The Assassin's Curse

  He nodded, his head hanging low. I scooted across the floor and leaned against the bed. "What'd you find out?"

  "Find out?"

  "You said you had some questions that need answering."

  "Oh." His face darkened for a moment. "It seems we'll need to go across the desert." He stood up, using one hand to steady himself against the bed.

  "What! The desert?" I was hoping that he'd seen the Hariri clan wherever he went – not them exactly, but the shadows of them, the way fortune-tellers do. I was hoping that he'd tell me that other assassin wasn't coming after me no more. "I don't want to go to the desert."

  "You're in the desert now."

  I shook my head. "No, I'm in Lisirra, and it ain't the same thing." I crossed my arms and glared at him. "Why do we have to cross the desert?"

  "I need to see someone."

  "That's it?" I said. "That's all you're going to tell me?"

  Naji glared at me. He looked about a million years old.

  "Yes," he said. "It's all that concerns you."

  "Bullshit!" I stalked across the room, taking care to avoid the circle. I balled up my clothes and wrapped the scarves around them for a strap. I took the protection charm off and threw it on the bed.

  "What do you think you're doing?"

  "Leaving."

  "You can't leave."

  I went right up to him, close enough that I could smell the residue of his magic. "Sure can. I got money and my wits and there ain't nothing you can do to stop me."

  "There's plenty I can do and you know it."

  I didn't have an answer to that, so I stomped away from him, right out the door and into the hallway. I didn't think about what I was doing; it was a lot like when I left Tarrin, honestly. Get the hell out and come up with a plan later.

  Naji screamed.

  It stopped me dead in my tracks, cause it didn't sound like anger or magic, but like he was in pain, like someone had stuck him in the belly. The hallway was silent – nobody stuck his head out to see what was going on.

  Then there was a thump and the door banged open. Naji spilled out into the hallway. He cradled his head in one hand, and his skin was covered in sweat. His tattoos looked sickly and faded.

  "Ana

  "What the hell is wrong with you?" Part of me wanted to bolt and part of me wanted to get him a cold washrag and a cup of mint tea.

  He staggered forward, pressing his shoulder up against the wall. I kept expecting some angry sailor to come out and lay into us for interrupting his good time.

  "You can't…" Naji closed his eyes, pressed his head against the wall. He took a deep, shuddery breath. "You can't go out there alone, without protection. The Hariri clan–"

  "To hell with the Hariri clan. Let 'em send their worst."

  Naji looked like he wanted both to roll his eyes and puke. "That's the problem," he said. "They will."

  He pushed himself away from the wall and swayed in place. He didn't stop rubbing his head.

  "Please," he said. "Come back to the room. You can't leave. I have to protect you."

  That was when I figured it out. It sure took me long enough.

  "Are you cursed?" I asked.

  His expression got real dark. He jerked his head toward the doorway.

  "Are you?"

  "Get in the room."

  I did what he asked. I tossed my dresses on the floor and sat down on the bed. The color had come back to Naji's cheeks, and his eyes weren't glassy and blank no more. He locked the door behind us and started sweeping at the used-up magic circle with his foot.

  "Well?" I said. "You are, ain't you? That's why you have to protect me."

  He didn't say anything. The circle was gone, replaced with smears of powders and streaks of drying blood, but he kept kicking at it. The dust made me sneeze.

  Naji finally looked at me.

  "Yes," he said. Then he turned his attention back to the powders.

  I folded my hands in my lap all prim and proper like a lady. Naji wasn't protecting me cause of some stupid oath. He was protecting me cause it hurt him if he didn't.

  "When did it happen?" I asked. "During the fight, I'm assuming?" I thought back to that night in the desert, crawling through the sand, flinging my knife at his chest, killing the snake–

  "The snake," I said.

  Naji stared at me for a few moment. Then he nodded.

  "Was it a special snake?"

  Naji looked weary, but he shook his head, his hair falling across his eyes. "It was just an asp, in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I suppose it would have bit me had you not killed it."

  "Oh."

  He stopped kicking at the circle and leaned up against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. "You saved my life. Now I have to protect yours."

  "From the snake?"

  "Apparently."

  "So what you told me was true," I said. "About having to protect me and all? It just wasn't an oath." I frowned. "What happens if you don't protect me?"

  "I imagine I would die." Naji turned away from me and fussed with the robes he had lying across the table. "That's generally how these sorts of curses go."

  I didn't have nothing to say to that. I'd accidentally activated some curse when I killed that snake and now we were stuck with each other.

  This was why untouched folks hate magic.

  "So why are we crossing the desert? Is there a cure?"

  That darkness crossed his face again. "I said I don't want to talk about it."