that will destroy the coven.
 
You shall execute every witch you find, brutally and with no mercy.
 
It is time the coven learns what it means to kill brothers of the guild.”

Mave had never forgotten the team of assassins that had been killed by coven witches ten years ago.
 
It did not matter that those witches were of the Black Coven and not associated with the local coven at Constantine.
 
A witch was a witch and they were all better off dead.

Mary’s eyes widened at Mave’s order.
 
She was one of the younger assassins in the guild house and to be given the lead on a raid was a great honor.
 
She never batted an eye at the order to kill the witches.
 
“I shall not disappoint you, Brother Mave.”

“See that you don’t.
 
Now gather your brothers in the main hall, we have work to do.”

Mave planned the attack with meticulous detail.
 
He decided to use two teams to make sure nothing could go wrong.
 
The first team, led by Mary, would strike at the coven and prevent any interference from the witches.
 
The second team, led by Mave, would attack the gypsy camp and capture the twins.
 
The time for action was upon them and, when he was satisfied his teams knew their roles, Mave had one final order to give.

“No one kills the traitor.
 
He is mine and mine alone.”
 

You bastard, I finally found you.
 
It’s about time you pay a terrible price for landing me in this backwater hellhole.

***

It didn’t take long for Kala and Kara to resume their playful chatter.
 
The ride to town was short, but as they approached, the twins became more excited with the prospect of exploring the markets and shops.
 
While Jeda pulled the wagon into the main market area and helped the two older women down, the girls bounced out of the wagon in wide-eyed wonder.
 
This was their first shopping trip in the city and everything was so new and exciting.
 
The normal shopping agenda had Jeda picking up construction materials and other miscellaneous supplies that the camp needed, while the women bought the
food stuff
.
 
They would all meet after
their
shopping trips and head back to camp together.
 
Jeda had thought to keep the twins with him until Mirabelle offered to take them to the local coven.

“I don’t mind if they accompany me.
 
I have some herbs and spices I need for my viewings.
 
They are more than welcome and might actually learn something of my lore,” Mirabelle said.

Jeda snorted at that.
 
Mirabelle’s ‘talents’ lay in scalping the unwary of their hard-earned coin, not through any ability to see into the future as she claimed.
 
He was about to say just that when Natasha stepped between them.

“I have to go to the coven as well.
 
I am in need of a certain medicinal that I cannot get in this land.
 
Hopefully, the coven will have a supply that I can buy from them.
 
The girls can accompany us and help with carrying my packages.”

“Poppy, can we go with Nana Natasha?
 
Please, Poppy?” Kala begged.

Jeda scowled, but soon acquiesced when both girls began to wheedle him.
 
“OK, OK,” he waved them off.
 
“You can go, but you both pay strict attention to your nana.
 
Do not go out of her sight.
 
I don’t want either of you wandering off.”

“We will, Poppy, we will,” Kala replied, kissing him on the cheek and running over to hold Natasha’s hand.
 
Kara, a bit more subdued, nodded her head and walked behind her sister.

Mirabelle smiled graciously at the lot, delighted at how smoothly her plan was coming together.

***

It was still early when Mary arrived at the coven house.
 
She did not live at the coven house: that was a right reserved for those with the power.
 
Part of her daily routine was to arrive early and prepare breakfast for the witches that lived there.
 
The number of witches living there fluctuated.
 
The covens acted as training centers for those of the power as well as a hospice for the locals needing help and healing.
 
There were three
fully-trained
witches and an equal number of trainees living at the coven today.
  

After she made sure the residents were all still sleeping, she opened the rear door and motioned her team of three brothers inside.
 

Mary heard movement from the private rooms belonging to Alana and signaled for her team to hide themselves.
 

Creak, creak
was the sound of footfalls on the stairs.
 
Alana, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, made her way to the kitchen as Mary lit the fire beneath the stove.
 
She did not acknowledge the young woman preparing breakfast beyond giving her an order for breakfast.

“Mary, I’d like to have my eggs prepared over easy this morning.”

“Yes, Mistress Alana.”

“And I’ll have a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice as well.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Alana rested comfortably at the breakfast table, not fully awake, simply waiting for the young girl to bring her food to her.
 
As she heard steps approach from behind, Alana sat up in anticipation.

“Oh I am so hun…”

The wire looped around Alana’s throat and Mary pulled hard on it, cutting cleanly through the witch’s throat.
 
She continued to pull on the handles of the garrote, the serrated teeth slicing easily through the muscle and cartilage.
 
Blood poured down the front of the woman’s sleeping clothes and she was dead before she knew what had happened.
 
Mary felt a perverse sense of satisfaction from killing the witch.
 
It made up for all of the slights and insults Alana had heaped upon her during her time at the coven.
 
She may have been ‘weak in the power,’ but she didn’t need any magical power to kill this arrogant bitch.
 
That was a skill she had mastered years ago.
 

As the dead woman began to slump forward in her seat, Mary grabbed her by the shoulder and leaned her body back.
 
With the efficiency of a village butcher, she sliced through Alana’s chest and cut out her heart.
 
This was a message to the witches of the kingdom that the brotherhood would strike at the very heart of any coven to exact their revenge and retribution against any who dared attack the guild.
      

Once she finished, Mary motioned for her team to come out from where they had watched her dispatch the witch.

“Nicely done, sister,” one of the assassins said softly.

“There are five more in the house.
 
We must strike quickly and quietly to make sure they have no chance to defend themselves.
 
Go now, we must be gone before any morning customers arrive.”

The team silently moved throughout the house, completing their assignment with the same brutal efficiency that Mary had shown Alana.
 
In a matter of minutes, it was done.
 
Every witch in the house was left with their throats slit and their hearts cut out.
 
The team left by the rear door and headed back to the guild, leaving behind a house of carnage with a grisly message meant to strike fear in every coven throughout the kingdom.
  

***

The coven house lay a few streets over from the market, and Natasha and Mirabelle decided to visit there first.
 
Kala and Kara bounced along enjoying the sights and sounds while the women followed, keeping a watchful eye on the girls and talking about the family.
 

“Have you ever thought that you might want to do something different?” Mirabelle asked her older sister.
 
“I mean something that did not involve the family, but just for yourself?”

Natasha looked sideways.
 
Where does she come up with these questions?

“I’m very happy with what I do,” she replied.
 
“I thought you were as well.
 
Is there something else you want to do outside of the family?
 
Is there something you want to tell me?”

Mirabelle shook her head from side to side.
 
“Oh no, no, no,” she replied, a little too quickly.
 
“I was just thinking about the future and what it might hold for us.
 
I’m not sure that I want to gaze into that crystal ball for the rest of my life.”

“Mirabelle, we each have talents and we should pursue them as best we see fit.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking too, Sister.”

Natasha opened her mouth to question Mirabelle further, but the twins had reached the coven house.
 
They waited patiently for the two older women to catch up before going inside.
 

Mirabelle reached into her pocket and clasped the pin she had secreted there.
 
With no pretense of knocking, she pushed open the door and stepped through, but stopped short as she entered the foyer.
 
“What is that distasteful smell?” she asked.

Natasha followed behind her and answered quickly.
 
“It is the smell of death.
 
Girls, stay behind me.”
 
She looked around the parlor for signs of anyone, but found no one there.
 

The smell was becoming overpowering as they moved toward the back of the house.
 
The kitchen was the next room along the hall.
 
They entered, but the scene they saw stopped them short.
 
The mutilated remains of a dead woman sat sprawled in a chair by the kitchen table, waiting in death for her morning breakfast.
 

Mirabelle raised her hands to her mouth in shock.
 
“Oh my gods,” she cried out as she recognized Alana.
 
“How could this have happened?
 
This wasn’t the plan.
 
No one was supposed to get hurt.”
 
She stepped back from the carnage and as she did, the pin she had held so tightly fell from her hand, clattering to the floor.
 

As fate would have it, the pin landed right beside Kala’s foot.
 
Kala looked down, confusion written on her face.
 
Why was her pin on the floor?
 
She stooped and picked it up.
 
“Hey, this is my pin.
 
What were you doing with it?” she asked Mirabelle.

Natasha glared at Mirabelle and quickly surmised what her part in this crime was.
 
It did not take much to piece together the treachery she saw before her.
 
“Girls, get behind me,” Natasha quickly ordered them.
 
She reached out and grasped hold of her power in case the perpetrators of this heinous crime were still about.
 
“We must leave immediately.
 
Mirabelle, you have a lot of explaining to do when we are all safe.
 
We must find Jeda at once.”