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On the tenth day of Christmas my true Muse sent to me…

Ten Ijiri Assassins

‘They lay there for a long time, listening to the passing and repassing of footsteps overhead and studying the reflections cast across the water. Two black-clad figures hung head down from either side of the bridge to peer into the darkness underneath, but did not detect the heralds flattened against the struts. “Three more on the bridge overhead.”  Tarathan’s mindvoice was dark. “That makes ten altogether. So far.”

The heralds did not move for a long, bone-chilling half hour after the assassins left. “And this time,” Tarathan said, as they eased down onto the damp stone of the canal edge, “ we leave the masks.”

Jehane Mor took off the exquisite owl mask, studying it thoughtfully as she recalled how Prince Ath had boomed out his offer of masks last night, yet had not seemed to notice their new masks at all, earlier in the evening. “Because he did not send them.”

Tarathan nodded, his eyes gleaming through the darkness as he tied the falcon mask around one of the struts. Jehane Mor tied the owl beside it, thinking that some river urchin was going to have a fine disguise for next year’s festival. She shook her head. … “Could it have been the minstrel who ordered this?” she asked. “We’ve suspected for some time that the Ilvaine have ties to the School of Assassins, as well as to the Sages and the Minstrels.”

“Close enough to influence ten assassins to break Ijiri and River law for him?” Tarathan shook his head. “It doesn’t ring true…’

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 4 — Dance of Shadows
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Nine Derai Houses

Eight Night Honor Guards

A Jhainarian Seven

Six Emerian Oakwarders

Five messenger horses

Four Emerian marches

Three weapons of power

Two mysterious heralds

and

One chosen hero!
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