The Librarian and the Assassin, a Sapphic Romance at the End of the World - 33. Chapter 33 - Determination

Just as the dinner rush was kicking off at the outreach center, a few folks from a neighborhood bakery turned up and made a large donation of rolls. The additional food allowed even more of the region’s inhabitants to be fed, and over the course of the late afternoon and early evening, Tawni, Bix, Pan Cakes, Yoru, and Celestial Openings served hearty meals to many people who were in need. By the time the sun was setting over the island of Stonespire, the entire huge pot of chili was gone, and every roasted potato and all the rolls had been eaten.

Tawni, Bix, and Pan Cakes were out in the darkening street in front of the building.

“Okay, ladies,” Pan said quietly, “what’s up?”

“Earlier today,” Tawni said under her breath, “we asked Chef Zed if he knew anything about Doylithia Grondsen, but he…”

Tawni’s words were cut off by the face Pan was suddenly making. Hearing Doylithia’s name had caused the queen to scowl.

“Why are you asking about her?!” she questioned, but her eyes went wide, and she guessed the answer before either of the young women could tell her. “Oh, is she the next target?”

Tawni and Bix nodded.

Pan looked satisfied. “Doylithia was the Grondsen family attorney,” she explained. “She was called in when Sathiel was preparing to stand trial. Did Zed tell you about Sathiel’s pharmacological crimes against humanity?” The pair nodded again, and Pan continued. “Doylithia’s not an islander. She arrived before the plague struck, and unfortunately, she never left Stonespire.”

“Why unfortunately?” Tawni asked.

“The Grondsens were one of her primary clients, but she was also the defense attorney for a few other high-profile criminals back on the mainland, and she supposedly made opposing counsel in past cases disappear! Doylithia is as corrupt as they come. When she first arrived in Stonespire, she had been preparing for Sathiel’s day in court, but that was also when his grandson was found in possession of the desecrated corpse of a man. The Grondsen family money protected them from both immediately being locked in prison, and they were still under house arrest when people around the world started dying of the plague.”

“Chef Zed told us he thought it was Sathiel’s grandniece or nephew,” Bix informed the queen.

Pan shook her head. “It was his grandson.”

“Maybe I should just kill all the Grondsens,” Tawni stated, causing Pan to chuckle and Bix to frown.

“Tawni!” Bix scolded, but Pan was amused.

“I’d say the same goes for the Kentonworths,” the queen declared, “except that they’re the ones giving you money.”

“Pan!!” Bix squawked.

“I know, I know,” Pan replied, “but they’re all bad people.” She focused on Tawni. “If you’re going to take these jobs and do this, you’ll need to be careful. Don’t get cocky. You’ll need to treat every job as an entirely new experience, and you will have no idea what to expect. If the Grondsens and other money-hoarders think someone is after them, they will likely have more security protecting them. Don’t underestimate your targets.”

“Pan, do you even think it’s safe for Tawni to go back to the Kentonworth estate?” Bix asked. “They may be paying her, but they also came after her.”

Pan scrutinized Tawni, and the slender young woman responded to Bix before the queen said anything.

“I know how to communicate with Duke Kentonworth.”

*

It was morning. The sun was shining.

In front of the Kentonworth manor were stationed two beastly guardsmen, and a third was patrolling the property’s perimeter. Each of them was armed.

“Movement!” one of the two at the gate barked, and he pointed ahead.

A barefoot and shirtless boy came scurrying up to the pair of men as the guard on patrol appeared at the corner of the estate. The child was one of the rabble of countless lost youths who scratched out a living by running errands, or selling scrap, or by doing whatever they could. In the boy’s hand was a folded piece of parchment. He held it above his head as he approached, and he thrust it in the men’s direction.

“What’s this?!” the patrolling guard called out as he ran over to his two companions.

The boy did not say a word, but he frowned, and he waved the note at the trio of huge men.

One of them tentatively reached out for it, and the second it was in between his thumb and first finger, the boy darted away and out of sight.

The men looked at each other and the note. It was addressed to Duke Kentonworth.

“I’ll bring it in to him,” the guard holding the paper said to the others. “You two, stay here.”

A moment later, Duke Kentonworth was alone with the note. He did not like what it said.

Duke Kentonworth,

I accept your request.

Alone, you will deliver payment to the Oceanside Station platform. At sunset this evening, you will insert one-thousand old world dollars into the opening of the train station’s ticket window, and you will leave.

If anyone else comes with you, they will not be leaving with you. If someone else attempts to deliver payment, they will not return to you, and any money you lose will not be applied to your request.

If you do not deposit payment and immediately vacate the station, your payment will be void. If anyone approaches the station before the money has been removed from the ticket window, they will never leave the station again, and your payment will be void.

If one-thousand old world dollars are not deposited at sunset this evening, the contract is broken, and your request will not be fulfilled.

You have your orders.

Signed, the Librarian.

Duke Kentonworth did not like being ordered.

“The Librarian?” he scoffed. “That little snake is my assassin, not some bookworm.”

He raged in his mind that he would never comply with her demands. Duke Kentonworth was used to giving orders, not taking them. He was the master of the Kentonworth estate and fortune, dwindled though it had become. He was in charge of a small force of grunts, which had also shrunk, but only very recently… only since Duke Kentonworth’s first meeting with Tawni, the ghost!

Hours passed, and the sun slowly shifted across the sky.

It was the middle of the afternoon before Duke Kentonworth finally resigned himself to the inevitability of the situation. He wanted Doylithia taken out, and if Tawni did the deed, it would bring him another step closer to that which he desired.

“Crontin!” he hollered from his study. “Get in here!”

Footsteps came rushing down the hallway, and the Kentonworth accountant appeared in the doorframe. Crontin was a scrawny man with a little potbelly.

“Yes, sir?”

“Crontin, I need a thousand bucks.”

*

There he is, Tawni thought. She was alone, and so was Duke Kentonworth. Good, I just have to wait.

Tawni was almost invisible. She was on the rooftop of a nearby building that provided her a view of every approach to the derelict train station. She was hidden among a pile of rubble with a tarp keeping her covered.

Duke Kentonworth walked up to the main entrance of the station, but the doors were completely blocked by a collapsed portion of the roof. Tawni watched him head along the building, trying to find a way in to where the ticket window was located. He eventually came to a secondary set of doors in the side of the structure, and he disappeared from view.

Tawni scoured the surrounding area, but there was no sign of anyone else. Duke Kentonworth seemed to have complied with her demands.

He emerged onto the station’s platform again a short time later, and Tawni waited. He was soon gone, but still she waited. It was not until a full twenty minutes had passed and the sun had set completely that she slipped out from her hiding place and made her way down to ground level. However, she did not exit into the street.

Tawni had played in the station as a lonely youth, and the solitude had allowed her imagination to take her on strange and wondrous journeys inside the unmoving trains that lined the rusted tracks. At that time, she discovered a series of narrow tunnels that ran underground power and communication lines, water pipes, and air vents between the station and the adjacent buildings.

There was only a single tunnel wide enough for Tawni to crawl through, and the skinny teenager entered it. She was quite a bit more developed than when she had first come upon the secret access to the station, but she managed to make her way through. She emerged in an open space that was beneath the old platform, where travelers used to wait for the trains that transported them to the minor cities around the island.

One day long ago, while young Tawni had been playing under the platform, she noticed a hatch above her head. It had taken her a while to find something that would be able to pry it open, but when it released, she was excited to see where it led, into the ticket booth. She initially played games where she pretended to serve passengers who were traveling around the island, but her creative mind soon had her sending people on train journeys to the bottom of the ocean or up to the moon!

…but those days of childish games were long ago.

Tawni opened the hatch, and Duke Kentonworth’s deposit of old world bills rained down on her. She smiled, and she peeked up through the ticket window to see if anyone was keeping guard over the booth, but there was no one in the dark station. She collected all the bills, which totaled one-thousand dollars, and she disappeared again.

Tawni was confident that the ticket window was a suitable place for Duke Kentonworth to make his future blood payments. There was no access into the actual booth from inside the station, so no one could remove the money once it had been deposited. The door that the cashiers used to use was completely blocked by a portion of the ceiling that had collapsed against it, and the industrial-strength acrylic glass had only a single slit in it that was barely wide enough to fit more than a few bills through at once.

Tawni had her money, and she had a job to do.