The Sultan's Spy

Chapter 50: Opening

Years of training meant that Eliska was able to keep her focus when Tariq shouted. She never thought she'd be thankful for the blows she'd received when she lost her concentration during her years as a trainee, but she was now. When Sirhan turned towards Tariq, the blue glow around his hands strengthening, she darted forward.

He batted the footrest away, glare on Tariq, momentarily forgetting her. And that was all she needed. She halved the distance between them before she lashed out with both hands. Sirhan was only just swinging back to face her, but she her daggers were already speeding towards him.

Sirhan brought his arms up, but not quite fast enough. Her attack peppered his arms and sliced into the sides of his neck. He hissed in pain, his hands balling into fists as the blue intensified around them. Eliska didn't intend to give him the opening. She threw two more volleys of daggers at him, aiming not just at his face but also at his legs. He was able to block the upper ones but not those that went low. Her blades sunk deep into his upper thighs before disappearing, adding new spots of blood to him.

He slashed an arm in her direction, but Eliska was already dodging to the side, throwing more of her magic at him as she moved. With one less arm to guard, her daggers thudded home in his upper chest. Sirhan stumbled back a step but didn't go down.

Both his arms reached towards her and Eliska jumped to the side, but didn't quite make it far enough. Her one arm burned with the cold along the edge of it, but she ignored the pain in favour of another attack. Her daggers flew across the distance, and without the protection of his arms, slammed into his throat.

Blood instantly welled up and dripped around the knives while Sirhan reached up to ineffectively tug at them before dropping. His breathing came in harsh gurgles that rasped at the end. As much as he deserved it, Eliska wasn't about to let him suffer. She drew a knife and approached him.

Hands yanked her back, just before another surge of blue enveloped Sirhan' body, leaving curls of frost along the floor and an instant stillness to the blood mage. Eliska turned half around to stare wide-eyed at Tariq. He nodded at Sirhan. "People like him always try to take someone with them."

She shivered from a combination of his words and the cold. Eliska found herself breathing hard and dripping with sweat, while her muscles complained from the strain and the frostbite on her arm burned in a sharp reminder of its existence. "Ow." She rubbed her arm to return some of the feeling, not liking how cold it still was.

Tariq's warm hands joined hers, making her look back up at him. "Are you alright?"

Eliska looked down. The intensity of this gaze and the concern there were hard to meet. "I'll be fine. Thank you. For the distraction."

He winced. "I wish I could have been more help. Or that I could have gotten away before he noticed me. When Fahim brought me here, I didn't expect to find out Sirhan was the blood mage. I just thought he was corrupt."

"No one knew he was. I didn't feel any kind of rot off him, or anything. And I should have. Though," she said, wrinkling her nose. "I can certainly smell it now. I don't know how he hid it."

A sudden thought had Eliska frowning, then her eyes widening as she realized just how Sirhan had been keeping his taint hidden. Several things clicked into placed and she made a mental note to report that to Lizina when she got the chance. Something Tariq had said also twigged with her, and she glanced towards the still breathing body on the table. "Is he going to be alright?"

Tariq followed her gaze and shrugged. "I don't know. I don't even know what was done to him, other than he drank something out of a vial and then went still on there. Sirhan was set to kill him, that's for sure. He didn't suspect a thing."

"We'll have to get him checked out. He may be able to hear everything, he may be unconscious. It's hard to tell. I'll report it and we'll get him sorted, one way or the other."

"So now what?"

Eliska raised her eyebrows at Tariq. "What do you mean, now what?"

"Well how do we move forward? We had an alliance until the blood mage was dead, but I also wasn't supposed to find out so much about you." He reached out to push a stray chunk of hair behind her ear, his fingers lingering ever so slightly. "I'd be lying if I said I wanted this to be the end. I may not agree with everything your family does, I may not even like most of your family, but I can't deny the kind of person you are or what I want. I would like to be your partner. In more than one sense of the word."

The hint of lasciviousness mixed in with the sincerity had Eliska flushing to the roots of her hair. She looked down at her arms, finding his hands still over top of hers which did nothing for her colour. She knew she'd never have gotten through this without Tariq, could never have even put together all the pieces and who knows what Sirhan would have gotten up to if left unchecked.

Tariq was good at what he did, was good at matching her, though he didn't always listen to her. Which wasn't entirely a bad thing, despite what she might say. He knew the darker side of things, was well trained, and she couldn't deny that she found him attractive. But he was on the wrong side of the law and lived in the city. She was the sister to the Sultan and expected to marry to further the family. She didn't have the freedom to follow what she wanted.

Eliska looked back up at him, her gaze darting between his two eyes and bit her lip. She wanted the words to explain things to him, to tell him why it couldn't work, why she didn't have that option. But she didn't want to hurt him and wasn't sure she could make her way through it without crying herself. Even with all of her training.

Running footsteps had them springing apart, both drawing knives and turning to face the doorway. A moment later, Eliska relaxed when she saw Lizina come flying in, a panting Israr close behind. Her sister took one long look at the room, her sharp eyes taking in the two bodies, one living, one dead, the detritus from the mage battle and both of them. "Well," Lizina finally said after a long pause, sheathing her own weapons. "This is certainly going to be an interesting report."