Five

Of all the things that Ajax could have been thinking about, as he sat there in the terribly small cabin of the ship with unknown bearings, he seemed to be always fixating on Mrs. Taylor. He wondered if she had died, been murdered like the rest of their household staff was. Or maybe she had left in time. He felt strong pinpricks of guilt. He had been really terrible to her yesterday, and most days. All she was trying to do was make him learn. He hoped that she had left in time.

            He looked at Rosie, who by this time had finished her wine and was again just staring at the wall.

            “Do you remember everyone you killed?” he asked. His voice came out quiet. Rather meek, really.

            “I don’t know,” she said. She sounded irritated already.

            “At my house. Did you kill a woman who looked like a governess? She…” he trailed off when he saw her expression, an aggravated and aggressive one.

            “I killed a lot of women at your house,” she said.

            His eyes flicked down to her hip. “With that knife?”

            “Yes.”

            He folded his hands under his chin. “So is the master plan complete now? Was Ardor the missing piece?”

            She looked puzzled. “What?”

            Ajax looked at her. “You know. The assassinating and all that. Is that all done now?”

            She rolled her eyes.

            “So I get absolutely no information on that front, then?” Ajax asked. He was sticking his tongue out. “You must really know how to be a team player. Did they teach you that in assassin school?”

            She threw back her head and laughed at that, all though she didn't actually sound all that amused. “That’s not how it works at all,” she said. She sat up and turned her whole body to face him directly. “Tell me, truly, what do you think is going on?”

            “Well,” Ajax said. “I do not really know, considering how you are refusing to tell me anything. But something is going on. Your people are trying to take over, at least Ardor and Chrysos. And you look like you are from Undulae. So probably there, too. And I know that there are at least three of you. Two assassins, and the one you call Master.” He looked at her expectantly. “And that is everything I know for sure.”

            She shrugged. “So, you’ve been paying attention.”

            Ajax remained expectant.

            She ran a hand through her hair. “You really want to know what’s going on? Well, I don’t even know where to begin to explain.”

            “Try,” Ajax said.

            Now she had both hands in her hair, clutching her head. “Alright. Well, it’s a coup, that’s what it is. Of the whole world, one piece after another. One ruler after another, one regime. And it’s not done yet, but it’s going to be soon. Another few years, maybe, and Master will have finished everything. And everything then will be his.”

            This Ajax couldn’t quite believe. “The whole world?”

            Rosie nodded.

            He snorted. “Impossible. Even if you had a hundred assassins. Even if you had a thousand.”

            She looked at him. “You said it yourself. Ardor’s taken. Chrysos. Undulae.”

            “That’s not the whole world.”

            “We’ve had more than a decade. Lacera, Bellua, and Tellus, too. All taken.”

            Ajax choked a little. “No. I do not believe a word of that.”

            ‘Then congratulations, you are as complacent as anybody else, and you’ve seen us firsthand.”

            “It is just impossible, all of that. People probably dream of doing something like that all the time, but they just cannot. Or they would have done it already. How many assassins are working for this Master? How did he even manage to get this a tiny bit in motion?”

            Rosie held up two fingers. “We’re elite in every degree, Hunter and I. He only needed two.”

            Ajax threw up his hands. “So three people can take over the whole world? No. This is absolutely absurd. Some kind of elaborate prank.”

            “It’s not like that,” Rosie said.

            “Then tell me, how do you take over an entire world, multiple continents and everything, with only three people?”

            She shot him one of the dirtiest, darkest looks he had ever seen. “You don’t.”

            “Then what? You are giving me absolutely nothing to work with here.”

            “Well, I’m sick of talking.” And then she just stopped.