[Askoga]: 89.Novels.Kode.Prologue.Kode

A young black man silently dropped down from the top of the wall surrounding Baron Bewswik's manor. He landed with a catlike grace on the straw-covered ground near the stables and the storehouse that held the hay. The man glanced around, his dark eyes flashing here and there.
The night was dark, the sky cloudy, so only a little light filtered down from the moon. The walls of the manor stood dark and forbidding, but the yard was quiet. In the manor a light flickered out as a forgotten candle burned out. The young man’s searching eyes landed on the guard nearest him, who was asleep. Good. The drugged wine had worked, then.
The assassin, for that was what the big black teenager was, crept to the manor's wall, just beneath a large window, and took the rope off his shoulder. He was about to use this rope to climb up to the window of the baron's sleeping chambers when he heard a voice.
"Halt! What are you doing here?"
The teen whirled around, startled by the voice. One of the guards hadn't drunk any of the drugged wine. Quickly he reached into his tunic and pulled something out that flashed only briefly in the dark night as it flew through the air. The next instant the guard was dead and the young assassin tucked the something back into his tunic, his eyes darting around, searching for another guard that might also be awake.
As he saw nothing else suspicious, he turned without saying a word and listened intently to be sure his victim hadn’t been awoken, either. All was silent on the grounds. Even the dogs were asleep, having been bribed with drugged steaks. The young assassin tossed up the hook on the end of his rope and neatly caught it on the edge of the roof. He began to stealthily climb up, his muscles bulging. Obviously he was used to this type of work, though, for he hardly made a sound as he climbed steadily upwards.
The young assassin neatly picked the lock on the window, then listened for sounds of movement inside the room. Hearing none, he stealthily opened the window and slipped inside, his dark skin blending easily with the shadows. He pulled out a small vial of poison from a pocket and moved over toward the bed. He'd already been informed that the baron always had a glass of water at his bedside, because he woke several times in the night. Apparently the water helped him get back to sleep. The young man found the water glass and carefully pulled the stopper from the vial. He poured two drops of the poison into the water, and then replaced the stopper silently.
The assassin smiled, proud of himself. Suddenly the baron's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. The man had a surprisingly strong grip.
"What's your name, boy?" His voice was quiet. The question was not at all what the youth had expected. He'd expected for the middle-aged baron to call for his guards immediately.
"I asked you what your name is, boy. Don't make me call the guards; they won't hesitate to dispose of you." The baron's grip was firm.
The boy answered after a brief pause, "Kode, if it pleases my lord." There it was, a simple sentence. It said much to the baron, though.
"You're not the first to come here with the intention of killing me in my sleep,” Bewswik commented, “I would much rather have you on my side, young Kode. How much did they pay you?"
"I am not at liberty to say, sir." Kode used brief sentences, though obviously he was neither mocking nor overly reverent. Though he probably didn't know it, it was his attitude that made the baron release his wrist.
"Then I shan't ask again. Go, then, and may the Lord of Justice be with you." He watched as Kode began to climb out of the window, but spoke again, before the youth was completely out, "Next time research better, watch more, learn routines.”
Kode nodded warily and climbed down from the window. Then, with a practiced flick he dislodged the hook from the roof tiles and caught the hook. He turned left, ever aware of the baron's eyes on his back. He didn’t know why the Baron Bewswik had given advice to one who had tried to murder him. The young man also wasn’t sure if the advice was meant as a trap.
Later that night Kode slipped into the royal chambers through the window. The light was on in the next room, which meant that he wasn’t too late to catch the king. He stepped into the doorway of the next room and allowed his eyes to grow accustomed to the light before he announced his presence to the royal couple. They were discussing whether or not they should raise the already high taxes. Their gold was being stretched already. The thought didn't appeal to him, even knowing the state of the treasury. He knew where all that gold went.
“The baron caught me, sir. I’m sorry, but I was unable to kill him. Had I tried anything he’d have roused the whole manor.” Kode’s deep voice was soft, so that he wouldn’t wake any servants that may be sleeping in adjoining rooms.
The king and queen both looked up, startled. The king spoke in his tenor voice, “You couldn’t kill him?” He raised an eyebrow, “Well, then try again later. No matter what I want that man dead, got it?” The man’s tone was final. The queen nodded in agreement.
“Go now, assassin.” Her lilting voice was filled with contempt, as though an assassin was lower than the lowest of servants. The young man knew that, in their eyes, he was the lowest of scum, but they paid well, and his father had hired them.
The next day Kode heard that the baron had been found dead in his chambers. The servants had then discovered that the water next to the baron’s bed was poisoned. As there were no outward signs of damage they decided that the man had drunk the poisoned water and had thus died. Of course everyone assumed that he’d been assassinated. The king and queen figured that Kode had returned to do the job and had forgotten to tell them.
“We thought you’d given up after you failed. Here is your money.” The queen’s tone of voice was still insulting. She dropped a bag of coins onto the table between Kode and her, then stood and walked out. She’d visited him at the Bull’s Eye Bar, where Kode and his family regularly conducted business.
Kode stared at her. He then lifted the bag of coins and carried it to his father in the meeting room behind the tapestry.
“She thinks I’m the one who killed him. Indeed, if the reports are right, then I did. But he knew about the poison in the water. Why’d he drink it?” Kode’s deep voice was full of puzzlement. His father couldn’t answer the question.
The puzzle of the baron bothered Kode for the next several days, before he forced himself to forget about it. Two months after the death of the baron the door-keeper woke Kode in the middle of the night.
“A man ‘ere to see yeh, young’un. I tol’ ‘im t’was your father ‘e wanted to see if ‘e had a job, but ‘e insisted on you. ‘E’s waiting in the bar.”
Kode followed the old man out to the main room of the bar and looked around. When the door-keeper pointed to a shadowy corner Kode went warily, his fashoke ready and waiting to be used. He sat down across the table from the shadowed man and said nothing, waiting for the other to speak.
Finally, a voice emerged from under the hood of the dark cloak, “I’m glad to see you still safe and sound, young Kode. I was half-afraid that you wouldn’t be here any more. It took me a long time to find out where you work from.”
The voice seemed somewhat familiar. Suddenly Kode saw in his mind’s eye that night he’d been caught by the Baron. “You’re supposed to be dead. Your own servants saw you! Baron, I should kill you now. It was my job.”
“But they think I’m dead. To the whole world I’m a dead man. In fact, Baron Bewswik is dead. I am now the somewhat respectable Bol the Cobbler.”
Kode stared at the baron—no, the cobbler, he reminded himself—for a moment, then nodded. “Alright, Bewswik is dead. Why are you here?”
Bol laughed heartily, drawing attention to them from the few other patrons that were present at that time of night. Finally, he stopped, and said, “I don't know.” Shaking his head, he murmured, “There are some small reasons, but none of them should be great enough to risk my life.” Suddenly, he became very serious, and he eyed the young man before him.
When Bol spoke again, he was solemn, “Kode, I want to be your friend.”
It was the assassin's turn to laugh now, a low chuckle. His dark eyes reflected no merriment in the laugh, though. “My friend, sir? A mercenary like me has no friends. No, our paths met and parted again.” He began to rise, but the baron-turned-cobbler grabbed his arm, stopping him.
Very seriously, the man surveyed the assassin, then he said, so quietly that Kode had to strain to hear him, “I would like to meet Savera again.”
That one, simple sentence made the young man's blood run cold. He settled back into his seat, and said, just as quietly, “Friends do not use threats, nor should would-be friends.”
“But it got you to listen. You know her.”
So, this was the reason the man would risk his life. “I cannot let you meet her.”
“Take this, and show her it. She will recognize it.” The baron held out a shiny black feather. Then he stood, and was gone.
Kode examined the feather for a long while, then stood and returned to his room, where he knew he would be unable to sleep.
Savera stood in the clearing, waiting. Her silver hair was tied back, but for once was not hidden beneath her scarf. She wore a simple, vivid green dress. Her blue eyes searched the woods, even as she felt for his presence with her mind. Kode stood nearby, wondering what had possessed his friend, that she had agreed to meet with the one-time baron. She had asked, even before he'd said a word, the moment she had seen the feather in his hand. Suddenly, the silver-haired woman stood erect, and she actually almost smiled, but then the expression was gone.
Bol emerged from the other side of the clearing, and he seemed startled by what he saw. “You've grown,” he said simply, before approaching her and bowing. “You're more lovely than I recalled.”
Savera bowed in return, though not as deeply as Bol had. “It is good to see you again, Friend,” her voice was soft, and as formal as always. Kode wondered if she ever lost that formality, but it didn't seem to surprise the cobbler. “I've been told that you were most recently a baron. What possessed you?”
Was that a joke? Kode was amazed at this turn of events. Savera never joked. Never.
Bol smiled and gestured that they might start walking. He led the way deeper into the forest, Savera walking beside him. Kode, after a moment's hesitation, followed after them.
“Government was getting unbearable in the cities, and since that's where I live, almost always, I decided to play with politics for a little while. My stay in the game was, I'm afraid, shorter than I had planned, thanks to your friend here, but it's probably for the better.”
They talked on like this for a while, before Kode finally realized that they were nearly back home. At the edge of the city, they parted ways, Bol heading home, and Savera and Kode heading back to the tavern. Savera turned to the young man and said, “He will be a cobbler for now, and I suggest buying shoes from him. He is very good at what he does, the shoes will last a long time. Befriend him, and follow his trades. Whatever trade he goes into, stick with him, and he will stick with you, also.
And thus, eventually, Bol became a part of Kode's guild, a supplier of good items, and not always only things of the trade he practiced. Later, he would become Bolin the Tailor