Two-Faced (Assassin at Court Series Book 1) (8 page)

Chapter 24

I
raced with Jacob by my side against a ticking clock on a pair of horses borrowed from the tavern owner. I was no equestrian, but the rides with Zander had taught me enough to not fall and break my head open while the stallion raced at breakneck speed. We needed to make up the difference of the few hours Zander and Kiera’s kidnappers had ahead of us.

Jacob and I both saw the wreckage at the same time. I pulled back on my horse’s reigns exactly when he did. We dismounted the horses and slowly approached the overturned wagon on foot. A lifeless man lay face down beside it in a pool of his own blood. I let out a relieved sigh to see that his hair was a ginger hue. I heard a barely audible groan from the trees nearby. Another body lay behind them. This one had a sword still sticking out of its chest. I bent down to check for a pulse. Dead people do not groan. Then I saw him and my heart froze in my chest. Zander was sprawled across the damp grass a few feet away with a knife sticking into his neck at an odd angle. I ran over and dropped to my knees beside him. His eyes glinted with recognition. He tried to say something but all that escaped his lips what a wet, gurgling noise. Then he lost consciousness. Tears stung my eyes. This was my fault.

“Shit!” Jacob cursed behind me. He dropped to his knees and immediately checked for a pulse.

“He’s alive, for now,” I said weakly. “I heard a noise. It’s why I came over here.”

“If he dies, you will never make it back to the palace to be executed. I will kill you and leave your body to rot in the woods.” His rage and grief was like a well-honed blade that struck me straight in the chest.

I shook it off. We did not have time for me to wallow in self-pity. I ripped a strip of fabric from the bottom of my skirts. “On the count of three,” I said to Jacob, “yanked the knife out as quickly and as cleanly as you can.”

He looked at me as if I had sprouted another head. “He will bleed out! We have to get him back to a palace doctor.”

I shook my head. “There is no time. If we don’t stop the bleeding he will bleed out long before we reach the palace. And Kiera is still out there. We still need to get to her too.”

When Jacob pulled the blade out a spray of blood rushed out behind it. I quickly applied pressure with the piece of fabric. I directed Jacob to cut another strip from my skirts and help my tie the wound off so continuous pressure would be applied.

“I need to clean the wound, but I need clean water and a safe place to do so. He won’t make it back to the palace and we can’t stay out here,” I said to Jacob. “Kiera is not around so there is at least one other kidnapper. He is probably still in route to the safe house and will contact Samael from there. He will send someone back here to dispose of the wagon and the bodies. He won’t take the chance of either being linked back to him.”

He inclined his head to the east. “The waterfall and cave are about 30 miles that way. It shouldn’t take you long to reach it on horseback. They’ll provide both the clean water and a hiding spot. You take Zander, I am going after Kiera.”

“You were reluctant to remove my chains a few hours ago and now you want to leave me alone with Zander while he is mortally wounded?” I questioned him.

“Whatever else I think of you,” The look he gave me said
exactly
what he thought of me, “I no longer think you would hurt him.”

Jacob loaded Zander into the wagon while I hitched it to one of the horses. 

“Expect the ten mile radius around the safe house when you near it to be heavily booby trapped,” I warned Jacob. It was a feature all of Samael’s safe houses had in common. He was the overly paranoid type. His actual house would have been as well if it were not in the middle of the city.

Jacob nodded at me in acknowledgement and set off after Kiera.

I gave my horse a mild kick to get him moving at a quick but steady pace. I wished I could travel faster, but too rough of a ride might have aggravated Zander’s wound and exacerbated the bleeding.

Chapter 25

W
e made it to the waterfall and thank the gods Zander was still alive when we did so. I gently draped him across my back and carried him to the cave. It took all of my will power not to buckle beneath his weight. I guess it is true that people can find enormous strength they never knew they had when faced with extreme circumstances. Inside the cave I unwrapped the fabric from around Zander’s neck. The flesh beneath it was raw and bloody. I used fresh water from the cave and an antiseptic to clean it out as best I could and then set myself to the task of stitching it up with supplied from the medic kit I found in the wagon. I was not surprised it was there. Most assassins in the guild traveled with one. Killer for hire could be a dangerous line of work.

Once Zander’s wound was stitched closed and bandaged properly I built a fire to keep the cave warm through the night. I positioned a still unconscious Zander as comfortably as I could on the cave’s hard floor, then I went outside to keep watch. Jacob did not think anyone would stumble upon us, but the wreckage and the cave were too close in distance for my comfort.

I was swaying on my feet a little after sunrise, when I heard movement from inside the cave. I found Zander looking at his surroundings in bewilderment.

“Kiera, where is Kiera?” He asked in dread.

“She was not with the wagon when we arrived. There is a safe house about half a day’s ride northwest of here I think the men who have her are headed to. Jacob went after her last night. He should have caught up with them by now.”

He nodded, but the tension within him only marginally relaxed.

“What happened?” I asked him.

“Kiera and I were coming back from the waterfall. Shortly into our ride three men ambushed us. I would have fought them but they went for Kiera first. They threatened to kill her if I did not go willingly. Something in its path spooked the horse carrying the wagon. He stopped abruptly and the man riding him was thrown from his back and instantly killed. In the commotion, I launched for the kidnapper’s sword next to. While I fought him the remaining one grabbed Kiera and took off on horseback. I killed the man I fought but not before he buried a knife in the side of my neck. I don’t know how long I was bleeding on the ground. I had accepted that I was going to die in the forest. Then you and Jacob came along before I passed out. Why were you two together and how did you find me?”

Blood seeped through his bandages. I crossed the cave and took his hand. “Sit down, I need to check your stitches and change your gauze. Then we need to talk.”

“My real name is Skyler Errin. I have no middle name. I was born a Common Person.  I am not a noble. I am an assassin. I was contracted to get close to you and kill you.”

Zander stared at me. His expression went from disbelief, to shock, to denial, to acceptance, to anger, to pain and then finally into a smooth mask of blankness. His spine straightened and his shoulders squared. His voice held no emotion when he finally spoke to me. “Well here I am. You have me alone, miles away from the palace and injured. Fulfill your contract,
Assassin.
” He flung the word at me like a curse.

I flinched in response. It hit me square in the center of the chest. My heart twisted then broke into a million tiny pieces. “I don’t want to kill you.” My voice came out sounding small and dejected. I had no right to feel hurt, but I did.

He lips curled back in a contemptuous sneer. “Did you know about the kidnapping? Is that why you insisted Kiera and I go alone?”

“Gods no! I was going to tell you the truth yesterday morning at breakfast, but then Kiera came. I would never endanger her or you. The Assassin Guild’s master realized I would not go through with it and took matters into his own hands.”

“You were going to confess inside the walls of the High Palace to conspiring to kill a royal?” His tone said he did not believe me.

“Yes,” I firmly nodded my head.

“You would have been executed.”

“I know.”

“Then why?” His mask broke and his expression revealed how desperately he was struggling to understand my motives.

“Because I love you.” I uttered the words so quietly I was not sure if he heard them.

Pain marred his features a second before he put the mask back in place. He spoke his next words with cold detachment, even though they indicated anything but that. “I love you too. And because I do, I cannot see you put to death for treason.” He moved passed me. Keeping his back turned he added, “I am headed back to the palace to retrieve a horse and men. Then I am going to look for Jacob and my sister. You need to disappear Skyler. Not just from Pleith but from Anthame. I will tell my father everything and he will scour the kingdom until he finds you. Don’t let him find you.”

I’m glad his back was turned. He did not see the tears that escaped down my cheek.  Fate was such a bitch. When two people confessed their love for one another it was supposed to be under happy circumstances. Then they were supposed to embrace and live happily ever after. At least that is how it was in the childhood fairytales that had been read to me by my parents’ countless times. Even as a child, I listened to them with a cynical ear. It was hard not to when you were read stories of Princesses and Princes dancing at fancy balls and living in extravagant castles right before going to bed with hunger pains because your family did not have enough food for everyone to eat their fill. As a common person I knew my life was and would continue to be anything but a fairytale. Yet, I could never quite dismiss the overly romantic notions of love that came with them. I knew I would never be anything close to a princess, but I dreamed of maybe one day meeting and falling in love with a boy as handsome and as nice as the princes in the stories. My dream had finally come true, but there would be no happily ever after for us. I told Zander I loved him and he told me he loved me back. But the moment was steeped in bitterness and regret. The day before he was hinting at wanting to wed me and spend the rest of eternity with me. Now he was warning me to disappear not only from his life, but also from his entire kingdom forever.

I wiped the moisture from my cheek and pulled myself together. Now was not the time to wallow in my own angst.

“There is one more thing I need to tell you before you go back.”

He stopped walking, but he did not face me.

“The man who wants you dead, who hired me, I believe he is a Lord of one of the High Noble Houses.”

He turned around with fire in his eyes. “Who?” He asked in a growl.

I instinctively took a startled step back. I had never seen him upset before.

“I…I don’t know his name. I only recently learned that I have seen his face.” I stuttered, still taken aback by Zander’s uncharacteristic anger.

“Describe him.”

“He has dark eyes, a crooked nose, and a faint scar above his left eye,” I said only remembering the last bit as I thought back on what the stranger behind the cape looked like in Samael’s home.

“Krishna.” Zander’s eyes darkened. “You said you know where my kidnappers were taking me?”

I nodded.

“Let’s go, now.”

“I thought you were going back to the palace for reinforcements. And I thought I needed to disappear,” I said confused at his erratic behavior.

“There is no time. If Krishna is behind this then my sister is in grave and immediate danger. I need to find her quickly, before he decides she is a loose end that needs to be tied up.” He looked at me with aversion. “Unfortunately, I need you to find her.”

Chapter 26

I
hated the fact that my body tingled with little bolts of electricity at the nearness of Zander. There were two of us and one horse. I had no doubt Zander would have liked to be anywhere else except pressed behind me on it, but we could not afford to waste time doubling back into the city for another one. We galloped through the forest, determined to cut the ride time in half. The Prince did not speak a single word to me the entire time. I received the message loud and clear that he did not wish to speak to me anymore than he had to.

I respected his wishes. I only spoke to him as we neared the safe house to warn him of the booby traps. I wanted to say more. I wanted to tell him of my worry at not yet running into Jacob with Kiera in tow. I also knew he did not want to hear anything I had to say so I kept my mouth shut.

My unease further increased when we arrived at the safe house. Its surroundings were quiet and free of guards that should have been posted around the perimeter. A sweep of the inside of the house confirmed what I already knew. It was empty.

Zander sagged against the wall. “She’s not here,” he said in a defeated tone. “How am I going to tell my parents I let her be taken? My little sister is more than likely dead.”

My arms ached to reach out and hug him. I hugged myself instead. “She is not dead,” I said with more confidence than I felt.

“How do you know that?” He eyed me suspiciously.

“Samael is a part of this just as much as Krishna is. Samael is the one who sent the men after you. He may be a cutthroat bastard but he is not into harming innocent young girls.”

Zander shook his head in despair. “You cannot know that for sure.”

“I can.”

“How?”

I took a deep breath. I could refuse to tell him or come up with a contrived explanation, but I had lied to him enough. I would keep no more secrets. “When I was thirteen I found myself alone and on the streets. These men tried to assault me. They would have succeeded if not for the guild master. He did not know me, he had no reason to save me, but he did. Sometime afterwards I asked him why he did it. He said it was because hurting innocent women and children was a line he did not cross.”

Zander looked at me with an odd mixture of emotion on his face that made me fidget in discomfort. He started to say something then stopped. “If Keira is alive, how do we find her?” He asked instead.

“We go to Arythmia and find Samael. We question him. If he doesn’t readily give up the information, we torture it out of him.”