“Have you not heard of the Tainted One? Why, I had thought her story was legendary, especially in the Eastern Edge. Or have you been too busy fucking and drinking the fruits of your labor away on the Pleasure Isles?”
“Something like that.” One lesson no one had taught Sebastian, but one he learned himself, was that it was always better to let the other person think they knew more than he did. “What happened?”
Zolin wet his palate with more red wine; his third glass. The assassin’s remained untouched.
“It was the end of the Zak’reth war,” the High Vicar said. “Isle Calinda. The Zak’reth savages were set to land ten thousand warriors on that little island. Seventy-five warships, all told. It was to become a midway point from which the Zak’reth would launch the full might of their armada into the northern seas of the Eastern Edge. The Isle of Lords, the Ho Sun Empire…they’d all fall. But Skye—surely you’ve heard of Skye?” Zolin tittered.
Sebastian’s lips curled. One last job…
“Skye, in command of the Alliance Armada, got wind of the Zak’reth plans and ordered Selena Koren to stop them,” the Bazira continued. “Koren is possessed of a unique ability. I told you she was powerful, but I did not say that she is likely the most powerful Aluren next to Skye herself.”
“In what way?”
“She can call the sea to do her bidding,” the High Vicar said. “At Skye’s command, she used her magic to draw an immense tidal wave to the coast of Isle Calinda, and sent it crashing over the Zak’reth. That Aluren bitch killed every last Zak’reth warrior, and destroyed ever last ship.” He made a cutting motion with his hand. “Every—last—one.”
Sebastian stubbed out his cigarillo that suddenly tasted foul. “I’ve heard that tale before. I didn’t realize the Aluren— Selena—still lived. I had thought she died in the aftermath of the spell. Or became ill…?”
“She is very much alive,” Zolin said. “For now. Until you.”
My mark is the Aluren who destroyed the Zak’reth?
There was a silence and then the High Vicar asked, “Does that bother you?” His words were slurring now. “I know you reserved your bloodiest talents of assassination for the Zak’reth. They were the teeth you cut your bloody reputation on, as it were, yes?”
Sebastian didn’t reply as memories assaulted him again: the Zak’reth attacking his island, laying waste to his village, murdering his father. The Zak’reth warriors in his home, one bent over his sister, rutting like the fierce animal carved into his red armor. He could still hear Mina scream sometimes when he closed his eyes at night.
And now I must kill the woman who destroyed those bloody shit-eating bustards?
He lit a new cigarillo and then turned back to the High Vicar, fumbling for something to say without appearing to.
“That was ten years ago,” he said. “Why do you call her the Tainted One?”
“Not I. That name originated among the Aluren, her own people. Because when little Selena Koren—not more than a girl she was at the time—cast that spell, she killed the Zak’reth, aye, but she also massacred the four hundred people who called Isle Calinda home. The Shining face of the god was not pleased. The Two-Faced God, in its wrath at that innocent loss of life on Calinda, struck Selena Koren down and left its mark on her sweet little breast.” Zolin tapped a bony finger on the crescent of light spilled on the table.
Sebastian raised a brow. “The crescent moon? A Bazira symbol.”
“Indeed.”
Sebastian blew a smoke ring and watched it waver and then dissipate in the gloom. “A Bazira mark on an Aluren Paladin.”
“Paladin, yes,” Zolin said. “Selena Koren is a woman who has dedicated her life to heal, weave light, and spill blood for the Shining face. And her reward for doing all three during the Zak’reth war was a terrible smiting.” The pleasure in Zolin’s voice was tangible.
Sebastian snorted. “Nothing’s ever good enough for the gods, eh?”
Zolin leaned back in his chair, his voice now distinctly absent of pleasure. “You show contempt of a great power with such words.”
The assassin shrugged. “I respect the sea and nothing else. Any sailor who doesn’t is a fool.” Sebastian waved a hand. “You still haven’t told me why the Aluren aspect of the god would punish the girl with a Bazira mark.”
Zolin snorted. “The answer is rather obvious. Pain.”
The assassin cocked his head.
“The two halves of the god are not ignorant of one another. The Shining face wanted to punish the girl, so it turned to the Shadow face for the means. And the Shadow face did not fail.”
Sebastian shifted in his seat. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Cold. Simple. Devious. Torturous cold. The crescent wound Paladin Selena Koren bears prevents her from ever knowing warmth. Not in ten years since the war’s end has she felt anything but cold, in various degrees.” He sighed lustily. “An ingenious, delicious torture. Almost a pity you will kill her before I can see the wound for myself.”
Ten years of cold…
The chamber in which they now sat was growing cooler in the shadows of the setting sun. Sebastian tried to imagine a decade of it. Of basking in the hot summer sun, or soaking in a steaming bath and feeling none of it.
Might not be so bad, this last job. I’ll put the girl out of her misery.
Sebastian leaned back in his chair and blew a smoke ring.
“You seem unimpressed,” Zolin said. “Or is this the mask of the hard-hearted killer I see before me?”
“War is war,” the assassin said. “Innocent people die. Gods exact revenge.” He shrugged. “It’s the price that’s paid.”
“You would be the expert on the deaths of innocent people, now wouldn’t you?” The High Vicar smiled slyly, his voice taking on a false lilt of innocence. “For instance, two poor young men—beggars even—merely in want of a coat or a pair of boots…”
“They tried to drop a rock on my head.” Sebastian smirked. “I’d hardly call that innocent. Yours, I presume?”
“Of course. Another test. After four years of silence from the dastardly Sebastian Vaas, I wanted to be sure you still had the lust for it.”
“They’re dead now, aren’t they?”
“So they are. Finally.”
Sebastian didn’t like the knowing tone in his voice. “To the matter at hand,” he said abruptly. “If this Aluren is so powerful, what makes you think I can kill her?”
“Bastian the Bastard doubts his own talent? This is hardly inspiring.”
“A fool’s first and biggest weakness is thinking he doesn’t have one,” Sebastian said. “And if it were so bloody easy you would’ve hired one of my cheaper competitors, yes?”