The Assassin's Tale (Isle of Dreams) (21 page)

Mistral made
an exasperated sound as though this was the most obvious thing in the
world.  Bali ignored her and continued to outline his plan.

‘Troll’s are
nocturnal –’ 

Bali took no
notice when Mistral rolled her eyes and started drumming her fingers on the
table.

‘So once we’ve
found the lair we’ll have plenty of time to prepare ourselves before it wakes
up at twilight.  I suggest that Mistral and I conceal ourselves in
strategic positions near to the lair armed with crossbows and swords for back
up.  Phantasm and Phantom?’ he looked at the twins who almost whimpered at
being asked to do something.

‘I want you
two armed with longbows a short distance away.  If you get the chance to
take the troll down with a clean shot, then do it.’

Phantasm
looked slightly abashed.  ‘Sorry Bali, but I might do better if I just
chucked the longbow at the troll than tried to fire an arrow with it.’

Bali
considered for a moment, ‘Crossbows then.’ 

‘No problem,’
said Phantom, with obvious relief at not being asked to swap places with
Mistral, who could handle a longbow. 

‘Troll skin is
incredibly durable against all weapons so the bolts will need to be dipped in
poison first to be more effective.  I’ll go see Master Nox later to get
something appropriate.  Now, are we all in agreement with the plan?’ he
asked quietly and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.

‘Yes,’ the
twins instantly replied in unison. 

Mistral
remained silent, staring into space with a sullen look on her face.

Bali sat
upright with a sigh, ‘I promise that if the troll is only incapacitated by the
poison and needs finishing off then you can have the job,’ he said in a
resigned tone. 

Mistral looked
slightly mollified, ‘In that case, it’s a great plan.’

‘Good,’ said
Bali, smiling for the first time.  ‘Now, any questions?’

The twins
shook their blonde heads and after a moment’s pause Mistral shook hers too.

‘Then we are
agreed, we will meet at the stables at dawn tomorrow.  You’ll need to
bring cloaks – it’ll be cold higher up in the mountains – swords, crossbows and
plenty of bolts –’

Mistral
listened to Bali listing the items they would need to take and felt the
familiar thrill that danger always gave her.  She couldn’t wait to spend a
day out of the stifling confines of the Valley, away from the routine of
endless training and the bullying Training Lieutenants.

They left at
dawn the next morning, riding out of the Valley’s massive North Gate under a
pearly grey sky.  Mistral breathed in the cool morning air with a burst of
excitement at the day ahead.  Bali took the lead once they reached the
meadows and broke into a canter.  Ignoring her mutterings about ‘delusions
of grandeur’, the twins fanned out to ride behind him with Mistral lagging
slightly behind. 

‘Good
conditions,’ commented Bali approvingly after he’d examined the sky.  ‘No
wind and no sun; perfect troll hunting weather.’

Mistral
smiled, thinking that the normally dour apprentice had made a joke but the
expression on his face made her realise that he was perfectly serious. 
Mistral sighed, thinking to herself that this was going to be one long boring
day with Mr No Sense of Humour in charge.  She was glad the twins had been
forced into coming along.  At least they always provided some form of
entertainment.

They followed
a little used stony path into the Western Range of mountains that bordered the
Ri Valley.  Mistral hadn’t travelled through this part of the range before
and looked around interestedly at the unfamiliar scenery.  The land on the
western side was more cultivated with occasional steep fields of vines and
stone-walled pastures occupied by ragged-looking sheep.  As they climbed
higher the temperature gradually dropped and soon they were riding in a fine
mist of cold drizzle.  Bali called a halt for them all to put on their
cloaks.  Mistral eyed him resentfully while she fastened her cloak. 
She hated taking orders from anyone, let alone another apprentice.  Her
expression was sullen when they mounted up and rode on again.  The twins
were gossiping quietly about the previous night’s events in The Cloak and
Dagger.  Mistral had not joined them, preferring to sulk and spend her
evening preparing her weapons for the hunt.  She listened with half an ear
to their muted conversation, smiling despite her bad mood when she caught
something that amused her.

‘Did you
notice that Golden put in a rather grand appearance on her way to that Council
function?’ murmured Phantasm.

‘Couldn’t miss
it.  I have no idea where she was concealing her weapons in that dress
though,’ smirked Phantom.

‘I dread to
think!’

The twins both
laughed and moved on to speculating about Konrad’s Assassination Contract.

‘Well, it can’t
be anyone high level ... or it would have gone to someone Qualified,’ mused
Phantasm.

‘More than
likely a piece of rough justice being served then.’

‘Can’t imagine
doing one though, can you?’ 

‘Ugh, no thank
you, the only assassinations I want to be doing are character assassinations!’

The twins
moved on to something that didn’t interest her and Mistral found her thoughts
drifting back to their conversation about Assassination Contracts.  In
truth, she hadn’t spent too much time considering how she would feel about
taking such a Contract.  Whilst they were still in training apprentices
had the protective hand of Gleacher Shacklock carefully vetting all Contracts
but Mistral knew that it would be a different story once she Qualified. 
Fully trained warriors were expected take every Contract they were offered, no
matter what it entailed.  A warrior that turned down a Contract often
found themselves suddenly unpopular with their Agent, and no work meant no
money.

‘Be careful
here, there’s a lot of loose stone over the path just here.’

Bali’s voice
interrupted her thoughts and she looked up irritably.  He had been silent
throughout most of their journey, only speaking to point out a difficult piece
of terrain or comment on a change in the weather conditions, as if he was
leading a group of children on an outing. 

Mistral
glanced at Bali’s face as he turned his head to speak to them over his shoulder
again; it was set in hard lines of concentration.  Despite her resentment
of him Mistral was forced to admit that he was taking his responsibility of
leading the hunt very seriously.  She listened to his quietly spoken
instructions and realised that she knew very little about him.  Bali was
by far the eldest of the first year apprentices and tended to keep to himself
outside of training hours.  He invariably avoided their high-spirited
nights out in The Cloak and Dagger and impromptu hunting expeditions. 
Mistral had always thought him to be simply unsociable but she could see now
that he was just ... well, there was no other way to describe it ... Bali was
more
sensible
. 

The steep path
narrowed sharply, forcing them to ride on in single file with the twins
gradually growing more subdued as they neared their destination.  By
midday they reached a small mountain village and Bali silently raised a hand to
call a halt.  He turned in the saddle and spoke in a low voice.

‘This is the
village that has bought the Contract on the troll’s life.’

Mistral scanned
the village, taking in the empty main street flanked on either side by squat
stone houses.  She noted that the windows on each one were tightly
shuttered.  It was eerily quiet.  She frowned and examined the houses
more closely; there were no signs of the damage that a rampaging troll would
cause on any of them.  In fact, the village looked in perfect order.

‘Are you sure
this is the right village?’ she said to Bali in a low voice.  ‘Only I
can’t see any broken windows or doors –’

‘This troll
does not behave in the usual manner of its kind.  The villagers have
temporarily moved out until we have eradicated the problem,’ he replied
quietly.

‘Not the usual
manner?  What does it do?  Sneak down from the mountain at night and
tidy up?’ whispered Phantasm slightly hysterically.

Bali shot him
a strange look, ‘Not quite.  He abducts women.’

Mistral
frowned, ‘What?  To eat?’

‘No,’ replied
Bali shortly.

There was a
brief silence in which the twins and Mistral all shared slightly confused
looks.

‘Shall we just
say that this troll does not care for other female trolls; are you getting the
picture?’  Bali’s voice was filled with loathing.

‘No!’
 Phantom looked sickened.

‘That’s
revolting,’ his brother echoed faintly.

‘And one final
point I should mention,’ Bali went on.  ‘There is every likelihood that
the troll we are hunting is Grendel’s father.’

There was a
stunned silence. 

‘So, Grendel’s
mother?’  Mistral began slowly.

‘Yes,
Grendel’s mother was a village woman abducted by a troll, more than likely this
one as I’ve never heard of another behaving in this way; she managed to
escape  before the troll killed her, most don’t survive his attentions for
too long.  In any case she died giving birth to Grendel.  Her body
just wasn’t designed to cope with carrying a troll baby.’

A heavy
silence fell while Mistral and the twins took in the appalling truth about
Grendel’s parentage.  Mistral felt slightly ashamed of the jokes they’d
made about this exact subject and could tell by the expressions on the twins’
faces that they felt the same.

‘We’ll find
somewhere safe to stable the horses and continue on foot,’ said Bali, quietly
taking charge again.  ‘Their scent will only alert the troll to our
approach and we don’t want them to end up as a meal.’

Mistral shot
him a horrified look and patted Cirrus’ neck reassuringly. 

They rode up
the deserted main street, the dull thud of hoof beats against the dirt road the
only sound breaking the oppressive silence.  Mistral found herself looking
out of the corner of her eye at each shuttered windows they rode past, half
expecting them to bang open at any moment and a slathering troll to appear.

‘We’ll secure
the horses in here,’ said Bali, reining his horse in outside a large
barn.  His quiet voice sounded abruptly loud in the overwhelming
silence. 

They
dismounted and followed Bali cautiously into the dark interior of the
barn.  As her eyes adjusted to the gloom Mistral could see signs of a
hasty evacuation.  A single boot poked out from beneath a discarded cloak,
as though the owner were asleep beneath it.  Mistral stepped carefully
over it to peer into one of the stalls and gasped when a pair of eyes looked
back at her out of the straw, but it was only a child’s rag doll, sadly
forgotten. 

They searched
each stall, but aside from the overturned water buckets that had obviously been
kicked over by hurrying feet, they were all empty.  Mistral and the twins
took the task of settling the horses with fresh water and hay while Bali went
to scout around the village to try and pick up the trail left by the
troll.  He was back before long, slipping quietly into the dark barn with
a satisfied expression on his face.

‘We’re in
luck, there’s a fresh trail.  It must’ve been in last night.’

The twins
shared a look that suggested this was far from lucky but said nothing. 
Mistral nodded and swung her saddlebag onto her shoulder.

‘Ready when
you are.’

Feeling
strangely vulnerable at being on foot, they followed Bali along the empty main
street.  He walked quickly, keeping to the shadows and darting down the
first alleyway that they came to.  Mistral and the twins followed him,
heaving simultaneous sighs of relief to be away from the exposed main
street. 

The narrow
alleyway ran between the houses for a short distance then tapered off into a
rutted track, leading them up into the open mountainside.  It was a
herder’s track, used to drive the sheep to and from pasture.  Tufts of
wiry mountain grass and large rocks littered the path, hampering the speed at
which they could travel.  Mistral and the twins struggled up the path
behind Bali, tripping over rocks and slipping on piles of sheep
droppings.  Suddenly the path widened out into the start of the
pastureland and the lingering aroma of dung and greasy wool was abruptly
obliterated by a powerful odour that made the twins stop and retch.

Phantasm wiped
the back of his hand over his mouth, ‘Definitely troll.’

‘You
think?’  Phantom muttered faintly.   

Ignoring the
twins’ complaints, Bali continued to follow the track, stopping often to check the
wind direction or just to stand perfectly still, listening intently. 
Mistral began to grow impatient and fidgeted irritably each time Bali’s hand
came up to signal a halt.

‘It’ll be
nightfall by the time we get there at this rate,’ she hissed under her breath
to the twins.

Sharing a look
of panic at the thought of being stuck on the mountainside at night, the twins
took to sidling up to Bali whenever he stopped to ask in an urgent whisper
whether this was where he wanted them to be positioned.  Each time he
shook his head they slunk back to Mistral’s side with barely concealed
disappointment on their faces. 

The rough
track they were following wound through a copse of gorse bushes then ended in
an open area of pasture, bordered on one side by steep mountainside.  Bali
signalled a halt again but before Mistral could start getting restless he
pointed wordlessly to a dark gash in the rockface.

‘There,’ he
breathed.

They all
stared.  The opening was definitely wide enough to accommodate a large
troll and the stench had become noticeably stronger.  Mistral narrowed her
eyes, focussing on the cave but couldn’t see much beyond the mouth, it was too
dark.