Chapter 3.10
Massoud allowed the silence to deepen. Maybe he was not the honed killing instrument that Duilach was, but he knew how to shape people and their thoughts. To speak too soon would betray eagerness and fear, things that would be warning signs to Duilach.
“Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps my information was flawed. But kill me now or kill me tomorrow the result is the same for your employers. However, for you it can be a vastly different outcome. Verify my story. If it is untrue, well you found me once, you can find me again. If it is true though then meet me in four sunrises at the spice merchant’s stall in the market–the one who has cardamon.”
With that Massoud dropped from the roof to a shed and then to an alleyway, waiting for an arrow or blade to strike. Once he had turned a corner he noticed he had been holding his breath. He exhaled and then inhaled deeply and shook his head. He was a member of the High Order and arguably the most skilled individual in The Guild, but even he was a little shaken by facing Duilach. He was undoubtedly one of only two or three that had ever survived such an encounter.
Not until he was at the back door of Elspeth’s did he feel that perhaps he had escaped the net. Not turned the assassin by any means but at least cheated the Life Lender out of another day. Knocking on the door, he waited for a rather long time until finally he heard the click of a crossbow string locked in place.
“It is Roy’s associate come to collect him for our meeting,” he called, stepping to the side of the door so as not to be hit if his words did not deter the occupant.
There was another long pause and then he heard a woman’s voice, muffled by the door, “Who is it?”
Massoud thought briefly of giving one of his Covers but this woman was undoubtedly Elspeth and a close confidant of Roy. “It is Massoud.”
The door whipped open and she said “Quickly come in.”
He did and saw she was weeping. “What’s wrong?”
“Follow me,” she said, her voice cracking.
They went up a dark stairwell and down a hallway to the last room on the right. Massoud saw Roy laying on the bed, ghostly white, with a dripping red bandage tied around his chest. He was unconscious.
“What happened?”
“I don’t know. He collapsed against the door with a broken arrow in his chest. I pushed it through so it is out but I can’t stop the bleeding.”
“Do you have a fire?”
“What? Yes.”
“Put a poker in it until it turns red and then bring it here.”
Massoud lifted Roy up into a sitting position in the bed and removed the bandage. The entrance wound appeared to have mostly stopped bleeding but the exit wound looked ragged and torn. Good that she got it out, but she tore him all to hell in the process.
Roy’s eyes fluttered open as Elspeth came into the room.
“Better that you had remained out, friend. Elspeth give me the poker and hold him in an upright position. There. Lean him forward a little more. Now hold him tight.”
Roy screamed weakly and then passed out again. “We have to be sure, Elspeth. Lay him down and we will do the entrance wound.”
The smell of burnt meat filled the room. I don’t care what anyone says, cooked human flesh smells different somehow, thought Massoud.
“Now what do I do?”
“If you have a salve for burns or even cuts then put it on him. Then bandage him. Change the bandages at least twice a day and apply the salve each time. Don’t let him move. Now come here and we’ll do the same to me.”
Massoud wished he had the luxury of passing out as Roy had done. When it was over he was quite certain he had never experienced anything so painful in his life. Lashings in the market of Baserah maybe, but then that was long ago and it was pain of a different sort.
“I will be back three days hence.”
Massoud left Elspeth’s and returned to the Olieant Pub to get the horse that Roy had arranged for him there. He pulled a cloak from one of the saddlebags and threw it over his shoulders to hide his wounds from the guard as he rode out the gate. Evidently he succeeded in appearing as nothing more than a traveler making an early start of it on the mountain highway.
Once out of sight he slumped forward in pain, resting against the neck of his horse, bouncing lightly with each step. After only a mark of the sundial he sat up to check the road behind him.
Looks like someone forgot to take their turn at trying to kill me while I was in the city, thought Massoud wryly as he noticed a solitary figure on horseback following him from Blàthan.
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