Chapter 22
Twenty-Two
The Marquess of Carsill and his family lived farther away from base than Jade usually traveled for her missions, in the region of Salora. With the pause in her assignment, Jade had a free night, which was the perfect time for her to slip away unnoticed.
Though she couldn’t travel the whole way on foot, neither could she take a horse from base, so Nicolas had told her to come by the farmhouse on her way.
He was not outside the farmhouse to greet her, but a horse was tied to a tree with an exceptionally long rope, allowed to graze on the overgrown grass and crops in the fields around the house.
Jade found the horse already saddled, contentedly chomping on the leaves of some creeping morsbane growing near the house.
She approached the creature and spoke calming words to it before reaching her hand out to its neck.
The horse was tame and agreeable, so Jade untied him and hoisted herself into the saddle, then rode off in the direction of the Carsill estate.
Wind whipped at the flyaway hairs around her face, the rest of her locks braided and wrapped around her head in her typical style for missions.
She passed few travelers on the road as the sun had now set and most people were settling inside their homes for the night or had already reached their destinations.
Pushing the horse as much as she dared, Jade reached the estate in a little over an hour. She dismounted and led the horse to a creek outside the estate, where she tied him to a tree and gave his sweaty neck a few praising strokes before sneaking off into the woods.
All Nicolas had been able to determine about the killer’s plans for Arthur was that the assassination attempt would be sometime at night.
At the very least, Jade hoped she could catch the assassin, but ideally, she could do it before he killed Arthur.
She’d had to ask Matherson permission to leave base, since she couldn’t sneak out under the cover of night, but he only granted it to her at the time of their evening meal.
Jade had claimed she wanted some time off in Rangerford, the town outside Ivanelli base.
When Commander Matherson asked if she wanted someone to accompany her, Jade noticed a twinkle in his eyes.
He hadn’t outright suggested she ask Theo to go with her, but she had no doubt that was what he was thinking.
Truth be told, Jade had still considered asking Theo to go with her, even after the interaction with Nicolas.
This was one of the few missions she’d ever done truly alone, no backup.
Having Theo there would have been a comfort, but what would she have told him?
Everything? She still hadn’t decided if she was ever going to tell Theo about Nicolas and the work she was doing for him.
And after the renewed threat from Nicolas, the choice not to say anything to Theo sat a little easier with her.
So she’d opted to go alone, hoping Matherson wouldn’t be too upset she didn’t return before curfew.
The nearly full moon shone brightly, casting far more light than Jade was comfortable with. She crept up to the house, staying as close to the shadows as she could, and paused at the edge of the estate’s woods to peer up at the manor.
For this mission, Jade had had to dust off the memory of the house’s floor plan in her mind.
She’d surveilled here once before, when the conflict had first started and Arthur had declared himself as vying for the throne.
After she had determined he posed no real threat and had no legitimate stake, she had not been sent back.
Other intelligence agents were assigned missions here from time to time to ensure nothing had changed, but Jade had been given more important assignments requiring a greater level of skill.
The estate was smaller than some of the others she had snuck around before, as was the manor house, which allowed for a lower chance of error.
Jade’s eyes scanned the two lines of windows, recalling what room each one belonged to.
Light emitted from three on the first floor and four on the second, from her vantage point.
What she remembered to be Arthur’s study on the first floor was one of the three lit rooms, which meant he was likely inside. Hopefully still alive.
Jade sprinted from her hiding spot across the open grass to the back side of the manor.
A brick wall with a small wooden door enclosed the yard outside the staff entrance, and Jade stopped on the other side of the wall, listening and catching her breath.
No voices, shuffling of feet or fabric, or any other human-made noise came from the yard, so Jade pulled at the door’s handle to slip inside.
The moment she did, the door to the staff entrance flew open and flooded the yard with light. Jade backpedaled, and the door to the yard swung shut.
“Someone there?” called out a female voice.
Jade crawled into the tight space between the wall of the house and the manicured shrubs along it, trying to cause as little rustling as possible.
She pushed through long branches that caught in her hair and pointed leaves that hung on her clothes until she’d delved deep enough behind the shrubbery.
She fell flat on her stomach and waited, adrenaline rushing through her body.
The sound of the door opening met Jade’s ears before a young woman came partially into view, obscured through the leaves.
Jade couldn’t make out details, but the glimpses she caught of the woman’s clothes gave Jade the impression she was a maid.
She carried a bundle of fabric in her arms as she cast glances all around the area.
“Hello?” she called again. Jade refused to breathe until the woman left, not daring to be responsible for the movement of a single leaf. The night was still and bright, and it would be entirely too easy to give away her position.
This is taking too long. She needed to be inside, needed to find the assassin and evidence that would point the murder back to Grannam. Arthur may have been dead already, but Jade would keep going until she found the marquess and determined his current state.
Apparently giving up, the maid returned the way she came. Jade heard the outside door shut again, followed by the rippling of fabric. The maid must have been shaking out laundry and hanging it on the lines in the yard. The sound ceased after several minutes, and another door shut in the distance.
Jade waited a few moments more, listening out for anything else, before finally emerging from her hiding spot.
A branch caught the skin of her cheek and drew a long scratch.
Jade swallowed her yelp, bringing her hand to her face and checking the wound.
A smattering of blood covered her gloved fingertips, and Jade wiped it away on the grass at her feet.
Great. Now she’d have to come up with some clever explanation for the cut on her cheek.
Going in through the staff entrance was a less desirable option now, considering the staff was still clearly about, so Jade changed course. She made for the dark windows on the first level, pushing them to see if any were left unlocked.
Jade hopped from window to window, skipping over illuminated ones, and finding all the dark ones locked. Not exactly a surprise, but she’d thought she’d check. But it meant she needed an alternative point of entry.
Nothing about the manor allowed for an easy route to climb up the side of the house, and there was no guarantee any of those windows were unlocked either. But Jade had to locate the assassin, and she would start inside.
Jade returned to the brick wall surrounding the staff yard and retrieved the folded grappling hook cinched to her belt. She popped it open and flung it up toward the wall, scaling the side until she stood atop it.
There were no ledges or balconies along the wall on this side of the house, so Jade aimed the grappling hook toward the roof and threw with all her might.
The hook found purchase. Jade tugged at the rope a few times to ensure it was secured, then she lifted her feet to the brick and started to scale the wall of the manor.
She used all her strength to pull herself up, thankful for her hours of training to build her muscles and for her slight frame as well.
Jade was up the wall in less than a minute, pulling herself over the edge of the roof and returning the grappling hook to her belt.
It was flatter on the edges and then sloped up steeply.
Jade crouched, keeping her center of gravity low, as she hurried along the less sloped edge of the roof.
There was no guarantee that she was on the right path. In truth, she was just following a hunch that this was where she needed to be, and her instincts rarely steered her wrong.
Jade skirted the edge of the roof to reach a dormer window, wishing beyond hope that she’d find one unlocked.
The first dark window did not give way, but when Jade turned toward the next one, she froze.
Her feet nearly tangled underneath each other with the abrupt stop, almost sending her plummeting to the ground below.
A dark figure crouched on the opposite side of the roof, obscured by a hood and cloak. Jade didn’t have to question who he was. The assassin. The same one she’d followed after Count Aubergine’s murder.
And he had spotted her.
Seconds ticked by as Jade and the assassin stared each other down, neither moving.
In the darkness and with the addition of his hood, Jade could once again make out nothing about the man’s features to even remotely identify him.
She had to get close to him. She had to follow him.
She would make sure he didn’t get away from her this time.
The assassin must have read her mind, breaking from his position and moving down the roof’s edge.
Jade followed him, desperate not to lose him this time. She couldn’t let this killer get away, not again.
He turned and climbed up the steep part of the roof.
Jade passed another dormer and climbed on top of it, using it to propel herself up the slope.
The assassin crested the top and disappeared on the other side, but Jade was quick, pulling herself over the edge and pressing her stomach against the warm shingles to shimmy down.
Glancing over her shoulder, Jade spotted the assassin as he reached the flatter edge and tried to make a break for it. Her feet landed on a dormer, and she used the moment with support under her to reach for the pistol at her side. She would not lose him this time.
Jade grasped the metal and wood grip in her hand, pulling it from her holster and aiming.
She only needed to injure him, to catch him in the foot or arm to slow him down, but he was a blur with his cloak rippling behind him.
Not to mention, a shot would alert everyone in the house that something was happening outside.
Jade changed her mind in a split second, returning the gun to its holster and moving again.
Her feet struggled to find traction on the sloping shingles as gravity pulled her down.
She half-stepped, half-slid down to the flatter edge, where she picked up her pace after the assassin.
He turned a corner, disappearing from view behind a chimney.
The seconds she’d wasted pulling out her pistol might have cost her catching this man.
She rounded the corner of the chimney and caught a glimpse of the assassin’s hood as it dipped below the line of the roof.
Jade ran as fast as she could in her crouch while finding her footing with each step.
By the time she reached the spot where she’d last seen him, he was on the ground, leaving a drainpipe behind.
Jade kneeled on the roof and pulled a knife from her boot. Throwing a knife was quieter than a gunshot.
She positioned the knife in her palm to throw and launched it. The knife whirred through the air as it flipped, then it caught the tail of the assassin’s cloak, pinning it to the ground.
It wasn’t much, but she would take it. Jade flipped around and lowered a foot to the drainpipe, her back to the assassin. The sound of fabric ripping was enough to tell her he’d torn free from the knife. But it had slowed him down, if only a little, and she needed every second she could get.
Jade started the climb down the drainpipe from the roof’s edge, searching for the bars connecting the pipe to the wall with her toes.
She threw her head over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of the assassin to determine the direction in which he fled.
If she got down the pipe fast enough, she might be able to catch him.
Her toes reached for another bar as she faced the wall again, but the movement of her torso shifted her off balance. Not enough of her boot was solidly on the bar, and when she put her weight into her foot, it slipped off the rung and her body fell.