Chapter 35
CHAPTER 35
E leksi replied. “Summoning Spiders is only a matter of asking. And paying. We meet with a fixer, supply the gold, and they will spread word to the Spider King network of their new contract.” He lowered his tone. “Queen Meliohr.”
“Will that not cause chaos?” asked Davron.
“Here’s hoping it does. If the Garstangs are uncertain about the circumstances of the queen’s demise, the less likely they are to hold you or Neve accountable.”
“Aren’t Spider Kings already pursuing you though, for failing to kill Neve?”
“They won’t be, the moment we’ve paid the fixer.”
Davron exhaled. “If you’re sure.”
“I am.”
He wasn’t, but as Davron said, did the chances truly matter at this point?
Eleksi’s nearest contact was a barkeeper at a grimy tavern in an alleyway, a few blocks from the vaults. The alleyway was a strip of shops and taverns famous for catering to the shadier residents of Klatos. The man was a civilian, but he was paid by the Spider Kings to covertly pass word to local fixers upon request.
They entered the tavern as the only customers and Eleksi directed Davron to a shadowy booth at the rear of the low-ceilinged room. Squat candles flickered and hissed, the place smelled like stale mead, and the earthen floor was sticky on the soles of Eleksi’s boots.
The barkeeper, an elderly man with a shaved head, gave the assassin an unsmiling nod by way of greeting.
“Afternoon, Jurgs,” said Eleksi to him. “Anyone around today?”
Jurgs nodded again, before disappearing through swinging doors into a back room.
Moments later, a small boy dashed out, ignoring Eleksi and sprinting outside to the street. The boy would be fetching the nearest known fixer, who’d be in the area to meet with prospective clients and issue contracts to Spiders. All Davron and Eleksi had to do was wait.
He ordered mugs of mead from the barkeeper and took them to Davron, who clinked mugs with Eleksi and promptly sculled the entire drink.
“Another?” asked Eleksi, observing the prince with concern.
He knew very little about Davron, except that he was Neve’s cousin. That alone was reason enough to help him, of course, but perhaps it hadn’t been the best idea to have him meet the fixer. Despite Klatos being his hometown, it must’ve been overwhelming and strange to return after so long, and under such circumstances.
“No. Thank you. I worry about Amelie, is all. I wish to return to her quickly.”
“And we will,” reassured Eleksi. “Once he arrives, this won’t take long. Fixers aren’t much for small talk.”
The prince wrung his gigantic six-fingered hands, staring at Eleksi from beneath his hood. “It was a mistake to bring her here. We could have gone anywhere. Why did I have to throw her into this den of vipers?”
“You didn’t know what awaited you.”
His scarred lip curled. “I could’ve guessed. I could’ve listened to my esquire when he tried to discuss royal matters with me. I was so preoccupied with Levissina that I couldn’t see past the threat of her. I’d forgotten she wasn’t the only monster in the world.” He dropped his gaze. “Truth be told, Amelie experienced danger in Velandia too, because of me. In my very castle.”
“You are a prince. You are bound to attract some danger.” Eleksi drank from his mug. “You may as well be in Klatos, where you have the chance to right terrible wrongs. And you’ll have help. You aren’t alone.”
“I have help,” repeated Davron, managing a small smile. “What a change that is. A welcome one, mind.”
“I relate.” Eleksi rotated his mug, the condensation leaving a smear on the tabletop. “Solitude can take root. It can grow through your heart and mind like a weed.”
“Neve has broken your solitude?” asked Davron, watching him closely. “A woman you were contracted to kill?”
“Aye.” He didn’t bother trying to sugarcoat the fact. There was no sugarcoating attempted murder. “I was stopped by her beauty.”
Eleksi wasn’t referring to her looks. He could tell Davron understood by the knowing tenderness that softened his harsh features. The prince adored Amelie for her heart and mind, as well.
The assassin gave a low chuckle. “Although, I was stopped by her magic, too. She stopped me well and good with that.” He shook his head in awe. “She’s an incredibly powerful sorceress. And cautious and thoughtful,” he added hastily, glancing at Davron.
Eleksi didn’t want him to be concerned that his newfound cousin might go down a similar path to his tormentor, Levissina.
“Aye,” replied Davron. “Leonid is the same. Always lived in his head, except for when he was gazing at the stars. He used to lie on the roof for hours and give the stars names of his own.”
Eleksi smiled. “Will you tell her that? I think she’d like to hear it.”
“I will tell her.” Davron paused, the corner of his mouth lifting. “You love her, do you not?”
“Yes.”
The answer came instantly and naturally, like he’d been asked the color of the sky.
“Have you told her?”
“Not yet.”
“Don’t delay too long.” His dark eyes, so like Neve’s, bore into Eleksi’s. “Time has a way of running out when you least expect it. Cruel truth of life.”
The mead in Eleksi’s stomach turned to acid. Of course, the assassin ought to know that cruel truth better than anyone. Most often, death came suddenly. The people he killed had rarely expected it. For the first time, he considered where those people had been in their lives when he’d killed them. What had he stolen from them, beyond their breaths and heartbeats?
He’d always approached his work with cold efficiency. That only changed when he took that little boy’s father by mistake. Then, meeting Neve opened his eyes fully to the humanity around him. He could no longer pretend he was separate from everyone and everything else.
How many of his victims departed this world with important, tender words unsaid? Utterances of sweetness and love and regret dissolving on their tongues as the long night claimed them? With chilling clarity, he realized the answer.
All of them.
No one existed in a void. No one was without hopes and fears and pasts and scars.
“You can’t change the beast you were,” said Davron, still watching him thoughtfully. “But you don’t have to be one forever, either.”
Eleksi bowed his head in gratitude. If the prince could reclaim his life after suffering a curse, perhaps there was still hope for the assassin. Only death extinguished the opportunity for change.
The fixer arrived. He wore a black cloak and moved swiftly to the booth without direction from the barkeeper. As he slid into the bench seat beside Eleksi, the man’s black and gray goatee was visible, but little else.
He folded his gloved hands on the table in front of him, saying nothing. His stance was poised as he waited for his summoners to talk. Any verbal acknowledgment of the meeting could incriminate fixers and assassins, so they never spoke during official business unless they were left without a choice. It helped the Spider Kings remain in the shadows, barely more than a whisper of a rumor.
“We are commandeering the entire force,” said Eleksi without preamble. “The contract will be in effect until Meliohr Garstang is dead. She is the target, and anyone who tries to impede me or my friend here.”
He indicated the prince, who’d drawn his hood lower when the fixer arrived. Only his scarred mouth was visible. For several long moments, the fixer regarded Davron, but otherwise he did not react to the terms of the contract.
Eleksi nodded at the prince. After a brief but definite hesitation, he produced the velvet sacks of gold and set them heavily on the table. The fixer reached forward with both hands to take the sacks, but Davron cut in.
“Wait—” he said, glancing at Eleksi in bewilderment. “Do we have an agreement?”
Eleksi cursed his own lack of foresight. He should’ve explained to Davron that once the fixer had been given orders and gold changed hands, the deal was indeed struck. Questioning the fixer now suggested distrust and reeked of entrapment.
Sure enough, the man’s spine stiffened and he surveyed the bar in suspicion.
“Do we have an agreement?” repeated Davron in his baritone voice. “You did not?—”
He was interrupted by the barkeeper’s messenger boy sprinting into the tavern, wild-eyed and out of breath.
“Raids!” he shouted. “Royal guards, raiding the strip!”
With lightning speed, the fixer snatched the sacks of gold from the table and vanished, leaving via the swinging doors behind the bar. Eleksi ground his teeth in frustration, rushing to the dusty front windows to confirm the boy’s claims.
A patrol of royal guards was indeed barging their way into every establishment on the strip, ousting customers and heckling shop owners.
“Through here,” he said to Davron, going behind the bar.
The barkeeper ignored them completely, wiping the counter with a dirty rag in the same circle without end.
Eleksi and Davron climbed through a service entrance at the back of the kitchen, emerging into an alleyway. They jogged along the alley, dodging rats and barrels and crates of rotting vegetables, until the noise of the raids faded.
Were the raids routine? It wasn’t unheard of.
But Eleksi’s intuition was on fire, sending unpleasant jolts down his spine. Something wasn’t right. He felt like walls were closing in on them.
“Did we make the deal?” asked a perplexed Davron once they were a safe distance from the bar, heading through backstreets to the parlor where Neve and the others waited. “Or was that all for nothing?”
“We made the deal,” said Eleksi with more confidence than he felt. “But Meliohr will realize what we’ve done once she tries to command a Spider King and fails. We must move against her at once.”
Eleksi didn’t mention the possibility that Meliohr would simply offer an even larger sum to the Spider Kings, who would take the contract without question. There was no point, because it was beyond their control now. All they could do was focus on infiltrating the palace and ridding it of the rapidly spreading poison that was Meliohr Garstang.