Rise (12 page)

“
This”, is what she called it. She couldn’t define it just yet. She wasn’t even sure how it had happened, or why it had happened, but it had. Last night, after all the monks and nuns left, and the firelight was so dim, that only the slightest hint of a silhouette could be seen, she had Roman. It lasted for what felt like an eternity, and when it ended, they had stayed wrapped in each others’ arms (for how long, she didn’t know), clinging onto each other for warmth and support.

It was when Victoria was comfortably huddled against Roman’s strong chest, that what she had just done hit her like a ton of bricks. She’d jumped back, frantically, suddenly at a loss for what to do now. It was Roman who suggested that they take things slow, and draft a plan before jumping right in. Victoria liked to think he was referring to the assassination, and not what had just happened between them. She didn't want to think about the can of worms she might have just opened.

“
Roman, I’m being serious. I need help. We can’t just walk in and assassinate him.” She removed his arm from her shoulder and glared. “What? Oh, come on.” He made to swing his arm back around her shoulder, but she turned to the side just in time. “Really, Victoria, I think you’re over thinking it. What’s the first rule of assassination?” “Um, I don’t know? I don’t remember learning any rules. I just remember knocking you out, and dragging your body all the way back to camp.” Roman winced. “Yes, yes. I was actually there, if you don’t recall. But, the first rule of assassination: watching your prey. Most people have some sort of routine they follow. If you can learn their routine, you can learn what motivates them, and when you understand what drives a person, you understand who they are. Really, the actual assassination is the easy part. That’s assuming you actually manage to carry it out.” Roman leaned back on his arms and looked at Victoria, his eyes dark and full of scrutiny.

She didn’t say anything, for fear of alarming him. She had no doubt in her mind that she would be able to carry out the assassination. She never chickened out.

Her thoughts flashed back to the night before, when Roman pleaded with her not to volunteer, and his raw, unhidden emotion. He was right about her. It scared her slightly, to know that there was someone in this world, even if it was just one person who seemed to know exactly who she was.

As correct as Roman was, however, even he didn’t know the depth of her urges. It was rooted deep inside her somewhere, and although she would never admit it to Roman, a part of her would still find this to be beyond exciting.

“
I don’t agree with this, you know.” Roman’s voice was soft, and although he was staring directly at her, Victoria hesitated to look into his eyes. She opted for the ground instead, and hoped she looked pensive. “Oh?” She didn’t know what else to say.

Saying “oh” sounded relatively neutral, she decided. “Of course I don’t, you know that. It’s just…it seems wrong.” “Why?” Victoria asked, trying her best to sound interested, but not excessively eager. “It’s just, this guy did nothing wrong. He’s just alive. He’s going to be dead, all because of his father.” “Wait, what?” Victoria’s eyes flew up to meet his. She realized, suddenly, that she hadn’t even asked why he needed to be assassinated. She’d just accepted, like some sort of mindless drone. She felt a bit ashamed at this, but not because this necessarily doused her excitement. That, wasn’t going anywhere, but because she’d always prided herself on being hard to sway towards others opinions.

“
You don’t know the story? No, right, of course you wouldn’t. I’ll tell you about it.”

Roman sat back on his haunches, and looked up to the sky, while biting his lip, as if trying to remember how the story went. “Ah, I got it.” He said, flashing her a small grin. “Alexander S. Gloucester. Alex, to everyone, I’m guessing. He’s the son of the king of Gracelia. His father has the same name. He’s a pretty cool guy, really.”

“
How do you know, do you know him?” Victoria watched Roman with interest. “Oh no”, he replied, quickly. “He’s just pretty well-known. You’d know, if you hadn’t been cooped up in the convent your whole life. When I say cool, I mean, well, normal. I’ve seen him once or twice, around the city. He tends to travel with a lot of bodyguards, though.”

“
So, what does he have to do with his father?

“
That’s just the thing. He has nothing to do with his father, except that he’ll eventually get his father’s title of course.”

Victoria sighed, exasperatedly. “Roman, just tell me why they want him dead?”

“
I don’t find this to be a good enough reason, but his father was suspended from making large political decisions several years ago.”

“
Why?”

“
Well, the word is, that he was engaging in illegal activities. Trafficking.”

“
Trafficking what?”

“
You know all sorts of things. Drugs, illegal technology…orphans.”

“
Orphans?” Victoria’s mind flashed back to the day she met Wes, and she was suddenly couldn’t help but feel a little worried for him. Her face must have mirrored that anguish, because Roman reached over to grab her hand.

“
It’s okay. That part about the orphans isn’t confirmed, and probably wasn’t really happening. Sister Katherine would know about it. But the others, they were definitely happening. Anyways, the Board unanimously voted to suspend the majority of his political powers, due to those accusations. However, he apparently continued these activities, and even though his powers are suspended publicly, he’s still got loads of money to sway the Board with. And that’s what he does.

The Board was going to appoint a predecessor to Alexander I, either by popular vote, or by appointment, but apparently he has managed to pay eighteen, out of the twenty one members of the Board. They’ll do whatever he says, and the trouble is, no one knows where he’s getting the money. Or if it’s money he’s even paying with.” Roman finished, darkly.

“
But, I still don’t get why his son needs to be assassinated. He seems like the problem, so shouldn’t he be the one with a bull’s eye on his forehead? “

“
I told you, I don’t think it’s a great reason, but his son will do anything to please him. His son is probably involved in whatever illegal activities he is doing, and if he can’t have the power, he’ll control through his son. And that can’t happen.”

Victoria scratched her head as she processed the information. “Who ordered the hit on him?” Roman shrugged. “I’m guessing one of the members of the Board who hasn’t been bought yet. I don’t know all that much about it, to be honest.”

“
I guess this changes things, then.” Victoria muttered more for Roman’s benefit than her own. They didn’t really, but she expected that he would like to hear her say that, as she saw him nod his head from the corner of her eye. She hadn’t imagined that he would be so holy, but then she remembered that he was technically a monk, and she laughed in spite of herself.

Victoria’s eyes remained on Roman, who was now scanning the mess of maps on the forest floor. She couldn’t see his eyes, and that was her favorite part about him. The rest of his face wasn’t bad as well. High cheekbones, almond shaped eyes. She couldn’t point out a single thing on him she didn’t like. Victoria looked away, before he couldn’t catch her staring, but she had a feeling he knew she was.

“
Well, it’s dawn. I’ve got to get back to the monastery.” Roman said, and stood up, abruptly. Victoria looked around. Indeed it was. “You could stay here, at the convent, with me.” She said, slyly. He stopped cold, and looked at her hard, as if trying to detect any sort of joking in her voice. “Nice try, but I can’t. This is a convent, Victoria. I don’t want to be struck by lightning. I’d like to live another 40 years or so. I’ll see you later. We’ll have to meet to discuss this some more.” He leaned over to give her a kiss on the cheek, and then disappeared into the forest.

Victoria reached up and touched the place on her cheek where he’d kissed her. It tingled slightly, and she wondered if he’d left so abruptly on account of that.

She stayed on the forest floor for a while after Roman left. She mindlessly scanned her various maps as she thought about the growing conflict in her soul. She had been excited, thrilled even, to have the chance to carry out her first real assassination, but what Roman said was gnawing at the deepest part of her consciousness. She couldn’t very well assassinate someone who did nothing wrong, could she? Who was she kidding? Of course she could, and Victoria couldn't decide how exactly she felt about that.

IX.

As the sun climbed above the tops of even the tallest pine trees, Victoria stood up, reluctant to leave the sanctuary. She wasn’t sure what the nuns would say, if anything at all. If Raela said anything, she was going to get a swift punch to the mouth. That was something Victoria had absolutely no qualms about.
She made her way back towards the convent, and was greeted by the usual fanfare of orphans and slop. The more things change, the more they stay the same, she thought, wryly. She looked around for the large silhouette of Grace, but when it didn’t announce itself, she headed over to the kitchens to begin doling out more bowls of slop.

Upon entering the kitchen, all was suddenly deathly silent. Victoria had heard noises before she entered, so she could only assume that her presence induced the silence. She found herself staring into the eyes of Raela, her friends, whose names she couldn’t remember, and Sister Katherine. Raela, in particular, was staring at her with an expression Victoria couldn’t place. It looked to be an odd mixture of admiration, and disgust, which was rather surprising, because she had always thought the only face Raela could make was a buck-tooth face. Victoria rolled her eyes, and turned her attention to Sister Katherine, who was studying her intently. “Don’t stop on my account, sisters. I can leave, if your conversation is just that personal.” Victoria said daringly, as her challenge hung in the tense air. She thought she saw Raela tense for a moment, but when she swiveled her head in her direction, she was relaxed.

“
No, no, Victoria. We were just discussing your training.” “Training?” Victoria asked. That drew an impatient sigh from Raela. “Of course she wouldn’t know what it is. She’s too inexperienced.” “Inexperienced in what way?” Victoria shot back. “Oh, in just about every way.” Raela quipped. “Do you kill people with your big ass front teeth? Because you could, you know.”

“
Enough, Raela, Victoria. That’s enough. Raela, get back out there, your help is needed. Victoria, we have some things to discuss, so if you would, please stay here.” Victoria watched as Raela and her friends vacated the room, giving her nothing less than murderous stares as they left.

As the door shut behind them, Victoria realized that as much as she had tried to avoid it, she had somehow managed to end up alone with Sister Katherine. She wasn’t entirely sure why this bothered her, but she Victoria didn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of famous stares. Luckily, Sister Katherine seemed more concerned with what she herself was going to say, as she began to speak, briskly. “Yesterday, you volunteered for the assassination of Mr. Alexander Gloucester. You cannot back out of this now, Victoria. The appropriate authorities have been notified, and you will be expected to complete your task, or die trying.” “Die trying?” If Victoria had happened to be drinking something at the moment, she would have sprayed it out with perfect comedic timing. She composed herself. “I’m not quite sure if I heard you correctly, Sister. You said, die trying?”

Sister Katherine nodded her head, solemnly. “Yes, Victoria. Those are the stipulations to any major task. The price is always a life.” Victoria wondered, briefly, if Roman knew about this, before she turned her thoughts back to the situation at hand. “Well, I was…unaware of that.” She said, awkwardly. “Yes” Sister Katherine paused, and sighed dramatically. “I figured you might be, so I have arranged for you to have some training sessions. Normally, you would have already had them, but your rise in the Other Sisterhood has been rather unusual." Victoria knew exactly what she meant by “unusual”, and she took this moment to look anywhere other than directly into Sister Katherine’s eyes.

“
Your training sessions”, she continued, “will be held with Roman, of course. As he is your partner in this task, you’ll need to learn how to work together, and defend each other, should such a situation arise. Your offense sessions, will be with the only nun, around your age and skill level that volunteered.” Victoria held her breath, and hoped Sister Katherine would not say what she thought she was going to say. “Raela.”

Victoria rolled her eyes so hard she thought they might get stuck, permanently. “Oh, god. You mean there was no one else willing to train with me?” “Grace, who I’m sure you know, offered as well, but Raela impressed upon me that because you two are of similar height and build, you would benefit more from the training.” By training, Raela meant kill her, and get away with it, Victoria reasoned.

“
Anyways, Victoria, you’ll be expected to fulfill your normal nun duties for today. We’ll discuss your training schedule more this evening.” And with that, Sister Katherine left the kitchen, leaving Victoria to stand there, reeling from all the newfound information.

Victoria wasn’t sure what to try and digest first. She either had to kill, or be killed. And that was if Raela didn’t manage to kill her first. She sighed. For the second time that day, she wondered just what she had gotten herself into. She made her way over to the kitchen sink to grab slop bowls. As she did, she made a mental note to find Roman as soon as she was relieved of her duties, and tell him everything she learned. But, she had a nagging feeling that even now, she only knew the half of it.