Takeover Bid
Apr. 29th, 2010 06:33 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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yrae
Title~ Takeover Bid
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ Commander Zakaariss and Prince Kanera are![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
drazzi's, the rest of Kazin is mine.
Warnings~ liek woah. Up to chapter 18 of Tarnish which I haven't actually written yet, but damnit I wanted to write this. So basically that means Sallie and Shanra, who helped me plan out Tarnish, are the only ones who won't get spoiled here.
Notes~ The dangers of developing a side character are, of course, that they'll want their bits written so they're the main character. Sod you, Sahid. God~ he's so different to writing Nol XD I hope I didn't screw up Kanera and Zakky too much :< WE'LL SEE!
~ ~ ~
Sahid ran his tongue over the back of his teeth as he frowned critically at his target. It was an off day, no doubt about it. He sighed and folded his arms as he waited for the other archers to empty their quivers. His eyes wandered, as they had been all day, to where his younger brother was learning some of Commander Zakaariss’ advanced kukri techniques. It only made him more irritated. He knew Kanera had chosen that spot just to show off to him. It disturbed him how much Kanera had advanced since the Commander had taken him on as his protégée, only two months ago.
‘Clear,’ Commander Reksha announced, breaking Sahid from his irritation.
The assembled trainees crowded around the targets, pulling the arrows for their superiors. Sahid raised his eyebrows as he noticed his youngest brother among them.
‘Shoaib!’ he shouted.
The training prince looked guiltily over his shoulder and ducked his head in preparation.
Sahid shook his head, then sighed and motioned his brother over with a flick of his fingers.
‘I’m calling it a day,’ he said to the archer beside him as Shoaib made his way shamefacedly over.
The archer laughed and nudged him in the ribs, looking towards the doors. ‘No you’re not, Sergeant.’
Sahid cocked his eyebrows and followed his gaze.
A group of young ladies, at least a dozen of them, swanned into the barracks. Gauze breezed around their hips as they giggled amongst themselves, pointing at various warriors around the room. Sahid was unsurprised to find himself and Kanera the main subjects of interest. That little circlet of gold around their foreheads added a lot.
Before he could return their attention with anything more than a wink, Shoaib appeared in front of him, head down.
‘What are you doing pulling arrows?’ Sahid demanded.
Shoaib shrugged hopelessly. ‘It’s a trainee’s job,’ he mumbled.
Sahid flicked his eyes to the door, noticing a group of the ladies had peeled off and were making their way towards him. His lecture would have to wait until later.
‘Don’t care,’ he said simply. ‘You’re a prince before you’re a trainee. We have people to do that sort of thing for us. Now, piss off and get back to training.’
‘Good afternoon, Your Highnesses.’
Sahid swore internally at himself, though he turned a winning smile on the ladies and rested a shoulder against the wall behind him.
‘Hello, ladies,’ he said smoothly. ‘To what do we owe the pleasure?’
The four of them dipped their heads low to him and Shoaib, then one spoke up.
‘Mostly?’ she said, peering out from under a long fringe. Her friend beside her gave her a nudge in the ribs and the both of them giggled.
Sahid raised his eyebrows as the two of them stepped around behind him and Shoaib.
‘Well, there’s the power,’ the girl behind Sahid said, her voice light and airy in his ear. She began stroking her fingers over his biceps. ‘Then there are these,’ she went on, smoothing her hands down his arms to twine her fingers around his wrists.
‘Sahid…’ Shoaib’s plaintive voice barely penetrated Sahid’s mind, just enough for him to flick an irritated glance down at his brother.
‘But do you know what’s best?’ the girl continued, ignoring Shoaib’s plea.
Sahid gave a modest shrug, her cool fingers teasing at his wrists. ‘I think I can guess.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think you can, Highness,’ she taunted. ‘Because the best thing? What better way is there to take control of a situation, than by taking a few princes hostage?’
Sahid barely had a moment to frown in confusion at her last words before her soft fingers turned to an iron grip. She wrenched his arms behind him, thudding his head against the wall in the process. His ears rang and stars blackened his vision, momentarily dazing him. It was just enough for the young woman to bind his wrists with a leather strap.
The cold bite of steel on his throat jerked him back to his senses. He had been relieved of all his weapons—one of the girls was cleaning under her fingernails with the tip of one kukri.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ he snapped, yanking at the leather bindings with both arms. The blade slid against his throat, making him flinch and lessen his struggles. ‘Let me go!’
‘I don’t think we’ll be doing that,’ the woman purred.
‘Are you insane?’ Sahid almost yelled, though he held his head back now, vainly trying to escape that blade. ‘You’re in a room with half the Assiraz army!’
‘Sahid!’ Kanera hissed at him from the other side of the room. ‘Shut it! These aren’t the kinds of people you want to be angering.’
A quick survey of the room told Sahid both his brothers were in the same situation, along with Commanders Zakaariss and Reksha. They were being moved slowly towards where he was being held captive, closer to the doors.
‘Neither am I,’ Sahid muttered, jabbing back with one elbow as best he could, but the binding gave him almost no movement. The blade bit again at his throat, enough to make him wince and pull his head back further. She had broken the skin that time. He could feel the cold steel sliding through his flesh.
‘Sahid, shut up!’ Kanera hissed again.
Everyone in the barracks stood well back, expressions of shock on their faces as they stared at the scene unfolding before them. A number seemed to gather their senses just as Sahid did, and raised their bows. Half the arrows seemed to point straight at him, making him cringe and take half a step backwards, but the blade at his throat pressed harder.
‘Let me go,’ he muttered.
The young woman at his back made a chiding noise with her teeth. ‘Has Mummy ever told you about her Bouquet?’ she asked, her voice still just as light and airy as it had been moments ago.
Sahid tried to shoot her a sideways glare, but he didn’t dare move his head against the blade again. ‘You’ll call her Empress,’ he warned her.
She rested her chin against his shoulder, yanking at his bindings with her free hand. ‘I’ll call her Frangipani,’ she said. ‘But not for much longer.’
A chill ran up Sahid’s spine as he realised what these women were after.
‘You won’t touch her.’
‘Careful,’ she warned. ‘You don’t know what we’re capable of yet. Mummy only chose the best.’
‘Lower your weapons!’ one of the women barked. ‘Commanders, come forward now. We’re taking over proceedings from here on in.’
Nobody moved.
‘Lower them!’ the woman barked again. ‘Commanders, step forward, or one of these men will die.’
From among the ranks, Sahid caught sight of one arrow flying. He ducked his head on instinct, wincing as the blade cut a little deeper into his skin. The arrow clattered harmlessly into the wall, followed by horrified gasps and cries of protest.
Sahid carefully lifted his head and opened his eyes, just as Commander Reksha’s body slumped to the floor. A steady pool of blood grew from around his neck.
Sahid’s whole body went cold, and he could feel his hands begin quivering in their bindings behind his back. Whoever had shot the arrow lay dead on the floor, too, a throwing knife embedded in his throat.
‘There, you see?’ the girl at his back murmured, almost playfully. ‘You don’t want to be testing us. We’ve killed Commanders before.’
Sahid clenched his eyes briefly, then glanced sidelong at his two younger brothers and the remaining Commander Zakaariss. I’m not dying here.
‘For fuck’s sake, put your bows down!’ he shouted, not caring about the crack of fear in his voice. ‘Hasan, Naved, they know you’re here. Come forward or, so help me, I’ll kill you myself.’
‘Sahid!’ Kanera hissed over Shoaib’s head. ‘Shut up!’
‘Do you want to die?’ Sahid hissed back. ‘Because they will bloody do it.’
‘Yeah, and drawing attention to yourself isn’t the—’ He was cut off with a sharp hiss as, presumably, the blade at his own throat was tightened.
Sahid swore through his teeth as another chill danced up his spine and prickled his skin.
‘Step forward, Commanders.’ Zakaariss’ voice was as impassive and unreadable as ever.
With that word from him, the two remaining Commanders did as ordered. It was as though Zakaariss stood a rung above the rest of the Circle, nowhere near reaching the level of General, but certainly earning the obedience of his peers.
As they came forward, Hasan and Naved both cast respectful looks at their colleague, trusting that he would have a plan forming already. Sahid could only hope their trust was well-placed.
The two men turned their backs and presented their hands to be bound. Sahid thought he saw a twitch in Commander Hasan’s left arm, his blade arm. Before he could say anything in warning, Hasan had thrust his elbow up to catch the woman behind him square in the jaw.
He spun around, sword in hand, but in a flash of movement almost too fast for Sahid to see, the woman snapped up her own pair of kukris and clashed them once with the Commander’s blade to send it flying from his hand. Before the sword had clattered to the ground, Commander Hasan was dead.
Sahid stared in horror at the second Commander to fall to these women. This was real. Two Commanders were dead, and Sahid stood alongside his brothers and two more Commanders with a blade slowly cutting into his throat. Unless he did something, these killers would get exactly what they wanted. But what could he do? As soon as he moved, the only possible outcome stared vacantly up at him from a pool of blood.
‘We’re going to the palace,’ their leader barked to the room. ‘Clear the way. If we so much as see another human being along that route, they and another of these men will die. Go! Now!’
Sahid tried to think clearly as the Assiraz army filed out of the barracks, leaving him with his brothers, two Commanders, three dead bodies and a dozen assassins. Even with their potential threat gone, the woman’s grip on her blade didn’t slacken.
For a long while, the only sound in the barracks was Shoaib’s quiet sniffing. Sahid saw Kanera nudge him from the corner of his eye. ‘Cheer up, kiddo,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ll get out of this somehow.’
The leader stepped to the door to make sure the army was well and truly gone, then stood before her hostages. ‘As for you, gentlemen, your job is to simply do as you’re told, something you should all be so very accustomed to.’
‘Who are you?’ Commander Naved asked, his voice measured and careful. Never one to raise a stir, was Naved. ‘What do you want?’
The woman spread her arms and wore an expression that said they all should know. ‘We’re the Bouquet, darling!’ she said expansively, her earlier bark now a husky drawl. ‘Frangipani only picks the best. Turns out we’re not quite so money hungry as she thought. We don’t like the corruption. We don’t like the draft. We don’t like the wars—not only this one, but every internal war Kazin has suffered under Frangipani’s reign.’
‘You’re Mother’s assassins,’ Sahid realised. Twelve of them, one for each Kazinian province.
‘Shh!’ Kanera hissed again. ‘We’ve all picked that up, you dickhead!’
‘We don’t like you, Sahid,’ the Bouquet’s leader went on. ‘For killing your own aunt, just because mummy told you to, just because none of us would stoop to that level, but you, Queen Shala’s own flesh and blood, would.’
Sahid yanked again at his bindings, winced again as the blade slid against his throat. ‘Just say that again,’ he growled.
‘Sahid, would you shut up, please!’ Kanera begged. ‘For Nizaaz’s sake, don’t make me the oldest brother here.’
Sahid closed his eyes and tightened his jaw, determined not to say anything more. The two Commanders’ dead eyes still stared at him from behind his closed lids.
‘Good boy,’ the woman at his back purred.
It took every ounce of self control for him not to answer her back. He didn’t imagine they would kill him for just mouthing off, but the tiny, rational part of his brain that wasn’t overridden by panic told him it wasn’t a wise bet to make. They already knew about Shala; they could kill him just for that. Worse, the wrong words could make his brothers see the truth, too.
‘Right, ladies,’ the leader spoke up. ‘They’ve had enough of a head start, I think.’
The woman at his back made a move towards the door, steering him by the bindings around his hands.
Sahid gasped as the blade twisted ever so slightly in his neck. ‘Gods above, please don’t kill me,’ he mumbled. ‘I’m not dying like this.’
‘That’s up to you and your countrymen,’ she told him.
The streets outside were deserted, painting Assiraz in a completely different light to what Sahid was used to. The street vendors, always capitalising on hungry warriors leaving the barracks, had abandoned their stalls in the middle of the street. One still had smoke rising from something left burning on its grill.
Sahid’s hands were numb and shaking as he was led down the deserted streets of his home city. His eyes darted after any movement he thought he saw, hoping desperately that it wasn’t a person. He looked briefly at the backs of the two Commanders in front of him, wondering if either of them had come up with a plan yet.
‘Where are the black horses?’ he asked.
‘Halfway to Silrona.’ It was the long-haired woman behind him who answered. ‘Mummy’s been keeping them very busy these last few months.’
Sahid swore in his head again. He didn’t trust anyone else in the empire to be able to shoot down all twelve of them before they slit the throats of him and his brothers.
He remained silent for the rest of the agonising walk to the palace. He tried to think of a way out of the situation, but his mind kept turning to the inevitable outcome. Mother dead. Sahid and his brothers all dead. Assili? Was there reason for them to kill her? Was there reason for them to keep her around?
The engraved marble of the palace’s outer wall rose up ahead of him. He could feel his face pale and his stomach sink at what that meant. If they made it past the gate, that was the end. If they didn’t, it was his end.
Atop the wall, guards stood on either side of the gate, bows raised towards the approaching assassins.
Sahid was lined up with the other four hostages behind the group’s leader. To his right stood his brothers, to his left the pair of Commanders. He looked again at Zakaariss, but could still gauge nothing from his expression.
‘Lower your weapons,’ the leader barked again. ‘Clear the area and open the gates.’
The guards did neither.
‘We can’t allow—’
‘Open the fucking gates!’ Sahid shouted, not allowing the assassins the time to think about the guard’s denial and kill another of their hostages.
‘Sahid, shut up!’ Kanera tried again, but Sahid ignored him.
‘They’ve already killed Commanders Reksha and Hasan, no hesitation.’ He knew it would be him or one of his brothers next, just so they could prove they weren’t above killing royalty, too. The kukri blade burned at his throat, perilously close to slitting it open. ‘For fuck’s sake, open the gates!’
The guards exchanged glances for agonising seconds. Every twitch of the knife made Sahid’s blood run cold. All he could hear was Shoaib sobbing beside him.
‘Shoaib, you are not helping,’ he muttered through clenched teeth.
‘Ignore him,’ Kanera said to their youngest brother. ‘We’ll get through this together, yeah?’
After what seemed an age, one of the guards called down to those behind the wall. ‘You heard them. Clear the area.’
‘Hmm,’ the woman at his back laughed. ‘You’ve got them well trained here.’
He wanted so desperately to yell out again, to get Mother and Assili out of there, release the tigers, anything, but that would certainly be signing his death warrant. The mere thought of it made him slightly dizzy.
He watched through the gates towards the palace. Three of the gate guards ran up the long avenue of palm trees, gathering guards from the garden as they went.
‘Not long now,’ the assassin breathed, her fingers flexing against the hilt of her blade. ‘Be a good boy and we might even let you go.’
‘That’s long enough,’ the leader shouted. ‘Now, open the gates. And don’t try any valiant rescue attempts, or your favourite princes here will die.’
‘Please, gods, no,’ Sahid pleaded, vainly trying to pull away from the blade.
‘You don’t get a say in this,’ the assassin reminded him.
The gates swung smoothly open, giving Sahid the briefest moment of relief before the dread set back in. The palace now lay unimpeded before them.
His legs were numb as the assassin pushed him in the back, moving almost of their own accord. The assassins around him pulled bows from their shoulders and nocked arrows into the strings. As he heard the gates clang shut behind him, they fired.
There were no screams, only the sickening thuds of guards falling to the ground.
‘They were cooperating,’ Sahid said.
The woman at his back laughed and made a playful chiding noise with her tongue. ‘It never does well to be looking over your shoulder, does it?’
The archers moved around to the front of the group, reloading their bows as they scanned the grounds. Sahid silently cursed the manicured front gardens, all lawn with strategically planted ornamental trees. It was brilliant for horse riding, but for a group of guards large enough to take down the dozen assassins, there was nowhere to hide.
There were only two guards along the long road up to the palace. Both were shot down before Sahid had even spotted them.
The palace was white and beautiful in front of him, and just as deserted as the streets outside. As they approached the front doors, Sahid felt the woman at his back give him a strong kiss on the back of his neck.
‘Thanks for your help, sweetie,’ she said into his ear. ‘You can live.’
With that, the blade was released from Sahid’s throat, but he still couldn’t bring himself to move as he watched the assassins group in front of him. The slice in his throat throbbed with steel fire. His hands, still tied behind him, trembled in dreading relief.
The leader turned to face her charges and gave them a small nod. ‘Good luck, ladies,’ she said, then led the group of assassins into the palace.
Sahid stood in silence, the sound of his own breathing loud and ragged in his ears. ‘Commander,’ he croaked to the man beside him. ‘Whatever your plan is to save my mother and my sister, now would be the time to implement it.’
Author~ Annarti
Disclaimer~ Commander Zakaariss and Prince Kanera are
drazzi's, the rest of Kazin is mine.Warnings~ liek woah. Up to chapter 18 of Tarnish which I haven't actually written yet, but damnit I wanted to write this. So basically that means Sallie and Shanra, who helped me plan out Tarnish, are the only ones who won't get spoiled here.
Notes~ The dangers of developing a side character are, of course, that they'll want their bits written so they're the main character. Sod you, Sahid. God~ he's so different to writing Nol XD I hope I didn't screw up Kanera and Zakky too much :< WE'LL SEE!
Sahid ran his tongue over the back of his teeth as he frowned critically at his target. It was an off day, no doubt about it. He sighed and folded his arms as he waited for the other archers to empty their quivers. His eyes wandered, as they had been all day, to where his younger brother was learning some of Commander Zakaariss’ advanced kukri techniques. It only made him more irritated. He knew Kanera had chosen that spot just to show off to him. It disturbed him how much Kanera had advanced since the Commander had taken him on as his protégée, only two months ago.
‘Clear,’ Commander Reksha announced, breaking Sahid from his irritation.
The assembled trainees crowded around the targets, pulling the arrows for their superiors. Sahid raised his eyebrows as he noticed his youngest brother among them.
‘Shoaib!’ he shouted.
The training prince looked guiltily over his shoulder and ducked his head in preparation.
Sahid shook his head, then sighed and motioned his brother over with a flick of his fingers.
‘I’m calling it a day,’ he said to the archer beside him as Shoaib made his way shamefacedly over.
The archer laughed and nudged him in the ribs, looking towards the doors. ‘No you’re not, Sergeant.’
Sahid cocked his eyebrows and followed his gaze.
A group of young ladies, at least a dozen of them, swanned into the barracks. Gauze breezed around their hips as they giggled amongst themselves, pointing at various warriors around the room. Sahid was unsurprised to find himself and Kanera the main subjects of interest. That little circlet of gold around their foreheads added a lot.
Before he could return their attention with anything more than a wink, Shoaib appeared in front of him, head down.
‘What are you doing pulling arrows?’ Sahid demanded.
Shoaib shrugged hopelessly. ‘It’s a trainee’s job,’ he mumbled.
Sahid flicked his eyes to the door, noticing a group of the ladies had peeled off and were making their way towards him. His lecture would have to wait until later.
‘Don’t care,’ he said simply. ‘You’re a prince before you’re a trainee. We have people to do that sort of thing for us. Now, piss off and get back to training.’
‘Good afternoon, Your Highnesses.’
Sahid swore internally at himself, though he turned a winning smile on the ladies and rested a shoulder against the wall behind him.
‘Hello, ladies,’ he said smoothly. ‘To what do we owe the pleasure?’
The four of them dipped their heads low to him and Shoaib, then one spoke up.
‘Mostly?’ she said, peering out from under a long fringe. Her friend beside her gave her a nudge in the ribs and the both of them giggled.
Sahid raised his eyebrows as the two of them stepped around behind him and Shoaib.
‘Well, there’s the power,’ the girl behind Sahid said, her voice light and airy in his ear. She began stroking her fingers over his biceps. ‘Then there are these,’ she went on, smoothing her hands down his arms to twine her fingers around his wrists.
‘Sahid…’ Shoaib’s plaintive voice barely penetrated Sahid’s mind, just enough for him to flick an irritated glance down at his brother.
‘But do you know what’s best?’ the girl continued, ignoring Shoaib’s plea.
Sahid gave a modest shrug, her cool fingers teasing at his wrists. ‘I think I can guess.’
She shook her head. ‘I don’t think you can, Highness,’ she taunted. ‘Because the best thing? What better way is there to take control of a situation, than by taking a few princes hostage?’
Sahid barely had a moment to frown in confusion at her last words before her soft fingers turned to an iron grip. She wrenched his arms behind him, thudding his head against the wall in the process. His ears rang and stars blackened his vision, momentarily dazing him. It was just enough for the young woman to bind his wrists with a leather strap.
The cold bite of steel on his throat jerked him back to his senses. He had been relieved of all his weapons—one of the girls was cleaning under her fingernails with the tip of one kukri.
‘What the fuck do you think you’re doing?’ he snapped, yanking at the leather bindings with both arms. The blade slid against his throat, making him flinch and lessen his struggles. ‘Let me go!’
‘I don’t think we’ll be doing that,’ the woman purred.
‘Are you insane?’ Sahid almost yelled, though he held his head back now, vainly trying to escape that blade. ‘You’re in a room with half the Assiraz army!’
‘Sahid!’ Kanera hissed at him from the other side of the room. ‘Shut it! These aren’t the kinds of people you want to be angering.’
A quick survey of the room told Sahid both his brothers were in the same situation, along with Commanders Zakaariss and Reksha. They were being moved slowly towards where he was being held captive, closer to the doors.
‘Neither am I,’ Sahid muttered, jabbing back with one elbow as best he could, but the binding gave him almost no movement. The blade bit again at his throat, enough to make him wince and pull his head back further. She had broken the skin that time. He could feel the cold steel sliding through his flesh.
‘Sahid, shut up!’ Kanera hissed again.
Everyone in the barracks stood well back, expressions of shock on their faces as they stared at the scene unfolding before them. A number seemed to gather their senses just as Sahid did, and raised their bows. Half the arrows seemed to point straight at him, making him cringe and take half a step backwards, but the blade at his throat pressed harder.
‘Let me go,’ he muttered.
The young woman at his back made a chiding noise with her teeth. ‘Has Mummy ever told you about her Bouquet?’ she asked, her voice still just as light and airy as it had been moments ago.
Sahid tried to shoot her a sideways glare, but he didn’t dare move his head against the blade again. ‘You’ll call her Empress,’ he warned her.
She rested her chin against his shoulder, yanking at his bindings with her free hand. ‘I’ll call her Frangipani,’ she said. ‘But not for much longer.’
A chill ran up Sahid’s spine as he realised what these women were after.
‘You won’t touch her.’
‘Careful,’ she warned. ‘You don’t know what we’re capable of yet. Mummy only chose the best.’
‘Lower your weapons!’ one of the women barked. ‘Commanders, come forward now. We’re taking over proceedings from here on in.’
Nobody moved.
‘Lower them!’ the woman barked again. ‘Commanders, step forward, or one of these men will die.’
From among the ranks, Sahid caught sight of one arrow flying. He ducked his head on instinct, wincing as the blade cut a little deeper into his skin. The arrow clattered harmlessly into the wall, followed by horrified gasps and cries of protest.
Sahid carefully lifted his head and opened his eyes, just as Commander Reksha’s body slumped to the floor. A steady pool of blood grew from around his neck.
Sahid’s whole body went cold, and he could feel his hands begin quivering in their bindings behind his back. Whoever had shot the arrow lay dead on the floor, too, a throwing knife embedded in his throat.
‘There, you see?’ the girl at his back murmured, almost playfully. ‘You don’t want to be testing us. We’ve killed Commanders before.’
Sahid clenched his eyes briefly, then glanced sidelong at his two younger brothers and the remaining Commander Zakaariss. I’m not dying here.
‘For fuck’s sake, put your bows down!’ he shouted, not caring about the crack of fear in his voice. ‘Hasan, Naved, they know you’re here. Come forward or, so help me, I’ll kill you myself.’
‘Sahid!’ Kanera hissed over Shoaib’s head. ‘Shut up!’
‘Do you want to die?’ Sahid hissed back. ‘Because they will bloody do it.’
‘Yeah, and drawing attention to yourself isn’t the—’ He was cut off with a sharp hiss as, presumably, the blade at his own throat was tightened.
Sahid swore through his teeth as another chill danced up his spine and prickled his skin.
‘Step forward, Commanders.’ Zakaariss’ voice was as impassive and unreadable as ever.
With that word from him, the two remaining Commanders did as ordered. It was as though Zakaariss stood a rung above the rest of the Circle, nowhere near reaching the level of General, but certainly earning the obedience of his peers.
As they came forward, Hasan and Naved both cast respectful looks at their colleague, trusting that he would have a plan forming already. Sahid could only hope their trust was well-placed.
The two men turned their backs and presented their hands to be bound. Sahid thought he saw a twitch in Commander Hasan’s left arm, his blade arm. Before he could say anything in warning, Hasan had thrust his elbow up to catch the woman behind him square in the jaw.
He spun around, sword in hand, but in a flash of movement almost too fast for Sahid to see, the woman snapped up her own pair of kukris and clashed them once with the Commander’s blade to send it flying from his hand. Before the sword had clattered to the ground, Commander Hasan was dead.
Sahid stared in horror at the second Commander to fall to these women. This was real. Two Commanders were dead, and Sahid stood alongside his brothers and two more Commanders with a blade slowly cutting into his throat. Unless he did something, these killers would get exactly what they wanted. But what could he do? As soon as he moved, the only possible outcome stared vacantly up at him from a pool of blood.
‘We’re going to the palace,’ their leader barked to the room. ‘Clear the way. If we so much as see another human being along that route, they and another of these men will die. Go! Now!’
Sahid tried to think clearly as the Assiraz army filed out of the barracks, leaving him with his brothers, two Commanders, three dead bodies and a dozen assassins. Even with their potential threat gone, the woman’s grip on her blade didn’t slacken.
For a long while, the only sound in the barracks was Shoaib’s quiet sniffing. Sahid saw Kanera nudge him from the corner of his eye. ‘Cheer up, kiddo,’ he said quietly. ‘We’ll get out of this somehow.’
The leader stepped to the door to make sure the army was well and truly gone, then stood before her hostages. ‘As for you, gentlemen, your job is to simply do as you’re told, something you should all be so very accustomed to.’
‘Who are you?’ Commander Naved asked, his voice measured and careful. Never one to raise a stir, was Naved. ‘What do you want?’
The woman spread her arms and wore an expression that said they all should know. ‘We’re the Bouquet, darling!’ she said expansively, her earlier bark now a husky drawl. ‘Frangipani only picks the best. Turns out we’re not quite so money hungry as she thought. We don’t like the corruption. We don’t like the draft. We don’t like the wars—not only this one, but every internal war Kazin has suffered under Frangipani’s reign.’
‘You’re Mother’s assassins,’ Sahid realised. Twelve of them, one for each Kazinian province.
‘Shh!’ Kanera hissed again. ‘We’ve all picked that up, you dickhead!’
‘We don’t like you, Sahid,’ the Bouquet’s leader went on. ‘For killing your own aunt, just because mummy told you to, just because none of us would stoop to that level, but you, Queen Shala’s own flesh and blood, would.’
Sahid yanked again at his bindings, winced again as the blade slid against his throat. ‘Just say that again,’ he growled.
‘Sahid, would you shut up, please!’ Kanera begged. ‘For Nizaaz’s sake, don’t make me the oldest brother here.’
Sahid closed his eyes and tightened his jaw, determined not to say anything more. The two Commanders’ dead eyes still stared at him from behind his closed lids.
‘Good boy,’ the woman at his back purred.
It took every ounce of self control for him not to answer her back. He didn’t imagine they would kill him for just mouthing off, but the tiny, rational part of his brain that wasn’t overridden by panic told him it wasn’t a wise bet to make. They already knew about Shala; they could kill him just for that. Worse, the wrong words could make his brothers see the truth, too.
‘Right, ladies,’ the leader spoke up. ‘They’ve had enough of a head start, I think.’
The woman at his back made a move towards the door, steering him by the bindings around his hands.
Sahid gasped as the blade twisted ever so slightly in his neck. ‘Gods above, please don’t kill me,’ he mumbled. ‘I’m not dying like this.’
‘That’s up to you and your countrymen,’ she told him.
The streets outside were deserted, painting Assiraz in a completely different light to what Sahid was used to. The street vendors, always capitalising on hungry warriors leaving the barracks, had abandoned their stalls in the middle of the street. One still had smoke rising from something left burning on its grill.
Sahid’s hands were numb and shaking as he was led down the deserted streets of his home city. His eyes darted after any movement he thought he saw, hoping desperately that it wasn’t a person. He looked briefly at the backs of the two Commanders in front of him, wondering if either of them had come up with a plan yet.
‘Where are the black horses?’ he asked.
‘Halfway to Silrona.’ It was the long-haired woman behind him who answered. ‘Mummy’s been keeping them very busy these last few months.’
Sahid swore in his head again. He didn’t trust anyone else in the empire to be able to shoot down all twelve of them before they slit the throats of him and his brothers.
He remained silent for the rest of the agonising walk to the palace. He tried to think of a way out of the situation, but his mind kept turning to the inevitable outcome. Mother dead. Sahid and his brothers all dead. Assili? Was there reason for them to kill her? Was there reason for them to keep her around?
The engraved marble of the palace’s outer wall rose up ahead of him. He could feel his face pale and his stomach sink at what that meant. If they made it past the gate, that was the end. If they didn’t, it was his end.
Atop the wall, guards stood on either side of the gate, bows raised towards the approaching assassins.
Sahid was lined up with the other four hostages behind the group’s leader. To his right stood his brothers, to his left the pair of Commanders. He looked again at Zakaariss, but could still gauge nothing from his expression.
‘Lower your weapons,’ the leader barked again. ‘Clear the area and open the gates.’
The guards did neither.
‘We can’t allow—’
‘Open the fucking gates!’ Sahid shouted, not allowing the assassins the time to think about the guard’s denial and kill another of their hostages.
‘Sahid, shut up!’ Kanera tried again, but Sahid ignored him.
‘They’ve already killed Commanders Reksha and Hasan, no hesitation.’ He knew it would be him or one of his brothers next, just so they could prove they weren’t above killing royalty, too. The kukri blade burned at his throat, perilously close to slitting it open. ‘For fuck’s sake, open the gates!’
The guards exchanged glances for agonising seconds. Every twitch of the knife made Sahid’s blood run cold. All he could hear was Shoaib sobbing beside him.
‘Shoaib, you are not helping,’ he muttered through clenched teeth.
‘Ignore him,’ Kanera said to their youngest brother. ‘We’ll get through this together, yeah?’
After what seemed an age, one of the guards called down to those behind the wall. ‘You heard them. Clear the area.’
‘Hmm,’ the woman at his back laughed. ‘You’ve got them well trained here.’
He wanted so desperately to yell out again, to get Mother and Assili out of there, release the tigers, anything, but that would certainly be signing his death warrant. The mere thought of it made him slightly dizzy.
He watched through the gates towards the palace. Three of the gate guards ran up the long avenue of palm trees, gathering guards from the garden as they went.
‘Not long now,’ the assassin breathed, her fingers flexing against the hilt of her blade. ‘Be a good boy and we might even let you go.’
‘That’s long enough,’ the leader shouted. ‘Now, open the gates. And don’t try any valiant rescue attempts, or your favourite princes here will die.’
‘Please, gods, no,’ Sahid pleaded, vainly trying to pull away from the blade.
‘You don’t get a say in this,’ the assassin reminded him.
The gates swung smoothly open, giving Sahid the briefest moment of relief before the dread set back in. The palace now lay unimpeded before them.
His legs were numb as the assassin pushed him in the back, moving almost of their own accord. The assassins around him pulled bows from their shoulders and nocked arrows into the strings. As he heard the gates clang shut behind him, they fired.
There were no screams, only the sickening thuds of guards falling to the ground.
‘They were cooperating,’ Sahid said.
The woman at his back laughed and made a playful chiding noise with her tongue. ‘It never does well to be looking over your shoulder, does it?’
The archers moved around to the front of the group, reloading their bows as they scanned the grounds. Sahid silently cursed the manicured front gardens, all lawn with strategically planted ornamental trees. It was brilliant for horse riding, but for a group of guards large enough to take down the dozen assassins, there was nowhere to hide.
There were only two guards along the long road up to the palace. Both were shot down before Sahid had even spotted them.
The palace was white and beautiful in front of him, and just as deserted as the streets outside. As they approached the front doors, Sahid felt the woman at his back give him a strong kiss on the back of his neck.
‘Thanks for your help, sweetie,’ she said into his ear. ‘You can live.’
With that, the blade was released from Sahid’s throat, but he still couldn’t bring himself to move as he watched the assassins group in front of him. The slice in his throat throbbed with steel fire. His hands, still tied behind him, trembled in dreading relief.
The leader turned to face her charges and gave them a small nod. ‘Good luck, ladies,’ she said, then led the group of assassins into the palace.
Sahid stood in silence, the sound of his own breathing loud and ragged in his ears. ‘Commander,’ he croaked to the man beside him. ‘Whatever your plan is to save my mother and my sister, now would be the time to implement it.’
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Date: 2010-04-29 11:47 am (UTC)... Sahid can undo them with his TEETH. Only he can't be arsed right now.
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Date: 2010-04-29 11:50 am (UTC)Kanera all "Come on? COME ON?! Where the fuck are we coming on to with no weapons and no hands you MORON?"
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Date: 2010-04-29 12:32 pm (UTC)... I don't know what the smeg Commander... other bloke is doing at this point. Legging it back down the front driveway, probably.