The Assassin and the Empire Read Online Free PDF

watched him sleep.
    His bare torso was still gloriously tanned from the summer—suggesting days spent training in one of the outside courtyards of the Keep, or maybe lounging on the banks of the Avery. Scars of varying lengths were scattered across his back and shoulders—some of them slender and even, some of them thicker and jagged. A life spent training and battling … His body was a map of his adventures, or a proof of what growing up with Arobynn Hamel was like.
    She ran a finger down the groove of his spine. She didn’t want to see another scar added to his flesh. She didn’t want
this
life for him. He was better than that. Deserved better.
    When they moved, maybe they couldn’t leave behind death and killing and all that came with it—not at first, but someday, far in the future, perhaps …
    She brushed the hair from his eyes. Someday, they would both lay down their swords and daggers and arrows. And by leaving Rifthold, by leaving the Guild, they’d take the first step toward that day, even if they had to keep working as assassins for a few more years at least.
    Sam’s eyes opened, and, finding her watching him, he gave her a sleepy smile.
    It hit her like a punch to the gut. Yes—for him, she could someday give up being Adarlan’s Assassin, give up the notoriety and fortune.
    He pulled her down, wrapping an arm around her bare waist and tucking her in close to him. His nose grazed her neck, and he breathed her in deeply.
    “Let’s take down Jayne and Farran,” she said softly.
    Sam purred a response onto her skin that told her he was only half awake—and that his mind was on anything but Jayne and Farran.
    She dug her nails into his back, and he grunted his annoyance, but made no move to awaken.
    “We’ll eliminate Farran first—to weaken the chain of command. It’d be too risky to take them both out at once—too many things could go wrong. But if we take out Farran first, even if it means Jayne’s guards will be on alert, they’ll still be in total chaos. And that’s when we’ll dispatch Jayne.” It was a solid plan. She liked this plan. They just needed a few days to figure out Farran’s defenses and how to get around them.
    Sam mumbled another response that sounded like
anything you want, just go back to sleep
.
    Celaena looked up at the ceiling and smiled.
    After breakfast, and after she’d gone to the bank to transfer a huge sum of money to Arobynn’s account (an event that left both Celaena and Sam rather miserable and on edge), they spent the day gathering information on Ioan Jayne. As the biggest Crime Lord in Rifthold, Jayne was well-protected, and his minions were everywhere: orphan-spies in the streets, harlots working in the Vaults, barkeeps and merchants and even some city guards.
    Everyone knew where his house was: a sprawling three-story building of white stone on one of the nicest streets in Rifthold. The place was so well-watched that it was too risky to do more than walk past. Even stopping to observe for a few minutes might spark the interest of one of the disguised henchmen loitering on the street.
    It seemed absurd that Jayne would have his house on this street. His neighbors were well-off merchants and minor nobility. Did they know who lived next door and what sort of evil went on beneath the emerald-tiled roof?
    They had a stroke of good luck as they meandered past the house, looking for all the world like a well-dressed, handsome couple on a morning walk through the capital. Just as they werepassing by, Farran, Jayne’s Second, swaggered out the door, heading for the black carriage parked out front.
    Celaena felt Sam’s arm tense under her hand. He kept looking ahead, not daring to stare at Farran for too long in case someone noticed their interest. But Celaena, pretending that she’d discovered a pull in her forest-green tunic, was able to glance over a few times.
    She’d heard about Farran. Most everyone had. If she had a rival for notoriety, it was