Assassin's Curse Read Online Free PDF Page B

had sealed their doom.   Jeda would not leave any witnesses to tonight’s work, no matter how oblique they were to his role.   Jeda watched them closely under hooded eyes and, without uttering a sound, pushed off the wall and turned into a tight circle, releasing his knives as he spun around.   The knives found their mark as the two outside toughs went down, blood gushing from the gaping wounds in their throats.  
    The other two stopped and stared for a split second, giving Jeda time to reorient on them.   The slums of Constantine were a hard place that bred hard men with little compassion.   On these mean streets the unspoken law was to kill or be killed, and the two remaining toughs quickly recovered to launch their own attack.  
    Each man brandished a long, wicked-looking knife and they tried to attack Jeda simultaneously to take him off guard, but they were rushing head-on to their deaths.   Every assassin in the guild was trained in all manner of weapons and all were experts in hand-to-hand combat.   They were consummate killers and only one of their own could stand against them and live.
    Jeda stepped toward the bigger man on his right, pivoting and ducking under the arc of his knife swing.   He continued to spin on his toes, and raised himself up to deliver a vicious elbow to the man’s face, breaking and splitting his nose open.   He continued his pivot and grabbed the man’s outstretched arm, using his momentum to throw him into the second.   The two men stumbled over each other for a moment before regaining their balance.   The second man, as yet unharmed, stepped toward Jeda and slashed his knife in a vicious reverse arc aimed at taking Jeda’s head off.   It was simple work for Jeda to duck under the swing and drive the stiffened fingers of his hands into both sides of the man’s throat.   The thug stumbled back, gasping and choking for air.
    Jeda turned and faced the first man, now standing with blood streaming down his face.
    “Real tough guy, huh?” the big man said.   “Well, your fancy dancing ain’t gonna help you no more.”   The big man feinted with a swing of his knife and then bull-charged Jeda to try to knock him over.   He intended to get his massive arms around Jeda to squeeze and crush the air out of his lungs.  
    Jeda moved back as the man rushed, grabbed onto the front of his shirt, and fell back into a roll, using the man’s momentum to send him flying over his head.   The big man fell with a heavy thud, smashed his head against the rooftop, and lay still, momentarily dazed.   Jeda rose quickly and closed on the other thug, who was still gasping for air.   Picking up the thug’s discarded knife, he grabbed the man’s hair and yanked his body upward.   As the man’s wild eyes looked at Jeda, he plunged the knife into his heart, ending the last, miserable minutes of his life.  
    The last man struggled to his feet, shaking off the cobwebs.   He looked around the rooftop and saw his companions lying in pools of blood.   Jeda was looking at him and it felt like death’s mistress was breathing down his neck.   He started edging toward the door, deciding he’d had enough of this silent killer, but Jeda shook his head as if chastising a wayward child.   The big man broke for the door and Jeda pulled another one of his throwing knives.   The knife took the last thug in the middle of his back and he went down in a heap.  
    Jeda strode over to the downed man and turned him over, watching as the life faded from his eyes.   Just before the thug died, Jeda finally spoke.
    “Yes, I am quite the bastard.”
    He didn’t bother to move the bodies from where they lay.   No one would discover them until the crows started to feast and he would be long gone by then.   He retrieved and cleaned his knives before hunching down beneath a small alcove on the roof to begin his surveillance of the witch’s room. It was a good observation point to spy on the opposite building