“I don’t see why we should lose a daughter when guards can do a perfectly good job.”
I groaned from my position outside the door. Despite having saved my father’s life three times, he still doubted my usefulness.
I heard nails tapping on wood from inside my father’s study, followed by my mother’s voice. “Kerani has proved invaluable to us. Do you want to take that chance?”
“There hasn’t been a successful assassination attempt in the Imperial Palace in years,” my father said. “A girl able to sense emotion and weapons around her wouldn’t have anything to do.”
“We’re speaking about our daughter’s life!” Mother snapped. “Kerani is our only protection against some power-hungry noble who wants his daughter to marry the Crown Prince.”
“The Emperor has sworn, as his duty as Emperor, to keep all members of his family safe,” Father said. “This includes those who will marry into the family. Kerani’s roll as a protector to her sister would become overshadowed by the guards.”
“Your job as leader of this family is to keep us safe,” Mother said coldly. “Yet Kerani has stopped more attempts on our lives than you give her credit for.”
“She stops maybe one attempt every year and a half,” Father retorted. “That’s with less guards than the palace.”
It was every six months, Father dear, I grumbled mentally. Between my sister, my father, and my brother when he’d been here, I would stop a threat that often, if not more. As Ranya’s marriage date approached, I was stopping threats once every few weeks.
“And,” he continued, “the palace will have more guards than we have available to us. The threats shall be lowered even more.”
“But the guards protect so many more people at the palace,” Mother said, almost forlorn. There was silence from behind the doors a moment, before she spoke again. “But what about Kerani’s training? She’s been only focusing on fighting for seven years.”
“Lessons with Ranya’s tutors will get her acting like a lady by the time she’s marrying age.” I heard my father get out of his chair. Only he in our family made it groan against the floor as he stood up. “Three years of this, until she turns eighteen, will be enough.”
I slid down the wall until I was sitting, shifting just a bit so my dagger hilt didn’t jab me in the stomach. I would have banged my head back against the wall if there was no risk my parents might hear. I did not want to get married.
There was a soft whisper from the cushion as my mother shifted. “But who would be interested in her?”
“There are several prospects,” Father said absently. “By the time Kerani reaches marrying age, Ranya should have produced an heir for the prince. Nobles will be begging to be related to the Imperial family, and Kerani will be in high demand.”
And that was why.
The countless meetings I had listened in on made it clear to me women were treated as tokens; nothing more than a way of getting political power. One reason I dedicated myself so diligently to my spy work: if I could prove my usefulness in protecting my family I could avoid the marriage trap. As much as I supported my sister in her marriage, it was not a fate I wanted for myself.
I cast my magic out to distract myself from the conversation happening on the other side of the wall. Sorting through the emotions of dozens of servants, guards, and nobles staying at the palace was sometimes a dizzying task, but it had proved useful so often I had practiced.
My eyes snapped open and I leapt to my feet. A blade was moving behind the walls, towards my sister’s room, wielded by greed. Assassins got paid on a kill, after all. I sprinted down the hall and found the entrance to a connecting passageway in an unused room. Ironic, I found, that these passages between rooms had been made to keep nobles safe. They were even kept lit for servants who sometimes chose to use them. Why there hadn’t been assassin traps built in was beyond me.
I saw a crack of light hit a shadowed profile. No warning for an attack, and there would be none. The servants were too good at oiling hinges. I slid to a stop just a few paces behind him. The small squeak my feet made was enough to get his attention. He spun to face me and paused just a moment. A moment I used to grip my dagger hilt, my little finger facing the blade. I’d let him attack first.
Just as I thought he would, the killer went to slit my throat by throwing his blade arm out, the edge facing my neck. He aimed too high for my height. I ducked under his swing and into his arms, drawing my dagger as I went to punch his jaw. My blade slashed his throat instead, and blood sprayed out of his arteries. My arm shielded my eyes from the worst of the spray; I could see his eyes grow dark and mouth drop open, trying to yell. I pushed his body forward with my blade so it wouldn’t land on me. He fell back with a wet thud. I shivered just slightly as the noise was amplified by the close quarters, making it sound like many more were falling. Ranya screamed from her room, and guards banged the doors open to reach her.
They would need to come into the passageway, if only to dispose of the body. I walked past him to the door and glanced at his face. Even in death he was somewhat handsome, with the blue eyes and blond hair of the Northerners in this province. Only a broken nose and a scar on his cheek marred his beauty—marks I had grown to associate with hired knives. I stepped in his blood and gave a silent prayer for his soul to rest in peace.
I pushed the door open and stayed in the shadows, not wanting a now-hysterical Ranya to see me covered in blood. The marble tile behind me would have to be cleaned— I pitied the servant who would get that task— and the walls had a handful of droplets from the assassin landing in a deep puddle. I hadn’t made this much of a mess killing in awhile.
Guards rushed in a few seconds after the door was open. They stood at the entrance, staring at the body.
“I took care of it,” I sighed.
The guards by the door jumped at the sound of my voice. Ranya’s sobs subsided, and she began calling for me.
“Cat! Please, tell me there’s nobody else. Are you hurt? Come out of that passage, please!”
“There’s nobody else, Ranya,” I said in the strongest tone I could manage. The exertion from the sprint was beginning to sink in. “You’ll be fine while I bathe.”
“Are you hurt?” she asked again. She was calmer now, at least. Thank the Phoenix.
I shook my head even though she couldn’t see. “I’m fine.”
One guard took the assassin’s body away, while two more went to guard Ranya’s door again. A final stayed behind and asked, “Are you just saying that?”
“So you know the way it is?” I whispered with a small laugh.
He frowned. “So you were fine to kill him?”
I stifled a sigh. So he hadn’t been talking about how bodyguards lied to their charge to calm hysterics. “Yes, I was. All this blood is his.”
“Your breathing?”
“I ran here from Father’s study.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “You’re sure you’re fine?”
“Yes, I’m sure I’m fine.”
He was about to say more, but my glare silenced him. He trotted away to guard the door with the others. I hadn’t encountered him before. He must have been from Father increasing guards around Ranya. How much good that had done was yet to be decided.
I left the scene and used secret passages to get to my room right next to Ranya’s. It would have been faster to go through Ranya’s rooms to my own, but she would have fainted from the blood. My dagger hilt was sticky in my hand, I didn’t dare sheath it until it was cleaned, and my skin was beginning to feel tight from the drying liquid. A bath was needed and welcomed.
But it can always be better!
