“Queen Adran,” she snapped.
“I am an assassin, Queen Adran—” though she used the title my master did not make it sound respectful “—and your son is the heir to the throne so at least half, if not more, of your court would see profit in his corpse. So if your question is ‘Does someone want to see your son dead?’ the answer is almost definitely yes.” Aydor did not take kindly to this news and I felt his indignation in increments as the noose closed further around my windpipe. “The question you should be asking, Queen Adran, is if anyone has the spine to follow through on their desire.”
Adran lowered herself to a crouch so she could look into my master’s face.
“Or maybe that is a question that you—” she poked my master in the chest “—you, Merela Karn, should be asking.”
“Me?” It is rare I hear my master sound surprised but she was then. “Why would I do that?”
“Who better to stop an assassination than an assassin?”
“Surely the king has a Heartblade for such things?”
I waited for Adran to reply. It is normal for any of the high blessed to have a Heartblade, a man or woman trained to stop assassins.
“He did have. He died protecting Aydor, though the castle thinks he fell down the stairs, drunk. After all, if it was common knowledge an assassin was already here, you would not have come. But now Festival is coming with all its trade and train, they will flood my castle with people, and …”
“You have no replacement to watch your son?”
Adran stared at my master, a smile playing about her lips.
“I have someone to watch him, but not to find whoever ordered this. I want you for that.”
“Me?” said my master.
Adran turned to me.
“Your boy is quite talented—the way he dealt with those two guards was impressive. I would have preferred he killed them but that is being dealt with.” She stared at me then smiled the way a cat smiles before it pounces on a mouse and turned back to my master. “Let us talk in private, Merela. Aydor!” she shouted. “Hoist the boy!”
What was said between them then I missed as I was choking on the rope. I do not know how long they talked, only that it was for less than seven minutes as I did not lose consciousness and that is how long I can survive on one breath. My eyes streamed as they started from my head, and my tongue swelled to fill my mouth while my master and Queen Adran talked.
As darkness started to close around me an agreement was reached between them. Aydor let go of the rope, and I fell to the floor of the scaffold gasping for air while he laughed, calling me a useless cripple as he slit the ropes binding my hands.
“Go talk to your mistress,” he said. “Learn your duties.”
By the time I had limped over to my master she was also free. She shepherded me away from the queen and her sewer-breathed son.
“We are to find out if there is a conspiracy to assassinate the heir and, if so, we are to stop it.” She spoke loudly enough for the queen to hear.
“But the Open Circle … The other assassins will …” I said, following her lead and keeping my voice audible.
“Don’t worry about them. I have given my word to help. We will have to answer for it.”
“Why, Master?” My question was genuine. She did not give her word lightly nor, in my experience, ever go back on it.
“The queen says that if I do not do as she wishes she will expose me. Tell people that the great Merela is a woman and that I am a Death’s Jester.”
“But then—”
“They will wipe every Death’s Jester from the Tired Lands, presuming they are all assassins, and an ancient art form will die. I cannot be the cause of that.”
“But—”
“I have given my word, Girton.” Sharp words meant to cut me off. She would talk no more about a thing once she was decided.
From the theatre we were taken by a slave to a room where two heated tubs of water waited so we could wash off the filth of the day. The slave did not stay. Adran clearly knew my master well enough to trust her word. I itched to know more but knew that questions would be as welcome as a sorcerer at a crop sowing.
The moment she was sure we were alone my master leaned over from her tub of water and said my name in a whisper.
“Listen to me, Girton. Adran wanted to lock you in a cell as surety. Her son has a warrior called Celot to guard him, and now she has me as well. They see no use for you. I have told them I need you to spy for me if I am to achieve their aims but you may walk away from here. Do you understand? I have given only my word and Adran cares nothing for you; she wants me. You may ensure your safety and slip away in the night and, if you do, you will go with my thanks for many good years of service.”
“You mean leave you, Master?” I said.
“Yes. Adran did not get to be queen through kind words and soft hands. She is not someone you wish to be mixed up with if it can be avoided.”
“But what would I do without you, Master?”
“Kill people, Girton. It is what you are trained for.”
“But I am still an apprentice.”
“Do not play the fool,” she said, angry. “You are fully ready and have been for long on long. You are twice the assassin of any other I have met.”
“Even you, Master?”
“Girton,” she said and shook her head, her anger passing as quickly as the warm breezes that bathe the land in yearslife. She reached out and ran a cold wet finger down the line of my jaw. “You are always ready with a joke.” She smiled then, her real smile, a small, fragile and seldom-seen thing. “Do not stay out of loyalty to me, Girton. We are not loyal; we are death bringers, cold people.” Looking into her eyes I felt the same fear that I had felt when Aydor ap Mennix placed the noose around my neck, the same fear I had felt as a scared child when she first took my hand at the slave auctions. She had found me when I was six and been all I had known in the nine years since. She had trained me in weapons, nursed me through sicknesses, held me when I had nightmares of hedgings coming for me and taught me all I needed to pass in the world. “If I do what Adran wants, Girton, the Open Circle will never rest until I am punished for it. They may overlook your actions, at first, but the longer you stay the more they will see you as my accomplice. So if you stay, be sure.”
“I am sure, Master.”