Dragon Assassin 1_Twin Fury by Arthur Slade

Author:Arthur Slade [Slade, Arthur]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dava Enterprises
Published: 2019-01-01T22:00:00+00:00

15

Once More

I threw what was left of my pick against the wall. “It didn’t work!”

“You have a gift for stating the obvious.”

“Honestly, I believed that spell would open this manacle,” I said. “It worked on the locks to my room.”

“And was that lock enchanted?”

“Well, no. Though the one out of the fortress failed to work. But that’s a very ancient enchantment.”

“Ah, I see.” Brax pointed a claw toward the dead enchanter. “That fried bag of bones over there was actually a very adept magician. Perhaps he knew tricks from his years of study that you couldn’t learn to undo by reading a book for a few minutes.”

“But I really wanted to get you out.”

Brax laughed and, to my surprise, patted me on the shoulder. “You are so very strange, Carmen. You don’t talk like an assassin. Perhaps your heart is too soft and too pure to really be an assassin.”

“No!” I nearly shouted it, but it came out loud enough to echo. “I have done all the training and passed all the tests. I am an assassin. And assassins can be moral. We decide which missions to accept.”

“Oh, I believe a nerve has been poked. I’m so sorry for doubting you.” He didn’t sound sorry. “You’re an assassin. There, does that make you feel better?”

“No. You’re just humoring me.”

“I’m the one trapped in a cave, forced into a conversation with a child, and I’m taking the time to humor you. You had better appreciate that.”

I stood up. “There must be another way.” I stared at the manacle for several seconds. “I have it! Why not just cut your leg off?”

“Oh, ouch, how quick you are to remove my body parts.”

“But it would grow back, right? I could sew the wound shut.”

“You’re a physician now too? Will wonders never cease at the hats you wear! But look closely at that leg and at the wounds.”

I leaned in. The manacle had worn off his scales, and the skin below looked ragged and sore. “It isn’t healing,” I said.

“Right. As I said, that corpse was a clever magician. The spell isn’t just cast on the chain, but on my leg too. My leg will not regenerate. So, if we follow your plan, I will bleed to death in a few heartbeats. It’s a very clever spell from a clever and dead corpse.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Oh is right.” He rattled the chain. I thought it must hurt to even move his leg. “Now I must say I am impressed that you didn’t tell your maestru. I fully expected there to be twenty assassins here to take me down.”

“I wouldn’t break my oath.”

“That, too, is impressive for a human. But we are deadlocked. You don’t seem to have the ways or means to release me. There is no one you know in that den of assassins—and I mean that in a nice way—who you could trust to free me. Each and every one of them would want to mount my head on the mantle. So, your value to me is limited.

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