‘You know, your timing is still off, Toller,’ I said conversationally.
I kicked hard against the ground in front of me and as the dust went up like a cloud I double-lunged straight at the one on my right, all the while keeping my left blade guarding against a thrust from the other side. My attack failed, of course, as the Dashini skipped backwards out of range. The assassin tried to get a thrust into my arm over my blade, but a small lift of the wrist let the point clang against my guard.
‘Almost got your friend there, Toller. Are you ready to quit playing and help me end him?’
‘You wish to be asleep,’ they whispered, and I almost did. Fucking Dashini mind-tricks. Don’t know how they work, but you just have to deal with it.
‘You know how we beat you?’ I asked the one on the right. ‘It’s kind of a funny story.’
‘You wish to be silent,’ they whispered again, but this one was much easier to ignore.
‘No, really, it’s a great story. You see, a few years ago, the King had this idea – to be frank, it’s something you people should have figured out long ago. You see, the thing about all that secrecy? You know, never showing your face to one another, never knowing each others’ names? Those lovely face-masks that disguise your voices so well that you wouldn’t know if it was your own mother behind the thing? Well, the King, clever fellow that he was, realised that if, let’s say, we caught a pair of Dashini and killed them, and if – and do follow along with me here – if we just replaced them with two of our men … well then, it would be awfully easy for them to blend in, wouldn’t it?’
They tried a rain of thrusts, but I flicked my points straight up and out and used my greater range to keep them back.
‘Now, what do you suppose we might do with two of our own inside the temple?’ I shook my head, and said, ‘No, no, we wouldn’t waste our time on some heroic attack that would just get our fellows killed while you all found a new hole to hide in. That would be a real waste, wouldn’t it? So what if, instead, we had our two fellows split up and set them to spy on the temple? That way, if – and I know this sounds far-fetched, but just go along with this for now – if say the bastard monks at the temple took on a contract to kill Greatcoats, then one of our fellows could make sure he was one of the Azu sent on the mission. And then— Well, why don’t you show him, Toller?’ I asked.
For a second, just a split-second, they froze in their dance and looked at each other with an instant’s distrust. Then they looked down at the blades of my rapiers stuck, point ends first, just below their chests. I’ve heard stories that the Dashini can slow the flow of their own blood – that they can survive a wound that would kill a normal man. So I pulled the blades out and stabbed them a few more times each, just to be sure. I’m not sure if that countered their preternatural resistance to injury or if their dignity finally demanded they do something – anything – to stop getting stabbed over and over, but they finally slid down onto the ground.
I resisted the urge to fall down on my ass and sit there for a while and instead took a small cloth from my coat (I didn’t want to risk some other contact poison on their dark garb), and carefully pulled their silken masks from their faces.
‘Well, that makes sense,’ I said out loud. ‘Turns out they have some very exotic and, I expect, individualised tattoos on their faces. I suppose that would make them hard to impersonate. I wonder if they all have them. Seems like a lot of work, considering most of them are killed by their own teachers before they can be given their first mission.’
The girl came up behind me and put one hand on my arm. She stood looking down at them but still staying well out of reach. ‘You mean, you didn’t get any men inside their temple?’
‘Hmm? Of course not – I mean, the King tried to send spies a few times, but they all turned up dead. They took some rather creative liberties with the return of the bodies. As for capturing two trained Dashini assassins and getting them to talk? Ridiculous idea.’
‘But you made them believe … The King’s idea?’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘the King figured that people who spend their entire lives learning the art of murder and never being around books, people, conversation, or even the occasional dirty limericks are probably prone to a little paranoia now and then.’
She looked up at me like I was an idiot.
I was feeling a little giddy. I’d just defeated two Dashini assassins. Let’s see Kest do that. I smiled back at Aline and let out a big, long breath. Her eyes went wide and she did something strange: she turned away and started running as fast as she could. That was when something hit me hard in the back of the head and I lost consciousness.
I awoke a few times between where we were captured and arriving at the Duke’s palace. My hands and feet were tied to a sturdy wooden pole and I was swinging from side to side. The man in front of me was tall and broad-backed; the one behind must have been a bit shorter, because my head seemed to lag lower than the rest of me.
‘He’s awake,’ I heard the man behind me grunt.
‘Hit ’im again, then,’ replied the one in front.
‘No, not yet.’ The new voice was male, but lighter, the accent higher class and somehow familiar. Suddenly a face came into view: long golden-blond hair hung down and almost touched my nose. The face was handsome, and not nearly bruised enough for my liking.
‘Lorenzo.’
He smiled. ‘Imagine us meeting again, First Cantor.’
‘Lorenzo, your face looks remarkably healed for such a short time.’
‘Magic – expensive. And can you believe this? It does nothing at all for the pain – it hurts just as much as when you finished putting your boots to me, Falcio.’
‘Yes, I meant to apologise about that. I’m sorry, Lorenzo, really sorry.’
I looked to my right, trying to catch a glimpse of where we were. From the thick press of people we had to be on one of the main streets – probably Kestrel Way, the road that ended at the Ducal Palace.
Lorenzo grabbed my face with a strong hand – his left, I noticed. I’d done some fairly nasty things to his right.
‘I’m not sure I can accept your apology, Falcio. Not until I’m absolutely sure of your sincerity.’
I tried to shrug, but my limbs were numb so I’m not sure it produced much effect.
‘Where’s the girl, Lorenzo?’ I asked.
‘We’ve taken her on ahead,’ he replied. ‘We want to get started on her as quickly as possible.’
I sighed. Aline had kept the soft candy, so she would certainly be dead by now. At least she had got to pick the time herself. I wondered how they’d caught up with us, but then a different question came to mind.
‘We,’ I said.
‘Hmm?’
‘You said, “We want to get started”. I assume you mean the Duke. How do your so-called “New Greatcoats” feel about the fact that a light slap is all it takes to make you abandon your high and mighty principles and go running to the Duke?’
Lorenzo looked at me with a quizzical expression on his face. ‘Are you serious?’ he asked, genuinely. Then he gave a short bark of laughter. ‘Really? You don’t know?’ More laughter. ‘Saints, Falcio! You didn’t know? And yet you beat me blue and bloody – for what? Because I offended your sense of the grand dignity of the Greatcoats?’
‘Ah. Well, that makes more sense now, doesn’t it.’
He sounded highly amused. ‘Falcio, you may be a fool, and you’re certainly going to die a gruesome death, but you’ve got style.’