Emergence by Ramon Terrell

Author:Ramon Terrell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tal Publishing

24

Rayne

In the third-floor room of one of the most expensive inns in Carlayn, Rayna closed her eyes and slid lower into her steaming hot bath. Though she took no joy in her occupation, it did come with its perks. Healthy pay numbered among them.

She sank all the way down, past the suds and fully submerged herself. The hot mineral-infused water made her skin tingle from head to toe. She surfaced and wiped her face, then slid her fingers through her thin wet braids, massaging the oils into her scalp. The sweet heavy scent of incense drifted in the air and relaxed her mind, making it easier to think. Something didn’t feel right about all this.

It wasn’t so much the target in New Dama, or those in Shetar or even here in Carlayn. She would go where she was sent and do what she must. It was the end of the conversation that troubled Rayna. Guiding Eye Alydria hadn’t come out and said it, of course, but she’d made her point clear. The khamra considered King Alyn to be enough of a threat to the balance to be eliminated.

She sank back down in the water to her chin. King Alyn. She inhaled deeply the soft sweet incense and let it out with a long hum. Taking any life was a last resort, and the assassin valued no life above another. But a king?

Rayna ran a hand over her face. Surely the khamra had considered the implications of such an action? The potential blame to the Khatala, regardless of the lack of evidence any khamra agent would leave. Those few who knew of the assassin organization would most likely say nothing, for fear of their own lives. With no other explanation, the remainder of the population would most certainly blame the Khatala. The uprising against the westerners would be terrible.

On the other hand, if what Guiding Eye Alydria had said was true, then the king already sought to unite Marai against the people of Khatal. If that happened the result would be the same. She sighed. From the look of things, a monarch could die, then many more, or a monarch could live, and an entire people could be decimated. The logic made sense, but it didn’t make it right.

Rayna stood up and sponged the soap off her body, then toweled off. The minerals and oils from her bath made her skin feel rich and supple. She slid the back of her calloused hands along her muscled arm. She didn’t get to bathe in this manner often. It felt nice to relax her muscles.

She wrapped a large towel around her body and used a smaller one to dry off her braided hair. Eryn Tolen of Shetar, a woman with skin like parched earth in New Dama, and the king of Marai himself.

Rayna narrowed her eyes. Before she made such a drastic move, she would study the situation with her own eyes. Rayna presumed these new advisors were the replacements of the ones she’d eliminated.

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