The Shadows are Hers

The cloaked and masked man waited just inside an alleyway until the sun dipped below the city walls. With the last orange light staining the sky, he finally straightened and stepped out into the street.

Movement from above caused him to whirl, grasping his sword and peering upward. A pair of crows fluttered out from the eaves above, coming to settle upon a nearby street lamp, where they bobbed up and down, cawing as if mocking him.

With a soft sigh, he straightened and turned, striding away.

Above him, just behind the roof’s edge, another figure wearing a cloak over her black funerary dress leaned forward to watch him go, resting a hand on the hilt of her smallsword.

Both crows flapped back upward, cawing excitedly; one landed atop the girl’s hooded head, while the other alit on her upraised hand.

“Shh,” Morenna urged softly. “You’re gonna give me away. It’s past your bedtime anyway, boys. Go home, shoo.”

She flung out her hand and the crow sailed forth with a reproachful squawk, followed by his comrade. The Black Princess watched them disappear toward the skyline, heading right for the looming shape of the Emperor’s castle high atop the cliff overlooking the city. Her own tower was a tiny shape from this distance, jutting up from one side of the rambling structure.

Turning back, she bounded off the edge of the roof after the assassin.

* * *

He was careful.

Her prey took a winding route through side streets and alleys, at one point removing his cloak and folding it into a package under one arm so that he looked more normal among the townsfolk. The man revealed was a nondescript and casually dressed Rahabin like much of Kourvald’s population. His constant glances around and behind himself were skillfully discreet, never making him look shifty.

None of it helped him.

Morenna simply strolled along the rooftops, effortlessly keeping pace; whenever he started to pull ahead, she stepped into the shadow of a chimney or eave and instantly reemerged from another closer to her quarry. She never had to risk revealing herself by leaning over the edge of a rooftop, merely pausing every few seconds to concentrate for a moment and then setting off unerringly after him again.

The assassin finally reached his destination, and there, Princess Morenna finally had to be careful.

It was a busy inn, with three upper floors of rented rooms, its bottom level occupied by the light and hubbub of a lively establishment. Less obvious, though immediately recognizable by the dark little shape haunting the rooftops, were the lookouts.

Not out front where the customers came in, but the kitchen and stable entrances each had a man loitering outside; Morenna did not need to see the knives hidden in their clothes to know they were there. Another such individual lurked in an adjoining alley, beside what she realized after a moment’s concentration was a hidden escape tunnel. Worse, there were two watchers stationed on the roof, positioned where they would be hard to spot behind chimneys, both carrying crossbows.

All this the Princess recognized from two buildings away, having paused and focused her attention on this structure as soon as her quarry entered. The target was well-defended…but not against her.

A few moments’ concentration were enough for her to identify an insertion point; all she needed was one spot where no one was watching.

Morenna melted into the shadows on her chosen rooftop, and then stepped out of a supply closet inside the tavern.

Weaving swiftly through the crowd, she earned a few curious looks, but no one stopped to challenge the cloaked child entering a tavern just after dusk. With her face mostly hidden, she could pass for a short woman or halfman, and this place in particular undoubtedly saw plenty of suspiciously hooded characters. She wasn’t even the only one present now.

Focusing on the space around her as she slipped through the patrons, Morenna silently located the hidden passage she sought—and there was the man she’d been following, just now slipping below. Good; down here, the guard was on the other side of a secret door.

Obviously, she would not be going through any door, or stepping within sight of any guard.

She strode through the narrow curtained doorway near the bar without hesitation, slipping silently down the steps. It was helpfully dark here. Ignoring the opening into the wine cellar at the bottom, she turned to her right, facing the stone wall where the secret door was.

Focusing, sensing the space.

Morenna waited in the dark until her target had moved out of the hallway beyond, leaving the guard alone. Unless she knocked or spoke, he wouldn’t even open the sliding panel to peek outside. All she had to do was slip through the shadows.

Not herself, this time.

The poisoned needle vanished from its place in her belt pouch, reappearing embedded in the neck of the lookout behind this secret door. Right in his throat, where the instant swelling would prevent him from calling a warning.

Through the thick stone secret door she could not hear the body hitting the floor, but she sensed when it had.

Morenna shifted herself through the space this time. Beyond the secret door was a three-way intersection; she glanced to both sides, ignoring the body at her feet as it twitched its last. It wasn’t just quieter down here, but silent. Enchantments in the walls, keeping this place completely hidden from the tavern above.

Good.

For a full minute she stood in place, simply focusing, feeling out the entirety of the underground lair with magic alone.

There were several details she needed to square away before making her move, but all the people present were gathered in a single room, deeper in and one level down.

Even better.

Morenna held up her hand and another vial from the supplies in her belt pouch flickered through the intervening space, appearing in her palm. She uncorked it and deftly applied the fast-drying glue to the hinges and latch of the secret door.

For the next five minutes she slipped silently through the shadows, moving straight to each of the other five exits from the assassins’ lair, gluing each shut in turn. Morenna did not bother to explore beyond that; there was nothing in here that she needed, except in that one room. She was after the people.

As soon as she was certain they couldn’t escape, she finally turned her attention to them.

Stepping through the shadows one last time, she appeared directly outside the door to the chamber, though which she could hear voices. No enchantments down here; apparently they only feared being overheard from outside.

Morenna whipped off her cloak, smoothed back her hair, and opened the door.

She stepped boldly through, pushing it shut behind her.

This was a conference room, predominated by a huge oaken table; the walls were covered in maps with candle sconces between them. The members of Kourvald’s chapter of the Silent Brotherhood all turned in shocked unison to stare at her.

The Black Princess put on a demure smile and curtsied.

“Good evening, gentlemen and ladies. I recognize that you will under no circumstances reveal the name of your client, so I will not bother to ask. Instead, why don’t those of you involved in targeting me step forward, and we can settle this personally?”

For a heartbeat, all was silent.

Then the man at the far end of the table pushed back his chair and stood. He was huge, grizzled, a scar running all the way down the right side of his face, forming a furrow through his eyebrow and beard.

“Young lady,” he began. “…no. Your Highness, that’s not how this works. For us, it is never personal. All you have done by coming here is make the job easy. My thanks; this makes you the single most accommodating mark in all my career.”

“Why, yes indeed,” Princess Morenna said pleasantly. “To step into a den of assassins, I must be profoundly stupid. That…or I know something you do not. Shall we find out together which it is?”