The Nameless Assassins

Funerals

In fact, Mylera was the one who needed a little extra caffeine, because she procrastinated so long on funeral invitations that the Lampblacks – normally not the more, shall we say, organized, of the two gangs – wound up holding their ceremony first. Without an arcane spirit well to suck in and destroy the souls of the dead, Pickett's and Xayah's bodies had long since been collected by the Spirit Wardens and dissolved in electroplasm at Bellweather Crematorium. Doskvolian funerals never involved the body and constituted what we'd call memorials in U'Duasha, although I opted not to quibble over terminology.

One bitterly cold evening, much like the one on which I first met Pickett, Ash and I donned somber black suits and trudged through the sleet to the Leaky Bucket. Light spilled from its windows as it always did, but the pub was eerily quiet and a sign on the door read, "Closed for a private event." Inside, the Lampblacks had swathed all the tables in black cloth and arranged a cluster of small white candles on each, like handfuls of stars. Although Ash and I arrived early, the whole gang was already assembled, filling the pub with a sea of black overcoats. Grim and tight-lipped, they sat facing Pickett's booth, where a single silver taper illuminated a framed photograph.

Next door in his own booth, Bazso conversed in low tones with Mylera and Ardashir, who both wore the stark white cotton mourning robes of Iruvia. A quick, faint smile indicated that Bazso had registered Ash's and my arrival, but that was all. As soon as we slipped into the last empty seats at the back, Mardin switched off the electroplasmic lamps and plunged the room into a gloom broken only by wavering pinpoints of candlelight.

Dignified and imposing in a well-tailored suit that I'd never seen before, Bazso rose to his feet, commanding our attention. A small white candle cupped in his palms, he positioned himself in front of Pickett's booth and began, "Thank you all for coming."

Deliberately, he looked around the room, his gaze passing over and giving the impression of acknowledging each of us in turn. In the darkness, the yellow glow of his candle highlighted the planes of his face, the solemnity of the ceremony lent him a regal air, and for the first time, I realized that he wouldn't look out of place on a dais in a great hall, in Doskvol or Lockport or U'Duasha or anywhere else.

"We are gathered here today to remember our friend and colleague, Pickett." Although Bazso's voice remained level, his jaw tightened. "She was a good fighter, a loyal friend, and a loving daughter."

Here, he nodded respectfully to an elderly couple sitting next to Henner in the front row. Pickett's father's eyes were fixed on his daughter's picture, and I doubted that he heard a word of Bazso's eulogy. Pickett's mother, though – as her head turned sharply at Henner's murmured condolences, I glimpsed pinched lips and a pair of very familiar, icy eyes.

Drawing a deep breath, Bazso concluded, "Pickett has been – was – with the gang from the very beginning. I could not have asked for nor received a better second-in-command. She will be greatly missed."

He closed his eyes, bowed his head briefly over his candle, and set it down reverently in front of the photo. Then he returned to his seat.

To my surprise, Mylera rose next, in the flowing motion of a dancer or sword master. She gracefully extended a hand towards the Lampblacks, her candle poised on her upturned palm like a votive offering. "It is my honor to be here today, to pay tribute to Pickett of the Lampblacks." The words rolled off her tongue with a poetic cadence. "Although I cannot say that I knew her well personally, I was very familiar with her tactics and strategy."

Her tone struck just the right balance between sincere sorrow and wry humor, and she actually drew some weary smirks from her erstwhile enemies.

"I speak for all of the Red Sashes when I say that we respected Pickett's skill in combat and her sheer determination and courage – even when we disagreed with the uses to which she put them."