Assassin's End Read online

  He nodded.

  “What are you doing in Lower Town?”

  “What’s wrong with Lower Town?” he asked.

  “Nothing, but in my time in Elaeavn, the smiths all stayed as close to Upper Town and the money there as possible.”

  Lorst’s face darkened. “Yes. Well, things have changed since you were last in Elaeavn, Galen.”

  Cael reached for my hand under the table, and I glanced at her. Something made her nervous, but I didn’t know what it might be other than what I could sense from her.

  “How did a smith end up as an assassin in Cort?” I asked.

  “What makes you think I’m an assassin?”

  I laughed. “When stories about Lorst reach me in Eban, I would say that you are well known.”

  “Yes. The assassin Galen. A man of Elaeavn quite well-known outside the city.”

  “And here I’ve tried to keep to myself.”

  Lorst smiled darkly. “A fine job that you’ve done.”

  “And Lorst of Cort?”

  Lorst sniffed. “Lorst is a creation. A name that I assumed so that I could draw out a greater target.”

  “A greater target?” I repeated. “Orly?”

  Lorst grunted, somehow making it sound like a laugh. “Orly might seem like a big enough target to you in Eban, and in some ways, had it not been for Orly, we would never have learned of the crystal. I don’t know what he wanted with it, but he couldn’t be allowed to possess it.”

  “I wasn’t going to let him have it,” I said.

  “Yes. About that. I didn’t know that you intended to return it to the city. I thought—”

  “You thought I would sell it.”

  He shrugged. “I have some experience with others of the Forgotten.”

  I frowned and glanced around the tavern. The people who had been hiding under tables had come back out and sat drinking or dicing again. All made attempts to avoid looking our way. The musician continued to play, his flute dancing in a steady tune.

  The woman came back out from the kitchen, and her mouth turned into a tight frown when she saw Brusus still down. She hurried over to him and swept her hand across his forehead. “What happened to him?”

  “Nothing permanent,” I said. “Your man will be fine in another thirty minutes.”

  The woman—Alyse, I think Lorst had said—looked up at him, and he nodded. “He studied with Della.”

  She went to the back of the tavern and disappeared for a moment before returning with a pillow. I was surprised that Brusus had endeared himself to someone as he appeared to have. This was a man who had stolen from countless people in Lower Town. He was a man known to use people for what he wanted.

  “What do you mean that you’ve had some experience with the Forgotten?” I asked.

  Lorst frowned. “Only that.”

  I glanced at Cael. I had been outside of Elaeavn for years but had never encountered many others who were Forgotten like myself. There were others descended from Elaeavn, but who had lived outside the city for their entire lives. Most had limited abilities. Had they been raised in Elaeven, they’d be pale-eyed like Brusus and would have managed nothing more than the weakest abilities.

  “I haven’t met many other Forgotten.”

  “Hmm.”

  “Why would you need to create an identity?” I asked.

  Lorst frowned at me and then shook his head. “You really know nothing, don’t you, Galen? You who’ve lived outside the city, experienced more than most who venture beyond the borders of Elaeavn, is nearly as naïve as those who never leave.”

  I touched my pocket, running my fingers across the darts. I had never thought of myself as sheltered, but that was what Lorst implied. I had studied with Isander and traveled to many of the great cities before heading to Eban on my own, beginning my career as an assassin there. And still, I had no idea what he meant.

  “Who did you think wanted the crystal?” Lorst asked.

  I glanced at Cael, but she shook her head. “I couldn’t discover what he wanted. I barely managed to get it back.”

  Lorst shot her a look. “Back?”

  “I’m the reason the crystal was lost,” she said. “During my Saenr.”

  “Yes. We know that. Tell me, what did you see?”

  She frowned but surprised me by answering. She hadn’t even told me much about what had happened with the crystal and how she had come to end up in Eban with it. “The Saenr is a celebration for the Elvraeth. A rite of passage. I was brought to the room and saw the crystals. One of them… called… to me. When I took it—”

  “You saw the Great Watcher,” Lorst said.

  Cael gasped softly. “How do you know?”

  “I’ve held one of the crystals. I didn’t lose it when I did.”

  “How could you have reached one of the crystals? You are not Elvraeth. Only the Elvraeth are allowed access—”

  “Only the Elvraeth think they have access,” Lorst said. “But the crystals don’t allow just anyone to hold them. That is the power they possess. Even among the Elvraeth, isn’t that right?”

  Cael nodded. “From what my father tells me, few understand why all the Elvraeth aren’t able to hold them. But for those who do, they’re changed. And they’re the among the only ones eligible to sit among the council.”

  “I didn’t know that, but it makes sense,” Lorst said. “There’s something about your bloodline that’s important.” He had taken on a more conversational tone, and I watched him, realizing how little I knew about him. Here was a man of such raw power that he could defeat me almost without moving, and I considered myself a dangerous assassin. I wondered what would happen were he to face off against Carth. “The watcher’s blood,” Lorst went on.

  “And you have the watcher’s blood?” I asked.

  “I didn’t think so. I went to the crystals wanting to understand why the Forgotten and Venass wanted them. When I reached them, and found what they were, and the power that they allowed, I understood.”

  Venass. There was a term I’d heard before, but the last time had been when I’d been tangled up in the business with Carth. Why would Lorst know about them?

  “What happened when you held the crystal?” Cael asked in a whisper.

  Lorst leaned forward. “The same as you, I suspect. I saw the Great Watcher, sat next to him, as he gave me a vision.”

  “What vision?” Cael asked.

  I wondered what vision she had when she held the crystal. Whatever it had been, she hadn’t shared with me.

  Lorst didn’t get the chance to answer.

  Brusus started to stir, waking with a start. He looked to me, and then Lorst. “What happened, Rsiran?”

  “Rsiran?” I asked.

  Lorst smiled at me. “Haven’t you been paying attention, Galen? I told you that Lorst was the name I took for a purpose, but it’s not my name. Not my real name, at least.”

  “You’re Rsiran,” I said, suddenly realizing how very little that I understood. In that, he had been more right than I knew.

  “That’s me. And now that you know, Galen, I still want to know what Della thinks you can do that will help.”

  As I sat there, I decided there might not be much I could do that would help.

  3

  The sea held the same salt that I remembered from my youth, mixed with the stink of fish and the filth of Lower Town. As I stood along the shores, I realized how little I had missed Elaeavn. Eban had never been all that much better, but there was a peace to be had moving along the rooftops, and an understanding between those who would move in the shadows and those who preferred the daylight. After all the time away from Elaeavn, I knew which was me.

  “This was a mistake,” I said.

  Cael crouched on the shores, staring out at the water. As one of the Elvraeth, likely she had rarely been down to the shore. Few of the Elvraeth ever left the palace, let alone made their way down to Lower Town. “It’s my fault. You came because of me.”

  “That wasn�
��t the mistake.”

  She faced me, the falling sunlight spilling across her face, and I knew that I could do nothing more than what she asked of me. I would stay here in Elaeavn if that were what she wanted, or I would leave, travel throughout the world, even back to Eban if that were what it required.

  “I’m sorry to pull you back into this.”

  I chuckled. “This? This wasn’t anything that you did.”

  I still didn’t understand everything that was taking place in Elaeavn. More than I had ever imagined. And somehow Lorst—Rsiran, I guess was his real name—was in the middle of it all.

  “They mentioned the Forgotten,” Cael said.

  I sniffed. “I’m Forgotten.”

  She shook her head. “When we returned to the city, and I went to my father, seeking your pardon, but he wouldn’t listen, I didn’t understand at first. I thought that he was angry, that all he wanted was to keep you out of my life, but his anger is deeper than that. He feared you, Galen.”

  “I haven’t done anything to make him fear me,” I said. “Other than wanting to be with you, but why should he fear me for that?”

  “That’s not what he fears. There is something about you—not just you, but the Forgotten—that he fears. I don’t understand, but when Lorst mentioned the Forgotten, I knew there had to be a connection.”

  I shook my head. When we had returned, and then I had been rescued from Ilphaesn by Lorst, I thought that we would end up working with them. I thought that we would need to, especially with what had happened when Lorst had battled the other Slider, but that hadn’t been the case. Until Della had sent us to the tavern, I hadn’t seen Lorst again.

  “Whatever they’re involved in is greater than me,” I said.

  Cael took my hand. “It’s greater than all of us. Greater than them, too, I think. That’s the reason Della wanted your help. When I went to her, suggesting that she find a way to rescue you from the mines, I caught a glimpse of something with her.”

  “You Read Della?”

  Della was unique, and unlike most who lived in Lower Town. She was capable in ways that few others ever managed. Not only did she possess an ability with Healing, but I think she could Read as well. Few other than the Elvraeth were gifted with more than one ability, but Della certainly was, and strongly at that.

  More than that, Della knew things. Not only about healing, and about herbs and medicines, but she had an understanding about things that extended beyond what one would expect from someone confined to Lower Town.

  “I didn’t Read her. You can’t Read one of the Elvraeth the same way you can Read others, Galen, especially those who have held the crystal.”

  “Like Lorst,” I said. I still couldn’t think of him as Rsiran. It was a strange name, but carried with it the hint of the smith guild, as if the guild themselves named him.

  Cael’s eyes narrowed. “And Lorst,” she agreed. “He shouldn’t be able to reach the crystal, Galen. I don’t know much about it, other than that I was only given access because of the Saenr, but he somehow managed to reach it.”

  “There’s more to Lorst than I ever realized.” The floating knives were a testament to that. I’d only seen something like that one time before, and that had been when Carth secured her truce with Orly in Eban. There were assassins with her, men from a place called Hjan who had been nearly more than I was able to overcome. “Just like there’s more to Della.”

  “And this man Josun now possesses the crystal.”

  Light shimmered, and I quickly grabbed a pair of darts as Lorst appeared on the shore a dozen steps from me. “How did you find us?”

  He smiled. “I have my ways, Galen.”

  “Brusus has recovered sufficiently?”

  “As you promised. Della tells me he was never in any danger from coxberry.”

  “That’s why I use it,” I said.

  He stepped forward, shimmering slightly as he did. “But you’re an assassin.”

  I laughed. It was my turn to taunt him. “You really don’t know anything about me, do you, Lorst?”

  One of his knives floated into the air and spun as if an invisible hand held it. “Maybe neither of us knows all that much about the other.” He glanced at Cael, and then back at me. “But Della seems to trust you. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t trust you to do anything. You’re nothing more than an assassin.”

  I started to smile, and the knife spun toward me. “I’m the assassin who managed to beat you, didn’t I?”

  “Yes. That proves my point.”

  “And what point is that, Lorst?” I asked. “You’re the one who came into Eban—my home. You attacked Cael. You took Orly’s job. I would say that you’re little different than me.”

  His brow furrowed. Something that I said bothered him.

  “What is it that you’re all after?” I asked.

  “You know what we’re after.”

  “This is about more than the crystal.” Were it only the crystal, I’d probably help. The Great Watcher knew that I understood how important it was to gain control of the crystal, especially after what Cael had shared with me, but Lorst was into something worse than only the crystal.

  He looked up toward the palace. From here along the shores of Lower Town, the palace had some of the intended effect, making it almost seem to float above us. “There’s a struggle for power taking place, Galen. One that threatens this city.”

  I glanced at Cael, but she remained silent. She chose to watch Lorst, but said nothing. “Let me tell you a little bit about myself,” I told Lorst. “When I came to Eban, there were five different thief-masters, each wanting their control over the city. After I had taken a few jobs, there were four. Over time, fewer and few of the thief-masters remained until only Orly was left.”

  “Do you think you’re going to impress me with how you helped him gain power?”

  “No. I think to share with you that power is fleeting. Orly has power now, but he won’t always. He can’t. Someone will come along who might be more ruthless or who has better connections or maybe Orly simply gets sick and his territory falls apart. It doesn’t matter. It’s never mattered, not to me. There would always be another job. And eventually the winds would change, and the power would shift, and someone new would take over. That’s how these things work.”

  Lorst arched a brow. “You’re comparing Elaeavn to a simple thief-master?”

  “If you think Orly is simple, then you didn’t know him long enough.”

  “I didn’t know him at all. He put out a call for assassins. The name Lorst helped with that. I came to your Eban, and when I discovered just what it was that he wanted, I realized that I found what I’d been searching for.”

  Cael looked toward the water, avoiding Lorst’s eyes. More than that, she avoided my eyes. “How long have you been searching for the crystal?”

  “We knew when it went missing. I started searching for it, but something happened. Della lost track and the others…”

  “The Elvraeth?”

  “The Elvraeth don’t really guard the crystals, Galen.”

  I laughed. “No? Then who does?”

  This time, he laughed. “And you made fun of me for how little I know. You were exiled. Forgotten. But you were not one of the Forgotten.”

  My fingers pinched the darts, the irritation that I felt surging within me briefly. “Careful, Lorst. You know nothing about what it’s like to be exiled, sent from the only home that you ever knew.”

  “I know more than you realize. But that’s not the point. The Forgotten. Elvraeth exiled from the Elaeavn. Not those with simple abilities. They gathered, gaining strength, working together, with the intent to one day return.”

  “And that’s why this crystal was taken?”

  “The Forgotten were destroyed. Most of them, at least. A few remain, enough that they cause us trouble.”

  “Josun?”

  Lorst nodded. “Josun. I thought he was dead once. And now I can’t catch him to kill him.”

>   “But you’re the great Lorst, assassin gifted with the ability to Slide.”

  “Yes. And he knows who I am. Nothing I do scares him. Worse, he’s gone to a darker place, one where he can learn about other abilities, those he should not possess.”

  I thought of the Hjan and their masters in Venass. Before Lorst had mentioned them, it had been years since I’d thought much about their assassins. Years since I remembered the terror that I’d felt facing them, the uncertainty whether I would make it out alive. They had more skills than I possessed. The only thing that had helped had been my Sight.

  Within Elaeavn, Sight wasn’t considered an especially potent ability. There were varying levels of Sight, some with little more than hyper acute vision, while others could see in darkness as well as if it were light. I fell on the latter end of the spectrum. There were Sighted more gifted than myself, but I’d trained myself to use that ability in ways that few of Elaeavn ever attempted. That was what had made me an especially skilled assassin.

  “Where has he taken the crystal?” I asked.

  Lorst frowned. “That’s the question we need answered. And I think I understand why Della wanted me to work with you. She trusts you, even after all these years.”

  I met his eyes and held his gaze. I could tell that he knew nothing—nothing—about what had happened with Della. I owed that woman more than a man like Lorst could ever understand, even though I hated that I had taken the knowledge that she’d given me and had twisted it in ways that made me a terrifyingly effective assassin.

  “I never gave her any reason not to trust me,” I said softly.

  Lorst held my gaze for a long moment and then looked away. He cleared his throat and pulled the knife back to his hand, stuffing it into his pocket. For all his posturing, there was a level of uncertainty about him that surprised me. When he’d said that Lorst was a creation for a purpose, I hadn’t expected that he had created everything about the name, but what if Lorst wasn’t even an assassin?

  It would change much of what I had thought of him. But then, it would explain much as well. I wouldn’t expect Della to have an assassin with her. Knowing what she thought of Isander, I doubted that she would have ever willingly kept someone like that too close.