Aveline (22 page)

“So no Guild until after we meet with
him.”

“I think that’s best. Don’t tell them I’m
alive. Maybe bringing in Karl will be enough to win over a new
sponsor and make up for taking on an assignment prior to becoming a
real assassin,” she said.

“If Karl hired you under the guise of
sponsoring you, the Guild’s council won’t hold you
responsible.”

“I was hired by someone else,” she replied.
“I took the position here before Karl assigned me a mission.”

Rocky’s eyebrows went up.

“I’d be in trouble either way,” she said. “I
can’t explain this all now but I promise I will soon.”

“You have more allies than you think you do.
Come with me to the Guild after we confront Karl. We can explain
everything.”

“Let me make this right or … as right as I
can,” she replied, thoughts on her father’s spirit watching her
from the sky. Her gut instinct about Karl’s request had been right,
and she ignored it. Her father would not be pleased with her for
this or for accepting a position guarding Tiana before Aveline was
an official assassin. “I broke two rules. I wouldn’t feel right
asking the Guild to sponsor me, knowing I’ve disappointed my
father.”

Would her father want her to leave Tiana and
return to the Guild or stay and carry out her duty? Aveline had
taken an oath to protect the girl, but she had done so before
becoming an assassin. The thought of abandoning Tiana, even if she
were coerced into accepting the assignment, did not sit well with
Aveline. At the very least, she wanted to ensure Matilda was no
longer a threat.

She recalled her father’s lecture about
fulfilling one’s vows, no matter what the circumstances, and
waffled with her decision before coming to a conclusion. She should
not have accepted this assignment, but she did. She was therefore
obligated by her promise to Arthur.

“Is this electricity magic?” Rocky asked,
eyes on the bulb overhead.

Aveline snorted. “Yes. I cannot be gone long
from my post. Do you have time to go somewhere with me
quickly?”

He nodded.

Reeling from all she had learned, she could
think of nothing but grabbing a snack. Aveline led him through the
hallways to the kitchens, which were always occupied and bustling.
As soon as one meal was over, the staff began clean up and
preparing for the next. The constant activity meant no one noticed
two additional slaves as they slipped in to snag some of the
pastries cooling on a wooden table.

Aveline loaded up a sack with them and led
Rocky out of the kitchens and back towards the southern entrance.
When they reached the door, she handed him the bag.

“Will you come back tomorrow afternoon?” she
asked.

“Without a doubt,” he replied and accepted
the treats. “You are safe here? You have weapons?”

“I do,” she confirmed. “I’m safe and
overfed.” She patted her belly.

Rocky nodded in approval. “I’ll see you
tomorrow.” He turned away and began walking.

“Rocky,” she called.

He faced her again.

“Thank you,” she said with emotion. “For
coming to find me. For not giving up on me.”

“It’s just us now. We have to take care of
each other,” he replied. With another quick smile, he left.

She watched him, too preoccupied by all she
had learned to know where to start. The idea Karl had turned
against her, against the Guild, was nearly too wild for her to
accept. A small part of her continued to deny it, while her
instincts whispered everything Rocky said and believed to be true
were supported by Karl’s discussion with her.

Realizing she was standing near the door,
staring dumbly outside, Aveline retreated to the elevator and
returned to the Hanover’s apartment. She did not want Tiana to
suspect she was distressed – or discover anything if she read
Aveline’s mind. Aveline went in circles mentally, trying to
understand Karl’s betrayal so soon after her father’s death.

Unable to sort through her tangled thoughts
and feelings, she finally ceased pacing through the quiet apartment
and went to Tiana’s door.

It was cracked open.

Aveline’s guard went up, and she paused to
listen. The sound of someone beating on the closet door was
muffled. Aveline pushed the door open silently.

What is this?
She thought, startled by the sight before
her.

Matilda was pounding her fists against the
closet door hard enough that her hands were bloodied. Her eyes were
wild and bloodshot, her nose red, and her hair mussed. She appeared
possessed as she smashed the door over and over, impervious to
pain.

Aveline closed the door to Tiana’s room
behind her, assessing the situation. Matilda had been quiet and
absent the past few days, since Aveline returned from the
apothecary. Ghoul’s Fancy, the drug she had mixed in with Matilda’s
normal powders, was supposed to elevate moods to the point one did
not know what was dream and what was reality any more. Aveline had
hoped the euphoric high would prevent Matilda from hurting Tiana or
trying to poison her again.

Matilda sagged against the closet door,
breathing hard. A knife was on the vanity near her, and she picked
it up after a brief rest and jammed the blade into the lock on the
closet.

What had happened?

The sound of Tiana crying came from the
closet, reassuring Aveline that the Hanover girl had used her brain
for once instead of wilting when Matilda hurt her.

Aveline opened her mouth to speak before
recalling Matilda thought her mute. So she opened the door and
slammed it closed, as if she had just entered.

Matilda straightened and faced her, her blue
eyes glazed. Her nose was running, and drool leaked from the corner
of her mouth. She steadied herself against the wall with one arm
outstretched.

She was high or drunk or otherwise not
herself, but this was not the effect of Ghoul’s Fancy. What had the
apothecary mixed into the drugs, if not what Aveline requested?
Anger slid through her. She added him to the list of those she
planned on murdering when this assignment with Tiana was over. The
apothecary would share the same fate as those running the brothel
and butchering children for meat.

Possibly the same fate as Karl.

Aveline was not ready for this thought. She
gritted her teeth in response to the pain of betrayal that slid
through her and focused on Matilda, who was squinting at her to
determine who she was.

“Slave,” Matilda said finally. She pushed
herself away from the closet. “Open this door.”

Matilda was too far out of her mind to
notice Aveline’s shrug. Was she high enough to forget Aveline was
mute?

“I do not have the key,” Aveline
ventured.

“What?” Matilda snapped. “Someone must have
it!” She careened towards the vanity and began yanking out drawers
and dumping them. When she did not find the key, she went to the
wardrobe and did the same.

Aveline moved to the closet door and knocked
softly. “Tiana? Are you hurt?”

The sniffling stopped. “N… no.”

Matilda kicked clothing with a loud curse.
“Where is the key?” she shrieked.

Aveline felt the door give behind her. Tiana
peered out, her eyes and nose red from crying. Her face showed
Matilda had landed a couple blows before the girl ran to hide in
the closet.

“Stay here,” Aveline said. “Hide if she
tries to get you again.”

“Come in here with me!” Tiana whispered
urgently. “She is utterly mad. She will hurt you!”

“I can take care of myself,” Aveline assured
her and moved away.

Tiana protested, and Matilda whirled. She
started forward, knife raised.

“Whoa!” Aveline said and moved to intercept
her. “You’re not right in the head, Matilda! Stop this now!” She
pushed Matilda and gripped her wrist.

“Leave me be, slave!” Matilda hissed and
shoved her. “If the freak’s father will not burn her, then I will
carve those ghoulish eyes out of her head!” Spittle sprayed Aveline
as Matilda spoke.

Up close, Matilda was even less herself than
Aveline initially thought. The woman’s gaze was unfocused and her
pupils dilated to the point her eyes were almost completely black.
The blood vessels in her neck had begun to rupture, creating a
network of purple webbing. The veins in her arms, neck and face
were bulging.

“Let’s be calm about this,” Aveline said
quietly, uncertain how to talk sense into Matilda, whose eyes were
trained on Tiana. “You are ill, Matilda. If you don’t seek out your
physician, you will suffer more than you already are.”

The hair on the back of Aveline’s neck rose,
but it was not from the crazed woman she was trying to subdue. The
armoire was floating, along with all the belongings Matilda had
dumped onto the floor. Tiana was too upset to control her strange
ability.

Matilda looked at Aveline, away, then back.
Her mouth fell open, and surprise registered across her
features.

“You are not mute!” she exclaimed, squinting
at Aveline. “George claimed you had no tongue!” Her arm dropped,
and confusion replaced surprise. “Why does my head hurt so?” She
clutched her temple with one hand.

“I don’t know, but let me help you. We can
go get help now,” Aveline said and shifted closer.

“But you have no tongue. How can you speak?”
Matilda asked.

“Matilda, please. You are not well,” Tiana
pleaded softly, drawing near.

Aveline waved her back.

“Those eyes.” Matilda was staring at Tiana
again. “You deformed, crippled, sick demon! I will cut them out and
then your tongue, slave, before I burn you both!” She launched at
Tiana.

Aveline blocked her again with her body and
was driven back by the force of Matilda’s charge. The woman raked
nails down Aveline’s face and plunged the knife towards her mouth.
One leg buckled as it hit the vanity, and Aveline careened
dangerously, struggling to avoid Matilda’s knife and catch her
balance. She knocked into Tiana, who had emerged from the closet.
The Hanover girl was sent sprawling into the middle of the
room.

Matilda wrenched her arm free and stumbled
away, towards Tiana. Aveline hit the ground and launched back up,
diving between stepmother and stepdaughter as Matilda’s knife hand
plunged downwards toward a helpless Tiana. Aveline calculated the
angle of the blade as she moved. With luck, she would take a hit to
the shoulder, maybe her upper back. It would anger her without
disabling her, so she could disarm Matilda and throw the insane
woman out.

What happened next was not an event Aveline
would ever be able to describe to anyone else.

Tiana screamed, and the world rippled as an
invisible shockwave tore through everyone and everything around
them. Aveline’s breath was knocked from her body, and one ear
popped painfully then began to ring. She was flung across the room
and slammed into the door. Lights exploded behind her eyelids, and
she fell to the floor.

The ringing and sharp pain of her ear
prevented her from sinking into unconsciousness. The back of her
head pulsed from where it had hit the wooden door, and Aveline
sought to pull herself out of the in-between state. Urgency was at
the edge of her mind, agitated by the sensation of being caught in
a cobweb of currents.

A new sound, that of someone banging on the
door to Tiana’s room, helped ground her.

Aveline’s eyes fluttered open. Vertigo swept
through her, caused by the damage to her ear. Her stomach roiled,
and she clutched at the floor to try to steady herself. Sitting up,
she touched the blood trickling from her hurt ear and struggled to
make out what had happened through the sensation of the world
spinning around her.

“This is the Shield! We order you to allow
…” The shout was accompanied by more banging on the door.

Tiana was hunched over in a pool of blood,
clutching a knife, rocking and mumbling. Matilda’s body sprawled
out beside her, still.

Alarm and concern prevented Aveline from
letting the vertigo drive her to the floor. She staggered up,
tripped, and lurched to her feet once more. She dropped to her
knees beside Tiana, unable to see clearly what the Hanover girl was
doing until she was within arm’s reach.

“ …
bleed the evil out. I
have to bleed the evil out. I …” Tiana was saying over and
over.

The sensation of twirling and spinning began
to subside. Her senses were delayed but working, though her brain
remained sluggish after the blow to her head. Aveline began to
catch up with her surroundings and specifically, with the girl
before her.

Rocking back and forth, Tiana’s arms and
legs were bloodied, her gown soaked with red. She was cutting
herself as she mumbled and had shredded one forearm and both her
thighs.

“Stop.” Aveline snatched Tiana’s wrist.

“ …
have to bleed …” Tiana
pulled away.

Aveline snatched her arms and shook her.
“Stop, Tiana!”

Tiana’s ghoulish, black eyes were unfocused
as she stared at Aveline. “Aveline,” her voice trembled. “You
live.”

Aveline lifted her face as Tiana stretched
out a bloody palm to her. “I do.” Before she could ask what had
happened, her gaze fell again to Matilda’s body.

Aveline released Tiana with one hand and
stood up on her knees, shuffling closer. She reached out to Tiana’s
stepmother and then froze, her hand halfway to the still body.

Where was Matilda’s head?

Tiana was breathing hard and quick. She
clutched Aveline’s arm. “Forgive me,” she whispered, panicked. “I
feared she would hurt you … I lost control … please forgive me! I
did not mean for this to happen!”

You did this?
Aveline stared in disbelief. Matilda’s head was
nowhere to be seen. Too much blood formed puddles on the floor to
be from Tiana’s self-afflicted wounds alone. The ringing in
Aveline’s ear became louder, along with the shouting from beyond
the door. The sound of an axe splintering wood jarred her. She
shook her head, grappling with her own weakened state.