Industry & Intrigue (49 page)

Something would have to be done
about that. Inissa had been a valuable employee for a long
time, particularly
her brothels, but she had crossed the line. Mikono could not allow
her betrayal to go unpunished. Something large and brutal was
called for. Something to ensure that, when she returned to
Longhaven, those who did not know her would fear and respect
her.

There was Inissa herself of
course, but Mikono had doubts a
bout how easy it would be to reach her.
With war on the horizon, there was a chance the Alkos City Watch
would let its guard down. She could target Inissa’s harlots; Inissa
cared about them in a motherly fashion.

Yes that was the answer. The
best way to
punish betrayal was to hit Inissa where it would hurt the
most. She had settled an important decision. She had many more to
make over the next few days, they would determine her
survival.

Chapter 47

The university apartment area
was well lit, even at such a late hour. Normally
, Lucina would avoid the
lighted paths and stick to the shadows, but she was trying to fit
in and ignored her ingrained habits. It was the only way she could
throw off the scent of anyone following her.

Sh
e had been lucky so far. She changed
locations every night but if she dropped her guard, it would only
be a matter of time before they caught up with her. Enough time had
passed since the assassination that it would be safe to leave the
city. She was still undecided on where to go, Arketh was an option,
the Arm had no influence there. The city was the opposite of
Longhaven; the Arketh authorities having little patience for crime
and corruption.

But even the Arm would
overlook that to
reach a traitor. Better to leave Alkos altogether; head for the
Yarali cities. She could undoubtedly find work with her skills
amongst the many warring Houses of the city states.

A
s she walked towards her brother’s
apartment, she was weighing up whether she should be here or not.
It risked leading the Arm to him, but she had to at least say
farewell. Otherwise he would always wonder what had happened to
her. She didn’t want him thinking her dead a second
time.

She reached his door and
knocked lightly, not wanting to wake anyone else.
No response. She
sighed and bent down to pick the lock. It clicked with success and
she opened the door. Her brother wasn’t here. Where could he be?
She decided to ask his friend, the short, well-built one. She had
both her brother’s and his friend’s apartment numbers memorized
from the school register.

She knocke
d on the door to Michael’s
apartment. There was a thump sound, someone’s foot landing on the
floor and she heard the boy say, “Shit.” This was followed by
giggling. Did he have a girl with him? This could be more awkward
than she anticipated.

The door opened an inch
and revealed
Reese’s friend, Michael. His hair was disheveled and he was only
wearing undergarments. He was rather attractive, now that she could
see him without clothes, his body was lean and muscular. But far
too young for her, she preferred encounters with older men who knew
what they were doing.

His eyes w
idened when he saw her.
“Uh…Reese isn’t here.”

She pushed the door open wider
and stared
him down. “Where is he?”

Michael gulped.
“He’s away, a field
trip for his zoology class.”

Damn, o
f all of the timing

“
Who is it Michael?”
said a soft
voice.

He turned his head to answer
but Lucina quietly said
, “Don’t. The less people who know about me, the
better.” To emphasize her point she grabbed his hand roughly and
pulled him back to the doorway.

“
Just a security guard doing a
check
,” he
said to the girl in the room.

“
Nice
recovery
,”
whispered Lucina. “When is my brother due back?”

“
He left this morning,
said he’d be back in three days. Do you want me to give him a
message?”

“
Are you a fucking
imbecile?
”
she said. “I’m trying to evade both the watch and my employers, I’m
not going to put my brother at risk by leaving
messages.”

“
And Imperial Intelligence,” he
replied.

“
What?” asked
Lu
cina. This
was news to her. She could avoid a casual tail but skilled spies
were another matter entirely. She grabbed him by the shoulder
roughly and clawed her fingers into his skin. “Tell me
everything.”

“
Ow!
Take it easy,” he yelped. She relaxed
her fingers and let go. “You have a hell of a grip,” he complained.
“Two agents came to talk to us. They could tell right away our
story was horseshit. So we told them what happened, in spite of
your ‘threats’. A cloaked figure burst into the room, threatened us
and was away before we could even comprehend what
happened.”

Lucina relaxed. Reese and his
friend
had
given the spies nothing useful. Enough to work out the Arm was
behind it, but nothing on her specifically. The trail would take
them to Longhaven and away from Alkos.

“
I see
,” she said. “Thank you. You and my
brother must be quick thinkers under pressure.”

“
It was all Reese, I
went along with it.
Is there anything else you need? Because I’d like to get back to
well…I was preoccupied when you came by.” He grinned.

Lucina
instincts kicked in. Years of
training and cat-like reflexes allowed her to twist out of the way
of the blade that came slicing down from behind. Michael was not so
lucky. The sword embedded in the middle of his chest.

His
eyes had a look of shock and he
stared down at the protruding hilt. It withdrew as quickly as it
had cut in and the boy fell back, his blood spraying
out.

Lucina heard
the girl scream,
but she ignored it; her attention solely focused on the attacker.
The sword zinged through the air towards her a second time but she
dodged again, this time dropping herself to the ground.

She look
ed up and saw the grey-cloak of
an Arm assassin. She couldn’t see the face, but a chin with dark
stubble poked out from under the hood. She whipped out her revolver
and fired once. The figure staggered back and gave out a sound of
pain. He stepped forward lifting his sword to come at her again,
though it took him more effort now.

Lucina cocked back the hammer of the gun
and fired once more. The man stopped, his sword fell out of his
hands and he dropped to his knees. His hands clutched at the bullet
wounds she had inflicted. She stood up, walked over and pulled back
his hood.

He had a shaven head, with
black tribal tattoos lining the sides
of his face. She recognized him. His
name was Royas, a native of Huffolk. He was a swordmaster of the
Arm.

She held his head and tilted it
so he was forced to look at her.
“What do they know?” she
demanded.

“
That you killed
tor
’Kraos.
They don’t know why, and they don’t much care. You’ve betrayed your
vows and turned against us. So now you are marked for death.” She
let go of his head and he slumped to the ground. She was marked.
Any assassin that caught sight of her was obligated to kill her, no
matter where she was or who she was working for. She hadn’t
expected them to catch up with her so soon. Royas may have only
happened on her by chance.

She ran into the room to check
on Michael. Th
e blade had gone in deep, cutting one of his lungs, based
on the shallow, gasping sounds coming from his throat. The girl was
at his side sobbing. Lucina bent down and thrust a cloth into the
girl’s hands. “Put that on the wound. Press down as hard as you can
with both hands.”

The girl looked
a
t her, as
if unsure what to do.

“
Now!” said Lucina with
force.

The girl did as she said, her hands
trembling, slowing the blood flow slightly. Lucina leaned forward
towards Michaels face.

“
I am truly sorry. This is my
fault, I should never hav
e come here, but I wanted to see my brother one
last time. He’ll blame me for your death, as well he should.” All
she had done was caused her brother pain by staying.

Michael smiled up at her with his
bloodstained lips.

“
What is it?” she
asked.

“
You look good from this angle.
I…had…no idea…Reese had such a…gorgeous sister…he…he-he.” He gave
out another series of gasps and spat blood from his mouth. He
wheezed a few more times until finally stopping. His dead eyes
stared up at Lucina, as if judging her. She slid his eyes shut. The
girl was curled up against the wall nearby, quietly
crying.

This was all her fault. She
should have been more careful.
She wanted to explain herself to Reese,
but that would only put him in danger. She grabbed a piece of paper
and wrote as fast as she could.

She needed to get out of
her
e. The
noise of the shots would have undoubtedly woken someone and they
would alert the university security. With the assassination still
fresh in everyone’s mind, the guards would not waste
time.

When she finished
writing she went
back to Reese’s apartment. She opened the cupboard and placed the
paper in his hiding spot. He was sure to find it.

She would never be safe
from the Arm, no
matter where she went. She had been stupid to think that she could
hide. Even if she traveled across the Twilight Ocean and to the far
eastern side of the world, where no one had explored, she would
still be looking over her shoulder. Reese wouldn’t be safe
either.

If the Arm wanted
h
er then
they would get her, but not the way they expected. She would face
them on their own territory. She made her way off the university
grounds and headed towards the Torphin district. She would rent a
room in a flophouse and in the morning purchase a train ticket for
Longhaven.

Chapter 48

Night had set
over the Crean
Valley. Cassandra sat on a cold stone floor next to Reese. They
were locked in a large room with the rest of the class, Professor
Xerin and the staff of the excavation site. The guards had piled
them in here without saying a word and locked the doors. They had
only been opened once to give them food. It was cold beef stew and
tasted awful, but Cassandra was starving.

In the corner of the room Xerin was
quietly talking with the head of the excavation site, Professor
Farrin MacShim, one of Alkon’s leading archeologists. They had been
talking for a long time. Xerin would be enquiring about what had
happened. MacShim and the other staff looked exhausted, they must
have been locked up for days.

She noticed Reese had a book in his
hand. “Where did you get that?” she asked.

“
I was reading it when they
grabbed us out of the carriage.
I hid it under my shirt,” he
replied.

“
What’s so special about
it, that you didn’t want to leave it in your bag?”

He closed
the book and looked her with
dead seriousness. “It was my father’s personal notebook. He visited
this site several times himself, he believed that there was
tangible colossi evidence buried here.” He opened it and moved so
she could see.

“
See, he made a detailed map of
the site. We’re here, he carried out his excavations
here
,” and
he pointed. “The lowest tunnels in the south-west quadrant. He
mentions a giant talon that he found. He was going to dig further,
but there was a cave-in that collapsed the tunnel. It would take
them weeks to re-excavate the space. He died before he could make
another trip.”

“
It’s too bad
,” said Cassandra. Reese’s
father may have been on to significant find. “If we weren’t trapped
in this room, we could be out there picking up where he left off.”
She kicked her foot against the floor in frustration. “What in the
hells do they even want? Why would anyone take-over an excavation
site?”

“
Who knows
,” said Reese. He put his book
back under his shirt and leaned against the stone wall. “Bandits?
They’ve heard a rumor about buried treasure on the site. It happens
all the time. They’re idiots for believing it though. No one has
ever found anything from ancient civilizations here. It’s nothing
but dragon bones and the odd dead elemental. Useful for zoologists
like us, but no real value to anyone else. If the Cartral or the
ancient Estar had cities out here, they would have been discovered
by now. The university’s had the empire’s finest archeologists and
paleontologists digging here for forty years.”

“
I’m not so sure,” she replied.
“They’re far too organized for bandits. Think about how they
followed the orders of that agorid. She was commanding them like
soldiers. They’re not looking for buried treasure.”