She followed the traces left by his core. She knew he intentionally left them as if he expected her to follow him. And who was she to disappoint him? So, tracking him, she did.

  She found him not far from the main road. But he wasn’t alone. There was the woman she met the day before, Laila, and two other men, drawn deep into a heated conversation.

  Daliya walked toward them, ignoring Laila’s cold stare.

  “If you believe that is what must be done,” one of the two men said, expression grave. “Then it is what we shall do.” He gave a solemn nod.

  Haitham nodded back. His face was serious, not even a hint of his earlier mirth remaining. From the slight tilt of his head in her direction, she knew he had noticed her arrival way before she emerged from the corner.

  The solemn man glanced at her and then back at Haitham. She saw the minute shift in his stance, the slight twitch of his hand.

  Daliya gazed warily at the spear strapped to his back.

  Here she was, walking willingly into a secret meeting between assassins. But strangely enough, she didn’t feel like her life was in danger. None of these people—except Haitham—must have liked her. Hell, Daliya was almost sure they would want nothing but to end the dangling threat that was her life.

  Yet, she didn’t feel the need to draw her sword nor call her ice to her.

  She strolled toward Haitham, stopping next to him. The second man with a bow and a handful of arrows on his back shot her a reluctant smile that she readily returned.

  “Is something wrong?” she directed her question at Haitham.

  He paused before saying, “Just some complications, nothing more. I’m sure they’ll deal with them before they turn into an issue.” He directed the last words to the others.

  The one with the arrows, the cheerful-looking one, nodded. “Of course. You can count on us.” He tapped his chest with a fist, a grin splitting his face.

  Laila snorted. “Right.” she spat, voice laced with mockery. Cheerful shot her a hurtful look.

  Was she this much enjoyable? Even to her comrades in arms?

  Cheerful turned his gaze to Daliya. He did a badly orchestrated bow. “Arham, at your service.” He winked.

  Haitham flicked his forehead, huffing. “Go do your job.”

  “I’m working!” Arham protested, rubbing his forehead. “I just wanted to apologize.”

  Daliya frowned. For what?

  He smiled sheepishly at her. “Back at the bazaar? At GreenMarsh? You know…” He trailed off, letting out an awkward laugh.

  Daliya blinked. Ah, she remembered.

  “The attack! It was you?”

  He nodded. “I—well… I didn’t know you were in cohort with our fearless leader back then.”

  Leader? So, Haitham was their leader?

  Haitham crossed his arms over his chest, eyes narrowed at Arham.

  “If only you hadn’t missed.”

  Daliya rolled her eyes at Laila’s words.

  “I never miss,” Arham insisted. He growled at Laila, offended by her words. “He—” He gestured to haitham. “Intercepted it. With a rock!” He huffed. “Without his interference, my record would have still stayed clean.” He faltered, glancing at Daliya. “Not that it means I wanted you dead, Your… eh, Highness?”

  Daliya shook her head. “It’s okay, we were enemies then. No grudges.”

  He nodded frantically. “Of course, of course. If Haitham had given us a heads up, I wouldn’t have attacked you.” He gave her a hopeful look. “Does that mean… we’re allies now?” At her nod, he cheered. “Great! You hear that, Sameer! I was right! The princess had turned to our side.”

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Sameer, or the solemn-looking assassin, leveled her with a dubious look. Daliya held his stare unwavering. She knew he didn’t trust her, and he might never will. But none of that mattered. All that mattered was getting her idiotic bodyguard’s trust, whose head was tilted up, eyes closed, his fingers massaging the bridge of his nose.

  “What is this? A cultural saloon?”

  Daliya shot her a look. “You should learn to loosen up a little.” She gestured with her head toward Arham.

  The assassin took a step back, furiously shaking his head. “What? What? How can I teach him anything when he is—”

  A jab with the wooden side of the spear silenced him. He rubbed his side, glaring at Sameer. But he said nothing.

  “Back to the topic,” Haitham announced. He turned to Laila. “Have you notified the red spider?”

  Laila paused. She seemed miffed at sharing whatever information she had with Daliya’s presence. Daliya watched her, a defiant glint in her eyes. But deep down, she could barely hide the sigh of relief when Haitham didn’t exclude her in whatever schemes he was concocting.

  He trusted her.

  He truly trusted her.

  She smiled, her smile widening at Laila’s scowl.

  “Yes,” she gritted between her teeth. “She’s been notified. She won’t deal with anyone except us four.”

  Haitham gave a satisfied nod. “Good. it won’t be long before Saif notices the loss of such a prominent ally. We should move fast.”

  They nodded.

  So it was about the assassin’s order. This Saif, the one who had raised him as an assassin instead of letting a child enjoy his childhood. Did the old man already make his move? Were the executioners already on their way to get rid of him?

  Haitham didn’t seem worried by the whole ordeal.

  “What about the Seer?”

  Daliya perked up at the mention of the strange woman.

  “Hasn’t been sighted since,” Sameer said.

  “What do you want to ask her?” Daliya asked.

  Didn’t she tell him she had nothing for him?

  “Something has been bugging me. Something I should have looked into but disregarded till now.”

  He didn’t elaborate further. He turned to the others, relaying their next set of actions.

  Get intel on the Soul Devourer and if there was any chance they could counter its effect.

  Get intel on the Soul Steel and if it was replicable.

  Daliya frowned. That was the first time she had heard of such a thing.

  “You plan on facing the emperor?” Sameer asked with a worried furrow.

  “We might have to.” Haitham shrugged. At her confused look, he said, “It’s the emperor’s sword and the reason why no one had tried to approach him. A small cut with its blade is all it would take for him to kill someone.”

  “A small cut?” Daliya raised an eyebrow at him. Wasn’t he exaggerating?

  “It’s true!” Arham insisted. Then he paused. “Wait, shouldn’t you know about this?” There was a suspicious glint in his eyes. His lips twisted in a thought. “Is it true then? What Haitham had said…?”

  Daliya stilled. Did Haitham reveal her secret? Wasn't he the one who insisted on not breathing a word bout it?

  Haitham sighed. Whatever he wanted to say took a backseat as Daliya rushed the assassin, demanding, “What did he say?”

  Haitham shot her a puzzled look.

  “That you had lost your memory. You know, back when he had first taken the mission to—” He motioned toward his neck, imitating a dagger.

  Oh…

  “I… yes. Unfortunately.” She nodded.

  “You mean, fortunately.” Arham grinned. “Otherwise, we would have been enemies still.”

  She heard Haitham’s huff. She turned to him, eyebrow raised. They stared at each other briefly before he shook his head and turned to Sameer.

  “Make sure to cover our tracks. I don’t want Saf to hear even a whisper of it.” After he nodded, Haitham dismissed them with a ‘See you in a few days,’

  Before they left, Daliya called Arham. As the only one who was pleasant to her among the trio, she felt he would be best for the mission.

  He shot a glance at Haitham before turning to her.

  Daliya took the statuette Talyn gave her and presented it to him. “Could you give this to the boy you took from the village?”

  He lifted his hand in surrender. “I–I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  He was so bad at lying she wondered how he managed to be an assassin.

  “She was there,” Haitham said.

  “Oh, I see.” he took the statuette and hid it in the inside of his jacket. “Alright.”

  “And tell him his friends are worried about him but are glad he’s safe now.”

  He gave a slow nod.

  “Anything else?”

  She shook her head. “No. That’s all. Thank you.”

  He seemed taken aback by her gratitude. He wiggled his brows at Sameer, grinning. “I told you she’s not the same.”

  With that, they left, disappearing behind the towering husks of the winter-dead trees.

  “What?” she asked Haitham, who stood there watching her.

  “I thought I was your favorite assassin.”

  She grinned. “Don’t worry, you’re still my favorite person.”

  He paused before nodding. “I can settle on that.”

  They marched back to the castle, jesting and teasing each other. But their cheery mood soon plummeted down when they glimpsed a knight running toward them.

  Daliya stood, suddenly alert.

  “What’s wrong?’

  The knight panted, struggling to form words. “The castle. We’re under attack.”