"I want to make a few modifications to the standard boilerplate contract," Tananda said, unrolling a parchment from her belt pouch. "You won't mind, will you?"
"Oh, anything!" Renimbi said, throwing her hands into the air dramatically. "As long as when you're finished I never have to see Cordu again."
Tananda smiled. "Then, please, sign here."
Vol Grun's castle was a day's ride by camel, half a day by horse, or a few seconds if one used magik to blink one out of the dimension at one point and reenter it at another. Tananda had been there before, on Cordu's majority day, in fact. Her big brother, Chumley, had been at university with him. Cordu flirted with her, as he had with every female under the age of fifty who was present. He seemed to be a nice man. Tananda intended to observe him for a while. Whether or not she'd have to bump him off she left open to question. The contract in her pouch had no time limit on it, though arguably it was assumed she would have to complete it before Cordu and Renimbi got married. Still, Renimbi had signed it in such a hurry she didn't have time to review the alterations Tanda had made to its clauses.
Such as the one giving discretion to the operator on whether to execute.
Vol Grun had been at peace a long while. Tananda made a quick survey of the grounds immediately adjacent to the castle to make sure that the one sentry at the gate was the only guard on duty—except for signs of a commando hiding in the bushes somewhere inside the circle of the moat. It was no problem for her to avoid both of them. She didn't even have to use a lick of magik.
Instead, she used that to help her hang on to the steep stone wall as she climbed it. If she remembered correctly, Cordu's personal suite was in the center of the northeastern tower. If she had guessed wrong, she could disguise herself as a chambermaid.
The heavy blocks of stone afforded her many easy handholds. Tananda swung herself up onto the head of a gargoyle.
"Sorry," she said, as she realized she had been hanging from its tongue.
"No problem," the stone creature said. "Nice day, ain't it?"
"A little cool for spring," Tananda said, and struck an appealing pose. "You wouldn't mind not telling anyone you saw me, would you?"
"No problem," the gargoyle repeated, cracking a granite grin. "No one ever asks me anything anyway."
She patted him on his crested head before making a leap to the next step, the roof of a buttressed turret. Just two jumps away was a window frame, with the glass window just a hair ajar. Once she reached that, she could climb inside and find a good hiding place to observe her subject.
A careful stretch, and Tananda clung to the underside of the window frame. She levered herself up to peer inside. She saw a flight of the spiral staircase, but no living beings. She listened intently. The castle was bespelled against intruders, but since the window was slightly open, she could work a filament of magikal force through to lift the latch.
It swung open silently. Tananda was grateful to the cleaners who had oiled the hinges. And dusted, she observed, grasping hold of the upper window frame to swing herself in. It was clean as a whistle.
She nearly let one out in surprise.
A vast, hairy hand clamped upon her wrist and dragged her inside.
Tananda broke free with a dirty twist she had learned from a street-fighting master, and used a tickle of magik to land safely on the stairs. By the time her feet touched down, she had daggers in both hands, but the bulky defender was on guard, too. He let out a growl.
She feinted at the figure with one knife then started to lunge to the left.
Her opponent countered both her moves. He leaped back to avoid the knife, then closing with her inside the arc of her second dagger. Tananda retreated and riposted. He countered. Her right-hand dagger went flying. She and the defender ended up tangled in one another's arms, grappling for the remaining knife. The big, hairy hand felt its way down her arm to her back and up to her face. It stopped, as if in surprise.
"Little Sister!" a big, hearty voice boomed.
"Big Brother!" Tananda cried, recognizing both the voice and the scent of the fur.
The siblings stopped wrestling. Tananda squeezed her Troll brother until the air was knocked out of him then looked up at him. "What are you doing here?"
Chumley patted his chest, trying to get his breath back.
"I presume, my dear sister, that I am engaged in a counterpoint to what you intend to do here. Or do I fail to recognize the knot in the scarf around your neck?"
Tananda sighed and sat down on the step. "No, you're right. I've been hired to assassinate your friend."
His big furry brow lowered. The usually even-tempered Troll looked angry.
"Why? Why take the contract? Cordu is an old friend of mine, if not of yours."
She noticed a torch on the wall and lit it with a lick of magik force.
"Read the contract before you get upset, Brother," Tananda said, handing it over.
The brow lifted at clause three. "And she signed it?"
"She didn't even read it through. But it'll hold up before the Guildmaster, and that's all I care about. Mums would get so upset if the Guild punishers came looking for me. She might get blood on that new Djinni carpet she just had put in."
Chumley shivered. Their mother was a force to be reckoned with.
"So, what are you going to do?"
"Well," Tananda said. "I would say at this point, what are we going to do? He's your friend."
"Come and talk with him, Little Sister," Chumley said, wrapping her in a fond fraternal arm. "I think you will find what he has to say most interesting."
"I was a fool," Cordu said, pacing up and back in his own bedchamber. This room, Tananda noted with an eye toward interior decorating, was much more a male's idea of a cozy hideaway. The heads of animals stared glassily at her. Three very large, red-scaled hunting beasts lay asleep in front of a crackling fire. A suit of armor stood beside the doorway, holding a tray containing a square, cut-crystal whiskey decanter and a clutch of glasses. Cordu, rather a good-looking male of the Nobish type, poured out beverages for each of them. He held up his own glass in salute. Tananda surreptitiously used a thread of magik to test her own whiskey for poison. Chumley noticed her movement.
"Tsk tsk," he said.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm on duty."
"I understand," Cordu sighed. "I am glad that you are willing to talk to me. Rennie won't."
Chumley poured himself another glass of whiskey. "Casting my mind backward, Cordu, I seem to recall that you and Renimbi cared for one another."
"We do—I mean, did. We have been best friends all our lives. That is why I thought she would understand— the mistake I made. I had no idea that she would go so far in her displeasure as to hire an assassin. Truthfully, it's not entirely my fault. Her father and I... well, it is all a misunderstanding. I know he has always wanted to join our two realms. Perhaps you know that they were one country, three hundred years ago."
Tananda and Chumley shook their heads.
"My studies of your history are more of the first and last," Chumley said. "The ancient origins of your people, and most recent, social studies, if you like. So many dimensions, so little time."
Cordu found a map in the bookshelf that sat underneath the arched window and unrolled it to show them.
"The arrangement makes sense, for our mutual prosperity and defense. This part of the continent is one big river valley, best defended at its mountain passes on the circumference. My father and I had discussed it with our ministers and found it to be workable, so I went to the Tue-Khan with a diplomatic proposal. We would write a treaty that left our realms each under separate thrones, but as one with an open border to allow easy movement. I stressed that our peoples were of one blood, as close as kin could be. He got the idea into his head that I must marry Renimbi to seal the arrangement. And, well, there was a lot to drink. And, well ... I didn't really read the document that he shoved underneath my nose early the next morning."