Assassin’s Fate

‘I’m sorry, Bee.’ He looked at all of us. ‘I’m sorry. Get inside. Hurry.’ But at the last moment, he reached over and set his hand on my head. I do not think he knew what would happen. The touch broke our walls. I felt him. I felt his disappointment in himself. He did not feel he deserved anything from me. Not to touch me or even to say that he loved me, for he had failed so badly at being my father. It stunned me. It was like a second wall beyond his Skill walls, something that prevented him from believing that anyone could love him.

Wolf Father spoke to both of us. You would not feel so terrible if you had not loved her so recklessly. Without limits. Be proud of our cub. She fought. She killed. She stayed alive. I felt Wolf Father leap from me to my father. I heard his parting words. Run, Cub. We stand and fight like cornered wolves. Follow the Scentless One. He is part of us. Protect each other. Kill for him, if need be.

As the wolf went to him, I felt the surge of joy that linked those two. They would stand and fight, not just for me, but because it was what they loved to do. What they had always loved to do. My father stood a bit straighter. They both looked at me from his eyes. Puzzlement and pride. And love of me. It poured out of my father, as uncontrollable as the blood seeping from his wound. It drenched me and filled me. He lifted his hand from my head. Did he know how he had revealed himself? Did he understand that Wolf Father had been with me, all those days, and now returned to him?

Almost gently, he peeled my grip from his cuff. He spoke. ‘Please, Lant. Take Bee. Take the Fool, take all of them. Get them safely home. It’s the best thing you can do for me. Hurry!’ He gave me the softest of pushes. Away from him. He turned away from us, as if confident that we would obey.

He turned and began to limp away.

‘Why?’ I shouted at him. I was too angry to cry, I thought, but tears came anyway.

‘Bee, I’m leaving a blood trail that a child could follow. Per saw guards coming, searching rooms as they come. I will be sure that they find me before they find you. Now, follow Lant.’ He sounded terribly tired and sad.

I looked back the way we had come. His bloody footprints were plain on the once clean floor. He was right and that only made me angrier.

Lant stood by the open door. ‘Per, Spark, take them in. I’m staying with Fitz.’

‘No, Lant, you won’t! I need you with them, to be a sword to protect them and to use your strength to barricade that door.’

Beloved didn’t move. ‘I can’t do this,’ he said in a very soft voice.

My father rounded on him. ‘You promised!’ he roared. He seized the front of Beloved’s shirt and pulled him close. ‘You promised me. You said you would choose her life over mine.’

‘Not like this,’ Beloved wailed. ‘Not like this!’

Abruptly my father seized him in a hug. He held him tight as he spoke. ‘We don’t get to choose how it happens. Only that you save her, not me. Now go. Go!’ He pushed him away. ‘All of you, go!’

He turned and limped away from us. His hand left bloody prints on the wall, and his footprints were red on the white floor. He didn’t look back. When he came to a door, he halted. We stood in frozen silence. I saw him take something out of his pocket, watched him fuss with the door handle. After a moment, he opened it. Just before he slipped inside, he glanced back at us. He made an angry motion and mouthed, ‘Go!’ at us.

Then he was gone. I heard him lock the door behind him. Of course. If we were hiding in that room, it was what we would do. There was blood on the floor outside that door. His bloody handprints on the wall and the door. The guards would think they had us cornered.

‘Get in here,’ Lant said in a dark and savage voice. He took my shoulder and pushed me toward Beloved. I tottered numbly along with him. Per came beside me. I heard him sob once. I understood. I was crying, too. As the door began to close behind us, Per spoke in a hoarse voice. ‘Bee, I am sorry, but I am the only one Lant won’t need. Spark must set the firepot. Prilkop knows where the tunnel is. Lant is strong and good with a blade. And the Fool promised. And you … Saving you is why we came all this way. But me? I’m just a stableboy with a knife. I can stay with Fitz and help him.’ He sniffed. ‘Spark, quickly. Come back to that door and unlock it for me.’

‘Lant?’ she asked uncertainly.