Chapter Eight
Ki’s heart ached when she saw what was happening. The girl was cowering on the ground in a ball of white flame while her father fired weapon after weapon at her. He may be drunk and cursing, but he was also an assassin.
Ki set her runner to automatic and dropped out of the sky between the man and his target. Her Masuo robes flared around her in the same metallic that she pulled into her skin. “Cease, citizen.”
He looked at her with unfocused eyes. “You cannot tell me what to do. She is my blood and bone. I can destroy her as she destroyed her mother.”
“Did she burn her mother?”
“No. Her mother died birthing the ungrateful wretch. She won’t even let me drink to forget the one good thing in my life is gone because of her.”
He lifted a crossbow in shaking hands and fired. It shattered on Ki’s skin.
“She died because she died. The penultimate cause was you, if you are honest, which you are not.” She took a step toward him.
He blinked. “What? How is it my fault.”
“You got her pregnant, she had the baby, and in having it, she died. The baby was the result, not the catalyst. You were.”
“She wanted the baby.”
“Why?”
“She said she wanted to see my eyes mixed with her hair. She wanted it to be the best of us.” He wavered and dropped down to his knees. “Allyi!”
The heat at her back faded.
The young woman came around Ki and looked at her father. She gave Ki a dark look. “You should not have spoken to him that way. You do not understand the ways of assassins.”
Ki gave her a calm look. “Of course, I do. Two of them raised me. Feeling rage at a child is never appropriate. He has been trained to remain calm under all circumstances, he has been given analytical testing to make sure he thinks before he acts, and he has been told to never go at the wrong target. If he is an assassin. He does have the weapons, but he doesn’t seem to have the self-possession.”
The girl looked to her father. “What is she saying?”
Ki walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “He was trained by an assassin, not as an assassin. I am guessing that it was your mother who held the blade. All the weapons are her size.”
Tears started streaming from his eyes. “She told me to take care of our daughter. I didn’t know how. When she was weak after the birth, they came for her and killed her. All I could do was run here.”
Ki nodded. “Makes a certain sense.”
The girl who was without a stitch of clothing frowned, “I don’t understand. What happened?”
The drunk’s tears were flowing freely. He sobbed but couldn’t speak.
“May I fill her in?”
He nodded.
“My guess is that the moment your mother announced her pregnancy, there was a bounty for her death. She and your father ran, but it was no use. Instead of birthing you in a safe place, she ended up being vulnerable, and when your father was holding you in his arms, they came for her. He couldn’t save you both, so he followed your mother’s orders and saved you.”
She patted the girl on the shoulder and wrapped her in a panel of her robes.
“The Assassins Guild is very protective of its bloodlines. Any variation in their grand plan causes a cascade of homicide. In my case, my parents and myself were hunted into my teenage years.”
“Did they hate you?”
“No, they knew what they were doing. It seems your mother did, but your father wasn’t too clear on the seriousness of the situation. He learned, but it was too late for her.”
The girl huddled in, and she looked at her father. “I love him, but he hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you. He hates that he sees his own shortcomings and feels the pain of your mother’s loss when he looks at you. I am guessing that you look very much like her.”
The girl looked up. “I have my father’s eyes.”
Ki stroked her hair. “Just like she wanted. You are just what she wanted in her life.”
“He tried to kill me.”
“Not really, he was aiming across your back, and the bolts were being fired into the flame. They burned up before they touched you, and you could have turned him into a column of ash, and you didn’t. So, there is affection on both sides. I think you two need some space, so you can meet in the middle.”
She looked around, and the other Guardians were standing about with helpless expressions.
“First, what is your name?”
“Emmyi. Emmyi Saru, after my mother’s family.”
“Saru?” Ki chuckled. “I may have to verify it, but I believe we might be cousins. My father’s clan name was Saru.”
The father looked up from his miserable stance. “I give her into your custody while I try and remember who I was.”
Ki blinked. “What?”
“She is fourteen, but if you are even close to being cousins, the laws of Thanlossit allow for custody transfer. You can teach her what she needs to know about being an assassin and a talent, and I can try to salvage my business and remember who I was.”
Jeth stepped forward and put his hand on the man’s shoulder. “Don’t remember who you were, build what you want to be from scratch. You can’t change the past, but you can start with knowledge of how bad decisions can off track you. Take what you are now, solidify it, and build on it. We will guard your daughter, and Master Navo will teach her what she can.”
“He is just giving me up?” Emmyi’s eyes welled with tears.
“He is sending you to school while he cleans house. His decisions from here on out are his alone, as are yours. It is a young age to learn that kind of thing, but it is something that happens when you can burn your way through other people.”
Ki bent and lifted Emmyi into her arms before heading for the runner.
“I didn’t get to say goodbye.”
“We will come back tomorrow after he is sober. Right now, he just needs space.” She nodded to Jeth to keep an eye on the man, and he returned to the miserable creature on the floor. “Perhaps Luasa can use some help scrubbing her bar.”
Occupational therapy was always useful, and the scent of scorched alcohol might help his self-reflection. When he thought of today, he would remember the smell.
“He needs me to cook and clean for him.”
“That is not something you should be having to do.” Ki fired up the runner, and they flew back toward the base.
“I am responsible for him. He needs me.”
“He needs to learn to take care of himself. I am guessing that your developing power and resemblance to your mother has caused his emotional state to degrade. You will take care of you, and when you are stable, you can return to take care of him. Fair?”
“I suppose.”
“You are just going to class, not to prison. You can see him regularly. I promise to bring you into town at regular intervals.” She flew them back to the Guardian base; her first order of business was to get Emmyi into some flame-retardant Masuo.
The Masuo had been keyed to Ki’s genes, but it managed a reasonable and decorous coverage of Emmyi. A quick access into the family archives brought out the information that Ki had travelled across nine jumps and countless systems to find a fourth cousin. Emmyi was her blood, and she was in trouble.
“Emmyi, come look at this.” She widened the display so that the projection of bloodlines was above their heads.
Emmyi was still running her hands along the thick grey suit that covered her, but she kept her arms around Mertwin. “What is that?”
“It is a family chart.”
“I mean, what are those lines?”
Ki paused. “The writing? They are the names of your ancestors and mine. We come from this branch right here.”
“What language is that?”
“The Assassin’s script. You will learn it as we go on if you want to. It is your right.”
“I have rights?”
“Sure. It is why the assassins are so determined to stamp out inappropriate matches, or ones that they say are inappropriate. They are trying to build some kind of super assassin, so I am guessing that any variation wrecks their plans.”
“How do you know all this?”
Ki sighed and turned off the display. “I was hunted into my teenage years. We went from city to city, planet to planet, running, hiding, and fighting for our lives since the day I was born. My parents could have been lovers without a problem, but when their union sprouted me, they were turned into targets by their own people.”
“What happened when you were a teenager?” Emmyi’s earnest features and huge blue eyes denoted genuine interest.
“I turned myself in to the guild during their recruitment testing. I proved what I could do and that I was a genuine trained assassin, and then, I told them that I would be a babysitter under contract if they removed the kill order on my family.”
Emmyi stared with wide eyes. “What did they do?”
“At first, they laughed, and then, they remembered that not all of those associated with the guild are assassins. I acted as bodyguard for several years to a young woman who was marrying an approved match. Her fiancé’s family didn’t approve of the guild match entirely and had a price on her head. I was a block between the deadly attacks and the would-be bride.”
“Did she make it?”
“My bond-cuff fell off at her wedding. The rest was just a minor scuffle with a woman who had a thing for the groom.” She smiled.
“So, you are an actual assassin.”
Ki nodded. “I am legally a representative and can take commissions if necessary.”
“So, have you killed?”
Ki gave her a bland look. “I have. It is not my favourite thing to do because a life taken cannot be restarted, but I have done it.”
“Did you do it for money?” This seemed very important to Emmyi.
“No. I did it to stop more killing. The talent in question was insane and filled with rage. Everyone needed to be punished for their pain.”
Emmyi blushed. “Like what I did today.”
“Yes and no. You acted out of fear and frustration. He was acting out of malice. He wanted to see pain, and then, he wanted to do it again.”
The other Guardians came into the common space and she smiled. Mertwin immediately squirmed loose from Emmyi’s arms.
“Don’t worry. He will come back to you if he thinks he is needed, but he is bonded to Tren, so that is where he returns when Tren needs him.”
The Guardian in question winked at her as he picked up the Yaluthu. “Yeah, but he is a generous guy. Losing a little bit of fluff, though.”
Emmyi held up her hands. “I didn’t do anything.”
Ki patted her shoulder. “It is part of Mertwin’s life cycle. He will moult, nest, and then, there will be little babies hopping around. We don’t need to worry about that. Mertwin will only start his evolution when Tren is stable, so I am guessing that Tren is stable.”
Mathuan snorted. “I would not go that far. Have either of you started dinner?”
Ki raised her brows. “I have done the incident report, filed for tutorial materials for Emmyi, looked up genetic genealogy that confirms we are indeed, cousins. And have coaxed the Masuo into a suit that will fit Emmyi. What have you done?”
Mathuan grimaced. “Scrubbed a floor.”
Tren grinned. “He didn’t have to do a thing aside from getting himself wet and using his tendrils to scrub.”
Mathuan continued his grimace. “They then hosed me down to clean me. It was not a fun afternoon.”
“For you maybe, I got most of it on vid. I will play it later. For now, I will make dinner.” Tren folded his wings tight against his back and headed for the kitchen.
Emmyi held up her hand. “I can cook.”
“Wow. I can’t.” Ki grinned.
Tren was serious. “We take turns, so if you do it today, Jeth will do it tomorrow.”
“That seems fair. What would you like?”
Kiala chuckled. “Enough for twelve plus two and some shredded meat for Mertwin.”
“Got it.” Emmyi went through the cupboards quickly and got everything together. A flurry of chopping later and Ki was convinced that this girl had been born to handle blades. She added it to the schedule and noted how the guys were supervising from a safe distance and adding commentary on spices.
The first student of the Thanlossit Citadel had been acquired, and signs were looking good that she would get some benefit out of further training.