Die Twice- Shadow's Call Read online

  “For a land Baron, there isn’t much landscaping,” mused Asha, noting the dried shrubs, and dead plants in the front yard, victims of the sun and heat.

  “We don’t have much time for maintenance,” responded Bijan, “and we can’t hire someone. They would get too close to us. So this is the best alternative.”

  Asha chuckled at the notion of several assassins coming out to the yard to do gardening and yard work. That would be a sight. “Right this way,” said Bijan as he held the front door of the mansion open for Asha. Asha went through, her eyes fixated on what she would see inside.

  As Asha entered the door that Bijan held for her, her vision was instantly met with an opulence she had only seen in history books during her ancient civilization class in middle school. The front room was centered around a garden featuring a pool in the middle of it. Carved of marble, lush ferns bordered the reflecting pool. The ceiling stood tall with vaulted archways, a signature architectural design of Kazeveh. The archways were adorned with mosaics of tile cut to perfection. The colors of aqua and crimson were woven in the different patterns that made this mere mansion, humble from the outside appear to be reminiscent of the Taj Mahal on the inside.

  They entered a high ceiling foyer that glittered all around the building. Polished marble walls reflected images like mirrors. The carpets were woven the finest threads known to man. It absorbed their footsteps, as they walked.

  Liquid light through a glass ceiling composed of separate elements, each in a different color of the rainbow. Colors of purple, lavender, cyan, green, yellow, ruby all filtered down into the circular pool where the water rippled gently, with the colors playing on the surface of the splattering water.

  “This is indeed spectacular,” muttered Asha, taking in the extravagance of the Clan’s headquarters.

  “I told you, you would be amazed.” Bijan shut the door behind them, and said, “Here, follow me.”

  Descending the three marble steps from the entry way down to where the archways began, he led Asha around the indoor pool and down the hallway to the left.

  “We must get you settled,” he added, guiding Asha to a person who sat at a desk in the hallway.

  “Here we are,” stated Bijan to the younger man who appeared to be bored as he sat at a desk outside of a closed door.

  “Ah! Wonderful,” answered the young man, rising to his feet. His brown hair cut and appeared to be well maintain. His features were pleasing, as he had attractive features.

  “Have you been waiting long?” Bijan asked, appearing as though he did not want to impose on the man who was clearly younger than him.

  “No, not long. Your arrival is right when you said it would be. I also did not want to miss you, so I had gotten here early,” answered the man.

  “Wonderful. Dana, I would like you to meet Asha, Asha Ayari.”

  Asha held out her hand to shake that of Dana’s. Dana did not meet Asha’s hand with his, but instead put his hand over his heart. “Pleasure to meet your acquaintance, Asha Ayari. My name is Dana Farzan, and I am the equipment manager here at the House.”

  Confused as to speak to the nice man, Asha turned to Bijan for his approval. He gave her a nod, and she responded, “Pleasure to meet you as well.”

  “Now, let’s get you some gear!” Dana said with excitement in his voice. Clearly, he enjoyed managing the equipment and weapons of the Clan.

  Dana took a large, gold-skeleton key that he wore with a chain from around his neck and unlocked the door. The door was opulent, like the rest of the manor, gilded in gold with ornate paintings on the border. There were two locks, and Bijan removed his key from his neck and put it into the second lock. “We have a dual-locking system, so no one can raid our weaponry vault,” he explained while turning the key. Dana turned his, and he pushed open the door.

  “Come on,” shouted Dana from inside the doorway.

  Asha walked in, followed by Bijan. “There’s nothing here,” said Asha as she turned to Bijan, surprised. She thought she would see some armor or a sword or something. Instead, there was four plain white marble walls.

  Bijan replied, “We are not keeping our entire arsenal on the ground floor. That would be a high security threat. We might as well put a target on each one of our backs if we did something like that.”

  “But you have the dual locking system,” argued Asha.

  “We do. But that is security from ourselves. So no one assassin has access to our entire arsenal by themselves. Not even our High Justiciar. The rest is security from everyone else.”

  “Makes sense,” affirmed Asha, nodding.

  Dana went to the wall where there appeared to be nothing but the veins of black inlaid in the white marble. He put his palm to the wall, and instantly the entire wall glowed blue.

  As the marble glowed blue, it appeared to heat up, and before Asha realized what she was seeing, the stone melted to an entry way, lit by torches that were attached to the wall. “Follow me,” muttered Dana.

  Asha followed Dana with Bijan trailing the two. Dana walked down several steps made of dirt, the stairway leading below the ground. The air turned cool from the area that the traveled in being encapsulated by dirt. Goosebumps rose on Asha’s arms as the air turned colder and colder the further, they went. The three moving down a passageway lit by torches that were fueled by oil. Asha was both intrigued and frightened at the same time but wanted to see what was at their destination.

  She trusted Bijan, but remembered how she once trusted Aram, who led her to a life of running drugs and prostituting. How could she tell the difference between someone who had her best interests? How could she believe what someone was saying? She did not know. She did not know if she was being led to her own beheading. All she knew was this was better than before. The same line she told herself when she was in the throes of passion with Aram. Aram was better than moving from foster home to a foster home, never knowing love. At least Aram loved her, the only way he knew how, and for her that was better than where she once was. Was that her measure of success? It was better than before. Seemed like a poor measure, yet Asha did not know how to get out from under this cycle.

  Dana came to the end of the hallway where there was a door crafted from gold. It appeared to weigh a ton, and how this entire mansion was created with their ancient technology Asha could not even fathom.

  Not only did the gold door have ornate markings, the mosaics that were in a floral pattern on the door, adorned with rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. The door appeared as though it was crafted for royalty yet was hinged underground in a dilapidated mansion.

  “Here we are,” announced Dana, simply turning the knob of the door, releasing the lock.

  Asha had many questions but knew not to begin a conversation with Dana. She did not want to upset Bijan even though she was in his presence. Instead, she silently nodded and followed Dana through the doorway, Bijan right behind her.

  The door gave way, and Asha instantly became amazed once again. The shiny metallic colors of silver and gold nearly blinded Asha as they reflected the candlelight.

  The weaponry vault had every barbaric and concealable weapon imaginable. “Come right in,” said Dana, leading both Bijan and Asha into the confines of the arsenal, standing in the middle of the vault.

  On the wall, swords and sabers of all sizes mounted, lining the wall from floor to ceiling. After the swords, daggers displayed their various lengths and girths. After the daggers, vials of poison were positioned into rows on shelves, each meticulously labeled.

  The metallic colors of gold, silver, and platinum glistened in the candlelight coming from the scones fixed to the walls of the room. This room had no windows, a security measure, Asha assumed, not to mention, they were under ground.

  Axes were along a separate wall. The tabarzins bore two crescent-shaped blades. Most were short, but the collection extended to longer axes, the largest one appearing to be around seven-feet tall.

  “All right let’s get you situated,” suggest
ed Dana. “You’ll need a scimitar, a few vials of poison, a dagger.” Dana paused rattling off the weapons and turned to Bijan. “Will you require her to do anything specific?”

  Bijan answered, “An explosive of some sort would be good. Could be used as a diversion in a pinch.”

  Dana nodded and went over to a chest of drawers that sat against the wall below the vials of poison. He opened the third drawer down and returned to the middle of the room with a small black sphere with a long fuse coming out from it. “Done,” he answered. Pausing for a moment he said, “This one is good for beginners. Gives good lead time.”

  “Very good,” stated Bijan.

  Dana nodded and returned to gathering the weapons for Asha. He went over to the dagger wall and picked out a smaller dagger with a silver blade and a black handle. He then went over to the sword wall and picked out a scimitar. The one he chose had a curved blade and a modest handle. He picked up a few vials of poison of various colors. One with blue-colored liquid, another with red, and the third had a yellowish colored liquid inside the glass vial.

  He returned to Bijan and displayed the weaponry he chose. “Looks good,” answered Bijan, affirming Dana’s choices. Bijan turned to Asha and said, “We do not give out the good stuff to recruits or initiates. Once you reach the apprentice level, then we will provide you with an upgrade in your weaponry.”

  Asha nodded in response as she saw words coming across her field of vision.

  Asha Ayari

  Inventory:

  Scimitar

  Short Dagger

  Red Poison Vial

  Blue Poison Vial

  Yellow Poison Vial

  Fiery Rage Explosive

  Unequipped:

  Scimitar

  Short Dagger

  Red Poison Vial

  Blue Poison Vial

  Yellow Poison Vial

  Fiery Rage Explosive

  “Great, wonderful job, Dana. And thank you for meeting us. I will show Asha her room,” explained Bijan as he led the three of them back the way they came toward the hallway where they met Dana.

  “Let’s go this way,” suggested Bijan as the three entered the hallway and Dana locked up the vault. Bijan led Asha down the corridor further. The corridor was pebbled with windows, and the daylight came through.

  “Let me show you around,” suggested Bijan. Asha had become drained by the journey, but she nodded. Bijan led Asha outside, as the clouds came over head. The late afternoon fog rolled in, and blanketed the sky.

  Bijan led Asha to a structure at the back of the house. The defensive tower was one of the loftiest in the mansion, which was in actuality a fortress and was arrived at by a set of rickety old ladders, most of which showed in in need of replacement. Asha appeared to be tired from the long journey and the unknown night ahead of her, however, he was unrelenting, and Bijan tucked his tunic into his belt then led Asha up to the first level, then to the next and eventually to the top. From there they peered across the landscape. Miles and miles of rough terrain. Rivers like veins coming off of one main artery. Clusters of slums and shanty towns pebbled the land of Adar. They studied over Adar, the hills from the mountain side, which led to the small souk and finally to the straggling village below. At the base of the mansion laid a wooden stockade guarding the mansion of where they were.

  "How high are we?" Asha asked.

  Appearing a slight pale in the face and petrified of the elevation, she buffeted by the blast of air and the matter that the ground now appeared a to be a lengthy, lengthy way down.

  "Over one hundred and seventy-five feet," Bijan told her. "Significant enough to place the assassins out of the reach of enemy archers-but competent to shower arrows and more down upon them."

  From edge they could launch rocks or grease over their foe. With the platforms that jutted out into the air and they crossed over to one now, gripping onto the vertical supports on either position and leaning out into the open to glance down. Directly below them, the tower fell aside to the wall's edge. Below the sparkling stream.

  The blood emptied from Asha's skull, as she tiptoed back onto the security of the tower floor. Bijan grinned, doing the same.

  "And why is it that you forced us up here?" Asha asked.

  "This is where it all started."

  Looking at Asha in the face, Bijan said, “You will get used to heights in no time. Trust me on this.” Bijan led Asha down the old ladder and back inside the mansion.

  When the pair reached the end of the hallway, Bijan led them up the stairwell of marble stairs. They reached the second floor, and were met with another hallway. Around halfway down that corridor Bijan paused and said, “Here is your room.”

  Bijan turned the knob and opened the door, allowing Asha to walk in first. The room was modest with a bed, what appeared to be a feather mattress on a wooden frame. Nothing ornate, but practical. There was a chest of drawers and a wash area adjacent to the bedroom. There was a small window where Asha was able to see the surrounding shanty dwellings that spanned as far as the eye could see.

  Asha took a moment to explore her new living quarters, running her hand along the soft blanket that sat upon her bed.

  “I realize the furnishings are drab,” relented Bijan. “But you have your private bidet and wash area. We realize that you would only be traveling with the clothes on your back, so we provided a variety of clothes and garments for you to wear. Along with a cape and a cloak for when I will send you out on missions. But, just wear something comfortable while you remain in the house. No need to wear the hijab any longer, but make sure you hair won’t get in the way. Oh, and once you reach the apprentice level, we will provide a nice room with much better accommodations for you.”

  Asha kept looking around the room, opening the drawers which were filled with pants, skirts, and underwear. She turned around toward Bijan who remained in the middle of the room. With tears in her eyes she replied, “All of this is beautiful.” She had never been shown such kindness and thoughtfulness before.

  Taken aback by her gratitude, Bijan appeared to be softened by her expression. He put his hand to his heart in response. He then said, “Dinner is served in an hour. I will allow you to get settled. Change clothes if you prefer. And be down stairs in the dining hall in an hour. It’s roasted pheasant tonight, one of our assassin’s specialties. Don’t be late.”

  “I won’t,” responded Asha as Bijan turned and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

  Asha turned to the chest of drawers and selected a clean change of clothes to wear to dinner.

  Asha headed down the stairwell that her and Bijan had walked up when he showed her where her room was located. She felt much better now that she had washed her face and cleaned the inside of her ears, where the granules of sand piled up in her ear canal from the sandstorm. Even washing her mouth out made her feel much more comfortable. She wore black pants and a white tunic, clothes she selected from her chest of drawers that were nicely chosen for her.

  Not certain which way to go, she made her way down to the area where the indoor pool was located. There, men with black capes filtered into the hallway toward the right of the entry room. Figuring they were headed to dinner; Asha followed the men.

  Asha continued to follow the men until they reached the last room off of the hallway. She turned to head into the room when she heard Bijan’s voice. “I’d like everyone to meet our new recruit, her name is Asha Ayari.” Bijan’s voice billowed so the entire room could hear. Everyone stopped and cheered at the announcement. Asha stood at the doorway, surprised at the warm welcome.

  Her heart raced at the cheers and whistles generated by what appeared to be at least fifty men sitting on rows of tables. She had never had anyone applaud for her in her entire life. The entire display was moving.

  The applauding and cheering subsided and Bijan motioned for her to sit with him. “Asha, come sit with us at this table.”

  Asha did as directed, taking a seat on the bench next to Bijan. Ther
e were chalices of water and wine on the table. Bijan explained, “We have dinner together every night. Those who are on a mission do miss out, but this is our chance to regroup. We have an update meeting toward the end.”

  Asha nodded while examining the woman who sat across from her. Bijan continued, “Asha, I’d like you to meet Yasamin Mobasseri. She has been in the Clan for several years. Her father is the High Justiciar.”

  “Pleasure to meet you,” said Yasamin with a nod across the table. “I trust Bijan has taken great care of you.”

  “He has,” answered Asha.

  “Very good.”

  Bijan continued with the introductions, “I’d also like you to meet Ramin. He is a nobleman in Abastan. He hails from the royal family there. Even though the King of Kazeveh is in power, he allowed Ramin’s family, the Balkhi to remain in power over that providence.”

  “Pleasure,” replied Ramin who sat next to Yasamin. “I do travel to Abastan every day for my duties as a royal,” he explained.

  Bijan further explained, “Having an actual royal in power has greatly helped us fulfill our missions. While we hope to reinstate the High Priest in power, the influence that Ramin has had on Abastan has helped pave the way for that.”

  “Pleasure,” Asha nodded in the direction of Ramin. Ramin did wear what appeared to be royal attire. His ivory and beige long jacket was made of jacquard, a fine fabric from what Asha could assess. His skin was darker than the others whom he sat with and he wore gold rings and necklaces. Obviously, signifying that he was a royal.

  “Next, I’d like you to meet Ervin, Ervin Darvish,” stated Bijan.

  “Nice to meet you,” said Ervin. Ervin was dressed similar to Ramin, wearing a long coat. Instead it was navy and white brocade. He too wore jewelry, but the stones were not as deep hued as those of Ramin’s.