The Librarian and the Assassin, a Sapphic Romance at the End of the World - 47. Chapter 47 - Bix - 1

The trio chatted as they wandered the streets together, but after a few blocks, Bix noticed where Tawni was leading them. Neither said anything about the location they were approaching, and when they reached a specific intersection, Tawni paused to look up the street.

“Bix,” she said under her breath, and she nodded in the direction she had glanced.

“I see it,” Bix confirmed in a quiet groan.

Xylda was very curious. “What… what do you two see?”

“Duke Kenton… I mean, Toady apparently has another target he wants eliminated.”

“How do you know?” Xylda asked.

“The system he uses to give me a job is indicating that he has indeed listed another target, and this one is going to cost him four-thousand dollars.”

“What?” Xylda squawked.

“Yep,” Bix confirmed, “Tawni got him to agree to double his payments with each new job.” She pointed out a bench in the shade. “Why don’t we sit there and wait for Tawni to collect the name? What do you think, kitty cat?”

Xylda spun to face Bix. “Oh stop it! I like that as much as Tawni calling me kitten!”

“Come ’ere, kitty cat,” Bix ordered playfully. She grabbed Xylda’s hand, causing her to laugh, and Tawni could not help but giggle as she headed away from the pair.

Xylda and Bix sat together.

“Bixie,” Xylda began, but she spoke quieter as she asked, “what did you and Tawni see?”

Bix nodded in the direction Tawni was walking. “Look way off into the distance, but just over Tawni’s head, about ten or so blocks farther. See that tiny red pendant?”

Xylda leaned forward and squinted. “Maybe… I see something red.” She looked at Bix.

“Kentonworth writes the name of the person he wants taken out and puts it into a ventilation shaft Tawni discovered.”

Up the street from them, Tawni turned down an alleyway and disappeared from view.

“Where’s she going?” Xylda asked.

“The shaft takes the paper to a secret place that only Tawni knows about, which allows her to stay far away from anywhere Kentonworth has been. Once he’s made his request, and Tawni and I discuss his target, then she sends him either an acceptance or a rejection letter. Although, we haven’t rejected any of his jobs yet. Once Kentonworth makes his payment – again, doubled each time – then Tawni does the deed.”

Xylda frowned in thought. “There have to be reasons why he’s choosing his targets.” She pulled out her notebook and checked the scant information she had gleaned from the wealthy people she questioned. “Maybe Toady is trying to take out the remnants of old families who opposed the Kentonworths back before the plague or something. Maybe this is all related to some really old grudge.”

“But why Gria?” Bix questioned. “The Whites used to run organized crime, but Gria’s not even a real White. She married into the family.”

Xylda perked up. “What family is she from?”

“Family Tenabor.”

“I talked to one of the Tenabors,” Xylda replied. “They knew next to nothing about Tawni. But they must have been important at one time. Who are they?”

“They were another organized crime family.”

Xylda’s eyes widened. “So the wedding between Gria and whoever she married in the Whites might have been a merger between the families. Maybe the Whites and the Tenabors had some sort of powerful alliance. Maybe Gria was the last living connection between the families, and now it’s been severed.”

“This all feels like a lot of speculation,” Bix replied, “but if that’s the case, if Gria was some sort of connection between the families, do you think her death might make them start fighting among themselves?”

“Who knows?” Xylda took one of Bix’s hands and gently squeezed her fingers. “But now that we’ve got a moment to ourselves, I’ve been wanting to ask, are you going to tell Tawni?”

Bix frowned at Xylda and pulled her hand free. “Tell her what?” she replied, but she knew exactly what Xylda was talking about, and she looked away from her. “I’m not Baby Twenty.”

Xylda placed her hand on the back of Bix’s and whispered, “No, you’re not. You’re Bix.”

Bix glanced back at her. “I’ve been trying to keep that other part of me a secret. I told Tawni some of my story, but I intentionally implied that Baby Twenty and I were different people. I reverted to my real name as soon as I escaped Falland, and I haven’t told anyone, not even Tawni, that I was called Baby Twenty while I was there. Maybe instead of going by Bix again, I should have come up with an entirely new name when I got away, but I didn’t think of that. I thought simply not going by a Fallandish princess name would be good enough. As soon as I stopped running and tried to start a life here for myself though, the nobles caught up with me. They must have been much closer behind than I realized.”

“Thank the stars and moon that you found Tawni,” Xylda replied quietly.

Bix nodded. “I don’t know where I’d be now if they’d caught me.”

Xylda cringed. “The queen was in a fury. When she got the news that you had killed all the nobles, even though it was actually Tawni, she just about lost her mind. She ordered this entire city burned to the ground. I’m pretty sure she hates you more than anyone.”

Xylda’s statement actually brought a smile to Bix’s lips. “Good, I hope the queen feels all sorts of horrible feelings anytime I come into her mind.” Bix then had a thought. “How did she even find everything out?”

“Apparently Tawni didn’t get Corporal Ungo. He’s the only one who survived, and he returned to Falland with news of the slaughter.”

“That greasy slug!” Bix squawked, causing Xylda to snicker.

“Yeah, he eventually made it back and told the queen and king that you had killed the other nobles, and the queen was still raging from the fire and your escape.”

Bix suddenly looked both sheepish and guilty, and Xylda read the truth in her expression.

“You started the fire?!” Xylda hissed under her breath.

“No one got hurt, did they?” Bix asked quietly.

Xylda was grinning at Bix like she could not have been more impressed with her. “Bixie, you orchestrated your own escape? You’re something else! The queen and king brought in fire experts to try and determine how it started, but that entire wing of the palace burned to the ground, and the experts couldn’t figure out anything. The fires didn’t spread beyond the new addition, and no one was badly hurt. But how’d you do it?”

Bix glanced in both directions to make sure no one was near enough to hear. “Soon after the queen and king commissioned the building of that new wing, a bunch of their maintenance people needed to come down into where us troublemakers were confined, because the new section of the palace was being constructed over part of the basement. The workers prepped stuff in the ceiling, like new pipes for water, but there was no access to the space above from where they were working down below. I started sort of imagining burning the addition to get back at the queen and king.”

Xylda snickered. “You were fantasizing about arson?”

Bix simultaneously frowned and smiled. “I eventually overheard one of the workers say that the walls of the new wing had been raised, and that it was coming along nicely. So really early in the morning, I snuck into their workspace and removed the tops of several paint thinner cans. Then I lit a drop cloth on fire and rushed back to my room. It worked better than I expected, and within an hour, everyone was focused on the fire, and I got away.”

Xylda chuckled. “Very nicely done.”

As the conversation was progressing, Bix worried Xylda would bring up even more of her past. There were aspects about being a princess in Falland that Bix was not ready to discuss, but what Xylda said next reassured her.

“Now listen, Bix,” Xylda whispered in a serious tone, “your secret’s safe with me, but don’t you think Tawni ought to know your whole story? I don’t think she realizes a lot of what you’ve gone through. I won’t tell her anything; I’ll leave it to you.” Xylda then spotted Tawni and pointed up the street. “There she is.”

Bix whispered a quick, “Thank you, Xylda,” and Xylda squeezed Bix’s hand again.