🔥 The Path of Fire (Path of Light and Fire Book #1)(Completed) 🔥

Chapter 36: Assassination

Turrent and the others entered the castle in the armor of Hatsuto's personal regiment, leaving Hatsuto's men outside to brave the elements.

The assassination plan was simple. Hatsuto maneuvered as many guards as he could into place who were loyal to him and would not look too hard. Turrent's task: sneak into the royal bedchamber, put an end to the pretender and sneak a still fuming Fenra into the bed in exchange. It would still require stealth and skill on Turrent's part as the other soldiers would remain vigilant, but every averted eye was one less distraction.

Turrent waited until the dead of night. He scaled the castle walls, starting from Hatsuto's personal quarters and making his way to the top floor of Castle Acadia, where the Heika's bedchamber was located. The snow and ice coating the surface made it harder for the hooks on Turrent's hands and feet to find purchase.

Turrent counted on the fact that they wouldn't expect an assassin climb the wall in this weather and all would be a fool to try. Turrent was not simply the best Tsuchinan alive; he was a Serien.

He pulled on his Path, giving his mind an infinite array of trajectories and routes to the king's window on the top floor. It was not the future, he realized, but the most likely outcome he could decipher given a certain action. He viewed his body falling to his death at least a hundred times that night, maybe more. He lost count.

His muscles burned as he climbed, but it was only a few minutes to his destination. He pushed the window up and snaked inside, his feet soundless as they hit the floor.

Killing the pretender was the easy part. The real issue was whether or not killing the man would unravel the glamour on Fenra.

Turrent was not very familiar with the things. Agents at the Blackhall, like Resu, would have researched this job for months to make sure that the king's death was the proper catalyst or whatever the word was for the thing that held it in place. This was also assumed it was a glamour and the man wasn't a shapeshifter or something.

Or both.

Turrent shook his head. Sakima and Fenra seemed confident that the imposter was Lord Hideo Eruis. He had no record of being an Incomplete, so the likelihood he was a shapeshifter was close to nil. And as untrusting as the nobility were, the source of the spell was likely on his person.

It doesn't matter; he needs to die.

There were two sets of snores in the air. That made this job a bit more complicated, but nothing he couldn't handle. Bind and gag the whore and toss her in the armoire. Two dead bodies would make the trip back down impossible.

He stepped lightly on the footboard on the massive bed, pushing his body up and walking down the center of the mattress. His steps were slow and measured, as not to wake the sleeping couple. Producing a disabler in each hand he thrust into both bodies, sending their bodies into a shaking fit. When he removed his hands, they remained still.

He cut the top sheet and used its strips to secure the woman and tossed her in the nearest armoire. Fenra could pretend it was some sex game and she wouldn't argue. It wasn't Turrent's problem how the king decided to handle her.

Finished with his distraction, Turrent snapped the false king's neck and strapped the limp body to his back. Descending to Hatsuto's quarters with dead weight on his back was much more difficult, but he had little time to breathe before his next outing. Unceremoniously dropping the corpse on Hatsuto's floor, Turrent carried the true king upstairs. With his route up mostly intact, the second trip was much easier.

Everything had gone according to plan.

**********

"That is most definitely my grandfather," Sakima said. In the morning, the man's face had changed from its mimic of Fenra to an old man, severely deformed by advanced age, with wisps of white hair on his head and chin. Hatsuto stuffed the man into a wooden box, which Turrent had him fill with lavender and mint to hide the smell of death. Fenra could have Hideo's body disposed at his leisure.