Lord Protector (7 page)

Blade's mood had soured considerably since the first six had arrived, from which she gathered that their presence was not his doing. Evidently his wife was concerned about his safety, and she wondered why he needed a whole platoon to guard him in his keep. Knowing him to be a solitary man, the presence of the platoon worried her. The last time he had visited, he had been accompanied only by Commander Jayon, and even he had been an uninvited guest. Why was the Regent so concerned for his safety? She glanced at Embeth, who watched the soldiers, chewing her lip.

"What is it, Embeth?"

The girl schooled her expression. "Nothing."

"Don't lie to your mother."

"I'm not -"

"He's in some sort of danger, isn't he? You think I'm stupid? He didn't come here for a holiday, or to visit me. I doubt he even thinks of me when I'm not around."

Embeth shook her head. "He cares about you. He told me."

"Rubbish," Lilu snapped. "If he said that, it was only to stop you telling me. I know him too well. He doesn't even care about himself. It's not his fault." She sighed and dried the pot she had just washed. "He's suffered more than you could ever imagine, and he cursed me for saving his life."

"You never told me that."

Lilu shrugged. "It detracts from my good deed. When I found him, he had no will to live. Only the fact that he was unconscious for the first tenday allowed me to save him."

She smiled at the memory. "His face was so swollen he was almost ugly, so it wasn't his good looks that made me help him. He was dirty and he stank of the gutter, yet I had to save him. I don't know why I took that alley home that night. It wasn't my usual route. Something guided me, because he's special." Lilu hesitated. "I've never told anyone this before, but Symbell told me to save him. He's God Touched. She showed me his aura, and it's as pure and bright as a saint's. And he's no less special now than he was then, so you tell me what you know."

"He told me not to."

"All the more reason to do it. And how did you find out, if he's trying to keep it a secret?" Lilu's eyes narrowed. "Were you spying on him?"

Embeth hung her head. "I just listened to him talk to the miner, that's all."

"You stupid girl. He must think I've raised a brood of idiots. First Endel, now you. Tell me what you learnt."

"There's an assassin after him. A Cotti, the soldiers say."

Lilu frowned, glancing at the men outside. "So that's why his wife's sent a whole platoon. But if soldiers could keep him safe, why didn't he stay at the palace?"

"He said that guards can't protect him."

"And why did he tell you not to tell me?"

"Because you'd get in the way trying to save him, like Endel, with the same result. He doesn't want you to get hurt."

Lilu snorted. "A likely story. And it'd take more than a damned assassin to finish me off." She stared into space. "You know, it's strange, but when you save someone's life, you feel like you own them. At least, I do. He's my assassin, and no one's going to take him away from me."

"Or all this." Embeth gestured to the castle.

"I've got enough saved up to buy my own place, so don't accuse me of selfishness. When I saved him, he had no titles, apart from being the Dance Master, but I didn't even know that then."

"But you knew he was an assassin."

Lilu nodded. "Only after I had taken him to my room. That made no difference either. And then he took vengeance on the man who broke my nose and beat me almost to death. Endel's father, Tromar. Blade also brought Endel back to me when Tromar stole him."

"How did you get him to your room?"

"I carried him." Lilu smiled. "He doesn't weigh much, and it wasn't far. I spent all my savings on that damned healer, too. To this day, he still thinks I did it because I wanted money from him, but that's not true."

Embeth laid a hand on her mother's arm as Lilu's eyes grew moist. "I know."

"And I don't like being kept in the dark." Lilu picked up a rolling pin and headed for the door. "Come, I want you to see this."

Embeth hurried after her. "What are you going to do?"

"Hopefully, show you a side of Blade that you'll otherwise never see."

"By hitting him with a rolling pin?"

Lilu snorted as she marched down the corridor towards the library. "Fat chance of that, my girl. About as much as you had with the pot."

The guards outside the library doors looked askance when they spied the housekeeper storming towards them, armed with a rolling pin, but smiled and opened the door. Lilu swept into the room like a galleon under full sail, Embeth at her heels.

Blade sprawled in a comfortable chair, his legs hooked over the arm, a book in his lap. He looked up at Lilu's entry, his brows rising when he took in her expression and the rolling pin in her fist. Closing the book, he placed it on the table beside him as she bore down on him. Lilu loomed over him, waving the rolling pin under his nose.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

His glanced at Embeth, then back to Lilu. "I didn't want to worry you."

"Rubbish!"

"Very well, I didn't want a rolling pin waved in my face."

"You didn't want my help! You always think you can do everything alone, don't you? You never want to owe anybody anything, but you already owe me your life."

He sighed. "As you never fail to remind me."

"Because you need reminding! You think you're damned invincible, but you aren't."

"I know I'm not invincible, but there's nothing you can do to help me this time."

"Maybe there isn't and maybe there is, but it's not up to you to decide whether or not I should know there's an assassin hunting you. I'll be more suspicious of strangers who come to the door -"

"He won't come in the daytime, and he certainly won't be knocking on the front door."

She wagged the rolling pin at him. "Arjath's familiar could sleep outside your door at night."

Arjath's large grey dog slept with the boy, and Blade did not relish the prospect of the shaggy hound sleeping anywhere near him, especially upwind.

"I doubt he'll come through the door, either."

Lilu glanced at the windows, her brow puckered. "Arjath could set traps inside the windows, like those he sets in the woods to catch game. We could booby trap your room, set tripwires with bells to raise the alarm."

Blade laced his fingers. "I don't need bells to rouse me, either."

"What about the soldiers? Some of them have wolves or cats, they could be set to guard you at night."

He shook his head. "I'm not sleeping in a damned menagerie."

"Then what are you going to do about it?"

"I'm going to kill him."

Lilu made a rude noise and leant closer, poking him in the chest with the rolling pin. "You need some sense pounded into that thick head of yours. You're too proud for your own good, and chance is a fickle thing. This assassin may outwit you and find a way to kill you before you wake. What if he shoots you with a crossbow from the window?"

"He won't. He's been paid to kill me slowly."

Lilu recoiled, looking shocked. "And how will he do that with you screaming the place down?"

"I'm sure he plans to gag me, but he won't get that far, I assure you."

"If you were him, how would you do it?"

He shrugged. "An assassin is the most difficult target of all. To kill one slowly is doubly hard. I wouldn't attempt to do it in his bedroom, his sleep would be too light. The best way would be to waylay him in a dark corridor and render him unconscious, then take him to a place where no one would find him."

"What about the guards?"

"I would kill them before they could draw their swords."

"You would, but could he?" she demanded.

"Probably."

"Any other ways of doing it?"

He nodded. "There's a better way now, to disguise himself as one of these idiot guards. Then he'll only have to kill one of them, and he'll be able to get close to me far easier."

"Then he might succeed?"

"If he's as good as me, he might, but he's not."

"Why don't you go after him, instead of waiting for him to try to kill you? Surely that would give you an advantage?"

Blade smiled. "My code forbids it. I have no client."

Lilu banged the rolling pin down on the table and dug in her apron pocket, pulling out a handful of silver and copper coins. She separated out two silver coins and put the rest back in her pocket, then bent and picked up his hand, slapping the coins into it.

"I want the Cotti assassin dead."

He gazed at the coins, his smile fading, then looked up at her. "You're hiring me?"

"You're an assassin, aren't you?"

His other hand crept to the base of his throat and fingered the patch that covered the mark of his retirement, recalling how close he had come to removing it. Since rejecting the idea of asking Kerra to be his client, he had not given any more thought to the possibility of acquiring a customer. Now Lilu had solved the problem for him. He looked down at the coins again and smiled.

"Yes, I am."

"So, do you accept?"

He chuckled. "It's been a long time since I worked for so little, but this is more than he's worth."

Blade swung his legs off the chair arm and sat up, then took Lilu's hand and pressed one of the coins into it. "One is enough."

She smiled. "You should do it for free."

"I must have payment, or the promise of it, no matter how little."

"Isn't there a minimum price for a man's life?"

"No. The assassin decides the price, depending on the difficulty of the mission."

Lilu pocketed the coin. "So does this help you?"

"Yes." His smile broadened, and Lilu's eyes stung at the heart-wrenching sweetness of it. The sour mood that had been upon him since his arrival fell away as if by magic, revealing the man she knew and loved so well. She longed to throw her arms around him, but restrained herself, knowing how he would react. To her surprise and delight, he took her hand again and kissed the back of it in a gallant gesture that made her heart swell.

"You're cleverer than you look, for an ugly old whore."

She laughed, her hand tingling from the touch of his lips. "And now you really are my assassin."

"Something I'm sure you won't let me forget either."

"Why should I? Now you know that you should have asked for my help after all, instead of trying to keep it a secret."

He rose and wandered over to the window. "I had considered asking someone to be my employer in this case, but I must say I hadn't thought of working for my housekeeper."

Lilu followed him, her eyes bright with mischief. "Too proud?"

"No, an assassin will work for a beggar if he has the money to pay for it."

"But lately you only work for queens and regents."

"I've had no other offers." He glanced at the rolling pin. "What were you planning to do with that?"

She shrugged. "Beat some sense into you."

He smiled. "You wouldn't do that."

"I would, to save your life." She slipped her arm through his, and he tolerated her possessive touch with a wry smile. "Now tell me how you plan to kill this Cotti."

"I'll employ the tactics I told you about earlier. The best way to kill an assassin is to waylay him, preferably in a crowded place."

"So you'll go to the inn."

He nodded. "Even if he's not staying there, which he probably is, he'll go there to drink."

Her grip on his arm tightened. "But you'll be careful, won't you?"

"Afraid you'll lose your meal ticket?"

"You see?" Lilu turned to her daughter. "I told you he still thinks I saved him for his money. And it does no good to point out that when I found him, I didn't know he had any."

"No," Blade agreed. "Because you thought that even if I had none then, I'd make some in the future."

"I didn't even know you'd live."

"But you hoped I would."

Lilu gave a snort of frustration and released him, marched across the room and collected her rolling pin on the way. At the door, she paused to look back at him.

"One of these days I really will beat some sense into you."

He chuckled. "You'll have to catch me first."

Chapter Six

That night, Blade retired to the library with a bottle of wine after supper, as he usually did. He wanted to get to the inn while it was still busy, without his guards. Picking up the hooded coat he had brought to the room earlier, he donned it before going to the window and pulling it open, admitting a gust of freezing wind and snow.

Slipping over the sill, he climbed down the wall, his fingers finding cracks between the rough stones. Without gloves, his hands soon grew cold, and the icy stones made the descent treacherous. He recalled the time, long ago, when he had leapt from a hall window on the same floor to escape capture, breaking his leg in the process.

Dropping the last few feet, he landed in a deep drift and struggled from it, rubbed and blew on his hands before he pulled on his gloves. The library window overlooked the wild lands at the back of the castle, so he did not have to avoid the guards in the courtyard. He set off towards the distant village at a brisk pace, the fact that he could have taken a horse if not for the soldiers souring his mood.

Snow drifted from a moonless sky, and the freezing air chilled his lungs and nose. Frozen ironwood trees bordered the road, their boughs heavy with ice and snow, their roots hard in the chill earth while their sap slumbered. Starlight silvered the pristine whiteness of occasional fields and glades where shy beasts slipped from view. He floundered through a few deep snowdrifts, but the exertion warmed him and his fitness meant that the journey, though onerous, was not unduly taxing. Nevertheless, he was glad to reach the village's outskirts, and avoided the muddy roads on his way to the dilapidated inn.

Blade pulled up his hood and pushed open the door, entering with a gust of wind and snow. He glanced around at the crowded, dimly lighted room. Like most such establishments, it had a seedy, run-down air that was the legacy of too many brawls and not enough cleaning. Tarnished copper pots hung over a fireplace in the far wall, and battered furniture provided seating for the customers. Dirty sawdust covered the floor, stained in places with spilt ale or wine, perhaps even a little blood. A roaring fire crackled, and a bored looking boy turned a carcass, too shrivelled to be identified, on a spit over it. A few patrons looked at Blade, but most did not bother to interrupt their conversations. Storm sat on the far side, his back to the wall, in the favoured position of assassins. The Cotti had shaved off his beard, but was otherwise unchanged. He stared at Blade, clearly trying to penetrate the shadows that hid the Jashimari assassin's face.