Mirror, rirroM
Chapter 2
"WHAT???" She shrieked at him. "No way! Zel…! How can you stand there and say that? I mean… we're friends, right?"
He regarded her stonily, a talent that had only sharpened over the years. "I was hired to do a job."
Lina frowned. "A job? So killing me is a job? How much did they offer you? Hm?" She put her hands on her hips, eying him.
"Two hundred," came his reply.
"TWO HUNDRED? Zelgadis Greywords, you know as well as me that I'm worth a whole lot more than that! Why didn't you hold out for more???" Lina was too indignant at the amount to recall it was her head being priced.
"Thousand," he finished. "Two hundred thousand."
The words turned into stone and fell on Lina's head. She picked herself up from under the fallen stone and looked at him. "Two hundred thousand?" She sighed, shoulders slumping and head bowed. "I guess I'm not worth all that much, after all. Hey… that Lina Inverse… Saved the world four times… but she's only worth two hundred thousand."
Zelgadis started to sweatdrop as he watched her warily. She wasn't entirely predictable when she got like this, and he knew he'd have to keep his guard up. But, he wondered to himself. Could he still carry out the job knowing it was her?
She paced back and forth. "Yeah, I wasn't alone in doing all those things… but still. You'd figure that I'd be worth more somehow." She came to a halt and sank to her knees. "I won't fight you. Just do me a favor, Zel…" She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, lowering her head. "Make it clean and painless?"
He stood there, staring at her in dumb shock. She… Lina… He found his lips moving, the words unbidden. "Lina, I can't… I can't hurt you."
Before he could continue, she had leapt up without a trace of the despair she'd shown only moments before, gleefully hugging him. "I knew you couldn't do it, Zel!"
He stared at her and it suddenly struck him that her entire reaction had been an act. His eyes narrowed, and he started to pry her off of him. "Now, look here, Lina…"
She squeaked and bounced off of him. "Now we have to figure out how to convince them that you actually did kill me so you can get paid." She assumed a thinking position, and he watched in befuddlement. "What if you… no, that won't work. You could… no, they'd see right through that." She looked over at him. "What do you have to bring to them?"
"Your body."
She recoiled slightly. "Erk. Um. Well…" She pondered for a moment, and then looked at him, eyes glinting. "That gives me an idea…"
In the morning, Zelgadis stood at the assigned meeting place, waiting for his contact to arrive. It wasn't long before the little man arrived and approached. Zelgadis laid his burden on the ground and waited for the man to speak.
"Is this…?"
Zelgadis nodded wordlessly, lifting up a corner of the heavy fabric that he'd wrapped her in. He unwrapped to her face, and the little man nodded, rubbing his hands.
"So peaceful in death… yet in life, so very destructive. Excellent work." The little man extended a small bag, which Zelgadis took, opened, and looked into silently. After a brief count, he nodded tersely and re-wrapped the sorceress. As he bent to pick her up, the little man intervened.
"I'll take that, if you don't mind."
The look that Zelgadis gave the little man was chilled enough to freeze a desert river. "That was not in the contract. Your business was that I do the job. My business is the clean-up."
"I'll pay you! Name your price!" The little man offered.
Zelgadis considered it before naming a figure that he'd had thrown at him once before and long ago. "Thirty million. No less. Right now."
The little man took two steps backwards. "For that price… you could own a castle on prime real estate!!"
"Fully furnished with all the servants," Zelgadis completed, eerily reminded of another time and place. "That's the price. Take it, or leave it."
The man shook his head. "Keep the body. I don't need it that badly."
Zelgadis shouldered the sorceress, and nodded to the little man, drawing his hood over his head. "Should I see you again, I will deny any previous business dealings with you. Good day."
With that, he turned and left the town, walking away without looking back, the weight of the sorceress slung over his shoulder.
As soon as he was satisfied that he was far enough away from the town and his contact, he slipped into a group of trees and lowered the wrapped sorceress to the ground. Unwrapping her, he smirked. "It's clear, Lina."
She opened her eyes, looked at him, and started to laugh. "Thirty million? He had the same reaction that you did, Zel." She sat up and stretched, looking around her. "So… where are we going?"
"We aren't going anywhere. I am going on my way and you can do whatever you wish," he replied.