Royal Assassin

Someone knelt beside me, ran competent hands over me. Burrich? No. That was a dream from long ago. This man had blue eyes and the nasal twang of a Farrow man. “He’s bleeding a lot, King Regal. But we can stop that.” Someone put pressure on my brow. A cup of watered wine, held against my cracked lips, splashed into my mouth. I choked on it. “You see, he’s alive. I’d leave off, for today, Your Majesty. I doubt if he’ll be able to answer any more questions before tomorrow. He’ll just faint on you.” A calm professional opinion. Whoever it was stretched me out on the floor again and left.

A spasm rattled through me. Seizure coming soon. Good thing Will was gone. Didn’t think I could keep my walls up through a seizure.

“Oh, take him away.” Regal, disgusted and disappointed. “This has been nothing but a waste of my time today.” His chair’s legs scraped on the floor as he left it. I heard the sounds of his boots on the stone floor as he strode from the room.

Someone grabbed me by the shirtfront, jerked me to my feet. I could not even scream for the pain. “Stupid piece of dung,” he snarled at me. “You’d better not die. I’m not going to take lashes over the likes of you dying.”

“Great threat, Verde,” someone mocked him. “What are you going to do to him after he’s dead?”

“Shut up. It’ll be your back flayed to the bone as much as mine. Let’s get him out of here and clean this up.”

*

The cell. The blank wall of it. They had left me on the floor, facing away from the door. Somehow that seemed unfair of them. I’d have to do all the work of rolling over just to see if they’d left me any water.

No. It was too much trouble.

Are you coming now?

I really want to, Nighteyes. But I just don’t know how.

Changer. Changer! My brother! Changer.

What is it?

You have been silent for so long. Are you coming now?

I have been . . . silent?

Yes. I thought you had died, without coming to me first. I could not reach you.

Probably a seizure. I didn’t know it had happened. But now I am right here, Nighteyes. Right here.

Then come to me. Hurry, before you die.

A moment. Let us be sure of this.

I tried to think of a reason not to. I knew there had been some, but I could no longer recall them. Changer, he had called me. My own wolf, calling me that, just as the Fool or Chade called me a catalyst. Well. Time to change things for Regal. The last thing I could do was make sure I died before Regal broke me. If I had to go down, I would do it alone. No words of mine would implicate anyone else. I hoped the Dukes would demand to see my body.

It took a long time to get my arm from the floor to my chest. My lips were cracked and swollen, my teeth aching in my gums. But I put my shirt cuff to my mouth and found the tiny lump of the leaf pellet inside the fabric. I bit down at it as hard as I could, then sucked on it. After a moment the taste of carryme flooded my mouth. It was not unpleasant. Pungent. As the herb deadened the pain in my mouth, I could chew at my sleeve more strongly. Stupidly, I tried to be careful of the porcupine quill. Didn’t want to get a quill in my lip.

It really hurts when that happens.

I know, Nighteyes.

Come to me.

I’m trying. Give me a moment.

How does one leave one’s body behind? I tried to ignore it, to be aware of myself only as Nighteyes. Keen nose. Lying on my side, chewing diligently at a lump of snow wadded up in the space between my toes. I tasted snow and my own paw as I nibbled and licked it away. I looked up. Evening coming on. It would soon be a good time to hunt. I stood up, shook myself all over.

That’s right, Nighteyes encouraged me.

But there was still that thread, that tiny awareness of a stiff and aching body on a cold stone floor. Just to think of it made it more real. A tremor ran through it, rattling its bones and teeth. Seizure coming. Big one this time.

Suddenly it was all so easy. Such an easy choice. Leave that body for this one. It didn’t work very well anymore anyway. Stuck in a cage. No point to keeping it. No point to being a man at all.

I’m here.

I know. Let us hunt.

And we did.

33 Wolf Days