The Painted Girl: An Assassin's Sight Story Read online

  CONTENTS

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Author

  Bibliography

  The Painted Girl: An Assassin’s Sight Story

  By D.K. Holmberg

  Copyright © 2014 by D.K. Holmberg

  Published by ASH Publishing

  Cover art copyright © 2014 Vila Design

  Book design copyright © 2014 ASH Publishing

  Disclaimer: The book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  ASH Publishing

  www.dkholmberg.com

  CHAPTER ONE

  The long dart stuck out from the back of my leg, quivering as the muscle spasmed. Already the leg was numb where it had struck; soon enough the toxin would spread to the rest of my body. How long did I have before it reached my lungs and I stopped breathing?

  At least the dart was old, leaving the toxin too dry—otherwise I would be nearly dead already.

  “Who sent you?” The boy practically screamed at me, his voice raw and ragged. Flint gray eyes were wide with cold fury as he held my pouch of darts.

  Pulling the dart from my thigh, I rolled it between my fingers and stepped fully into the room. As usual, the motion soothed my nerves and calmed the throbbing in my head where he had hit me. My head still hurt from where he had hit me, dazing me just long enough to grab my pouch.

  I took a steadying breath and stood, turning to face him. My dark cloak spun with the movement. A shame it had been useless against his throw; usually the cloak provided better protection.

  Lucky, that. Few managed the skill needed to throw these darts. That was part of what made them so useful to me. None had ever taken my pouch from me.

  The rented room around us was small and dark and smelled of sweat and fear. I scanned it quickly, my Sight—my gift from the Great Watcher—allowing me to See through the darkness, hoping to learn more about this man I’d been hired to kill.

  So far, I’d made a mess of it.

  A small closed window let in some little amount of light, filtering through smudged and dusty glass. Dirty clothes were scattered atop the bed. A brown rucksack wadded next to them threatened to spill onto the floor. A half loaf of bread and a dried hunk of cheese sat on a table. Otherwise the room was empty.

  “Does it matter who sent me?” I strained to keep my voice even. My leg drained of sensation, as if dipped in icy cold water. Another few moments and I wouldn’t be able to walk. A few more and I wouldn’t be able to talk.

  I needed that pouch back.

  “Of course it matters!” The sound would penetrate through the door, but the noise in the tavern made it so that he would not be heard. “I have a right to know!” He waved my pouch in front of him as he yelled.

  Inwardly, I cringed. The vials within the brown leather pouch could easily unstopper, spilling their contents and wasting months of savings. I couldn’t afford such a loss, not at this time with real work so difficult to find.

  “Davin sent me.” He deserved to know. If he was to die, he should know why. “What did you do?”

  I moved casually, shifting my cloak as I did to draw attention from the leg that had stopped working as it should.

  How much longer would I be able to stand?

  The question caught him off guard and he blinked. He had a narrow face and the rough start of a beard, the growth ragged and without the harsh bristle he would get if he aged. Short, dark hair stood up from his head. Sweat beaded along his brow and the corners of his mouth twitched. Without my Sight, I doubted I would see how nervous he still was.

  Little more than a boy. What had he done to draw Davin’s attention?

  “You don’t know?” he asked.

  I shook my head. I never knew, not at first. Always before the end, though.

  “I…I took something from him.” There was a note of defiance in his voice that was different than what I had first heard. He was harder than I expected.

  “Took what?”

  His eyes narrowed as he frowned. “Why do you need to know?” A note of hope entered his voice.

  Had he known who I was, that wouldn’t have been the case.

  I shrugged, shuffling forward slightly. “That wasn’t why he hired me.”

  “Then why do you care?”

  I turned toward him and smiled, showing him a flash of teeth. He cringed. I didn’t know if it was the smile or my eyes. Usually it was my eyes. Few expected one of the Elaeavn. By the time they realized what I was, it was usually too late.

  “Maybe I’m just curious,” I answered.

  I reached the bed and fell onto it. Clothes that had been piled there were swept onto the floor on the other side. I watched his face, making certain he couldn’t tell I was nearly incapacitated. I needed him to come closer—just enough so that I could grab the pouch.

  He hadn’t been paying attention, looking past me toward the door.

  I considered lunging toward him but he was just out of reach. There wasn’t much time left before I couldn’t move at all; now my stomach felt numb. I still had sensation in one leg, though I couldn’t count on that lasting. I would have to push off with my arms before I lost all strength.

  “She’s nothing to him. Just someone to…” He trailed off, unable to finish.

  “Who?”

  “You really know nothing,” he said, sounding surprised.

  I shrugged. “I wasn’t hired to know. Just to kill.” Even with the terad working through me, the tone of my voice was hard, but he seemed to overlook it.

  “Don’t you even care?” He took a step toward me, waving the pouch. Like so many, anger made him less cautious.

  “I’m talking to you, Jaylen.”

  He hesitated as I said his name.

  That was all that I had when I was hired—a name and nothing more. The name as it was written on the small slip of parchment flashed before my eyes: Jaylen Baruchen. It was how most assassins worked. Given a name—a target—and the rest was up to the assassin. It remained to be seen whether he was lucky or unlucky I was not like most assassins.

  He met my eyes briefly before looking away. Fear mixed with the rage.

  I didn’t blame him. Had I not had terad toxin pumping through my body, I would easily have overpowered him. I had a good two hands in height over him; but more than that, where I was lean muscle he appeared simply lean.

  “Only because I stabbed you with your dart.”

  I suppressed a smile, hiding the strange relief I felt. At least he hadn’t managed to throw the dart at me. I don’t know why I took such twisted pride in having darts only I could use. There was a technique, practiced countless times under the tutelage of Isander before I managed to do it well, that would only anger me if he’d gotten lucky on his first toss.

  “You think that’s the only reason I ask?”

  He glanced at me and then the door before finally nodding.

  Almost too late, I realized I needed to move even more quickly than I had thought.

  He was waiting for someone.

  If they arrived while I was limited, I wouldn’t have the time to reach the antidote hidden in the pouch.

  “Who is she?” I said softly.

  “What?”

  “Who is she?” I repeated, whispering this time.

  He took a
step toward me and leaned in.

  That was the opening that I needed.

  Pushing off the bed with my arms, I swung my hands and wrapped them around his neck. My weight and dead legs pulled us both to the ground, lying in a pile behind the door, blocking it. The pouch went flying out of his grip, lying near the bed.

  I prayed to the Great Watcher that my stores remained intact.

  Leaning a forearm across his chest, I pushed up.

  His eyes went wide, and his mouth worked soundlessly until I realized I leaned on his throat. With the paralysis setting in, releasing some of the pressure was not easy.

  A fit of coughing overwhelmed him. “Please,” he begged. “Let me at least say goodbye before you take her back to him!”

  I blinked. “She’s here?”

  He nodded.

  Damn.

  Keeping one hand gripped around his throat, I pulled myself over to the bed and grabbed my pouch. Flipping it open, I swallowed. Most of the vials had shattered when the pouch was dropped. Months of collections gone.

  All I needed was one.

  Thumbing through the side of the pouch, I found what I was looking for and pulled it out.

  My heart sank when I looked at it. The vial was cracked.

  My breathing came shallower. I knew what would happen next. I had seen it often enough. When my breathing stopped altogether, I would suffocate. That was how terad worked, slowly stealing the muscle’s ability to work until, at last, your breathing stopped. Painless, but terrifying.

  Jaylen whimpered next to me. I released my grip on his neck and he took a gasping breath of air as he skittered away, backing into the door.

  If I was to die, I didn’t need to take him with me.

  My breathing stopped.

  Darkness crept at the edge of my vision, tunneling inward. Had I done enough in this life to please the Great Watcher? After what I had done—the reason I was banished from my home, left to live among people that were not my own—I doubted so.

  The last of my strength seeped from me, like the sea washing away from the shores of my youth.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Strange visions flashed before my eyes, colors swirling that should not be there. Darkness hovered at the edge of my vision, threatening to close in around me. Perhaps this was the fate I deserved, losing my Sight in the last moments of my life.

  I blinked and the colors cleared.

  Then I looked at the cracked vial again. This time, I actually Saw it.

  The top of the glass vial had a jagged crack. Where I thought there had just been glass, that thick liquid had all escaped, I Saw differently.

  My heart thudded loudly.

  Though the vial had been cracked, only the top had damage. Some antidote remained.

  I pulled it toward my lips with shaking hands, arms threatening not to work. Somehow I managed to reach my lips. Dimly, I felt the cracked top of the vile pierce the flesh of my lip. With the last of my energy, I sucked what remained of the antidote out of the vial.

  Bitterness curled my tongue. I savored in it.

  Heartbeats passed. Long moments as my breathing slowly returned, the band around my chest easing.

  Taking a deep breath, I flicked my eyes open and looked around, expecting Jaylen to have bolted. It was what he should have done.

  Instead, he crouched along the door, watching me nervously but without the same fear that he had watched with before. Shadows flickered beneath the door.

  I pushed myself off the floor feeling shaky and weak, but even that faded quickly as the effects of the toxin were countered. “Get up.” My voice was thready and I coughed.

  He shook his head. “No. If you’re going to kill me, then you’ll have to do it while I sit here.”

  I stared at him, uncertain whether he was being brave or stupid. Possibly a bit of both, I decided. “Don’t worry. When it’s time, I’ll kill you wherever you are.” He flinched at the coldness of my words. I tipped my head toward the door. “Get up or you can’t let her in.”

  Gray eyes narrowed with confusion and he looked from me to the door.

  There was a soft knock and he jumped, getting to his feet more quickly than I would have suspected and backed away from me. “How did you—”

  I moved toward the door, careful to hide the hint of weakness that remained. I didn’t know how long I would feel it; the effects of the terad toxin weren’t thought to be permanent, though few enough survived poisoning to make studying it worthwhile.

  He cowered away from me, backing toward the door. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to open the door,” I said. “You are going to welcome her inside. Then we talk.”

  With a sudden surge of courage, he flung himself at the door, as if to block me from opening it. “Just me. All they wanted was me.”

  “How do you know what they wanted?”

  I pulled the door open with him clinging to it. Had I not still been weakened, it would have opened easily, even with him there. As it was, I grunted against him.

  A woman stood on the other side. A girl really, and likely barely old enough to leave her father’s house. Straight blond hair dropped in front of blue-green eyes. I stared for a moment before realizing it was only the trick of the light; she was not of Elaeavn and had no abilities. Pale stains still streaked across her face, like faded attempts to paint herself to look like the older women.

  Thinner than the man on the other side of the door, at least her shorter height made her more proportionate. She wore a long pleated golden dress of the style popular here in Eban, but the cut of her neckline gave her away; it was not nearly as revealing as most preferred to wear. She stood hesitantly, awkwardly thrusting her chest forward as if I should notice her lack of cleavage.

  The girl looked at me with alarm, her eyes going as wide as Jaylen’s, her expression so much like his. I grabbed her and pulled her into the room, throwing her toward him as I slammed the door closed behind her. She gasped softly as she was tossed into the room.

  Was it resignation I Saw written on her face?

  “Your sister, I presume?”

  She met his eyes with the same look of fear I’d seen on him at first. Then he nodded. “Are you going to kill us both?”

  “Give me a reason why I shouldn’t.”

  “He didn’t do anything wrong. Do what you want with me but leave him alone!” the girl cried. “I’ll go with you! Just take me back to him and let him go.”

  He pushed her behind him, as if to protect her from me. I couldn’t help but smile.

  Quicker than I thought him capable, he kicked, connecting with my thigh. Had I not just been poisoned, I doubted the kick would have done much. As it was, it nearly staggered me.

  I snatched his foot out of the air and twisted. Thinking I was still weakened, I put extra force into the movement, spinning him roughly in the air until he fell in a heap next to his sister, his nose bloodied where it struck the ground, leaving a crimson stain on the rough wooden floor. He moaned a moment and then fell silent.

  At least now I could focus on his sister.

  She stared at her brother with wide-eyed horror before turning her attention to me. Her face rolled through a tide of emotions. Anger. Confusion. Fear. And then acceptance.

  That last lingered.

  “Do what you want with me,” she said.

  I frowned. It wasn’t want I expected her to say. “Why did you come for him?”

  She glanced down at him. I noticed that she shifted to cover her brother, moving so that her dress bloomed out around him to block him from my view. No cowardice in that family, I had to give them that.

  “Leave him be. I’ll do whatever you want, just leave him.” She touched her lips, a sign of seduction in Eban, and blinked up at me.

  I began to understand what she was. “That wasn’t the assignment.”

  “What was the assignment?”

  I nodded to her brother.

  “Who are you?”

  “I
sn’t it obvious?” I asked. “Davin sent me for him. What did he take?”

  Her eyes darted to where he lay huddled on the ground. “Nothing of value.”

  I grunted. “If that were true, I wouldn’t have been hired.”

  She turned sharply and her eyes went wide. For just a moment, I could have sworn they flashed with the same green that mine did as I used my Sight. I slammed up the barriers in my mind just in case. No sense in letting a Reader wander through my thoughts.

  Her face didn’t change. Not a Reader then.

  She blinked her eyes at me a few times. It was a gesture I recognized from the whores in the taverns as they tried to seduce their men. Strange that this girl would want to mimic them.

  “What did he take from Davin?” I asked again.

  Her eyes fell closed. The corners twitched slightly. She bit softly at her lower lip as she considered answering. It made her look younger, more childlike. Nothing like the paint wiped off her face would imply. “It was a necklace,” she began, brushing her hair out of her face as she answered. She bit on the inside of her lip again and looked away. “It was my mother’s.”

  “Why did Davin have it?” I found it hard to believe Davin had sent me after this boy for just a necklace.

  She shook her head.

  “I need more than that.” I leaned toward her and she cringed. I wondered if she was more afraid of my height or my deep green eyes that named me as one from Elaeavn.

  “Why do you care?”

  It was the question I asked myself with each job I took. “How did he get the necklace?”

  “He—he bought it.” She touched her lips again, tilting toward me awkwardly.

  I frowned. This was going to be unfortunate if I had to kill them both. Not that it would be difficult. Her brother had managed to surprise me—twice even—but as the terad worked its way out of my system I felt more like myself. Unfortunately for him, I had years of experience doing what I did. If he had lied to me, then my part was easy. A flick of the wrist, a dart flying, and he would be done. Then I could collect my payment.