An Aimless War (Greatest Thief 2)

Bonus - Assassin, Lady, Lord and Thief

"My lady, Prince Kalvahi is waiting for you in the castle."

The guard offered her a hand, but Kassia ignored it and climbed out of the small sailboat herself. He looked baffled for a moment, but recovered quickly to stand at attention again.

"We'll escort—"

"That won't be necessary," Kassia interrupted. She almost enjoyed the look that flashed across his face, but she didn't give herself much time to savour it. She sidestepped around him and started down the dock. East Draulin, known to Deorans and Navirians alike as Talidor, should have been a beautiful city. Instead, plums of smoke still billowed into the air. It was a shame. Kassia had been very vocally opposed to burning the city. She knew that the people who would suffer the most were Zians, not Teltans. King Idavari hadn't cared. Neither had Kalvahi.

Kassia had never been in East Draulin, but she still knew her way around. It was an old city. Like most of the cities in Deorun. Like Zianna. She didn't like thinking about Zianna. News of her failure to kill King Edarius III hadn't gone over well in Deorun. It was the whole reason someone else had been given the task this time around, and she had been sent to West Draulin.

Kassia walked through streets that were almost familiar. She knew the guards who had met her at the dock were trailing behind, but she paid them no attention. As she walked, she looked at the destruction around her. Collapsed buildings. Deoran soldier piling bodies to be burned. The air was acrid despite the strong winds coming off of the ocean.

Far behind her, through the streets of East Draulin and across the Straits, surely an alarm would have been called. By now, Lady West Draulin would have woken up and seen her husband's body. She would have screamed and called for the guards. The whole city would be flooded with guards, looking for Kassia.

Rumour had it the heir apparent to West Draulin was courting the crown princess. Which meant ruling West Draulin would have almost certainly fallen to Lord Tandrix.

Kassia had completed her task with the emotionless efficiency she had trained for, but she couldn't help but hope that Lord Tandrix hadn't seen his father's body. Hadn't seen the neat slice across his neck, and the blood soaking into his pillows. Kassia wasn't supposed to think about things like that. Things like the family she was destroying. She wasn't supposed to care. But she had met Lord Tandrix through Finn's eyes, and she had admired him. Kassia didn't—couldn't—regret doing her job, but she did regret hurting Lord Tandrix.

Not as much as she regretted hurting Finn. She knew the punishment for regicide, she knew Finn had been dead for months. She hated him for getting in her way and making her a laughingstock, but still, she thought of his poorly disguised intelligence and his unassuming confidence. There had been so much potential in Finn. So much untapped talent. No one had ever given him an opportunity to use his innate skills. Many times over the past year, Kassia had imagined Finn with her upbringing and training.

He would have been unstoppable. Eventually, he would have been running the Associates.

Instead he was dead, because he had gotten in her way and she had been forced to make a decision.

Untrained and uneducated, he had gotten in her way.

As she passed through the gates onto the castle grounds, Kassia spared one last moment of thought for Lord Tandrix. They were on opposite sides of this war. Still, she hoped losing Finn and then his father hadn't completely destroyed the young lord. She hoped some of his kindness and noble righteousness had remained intact. His people were going to need him.

Her melancholy thoughts were cut off when Kalvahi met her at the main gate to the palace. He looked so incredibly proud of himself, but what had he actually done? His men had taken East Draulin. Kassia still had the late Lord West Draulin's blood under her fingernails. She was exhausted, but Kalvahi looked impeccable. Because while his people had done all the work, he had probably strutted around and preened.