90: Princess Assassin (Part Three) (Patreon)

Vir bolted for the window. He’d barely made it out onto the ledge before he heard the panicked shouts of Harak’s personal guard.

Stealth was no longer a priority. He jumped off the ten story building and plummeted to the castle grounds far below. Light Step saved him from broken bones, but the impact still hit him hard. Ash prana was becoming increasingly scarce, and Light Step relied on instant activation to soften his fall.

Vir retrieved his rucksack and pressed himself against the temple wall. No one had seen fall, but with as many guards as there were, it was only a matter of time now.

His options were few. Forget assassinating Mina, returning to the princess’ secret passage was an impossibility. Knights thronged the palace halls, and without Dance, he had no way of entering her guarded room.

The temple lay close to the walls that divided the castle grounds from the District of Internal Affairs. His best bet would be to make himself scarce in the Sawai district.

The only questions—how? Over a dozen guards secured the gate, and while Vir’s acting skills had served him well so far, the castle was on high alert. They’d no doubt question him, and if he failed to answer properly… that would be the end. Without his katars, chakrams, and Dance, he stood no chance.

Which left scaling the walls.

Easier said than done without Dance of the Shadow Demon. The prana in this entire area had been sucked dry, forcing him to rely on old-fashioned climbing.

Taking a deep breath,Vir analyzed the rampart guard patrols. There was hardly a gap now, with so many of them cloistered up there.

Every instinct screamed at him to move. To run from the guards that were no doubt pursuing him. But he overrode those fears. To climb at the wrong time meant he’d be detected right away.

He found his chance a minute later. A break in the guard patrols atop the ramparts. Slight, but enough.

Vir donned his servant’s robe and strode to the walls—the least suspicious people always acted like they belonged there.

Upon reaching the base of the wall, he stowed the robe and leveraged Prana Vision to monitor the rampart guards.

Now!

Vir scrambled up the wall. Thirty paces didn’t seem all that high until one had to scale it. Luckily, he had climbed things all his life, and the uneven stones provided ample handholds.

He’d timed it perfectly—when he arrived at the top of the wall, he had it to himself. The nearest guard was thirty paces away.

Stealth was impossible; the moment he cleared the rampart, the guard noticed.

But by then, it was too late. Vir sprinted across the rampart and threw himself into the air.

He hit the cobblestone road on the other side, using Light Step and rolling to dissipate the force of the impact.

Almost out!

Vir sprinted onto the road that led away from the walls… and came face to face with a dozen knights in full plate armor.

Knights who encircled two people, both of which Vir recognized.

Kamna, the princess’ bodyguard… and princess Mina Hiranya herself, waiting in ambush.

“Well well well, if it isn’t my Ashborn would-be assassin,” Mina spoke, her voice dripping with the confidence of a predator who’d cornered her prey. And with the overwhelming number of elite guards that surrounded her, she had every reason to. “I supposed you think you’ve outwitted—!?”

Vir didn’t even stop; he Leaped right past her.

This was his chance. Possibly his only chance. Mina must have thought him unarmed and helpless. Defanged as he was, she’d be right. Except for one weapon she didn’t know about. That gave him an edge, and he wasn’t about to waste it.

Vir deployed his boot blade and Leaped again. Sideways. It flung him onto an erratic course that Mina’s guards failed to predict. Even so, he could hardly believe their superhuman reflexes, adjusting to his course after a fraction of an instant.

But not fast enough. Vir Empowered his toe blade, and his entire body became a whirlwind of death.

Mina stood there blankly and watched as his boot collided with her arm. Whether it was hubris or her faith in her guards, the girl neglected to wear armor.

As Vir found out, it was neither. His boot didn’t even break her skin. Whether it was magic or something else, he didn’t know. And he wasn’t sticking around to find out.

Without waiting for even a single moment, Vir aborted his attack and launched himself away, gaining precious distance. By the time she screamed, Vir was long gone.

Bleed to death, you grakking chal! Vir swore under his breath.

As he was—without his weapons and Dance—fighting even a single knight would result in his loss. Against them all? It’d be his doom. Prana Vision showed that even the weakest of those knights possessed greater affinities. They were Mina’s best.

“Kamna, dear? Kill him,” he heard Mina shout. It was a deranged voice, a high shrill several octaves too high. “Cut him to pieces!”

Thunder cracked from both of Mina’s palms, and an arc of Lightning reached out to touch Vir.

Sensing their activation with Prana Vision, he threw his body aside, dodging one… but he was too slow to dodge the other. Rather, her attack anticipated his dodge, landing right where he moved. There was simply no avoiding a well placed lightning attack.

The attack raked through his shoulder, sending his entire body spasming.

Vir crashed to the ground, just barely staying conscious. His instincts took over, automatically throwing himself into a roll. Struggling through the lingering shock of Mina’s Arc spell, he forced himself to continue running. He couldn’t feel his left arm, and his legs felt numb, but he ran anyway.

Because Kamna was just twenty paces behind. Twenty paces too close.

He knew what was coming.

Vir dove into a cross street, just barely missing Kamna’s Blade Launch, which threw cobblestone into the air like projectiles. One block hit his back, but Vir gritted through the pain and continued.

I’m gonna lose like this. I need an edge.

No mejai could keep up with Talent wielders leveraging Leap, so Mina wasn’t likely to follow. That left her entourage, but Vir was sure she wouldn't send all dozen of her knights after him.

Sure enough, only Kamna and four other knights followed.

The streets were dangerous. But the rooftops? That was Vir’s playground.

Let’s see you tinheads follow me up here.

A High Jump propelled him onto the tile roofs. Unlike the commons with their flat clay and wood ceilings, the Sawai District boasted raked rooftops.

Treacherous terrain for flatfooted knights in full plate. The ultimate environment for one as agile as Vir.

He bounded from roof to roof, leveraging Leap to send him sailing over amber-lit streets like a ghost. While Talents came slower on the roofs, that applied equally to his pursuers. And Vir didn’t need to rely on Talents nearly as much as they did.

When he sneaked a look back, he found only Kamna, now lagging thirty paces, and two other knights barely keeping up.

Almost there. I got this!

He could already see the Ash prana growing denser on the ground beneath. Soon, he’d have enough to activate Dance, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to use it fast. Which meant more prana, and that meant going further. Another four hundred paces.

Kamna fired another Blade Launch. A line of tiles erupted after him—even if the attack missed, the shrapnel it fired off was nearly as dangerous.

Vir jumped and fell back onto the street to avoid it.

The game of cat and mouse continued. Vir would gain distance until Kamna attacked. Dodging her Talents cost him precious distance, which he’d again slowly increase. Their chase left a trail of destruction in its wake.

Two hundred paces!

But then the knights who’d struggled earlier suddenly caught up.

Guess they’re not elites for nothing, Vir thought as he watched them gain on him, flanking him on either side. No! It’s not that!

The knights moved with odd movements, faster than what was humanly possible.

They’re using the Talent Haste!

And they were trying to encircle him.

Kamna launched a throwing dagger with superhuman force. It flew straight as an arrow without spinning.

Vir raised his steel bracer, deflecting the attack, but concentrating on the attack lost him more ground.

The knights had caught up. He was now in range.

Empowered Blade Projections assaulted Vir. Empowered throwing knives sailed his way, forcing him to dodge or block. And behind it all loomed the threat of Kamna’s Blade Launch, which could end him at any moment.

Vir kicked off a rooftop. His pursuers followed. But when his feet found roof tile, he didn’t continue on. He violently twisted around and High Jumped back at his pursuers, meeting them midair.

Before Kamna’s face could register shock, Vir deployed his boot dagger, slamming it into a knight’s neck.

In one fluid move, Vir ended the knight’s life, retracted his blade, kicked off of the falling corpse’s armor, and shot down to the street.

He rolled and Leaped away, leaving his pursuers on a rooftop scrambling to follow.

Fifty paces!

Vir tore through the streets, pulling as much prana into his legs as he possibly could.

Twenty-five!

Kamna caught up again, and she looked angry. “Enough! Do you think you can escape the city? What will you do? Run across the desert?”

Vir finally stopped and turned, raising his hands slowly. “I don’t need to run across the desert, though.”

“Oho? What will you do, then?”

“Me? Oh, I’ll just disappear. By the way, your mom sends her regards.”

For the second time that evening, Kamna was left bewildered as Vir slipped out from under her nose.

Vir took a moment to smirk at her horrified expression from the safety of the Shadow Realm. Here, time stood still. For ten precious seconds, none could hurt him. After gloating for a few seconds, he turned his eye to the possible exits.

Owing to the lower population density of the District of Internal Affairs, safe exits were fewer here, but Vir’s situation was arguably better than back at the castle. There, guards swarmed. Here, only Sawai families slept.

Vir found himself a nice, dark cellar nearby and exited. He didn’t move. Instead, he just sat back and monitored the surroundings with Prana Vision.

Nobody would find him here. Kamna couldn’t search Sawai manors without a warrant, and she certainly didn’t have the warrant on hand to some random aristocrat’s house.

Furthermore, she had no reason to suspect he’d disappeared into a manor. She didn’t know the range limitations of Dance of the Shadow Demon, and so he was safe here.

Vir spent the next several hours sitting quietly. Observing. Waiting. And shivering.

He’d just reaped another soul tonight. He’d taken the life of the one who’d wronged him. Who’d wronged Maiya.

There was no satisfaction in his heart. No sense of warmth or gloating. But there was closure. He’d failed to kill Princess Mina. But he’d made an honest attempt on her life. And he had killed the man who murdered Rudvik, Apramor, and Aliscia, sewing chaos as promised. His debt to Riyan was now over.

When dawn finally broke, Kamna and her guards had long since given up and gone home. Vir calmly swapped faces, donned his Sawai clothing and Danced out into the streets, blending into the traffic as yet another Sawai, just going about their daily business.

Nobody suspected Vir as he slipped through the District gates. Nobody knew what he’d done when he retrieved Neel Bumpy and checked out of the Sanctum. Having never ridden the beast while in Daha, Mina's spies knew not that the lame Ash'va belonged to him. As for Neel, Vir simply covered him under a blanket as the Bandy rode on Bumpy's back.

And so, none were the wiser as Vir rode out, deceiving all watchful eyes and leaving Daha behind.

— —

Some time earlier, as Vir was fleeing Mina’s guards, a figure stood ten paces from Mina Hiranya. Tall, broad-shouldered, proud… and surrounded in a pool of blood. Not his own, but in the blood of Mina’s elite knights. A half dozen bodies littered the ground, leaving the princess alone and defenseless.

“Quite a late entry, don’t you think?” Mina said calmly, smiling as she turned to the newcomer. Rather than resembling someone greeting her assassin, she looked as though her dearest friend had just shown up.

“For years, I have awaited this moment,” said Riyan, glaring at his mortal enemy. “For years, I have plotted and calculated. All to create an opening. All so that I can have you alone. To myself.”

“Oho? So you never expected your pawn to succeed, is it? Quite coldhearted of you, don’t you think?”

“The boy exceeded expectations. He granted me this opportunity. And now, Mina Hiranya, you will die.”

Riyan disappeared, slicing across Mina’s body with his talwar.

But instead of a shower of red, Mina stood unharmed.

“Ha ha ha!” she laughed. “Oh, you poor fool. You honestly think you can harm me?”

“You believe your Artifact makes you invulnerable. Indeed, I believed the same, for a time. But did you really think I’d have come here tonight without a plan?”

The grin on Mina’s face shrank ever so slightly.

The grin on Riyan’s widened. “I will enjoy this.”

NOTE: Last chapter of arc 3 and book one! Epilogue on Monday :D