Chapter Three
Kel had come to the Royal Guard Quarters straight after breakfast. She looked around the office she waited in. It looked like nothing different from any other: rogue sheets of paper, a desk, chairs, also a wide, metal, locked cabinet. And a lovely view of the gardens.
The captain she awaited started talking as he swung open the door. He handed Kel a document as he sat on the opposite side of the desk. Kel thanked him and scanned the paper. It was the report of Seaver's assassination.
"You were right," Kel said. "I knew all this already." About to hand it back, a word caught her eye, and she read the sentence. "Except for this...he was drugged?"
The captain of the guard clasped his hands. "Yes. We got a sample of it, but we're still determining what type of drug it is."
Kel took in the discovery. "Thank-you, Captain. Could you inform me as soon as you find out more about it?"
"Of course."
"And no-one has heard of this society. What did they call themselves? The Reapers?"
"Yes, that's their name, and no, no-one has heard of them, which suggests they are foreign." He looked past Kel. "An assassins guild: I thought they had all been stamped out, but it seems I was wrong." He sighed. "But I've sent out some of my best investigators. I will inform you as soon as they report back.
Kel forced a smile. "Thank you." She handed back the report, and made to leave, when something occurred to her.
"Captain, I don't suppose you have a list of all the ladies that came from the convent this year."
The Captain's forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows rose. "No, but-"
He was cut off as someone burst through the door.
"Captain!" The newcomer, an officer, exclaimed. "Owen of Jesslaw has just been found dead in his room!"
Kel slammed Niss against the bedroom wall, hands twisted tightly around the lady's collar.
"Coward!" Kel yelled, her voice shaking with raw emotion. "You kill two of my friends, then have the nerve to deny it?"
"But, my lady, I swear-"
"Stop it! How can you expect me to trust you now?"
"I never killed him! Either of them! I'm nothing but a lady!"
"Lady? You never even went to the convent! I asked them: they'd never heard of you!"
"No, I never went; I was schooled at home, with my friend."
"So then who were those people you claimed to have spread rumours about your preferences?"
"Other nobles back home!"
"They say we sweat when we lie." Kel growled, glaring at the droplets forming on Niss' forehead.
"No!" Niss wailed.
And Kel began to sweat herself- from the intensity.
Never had she felt so overcome by grief and anguish. To have just come from the horror of seeing another of her dearest friend's body lying across his own bed, and to find a commission in the room, that was identical to Seaver's, that said the person who had the piece of paper was allowed to kill Owen.
And then to have her suspicions confirmed after asking a group of court ladies whether they'd had a girl called Niss at the convent.
So she came to Niss, accused her, and Niss denied it!
"And still you continue to deny!" Kel yelled, and shoved Niss hard. Something fell out of the lady's pocket and tinkled across the ground.
"What's this?" Kel said. She let Niss slump against the wall and went to pick up the object. It was a ring. As a head, the ring had a wax sealer that was used to stamp drying wax with its pattern. They were used for identification purposes on letters.
And Kel could sure identify with this.
"This is the same ring used to stamp those two commissions." Kel said. "Oh, Niss. You really have no hope of getting out of this now."
Niss had gone white. "I've never seen that before in my life! Why can't you just believe me?"
"How did it get in your pocket?"
"Look how open this pocket is! It wouldn't take much for someone to slip it in."
Kel loomed over Niss. "You were also seen with Owen. And he winds up dead as well. Have some damn dignity and just admit it."
"I have nothing to admit."
Kel imagined her hands squeezing the lady's throat. Slowly, she said. "You've been acting suspiciously ever since Seaver. That morning when I confronted you. You were nervous around me. What's your excuse for that?"
Niss looked like she was going to vomit. "Ever since I met you..." she breathed, then shook her head. "I tried to forget you. I couldn't. Seaver, then Owen: they were distractions...distractions from you, Kel."
Kel groped for understanding of what it was Niss was saying. She didn't want to believe the idea that began to touch her mind. Kel scrutinised Niss: her chest rose and fell, loose hair stuck to her face. Her eyes flashed, revealing a wild, unrestrained side of a girl that Kel realised she knew nothing about. Kel looked away. Her mind felt disconnected from her body. She cleared her head, brought herself back down to the moment and looked at Niss again.
Niss was spinning the lid off a vial. She took a shot of the contents, and stepped towards Kel. Niss moved with confidence. Her face, set with determination, soon hovered in front of Kel's.
The knights' fingers clasped the thin air where her sword would usually hang, and found she had left it behind. Annoyance flickered across Kel's face, and in this moment of distraction, Niss made her move.
She pressed up against Kel, and kissed her. Hard.
Kel felt like the entire world had stopped, and every single one of her senses was focused on the body against her. Then something like a sweet drink gushed from Niss's mouth to Kel's.
Suddenly Kel was aware of the bedpost jabbing into her back, the two cold hands caressing her face and the awkward way she was bent to match Niss's height. Kel shoved Niss off with enough force to send the lady sprawling.
Niss seemed unperturbed, even from her undignified position on the floor. She looked back at Kel with triumph.
Kel couldn't believe it. She stumbled out of the room, flustered and disorientated. She fought off the urge to wipe her tongue on her shirt.
"That's why I acted like a nervous child around you, Kel," came Niss's voice from the doorway.
Kel turned back, and glared, disgusted. 'Just you wait Niss,' she thought. 'I'm off to do something I should've done at the beginning.' She turned on her heel and headed to the central part of the palace. She was off to get a mage to make sure that Niss was telling the truth, using a truthspell.
'I've got her now.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*cringes* Please don't kill me for killing Owen. At first I thought 'eh, I'll just make it Esmond.' But then I thought. 'that's not fair; just cos Esmond is a minor character compared to our beloved Owen, it shouldn't make Owen invincible.' So there you have it. *cuffs boot* I'm sowwy.
Once again, thanks to my reviewers. And don't worry, killers get what they deserve.
Liaska.