Assassin from Abyss

Chapter 21: Belling the Cat

Kei weighed his options.

Someone had put a price on him. He had expected Kaiser’s awakening to anger others — he had not expected it to buy a death warrant.

He had not seen the woman’s face, and did not know her name, but he had heard the voice, and it had been graceful and sweet and ruthless, and there had been nothing in it when she took the contract.

*A natural killer,* his senses told him. ƒгeewёbnovel.com

*I cannot go home. She will be waiting there to kill me and dress it up as an accident. So I leave the village, for Vitium. But not for Bellicus — the masked man said there are others inside that temple; they have someone on the inside. Which leaves the Cruentus forest, and the Temple of Caedis.*

He kept eating while he planned, and felt like a rat in a trap, working through its last meal.

*But if I do not go home tonight, she will follow me into the forest. She will learn soon enough that I left for it. A head start, if I go now — but if she catches me out there, in the open, I am dead. I do not know her strength. A mercenary — she will be deadly in a fight. As I am now, I doubt I could face her. A mouse before a cat.*

*I have to get her off my trail. But how. That masked man — what if —*

He stood, suddenly, and made for the lodging section.

He had seen the room the masked man went back into. He meant to have a look at it.

He came into the corridor of the ten rooms and turned for room eight.

" Halt. "

A voice behind him. He turned, and two commoner Rakshasa in simple armor were coming toward him — guards, posted on the upper floor to protect the privacy of the nobles who came here.

" Are you lodging in one of these rooms? We have not seen you before. "

" No. I was only looking for the waitress, to order. " Kei lied.

" Then leave, if you have no business here, and go back to your table. We will send the waitress to you. " Authority in it.

Kei went back to his table. The waitress came within the minute, and he ordered a glass of surah, and it was brought at once.

He sipped it and made a show of ease, aware now that the guards had marked him.

And he went back to the problem.

*I cannot reach the masked man — those guards already suspect me. A foolish move. I should have known there would be guards here, to keep these lechers’ secrets.*

*I could run for the forest now. But past that mercenary, the Cruentus Mouth holds its own dangers, and I will want bigger weapons than these talons, and good armor. I cannot buy them tonight; the city market is closed until morning.*

*I could lie low somewhere tonight and set out for Vitium and the forest at dawn — but then she trails me easily, and I dangle in front of her the whole way. I could hide in the capital. For how long? She finds me soon enough. All disadvantage. For now the one advantage is mine: I know where she is, and she does not know where I am.* frёewebnoѵēl.com

*So I make a decoy. No — a master decoy, good enough to fool her. I need another mouse to bell the cat.*

He finished the drink.

The plan was made. Now it wanted careful execution.

He went down to the counter.

" Ninety ditoso for your food , " Reben said, taking in the brown hooded figure.

He paid it, and asked, " Where is the washroom? "

Reben pointed to a partitioned area just left of the entrance. Kei nodded and went in, and when he had checked it was empty, changed quickly into an expensive blue full-sleeved jacket and put his hood up. He waited ten minutes, then came out fast and was gone from the inn before anyone inside could place him.

Outside, across the road, a female Rakshasa in a black cloak stood facing the inn — hesitating, it seemed, over whether to go in.

It was Saana. The salesgirl.

*My plan just got better,* Kei thought, and walked toward her with a smile.