The Killing Grounds Read online

  “I know two versions of the story.”

  “Lord Osari isn’t on the grounds. There are over twenty guards and more than one assassin, but no sign of Lord Basel,” Black said.

  Sable ignored his comments, “I’m betting that young Millhaven made the story sound marvellous, but that his baby sister offered a more dramatic version?”

  Alara kept a straight face and shielded both her and Black from any probes from Sable, the woman was dangerous and Alara wasn’t there to answer her questions.

  “So be it,” Sable said as she continued to stroke the dragon's back. “As with many of the old stories the actual facts are sketchy at best, but from my studies I know that the dragons mated for life. Parian here was paired with Trian at a very young age, but he secretly loved Paragon. Trian was aware that the arranged mating was a farce and was viciously jealous of her sister’s beauty and grace. Parian, in his wisdom, did all he could to keep the two females away from each other, he sent Paragon to the far side of the kingdom and only visited her when Trian was otherwise engaged. Paragon laid several eggs over the years, but Trian always found a way to destroy them. As with most creatures their main aim was to propagate their species, but Trian had failed to produce eggs for many eons and that forced Parian to cut with tradition and leave Trian for Paragon. Knowing this, Trian waited for Paragon to lay three eggs, but instead of destroying the evidence she had them removed from Paragon's lair and delivered to her where she claimed them as her own, forcing Parian to stay and search for her unborn children. Paragon had no riposte to Trian’s powers and gave up trying to lure Parian to her side. After mourning for over three hundred years Paragon exacted her revenge and used her powers to steal Trian’s treasure for her own. Trian was enraged and killed the young dragons, and in doing so sealed her own fate. Paragon’s children knew by instinct that Trian wasn’t their birth mother and had spent the three hundred years turning dragon populations against Trian. Once they were eliminated Parian and Trian were overthrown and put to death, thus ending the reign of the dragons. It is said that Paragon led the rest of the Blaze to a faraway land and into hiding where they lie dormant until the earth is once again ready for their kind.”

  Alara sat for a while and soaked up the fable, “That’s a pretty story but you left a part out. Who was tasked with killing Parian and Trian?”

  Sable smiled at Alara, she closed her eyes for a second and when she opened them her hair had changed from midnight blue to the purest white that Alara had ever seen. “Things are sometimes the complete opposite of what one thinks Miss Du Preeze!”

  Alara took the hint and stood up, “We’ll meet again Sable!”

  “Yes my dear, we most certainly will,” Sable said under her breath as the two young assassins fled the mansion and into the night, “and next time things will be on my terms. Assassin?”

  “Yes Madam Isabelle.”

  “Time to go to work!”

  “Indeed.”

  Twenty-Six:

  No one stood in their way as the two assassins sprinted to the gates of Madam Isabelle’s grounds. Black was finding it hard to keep up with Alara and panted at her side. “Where the hell are we going?”

  Alara stopped to let him catch his breath, “Black I need you to trust me, whatever happens tonight just remember that. Okay?”

  He looked deep into her eyes, “What aren’t you telling me Du Preeze?”

  “Not now, we need to be quick. It’s not just Lord Osari’s life on the line, if I’m right the whole Guild is at risk.”

  He nodded, “You had better be right.”

  “If I’m not you can always kick my ass later.”

  “If you have an ass left to kick!”

  Alara raised an eyebrow at him, but the smile on her lips paled into insignificance as the bile in her stomach threatened to erupt. She swallowed the need to vomit and jogged into the night with a quiet Alex Black at her side.

  Sable’s assassin watched from the shadows of the guardhouse and silently followed behind them.

  ***

  House Black lived up to its name, there wasn’t a single light illuminating the grounds as Alara and Alex stood by the open gates. Alara disappeared into the row of elm trees that dotted the driveway, the bare branches offered little in the way of disguise, but the girth of the trunks hid their bodies as they stalked their way to the main house. She could see the dark outlines of statues which looked like massive birds with their wings stretching toward the heavens.

  “Dragons!” Black said as he joined Alara at the base of the last tree. “Hundreds of Dragon statues.” He pointed across the sweeping lawns that surrounded the house. She could make out the details of the statues as the moonlight reflected off marbled scales and gemmed eyes.

  “They're beautiful; there have to be hundreds of them!” She scanned a few of the closer ones hoping to find some semblance of life, but they were as cold as ice and as dead as the night. A deep set feeling of disappointment washed over her and she longed to find out more about the beautiful beasts when Black broke her daydream.

  “House Black is adverse to the use of Arts. They’ve been trying to outlaw the application of many spells for years. Scan the house and tell me how many people are in the there.”

  “More than twenty, but I can’t sense anyone I recognise. I only met Lord and Lady Black briefly at the barracks and I was too preoccupied with Bastian to take notice. The whole family could be inside or maybe just the servants.”

  “Thankfully not the whole family!” Alex said sharply.

  Alara was surprised at the admission that he considered himself part of their family, “There are no guards, no dogs and no cameras?” she asked.

  “Not that I can see. I doubt that they’d expect an attack on the house.” He looked at the fort that dwarfed the building and cast dark shadows across the whole of the estate. “If they had anything to hide it would be in there.”

  She probed the walls of the castle, but her mind was forced back by a powerful ward. “Seems like their view of the Arts doesn’t hold true for the fort!”

  “The fort’s protected by the city not the family, city law forbids the ownership of any military buildings, but their grounds have always been discounted as having no military standing. House Black bought up the land shortly after the ABC wars under the auspice of the Senior Council and positioned themselves as caretakers and guardians.”

  “How come you know so much about it Black?”

  “You would too if you’d been with the Guild for the first two years of training,” he said flatly. “They built the house directly in front of the only gate into the fort, the only way in is hidden somewhere in that mansion.”

  “Then we’d better get moving.” They used the dragon statues as cover to cross the lawns and Alara slipped into the shadows of the house and found an open window to climb through. She climbed into the corridor and moved her head to the side as a blade scraped the side of her face as it flew past her. She dropped to the ground and rolled toward the wall and hurled a blade toward in the direction of her attacker in the hope of buying her some time, but another blade thudded into the wall next to her left eye. She gasped, let another blade loose toward the assassin and frantically scanned the area. She heard her blade hit stone and clatter to the floor. Black dived through the window and twisted his body to face the assassin and let loose three blades before he rolled out and charged at the target.

  Alara heard Black's knives find the target and stood over the body, “He wasn’t expecting both of us.” She bent down, removed the hood from his head and slapped his face, but the man was dead. “Just a lower Lord, I’ve seen him around the Guild, but I never spoke to him.”

  “Lord Genus.” Black removed his blades and cleaned them on the assassin's shirt. “He used to give us gym lessons in year one.”

  Alara scanned his mind for information, but if there were any secrets to be had they were well hidden and she pulled back, “We should have kept him alive.”

  �
��Maybe so, and if my maths are correct that’s one down and five to go so plenty of time to question another.”

  “Five that we know of.” They stood in a wide corridor that led east and west, she scanned the area for any assassins lying in wait, but only found several of the staff close by and they were all mundane and incapable of shielding another attacker. “Something’s wrong here Black, I can feel it, but I don’t know what it is, can you sense anything out of the ordinary?”

  He closed his eyes and scanned the building, “Other than we are invading one of the most powerful family's homes on the off chance that we find Lord Osari without the permission of the Guild? And no, I can’t sense any other assassins close by.”

  His sarcasm wasn’t wasted on her, but she ignored it nonetheless. “We didn’t see this one,” she said as she bent down to examine the blades the dead man wore. “They’re mundane, but look at the pattern carved into the steel.”

  Black examined the dragon motif that ran along the length of the blade. “It looks like one of the dragons on Sable’s desk.”

  “Yes, but they’re too small to make out which one.”

  “Does it matter?” Black asked as he passed the blade back to Alara. She sheathed it inside her boot and headed into the east wing of the manor. Their eyes became accustomed to the light as they passed room after room. Black went ahead and scanned each room with his mind as they went, and gave Alara the all clear to proceed. The corridor finally opened up into a large banqueting hall that had been dressed up for a feast. Alara held up a finger to her lips as they crossed the room to a large set of double doors. She pressed a hand to one of the panels and felt the cloth padding. She sensed movement in the adjoining room and crouched down and drew a blade into her right hand and placed her left on the handle of the door, she listened carefully and waited until there was silence. Beckoning for Black to hold back, she cracked open the door an inch and peered inside. “C’mon,” she mouthed at Black and crept silently into the room.

  They stepped in and hugged the wall where torches illuminated a large welcoming hall with a massive marble staircase that led to the upper floors of the house. Black touched Alara’s arm and pointed to a second set of stairs that led downwards. Alara dropped her shield to speak with Black mind to mind. Are there any stories that say where the gates to the fort are?

  No, they could be anywhere. Split up?

  No! Those could be servant’s stairs leading to the kitchens.

  They’ll have their own and will be hidden from view. I doubt the gates will be in the kitchens. He raised an eyebrow at Alara.

  The servants would service the fort, they would need an entrance.

  The fort is capable of self-sufficiency in a time of war. Nothing would be allowed in or out. Any servants would be there for life and sworn to protecting the area. Didn’t you learn anything in history?

  She smiled at him. Fair enough, she raised her shield and pointed to the stairs that led to the lower levels. They stayed close to the walls and stood at the top scanning the area below. Alara nodded to Black and took the first step. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back as a spinning circular blade dropped from the ceiling, just missing her head and embedding itself into the floor at her feet.

  “The fort is rumoured to be booby trapped,” he joked.

  She thanked him and moved on carefully, looking for more traps. They reached the lower floor where different corridors spread out in three directions. She scanned the area, “The kitchens are to the east, the laundry to the west, but whatever’s ahead is camouflaged,” she waved Black to take the lead and crept along the passage.

  They passed three doors before they triggered the next of the booby traps, but they were alert and watched as another circular blade bit into the stone floor.

  Alara took a step forward, but Alex held her back, “Wait,” he whispered. She pulled back quickly as two more of the blades zipped through the air and hit the concrete half a metre in front of them. Flames shot from the side of the wall between the second and third booby trap and Alara sensed a presence and pushed Black into the wall as a blade cut across her arm drawing blood. Black sent two blades into the fire, but they clattered off the stone wall behind the wall of flames. Alara pulsed an energy wave at the blaze as another blade passed close to her and hit Black, cutting a deep gash into his thigh. The energy burst was strong enough to push the fire aside for a second, but that was all that Alara needed. She sent another burst of energy into the assassin's mind and he reeled backwards from the attack. Alara leaped through the gap in the flames and into the assassin. They both clattered to the stone floor, but Alara turned her momentum into a side roll and came up with a blade in hand. The assassin was still groggy from her attack and was too slow to react as Alara hurled the first blade at his throat, and the second into his eye socket. The assassin dropped to the floor and Alara removed his hood and used it as a gag to stop the assassin trying to scream for help, but as Black walked to her side the light in the assassin's eyes dimmed and the man was dead. Alara cleaned her blades and tossed Black another of the dragon blades, “You okay?”

  “Nothing I can’t handle.”

  Alara could sense that Black was in pain and pushed him into a chair, “Stop being an idiot and let me look at that.”

  “Let’s just get this done, I can heal it later.”

  “Not if you frikking bleed to death first,” she loosened her bandana from around her head and let her hair fall around her ears and tied it as tightly as she dared around his leg.

  “Careful, I still need that leg!”

  “Relax I know what I’m doing.”

  “Well then you should sort out that arm as well.”

  She’d forgotten about the cut and the blood had started to soak through her shirt, she took a blade and cut the sleeve away at the shoulder and ripped it into bandages to bind the wound. She used the rest of the material to tie her hair back and looked around the room. Three metal studded wooden doors barred their way; above each one was a painted carving of a dragon. She examined the doors for booby traps and scanned for any wards protecting the area. The shock wave of the protection spell sent her tumbling backwards into Black's arms.

  “Sorry Du Preeze, but I’m already spoken for,” he said and pushed her back to her feet.

  “For someone so deadly you sure do joke a lot.”

  “What can I say, I enjoy my job.”

  “Apparently so!”

  She looked closely at each of the three dragons that adorned the top of each door and walked over to the first. It was a huge male with vicious talons and sharp looking scales, but as she ran her hand over the wood if felt warm. She was intrigued as she followed the curve of its body as it weaved seamlessly through the wood of the door and the stone of the wall.

  “Wow, it looks like they’ve been frozen in time and the building's grown around them,” Black said as he watched from a distance.

  Alara looked into the dead eye of the dragon and followed its gaze across the wall toward the middle dragon. She stroked its head and reached out for the handle of the door that was positioned in its mouth. The dragon's head came to life and Alara jumped back expecting an attack, but it roared in anger and bit down on the handle barring her way. The head returned to its previous position and became wooden once again, but the eye remained alive and looked like a massive ruby that glowed in the torchlight that illuminated the room. Alara approached it again and brushed Black away as he tried to hold her back. She ran a hand gently over its head and watched as a wave of energy seemed to run along the dragon from head to tail, rippling within the stone and wood until the dragon flicked its tail and became still.

  “What the hell!”

  “I’ve never seen the Arts act this way before.”

  “Me either, so how do we get it to open its mouth?”

  “I have no idea.” She stood in front of the second dragon and admired its beauty as it stared back at her head on. She was immediately certain that she had to deal w
ith the third dragon before this one. She walked over to the third and admired the craftsmanship of whatever it was that created such a marvel. The third dragon was perched on top of the door and looked inwardly at the second, its face was frozen in a scream and Alara could feel the pain it portrayed. She followed the curvature of its body as it wrapped itself around the doorframe until the tip of its tail hung just below the handle. She reached out, but before her hand made contact she was blown backwards into the wall as the dragon came to life and screamed at her. Alara took three steps before she managed to dig her heels in and brace herself until the dragon ceased its attack and morphed back into the door with its tail gripping the handle barring her way once again.

  “Well you’d better think of something quickly, there’s only one left.”

  Alara threw him an angry look, “You want to try?”

  “No.”

  “Then let me be!” She walked up to the next dragon, like the first its eyes sparkled like giant rubies and Alara looked on lovingly. She could feel the motherly instincts radiating from within the carving, but as she watched she saw the dragon grip the door handle tightly between two massively large talons. She walked from side to side trying to find an angle to grab for the handle, but the more she considered it, the harder the dragon seemed to hold on. Alara remembered the story of Trian, Paragon and Parian and a glimmer of a plan began to grow in her mind. She sat down cross-legged in front of the middle door and closed her eyes, she had no idea if her plan would work but nothing ventured, nothing gained, as her old Sweat Master used to say. She held her hands out in front of her and pictured three egg-shaped spheres cradled within her palms and used her Artistic skills to bring each one to life.

  She heard Black gasp behind her and opened her eyes, the dragon had not only come to life and morphed out of the wood and stone, it now stood in front of her with its snout almost touching Alara’s nose. “Relax Black everything is fine.” I hope.