“From the rock assassin who killed Lieutenant Fester, Second Lieutenant Dumin and Sergeant Edvard last year?”
It took him a moment. “You killed those men? Why?”
Valek laughed. “I guess they couldn’t tell you. I’d hoped the three statues would help you figure out the connection by now.”
“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about.” His tone no longer held as much confidence.
“Then let me refresh your memory.” Valek explained. “Your demonstration certainly worked for the King. No one else in Icefaren tried to ask for leniency or for extra time to pay their taxes. Did the King give you a medal or commendation for your excellent service?”
“No.”
“Too bad. I’m sure your widow would have liked to display it during your funeral.”
“I have kids,” Aniol said.
“How many?” Valek asked even though he knew the answer.
“Two—a boy and a girl.”
“My parents had four boys until your men slaughtered three of them. You should have told them to make a clean sweep of it. Hmm...letting you live and killing your children would be a more appropriate punishment.”
“No!”
“Don’t worry, Captain. Unlike you, I don’t murder innocent children.” Valek had sliced his knife deep into the captain’s throat. One of the benefits to being behind his victim—not as much blood on his clothes. He left a statue of six people holding hands—a family on the dead man’s chest.
* * *
When Valek arrived in MD-2 two days later, he found a stable for Onyx a few miles away from the base, changed into a servant’s uniform with MD-2’s colors of black and tan and entered the compound without any trouble. He located Private Zoel, one of his agents assigned to keep an eye on the occupants of the base. Giving the young man the signal, Valek slipped behind the barracks to wait.
It didn’t take long for Zoel to appear. He approached as if he faced a cobra ready to strike.
Valek didn’t waste time on pleasantries. “Tell me about Captain Timmer.”
“Captain Timmer’s a hard-ass, sir, but his company makes all the others look like kids playing solider,” Zoel said.
“No signs of him abusing his power?” Valek asked.
“No, sir. His company does train longer and harder than the others, but he doesn’t push them past their limits, and if a soldier is unhappy, he can request a transfer.” Zoel wiped a sweaty palm on his pants. “If I’d seen anything inappropriate, sir, I would have sent a report.”
Valek studied the nervous youth. Zoel’s average appearance and build helped him to blend in with the other soldiers. The young man’s talent was the ability to make friends with anyone. He’d been a valuable resource, watching the various activities within the base and reporting anything suspicious.
“Why aren’t you in Timmer’s company?” Valek asked.
“Those extra training hours would limit the amount of time I have to perform my duties for you, sir.”
“And in the course of those duties, have you heard anything about the captain?”
“The soldiers don’t like him. He scares them in order to make them work hard.” Zoel shrugged. “He’s harsh and will scream and humiliate a soldier who isn’t keeping up, but I haven’t heard of any physical abuse.”
Valek asked him about Onora and Gerik.
“Gerik wasn’t here long,” Zoel said. “Talented guy. Didn’t cause any trouble. I suspect he’ll advance pretty high in the ranks. I don’t know an Onora. Is she new?”
“No. She would have been here two or three years ago.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell.”
“Thank you, Zoel.”
Zoel nodded and hurried away.
Valek spent the next couple of days observing Timmer’s company. Professional and skilled, they performed their drills with uncanny precision. Impressive. The captain yelled and bullied a bit, but nothing that would cause Valek to be concerned. About to agree with Zoel’s assessment of Timmer, Valek paused as he realized only a few women stood in the ranks. Not that their low numbers was a red flag, but their reaction to the captain when he neared set off Valek’s internal warning bells.
One lady in particular—a tall blonde—flinched and her face set into a mask of fear when Timmer glanced at her. The captain’s sly smile was all Valek needed. Timmer warranted a closer inspection.
That night, Valek sneaked into the base’s record room to peruse a few files. It took a bit of digging, but he located Onora’s file. She had enlisted four years ago at age sixteen. Her instructors praised her skills and she gained a reputation for her lightning-fast attacks. The glowing reviews and comments stopped when she’d transferred to Timmer’s company. After a year of service, she was noted as being absent without leave. Valek didn’t need a good imagination to determine what had caused her to go AWOL.
Nothing in Gerik’s file contradicted what Zoel had reported. In fact, there was a commendation from Gerik’s commanding officer for going above and beyond the call of duty while battling a fire in the barracks. The only thing that caught Valek’s interest was Gerik’s hometown—Silver Falls. The town was also listed for Onora. Interesting.
Valek woke Zoel and sent him to Silver Falls to investigate and see if there was a connection between Onora and Gerik.
“What about my duties here?” Zoel asked.
“Give this to your commanding officer.” Valek handed him a folded piece of parchment. “After you finish in Silver Falls, report back to me at the Commander’s castle.”
“Yes, sir.”
After another day of investigation, Valek learned the blonde’s name, Private Wilona, and her age, eighteen. Instead of living in the women’s barracks, she had her own quarters. Anger simmered in his chest, but Valek needed to confirm his suspicions before he dealt with Timmer.
Valek followed Wilona to her quarters that evening. He knocked on her door. A faint “come in” sounded. Entering, he noticed her expression first—fear mixed with dread—and then how she’d hugged her arms to her chest, her posture rigid.
Not expecting a servant, she jerked in surprise. “Oh.” She blinked as relief softened her pretty face. “Can I help you?” Wilona relaxed her arms, letting them hang by her sides.
“No. But I can help you.”
She braced as if for a blow. “Who are you?”
He suppressed a sigh. What was the point of having an infamous reputation if no one recognized him? Removing his cap, he introduced himself.
“Yeah, right, and I’m the Soulfinder. Who put you up to this? Cewen? You can tell her this isn’t funny. In fact, it’s quite cruel.”
Curious. “It is?”
She balled her fists. “Oh come on! She pays you to pretend to be Valek because I... Oh, never mind. Just tell her to stop. She’s going to make it worse.”
“Cewen’s worried about you.” He guessed.
“Yeah, well. I can handle it. Goodbye.” Wilona made shooing motions.
Valek refused to move. “I disagree. You need my assistance. What time does Captain Timmer visit your room?”
She stepped toward him. “I’m gonna kill her.”
“Cewen is not the one you should be concerned about.” He laced his words with steel and met her gaze. “I’m not pretending, Wilona.”
Whether it was his tone of voice or his expression that convinced her, Valek didn’t care as long as she understood he meant business. A range of emotions from fear, disbelief, hope, to relief and back again flashed on her face.
“I’m sorry Timmer wasn’t brought to my attention sooner,” he said. “A mistake I will rectify tonight.”
She sank onto the edge of her bed. “I should have reported him, but...”
“Men like him use fear to control their victims. You
had the strength to confide in your friend. A step in the right direction. Did you think she was goading you into more action by sending a servant to pretend to be me?”
“Yes.”
One mystery solved. “Would it have worked?”
“I...don’t know. The captain is well connected. He has friends who are in charge of transfers, buddies working as messengers and is in tight with the Major. I doubt anyone here would have helped me.”
He’d fix that later. For now... “Tell me everything.”
Wilona glanced at the door.
“Will he be here soon?”
“He...visits at different times and not every night.”
Typical predator behavior—keeping a victim guessing and off balance, Valek thought with disgust.
With some encouragement, Wilona told Valek her horror story. How she’d caught Timmer’s eye and, at first, she enjoyed the attention until the flirting turned into threats, intimidation and forced physical contact. Valek wished Yelena was here. His heart mate had been through a similar experience and her magic could soothe Wilona’s soul. All he could offer Wilona was the assurance that she’d be safe.
“Don’t worry about Timmer anymore. The next time he comes to your room, I’ll be waiting for him, and if he survives the encounter, he’ll be rendered harmless and unable to sire children,” Valek promised.
19
JANCO
A person could only listen to the forest sounds for so long before going insane. Janco sighed. Loudly. They’d been hiking southwest through the Snake Forest for hours and Little Miss Assassin had been as quiet as the grave. Her passage through the woods made no noise. Her bare feet padded on the cold hard ground with nary a whisper. Even her short black cape didn’t dare flap.
They would stay on the Ixian side of the border until they neared the town of Lapeer, where they would cross over and investigate the suspicious factory before heading east to the Emerald Mountains.
He tried to fill the silence with comments on the case or on the scenery, but he gave up because after a while it sounded inane even to him. And he’d long since stopped asking her questions. Little Miss Assassin was a woman of few words.
This was going to be a long assignment. He sighed. Again.
“Will you stop doing that?” she asked. Annoyance colored her tone.
Janco perked up. “Doing what?”
“That huffing thing. Like you’re leaking air.”
“It’s called sighing.”
“Well, stop it.”
A very childish “make me” pressed on the edge of his lips. He wisely kept those two words from escaping. Ari would be proud. Instead, he asked, “Why?”
“I can’t hear if anyone is following us.”
“No one is following us.”
“How do you know?”
Good question. He’d known it just as he knew when to stop bugging Ari—by a feeling deep inside him. “The forest is...unperturbed.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Do you think someone is following us?”
“I haven’t heard any indicators—when I could hear.” She shot him a sour look. “We need to remain vigilant.”
“For what? It’s not like they’re planning an ambush. If someone is following us, that’s good. It means we’re on the right track. We’re making people nervous. They want to see where we’re going, what we’re doing. In fact, we should be making more noise in order to lure them into coming closer.”
Little Miss Assassin stared at him as if he had four eyes and a spike sticking out of his forehead. “How do you know they’re not planning an ambush? With all your prattle masking any signs, we’ll probably stumble right into a trap.”
Janco hadn’t realized just how much his friends trusted him until now. Ari would never question him about ambushes. Why not? It wasn’t like he had magic. Perhaps years spent in the woods had given him a...forest vibe. If he told her that, she’d really think he was out of his mind. And why did he care what Little Miss Assassin thought? He didn’t. Not at all.
“The real danger will come when we’re in Sitia,” Janco said. “Until then, it’s just me, you and the birds.”
“What about at the border? Do you expect trouble there?”
“Nope. We’re going to slip into Sitia without a fuss.”
“You mean without stopping to inform the border guards?”
“That’s what I said.”
“Sounds like a challenge.” A gleam lit her pale gray eyes.
“It’s easier than you’d think.” Or was it? He’d always walked parallel to the border until he found a spot that was empty of guards. Then he simply crossed into Sitia.
When the Commander had taken over Ixia, he had closed the border to Sitia and had his men cut down all the trees and bushes, clearing a hundred-foot-wide space between the two nations. With the gap, the river and the scattered patrols it wasn’t easy to cross the border.
“Now that I’m thinking about it,” Janco said. “The crossing can be tricky, depending on who’s on duty. I’m gonna let you take point on this one.”
“All right,” she said. “And just to let you know, I see what you’re doing.”
“Me?” He attempted to look innocent—a hard expression for him to pull off. Janco hadn’t been guiltless since he’d been a baby. Then again...his mother had claimed he’d come into the world feetfirst just to be difficult.
“Save it for someone who has poor vision.”
“Ouch.” But Janco smiled. She had joked, which meant there might be hope for her yet.
When they stopped for the night, Janco tried asking her questions again, but this time he stayed away from the more sensitive topics. She had donned a pair of well-worn, black fur-lined boots.
He gestured to them. “Looks like Black Angus leather. I hear the people who live near the ice sheet will only wear those boots. Is that why you’re not cold? It must feel like the warm season to you down here.”
“Yeah. I only brought this cape along for the nighttime. Is Sitia really hotter?”
“Oh yes. During the hot season, it’s like swimming in the White Mist Springs up in MD-2. Do you know about them?”
“They’re near the place I grew up,” she said.
Aha! “Sweet. Did you go there all the time? I would!”
“No. Half the year the snow cats gather around them. And in the warmer weather, it’s not as much fun.”
“For you.” He shivered, remembering being on the ice sheet during a blizzard. Hands down, it was the coldest he’d ever been in his entire life.
She smiled and he marveled at the change. The harsh lines of her face softened, and for the first time since meeting her, he thought of her as truly pretty. Her nose crinkled and two tiny dimples marked her cheeks.
“I guess you didn’t grow up in the north?” she asked.
“Nope. I lived on the coast in MD-7. I could have been a beach bum, but I hate sand. Nasty stuff. Gets everywhere. And I mean everywhere. My dad tried to make me a fisherman, but I got seasick. Even now the smell of fish makes me gag.”
“What does he think of your job?” she asked in a quiet voice.
“Don’t know. He was out on his boat when a big storm came through. I was eleven. We never saw him again.”
“Too bad. Do you have any siblings?”
Janco laughed. “After I was born, my mother swore off kids. When my dad disappeared, we moved to my uncle’s farm and I had to deal with all these annoying cousins! What about you?”
“An older brother. He raised me until he couldn’t.”
A million questions shoved their way up his throat, but Ari’s voice sounded in his head. Don’t scare her off, you idiot. He swallowed them down. Instead, he asked, “Do you want to take first sh
ift?”
“Won’t the forest wake you if someone comes close?” Onora teased.
“Ha-ha. There’s no one around. But that can change. Besides, I thought you’d feel more...comfortable if we took turns on guard duty.”
She gazed at him a moment. A crease puckered the skin between her eyes as if she couldn’t quite figure him out. Janco repeated his comments in his mind, trying to determine what he’d said to cause such puzzlement.
“I’ll take the first shift.” Onora stood, removed her short cape and boots and tucked them into her pack.
“Won’t you be cold?”
“I’m used to it. Besides, the cape’s extra fabric can snag on the branches, and it’s hard to climb a tree with boots on. Don’t you do the same thing when on duty?”
“No. I find a good spot and hunker down.”
Alarmed, she asked, “How do you stay awake?”
“If I tell you, do you promise not to tell anyone?”
Instantly wary, Onora bit her lip before nodding.
“That’s when I compose my rhymes. Everyone thinks I make them up as I fight, but I have a whole bunch of them ready for my next match.” He tapped his temple.
“Oh. Okay.” She pinched her thumb and index finger together, touched them to her lips and twisted as if locking her mouth shut. “I won’t say a word.”
Grinning, Janco set up his bedroll and blankets by the small fire. He squirmed until comfortable. Each year, it seemed to take longer for him to find a position where his muscles and/or joints didn’t ache when lying on the hard ground.
Before closing his eyes, he scanned their campsite. Onora had disappeared into the forest. Probably climbing a tree. And then he wondered when he’d stopped thinking of her as Little Miss Assassin.
* * *
After a couple of days of hiking, they were close to the Sitian border. Instead of crossing into the Featherstone lands, they headed east, paralleling the edge of the Snake Forest. Janco thought it best to enter Sitia near the west side of Lapeer. He remembered a river that flowed nearby that would be hard to forge this time of year. Not to mention freezing cold. Brrr. Much better, and smarter, to use the bridge.