Noble Assassin

Chapter 9.2 (Mysteries Abound)

Ayris was silent for a while after Rizelle shared what she'd discovered of Lord Calthen's dealings over lunch. Tauver looked deep in thought.

Resisting the urge to fidget, Rizelle poked at her vegetable stew while she awaited a response from either of them. What if they decided to do nothing? They'd get no pay from this mission, and she couldn't expect a sense of honour from a couple of assassins. Beside her, Feyn attempted a reassuring nod.

Finally, it was Tauver who broke the silence. "I suppose the place to start would be asking the right questions. How does he find these ingenia? Who does the dirty work for him? How does he contact his buyers? All are links – strings attached to him that can be pulled."

"I've got another one," said Ayris darkly. "Are we going to kill this scumbag or merely stop him from continuing his nefarious work? Also, we have to assume he knows his papers were taken, in which case he'll be cautious, withdrawing from those links."

Rizelle stiffened at the casual talk of killing – which she realised was stupid, because what else had she expected? How easily she'd forgotten just whose roof she now lived under.

While she knew Lord Calthen probably deserved it... I promised. And although Ayris would probably kill him if it came to it, Rizelle would still be uneasy, having brought this case to her. Where could she draw the line?

If it was the only way to stop him, though—

Tauver, missing nothing, latched onto her subtle discomfort. "Since he's a middling noble, we could probably expose him; he won't have enough influence to prevent scrutiny from the Court of Nobles."

Ayris nodded absently. "But if that fails, we should kill him." She looked at Rizelle as she said this, and in her eyes lay a message. They were accommodating her, just this once, but she'd have to grow a thicker skin soon. "In the meantime," the assassin continued gaze shifting away, "I'll reach out to some contacts and see what I can find."

After lunch, Ayris pointed an almost accusatory finger at the apprentices, and warned them not to do anything stupid. Rizelle hid a grin at the sheepish look on Feyn's face.

Among the trees and shadows of the evening, when training for the day was almost over, Rizelle decided to mention the hidden door in the library.

"Yes, there's a hidden door there, I knew that," Ayris said. As ever, getting information out of her was like extracting teeth. Which Rizelle supposed was a good thing in the event of her capture, but it could be downright maddening. "As for what it leads to, why don't you find out for yourself?"

Well, at least she now had permission to snoop. But she needed a clue about where the key was. "Did you have it made, or was it already there?"

"Same door I found, but different locking mechanism. Stop trying to fish for answers and focus. Sneak up on that sparrow without alerting it."

Rizelle held back a sigh. Never mind extracting teeth, it was more like having one's fingers sawed off. With a butter knife.

When the bird took fright after she cracked a twig beneath her boot, she turned back to Ayris. Perhaps she should take a different angle. "Since you obviously want to turn this into a game, wouldn't it be more exciting to even the odds a bit? Because right now, you're holding almost all the pieces."

"A valid point." A fire lit in Ayris's eyes, and Rizelle didn't know if that boded well at all. "Here's your piece, then. The key is from the same place I am. And since you failed that task, my piece is that you have to scale the wall to Tauver's window, sneak in and steal his favourite knife – without leaving any evidence of your passing."

Rizelle groaned inwardly. Which is his favourite knife, anyway? When she made for the house, though, Ayris stopped her.

"Oh, and you have to do it at night, too, when he's asleep." she said with a daring smirk, as if waiting for her apprentice to protest.

She worked hard not to do so. "Tonight?"

Ayris shrugged. "Sometime in the near future."

Later that night, Rizelle pondered over the clue. "The key is from the same place I am." What did that mean, was the key in her room? Was her task to steal Tauver's knife also a clue? But no, that was too obvious. It had to be something else.

From. Where did Ayris come from? It was something she 'd wondered, but had eventually given up on finding the answer. Who was this woman, educated and powerful, with the appearance of a noble but the steely bearing that came from living on the edge?