“You’d had best be sure. He’s lethal even at a distance!”
“Nay, I hit him with one of my quarrels. A belly wound,” he replied, turning to spit in the bloody pool, “Kishrub shattered his legs with his hammer and Zulbash caught him in the shoulder with that foul mace.”
“Why is he still cloaked in his magic? His face! I demand to see his face!”
“The Shadow Magic does not wear off so easily, my lord. You’ll see his face soon enough,” the Rat replied coolly. He brushed his knuckles feigning disinterest.
“Is that the best you can muster? A worthless excuse!” Lewd spat, “Can’t you dispel his invisibility spell or are you just a self-professed master of illusions?”
The warlord thought he saw the man cock an eyebrow under his shadowy cowl. The Rat gave no reply, but simply pushed off the wall. He strode over to Shade’s invisible body and knelt. He stretched out his hands and murmured the words of a foreign magic. The words were cryptic but beautiful, flowing together like dark music. A dim gray shimmering aura emanated from the Rat’s hands. It settled over Shade’s invisible form.
The body took physical shape glowing translucent black for a moment as if mummified in shadows. Then the darkness faded revealing skin, hair and leather armor all black like onyx stone. A pair of solid yellow eyes glowed weakly. Lewd at long last gazed upon the Dark Elf’s face.
Warlord Lewd’s eyes widened. He grinned brazenly. It was Shade! The Dark Elf bled profusely from the mouth. He coughed and sputtered up blood wheezing heavily. He clutched his stomach over a frayed hole in his leather armor which had been soaked with blood. His leather breastplate had also been torn to pieces revealing a caved in shoulder and deep puncture wounds. Both his legs had been crushed. His life faded, but still he held on. Lewd had to admire Shade…to be so close to death’s door and hang so stubbornly onto life’s threshold was a testament to the assassin’s steel will. ‘He had some nerve,’ Lewd thought.
The warlord approached warily. Kishrub and Zulbash tightened their grip, taking no chances. Yessheeran looked on with interest. The crowd closed in around them. Seeing Shade’s mangled and crippled body put them all at greater ease.
“How did you catch him?” the warlord asked.
“Hiss woundsss gave him away,” Yessheeran replied.
“It was a simple thing really,” the Rat added, “I wounded him and we had only to follow his blood trail. I tracked him as one might follow a trail of bread-crumbs left behind by an errant child. He was betrayed by his own lifeblood. A fitting death, don’t you think?”
“And you shall be well rewarded,” Warlord Lewd said. He turned back to the assassin. He knelt and whispered coldly in Shade’s ear, “It stings, doesn’t it?”
Shade struggled and thrashed.
“I wonder what stings worse,” Lewd mused, “death or your wounded pride?”
The Dark Elf coughed and sputtered on his own blood. His body wracked by the slow embrace of death as it tightened its cold black grips on his soul. He lifted his head. His blurry yellow eyes bore directly into Lewd’s grinning face. His mouth moved, but no words parted from his lips. He seemed to be trying desperately to tell the warlord something.
“You were so cocky,” Lewd went on, “a swaggering upstart! You spit in the face of the Lord of the Underworld and now look at you! A blubbering pathetic wretch, choking on your own blood!”
Shade tried to mouth more words, but Lewd ignored him.
“Silence whelp!” Warlord Lewd struck him across the face. “No one insults me. No one!”
The Dark Elf spit up more blood.
“You feel this?” Warlord Lewd dug a long fingernail into Shade’s chest and twisted. The Dark Elf let out a muffled gasp. A fresh gush of blood trickled down his stomach. “The throbbing pain of your wounds?” the crimelord gloated, “the cold numbness of death stealing over you!” He wrenched his hand free and rubbed the Dark Elf’s blood in between his fingers. “I can feel your life slipping away, your warm blood running through my fingers…” He nodded to his bodyguards.
Zulbash placed a hand over the assassin’s mouth. Kishrub braced the assassin with both hands. The crowd waited with batted breath. They all knew what came next.
“I shall relish this moment for the rest of my days, Shade,” Lewd whispered in the Dark Elf’s ear, his voice slowly building into a shout, “not even you could hide this time, not from me!” He pulled out one of the assassin’s own blades. He ran his long green fingers down the sharp edge, his eyes locking with Shade’s own. “The whole of Covent shall hear of your downfall. Your death shall be proclaimed from the highest walls of Doljinaar to the deepest darkest pit of Jui-Sae. No one shall dare oppose me now! They shall know that not even the world’s most renowned assassin could escape my hands.”
The warlord raised the knife. The steel edge flashed as it caught the torchlight.
Shade shook his head repeatedly. He flailed and squirmed under Kishrub’s and Zulbash’s massive hold.
Warlord Lewd drove the blade deep into the assassin’s heart.
The Dark Elf emitted one final gasp. His breath slowly drifted off. His glowing eyes dwindled and winked out like fading embers.
Lewd’s crooked lips leaked into a triumphant grin. He sat back, his perfect white teeth still radiating with unabashed glee. He rose and tossed the dagger carelessly behind him. “Cut off his head and mount it. His black skull will make an excellent addition to my collection,” he ordered and walked off, “and break out the finest wine, pipeweed and dust, for tonight we celebrate!”
Chapter Seventeen:
Death from
the Shadows
Yessheeran watched as his master strode triumphantly out of the antechamber, through the double doors and down the main hallway towards his harem. The Rat pushed off the wall and followed him. ‘A bit eager to collect on the bounty, are we?’ Yessheeran mused. He sat back on his long coiled tail. He looked back on Shade’s cold lifeless face. The Syssrah’s lips twisted into a snaky grin, “let him have his reward. He earned it!”
Yessheeran reached for the dagger that had taken Shade’s life. He closed his long slender fingers around the hilt. He raised the knife over the assassin’s dead body and eyed the gaping wound where Lewd had pierced Shade’s heart. All rationale told him the Dark Elf was dead, but he would take no chances. He had learned from years of living among Syssrah to trust no one, to trust nothing. He would drive the knife into Shade’s black heart and twist fanatically until he was beyond certainty.
The envoy heard the sound of a wood beam sliding into place. He froze and looked back over at the double doors. He slithered over to the doors to investigate. The Syssrah turned the handle, but the doors wouldn’t budge. He shot an annoyed glare first at Kishrub and then Zulbash who gaped dumbly back at him. ‘Odd,’ he thought, ‘why would the Rat lock the doors?’ He turned back around.
The crowd had dispersed. Yessheeran had ordered three servants to deal with the remains. They had gone to fetch supplies.
The Syssrah glided back over to Shade’s body. A subtle gray blinking of the assassin’s features seized his attention. ‘Strange,’ he thought. The snake-man uncoiled his long snaky body and stretched himself out to investigate. His serpentine eyes widened as the assassin’s face flickered like an image.
The chilling realization broke loose like an avalanche, burying him in the cold hard truth. The Dark Elf’s black skin and hair lightened until they were no longer Dark Elven at all. Shade’s face had vanished, replaced by the face of another.
The envoy turned back to the doors. “My lord!” he hissed loudly startling Kishrub and Zulbash, “MY LORD, NO!!!”