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It felt good to be home, to sleep in his own bed again. Alone. Without worries about the student sleeping on the floor.
Things were more or less the same in Godwalkar. There had been a change in the staff at the guild's building, since Farman and Yafita had retired and left with their children. The new cook was male and the doorkeeper a bulky man with dark skin and a shaved head.
Saif went to the canteen feeling lighter and met Nimdja and Francisca there. Her childhood friends were happy to see him and he asked them if they planned parenthood anytime soon. Francisca was almost thirty-five, it was time she gave birth before it was too late.
"I can't have a green-eyed baby, so I'm still thinking about it," Francisca teased. But she squeezed Nimdja's hand and smiled fondly at him.
And then Guisarme walked in, tall, slender, her pointed ears hidden under her blond mane.
"Saif! Good to see you! Someone has been waiting for you for a long time!"
"Don't tell me." Nimdja chuckled. "The street boy is still out there."
"He's in now, waiting for Saif." She smiled. "How come you're back early, Saif?"
"I had... trouble with Abhaya," Saif muttered. Guisarme rolled her eyes.
"Why am I not surprised," she commented.
Saif tried to learn more about the person waiting for him, but both Nimdja and Guisarme seemed to enjoy giving him vague answers. He gave up and went to the entrance to meet the visitor, mostly because he saw Abhaya enter the canteen with Talwar. The young man scowled at him as he quickly left.
"Hello, Acharya Saif, do you remember me?"
Saif stared puzzled at the teen, then remembered those determined black eyes. Karuna the Sorrowful. The tough elder son who had tried to protect his little brother from an abusive father. And now he wanted to be an assassin.
Saif half-smiled, still studying him. Well, then. Maybe the orphan he had created two years earlier would be a better apprentice than Abhaya.
"Come," he said, guiding Karuna to the cloistered courtyard.
They sat across the stairs to the upper floor and the door to the canteen where the guild was gathering to discuss Abhaya. Saif was glad he didn't have to go through that. He was glad Karuna was giving him an excuse to be outside.
"I remember you. Your father was the bastard who liked to beat those who couldn't defend themselves, and sold his own children's bodies."
"Yes, Acharya Saif." The teen's voice was more manly, but still very sweet, quite sexy. A bedroom voice if there was any. "You saved me from him. Your silken noose freed me. I want to be like you, Acharya Saif. I want to learn weapons and stealth, and to kill bad people who deserve to die."
If he hadn't been so shy at the time, that would have been exactly what he'd have told Talwar when he was still a slum boy. Except Talwar was only a few years older than him, while he could probably be the teen's father.
"I haven't agreed to train you yet," he said, amused. "So stop calling me acharya. We are men of honor, but sometimes we kill the undeserving without anyone paying us."
"But never hurt women or children," Karuna said. "That's what you said two years ago."
"And we stick to that rule." Saif nodded. "But we don't kill for pleasure. Heck, we don't even kill for revenge. And we don't use poisons."
"Poisons are for women and cowards," Karuna said. "And I'm aware sometimes I might be requested to kill a man who wouldn't stand a chance against me, but I'm ready for the training."
"You put some meat on your bones." Saif smiled. The boy was becoming a very handsome young man, with an oval face that didn't seem to need shaving and black hair to the shoulder. "You were very skinny two years ago."
"I'm in a street gang now, and our leader doesn't starve us like my father did." Karuna shrugged. "Yes, he wants a share of the profits, but it's fair, since he gives me food and shelter in return."
"And how do you earn your living?" Saif asked.
"Cutting purses, mostly. Some of the customers my father found me still look for me. They tell me I'm cute, buy me food and I get to keep all the coins they give me, but I don't always enjoy getting naked with them. I look forward to cutting all ties with my past."
So alike. Nobody had come to kill Rohit's father, but he had run away with Aditya, cutting purses until handsome Talwar had set foot into town, showing him a better way. He'd been lucky with Lord Arfan, Karuna had gone through a lot more abuse. He deserved to rise from the slums.
"How old are you?" he asked.
"Fifteen."
"Oh. You look younger. I was thinking you should wait another year or two, but if you're already fifteen... Abhaya was almost seventeen – although he proved unworthy."
He frowned. Abhaya was a spoiled brat. Karuna was more like him.
"How old were you when you started training, Acharya Saif?" Karuna asked.
"I was eighteen. But Guisarme was seventeen, and since she's half-blood, it's as if she were thirteen. Still, she learned quickly, as well as other apprentices we had. It's the last one who revealed himself different from what we thought and hoped."
His own failure with Abhaya still burned. It didn't matter that nobody blamed him, he still felt the shame. He quickly glanced at the canteen door, wondering if they were mentioning him. He could hear muffled voices – probably Abhaya was trying to find allies – and Saif was glad to be spared the humiliation.
"How old is Guisarme now?" Karuna's curiosity was endearing, mostly because it allowed him to think about something else.
"She's twenty-three. She's been a professional for five years. We're not allowed to take on apprentices until we have at least ten years of experience."
"And what did the failed apprentice do to disappoint you so much?"
"He played with poisons. He could never master the noose, so he decided to become another kind of assassin – one we don't like here in Godwalkar. Talwar himself told him he can forget joining the Guild."
Karuna nodded, thoughtful. "So what are the basic rules of the guild?"
"A little like your gang. The Guild provides the jobs, and food and shelter in this building, for a share in the earnings. If you earn enough to buy your own house and want to quit, you give back your weapons and your assassin's name, and go back to a commoner's life. None of us is expected to live long, unless one retires from active service."
"How old is the Head of the Guild?"
Considering that he himself was close to forty, but still had no idea of how old Talwar actually was, Saif gave a vague reply. Talwar had aged fast after Khanda's death, as if the loss of his wife had drained him. And now the problem with his son...
Karuna's enthusiasm was contagious. Saif grinned as he accepted the new apprentice. Another street boy. Saif's heart softened at the thought. He was certain Karuna would never be as problematic as Abhaya.
Talwar's son spat his hatred for Saif on his way out of the Guild's building. The whole ordeal with Abhaya left a sour taste in Saif's mouth, but Karuna was so different, so humble, so eager to learn that a month later Saif had forgotten his nightmarish first student.
Karuna spent one day in the armory, studying the shapes and weights of daggers, brass wheels, sabers, axes and pole-arms. He observed the bows, the arrows and the silken noose with silent awe. He put all his will in the exercises to build up muscles, then the physical training turned to blunt blades and wrestling in the courtyard.
Karuna quickly learned to juggle with the brass wheels, slowly mastered the various daggers, swords and other blades and soon was ready to go out in the wild for further training. This time Saif looked forward to being alone with his student. The year had flown by and it was time to test his apprentice's survival skills outside of town.
Francisca was pregnant when they left and he had noticed that Katana now shared her room with her former apprentice, whom she had named Naginata. So maybe – and it was a very strong maybe – eventually he could find someone to share his room with, someone like Karuna the Sorrowful.
They went north and entered the forest, building a cabin in the woods. The training continued as they hunted for food and washed in streams. Karuna put on more muscle, but still didn't need to shave, which seemed to bother him a lot.
"Maybe you have Magical Races' blood," Saif said one day as they sat by the stream. The look on Karuna's face as he stared at his reflection was so comical he couldn't keep quiet. "They don't have hair on their bodies."
"But you do have a beard, and Genn-green eyes!" Karuna protested.
"Mixed blood is not always the same." Saif grinned. "I have dark hair and no pointed ears, but I feel more... Human with the beard. I don't know which of my ancestors was Genn, and I don't care. I'm not a half-blood like Guisarme."
Explaining the real reason why he – and Talwar – had stopped shaving seemed too personal to share with his apprentice. Who still looked at him with an awe bordering on adoration. It both embarrassed and galvanized him. It was a great lesson of self-control for him being alone with the young man.
Karuna sighed. He looked so dejected, poor boy!
"Not all women like bearded men," Saif said.
"What?" The black eyes widened in surprise and stared at him.
"Do you want to grow a beard to be more manly so when we go back to town you can seduce a woman and make her pregnant?" he asked. Fashion had changed in Godwalkar. For some reason the middle-class liked to sport a beard. But Karuna came from the slums, were it still meant being the scum of the earth.
"Oh, no!" Karuna blushed. "I only want to be like you." He averted his eyes.
Just like me. I wanted to be like Talwar – without Khanda.
"Being an assassin is a lone profession," he said with a chuckle. "You don't want to fall in love."
That would destroy you as much as it destroyed me.
"I thought Francisca was having Nimdja's baby," Karuna retorted. "Although they aren't married."
"And their child will probably grow up with her sister." Saif sighed. "It's complicated, Karuna. Are you missing the company of people?"
Karuna backed away from the pond and curled up closer to him.
"No. I'm fine here with you. How do you control your sexual urges?"
"Age helps." Saif smiled. "But I'll show you. You can't let your sex rule you. As an assassin, you need to learn control. You're much more controlled than Abhaya and are relentless, but you still need to teach your dick who's the master."
Karuna's face flushed again. "Teach me, Acharya Saif."
"There won't be just weapons from now on," Saif promised.
Although he'd have to watch out for his own reactions. Karuna had a great body and Saif decided he better keep his clothes on when he touched his apprentice – besides controlling his own arousal.