"You want me to take care of her?" the man asked dubiously. "As in, kill her?"
"Yes," Joren of Stone Mountain said calmly.
The man, Tony of Maren, shifted uncomfortably. "It seems kind of…low."
"How so?"
"It's just that, well, we've never killed a girl before."
Joren shrugged nonchalantly. "There's a first time for everything."
"Yeah, but—"
"Listen, I paid you the fifty gold nobles," the squire broke in angrily. "To sweeten the deal, if need be, I'll even throw in another thirty."
Tony licked his lips. "Eighty gold nobles? Just to kill a measly little girl?"
"She's more than a measly little girl," Joren mumbled. I'll give you that much, you ugly slut, he thought. You're certainly more than I thought you would be…
"I see," the assassin said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "How do you want her killed?"
"I get to choose?"
"Most customers don't, but you paid extra, so I find myself…obliged to give you options."
Joren tapped his mouth with his index finger, ice blue eyes glazed with what Tony noticed cringingly a slightly sadistic eagerness.
"Are you going to do it?" he asked curiously.
"Oh, good gods, no," Tony chuckled. "I handle the gory, sordid, extra-difficult jobs, like murdering a king. Your task will be assigned to one of the less valuable assassins."
"Then make sure he doesn't know my name," Joren said abruptly.
"Why?"
"So he doesn't have the name of the one who wants to kill her," he replied. "I don't want him turning around and stabbing me in the back."
"My business doesn't do that," Tony said stiffly.
"I take no chances."
"You're a sly one," he said carefully, appraising the blond in front of him.
"And I expect whoever gets the job to kill her as discreetly as possible," Joren added.
"Of course. How do you want her dead?"
"Hmm…"
There was a pause, in which Tony waited impatiently and Joren thought up nasty ways of killing his rival.
"Kidnap her," he finally said, abruptly and suddenly. "Kidnap her, and take her to the Copper Isles, or Carthak. Somewhere far. Not one of these neighboring countries."
"That's it?" Tony asked. "You want her taken to a faraway land to be killed?"
Joren shrugged. "I want her tortured on the way, of course," he said. "Just make sure she doesn't know who assigned this mission."
"Nothing else?"
"Yes," Joren said, standing up and donning his black cloak. "That's it."
He exited the master assassin's house. Tony watched him skulk down the street, practically invisible in the dark night. When the squire disappeared around the corner, he entered his house, also donning a black cloak. He went out the door and in the opposite direction, his purpose to tell Assassin Frenn that he had a new assignment—to kill Page Keladry of Mindelan.
~*~
Hmm…A little short, but it's my first fic. Review to tell me what you think. Oh, and I need ideas for a new title. I don't like the current one.