Assassin's Curse by Debra L Martin, David W Small Page A

importance.”
    “I understand, Master.   I will send you a report as soon as I know anything.”
    Mave turned on his heel and left the Grand Masters’ Council Chamber.   The meeting had not turned out to be the celebration he thought he would be enjoying.   Hatred radiated from his soul and he softly cursed again the day he had saved that young boy from the burning hut.
    Mave set off immediately for Jeda’s last known location: the slums outside of Constantine’s food bazaar.   In Jeda’s last report, he had discovered his target’s location, but was still scouting the surrounding area.   That report had been four days ago.   No one had seen or heard from him since then and he was long overdue in reporting his status.   It was not unusual for a few days to go by with no communication from an assassin.   There was no cause for alarm as it was the nature of the job, but four days of silence meant something had gone wrong: the assigned assassin was either dead or captured.   Mave needed to find Jeda to finally secure his position as a master, but whether he found him dead or disgraced, Mave would finally be done with him.   It was not an unpleasant thought.
    Though the intelligence was four days old, the trail of bodies Jeda had left behind made up for the time lost.   The slums were still in an uproar about the six bodies--a gang of toughs and two women--all found murdered on the same day with no apparent connection.   The rumors abounded.
    There’s a murderer about, take care where you go...
    I hear say it was a demon that run off with that poor widow woman’s babies...
    It was the guild, no doubt, but you didn’t hear me say it…  
    Mave’s interest was piqued at that last rumor and followed the man who had said it.
    ***
    It is an awful feeling to wake up and not know where you are.   When he first started to come around, the old man’s thoughts were confused.   He couldn’t see anything and so thought it must be night, but then he felt something covering his eyes and a terrific pain in the back of his head.   Then he tried to move and, although he could feel his hands and legs, he couldn’t move them.   That was when the first feelings of fear began.
    I’m still breathing so somebody wants me alive.
    With an effort of utmost willpower, he pushed his fear down and waited to see what would happen next.   He had lived in the slums for most of his life and knew somebody must want something from him.   That’s when it came back to him in a rush.   The big guard from the duke’s constabulary had come to look at the room where the young woman had been murdered days before.   He had been cleared of any wrongdoing days ago and was tired of these constables coming around poking into his business, so he hadn’t answered any of the big man’s questions.   What he couldn’t quite understand now was why he was gagged and tied up like this.
    That bastard must have hit me and tied me up.   He won’t get away with this, even the Duke’s men can’t break their own law.
    Mave watched as the fat landlord woke up.   The initial realization of his predicament was whetting Mave’s perverse appetite and so he let the old man stew for another few moments.   As the old man calmed down and sat still, Mave got up and removed his blindfold.
    The first thing the old landlord saw was a young woman bound and gagged to a chair exactly like him.   She looked at him with wide, panicky eyes, but he refused to let her fear reach him.   He looked around and saw that he was in the same room he had been showing that bastard constable.   That’s when he noticed him standing off to the side.   Questions or not, this was going too far and he would lodge a complaint against these heavy-handed tactics.  
    “Hmmmphhffggmmm.”
    Mave looked at the fat man trying to talk around his gag and laughed.   “Oh, you had your chance for that already,” Mave replied, pulling out a long, wicked-looking knife.   “Maybe,