Partners in Crime

Gotta be a reason for the dust and the dirt

Summary: The story of two sworn brothers, Alberu Crossman and Cale Henituse—the Crown Prince and the Hero of the Roan Kingdom. It perhaps involved more illegal acts than it should. Assassin!Cale.

II. Gotta be a reason for the dust and the dirt

Academy for Preparing Young Nobles, Capital of Roan Kingdom

Age 14

Rok Ailan was a surprisingly talkative person considering he was the son of the rather stone-faced Marquis Ailan; of course, most of the boy's conversations tended to be about himself, which got boring very quickly, but it gave Cale a good in to get close to him. Rok was obsessed with himself, all it took was showing interest and praising him and suddenly you were worth his time, as well as considered one of his best friends.

Baldor, the son of Viscount Rusario was also a member of Rok Ailan's clique. He was desperate to get into the good graces of other noble families with higher titles. It hadn't taken Cale long to get close to him, a mix of sympathy and acknowledgement towards the boy had easily secured his friendship. Of course since their families were in different factions, his loyalty to Cale wasn't quite as strong as it was towards Rok, but it was enough that Baldor told him plenty of things. Like the fact that his father would be coming to the school to visit and staying the night in the dorms for the teachers.

It had ended up being surprisingly easy to sneak in and slit the Viscount's throat, the death had been nice and neat, a tribute to the hard work Cale had put into learning from Ron. The hard part was dealing with the body. Cale was only fourteen and the Viscount was a fully grown, rather heavy man. He couldn't leave it where it was though, it was important people didn't know exactly what had happened. And for his alibi, he needed time to get back to his estate and pretend to be asleep.

It was with great effort that Cale lugged the corpse towards the window, before starting to drag it. He'd tied one of the bedsheets around the late Viscount Rusario's neck to ensure no blood dripped on the floor, the last thing he needed was a trail left behind. It was fortunate that the room the Viscount had been given was not too high up or things might have been much harder. The Viscount went through the window, and so did Cale. The landing of the latter was far more graceful, however.

Cale put his hands on the corpse's wrists, his muscles straining as he began pulling it in the direction of the forest bordering the school, it wasn't a perfect hiding place but it would buy him time.

Someone cleared their throat, a bit awkwardly. "Do you. . .want some help with that?"

Cale turned around to find the Crown Prince staring at him. He blinked rapidly. "Uhhhh. . .that would be great?" He had no idea what he was doing at this point. He had just been caught dragging away a murder victim and the person who caught him—Alberu Crossman of all people—had just offered to help.

Alberu made his way over to the body and scooped it up in an easy manner that made Cale jealous. The prince was already fully grown, and thus far taller and stronger than Cale. He waited until they got to the forest before asking, "So... do you do this often?" There was an unreadable expression on his face, if Cale had to put a name to it he'd say it was somewhere between dazed and amused.

"Not. . .that often?" Cale carefully hedged. It wasn't a total lie, sure he murdered people more frequently than most others, but it wasn't like it happened every week. This was not a normal Wednesday for him, both the murder and getting caught parts.

"But you've done it before." Alberu's words were not a question, but a statement, he could read between the lines of Cale's answer. Glancing down at the body, he frowned as he took note of the face for the first time. "Isn't this Viscount Rusario?"