"This is absurd," he mutters.
"The beast writes better than you, assassin!" Hrolf's laughter booms through the forge. He slaps his knee, beard shaking with mirth.
"It's just lines—" Shade protests.
The wolf's tail swishes once.
If I didn't know better, I'd call that smug.
"Then practice more," I tell Shade, returning my attention to the anvil. "The wolf is demonstrating that this isn't impossible. It simply requires patience and control, two things you supposedly have in abundance when you're killing people."
The steel has cooled too much. I thrust it back into the fire.
Shade crumples his ruined parchment with barely contained frustration. He reaches for a fresh sheet but doesn't dip his quill. His hand hovers over the ink pot, trembling slightly.
The assassin is distracted.
Hrolf continues hammering, oblivious. But I notice. The Grimsbane's usual razor focus has fractured. His eyes aredistant, fixed on nothing. I don't care, of course. The personal troubles of hired killers are not my concern.
But Shade is Rhianelle's guard. A distracted bodyguard is a liability. A liability near my wife is unacceptable.
"What's wrong?" I ask him.
Shade blinks, pulled from whatever dark thought consumed him. "Nothing."
His jaw tightens. Silence stretches between us. Hrolf has paused his work, watching now with narrowed eyes. The dwarf knows something is amiss even if he doesn't understand the context.
Shade exhales slowly. "The guild renewed my contract. Again."
I wait.
“My contract was for one hundred days of protection," he continues, voice flat. "They extended it another hundred days when I failed to protect the Silverra. Now it's been refreshed a third time."
Knowing the guild assassin of Tiamat, they structured this contract knowing Shade would fail.
"The Silverra vouched for me. Without his testimony, the guild would have marked me as failed outright."
The pieces settle into place in my mind. If Shade completes the contract successfully his mother goes free. She's been in the crypts for fifty years. One hundred successful missions, and they'll release her.
Shade looks up at me, and for the first time, I see genuine fear in the Grimsbane's eyes.
“I can’t fail her.”
I don't know what comforting words to give to the grimsbane. I've never been good at it. The wolf has continued working during this exchange. Its paw moves across the parchment with careful deliberation. I glance at the paper.
'L U C'
Three elven letters, partially formed. The wolf is writing something, but the word is incomplete. Shade doesn't notice. He can't read well enough to recognize partial words.
But I see it.
The wolf pauses, looking at Shade. Then it pads closer and rests its head on the assassin's knee. Shade's hand drops to the wolf's fur automatically, fingers threading through the charcoal coat. The tension in his shoulders eases slightly.
"Smart beast.” Hrolf chuckles and brings his hammer down on his own work with renewed enthusiasm.
Shade scratches behind its ears, something almost like gratitude flickering across his face before he schools it away.
I look at the beast. There is a reason this creature remains in animal form. I can feel it.
