Manon and Belle Pt. 14

The arrows in the quivers were another story as well. They were all coated with something sticky and Manon cautioned everyone to be very careful. It was obviously the poison, but not she thought a contact poison, but without testing she couldn't be sure. Certainly if it got into a wound it was quickly fatal.

Two of the intruders, the women, had garrottes made of a thin strong wire, with short metal cross pieces for handles, and they all had similar heavy single bladed knives, made more for cutting than stabbing.

It was the bodies themselves though that were of the most interest. All five were clearly middle eastern, possibly Turkish, and one Manon thought from further east than that, as she was a uniform coffee brown colour, noticeably darker than the other four. All had numerous tattoos, all in the same style and the same dark blue ink. Some of the tattoos were old, some clearly much newer. On each body the oldest looking tattoos were on the intruders' backs, in what was obviously an Arabic script.

Neither Manon nor anyone else could read it, but Manon knew what it would say. It would say "Every soul shall taste death, and only on the Day of Judgment will you be paid your full due," as these five were a hand of the assassins guild.

What a quasi religious muslim cult based in the Levant and Turkey were doing this far west attacking here was more than a little puzzle. When the other intruder's bodies were brought to the house, they were similar. Middle eastern, assassin's tattoo on their backs and the same weapons.

Mid morning, Eric du Valle and twenty more troopers arrived. After quickly checking on Janine, he spent quite a long time examining everything and quizzing the guards and the sergeant, before coming back to sit with Manon.

Manon was sitting with Janine, she'd done what she could to help her wounds, but knew that Janine needed more expert help than she herself could provide. Torn between rage and grief, Manon had focused on doing everything she could for Janine, and was sitting holding her hand. Since Janine was at best semi conscious and then only occasionally, Manon kjnew that it was for her own benefit and not Janine's but didn't let go.

Belle had found some bread in the kitchens, made some coffee and brought it all up with some cheese and honey, so Manon was eating as Eric retrurned and sat down, though everything tasted of ash to her.

"The old man of the Mountain?" Manon asked. Eric nodded, "It seems so," he said thinking hard.

"I wasn't sure I actually believed they existed, assassins I mean," Manon said.

"Sadly my lady, in the Duchy we know they do, but I've never heard of them this far north and west. Around the mediterranean they have occasionally been a problem for us," Eric replied.

"And now it seems they are to be a big problem. Manon, they attacked the Palace this morning. The Duke is badly wounded and the duchess is dead," he said grim faced.

Manon closed her eyes in pained sympathy. Eric's face was a rigid mask of self control, but she knew exactly how he felt. "Forgive me, I should have asked, the guards?" Manon said.

"9 dead my lady," Eric said grim faced. "They came in from the west side, and killed the guards there without the alarm being raised."

"What happened? In Bordeaux," Manon asked.

"Very similar to here," he replied. "Two hands, ten of them the same as here. They infiltrated the palace and then attacked the family's private quarters. The guard were able to hold them up long enough for help to arrive, but not before those damned bows had killed the duchess. Richard wouldn't stay out of it then, he attacked the intruders himself, and was wounded."

"I'm sorry Eric, I know you are close with your brother. Will he be alright?" Eric just shrugged helplessly.

"You know, I don't think I was the target?" Manon said thinking aloud. "If I had been, there would have been five of them coming for me upstairs, not one. I think I was just a possible bonus as it were. Cecile was the target."

Eric just looked at her, waiting for her to go on. "She said something odd when we restrained her, that she was dead already so would tell me anything I wanted to know. I think she knew that whoever she worked with, or for, would see her dead."

"For failure or to keep her quiet," Eric said, considering. "Or both," Manon added as Eric nodded.

"What troubles me Eric, is the level of organisation? Four hands of assassins? Four! They must already have been in the Duchy or as good as, for someone to have ordered them to get them here so soon after we raided the Dumains," Manon said.

"That's extraordinary intelligence, with what could only be magically driven communications, even leaving aside the implication that these assassins were available on short notice, almost as though they were kept on retainer!"

"They would have found it impossible to move around and travel in the west in any normal way, they had to have been hidden while they moved, and hidden wherever they stayed, all apparently in total secrecy," Manon said.

"There's another possibility my lady, that only now occurs to me," Eric said.

"What if all twenty were originally meant to attack the palace? But then had to split their force to attack here as well? Everything you say about their intelligence and their orders would still be true, but it would explain their presence if they'd already been here in service of another plan."

"In any event we'd best send word to Sir James in Marseille," Eric said. "And I must return to Bordeaux. You remember Clemenceau, the doctor who treated you at the hotel? She's on her way here by now, to look after people here. I apologise, but the troopers who came with me? They must accompany me."

"Of course they should, and it would be kind of you to get word to Sir James, thank you." Manon said, "I will follow you to Bordeaux, as soon as I'm finished here. I'd see madame Persil and the girls buried decently before I go," Manon said grim faced.

The doctor was able to help Janine somewhat, stitching her wounds properly, but sent to Bordeaux for transport to have her taken to hopsital. "She's lost a lot of blood my lady, and I feasr the wound in her arm has damaged tendons, so she needs a magus, and quickly."

The nexy day a small carriage arrived, and Janine was loaded up with a pair of troopers for escort, and was driven away quickly to hospital.

Two days after that, Manon and Belle set off for the capital, with all the remaining guards. Manon and Belle were riding with the troopers. They had spare mounts after all.

The day before, they had buried Madame Persil with her three girls in one grave, and Claire and Kitty together in another. It was rank sentimentality Manon knew, but she couldn't bear the thought of any of them being on their own. They'd dressed Kitty in the catsuit she'd so loved.

The dead troopers had been collected the day before, taken back by wagon to Bordeaux.

At the gate to the estate grounds, Manon and Belle reined in and turned back to look. They'd built a huge funeral pyre by the canal, and lit it just before they left, the bodies of the assassins and the slave Rien, once known as Cecile Dumain, were on it.

Manon knew that Muslims never cremated their dead, they regarded it as a desecration, and that was exactly why she had them burned. She didn't herself believe in any sort of afterlife or god, but along with grief Manon had found a well of burning rage inside her. So she was more than happy to take what petty vengeance she could.

It would tide her over, a little, until she got her hands on the real culprits.