Chapter Five

Heir's Tower

Throughout my early days with the revolution, I hadn't forgotten about the boy with violet eyes, still imprisoned somewhere in the Great Castle, I was sure, and probably still in Heir's Tower.

"Wouldn't Balduin want to keep the child closer to him?" asked Wylder—Balduin now resided in King's Tower

"Why would he?" I pointed out with a shrug. "He knows from experience with Nicolo that they don't have to be that close for the effect to work. Since Balduin left, Heir's Tower is empty which means no one's likely to go there looking for anything. Besides, moving the boy through the Great Castle would attract attention Balduin doesn't want. It must have been hard enough getting the child to Heir's Tower in the first place and I'm sure Balduin had everyone involved killed."

"But he knows you know," Wylder went on. "Surely he fears you'll rescue the boy?"

I shook my head. "I don't think so. The only reason I would have to do that would be out of the goodness of my heart and I don't think Balduin thinks that way. He wouldn't do it himself, so he doesn't suspect anyone else of it."

Wylder nodded. "You may be right. On the other hand, you rescuing the child does get us something." I gave him a questioning look and he continued. "It takes away Balduin's backup plan. Killing Nicolo is a good plan regardless; that bastard deserves to die—yes, I know, you have mixed feelings on the issue—but as long as Balduin has the child, then killing Nicolo is only half as worthwhile."

"And as soon as Nicolo is dead, Balduin would put the child somewhere much safer," I nodded.

"There is a benefit to us," agreed Wylder.

"Plus, it's the right thing to do."

Wylder rocked his head from side to side. "In war, such lines are not so bold. Do I risk ten lives to save that of one child? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Do I risk ten lives to save a child when that child represents Balduin's safety net? Now you're talking."

"I don't care why you do it, as long as you do it." I would have gone ahead without Wylder's help, but it was good to have an army onside on a mission like this.

All the evidence suggested that Balduin's attitude to Nicolo had changed. That evidence being that Nicolo was still alive. Balduin had proved himself a man who didn't wait around when he wanted someone dead, if he'd still feared the growing influence of his old friend, then I was sure Nicolo would have been dead by now. The shocks through which he'd suffered had made Nicolo more aligned with Balduin than ever before, and so he was once again in the king's good books without ever knowing he'd fallen out of them.

Still, I felt better for the thought that once we rescued the boy, Nicolo would be safe from Balduin. I hated myself for thinking that way about a man who was now my enemy, but I couldn't help it. I still loved the man Nicolo had once revealed himself to be.

"What's the plan?" asked Wylder. "I defer to you on this one since it's your quest."

My jaw dropped. "I'm in charge?"

"Until I disagree with anything you say or do, at which point I shall shove you aside and step in to save the day." He chuckled at that.

"But I'm in charge?"

Wylder shrugged. "On a mission like this, you know more than all my men and probably more than me. I'm a soldier; show me a gate to charge and I'll storm it. But ask me to sneak in somewhere and I'm a lot less at home. That's your department."

That was accurate. I did have far more experience (or at least more training) in the clandestine side of war than even Wylder himself. What I didn't have was any experience of command. An assassin has, by necessity, a somewhat careless attitude towards life, both of the target's and of their own. Assassins get killed; it's part of the job and a part of it we're trained to get used to, as much as possible. Risking my life was nothing new to me, but risking someone else's? That wasn't something with which I was comfortable. The other thing about assassins is that we are solitary. It's only very seldom that assassins work in tandem, and there's an unspoken acknowledgment that each would probably try to kill the other so they could pocket the money.

I was used to making my own decisions, relying on no one but myself, risking no one but myself. Telling people what to do and sending them into harm's way was a whole other ball game.

"Okay."

But it was a ball game I would have to learn if I wanted to save the boy with the violet eyes.

***

"Wait for the sound of the clock tower," I instructed my team.

Gerda nodded. She was one of a rising number of women who had joined the revolutionary army lately. Religious laws barred women from activities such as fighting (along with myriad other things), so women couldn't become guards or soldiers in the royal army. The royal army would someday learn what a mistake that was, because women like Gerda had been born for combat. Naturally, the old-fashioned Wylder had taken a bit of convincing, but when he saw how many women wanted to join up, and once he'd been convinced this didn't equate to doilies under all the beer tankards, he got onboard. It had actually been Wylder who recommended Gerda to lead the diversion team.

"It's important we train up commanders and I'll be happy to take orders from her. For one night, anyway."

"You're not coming with me?" I'd just assumed Wylder would want to be at the business end of the mission.

Wylder gave a wry smile. "Twenty years ago, you couldn't have stopped me, but now… I fear my days of running over rooftops and scaling walls are behind me. I would only slow you down. However, when it comes to making a noisy distracting attack that draws attention, I pride myself in that I still have few equals. I shall go in whatever direction Gerda points me."

I privately thought that once they were in the thick of it, Wylder would overrule Gerda and simply take over, but I said nothing. I also wondered if there was a battlefield romance going on between the old Duke and the sturdy brewer's daughter who handled a battle axe as casually as she had once tossed beer barrels. Wylder had smuggled his wife and kids out of the Gath as soon as they were freed from Balduin's dungeons, and the old soldier was no better than soldiers everywhere when away from home and on a campaign. He loved his wife, but a man got lonely—or, at least, that was the going excuse.

"Will you give us a sign once you're in position?" asked Gerda, who stood a head taller than me. "Or if you're running late?"

I shook my head. "Too risky. You'll have to go ahead and wait for us. We'll be there. I'll make sure of it."

Gerda nodded. "And the guards won't disturb you. I'll make sure of that."

"Don't take any risks," I urged. "No sense in dying for a diversion."

"It has to look real."

Like Wylder, Gerda understood the sacrifices of war better than I did, and accepted them more willingly than I did.

"Still, there's no reason we shouldn't all come out of this alive."

"That's certainly my aim," Gerda grinned.

"Alright. Good luck."

Gerda nodded and headed off with her team following her, including Wylder himself.

I turned back to my own team which was smaller in every sense. Bates was short, slim, and apparently boneless. He'd been a chimney sweep before the revolution and prided himself in that there wasn't a chimney in the Gath he couldn't crawl up. Alongside his small size, he was double-jointed and insanely flexible, able to get into narrow spaces that were beyond even me. Beside him, and not much taller, was Kerys; barely past sixteen and a child of the streets, she'd grown up tough. When she'd joined the revolution, she had no training whatsoever but fought like a demon because she'd been doing it all her life and had no idea of the rules of combat. Anyone in a fight with Kerys had to expect to be bitten. And she'd turned out to be even more dangerous once she had a bit of weapons training.

"With me."

My team fell in behind me as I led the way towards the most inaccessibly sheer wall of the Great Castle. There were so many easier walls to climb that this was poorly guarded, and our plan hinged on getting in unseen.

"Wait here, I'll drop a line."

It was certainly not an easy climb, but climbing was one thing I'd always been good at and I scaled the wall at a reasonable rate, hopping over the battlements at the top and looking around for guards. None to be seen for the present, but they'd be making their rounds soon enough. I secured a rope to the battlements and dropped it for Bates and Kerys. Like our clothing, the rope was colored in shades of black and gray so it faded into the shadows of the night. Which was just as well.

There was a sound out to my right. The guards were making their regular patrol.

I hooted like an owl to warn the climbers below me, then shrank back into the shadows, making myself invisible as only an assassin can.

"Well, it sounds like she's interested."

"I don't know, I don't know. If I'm reading it wrong and I make a move then she's sure to tell her sister and then I've lost both of them."

"Well, which do you prefer?"

"I don't know, I don't know. I always liked Isla best but now… I don't know."

"Well, a change is as good as a rest."

To my horror, the guards had stopped to lean on the battlements, right next to where I'd tied the rope. They wouldn't see it in this light, but one step to the left, and they'd be touching it.

"I don't know. You think I only want Elsa cos I've got bored of Isla?"

"Well, take a turn with Elsa and you'll probably find your interest in her sister renewed. You'd be doing her a favor."

"I don't know if she'd see it that way."

"Well, I'm not suggesting you tell her."

"I don't know. I wouldn't want to lose Isla."

"Well, then play it safe and stick with her."

"I don't know. Opportunity like this…"

"Well, what do you want?"

"I don't know." The guard paused, staring out into the limitless possibilities of the night. "You don't suppose they'd go for… you know; both of them."

"Well, no, I don't suppose they would."

"I don't know. They're pretty close. Just the one time so I could say I'd done it."

"Well, I think you're living in a fantasy world," said the guard as he straightened up and began to walk around the battlements, his friend following behind.

"I don't know, I don't know."

You never stop to consider the hidden lives of all the people you pass on a day-to-day basis. Or the idiocy of their conversations.

I gave another hoot to let Kerys and Bates know the coast had cleared, and a few minutes later they joined me on top of the wall.

"Ye left us hangin' there long ‘nough," muttered Bates, flexing his long, slim fingers. "Me shoulders was killin' me."

"Sorry, we were interrupted by an in-depth discussion on the nature of love. This way."

We left the skirting wall and took to the roofs. It was common territory for all of us; street urchins like Kerys treated the rooftops like a second street, and Bates would often sit on the roof for a quiet smoke once he'd crawled out of a chimney. For me, this was a familiar path, across the nocturnal rooftops of the Great Castle, heading for the twin towers of Heir's and Prince's. Back then, I'd usually been heading for Prince's Tower where Nicolo still lived, but tonight, Heir's was my target.

I couldn't be sure that the boy was still imprisoned there, but it did seem likely to me, and there was nowhere else to start. I'd broken into the royal apartment once before, and I hoped I'd be able to do so again, and this time with a better outcome.

"How long have we got?" asked Kerys as we huddled in the shadow of the tower.

"I can't see the clock but we made good time."

When the clock bell sounded midnight, all the attention of the guards in the Great Castle would be turned elsewhere as Gerda and her team attacked one of the lesser dining halls on the far edge of the castle. It wasn't an important room and wouldn't usually be so rigorously defended, but our contacts had told us that tonight, King Balduin would be there, gloating in amusement as one of his sisters was put to work as a maid, serving people whom she'd once looked down on.

It was rare to find Balduin at such an accessible part of the castle and it gave us an opportunity.

"Let's get moving."

On my last trip into Heir's Tower to try and rescue the boy (so much had changed since then!) I'd taken the direct route; I'd waited for Balduin to be out enjoying a night on the town, then I'd climbed the wall, forced his window open, and entered.

I'd been met by two guards who might have killed me if I hadn't been lucky. It was possible that, now that Balduin no longer lived in the tower, security had decreased, but if the boy was still here then someone had to be looking after him. Furthermore, if someone was looking after the child, it raised fewer questions to have that person in residence, rather than making a trip to an ‘empty' tower every day carrying food. If Balduin had placed someone on lookout, that person would have to be extremely loyal to Balduin and also a nasty, sadistic piece of scum to take on such a role, but there was no shortage of such people in Balduin's entourage. I figured it would be easiest for them to live in Balduin's now vacated apartment (which would also be a fitting reward for such loyalty). That meant that if I went in through the shuttered window again, there would be trouble. Last time that shuttered window had taken time for me to open, easily enough time for the guard to be called.