decision to take up his position two days in advance of the duty he had been hired to undertake. Almost, but not quite. It was better to be part of the scenery, invisible, than to skulk his way to a good position when the streets were thronged.
He squinted up at Kerberos. It looked the colour of a bruise tonight, like blood purpling under dead skin. He looked away, half imagining that it was a bilious, sickly eye, watching him. It felt like a spotlight, picking him out for all to see, and that, at any moment now, he would hear the cries of alarm and anger. Then the soldiers would come.
He turned away with a grimace, but could still feel its diseased light on him. He curled up and closed his eyes, as he often did when he felt troubled. He always hoped that he would sleep, and find the thing that troubled him gone in the morning.
CHAPTER 2
Erak Brand was awake and alert as soon as he stepped out onto the esplanade. An army of servants from the castle had swarmed around the open space overnight, putting the finishing touches to the banner-draped enclosures that now housed the various groups who had come to view the wedding of Freihurr vom Kalten's eldest son, Motte, to Undina of Malmkrug. He was lucky to have seen any of it, of course, since he'd been on duty in the castle itself most of the time, but a wedding always gave him a cheerful buzz. It wasn't so much the dancing or the food as the idea that two people were so committed to each other and to the Lord of All.
Well, maybe it was the dancing and the food as well, if he was honest with himself.
Erak was of average height and had a wiry build under his amour, but that didn't mean he was more resistant than anyone else to the lure of extra food. Any soldier in the Empire soon learned that rations, like sleep, were something to be savoured whenever available, just in case there was a dearth of them around the next corner.
He walked around the edge of the esplanade, watching the people who were beginning to fill it up, ready for the happy couple to be presented to them. Weddings had always been a time for a celebratory drink, and carousing, and if people were going to flaunt the local temperance laws that Freihurr had instituted, it would be at an occasion like this.
Ducal soldiers of Kalten lined the castle walls, their dress amour glinting even in the overcast light of the winter's day, scarlet surcoats covering their mail. Erak himself, like the other knights of the Order of the Swords of Dawn who were in Kalten, wore his normal amour and a white Final Faith surplice. In the eyes of the Lord of All, it was a day for vigilance, like any other.
That buzz was still there, though, and he was determined to enjoy it just enough to be glad of it but not enough to be distracted by it.
Watery dawn light woke the man in the shooting cell. There was no more claustrophobia now and he knew that he wouldn't have to spend another night crammed into this cell. Outside, the day was beginning. Flatbed carts pulled by teams of two or four horses were moving to and fro along North Cliff, fetching and carrying goods around the city from the various docks and markets.
The assassin's crossbow was particularly powerful, to get good distance, and needed a windlass to draw. The man unrolled an oilskin, which had half a dozen quarrels nestled in its slim pockets, and slid one bolt out. Its tip was diamond-shaped and it weighed two ounces. It was surprisingly short for something intended to be shot by such a large bow, only eight inches instead of the usual fifteen or so. The assassin had chosen this bolt for its balance of range versus stopping power. Shorter, it would go further than an average bolt, but hopefully the weight meant it would still pack at least as much punch when it hit flesh.
He rolled the oilskin back up, with five quarrels still inside. He wouldn't like to be arrogant enough to think that he would need only one, but nor did he think it likely that he would get to fire a second time.
As the morning wore on, more people gathered in the esplanade. The smells of hot foods became stronger, and Erak wondered how much of it was masking the smell of grain spirits. The wedding ceremony was taking place in the castle's main hall, of course, but it was the tradition that the bride and groom be presented to the people beforehand, for their approval as well as the approval of the Lord of All.
Everybody loved to see a happy couple, especially if it meant a chance to take an hour's break from hard labour to taste a delicate sweetmeat from foreign parts, not usually served to a fisherman on the west coast.
Finally, an honour guard of Ducal soldiers marched out of the castle gates and formed up on the esplanade. Eight members of the Swords emerged, their raised swords forming an archway through which Motte and Undina walked. Freihurr vom Kalten and Undina's father followed, as did an Eminence of the Final Faith. From the white hair, Erak knew he was being honoured with a sight of Ludwig Rhodon. Three more Eminences were approaching the gate behind him, blessing the crowd.
And that was when the buzz of pleasure stopped.
The albino that had just emerged onto the esplanade didn't look that remarkable. He wore robes that were carefully tailored to give the impression of piety. Only the small crossed circle of the Final Faith on his cloak-pin indicated how important he was.
There were only eight members of the Order of the Swords Of Dawn visible as an honour guard. A few more Swords were meandering through the growing crowd, and one of them stopped to cuff a man who was surreptitiously drinking from a small skin. The knight sent the man on his way, and poured the contents of the skin over the cobbles. The assassin smiled to himself. If the Swords were more concerned with enforcing the crazed local temperance laws than with security, so much the better.
The man loaded the quarrel into the crossbow and wound it. When it was cocked, he lay flat, putting the business end of the bow to the loophole overlooking the esplanade. He nestled the stock into his shoulder. Snow was still falling, but he was confident that he had a clear shot.
The bowman wished he could take the time to wait, and enjoy the first sight of an Enlightened Eminence of the Final Faith in front of his bow. He had seen Rhodon before at public services, of course; but on those occasions, the Eminence was not a target, and he had had no bow to aim. Even if he had never seen the man before, he would still have known his target, because there were hardly likely to be two albino Eminences in the Faith.
He squeezed the trigger bar gently, the taut cable snapped forward, and the quarrel was launched, spinning, through the air. It was a beautiful shot, and he wished there was some way for people to admire his skill. The quarrel soared in a long, shallow arc and passed between the bride and groom.
If his estimate was correct, it hit the Eminence Ludwig Rhodon just to the right of the sternum. At least four inches of it would have gone through his robes and ribcage to rupture his heart. People had always said that aristocrats and Eminences had blue blood, but it was the red kind that was spilling loose from the man as he crumpled to the ground.
The assassin's next order of business was simple survival.
He left the crossbow where it was, and slid out of the shooting cell. He slid down a ladder and exited from the thirty foot high beacon tower that dominated the eastern edge of North Cliff. A staircase wound its way up the outside, to allow a constant stream of wood to be taken up to the beacon itself, but the assassin doubted that even the Order of the Swords of Dawn knew that the interior still retained the ladders and scaffolding of the builders who had constructed it. They hadn't built a secret shooting cell intentionally, of course; it was simply a part of the internal support structure, which the builders once used to store materials during construction.
The opening he was using as a loophole to shoot out of was originally just mean to let light in so that, by means of mirrors, the builders inside could see what they were doing. Perhaps it had once also been used as a camera obscura, so that people manning the beacon could survey the horizon from inside. This use had been long since forgotten by most people.
Not looking back, he darted across to the drovers' road and began to walk briskly but calmly. Running would attract attention. By the castle the knights of the Swords were barging around, harried by one of their own Eminences as they set up a perimeter around the victim. The shouts of Ducal soldiers began to be taken up.
The assassin merely kept walking.
