Firelight flickered on the cave walls. The passage grew narrower with every step. Keladry of Mindelan found herself stooping. A turn lay up ahead. Kel crept towards it. She poked her head around then instantly withdrew. Meters away the passage opened up to a furnished area with dim light. They had to be in there. Kel considered her options, and decided upon surprise attack. She started when something warm and solid pressed against her leg. She looked down: Jump. She relaxed, and extinguished her torch.
She pressed her back against the cave and slid around the corner with one hand running across the wall for guidance and the other around her glaive. She halted just before the room's opening and examined it without letting the candlelight catch her. Nobody awaited her, as far as she could tell. She listened. Nothing. Still she hesitated. 'The passage probably keeps going,' she told herself. 'They're probably escaping right now.'
Kel moved forward, Jump just a step in front of her. He growled and Kel stopped. 'What is it?' she wondered. Without warning, Jump bolted into the room. A figure dressed in black dropped from the roof, daggers drawn. Jump sprang at the assassin. Kel accelerated, catching the assassin from behind and tackling her. Kel elbowed the person's spine. She gripped her glaive with both hands and pressed the shaft across the person's throat, and dragged the person to their feet. Kel stood with the assassin's back against her. Jump moved away. Blood stained his muzzle. The assassin was trying to push the wooden shaft away, but Kel easily resisted.
"Who do we have here?" Kel said.
The body stiffened. It said, "Why don't you find out?"
"Niss," Kel said, recognising the voice. "I'm not surprised. Drop your weapons!"
"I already have, fool."
"I'm no fool. Drop all your weapons."
Niss sighed, annoyed. "There's one in my hair, another in my right boot."
Kel stared down at Niss's hair: and ornament held up a bun. Kel moved the blade of her glaive to Niss' throat, and removed the ornament that turned out to be the mere hilt of a wickedly curved dagger. "Jump?" she ventured. Jump stuck his nose against Niss' right leg. He stuffed his muzzle down her boot and pulled the dagger out with his teeth.
"Watch it!" Niss cried, twisting her leg away. She cursed vehemently. "He cut me!"
Kel laughed. "So sorry about that, Niss," she cooed. "Lets go get you a bandage. Would you like a pretty bandage?"
"Stupid wench; that blade is poisoned."
Now Kel understood why Niss seemed so distressed. "Well, I guess that's your own fault. Now. Come peacefully and I might consider getting you healed." Kel inched her blade away from Niss' throat invitingly.
"Fine."
Kel let Niss go. The assassin spun to face her. She looked murderous.
"We may have lost this battle, but Scanra will crush Tortall like an insect."
"Now why would you want that, Niss. You are Tortallan."
Niss spat. "Only on the outside."
"Why do this, Niss? What ties have you to Scanra?"
"Scanra is the one true country. Your king's father stole our lands. We only take back what is ours, and we would have by now if it weren't for your meddling, Lady Knight. You killed our mage Blayce the Gallan- now you deserve to die! You and your friends." Niss swept a dagger from her left boot. She screamed and threw herself and Kel.
Kel's reflexes did not desert her. Her glaive flew up and she smashed Niss to the side just in time. Niss rolled and jumped up. She radiated bloodlust. Her eyes were wild. Threads of hair stood on end.
"No wonder I had never heard of Riveredge," Kel said coolly. "You made it up."
Niss scowled. "Everything I told you was a lie. You played right into our hands."
Kel smiled back. "Not that it's done you much good. Perhaps if you had laid off the acting classes a bit, and focused on your fighting-"
"Do you forget Owen and Seaver, my lady."
Kel kept her face straight. "No. But before you get too triumphant," she said, "you might want to check out your friends back near the entrance. You wouldn't be feeling so smart."
"Oh no?" Niss smiled. "We seemed to fool your kingdom enough. I made myself the obvious suspect whilst my friends had all the fun of ripping your friends-"
"Enough!" Kel shouted. She poked her blade to Niss' throat. Kel glared at her.
Niss gulped and her eyes ventured past Kel's shoulder; they widened and then locked straight back onto Kel with a determination. Kel frowned, and started to turn-
"I kissed you!" Niss cried.
Kel went red and stared back at Niss. "Was that apart of your acting too?" She half smiled, "Or you just couldn't help yourself?"
Niss smiled smugly. "Dizziness, sore stomach, ear aches, exhaustion…" she said ominously. "They're just some of the symptoms of my…kiss."
Something inside Kel's head clicked. Her stomach sank. 'No. It couldn't be…' She had a memory flash.
Niss was spinning the lid off a vial. She took a shot of the contents…She pressed up against Kel, and kissed her…Then something like a sweet drink gushed from Niss's mouth to Kel's.
"You!" Kel said, horrified. Her hands clamped around her glaive, and she took a step towards Niss.
"Now Kataine!" Niss cried. Her eyes were looking past Kel.
Suddenly Kel felt Jump's jaw grip around her ankle, and he yanked her aside. Something whistled past Kel's ear. Kel stumbled and twisted around in the direction Niss had been facing…and she barely believed her eyes.
It was Assa.
Assa, back from the dead! Kel shook her head. Obviously not…but her face looked so white, she could almost have been a ghost.
"Sorry, Ariashna!" Assa said, lowering the crossbow she held.
Kel turned back to Niss, who had a crossbow bolt through her heart.
"Sorry!" Niss shrieked incredulously and collapsed.
Kel turned back to Assa at the sound of the crossbow hitting the floor. Jump ran at Assa, but she kicked skilfully at his ribs and sent the dog flying. Kel winced. Assa swept twin swords from the scabbards on her back and ran at Kel. Kel swung her glaive as soon as Assa was in range. Assa evaded and swung at Kel's head. Kel caught the blades with her shaft, grimacing as splinters slapped her forehead. Those swords were sharp. Assa lunged; Kel blocked. Assa kicked; Kel caught her foot with her shaft and sent Assa to the ground. Kel bashed Assa's stomach with the butt of her glaive. Assa deflated, and tripped Kel over before she could hit her again. Kel landed on her back, all the air in her lungs went straight out. Both women lurched up, wheezing, and traded a few more blows before backing off. They circled one another. Eyes intense, breaths ragged. Kel swiped her glaive at the assassin, blade first. She didn't care about making Assa a prisoner anymore. Assa dodged past, her swords flashing. Kel felt a sting across her upper arm. Blood emerged. Kel swore and prayed that that sword wasn't poisoned.
"Ha!" Assa said, beaming. "Even if you kill me now, you'll still be dead by the end of the day! These blades are tipped with the strongest-"
"Kel! Look out!" That was Dom's voice.
Kel obediently jumped sideways. She spun to see Niss had been standing right behind her with a dagger in hand.
For all that Yamani training, Kel couldn't hide the shock in her face. Oh, but by the gods, she had had enough. 'First Assa, now Niss,' she thought.
"Why can't you just stay dead?" she yelled, and slit Niss' throat before the assassin had a chance to react.
"Ariashna!" Assa cried, instinctively taking a step towards her fallen comrade, then leapt back, away from Kel. Assa glared at Kel with a ferociousness the knight had never encountered before.
"YOU'LL PAY FOR THAT, TORTALLAN SCUM!" Assa screamed at the top of her lungs.
Kel stepped back as Assa stepped forward. Assa raised her swords over her shoulders and swung them down hard. Kel raised her glaive to meet it. The swords cracked against the wooden shaft, the force making Kel's muscles buckle. Assa raised her swords again. So intense was she that she didn't even notice Dom until his sword sank into her side. Assa's eyes widened. Her jaw went slack. Her face was the picture of horror. Dom brought his dripping sword out of Assa, only to stab her again, and again. Assa's swords clattered on the stone ground. Her knees sagged and she dropped. Dom took a step away, his eyes wide.
Kel staggered back. Slowly she looked up at Dom, who was perspiring like a steam pot. Hair plastered itself against his forehead. Kel watched him. Finally he dragged his eyes away from the woman he had just killed, and slowly looked up to the woman he loved.
"Kel," he gasped.
Kel stepped before him. "Sssh," she said. She wrapt her arms around him and rested her head against him. His chest quivered with every breath. He enveloped her in his strong arms. For a moment all the bad things in the world seemed to fade, and Kel felt nothing except for the body against her.
"What in the Gods' names-!"
Kel and Dom sprang apart, surprised. Neal marched into the room, staring at the two bodies. "I'm assuming these are the people who said something about Tortallan Scum," he said dryly. Yukimi and several men were right behind him.
Kel suddenly remembered something. "Jump," she said.
"I'll take care of him," Yukimi said, walking over to the injured dog.
"Kel, did they cut you?" Neal asked, striding towards her.
She looked down at her arm, and swayed. "Yes," she said. "Neal, I think I'm poisoned."
"What?" Dom choked.
Neals' boots splashed in something as he reached Kel.
Dom, Kel and Neal all looked down to find blood pooling around their feet. Quickly, they stepped out.
After a brief shake of their boots, Neal gently took Kels' arm and brushed his fingers across the wound. Then he pressed his fingers against it. Kel ignored the sting. Neal shut his eyes. Kel watched his face as he sent magic into her. First he frowned, then scowled, and finally his eyebrows rose into delicate arches. He opened his eyes and gulped audibly.
"Kel-" he began.
"It's bad, isn't it?" She interrupted.
"What is it?" Dom demanded. "Neal, you can cure her, right?"
Neal looked at his cousin. He shook his head, ever so slightly. "No."
"Then at least try!"
"I have tried!"
"Hey!" Kel said, using her most authoritative voice. "If there's nothing he can do, then there's nothing he can do."
"But Kel," Dom said, grabbing her shoulders and looking into her eyes, "what if you die?"
Kel pulled away, curbing her emotions. A high blood pressure wasn't going to do her any good. She couldn't just let this tension hang in the air, either. "I don't suppose anyone knows how Niss survived that bolt through her heart?" she said.
"What bolt?" Yukimi asked, walking towards them.
Kel pointed at Niss. "That-" she stopped, realising that there was no bolt. "What the…" she muttered to herself. Forgetting the blood, Kel knelt down beside the body. A hole was through the robes where the bolt had gone; but that had disappeared, as well as any trace of a wound. Whatever Niss had used to heal herself, it must've been the same thing Assa had used, after Kel 'killed' her. She told the others as much.
Neal reminded her about the vial he had found in her room, the one that had contained the strong healing potion. Getting excited, he said, "Maybe they have more around here. They must! I think we could cure you, Kel."
Hope stirred inside Kel, but, remembering Assa saying that she wouldn't live through the day, tried not to get her hopes up. She wanted to cry, more than anything.
Everyone that wasn't guarding their assassin prisoners helped search, even the sparrows.
They found commissions, maps, weapons, and poisons: enough evidence to send these assassins to the executioner's block, but none of those healing potions were seen. For Kel, hope began to dwindle. She had started to vomit violently, plus she ran a fever and had the shakes. The sun rose.
Finally, Dom, tired, angry and exasperated, marched down to the assassin prisoners and demanded they tell him where those potions were. They only laughed, cheered by the fact that Kel was dying. He punched one out and asked again. One assassin broke when Dom pressed his dagger against her throat and she told him. He all but ran through the passage, crying, "It's behind the cabinet, it's behind cabinet!"
Four men pulled the cabinet away from the wall. There lay a little hole, in which several potions lay. Neal opened one, stuck his finger in and tasted it.
"This is it!" he shouted. The men cheered.
Neal knelt beside Kel, whose head rested on his wife's lap. They sat her up.
Kel looked as pale as sheets. Sweat ran down her forehead. She didn't acknowledge anything anyone said to her.
"Here goes," Neal murmured to Yukimi. People had crowded around to watch. Neal poured some of the potion across Kel's wound. It glowed. People held their breaths. Bit by bit, skin and flesh joint back together, until the whole wound had sealed, not even leaving a scar to tell the tale. Neal poured the rest of it down her throat. The recovery was faster than anyone could've expected. Kels' cheeks turned rosy and her eyes blinked open. She seemed dazed, but that was all right. Yukimi helped her up.
Kel, worn and dishevelled, glanced at the people staring at her. She smiled weakly, but didn't seem up to forming words.
Dom broke the silence. "Only our Kel could be dragged through the Death Realms and back, and still smile about it."
The men laughed, relieved, and patted Kel's back and gripped her shoulders. Dom waited with something a bit more intimate for her. Kel just about collapsed in his arms.
As they dragged Assa and Niss' bodies out of the cave and onto the grass, Kel brought up the topic of the two assassins and how they both had seemingly come back from the dead. "I just don't understand. Both had their hearts pierced, even with that miracle cure, they should have died instantly."
Dom agreed.
Neal, who had been walking behind them, said, "I think I might have an idea." He touched Niss and sent his magic through her body. After a minute he smiled and let go. He did the same thing to Assa. "Just what I suspected," he said. "It's a rare and unusual 'disease', but it seemed to serve this lot quite well…for a while, at least."
Dom cuffed Neal on the back of his head. "Just tell us, Meathead."
Neal glared. He took a long, deep breath for dramatic effect. "Their hearts are on the wrong side."
Kel stared. "What!"
"Their hearts are on the wrong side. Even though the blows you gave them- where their hearts should've been- were mortal, they still would have had enough strength to use the potion…"
Kel eyed the corpses. Niss' voice resounded in her head: "I don't understand assassins," she had said. "Perhaps they just do it for the rush…For the love of it. But I don't see how killing could be someone's passion. I guess...I guess their hearts are just on the wrong side."
The wrong side.
Niss had basically spelt it out for her! How she must've laughed.
Kel shook her head at her own folly, and decided that it probably wasn't important enough to bother Dom and Neal about. 'Probably not.'
Prologue.
The assassin prisoners had had their trials, and were executed- all of them. Kel didn't feel any grief for them. They deserved their lot. Now she and Dom lay on a small grass hill, looking up into the clouds and holding hands. Time was precious; Kel was due back at New Hope tomorrow.
"That one looks like an apple," Kel told him. "Or a pancake."
Dom chuckled. "Let's just say it's an omelette and be done with it."
Kel grinned. They turned their heads and gazed into each other's eyes.
"Time goes by too fast when I'm with you," he said.
"I'm not sure if we'll ever be destined to have a full day of peace and quiet," she said.
They sighed in unison, thinking of the future.
As usual, Kel thoughts drifted back to Niss and Assa.
"You're thinking about them, aren't you?" Dom said.
"Don't you?"
"All the time."
"They had been friends," Kel murmured.
"Hmm. Do you remember those names they called each other? Niss was Ari-something. What was Assa?"
"I can't remember. It started with 'C' or something."
They contemplated it for a moment, when suddenly something horrible dawned on Kel. Realisation lit her face.
"Those girls really did like to live life on the edge," she gasped.
Dom chuckled "Indeed. You'd have to be half-mad to take on Tortall."
"No- you don't understand, it's their names. I can't believe I didn't realise!"
"Huh?"
Kel propped herself up onto her elbow. "I mean, think about it: Assa, Niss. Niss, Assa. What does that spell, backwards?"
Dom thought for a second and then stared at Kel in disbelief. "I don't believe!" he cried. "I do not believe it! Oh, by the gods."
"Exactly!" Kel cried, her palms open. "Assassin!"
They were both gaping like fools. Kel felt a little hysteria build up. She began to laugh. Dom looked at her as if she had turned green, until he, too, found the humour in it all, and laughed along with Kel. Once they started, they couldn't stop.
And so that's how King Jonathon found the couple- crippled with mirth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
And That's The End of That Chapter.
Were you shocked? Were you surprised? Did I at least make you eyebrows rise?
It's the end of the fic. I'm quite happy about it. Now I want You to write a review.
I hate it when I rhyme without meaning to.
Stitch: Whoa, thanks for all those reviews! Good guessing. Christelle: I am blessed, indeed. Thank you. (But I have stopped now) Lady Sandrilene: Never, ever could I kill Neal! Awww. Neal! Kalle: Yeah, I think I made Kel a bit too slow in this. (I mean, *scoff* if all you guys had already figured it out then surely Kel…! lol, sorry. I'll try make better jokes.) Valencia22: Bad writing? I doubt it! Thanks, hope you liked it. Hayden's Super Hobbit: I hope it was a satisfying end! Thanks for the review Ani: I can hardly write with all the homework…but I've gots it done, finally. Thanks! Snow*flake: ahh, it's alright. Wish I had more (reviews) of course, but I'm still happy. Thank you for ALL the reviews. Hope you're glad about the day you first gave this story a shot. Now you can write heaps on your holiday, yay! StarFire: Ego-booster! Lol, thanks. Continue the search for K/D's with plots (there are quite a few of em) Lady Me: a-HA! Now you know how I got the name "Niss." Your reviews are cherished. Thank you.
***Did anyone realise about niss/assa spelling assassin? If you did, thanks for not reviewing about it- I'd've been like "noooooo, now everyone knows! Delete DELETE" There goes the prologue. But whenever Assa's name came up, I tried not to have the word 'assassin' anywhere near it- I'd use 'murderer' or 'killer' or something.***
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