Owin #39 — Owin’s fears

Owin glanced over at Gwen and raised his eyebrows. “What?” He asked as they continued down the road to Solva.

“You seem lost in thought,” Gwen responded. She had taken Warren’s pack for her own and adjusted the leather bag on her shoulder.

Owin shrugged and then nodded his head. “I am a bit worried.”

“About?” She asked, the feigned disbelief heavy in her tone. “We’ve only got to stop an assassination and find a way to save my mother and do it without enough money and not manage to get killed doing it.”

Owin glanced to his left and out to the sea; a merchant vessel moved effortlessly through the waves toward the port. He knew they had a least six or seven miles left to go before they reached the edge of the city. That ship will be there well before dark. All the time wasted with Arn just makes this whole thing harder.

Turning back to Gwen he decided to voice his concerns. “That’s the problem. We’ve been set a nearly impossible task. They expect me to find the assassin, or assassins,” he added as he leaned closer to Gwen. “Then stop them and do it without the people we are trying to protect knowing about it.” He shook his head. “Eliminating people is easy. Especially if you can choose the time or place. But protecting people from the unknown is much harder.”

“You don’t think you can do it?”

Owin stopped and looked up and down the road they were walking along; there was no one in either direction. Further inland, he could see fieldstone walls marking the boarders of different farmer’s domains, but no people were visible. “This ambassador from Uvar and that Lord Nathaniel are going to have guards with them. They are not going to be unprotected.  That means we are not likely going to get close to them. Those guards are not going to trust a random stranger to hang around just waiting. Especially not if they are conducting their business in private.”

“Can we hire on as help?”

“If we had time, perhaps.”  Owin raised a finger.  “We first need to figure out how the assassins might do it.  One thought is the main assassin could come at them with a crossbow and kill them from afar, but if the meeting is in a small room, which is likely, the guards will be on him quickly. That means preventing the targets from escaping while at the same time fighting off the guards. The only way to do that is with multiple assassins: one or two to kill the targets and others to deal with the guards.”

“How would you protect against that?”

Owin bit his lip. “You’d have to block the entrances and force the attackers down a path you can control. But that all depends on the layout.” He met her eyes. “Whenever your father and I had to infiltrate a place, we knew the layout ahead of time. Either through spies already in place, servants bought off to tell us about the layout, from talking with people who had visited, or we somehow managed to get in ourselves and see first-hand. We never went in totally blind.”

He turned back to the northwest. “We have to assume the assassin knows the location. But as I said, small quarters are hard to deal with when taking out a group of men. Which means the assassin could use poison and that would be damn hard to stop because there is just too many ways poison could get into the food or drink. It is far too hard to cover that much ground with just a couple of people. Plus, again, they are not going to trust a couple of new people to stand around and watch.”

Gwen swallowed. “This is not looking good.”

Owin sighed. “Here’s the worst part. If we are to believe the purpose behind this is to break up a trade agreement and frame Duchess Emilia, somehow reliable evidence has to get left behind.” He started walking again. “The best kind of evidence is a person who will confess under torture. That means, poison is not going to be the likely option. Which is good for us, but it also means that if the point is the frame up, the assassin might not even need to kill the people.  Just leave someone behind to confess.”

“I don’t understand,” Gwen said, walking quickly to keep up with Owin’s longer legs. “Do you mean they intend to leave an assassin behind to be caught? He’d be executed once they got the details.  Who would agree to that?”

Owin nodded his head. “The real assassin might hire a couple of local patsies. People he expects will get captured and possibly killed. Given the situation, if I were to come up with a plan, I’d hire them early and spend time with them to prepare. I’d make sure the guys were not really skilled, just general thugs more likely to fail than succeed.  During my time with them, I’d let a few things slip. Nothing blatant, but enough that they would know I was hired by the Duchess. I’d make sure to have clothes or other things that tied back to the Duchess. I might even plant some evidence on them or in their homes. Then when it came time for the assassination, assuming again the main assassin is using a ranged weapon, I’d send the disposable people forward to deal with the guards and perhaps try to kill the targets.  I’d stay back to make sure I had an escape route and retreat while the others get caught by the guards.” He bit his lip. “If the guards take them alive, they will admit that Duchess Emilia was behind it. If not, what I planted on them and in their home would tie back to the Duchess.”

“That’s cruel.”

“I’ve never done something like that,” he said, thankful to see Gwen’s expression soften a bit.  “I’m just trying to work out what someone else might do. The key to what we’ve been told is framing the Duchess and that would be the best way to put forth the evidence without it looking faked. The men would swear to any god they could that the Duchess was behind it. And more important, any priest that would read their minds would say the same thing.”  He reached out and put a hand on her arm.  “It’s not a kind word we live in.”

She nodded her head.  “I know.  I just don’t like it.”

Owin hesitated a moment more and then continued. “Here’s my real fear: is that the real objective in sending us here? Did Denton truly learn that Duke Ravigar is planning the assassination or are we actually Denton’s patsies, designed to take the fall and in doing so, place blame on the Duke?  Just trying to be present to prevent the assassination will put us into a compromised position.  It could look like we are the ones trying to be the assassins.”

“But we can tell them we were trying to stop the assassination!”

Owin nodded his head. “We can say that, but will they believe it? The last person I worked for is the Duke and he had me under his thumb for a long time. They may see me as simply using that as a ploy to get close to my targets. What if Denton sends separate word to them that says he learned that we are planning to assassinate them for the Duke? I get inside, hoping to stop something, but then get caught and executed. The Duke still looks bad for trying to arrange the assassination. Denton and the others appear to be the hero. Since they would know I am coming, who I am, and what I look like, it would be far more certain they could have me caught than for me to stop the assassination they claimed to learn about.”  He sighed again.  “It may be that the original story is true, but they might stand to gain more by sacrificing me than by stopping the real assassin.”

Owin looked over and met Gwen’s eyes. He saw the deep fear in those brown orbs. “I know. What I want is to get confirmation of the original plot. If that is true, then it might just be that Denton has not lied to us. If not….” He shrugged.

“What can we do? They are holding my mother.”

“Either way, we find a way to get ahead of them.”

Continue to next episode.