hawk & sable

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE,

HAWK & SABLE | TWENTY-NINE

"DAMN," CAME IRINA'S involuntary swear as she surveyed the cell Diego had been placed in, and then his scene of murder. "Fucking hell."

Normally, they'd be amused by Irina's display of rage and sudden vulgarity, but they were all too flummoxed for that today. Assassins did not break into the headquarters of the Iron Wolves. They did not kill important prisoners. They did not do so without alerting a single person.

Ryan whistled. "We are in trouble. No one heard anything, Zhang daren?"

The Captain of the Iron Wolves looked just as confused as anyone else. "Nothing. Absolutely nothing. None of the Wolves heard anything, we checked. A window upstairs was open. We think that's how it got in, but yesterday night's guards swore up and down that it was shut and locked when they checked."

"Falcon?" Myrina murmured, rubbing her arms as if the cool cell made her exceedingly uncomfortable. "A Falcon would have the skill, and it explains the Meliquean steel we found."

"Why would a Falcon kill him instead of helping him out?" Asteria demanded. "It makes no sense. Is there inner turbulence within the Meliquean government?"

"It's the speed this happened that concerns me," Rhys told them, studying the stone ground. "There has to be someone else within these walls. He might not have acted alone at all. There's no way the Meliqueans could dispatch a Falcon this quick, even if they heard."

"Was this why he wasn't worried at all?" Ciri asked, eyebrows creased. "That he knew he would die? He didn't strike me as the type to willingly die for something like this though, no matter how... passionate he was about their cause."

"No screaming," Dominic muttered. "We'd have heard that. He didn't die with terror on his face or anything akin to that. More confusion. I don't think he was expecting the person to kill them."

"Nothing left behind except a Meliquean knife?" Asteria asked.

Zhang daren shook his head. "Nothing, my lady. I'm assuming they got in with keys, but those are right where they belong. I'm wondering if the blade was thrown outside the cell."

They regarded the distance between the bars and where Diego would have been held. Ciri broke the silence. "It's possible."

Myrina asked, "If they couldn't get in, it explains why he was killed instead of rescued. They might have decided it was better to have him dead then potentially give away secrets to us."

"If his weaponry and timing is any indication, he'd been here for years. He'd barely know anything too important about the Meliqueans."

Myrina shrugged, meeting Ryan's eyes. "If he has allies in court, the Meliqueans might want to keep those under wraps for now. And Lord Archsham's presence at court, not to mention Norman Hightower's recent capture suggests that the Arecians are on them too. They'd be careful. Sha ren mie kou jian dan de hen." It is easy to kill someone in order to keep their mouths quiet. Dead men tell no tales.

Ryan didn't seem too pleased with that, the way he was never too pleased with anything Myrina had to say, but he conceded the point with a rough nod. Irina ignored the obvious tension brewing between the two and said, "We'll need to up security. Could it have been the Panther?"

"Wil— Diego hired him," Rhys pointed out. "And Ciri says he doesn't like the Meliqueans either."

"Perfect reasoning to kill him."

"Not him. The Meliquean steel doesn't make sense, unless the Panther is playing his own political game, which isn't his style. Neither is this entire assassination, really. We all get reputations in these games. The Panther stays loyal to his employer unless there's another reason, whether because a favour is owed or the person's really fucked in the head. This is the first time I've ever heard him display any opinions regarding politics." Rhys scratched her neck.