Book 2 Chapter 38

The dagger’s blade slipped easily into the man’s back, sliding carefully through the ribs and upwards. A soft cry was cut off as a hand covered the man’s mouth, the arm wrapped around tightly to prevent any escape as the dagger pierced one of the lungs before twisting cruelly.

The muffled yells turned quickly into gurgles as blood flooded the man’s throat. His struggling slowly grew softer as the strength left his body. The arm holding him let go with well-practiced timing and the body fell, unable to hold its own weight. It slumped to the ground, blood pooling underneath it as it looked up in its last moments at the silver-haired young man smiling down at it.

Torvus bent down to wipe the blood off his blade before standing to glance over to where Nerida had already finished up her own work. Three bodies lay on the ground, impaled by shards of ice. She looked over towards him as well, her disdain clear as she spoke, “ How many more patrols will we need to deal with?”

“That was the third group…” Torvus said towards the scowling priestess, “Probably another one in about five minutes, but after that, it won’t be long until they realize people are missing and figure out what's going on. Hopefully, the little god has found the prince by then.”

He looked down at the bodies below them, a frown touching his face for the first time Nerida could remember, “Something seems off though…”

“What? Hasn’t it gone exactly as you've said so far? Nerida replied skeptically.

“That’s the problem… Everything has gone too well, usually by now there should have been some snag or trouble…”

“Is that some kind of superstition?”

“Its experience, something always goes wrong because no matter how prepared you are the other side is trying just as hard. I just hope since there hasn’t been trouble for us it doesn’t hit the little god instead…”

“You…” Nerida started when suddenly she was pulled to the side. Torvus was there a finger to his lips as he pressed her back. Nerida fought against the bile that rose in her throat as he touched her and instead followed his eyes towards the path.

Stumbling out of the darkness was a lone man, carrying a lantern as he hummed and sung to himself. He seemed to be drunk, swaying this way and that. He caught himself as he tripped and chuckled at his own clumsiness.

Nerida sneered wanting to complain about the former assassin’s over-caution. But his serious expression stopped her. She looked back at the man stumbling towards where they were hiding in the shadows and wondered what had Torvus so on edge.

The man didn’t move with any of the grace or edge of any of the shard users they had encountered so far. He didn’t even seem as trained or as disciplined as the regular fighters who Torvus said made up the main force of the guild. If anything he looked like just a regular worker that had stayed too late getting drunk and was now wandering about before heading home.

But was that it? She thought to herself…Would there really be a normal person mixed in with such a skilled group? Or was it more likely a skilled person acting to throw them off? The worry was understandable and she looked at Torvus with a mixture of admiration and irritation.

How fast had he made that deduction? And how quickly had he reacted to it? Either way, the drunk needed to be dealt with… She slowly focused on the shard at her chest, feeling the Water Spirit’s power as once more as icicles formed around her. Torvus watched her actions and nodded, agreeing with her plan to take the man down silently.

She waited until the ice was fully formed, creating more than enough to kill just one man before launching them with a wave of her hand. The ice tore through the air as they flew, letting out a low whistle as they sped towards their target. Just as they were about to strike, the drunk smiled, “Ah, I thought I smelled some rats…”

The air around the man distorted from the heat as fire sprouted on the ground around him and flames swirled through the air. The ice hit the fire and burst into steam on contact. The drunkard turned to where the ice had come from and laughed, “Just when I was wondering if I’d run into that boy again… I’ve been waiting too long for this!”

He raised a hand and the flames around him started to collect themselves into a tight sphere, focusing themselves until it looked like he was holding a small star in his hand. He roared as he hurled it towards where Nerida and Torvus had been hiding.

The water priestess channeled the water spirit’s power once more, saying a quiet prayer as water spilled out of the air around her before freezing into a solid wall in front of them. The small star struck the ice with a boom and the resulting force threw both of them across the ground.

Nerida stood shakily, clutching her arm as got up while more water rose around her. By her side, Torvus reached down, pulling more blades out of pockets that didn’t seem to exist. Sounds of bells started to go off in the distance followed quickly by shouts as the fire alerted the remaining guards of the assassin’s guild.

“He isn’t here? Well, you two should be a good warm up….” Reynolds cracked his neck as he smiled cruelly at the two in front of him.

“Well…” Nerida heard Torvus say from beside her. A grin once more plastered against his face. “This sure is a relief,”

“How’s that?” Nerida snapped back at him. “We’ve failed and now the whole place is alert...”

“Yeah but now that we’ve run into trouble the little one should have no problems getting to the prince.” He raised a blade, pointing it at Reynolds cheerfully, “And all we have to do is kill this guy…”