And would.
I flattened myself between the bathtub and wall. The auditioner who’d come to kill me paused, staring at my bed from the window. Anyone would’ve caught my trickery by candlelight, but with clouds filtering unsteady moonlight through the shutters and shadows playing across the walls, they’d assume the lump of blankets was breathing. Hopefully.
The auditioner unhooked the bells. Another arm slithered between the wires and unhooked the broken shutters. The white ribbon stitched across Eight’s mask glowed in the darkness. Halfway through the window, hands flat on the floor and feet still dangling outside, he stopped and stared at my bed. I leaned forward.
Lady, guard me.
I lunged. Eight raised his head in time to catch my knee in his teeth. His head snapped back, and his arms collapsed, dropping to the floor. I buried my knife into the back of his neck. He gurgled.
“Sorry that hurt.” I twisted the knife.
His last few breaths left him in a rush.
I stripped Eight of his weapons. He’d a few vials in his pockets, unlabeled and useless to me either way. The daggers in his boots were nicer than mine—expensive and well cared for—and I took his ankle sheaths too. He’d nothing else of note except an archery brace and callouses like Emerald’s. He could’ve killed Twenty easy.
He’d crawled in here on the half-thought notion I’d be sleeping peacefully though. He wasn’t clever enough to have his own nest above the archery yard.
And I wasn’t clever enough to realize that killing him in my own room would leave me with a body. I had to get rid of him.
At least he was small—light on his feet and all lean muscle.
I worked the nails out of my door. No one was in the hallway or up in the rafters. The roof was equally empty, with only the hushed whispers of servants and guards circling the paths below breaking the silence. I dragged Eight as fast as I could into the unoccupied room across the hall from mine. The thin blood trail left behind I mopped up with a spare shirt.
I shut the door, and the dead eyes of my first competition kill stared back at me.
“You prayed to the Triad the first day.” I smeared a bloody triangle across his forehead. “I’ll send you back to them.”
I didn’t put any faith in the three divisions of magic—mind, body, and soul. Nacea hadn’t worshipped the Triad, hadn’t handled magic at all for fear of The Lady taking offense at us using blood to bind magic to our wills. She was magic, and it was her. You didn’t use someone to do your bidding. I remembered that much from my childhood.
Remembered how much magic and its shadows had taken from me.
But magic was gone, and the Triad and their power went with it. Only prayers and empty motions lingered to comfort the believers.
I drew the marks for mind and body over Eight’s heart and heels, with the final mark of his last rites dripping down his boots.
I dragged Eight’s corpse through the window and onto the roof, leaving him tucked between chimneys where anyone could’ve killed him. There were no auditioners in sight. I slunk back into the empty room, then to my room across the hall and collapsed into the tub.
I slept well till dawn. My rumbling stomach woke me, and I stumbled out of the tub, body weak and aching. The sun reached over the eastern spires and cast long shadows across the windows. The sooner I got to the safety of breakfast, the sooner last night was behind me.
The dining room was quiet, only a handful of servants setting up for the meal, and Maud’s superior, Dimas, watched over everything. I sat in a spare chair off to the side.
“Twenty-Three?” Dimas stopped two strides away from me and bowed—just as Maud had done when we’d first met. “Do you need something? Breakfast doesn’t begin until the Left Hand arrives.”
A reminder that I wasn’t safe here till then. I sighed. “There enough time for me to find the kitchen and get some tea before they get here?”
“I’ll let Maud know.” He straightened and gestured to a servant’s door across the room. “You may follow the servers to the kitchen, but please let us know if you need anything so we can retrieve it for you without causing any issues.”
Without me messing up their habits, more like. I nodded and took off after a twitchy server. The gall of it—I was an assassin, in theory, and bloodthirsty for all they knew. The auditions before this one must have set the tone. Assassins followed the rules and respected the servants. Maybe I was in the right place.
I might’ve cheated my way through near everything, but there was no point in hurting servants or putting them in danger.
No wonder Maud wanted to work here forever—Our Queen took good care of her people, even if there were snakes in her gardens. I had to take care of them for her.
Magic and its shadows hadn’t ended the war in favor of Erlend, The Lady hadn’t saved Nacea, and praying hadn’t spared Eight.
I had to place my faith in me.
Sixteen
I watched the servant who’d brought me tea return to the kitchen with an empty tray. Young, new—they were training just like us.
“You cleaned your room.”
I turned and found Maud staring at me.
“I got restless this morning.” I gestured toward the dining hall. “Dimas said he’d tell you.”
“He did.” She fell into step beside me but still slightly behind. “Did you think I wouldn’t notice blood spots under the bed?”
I winced. “One of the auditioners snuck in and tried to kill me. I broke their nose, they ran off, and I was left to clean up the mess. Must’ve missed a spot.”
We stared at each other for a long moment. It was obvious Maud was weighing her options. She could turn me in if that was suspicious, but then she’d be out her promotion.
“That’s not too far-fetched.” She shrugged. “I suppose you could win a fight.”
“I’ve won hundreds,” I said, trying to keep my voice even. “It used to be my job.”
She raised an eyebrow. “But do remember—if you bleed to death, I don’t get promoted and I have to clean it up.”
“Your priorities are spectacular.” I checked the knives at my waist and tapped my heels against the ones at my ankles. With Eight dead, the others would start feeling the pressure. Maybe I’d luck out, they’d get paranoid, and they’d kill each other for me. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.” She smiled and opened the door for me, ushering me into the dining hall. “I won’t see you again today. Good luck.”
Eight and Twenty-Two were missing. Dimas’s long gray tunic swirled around his knees as he paced the length of the table and directed servers, making sure all of us had what we wanted. There was twice the number of water pitchers there usually were. I waved him over.