Sacred Knight of the Veil (42 page)

"You know..."

"An assassin?"

"No."

"Then what? Is it a dirty word you cannot speak?"

She shook her head, her cheeks reddening. "A eunuch."

"Ah. One of those. I am not insulted by the term, Kerra. I have been called much worse. Apparently she has not realised what I am. Some people are not very observant, and to others it makes no difference."

"Chiana did not notice," Minna observed.

Kerra looked horrified. "You mean, when they were married..."

Blade chuckled, and Minna said, "Oh no, I told her long before then."

"You noticed," Blade muttered.

"Almost immediately," she agreed. "Yet it made no difference to me or Chiana."

"You, My Queen?"

"Yes, even I am not immune to your charms, My Lord. Nor am I ashamed to admit it."

The assassin smiled, gazing at the tent roof. "I am flattered."

"You are conceited. You use your charms unconsciously, and you should keep it that way. It is more effective. Do not attempt to beguile Asrah again with your clumsy wiles, you will only anger her."

He shrugged. "That suits me."

For the next two days, the bandits continued north at a steady pace, camping each night in the lee of dunes. They carried ample supplies on a string of packhorses, but on the third day three men left with empty packhorses and returned with fresh food and water from a nearby town. Although Asrah avoided Blade, he caught her watching him on several occasions. The shackles were little more than an annoyance, but the men seemed to enjoy seeing him wear them, judging by their smirks.

Imbar recovered, although he had a swollen, bruised face and a broken nose. He glared at the assassin whenever possible, making Blade suspect that he intended to seek further retribution. The queens became uneasy, unnerved by the bandits' bold stares and leers, which neither of them had experienced before. Blade dreaded the day when he might be forced to intervene in some lecherous attack, a prospect that he found distasteful.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, shortly after the bandits had made camp, Blade sat outside the tent, guarding Minna's privacy while she washed in a bowl of water.

They had all mastered the art of bathing in a cup of water, using a damp cloth to wipe off the grime and sweat. The women were used to luxurious baths with hot water and soap, but Blade's fastidiousness had long ago made him make do with much less, though never quite so little. Kerra's scream brought him to his feet in a bound, and he ran towards the sound. The young Queen struggled in the strong arms of a strapping, chuckling blond bandit. Blade stopped a few paces away, unsure of what to do.

"Let her go," he growled.

The bandit looked up, and Kerra shouted, "Blade! Help me!"

Blade walked closer as several more men ran up. "I said let her go."

The bandit sneered, "Make me, assassin."

Blade closed the gap between them in a few strides. As he had hoped, the man thrust Kerra away to free his hands. The girl stumbled to Blade and stood behind him, clinging to his arm. Blade found his new role as protector unpleasant as well as novel, and tried to back away. Kerra hampered him, and the bandit followed, his eyes alight with hatred. The assassin jerked his arm from Kerra's grip and stepped away from her as the young man lunged at him. He swayed aside, allowing the bandit's fist to skim past his cheek, then swung around and whipped the chain that linked his wrists around the man's throat, yanking it tight.

The bandit clawed at the chain, swinging around to try to dislodge the assassin, but Blade hung on, keeping the chain tight. The man choked and coughed, jabbing an elbow at Blade's ribs, which he avoided. He raised a knee and jammed it into the small of the man's back, forcing him to his knees. The young bandit's face reddened and his eyes bulged, then Blade was forced to release him as three more men attacked. He swung around and hit the nearest in the face with the chain. The man staggered aside, clutching his cheek.

Blade dropped to elude the next man's charged, slammed his shoulder into the bandit's belly and threw him over his back. The last man drew a dagger and lunged at the assassin, forcing him to leap aside as the weapon slashed his chest. He grabbed the man's wrist and used his momentum to swing him around, twisting his arm until the tendons cracked. The bandit howled and dropped the dagger. Blade released him and scooped up the weapon.

"Stop!" Asrah's command halted another two men, who headed for Blade, intent on joining the fray.

Blade glanced around at his foes. The youngster sat rubbing his throat and coughing, the man with the lacerated cheek mopped the blood from his face, and the one with the twisted arm nursed it against his chest. The man Blade had thrown over his shoulder appeared unharmed, and glared at him.

Asrah strode up to him and held out her hand for the dagger. With a sigh, he gave it to her, and she turned to face her men.

"What sort of men are you, to attack an unarmed man?"

They muttered, and one man shouted, "He was throttling Balt!"

Asrah turned to Blade. "Were you?"

"Yes. He attacked Kestra."

Asrah glanced at the girl, who was trying to tidy her tangled hair. "Attacked? Do you mean he was flirting with her?"

"No, I mean he grabbed her, and she was frightened."

"And for that, you were going to kill him?"

"No. I would have released him when he was subdued."

Asrah looked down at the blood-smeared dagger he had given her, then walked over to the man with the bloody cheek.

"How did this happen?"

"He hit me with the damned chain," the bandit growled.

Asrah glanced at the other three men who had attacked the assassin, and, finding them innocent of blood, strode back to Blade. Pulling open his jelabah, she exposed the gash on his chest, and her eyes snapped up to his face.

"Who did this?"

He shrugged. "The one who gave me the dagger."

Asrah turned to glare at the man with the injured arm. "Jeran! You disgust me, all of you! Three of you against an unarmed man, and you not only fail, he takes your weapon. And he's wearing shackles!"

The men mumbled and shuffled their feet, avoiding her eyes as she raked them with a scornful glance. Several onlookers had already slipped away, leaving the guilty ones to face their leader's ire alone.

Asrah tossed the dagger to Jeran. "No one touches him in future, unless I say so. He's no good to me if he's injured, you morons." She swung to face Blade. "You, come with me. I'll clean that cut."

Blade followed Asrah to her tent, and Minna led Kerra away. Inside, he sat on a cushion while she rummaged in a bag, producing a vial and a cloth. She sat before him and parted his jelabah to inspect the cut again, then poured a little brown fluid onto the cloth. He gazed out of the door, maintaining an air of icy indifference until she dabbed the medicine onto his wound, then he recoiled with a hiss.

"What vile stuff is that?"

"It's good for wounds." She studied his twisted face. "Surely you aren't afraid of a little pain?"

"I have no liking for it."

"So it seems." She smiled and dabbed more of the stinging fluid on the cut, and he raised his hands to ward her off.

"Enough. It will heal without that."

Asrah chuckled. "So, you do have a weakness. I was beginning to think you were made of ice. I didn't think you would be afraid of a little stinging ointment."

"It hardly hurt until you put that stuff on it."

She sat back, studying him. "It's a small cut, but Jeran's knife is dirty. He uses it to cut his meat and pick his teeth."

Blade grimaced. "A man should keep his weapons clean."

"You certainly do."

"It was part of my training."

"Why did you become an assassin?"

He shrugged. "I needed to make a living, and I was good at killing."

"Would you consider teaching my men your tricks?"

"No. Assassins are forbidden to reveal their secrets to anyone except their apprentices."

Asrah dabbed his wound with the cloth again, and he hissed, but bore it. "You were lying to me the other night, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I didn't want to wear the chains."

She wiped away the blood and sat back once more. "Yet you used them as a weapon."

"I had to." He eyed her. "Why didn't you tell your men to leave Kestra alone?"

"They won't hurt her."

"She's a maiden."

Asrah laughed. "She told you that? She's lying. No girl in a Cotti lord's harem would reach her age untouched."

"She's not lying."

"How would you know? Or perhaps it's you who are lying. After all, you share a tent with her."

Blade shook his head. "She's perfectly safe with me."

"And why is that? Don't tell me that you're happily married."

"Not happily, but I am."

Asrah stared at him, then put down the cloth and jumped up, walking across the tent to pick up a wine skin and uncork it. "Why do I find that hard to believe?"

"Because you don't want to."

"No, it's because you don't strike me as the kind of man who could love a woman."

"I didn't say I loved her."

Asrah sipped from the wine skin. "You tried to seduce me the other night."

"I wasn't trying to seduce you."

"No? Well you did a damned good imitation of it."

"Not good enough, since I failed to persuade you not to put the shackles on me."

She glared at him. "And that was all you wanted?"

"Yes."

"I see." His answer appeared to mollify her, and she returned to sit before him again. "But if your marriage is one of convenience, why would you honour it?"

"I didn't claim to honour it."

She looked puzzled. "Then why do you say that the girl is safe with you?"

Blade gazed at his hands, wondering if he should concoct a lie to explain it or tell the truth. A lie appealed to him, since he was not sure of her reaction to his shortcomings. Then again, she would find out soon enough if she tried to seduce him, which seemed likely, given her obvious attraction to him, and that might anger her more. If he told the truth, she would pity him, which could prove less hazardous to his health, and that of the queens. He had hoped that her desire for him would make her more amenable to his wishes, but perhaps her pity would work just as well, and without the complications of the lie. He did not care if she pitied him. He had used the emotions of others to his advantage many times. He looked up, finding her waiting for his reply.

"I told you that I had more reason to hate the Cotti than you do, but I didn't tell you everything they did to me."

She looked surprised. "There's more?"

"Yes. They also castrated me."

Asrah's gaze raked him, realisation dawning in her eyes, mixed with pity and a hint of disgust, whether for him, the Cotti or herself, he was not sure. She picked up the wine skin and drank from it, then offered it to him. He took a few gulps while she studied him, her expression one of deep disappointment.

"What about your wife?"

"She knew about it before she wed me."

She took the wine skin when he held it out. "That's most unfortunate."

"For you or me?"

"Both of us, I think."

"I suppose so."

Asrah handed him the wine skin. "So, you really do have ice in your veins."

He smiled. "Yes."

"And the other night..."

He shrugged. "I made no promises, or even suggestions."

"No, you didn't." She reached for the wine skin. "Go back to your charges. I won't bother you again."

Blade left her staring at the place where he had been sitting, and crossed the camp under the baleful gaze of several bandits, whose reason for hating him had just increased significantly. When he slipped inside the queens' tent, he found them huddled together at the back, talking in low tones.

They turned at his entry, and Kerra burst out, "We must get away from these people, Blade."

He sank down on his bedroll. "And how do you suggest we do that?"

"Take our horses and flee."

He smiled. "If it was that easy, I would have done it already."

"You could kill the guards in the night, and we could sneak out of the camp. By the time they found us gone, we would be far away."

"I have no weapons -"

"You do not need weapons," Minna pointed out.

He inclined his head. "I could probably manage without them, but we also have no money, and no supplies, and we would leave a trail that they would follow in the morning. Since we would be forced to head for the nearest town, they would soon catch us, and then they would have a reason to kill me and sell you."

Kerra glanced at her mother, who frowned and muttered, "This situation is intolerable. These men will harm us. You may be able to protect us while you are here, but what will happen when you leave to perform this assassination?"

"I will ask Asrah to protect you."

"She is a bandit," Kerra snapped.

"She is also a woman. I do not think she will allow her men to do to you what was done to her, and she appears well able to control them."

Kerra shook her head, her mouth a stubborn line. "What if something happens to you? What if she sells us while you are away? We cannot trust her."

Blade sighed and lay down. "We have no choice. Nothing will happen to me, and if she sells you, I will find you."

Kerra turned to her mother. "I could send Myasha to father with a message."

The assassin chuckled. "Have you only thought of that now? I would have suggested it long ago, if it was possible."

"Why is it not?"

"Because Myasha has never been to Jadaya, and nor have you. How would he find it? You do not have the experience to give him the information he will need, even if I explained it to you. And even if he did, he does not know your father. What is more, you should not be so eager to put him in danger, there are many perils in the desert. Hunters and eagles, to name just two. Direfalcons do not live in the desert, they are not adapted for this climate, and snakes are few."

Kerra frowned at the floor, and Minna put a hand on her arm. "Perhaps we should follow the course that Lord Conash has suggested, Kerra. I have great respect for his intelligence, and I do not believe that he would put us in danger."