Jade awoke violently, drenched in sweat. The pain in her head was so bad she thought it might split in two. They had slept little on the journey, so she had been spared for a time, she had even dared to hope that escaping had helped, somehow. But tonight, her sleep had been deep enough to trigger the dream again, and it was worse than ever. Lying in the darkness, Jade breathed deeply and tried to calm herself enough that she could drift off again. As usual, she was having little success. After probably an hour of tossing and turning, a sound from the doorway caught her attention. Holding her breath, she strained to listen and this time she heard it distinctly, the soft scraping of metal in the lock on their door. Glancing to her left, she saw Mikiva still sleeping soundly. She reached over and shook her awake. The spy sat up instantly, a knife already in her hand, she looked around quickly. Jade caught her eye, touching a finger to her lips, she pointed to the door. Mikiva nodded her understanding and eased her way out of the bed. Jade followed suit, moving slowly and quietly to avoid tipping off their guest. Suddenly, the door burst open. Three cowled men were silhouetted in the light from the hallway. Mikiva edged closer to Jade,

“This doesn’t look good,” she hissed.

Jade closed her hand around the borrowed sword at the end of her bed,

“Well, at least there are only three of them.”

As if on cue, the window shattered behind them, and Jade spun to see two more hooded figures climb in through jagged hole.

“Ok, scratch that. This could get ugly.”

Jade moved so she was standing back-to-back with Mikiva, trying to cover the angles. Unsheathed knives glittered in the moonlight as the strangers advanced silently, conversation was clearly not what they were here for.

“Look, I think this may be some sort of mistake,” Jade protested. “We are not the people you are looking for.”

“You think you’re the only one t’ever try that line, girlie?” the man in the front laughed. “We know you are the one we’re lookin’ for. The little brunette travelling with the tall dark-haired woman. Both of you checked in just tonight. Of course, you may say it is a coincidence, but the truth of the matter is, I don’t give a damn. If you are the wrong girl, I’ll just kill you and find the right one. Either way, you are coming with us. Best to surrender and save yourself some pain.”

“Looks like these are more of your fan club,” Mikiva muttered. “We have no choice; we’ll have to take care of them.”

“Tough talk, for a dead woman,” a second man snorted.

Mikiva didn’t bother to reply. As the first man closed on them, Mikiva sent her knife spinning through the air, it lodged in his throat and he dropped to the ground, clutching the wound. A good start, but not enough, Jade was still not liking their odds. Raising her blade, she prepared to meet the two assailants coming from the window. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash, and the room filled with a thick, acrid, yellow-green smoke. Jade couldn’t even see her hand in front of her face. The smoke burned her eyes, they teared up and she began to cough violently. Then, she felt a hand close around her wrist; she turned but could see nothing through the smoke.

“Relax, I’m here to help. Come with me,” the voice was familiar.

“Av’ry?” she coughed.

“Just hurry,” he replied, pulling her toward the door.

Jade stumbled out into the hallway of the inn. Looking over, she saw Av’ry March, holding her wrist in one hand and Mikiva’s in the other. He pulled them both down the hallway.

“What are you doing?” Mikiva hissed.

“Now is not a good time to talk, we should find a safe place first,” he replied

Reaching a door at the end of the hall, Av’ry ducked inside, they followed him in, and Jade shut the door quickly behind her.

“Where in the Void did you come from? What was that?!” Mikiva turned sharply to him.

“I heard voices in your room, I heard breaking glass. I figured I should take a look.”

“Why?”

“Well, honesty, I was hoping to catch a naked pillow fight,” he rejoined sarcastically. “But this was interesting too. It looked like you could use some help, so I decided to intervene. You’re welcome, by the way.”

“I didn’t need your help,” she huffed.

“Oh, didn’t you?” he asked. “Then I assume you knew they have at least 5 more men stationed around the inn, in case you escaped?”

“Add that to the men in the room and they sent at least ten men for Jade?”

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“Looks like it.”

Mikiva turned to her sharply,

“What on earth do they want you for?”

“I swear I don’t know,” Jade was baffled, and starting to get just a little peeved about the whole business. “But I intend to find out.”

With that she strode back to the door and edged it open slightly.

“What are you doing?” Av’ry whispered. “We need to get you out of here.”

“Oh, I am not going anywhere, I am going to find out who these people are and who sent them,” there was a steel edge to her voice.

“You can’t seriously be planning to go back in there!” Av’ry objected.

“Of course not,” Jade snapped. “But they clearly want me. They won’t give up easily. Once the smoke clears and they realize they’ve lost me, they will split up and search. Maybe we can’t fight 10 men, but the 1 that comes down this hallway will be easy pickings. Just like hunting, split him from the herd, then take him down. Once he is neutralized, I can ask him a few questions.”

Jade watched as her companions exchanged a quick glance,

“That’s actually not a bad plan,” Mikiva admitted. “But let me grab them, I have some experience in this area.”

Jade stepped back and gestured to the doorway,

“Be my guest.”

Mikiva peered through the gap in the door and waited. It took only a moment.

“There’s one now, just like you said,” she whispered.

“Of course, it is their only remaining course of action,” Jade shrugged. “Think you can grab him without alerting his friends?”

“No problem.”

As the hooded figure passed near the door, Mikiva pushed it open quickly and sprang into the hall; an arm around his throat cut off his airway and prevented him from crying out. Mikiva dragged him back into the room and pressed a knife to his throat. Jade closed the door silently and turned to their new captive.

“Take his weapons, Av’ry. And anything else that looks interesting,” Jade instructed.

Av’ry nodded and began to search the man’s clothes.

“And as for you,” she addressed the man. “I would suggest you remain very still and very quiet. My well-armed friend,” she nodded towards Mikiva, “gets a little bit irritated with people who break into her room at night and try to kill her. Call it a pet peeve. I wouldn’t want to give her an excuse to slit your throat, if I were you.”

The man nodded sullenly. Av’ry finished his search and placed the knives aside. That done, Jade turned back to Mikiva,

“Take off his mask. I want to see his face.”

Mikiva tore off the loose hood. Her eyes widened and she quickly moved around in front of the man to get a better look, moving into his line of vision for the first time.

“Gods, Mikiva?” the man’s eyes grew wide. “Seems like you’ve managed to keep your retirement interesting. What are you doing here, with a fugitive from Esrasea?”

“I take it you two have met?” Jade raised an eyebrow.

“You could say that. As R’all here was far too transparent about,” Mikiva shot him a withering glare, “We were once in the same line of work. We are, apparently, dealing with assassins, Azure Scorpions, to be more specific. This many men… someone is laying out some serious coin for your capture, Jade.”

“And the death of anyone who stands in our way,” R’all added. “You know your status grants you no immunity, Mikiva.”

“Of course I do,” Mikiva rolled her eyes. “I did my share of contracts involving former members.”

“So, you know that we will still have to kill you.”

“I know you can try,” Mikiva smiled. “But if you are the best they sent, I am not too worried.”

R’all glowered at her but said nothing.

“Who took out the contract on me?” Jade demanded.

R’all ignored her. Unfortunately, if he was a professional assassin, she knew that she likely wouldn’t be able to get him to talk, not in the limited time that they had to work with before his friends showed up.

“Now, R’all, I am obviously aware that I get no immunity from a death sentence as a retired member of the guild,” Mikiva jumped in. “But if I remember correctly, I am afforded one privilege, aren’t I? If I survive the initial attempt, I have the right to ask who is threatening my life. Is that still true?”

“It is,” R’all hesitated. “But I do not believe that this fits the exception, Mikiva.”

“How so?”

“Well, the rule is applied when a contract is taken out on a Scorpion. This contract was taken out on your companion,” he looked to Jade. “You are merely collateral damage.”

“Semantics,” Mikiva dismissed his argument. “In my opinion, the contract still requires my death, so I believe that I am entitled to know.”

“I disagree. I am afraid I will have to err on the side of caution here. I am sorry,” R’all’s apology wasn’t very convincing.

“Maybe I am not making myself clear,” the dark-haired former assassin took a step closer and caressed the man’s throat with her blade. “In this situation, I am the one with the power, thus my interpretation is the only one that counts. So, I urge you to agree with my point of view and tell me what I want to know. It is certainly justifiable, the Scorpions will understand. Or…” Mikiva fingered her blade thoughtfully. “I kill you right here and now, for violating the rules. Your choice.”

R’all hesitated. A professional would not break at threats of death or torture, their loyalty was absolute. But, like most people, he was also a practical man, and he didn’t have any particular wish to die. Mikiva had given him an out, offered him a way to reveal what they wanted to know by obeying guild rules instead of breaking them. He had no real reason to refuse.

“Well, having given this matter further thought, I do agree that, since the contract requires your death, it would be a violation of the express written laws of the Scorpions to deny you the information you request. We were hired by Istaria, Queen of Esrasea. She entered into a contract with the guildmaster only hours ago.”

“The Queen?” Mikiva asked incredulously.

“Yes. She made the request personally. But I can tell you nothing more, I am sure you understand.”

“Of course. Just as I am sure you understand why I need to do this,” she cracked him over the head with the hilt of her dagger and R’all slumped forward, unconscious.

“The Queen of Esrasea?” Mikiva turned back to Jade. “Who in the Void are you to her?”

“I wish I knew,” Jade chewed her lip thoughtfully.

“Not that this isn’t fascinating,” Av’ry interrupted. “But don’t you think perhaps we should be getting out of here, before the rest of the Scorpions comes looking for their friend? I don’t know about you, but I don’t much feel like dealing with 9 more trained assassins today.”

“You make an excellent point,” Mikiva agreed. “They still don’t know where we went, so it should be easy to sneak out of here if we go now. We should go back to the palace. It’ll be safer there. And since we are all up anyway, you might as well fill us in on our task and then we can get right to work.”