Caracara's Hunt

He looked up from his desk and put away the scroll he was reading. There wasn"t going to be anymore studying with the princess around.

"If the king orders, then that is what I will do."

Kyla huffed and jumped onto his knees, hugging his neck. "I don"t want you to go! You"re gonna die!"

"What"s this about?" he asked, a little surprised.

Although Kyla was clingy to the max, she didn"t have the tendency to proclaim his death. The other time she had done it, he had really stood at death"s door and had even taken a step inside before the Archmage decided to pull him back.

The girl tightened her hands around his neck, holding onto him as if he was going to disappear at any moment. "His hatred, it"s only growing," she whispered in his ear. "I"m afraid even you won"t be able to make it out this time."

The dark pit in Corwal"s mind shuddered slightly, but he forced it to remain steady. It wasn"t the first time he had been sent on a mission with the purpose to get killed. Every time, however, he had managed to find a way out, the only road leading to success.

There was no reason why his luck should run out. It was bound to happen at some point in time, but not necessarily right then.

After all, he had just survived a self-destruction of someone as powerful as Arawn. A third of highest-ranked Bretian n.o.bles had died along with many foreign dignitaries, while he, who was next to the center of the explosion, had survived. That had to count for something.

Or maybe it just meant that he used up all his remaining luck in one sitting.

"I overheard a conversation," Kyla said in a soft voice. "He was brokering a deal with an a.s.sa.s.sin guild."

"He wanted you to hear it," Corwal noted, feeling his stomach drop. "And then to tell it to me."

The girl pulled away from him and looked at his face. Her eyes were limpid green, a perfect match for the king"s, but where his were always mocking and gloating, hers was a lake overgrown with algae. It could be hiding nothing at all, or the whole world.

Kyla smiled at him and nodded. "I know."

"And yet you"re still here, telling it to me."

"Because if I don"t, you"ll never forgive me," the girl said with a frown. Her whole face scrunched up in distaste. She lifted her small hands and placed them on his cheeks. "Promise me, promise me you won"t get yourself killed the moment I tell it to you."

Corwal placed his hands over hers and attempted a rea.s.suring smile despite not feeling all that confident. "I promise to do everything I can to not get myself killed. Is that good enough?"

"Not really. I don"t trust you, but that"s probably the best you can do." Kyla huffed and made herself more comfortable on his knees. "The a.s.sa.s.sins are for your orphans: Eliot, Mutallu, and Arawn. The hunters for the rest have been sent weeks ago."

"I thought he wanted them alive, to be killed in front of me…" Corwal muttered to himself.

He had expected that he would feel like the world was ending when he heard what he had already guessed, but all he felt was an emptiness in his heart. There seemed to be a limit to how many times a heart could break down before it just didn"t bother to pick itself up again.

"That was before. You angered him now, and they made a fool of him by escaping. Not one of them died when they were supposed to. Father feels cheated."

The king and his entourage were scheduled to leave in a week"s time, which meant Corwal had a week to find a way to help the children. But what could he do without giving himself away? The king was most certainly just waiting for a mistake on his part. Otherwise, he would have invited Corwal in for the meeting and made him watch the a.s.sa.s.sins leave while he was ordered not to get in their way.

"Thank you for letting me know," he said in the end.

A mocking smile appeared on the girl"s face. Her worries weren"t unfounded. She might have just sent him to get himself killed, but she was also right that he would have never forgiven her if she hadn"t told him what awaited the people he had saved and brought up.

For a moment, he watched her and wondered how she was only thirteen. Not all adults would be able to understand when they were being used by others, but she did. Her mind was as sharp as a newly forged dagger.

But then what about her childhood? Did she even know what it meant to be a child?

She clung to him like someone so young should, but he had a feeling that even that wasn"t genuine. She needed allies, and with the king ruling everyone with an iron fist, her options were limited. There was no one better for her to choose instead of him.

"Do you wanna go out?" he asked suddenly, before he could think better of it.

"Go out?" Kyla asked with a tilt of her head. There were a thousand questions in her expression.

Feeling a little crazy, Corwal nodded. For most of his life, he had helped strangers without asking for anything in return. Yet he had never thought to turn his head around and look back. His blood might be poison, but Kyla was no worse than any other child, and she hadn"t had anyone to rely on even once in her life.

Her mother was a princess from Illuyanka, come to strengthen the alliance between the two countries, but she was a sheltered young woman. Within a year, she had went crazy and run back to her home country without even bringing her daughter with her.

This had strained the relations between the two countries, but there was still Kyla. She was held up like a beacon of truce and kept protected like a hostage. The king found her existence annoying, but her role as a symbol served a purpose, so he left her alone. No one was allowed to bother her.

"Today"s market day, so we could steal outside for a few hours. What do you think?" Corwal suggested.

His words stunned the girl. She stared at him with wide-open eyes, obviously trying to puzzle out his intentions. There weren"t any, so she was having a hard time with it.

"Why bring me along?" she asked in the end. "If you need to contact anyone, it"s going to be easier to do it alone."

Corwal smiled and ruffled her hair. "I need time to think of what to do, and I thought to have some company in the meantime. If you don"t want to, just say it."

"I want! I want!" the girl shouted out as her gaze lit up with joy. A true smile stretched across her face, and she jumped off his knees to run to the door. "Wait for me! I"m gonna change and be right back! Ten minutes!"

Once she was gone, Corwal"s expression hardened. He glanced over his desk, then pulled out a scroll from one of the drawers. The names of all noteworthy a.s.sa.s.sin guilds in the capital were written there, and he quickly went over them.

Most he knew were too cowardly or small to take business all over the country and even leave its borders. Only three could fit that bill: Moon Slayers, b.l.o.o.d.y Hatchet, and Cloaked Dagger.

Moon Slayers was a small but efficient guild. They took any job anywhere as long as the payment made it worth their time. Their leader was an unknown that managed to keep themselves hidden even from the hounds. It was quite the achievement, which made Corwal wary of them.

b.l.o.o.d.y Hatchet was a lot more straightforward. Their leader was a former army general who had been released because of his atrocities. He enjoyed torturing his victims, cutting them up limb by limb to see how long they"d survive. His temper was notorious for being horrible, and he sometimes attacked even his own men.

He should have been sent to prison, but someone informed him, and he escaped the day before he was to be captured. After that, he started a murdering business and was quite successful at it. His a.s.sa.s.sinations were more like ma.s.sacre scenes than anything, but as long as he got the job done, many n.o.bles didn"t care how he did it.

Cloaked Dagger was the perfect opposite. They were hard to hire and more expensive than some fiefdoms, but when they got to the job, no one would know what had happened. Unlike their name suggested, they never killed by cold weapons. Instead, invisible poison was the way to go for them.

From this list, Corwal leaned toward b.l.o.o.d.y Hatchet based on the king"s enjoyment of a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre, but he couldn"t be sure. He had to incapacitate all three if he wanted to ensure the safety of his children.

A dozen ideas flashed through his mind, but none were good enough. What would make the leaders recall their operatives from the field?

He could get the locations of their strongholds and attack them, but they might just scatter. If he tried to bribe someone, they would just laugh at him. He might be a hound, but it was a king they had made a deal with. Their life would become really uncomfortable if they made him angry.

What then… What then… There had to be a way to force them to withdraw their people.

As he thought about that, his doors were thrown open, and Kyla rushed in with ruddy cheeks. "You didn"t leave yet?" she asked through heavy pants. Only when her eyes landed on him sitting still at the desk did she let out a long breath. "You"re still here." Then her expression grew a little guarded. "You didn"t change your mind, did you?"

"No," Corwal said with a smile.

He just had an idea how to stop the guilds. The cloak on the girl"s shoulders reminded him of a reward any a.s.sa.s.sin would sell their family for. If he publicized that, how many would remain cold and aloof?

With a flourish, he stood up and picked up his coat from a nearby chair. Since the day he was named crown prince, his face had become recognizable in the streets, but a pair of gla.s.ses and a fancy cap were enough to hide him. His had stood quite far from the general populace for commonfolk to get a good look at him.

"Let"s go then," he told the girl, and she closed the door behind herself.

Corwal stepped to a wall-length mirror and pushed a handle behind it. With a creak, the wall pulled away, opening a dark corridor inside. Kyla swiftly rushed inside while pulling the ether to herself. She stole the flame from the candle Corwal had forgotten on his desk and brought it over to light their way.

He smiled at her enthusiasm and entered the hidden pa.s.sageway after her. The door closed behind them with nary a sound, cutting them off from the main castle.

The king would of course learn of it, but by that time, they would already be outside. For a couple hours, they would be free.