Weapon of Fear (18 page)

“How
was dinner?”  The landlady approached, smiling down at their polished plates.

“Delicious,”
Dee said, and Paxal patted his belly contentedly.

“Good! 
Docey’s told me that you’re leavin’ before dawn.  I’ll have porridge and hot
scones for your breakfast, and pack you a cold lunch.  Docey’ll have fresh
horses ready.”  She picked up the plates and nodded to the washroom.  “Your
bath’s drawn, and there’s soap and towels laid out for you.”

“Did
I say you were an
angel
of mercy?”  Pax pushed himself up from his
chair.  “Make that a
goddess
.  Thank you, ma’am.”

Dee
grabbed the room key and his saddlebags, pleased with the way the evening had
turned out.  “Don’t take too long, Pax.  I’d like to wash up before bed.”

“Can’t
promise to hurry.  These old bones need a good soak.”

“Well,
soak them fast.  We’re on the road before daylight.”

An
hour or more must have passed before the light beaming from Lady T’s sitting
room dimmed and brightened, dimmed and brightened, again and again.  At last,
all the lights were doused.

Mya
retrieved and donned her clothing, then made her way to the front of the house. 
She’d thought long and hard about the best approach.  Smashing through Lady T’s
bedroom window would be satisfying, but might also get her killed.  The
guildmaster of the Tsing Assassins Guild surely protected her doors and windows
with traps.  She’d settled on a more direct approach.  It had worked once, why
not again?

As
Mya strode up to the front door, the two guards there pulled heavy cudgels from
their belts.

She
stopped a step away, well within reach.  “Mya here to see Lady T.”

“The
lady’s not home.”  The Enforcer’s face remained admirably blank.

“Oh?” 
Mya considered for a moment that he might be telling the truth.  Hoseph could
have whisked her off to who knew where.  “Then I’ll wait for her to come back. 
Open the door.”

“She
won’t be back until morning.”  He blinked and his eyes flicked away from hers.

Nope,
he’s lying
.  “Then
I’ll wait until morning.  Open…the…door.”

“I…can’t
let you in.  Orders.”

“Ah,
now at least you’re telling me the truth.”  Mya put her hands on her hips. 
“I’m giving you new orders.  Open the door. 
Now
!”

The
speaker glanced to the second guard, but his companion seemed quite content to
let his partner call the shots.  The guard licked his lips, a fine sweat
breaking out on his brow.  “If you come back in the morn—“

“Do
you
like
your testicles?”

“What?” 
The man’s eyes narrowed, the cudgel twitching at his side.

“I
asked if you like your testicles, because if you continue to stand there being
stupid instead of doing what I tell you to do, I’m going to tear them off and stuff
them up your nose.  Now,
open
the
door
.”

 “Cocky
bitch,” the man muttered beneath his breath as he turned to unlock the door. 
He’d probably intended it to be inaudible, but Mya heard it.

“Yes,
I am.  Remember that next time.”

The
muscles of his face tensed as he turned his key in the lock.  Pushing open the
door, he stepped out of her way without another word.

Mya
strode through and found herself staring down two loaded crossbows.  If the man
and woman holding the weapons were guild members, they couldn’t shoot her, but
Lady T might have hired some non-guild killers.  She wasn’t going to take any
chances.  Mya raised her hands in surrender, but kept walking forward.

“Now
just be careful with those—”  When she came within reach, Mya lunged and snatched
the two crossbow bolts from the weapons.  By the time either of them could even
blink, she had the bolts reversed and the tips under their chins.  “Where’s
Lady T?”

The
two stared in shock down at their impotent weapons and the deadly shafts that
could end their lives.  The man swallowed hard and lowered his crossbow.  Mya
smelled the telltale scent of urine.  Evidently, she’d startled him rather
badly.

“Relax! 
I’m not going to kill you unless you don’t tell me where your mistress is.”

The
woman lowered her crossbow and reached for an ornate rope pull on the wall. 
“Lady T’s gone to bed, but I can call—”

“Uh-uh!” 
Mya pricked woman’s chin with the needle point of the crossbow bolt before she
could touch the rope.  “You’ll call no one—either of you—and you’ll answer my
questions.  If I ever find out that you lied to me, I’ll turn you over to
Master Inquisitor Lakshmi for her apprentices to practice on.  Now, where’s
Lady T?”

After
the barest hesitation, the woman said, “In bed.”

“Yes,
you said that.  Where’s her bedroom?”

“I
can—”

“Just
tell
me!”

“On
the third floor, down the hall to the left.”

“That’s
her sitting room.”  Mya wondered if she was being led astray.

“Yes. 
You have to go through her sitting room.  Once inside, there are two doors to
your right.  The first opens into her bedroom.  The second goes through her
dressing room.”

“Is
she alone?”

“I
don’t know.”  The woman looked to her partner.

“No
company that I know of.”

She
wondered if they even knew of the well-attended meeting an hour ago in the
lady’s sitting room.
 
“Is there anyone else lying in wait for me?”

“No.”

“Good.” 
Mya dropped the crossbow bolts and dashed up the stairs three at a time.

She
approached the door at the end of the hall silently and stopped to listen, her
senses straining for any sign of alarm or ambush.  She heard nothing through
the door, not the scuff of a shoe, a heartbeat, or breathing.  The coast seemed
clear.  Thumbing the latch, Mya eased open the door.  The sitting room where
she had met with Lady T stood empty, though she could smell the scent of several
competing perfumes.  She stepped into the room and faced the two doors. 
Listening at the first, Mya heard the soft, steady breathing of a single person
at rest.

It’s
time to answer for your insolence, Lady T
.
 
Mya opened the bedroom door and stepped
through.

The
faint click of metal on metal was her only warning.  She started to turn, but
too late.  The door frame exploded in a shower of splinters, and the broad head
of a spear plunged into Mya’s side, grating between her ribs.  The impact
slammed her against the opposite door frame.

Mya
looked down.  The shaft pierced her just beneath her left breast.  There was no
pain, of course—the magic of her tattoos prevented that—but that didn’t prevent
her from feeling queasy at the sight of being impaled.  The room spun, and her
knees started to fold at the sudden wave of weakness.  The spear had struck
something vital.  Not her heart, for that would have killed her outright, but
certainly a major blood vessel.  If she passed out from blood loss, she would
die within minutes.

“Light!” 
Radiance blossomed from a glow crystal beside the bed, and Lady T lurched up
from beneath the coverlet, a crossbow in hand.  Her eyes widened at the sight
of Mya pierced and bleeding, then one eyebrow lifted in a wry expression. 
“Perhaps that will teach you to
knock
.”

Anger
burned away Mya’s weakness, and her lips twisted into a wolfish grin.  “Perhaps
not.”

Mya
gripped the spear and pushed the shaft out of her chest.  The mechanism hidden
in the wall whined in protest, but its gears and springs were no match for her
strength.  The bloody head of the spear grated from between her ribs, followed
by a spurt of bright red blood before the wound closed.  With a twist and a
jerk, she snapped the hardwood shaft off at the door frame.

“Gods
and devils!”  Lady T stared, her useless crossbow dropping to the floor.

“You
once asked me how I killed four blademasters.”  Mya brandished the bloody spear
as she strode across the room.  “Let me show you!”

“Wait!” 
Lady T scrambled back.  “I didn’t…”

“Didn’t
what
?”  Mya pinned her against the wall, fingers tight around her throat,
the spear’s bloody tip an inch from the noblewoman’s eye.  “Just try to kill
me?  It sure seemed like it!”

The
guildmaster’s voice came as a strained hiss.  “I didn’t know you were coming! 
Of course I have protection.  I have
enemies
.”  She clutched Mya’s
wrist, but couldn’t push her away or strike.

Mya
hesitated.  As much as she hated to admit it, the lady had a point.  Mya had her
own security measures back in Twailin, but mostly relied on secrecy and a
building full of loyal Hunters watching her back.  She could have let someone
escort her up to the lady’s room and knock on the bedroom door, but Mya had
been angry, wanting to make a grand entrance.  She’d been a fool to blunder in,
and that mistake had nearly cost her life.

But
I’ll be damned if I let
her
know that
!  She loosed her grip on Lady T’s neck so quickly the woman had
to steady herself against the wall to keep from falling.

“I
gave you two tasks: implement my changes to guild operations, and set up Hoseph
so I could kill him.  You’ve done
neither
!  Instead, you expand your
own
operations and cozy up to Hoseph.”

“What
was I supposed to do?  Declare you Grandmaster?”  Lady T rubbed her throat, her
eyes flicking to the bloody spear still in Mya’s hand.  “Hoseph would pop in
here while I slept and murder me.”

“Then
you’re in a tough spot, because
I’ll
murder you if you don’t!”  Mya
waved the tip of the spear under her nose for emphasis.  “You won’t cooperate
with me, but you seem to be cooperating with Hoseph, plotting to murder the
crown prince.”

The
guildmaster’s eyes narrowed.  “How…”

“I
have my sources.” 
Let her stew about how I found out
.  Mya knew killing
Lady T wasn’t the answer, but she had to convince the woman to cooperate. 
“First things first: why did you expand your extortion rackets north of the
river?”

“The
future is uncertain.”  Lady T shrugged, regaining a bit of her composure.  “I
want to build up a financial cushion to hold us over until things settle down,
and extortion is what we know.”

Mya
began to pace.  “Protection rackets take time to pay off.  The upper classes
are
begging
to be fleeced, and you’re ignoring them.  With the current
unrest in the city, you could be raking in gold by selling security services to
your noble friends and rich merchants.  That alone would provide the income you
need to weather this storm.  Think of what you could charge your rich friends
for the services you use yourself.  Enforcers guarding the doors of every noble
house and fancy shop in the Heights will make you filthy rich.“

“
You
got by my guards easily enough.”

“That’s
because I’m
me
.”  Mya quirked a dangerous smile.  “Back to the subject. 
I gave you a detailed list of the changes I wanted.  We’ve used these kinds of
operations in Twailin for five
years
.  They work.”

“And
you think Hoseph won’t notice?”  Lady T donned a robe from a clothes tree
beside her bed.  She looked less terrified now, but her eyes still followed the
bloody spear.

“Frankly,
no I don’t.  He’s too busy trying to murder the crown prince to notice what’s
happening on the streets!”  Mya stopped and regarded the woman.  Something
didn’t fit here.  “If you fear him so much, why don’t
you
kill him? 
You’re an
assassin
!”

Lady
T folded her arms and pursed her lips in annoyance.  Mya wondered if the pursed
lips were one of the lady’s tells, and made a mental note to watch for it.

“And
if I miss, I’m dead.”

“Then
set him up for
me
.”  Mya dropped the bloody spear onto the fluffy white
coverlet, earning a glare from the guildmaster.  “All I need to know is where
and when.”

“He
flits around like smoke on the wind.  I don’t know when he’ll pop in or where
he sleeps.  In order to set him up, I’ve got to make him trust me.  That’ll
take time.”

“Time…” 
Mya thought about her dwindling funds and wondered if Lady T was playing her. 
“Make it take less time.”

“I
can’t promise anything.”  She folded her arms and pursed her lips again.  “If I
learn where he’ll be, how do I let you know?  Where do I send a message?”

Oh,
you’re good
.  She
wasn’t about to tell the guildmaster where she was staying and risk a midnight
visit from the murderous priest.  “Hang a handkerchief in your bedroom window,
and
I’ll
contact
you
.”

“Fine.”

“And
the security service?”

“I’ll
start up a sham security company and start selling protection to the rich and
powerful, but I have to go along with Hoseph to earn his trust.”  The lady’s
eyes narrowed.  “When I tell you where to take Hoseph out, don’t miss.  If he
traces it back to me, we’re
both
dead.”