StarShower

Two

Neza raced down the corridors, the echo of her boots impacting the floor, intermixing with the sounds of the shouts and gunshots that resonated through the palace. She skidded to halt and tucked herself into the dark corner at the end of the hall. Her ears, scarcely visible in the shadows, stood up in attention, listening for any sounds ahead in the next hall. Her left ear twitched back. Something was following her. She could just make out the clatter of feet running in her path. But it didn't sound like the heavy boots of the Rebel Assassins. It sounded too light and far too dainty. That didn't mean much, though. Anybody could kick out of their shoes.

Neza pushed herself farther back into the nook, waiting for her pursuer to come into view. She sat completely still, hardly daring even to take a breath, and counted down as the footsteps grew closer. Being a Demi-Wolf, she had the advantage of determining a person's location using her nose and ears. The other party was nearly at the edge of her wake.

"Three...two..." she counted under her breath. "One!" She tossed her body back out into the hall, gun in hand, and placed her finger on the trigger. Just as she started to pull it back, she realized that she was staring not at another Rebel Assassin, but at the blonde little baker girl she had encountered just minutes before. She moved her hand to the right an instant before the bullet sped out of the gun's barrel. The bullet pierced the air and whizzed past the baker as she covered her head and threw herself to the stone floor.

"Dammit!" Neza said, replacing her gun. "I thought you were an RA. What the hell is your problem, sneaking up on a King's Assassin at work?"

"I'm not an RA," the baker said, stumbling clumsily back to her feet. "I'm Ellen Maddox, the king's personal baker."

"I don't really care who you are," Neza said, turning to leave. "As long as you're not an RA. Now leave me alone."

"You're a King's Assassin?" Elle asked, following after Neza. "You saved my life."

"I don't save lives," Neza said. "I kill people. That's what assassins do."

"But you saved mine," Elle persisted.

"It's all a matter of when and where," Neza said. "If it meant getting the job done, I would have killed you too. Now scram. You'll get yourself all shot up if you don't get out of here."

"What's going on?" Elle asked.

Neza sighed. "If I tell you, will you leave me the hell alone?"

Elle nodded.

"A group of RAs tried to assassinate the king," Neza explained. "There's at least two dozen of them hiding in the palace and we're trying to dispose of them. Good enough? Now let me be."

"Wait," Elle said. "What's an RA?"

"Rebel Assassin, dimwit," Neza replied, fighting the urge to turn her gun on the troublesome baker. "They're supposed to be working for the king, but I guess someone else worked out a better contract."

"Is my father okay, do you know?" Elle asked.

"I don't know your father," Neza said. "Why don't you go find out for yourself? I have work to do."

Elle nodded again, her fists clenched at her sides, before taking off in the other direction, back up the hall. Neza groaned in irritation. At least she'd gotten rid of the nuisance without having to kill her. Even though she was a King's Assassin, and even though she insisted otherwise, she despised the idea of harming the innocent. The only time she'd even consider the prospect, was when her options were otherwise limited.

As she trailed down the hall, she realized that the shouting had stopped. She didn't hear any more gunshots, either. All seemed as still as it had been that morning before the attempted assassination. She made her way through the corridors, toward the main palace hall, where she hoped to get some word of what had happened. Along the way, she found herself stepping around the occasional body of a dead RA, and one or two bodies of a King's Assassin.