MYTH-MATCHED

By Jody Lynn Nye

Premier Number One Daughter Renimbi of the Reigning House of Eyarll whirled around her personal chamber and came to a halt facing Tananda, who was sitting cross-legged on a cushion at the end of the huge bed.

"I can't marry Cordu of Vol Grun," she concluded, crystal-blue eyes flashing in her gold-scaled face. "So I want you to kill him."

The Trollop opened her big hazel eyes wider than they had been.

"Isn't that a little drastic?" she asked.

Renimbi whirled away again, too agitated to sit down.

"No more drastic than my father concluding a wedding contract with someone who is already married!"

"Unless I am forgetting my history of the dimension of Nob," Tananda said, watching her gyrate, "having more than one spouse is permitted in Vol Grun."

"But not in Eyarll." Renimbi tossed her head. "One spouse. I refuse to do anything that will call my uniqueness into question. My father is desperate to join our nations and secure the safety of our western border, but that isn't good enough. I want to be the only woman in the life of the man whom I marry. I am, after all, a duchess of Eyarll. Will you take the contract, or won't you?"

Tananda sat thoughtful for a moment. The rules of the Assassins' Guild were pretty strict. If she took the contract and didn't complete it for any other reason than her own death, then two new assassins would be dispatched from the Guildhall, one to finish off the original target, and one to take care of her. There would be nowhere to hide, not here, not in the Bazaar at Deva, one of her favorite haunts, or at home on Trollia. This was one of the many reasons why she wasn't taking so many jobs lately off the employment board, and she was noticing similar discomfort among her fellow members. The reasons for disposal were getting more frivolous. Personally, Tananda blamed the crystal ether network. Watching the shows that came in on crystal ball made you think that life-threatening problems were easily solved in no more than forty minutes, and that no one really minded if you knocked off an inconvenient business rival. Or would-be spouse. She much preferred it if her client was in mortal danger, not just piqued. Not that she hadn't taken commissions like that in the past. Maybe she was just getting older.

"I want to make a few modifications to the standard boilerplate contract," Tananda said, unrolling a parchment from her belt pouch. "You won't mind, will you?"

"Oh, anything!" Renimbi said, throwing her hands into the air dramatically. "As long as when you're finished I never have to see Cordu again."

Tananda smiled. "Then, please, sign here."

Vol Grun's castle was a day's ride by camel, half a day by horse, or a few seconds if one used magik to blink one out of the dimension at one point and reenter it at another. Tananda had been there before, on Cordu's majority day, in fact. Her big brother, Chumley, had been at university with him. Cordu flirted with her, as he had with every female under the age of fifty who was present. He seemed to be a nice man. Tananda intended to observe him for a while. Whether or not she'd have to bump him off she left open to question. The contract in her pouch had no time limit on it, though arguably it was assumed she would have to complete it before Cordu and Renimbi got married. Still, Renimbi had signed it in such a hurry she didn't have time to review the alterations Tanda had made to its clauses.

Such as the one giving discretion to the operator on whether to execute.

Vol Grun had been at peace a long while. Tananda made a quick survey of the grounds immediately adjacent to the castle to make sure that the one sentry at the gate was the only guard on duty—except for signs of a commando hiding in the bushes somewhere inside the circle of the moat. It was no problem for her to avoid both of them. She didn't even have to use a lick of magik.

Instead, she used that to help her hang on to the steep stone wall as she climbed it. If she remembered correctly, Cordu's personal suite was in the center of the northeastern tower. If she had guessed wrong, she could disguise herself as a chambermaid.

The heavy blocks of stone afforded her many easy handholds. Tananda swung herself up onto the head of a gargoyle.

"Sorry," she said, as she realized she had been hanging from its tongue.

"No problem," the stone creature said. "Nice day, ain't it?"

"A little cool for spring," Tananda said, and struck an appealing pose. "You wouldn't mind not telling anyone you saw me, would you?"

"No problem," the gargoyle repeated, cracking a granite grin. "No one ever asks me anything anyway."

She patted him on his crested head before making a leap to the next step, the roof of a buttressed turret. Just two jumps away was a window frame, with the glass window just a hair ajar. Once she reached that, she could climb inside and find a good hiding place to observe her subject.

A careful stretch, and Tananda clung to the underside of the window frame. She levered herself up to peer inside. She saw a flight of the spiral staircase, but no living beings. She listened intently. The castle was bespelled against intruders, but since the window was slightly open, she could work a filament of magikal force through to lift the latch.

It swung open silently. Tananda was grateful to the cleaners who had oiled the hinges. And dusted, she observed, grasping hold of the upper window frame to swing herself in. It was clean as a whistle.

She nearly let one out in surprise.

A vast, hairy hand clamped upon her wrist and dragged her inside.

Tananda broke free with a dirty twist she had learned from a street-fighting master, and used a tickle of magik to land safely on the stairs. By the time her feet touched down, she had daggers in both hands, but the bulky defender was on guard, too. He let out a growl.

She feinted at the figure with one knife then started to lunge to the left.

Her opponent countered both her moves. He leaped back to avoid the knife, then closing with her inside the arc of her second dagger. Tananda retreated and riposted. He countered. Her right-hand dagger went flying. She and the defender ended up tangled in one another's arms, grappling for the remaining knife. The big, hairy hand felt its way down her arm to her back and up to her face. It stopped, as if in surprise.

"Little Sister!" a big, hearty voice boomed.

"Big Brother!" Tananda cried, recognizing both the voice and the scent of the fur.

The siblings stopped wrestling. Tananda squeezed her Troll brother until the air was knocked out of him then looked up at him. "What are you doing here?"

Chumley patted his chest, trying to get his breath back.

"I presume, my dear sister, that I am engaged in a counterpoint to what you intend to do here. Or do I fail to recognize the knot in the scarf around your neck?"

Tananda sighed and sat down on the step. "No, you're right. I've been hired to assassinate your friend."

His big furry brow lowered. The usually even-tempered Troll looked angry.

"Why? Why take the contract? Cordu is an old friend of mine, if not of yours."

She noticed a torch on the wall and lit it with a lick of magik force.

"Read the contract before you get upset, Brother," Tananda said, handing it over.

The brow lifted at clause three. "And she signed it?"

"She didn't even read it through. But it'll hold up before the Guildmaster, and that's all I care about. Mums would get so upset if the Guild punishers came looking for me. She might get blood on that new Djinni carpet she just had put in."

Chumley shivered. Their mother was a force to be reckoned with.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Well," Tananda said. "I would say at this point, what are we going to do? He's your friend."