“Blade!” she squeaked. “He’s killing me!”
He frowned. “Why don’t you two sort this out in a decent manner? Whatever she stole from you, she can pay back in kind.”
The man glared at the assassin. “Twenty goldens! She’ll be on her back for the next three years.”
Blade shrugged. “I’m sure you’ll require her services.”
“I have to pay my rent!”
The assassin sighed. “Don’t you have any money, Lilu?”
“No!” She glowered at him. “Just get rid of him. Don’t waste your time talking.”
“It seems that he’s in the right, if you stole his money.”
“He won’t get it back if he kills me!”
The man squeezed, silencing her, and banged her head on the headboard. “I want my money now!”
“She can’t give it to you if she hasn’t got it,” Blade pointed out.
“You stay out of this!” the armourer bellowed.
“I’m only trying to help.”
“Why don’t you get lost, you little fop?”
Blade shook his head. “I need to speak to Lilu.”
The armourer straightened, his bloodshot eyes glaring. “Bugger off!”
“No.”
The man swung with a roar, releasing the hapless harlot, and charged Blade. The assassin stepped aside, and the armourer smashed his fist into the wooden wall where Blade’s head had been an instant before. The broken timbers trapped the giant’s hand, and he struggled to pull it out.
Lilu coughed and rubbed her throat, sitting up. “Kill him, Blade! I’ll pay you!”
He shot her an angry glance. “You don’t have any money.”
The armourer jerked his hand free and swung on the assassin again, bearing down on him like a charging bear. Blade stepped aside and headed for the door, unwilling to become embroiled in a fight. The man lunged at him, caught Blade’s shoulder and spun him around with a powerful yank. The assassin stumbled, lost his footing and fell backwards into the narrow corridor, where he landed with a grunt, banging his head on the wall. The armourer came after him, raising a boot to stamp on his belly. Blade rolled away and leapt to his feet, heading for the taproom.
“Come back here, you coward!” the man bellowed, following.
Blade turned and jumped up to grab the lintel of the taproom door, jerked up his legs and smashed his boots into the armourer’s face. The big man reeled back, blood oozing from his nose. Blade trotted into the taproom, making good his escape. The armourer, however, was made of sterner stuff, and his head from solid bone it seemed, for within seconds he came after the fleeing assassin. Blade vaulted a table just ahead of his pursuer, and the men in the taproom, seeing a fight, shouted and blocked the exit.
Blade turned, glancing about for an escape route. The armourer swung a punch, which, had it connected, might have ripped Blade’s head off. The assassin ducked and dived for the door, but two bystanders caught him and flung him back. He cursed as he almost fell into his foe’s grasping hands, twisting aside to roll under a table. The armourer kicked the table out of the way, and one of its legs struck the assassin a glancing blow on the temple.
Stars flashed in his eyes, and he glimpsed Lilu’s grinning face amongst the crowd, shouting encouragement with the rest. At least, if nothing else, she seemed to be on his side. A beefy arm snaked around his neck and dragged him to his feet, choking him. He jabbed an elbow into his opponent’s ribs, making him grunt, but he hung on. Gripping the man’s arm, Blade heaved him over his shoulder, breaking his grip as the armourer crashed onto his back, splintering a table. Blade made for the door, but the man scrambled up and charged after him, unaffected by his fall.
Several men blocked the assassin’s way, and he turned, dodging the giant’s charge. The armourer hooked his fingers into Blade’s collar, the only place he could gain purchase. Blade was spun around with tremendous force and smashed into the wall, turning his head at the last moment to save his nose. Again stars sparkled in his eyes, and he became aware of his danger as the big man lunged at him, trying to crush him against the wall. With an agile twist, Blade evaded him and sprang onto a table. The armourer swung with a growl and rushed at him, smashing the table aside. Blade lost his footing and was forced to dive through the window.
Landing on the street in a shower of glass, he rolled away and leapt up in time to meet the giant’s charge as the armourer followed him. Blade was lifted off his feet and thrown backwards, the man on top of him, his weight punching the air from Blade’s lungs. The armourer glared down at him, a gap-toothed leer splitting his bullish visage. He raised a fist, but the assassin drew a dagger and pressed it to the man’s throat. The armourer froze.
Blade snarled, “Get off me, you great oaf.”
The giant’s eyes narrowed with cunning calculation. “You’re not going to use that little pig sticker, runt.”
Unable to hide his trade any longer without being severely beaten, the assassin pulled his collar open with his free hand. The armourer’s eyes widened, and he lowered his fist and climbed to his feet. Blade held the weapon against the man’s throat until he moved out of reach, whereupon the armourer regained his bravado and spat blood on the muddy street.
“Damned assassin! I beat you fair and square, killer!”
Blade sat up, gasping a little. “That’s hardly surprising.”
“Little runts like you shouldn’t go around picking fights!”
The assassin glanced at their audience. “I didn’t start it.”
“You shouldn’t stick your nose in where it don’t belong,” the armourer said, still trying to pretend he had won the fight.
Blade was quite prepared to allow him that satisfaction. He did not care who claimed victory, only that he was still in one piece. He stood up and clutched his stomach, then rubbed his cheek. Sheathing the dagger, he fastened his collar. The armourer sneered and sidled away with his cronies.
Lilu rushed up and grabbed Blade’s arm. “You did it! You beat him! You should have killed him.”
He shoved her away. “I didn’t want to fight him, and I certainly wasn’t going to kill him. Also, don’t imagine that I did it for you. I’m sure you deserved the beating you were getting.”
Lilu pulled a face and shot a venomous glare at the armourer’s back. Her fading looks were vanishing under a layer of puffy flesh. Bitterness lined the skin around her mouth and between her brows, and matronly plumpness ruined a once slender figure. She had never been beautiful, but now, with several missing teeth and a broken nose from angry clients, she was quite ugly. Still, she had taken in a half-dead man and nursed him back to health with such diligence that Blade, no matter how he hated to owe any favours, had to admit that he owed her something.
That did not include, he vowed to himself, taking on enraged clients the size of the armourer. Lilu had a penchant for filching money from her clients while they slept, a reason for her frequent beatings. She always survived, however. She seemed as indestructible as the earth itself, and was probably in less pain at this moment than he was. He fingered his jaw, making sure none of his teeth were loose. Lilu clicked her tongue and renewed her hold on his arm, tugging him back into the brothel. “I’ll see to your hurts, my love.”
Blade scowled at her, but allowed her to lead him to her room, where she pushed him down on the creaky bed with rumpled grey sheets and a tatty patchwork quilt. She left to fetch a bowl of water and a cloth, and when she returned, angry shouts from the brothel keeper, who demanded recompense for his broken window, followed her. Lilu paused to yell an insult from the doorway, then forced the sagging door closed to shut out the stream of vitriol from the taproom. Casting Blade a weary smile, she sat beside him and put the bowl on a rickety table, dipping the cloth in it. When she dabbed at the mud on his cheeks, he jerked his head aside and took the cloth to wipe his face.
“You always were a big baby,” she remonstrated. “How you moaned and groaned when I was tending to your hurts after I
found you lying in the gutter, more dead than alive.”
“How you love to keep reminding me of that.”
“I saved your life.”
“And you’ll never let me forget it.”
She pouted. “They do say that when you save a person’s life, it belongs to you.”
Blade grimaced as he fingered the lump on his temple. Picking up a cracked mirror, he examined himself in it. “Wonderful, I look like I’ve been in a taproom brawl.”
“You have.”
“Because of you. Why must you always rob your clients? You know it only gets you into trouble.”
“They pay me next to nothing, and I’ve got five children to feed. How am I supposed to do that? Most times they don’t notice the missing money, they’re so drunk, and even when they do, they don’t know I took it.”
“But when they do figure it out, they beat the stuffing out of you.”
She rubbed her bruises with a shrug. “It’s worth it. Twenty goldens will feed my children for three moons.”
“Lucky for you that you had already sent it to them.”
“It’s right here.” She opened a drawer in the cupboard and took out a pouch that clinked. “I only took it last night. I haven’t had a chance to see my little ones.”
Blade groaned, flexing his aching jaw. “You astound me. The bravest warrior would have given it back before taking a beating like that.”
She snorted. “Then I’m tougher than them. Why should I give it back? He wouldn’t have killed me.”
“That’s not what you said when I walked in.”
“I wanted you to stop him.”
“That great mountain of brawn? What do you take me for?”
“Certainly not a gentleman.”
Blade finished wiping his face and tossed the rag aside, leaning back against the wall. For a moment he frowned at her, then he smiled. “No, I’m not that.”
Lilu pounced on him and hugged him. “I’ve missed you. Where have you been?”
The assassin pushed her off. “Away.”
Lilu gazed at him, clearly hurt by his rejection, then sat up to brush her hair and tug her ragged clothes into some semblance of order before facing him again. “I know I’m ugly, but you don’t have to be so cold. Even whores need a hug now and then, you know, and you are my friend.”
He pulled a face, turning away from her smell of stale sweat and sour wine. “I’m not your friend, and I didn’t come here to see you.”
“Why not?” She grinned. “I wouldn’t charge you, you know that.”
Blade sat up, moving out of her reach. “I didn’t come here to argue with you about that again, either.”
“So why did you come?”
“I need you to buy some things for me. Here’s a list.” He pulled a piece of paper from his tunic and handed it to her. “Can you read?”
Lilu scowled. “Of course I can read.” She scanned the paper. “Perfume? Another wig? What do you need this for?”
“None of your business.” He handed her a bag of coins. “Pay for it out of this. Whatever’s left, you can keep.”
She hefted the bag and grinned. “When do you want it?”
“Now. I’ll wait here.”
Lilu pouted, but rose and rummaged in her wardrobe, producing a dress almost as tattered as the one she was wearing. Blade closed his eyes while she changed, opening them as the door closed behind her. He yawned, then stretched out and settled down to wait.
The door opening woke him, and he sat up as Lilu entered, dropping a bag on the floor. She unpinned her cheap bonnet and bounced onto the bed beside him, flinging her arms around him again.
“I’m back!”
Blade fended her off. “I noticed. Did you get everything?”
“Sure.” She frowned. “What do you need the lovers’ potion for?”
“Never you mind.” He rose and picked up the bag.
“Wait!” Lilu jumped up and grabbed his arm. “You can’t leave now. Stay and have a glass of wine with me.”
He shook his head. “I haven’t the time.”
“You do! Please, don’t leave yet.” Her eyes filled with tears, and he hesitated.
“What is it?”
“I....” She brushed at her cheeks. “I’m lonely. I have no one to talk to. Won’t you just stay a little while, please?” Her soft brown eyes pleaded.
Blade sighed and put down the bag. “I don’t know why I listen to you. You’re a nuisance.”
“Because you know you owe me your life, and even you’re not so cold-hearted as to forget that.”
“How could I, with you to remind me?” He sat on the bed, tolerating her possessive hold on his arm.
She stroked his hair, and he jerked away in annoyance. “My assassin, that’s what you are, Blade. When I found you in that gutter, I thought you were dead. I paid that healer good money to set your bones and stitch up your wounds.”
“I paid you back.”
“The money, yes, but I spent long time-glasses nursing you, feeding you, cooling your fevered brow.”
Blade frowned, barely able to remember the blurred images of that time, when fever had fogged his mind and pain had racked him. Vaguely he recalled gentle hands washing his wounds, pressing a cup to his lips and wiping away what spilt from them.
She stroked his arm, smiling. “I washed every inch of this beautiful body of yours.”
He glanced at her, surprised. “You did?”
“Who else?” She looked at him flirtatiously through her lashes.
“And you never noticed...?”
“‘Course I did. What kind of fool do you take me for?”
“Then why do you keep flirting with me?”
“Just teasing you! You shouldn’t be so touchy about it.”
He eyed her. “So why are you telling me this now?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I just needed something to talk about, and nothing else sprang to mind.”
Lilu rose and poured him a cup of wine from a bottle in the cupboard across the room, ignoring the bottle beside the bed. He took a gulp as she sat beside him again, slipping her arm through his.
She said, “You know, I heard a story from one of my customers the other day. He told me that those men the Queen sent to kill King Shandor all failed, and she sent one man to do the job. Would you believe, he succeeded, and he brought back the Cotti Prince?” Lilu’s eyes narrowed. “I hope the Queen flays him alive, one little strip of skin at a time. The man she sent, she’s made a lord now, given him lands and riches, which he deserves, of course.” She glanced at him again. “They call him the Queen’s Blade.”
“Do they?”
“They do. And they say that he’s an assassin, and he now has the Queen’s favour.”
“Lucky man.”
“Yes.” She squeezed his arm. “And he’s not married.”
Blade disentangled himself and stood up. “It’s time I was going.”
“You owe me, Blade!”
He swung on her. “I didn’t ask to be saved! Maybe you should have left me to die.”
“No.” She rose to face him. “You’re a good man, and if I hadn’t saved you, King Shandor would still be alive to wage the Endless War.”
“You think his son won’t carry on with it?”
“His son’s a prisoner of the Queen.”
“He has fifteen brothers.” Blade banged the wine cup down on the table.
Lilu shook her head. “I don’t care about that. You could make me very happy. Don’t I deserve it?”
“You’re asking to be my wife?”
She nodded. “I know what you are, and I don’t care. I’ve had my fill of it. All I ask is a home for my children and money to live on. You can afford it now. No one else would have saved you. I did it out of the goodness of my heart, because you looked like a kind man. You have a noble face. I didn’t expect anything in return, and you had nothing then. But you do now, and all I’m asking is a little share in it. Not much. I k
now you’d be ashamed of me. I’d never expect you to acknowledge me publicly, I mean, with your new friends. You could send me to your estate, and I’d stay there and raise my children. That’s all I ask.”
“No.”
“Please, Blade!” Fresh tears filled her eyes, and she grasped his arm again. “I can’t bear this life anymore! Have you no pity?”
“No, I don’t.” He regarded her coldly. “You did what you did for your own selfish reasons, whatever they were.”
“I couldn’t let you die!”
“You thought I might be a meal ticket.”
“No!” She hung on when he tried to free himself. “I didn’t, I swear! Don’t leave me in this dump. I’m begging you. You have no reason to marry. Surely you can do it to save me, as I saved you? If you leave me here, I’ll die.”
“I doubt that,” he said, trying to prise her hands from his arm, but she clung to him like a limpet and sank to her knees, almost dragging him down with her. “Stop this, Lilu!”
“Don’t, oh god, don’t leave me here!” She buried her face in his thigh, transferred her hold to it and shook with a storm of wailing sobs.
Blade stared down at her, annoyed and confused. A vision flashed before his eyes. A little girl knelt in the burning sand, her face streaked with tears, her hands raised in pleading. A girl with grey eyes and midnight hair, skin that had been as pale as milk until the fierce sun had reddened it. Her eyes were his own, and she wept before a laughing Cotti officer, begging. She had died a few days later. He had wept then, but not since. Somewhere, he had lost his pity. He opened his eyes. Lilu raised a tear-stained face, ugly, beaten and abused, her expression despairing.
“All right, Lilu.” He raised a hand to stem her leap of joy. “I’ll not marry you, but you may go to my estate and live there with your children.”
She flung her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely, ignoring his attempts to prise her free. “Thank you, Blade! Oh, thank you, thank you!”
Lilu rained kisses on his face until he put a hand over her mouth and pushed her away. She bounced around the room, throwing tattered dresses onto the floor and flinging pots of powder and paint at the walls. “No more of this! I’m free! I can be with my children.”
He glanced around, longing to leave. “Have you a quill and paper?”
She rushed to the dresser and yanked open a drawer. “Yes.”
Blade scribbled a note, ordering whoever was in charge of his estate to provide Lilu and her children with board and lodging, money for clothes and schooling. It was the first time he had used his newly acquired rank, and signed his name ‘Lord Conash’. Lilu snatched the paper and read it with a grin. Blade grabbed the bag and headed for the door.