Chapter Six
Kel followed the sparrows' lead after the assassin who had attacked Tobe. She had her glaive in hand and Jump at her side- he had caught up with her only minutes before. Kel paced herself as one expecting to run for a long time should, and thanked the gods for all the exercise they made her do since she started training as a knight.
She had gone through the city and now skipped around trees in the local forest. She stopped at a shallow creek, filled her stomach, and caught her breath. With her head cleared, it occurred to her to send one of the sparrows back to the palace. Because knowing her friends, they'd want to come too. They'd also be levelheaded enough to think of bringing food. And horses.
Not wanting to waste any more time than she had to, Kel hauled herself up and jogged after the sparrows. After tripping over for the third time, Kel reluctantly stopped for the day. It had been sunset when she had left, and now, even with the full moon sending ghostly beams though gaps in the canopy, it was just too dark and dangerous to be moving in a forest. She curled up around Jump and rested her head on a tree root, and closed her eyes. Sleep did not come easily, not with all the thoughts whirling around in her head, and when it finally did come, it was spent tossing and turning.
Early the next morning, once she had been moving for over an hour, the sparrow she had sent back to the palace landed on a branch and signalled 'friends'. Kel sighed with relief, and her belly grumbled. And despite the urge to tear madly after the assassin, she sat, and waited. Neal, Dom, Dom's squad, Esmond, Merric and Yukimi- to Kel's surprise- finally caught up, on foot, guiding the horses through the trees. Kel stared at the large amount of people. It almost felt silly. She was, after all, only going after one person. Yet Kel couldn't help feeling a little high and mighty with so many people who'd just drop everything to join her on another little adventure...
"Tobe insisted on coming," Dom explained as soon as they got Kel eating, "But to stop him from going anywhere, we put him under the care of the strictest, harshest, most stubborn healer we could find."
"My dad," Neal said proudly.
Kel's half-chewed food sprayed everywhere as she burst into laughter. "He's not that bad!" she cried. 'By the gods it's good to laugh!'
They left her, and she gulped down the last of her simple but satisfying breakfast. She turned to face her little army, and an elated little pang filled her body. 'They all came. They didn't have to, but they did.' She smiled down at them from her rock. "Somehow I don't think we'll have much to worry about," she told them. "You are all aware that we're after only one person, aren't you?"
"But Kel, what about when this loner leads us to the rest of the pack?" Dom replied innocently, like he was only reminding her of something she already knew.
"Oh!" Kel said, her eyes wide. 'I didn't think of that.' "Of course. So you will all be very helpful indeed." She smiled again, trying to seem cool and calm. Like she was in control. That illusion crumbled with the chuckles coming from Dom's squad. "Well," she said, just a little more gruffly, "We might as well be off, then." She raised her voice, "And remember to be vigilant, and watch for signals from the sparrows. We don't want to be discovered, or else we might end up with this whole assassin's guild on our heads." Once they were moving again, Kel asked Dom, who had moved to her side, "So who thought of the idea to follow the assassin?"
"The Captain of the Guard, actually," he said, and grimaced. "This time we have permission to follow you, from the king, no less." Kel raised her eyebrows, and he added, "The Captain explained to King Jonathan that these commissions found on Seaver and Owen came from, what we assume, to be a collective group of people that, as you know, call themselves the Reapers. But we are also open to the possibility that it might be just a ploy to scare us off."
Thinking of the group marching behind her, Kel laughed ruefully. "Fat chance!" She sobered as Niss came to mind. "But I do not think it is a ploy. Remember when I talked to Niss after Neal found that vial in my room?" Dom nodded, and she continued, "According to her, a group of people carried Assa's body from my room after the fight. More Reapers, I suspect."
Dom gave it some thought, then asked carefully, "Just how reliable do you think Niss is?"
Kel looked into his eyes, and let her shoulders rise and slump. "I just don't know."
They both sighed and looked at the forest before them. Kels' ears picked up a familiar sound, off into the distance. Her sparrows. She strode forward. The cheeping became louder, and the three of the sparrows tracking the assassin zoomed overhead, then turned back around and flew in front of Kel, signalling 'enemies,' and 'twenty-five,' and roughly how far away they were. It was a safe enough distance.
'Twenty-five,' Kel thought. 'Seems like we've reached their hideout.' She repeated the information for anyone that didn't know the signal system.
"What should we do, Protector?" Someone asked.
Kel tucked her hair behind her ears. That question became less strange every time it was asked of her. "Send scouts out. Picket the horses. Have a break, eat, rest. We may be overrunning them tonight, at midnight? When they're sleeping. Unless our scouts give us a reason not to." She smiled and waved her hands in dismissal. They dispersed. Kel watched them until Yukimi prodded her with some jerky.
"Eat," she told her.
Kel accepted the food and a water skin and nodded her thanks. She sat on a rock. Dom came over to join her, with his own rations. They sat together on Kel's rock and ate the ordinary food, and gulped their drinks.
Finally Kel said, "I'm going after the scouts. See where our little assassin friends have decided to set themselves up."
Dom nodded, mouth full.
Kel scooped up her glaive.
"Mmmf," Dom grunted, and said something through his food.
"Pardon?" Kel said sweetly.
Dom swallowed. "Wait," he gasped. "I'm coming."
Kel grinned, and they left, Jump silently joining them.
The assassins had stationed themselves in a large cave with a large mouth, opposite the bottom of a steep hill scattered with trees and bushes. Kel, Dom, and one of the scouts squatted behind a bush at the top of that steep hill, looking down at the enemy base. They began forming strategies, and assessing vantage points. Neal, Esmond and Merric soon joined them.
"They're Scanran," Neal remarked.
"And all dressed in the same black uniform," Esmond said. "No servants?"
Kel drew them back a bit, not wanting to risk exposure. They eventually decided to, when most of the enemy were sleeping, to send to stealth groups into the cave, and take down, as quietly as possible, any lookouts. Then the knights would charge down the hill. An extra instruction given to their little army was: kill only if necessary. Kel wanted to find out more about these people, and if half of them even deserved to die, then leave them to the Tortallan Justice System.
Kel listened to the breaths of her fellow knights as she watched the cave entrance. The hill ran down before her, glowing in the moonlight. Firelight came from inside the cave. There were two assassin-guards, nearly invisible in the dark, standing at either side of the entrance. Kel held her breath as one of her stealth groups crept closer to the guard on the left. Almost there...nearly...
"Reapers! Beware! The Tortallans are here!"
Kel stiffened. 'I know that voice.' Someone in an assassin's outfit bolted by, not two meters away from Kel and her men, screaming the warning. The person flew down the hill, towards the cave. Kel cursed and sprang forward, "Attack!" she yelled.
The Knights stampeded into the cave, just after the stealth groups. Bewildered assassins were rushing forward to meet the onslaught. Kel hefted her glaive, blocked the path of a sword, spun, and knocked out the assassin. She met the second attacker head on, swung her glaive. Dodged.
"Their blades are poisoned!" A Tortallan cried.
Kel hesitated; the assassin pounced. Kel jerked her glaive up, impaling the assassin. She tugged out her blade, and delivered the mercy cut across the throat. She jumped over dying body and bashed Yukimi's opponent on the head. The assassin staggered. Yukimi swung her own glaive, knocking the assassin down. Kel struck again, finally rendering the assassin unconscious. Yukimi twirled and pressed her back against Kel's. Kel licked sweet sweat from the corners of her mouth, keeping her glaive in front. No one came forward. It took her a moment to realise the only assassins still standing were dropping their swords, and raising their hands in the air. Tortallans kept blades poised at their throats'.
"We yield," one croaked in Scanran.
Kel lowered her weapon, relieved. Others relaxed, too. "Tie them up," she said, and added. "Any injuries?"
"Over here."
Kel turned; Neal was leaning over a Tortallan with a slashed arm.
"It's just a scratch," the man complained.
"Quiet," Neal chided him. "You're poisoned."
The man went pale.
"Protector," someone murmured.
Kel turned. Dom and some of his men were leaning over a body with a crossbow bolt through an eye. She recognised the dead man; he served in Dom's squad. "I didn't notice anyone holding a crossbow," she told Dom as she knelt beside him.
"If only that assassin didn't sound out a warning, he probably wouldn't be dead," Dom's voice broke. He had barely listened to her.
Kel scolded herself. 'I didn't notice anyone holding a crossbow... How sympathetic.' She rubbed Dom's back in what she hoped to be a comforting way. Then the sound of the assassin's voice resounded in her head. "Reapers! Beware!" She recognised the voice easily. After all, she'd been listening to it for the past few days now.
"Dom," she said, "I know who that assassin was...is."
Dom looked up at her, light reflecting off the tears in his eyes, his expression strained. "Who?"
"Niss."
"Niss!"
"Is she even here?" Kel wondered aloud. She stood and looked about. None of the tied assassins, or the one she had killed, was Niss. Kel counted them all up. "Twenty-four," she said. "Niss couldn't have been with them when the sparrows told us there were twenty-five. That means Niss and one other is missing."
"The cave keeps going," Dom suggested to her. "They must've fled through there."
"Right." Kel said, set with determination. She wiped the blood off her glaive and took a torch hanging from the wall. She looked into the darkness that was the cave. How long it kept going was impossible to tell. She breathed deeply. This was it. Finally Kel knew with complete certainty that Niss was involved. Finally she could bring that...that...person down.
Kel tightened her grip on the torch and walked towards the shadows.
~ ~ ~ ~
My, my, my. May I point out this is the second last chapter? Second last chance for me to say please review! I adore the things. I have 40 so far, and I'm proud. So if ya reading, and you're enjoying, or if you have advice (*especially if you have advice*) then review, review, review. I already enjoy everything I write, so my fanfiction goal is to make a story that gets 100+ reviews. That'd be sweet. I know it's not going to happen with this one, but I'm working on another, if you'd care to check my bio? Anyway, hope you've enjoyed reading this as much as I've enjoyed writing it for you (and myself!)
And now…
Kalle: You'll get allll you answers soon enough. You're a very attentive reader, and thanks, villains are the best fun to write. Kel: medieval wonderwoman.
Valencia22: Tis fine. Thank-you. I had the plot planned. Y'know, wrote out all the key stuff that had to happen in each chapter. But it never turns out exactly the way it's meant to, ever. At first I drafted this to have only 6 chapters. Ah well! Lots of other people kept coming in and intruding- I had to beat them back with a broom. "I will not drag this story out!"
Christelle: Thank-you. I like Kel/Dom. Dammit, though- when I was reading Lady Knight I was like, "C'mon, c'mon…10 pages left: they can still get together! There's still time!" Sigh. A very kick-ass book, nevertheless! It didn't need romance. But still…
Snow*flake: I'm flattered. I'm meant to be doing maths right now. Heh. Dom's a sweetie. (read previous comment. Gah!) Happy my story can be a little relief. (And cut that metaphorical beard off right now, young lady!)
C'mon, people. Lets beat my outstanding 4 reviews! (And 4 outstanding reviews they were, btw.)
~Liaska