Assassin's Curse (27 page)

Mirabelle clenched her fists.
 
“No!” she screamed.
 
“How can you reward this murderer?
 
He killed Bruno.”

Natasha whirled on her sister.
 
“You would be wise to hold your tongue, Sister.
 
Your accusations are baseless and I will not have you spreading dissenting lies around the camp.
 
Do you understand me?”

Mirabelle wilted under her sister’s angry glare.
 
“Yes.”

“Good.”
 
She turned back to Jeda.
 
“As Master of the Knife, you are an integral part of the family and, as such, I am awarding you the Master of the Knife wagon.”

“But, that’s my wagon,” Mirabelle cried before she realized what she was saying.
 
If there had been any doubt that she was sleeping with Bruno while he had pursued Keisha, that doubt was now gone.

“Your wagon?” Natasha asked.

“What I mean is that, um, I have some of my things in that wagon,” she said wringing her hands.

“You best remove your personal things from the wagon then,” Natasha said.
 
“You have one hour.”

Mirabelle started to protest, but thought better of it.
 
She marched off in a huff toward Bruno’s wagon to retrieve her things.

“Welcome to the family, Jeda.
 
I hope that you and your children will be happy with us,” Natasha said.

Jeda nodded at Natasha.
 
“Thank you, Natasha.
 
I’m honored to hold the position of Master of the Knife and am looking forward to contributing my fair share to the family.”

The rest of the family came up to offer their congratulations and welcome to Jeda.
 
In the background could be heard Mirabelle’s ranting as she removed everything of value from Bruno’s wagon.

Elizabeth found herself once again in her sister’s private study contemplating her next move.
 
Though she knew the twins would not be useful to her until they became young women, the fact they had not been sighted in two years was becoming worrisome.
 

Has it truly been that long?
 
Over two years?
 
Time flies while I sit here pandering to the uncertainties of incompetent simpletons.

It was actually closer to three years since the day the twins were abducted by their would-be rescuer.
 
Elizabeth rued the day that Catherine had enlisted the help of the assassin’s guild to find the twins.
 
No good had come of that rash act.
   

I should have stopped her when she first mentioned it.
 
I knew it was wrong, even back then.
 

The years of fruitless searching were beginning to take their toll.
 
Elizabeth looked over to study Catherine sitting slumped in her chair, looking down in despair, holding the latest message limply in her hand.
 

I have to do something about her.
 

Neither the vast resources of Catherine’s estates nor the machinations of the assassin’s guild had brought forth any fresh news of her missing granddaughters.
 
The updates had come like clockwork from the guild each month, apprising her of the results of their search for the twins.
 
The latest missive was like all the rest: still no sign, but we continue to watch and wait.
 
The twins seemed to have truly disappeared into thin air.
   

“Whatever shall I do, sister?” Catherine asked, dropping the message to the floor.
 
“I fear they are lost, for good and forever.”

Elizabeth, standing at the palatial windows, looked back over the hereditary estates of the family and inwardly cringed at the wretched tone in her sister’s voice.

Gods, how pathetic,
she thought.
 
I can’t believe we come from the same blood.
 
I must be a saint for putting up with her whining for so long.
   

The one thing that Elizabeth could not allow was for her sister to give up in despair.
 
The search for the twins must continue, no matter how long it took.
 
It was a big kingdom and neither the girls nor the runaway assassin had been spotted since the fiasco at Mount View.
 
That trail was long cold, but Elizabeth had thought they would have been spotted since then.
 
After all, how easily would it be to hide a pair of baby, twin girls?

Where did that little bastard take them?

It seemed nearly impossible for them to go undiscovered with so many resources looking for them.
 
They must continue and redouble their efforts.
 
Elizabeth realized how much she still needed Catherine.
 
She had invaluable resources with her network of traders and buyers spread across the kingdom, searching far and wide.
 
Also the contract with the guild was yet unfulfilled, and so they could still be used.
 
The guild had a long reach, with eyes and ears spread throughout the kingdom, although, in Elizabeth’s opinion, they were more troublesome than they were worth.
 
However, between the traders, buyers, assassins, and covens, she knew they would be found, sooner or later.
 
They just had to keep looking.
 
The kingdom was too big to search for the twins without Catherine’s help.
 
This despair she was now exhibiting would be the end of them.
 
She would have to use a new tack to keep Catherine properly
motivated
.
 

The time for half-measures in dealing with her sister was over.
 
Elizabeth whirled, grabbed her sister’s arms, and shook her violently.
 
She hadn’t wanted to attack her for fear of the consequences, but times were desperate.
 

“You’re
scared
they are lost?
 
Am I hearing this correctly?
 
For the gods’ sake, Catherine, they have been lost for almost three years.
 
Why do you think we are searching for them?” Elizabeth screamed at her.
 
“I cannot believe I’m hearing this from one of the most powerful women in this kingdom.”
 
She released her sister’s arms and continued her verbal onslaught.
 
“I wonder
,
would you give up so easily if it were the very foundation of our long family history that was threatened?
 
Because, believe me dear sister, it’s very close to just that.”

She spoke with such vehemence that Catherine sat back, straight up against her seat, shocked from the verbal assault of her ‘loving’ sister.
 
“What do you mean by that?” Catherine answered sharply, becoming angry at Elizabeth’s rebuke.
 
“How could two little, missing girls threaten the existence of our family?”

“Catherine, please think before you simply jabber on in such an inane manner.”

“You would do well to remember that I am still the Countess of Berkshire,” Catherine commanded, standing up tall and threatening.
 
“Watch your tongue, Sister, or I shall have you whipped and thrown naked from my estates.”

Elizabeth smiled inwardly at the fire in her sister’s voice.
 
That’s more like it.

“Catherine, I am sorry that I must speak to you in such a way, but you must understand what we face.”

“And just what is so dire that we may face?”

“Usurpers and destroyers of that we hold most dear: the very seat of Berkshire.”

In stunned silence, Catherine thought about what Elizabeth had said.
 
The rule of inheritance was not bound by gender, but solely by birth.
 
The family seat would have gone to Tomas as firstborn, but when he died unmarried, the next inheritors were his children.

“I see you realize now,” Elizabeth said quietly.
 
“The seat goes to the firstborn and then his firstborn thereafter.
 
If the twins are not found, one of our distant cousins can claim the seat of power.
 
Another who may not have the family’s best interest in mind.”

“That will never happen while I live.”

“And pray, how long will that be, sister dear?
 
Time stops for no one, not even the most powerful of us all.”
 
At least until I get my hands on that stone.

“What can we do?” Catherine asked.

“Well first, do not give up the search for them.
 
It is imperative that we find them before they reach their majority, so you can teach them, instruct them, and show them what it means to be of the Berkshire blood: strong, proud, and loyal above all else.
 
It is you that should raise them as the scions of the Berkshire House.
 
Raise them in the proper manner befitting a noble of the realm, not some assassin’s cat’s-paw to be brought forth when it best suits him.
 
We can never stop searching for them.”

In truth, Elizabeth cared not if Catherine kept her lofty station or status.
 
She couldn’t care less if her sister lived or died.
 
She meant nothing to her; it was the twins who were the important ones of the family, but not for the reason that Elizabeth gave Catherine.
 
Those girls were
her
future and the future of all magic users.
 

“Do whatever you must to find them; offer a huge reward, hang reward posters at every coven in the
kingdom,
redouble your trader’s efforts, have them pass out reward posters wherever they go.
 
That will get every noble, merchant, and peasant in the kingdom looking for
them
.
 
Do that and more, sister.”
 
She looked at Catherine and saw the set of determination in her mouth.

“I will.
 
If it’s the last thing I do, I will find them.”

“I would expect nothing less,” Elizabeth replied, knowing it might take many more years to find the two missing girls.
 
There is still plenty of time,
she thought to herself,
plenty of time
.

***

Jeda looked over to the side of the practice field and noticed the twins and Keisha watching him practice.
 
Although they were four years’ old and full of energy, whenever Keisha brought them to watch Jeda practice, they sat quietly, enraptured with everything he did.
 
Part of his newfound responsibilities was to be part of the nightly entertainment act that the gypsies put on for the local citizens.
 
Jeda was a master-class knife wielder, but there were differences between throwing knives for entertainment and for killing.
 

Since deciding to join the gypsies and travelling with them, Jeda found Keisha’s assistance in caring for the twins invaluable.
 
She took care of them when Jeda had to attend to his duties, and helped with their feeding and cleaning.
 
She was also very good at keeping up the ruse of Kara being a boy and keeping her hair dark.
 
Jeda was not sure how he would have accomplished everything without her.
 
It certainly didn’t hurt that the girls took a shine to her as well.
 
It didn’t take long for Jeda to realize that Keisha was mother to them in everything but name.

She spent all of her waking hours helping Jeda with the girls, but each night she returned to her mother’s wagon to sleep, although she hinted more than a few times, that it would be more convenient to spend the night with them.
 
Jeda knew better than to invite the inevitable storm of contempt and disrespect from the rest of the camp if she stayed the night with him.
 
Keisha may be a free woman who could do what she wanted, but there were moral boundaries that should not be crossed.
 

Of course, not everyone readily accepted their joining the family, especially Mirabelle.
 
She was vocal about the amount of time that Keisha spent with him and the twins and she was not shy in laying rumors or giving warning that those two together would come to no good.
 
At every turn, Mirabelle missed no opportunity to criticize Jeda’s performance and his abilities as Master Knife.
 
She would try to compare what he did to Bruno’s act, but as Jeda progressed with his training, more and more of the family realized that he was superior to Bruno in all aspects.

Today Jeda needed to clear his mind of all distractions and concentrate on the move he was trying to perfect for his act.
 
The move was a series of tumbling rolls that ended in a front somersault with a blind landing and subsequent throw at a target twenty feet away.
 
The distance was no problem for him, but the blind landing was difficult.
 
His throw had to be timed perfectly and released at the apex of his jump as he was opening up his body for the landing.
 
Each time he tried the trick, he struck the target, but not a bull’s-eye.
 
The other men in the troupe watched him and tried the move as well, but though a few came close, none of them could ever hit dead center either.
 
The move was just too hard and the men told Jeda to give it up.
 
Of course, that only encouraged him more to try to perfect the difficult move.