Frozen Hate

[Northen Light36]

Echo stared down at the city of Khelek with utter loathing in her eyes. It seemed to the cat affinity that every time she set foot in this frozen wasteland, she lost another part of her soul.

It was here that Daniel had taught her the ways of the assassin. Here he'd taught her to torture and kill without mercy. Here she'd learnt to suduce men, selling her body for whatever Daniel required.

"Not Acqua though..." she whispers. "It will never be Kitten..." Her resolve strengthening again, Echo turns to look at Talon and Amaro. "I can lead us to Daniel's home here. I know the way. And I'll distract Daniel. You just need to get in, get Bas, Kit and Mat out and then get somewhere safe."

[Kender Bard]

"Right," Talon said with a short nod. He was good at these sorts of things. He had a lot of practice, sadly.

[Northen Light36]

"You certain you can handle him alone?" Amaro asked, glancing towards Echo's bad leg. Echo followed his gaze, the looked up determinedly.

"I'll be fine," she replies. "Just get the girls and Mat to safety." Amaro doesn't look too happy, there's a dark note of 'that's all that matters' behind Echo's words, but he understands personal grudges. Deep down he greatly resents Shadow for killing Mathew.

[Kender Bard]

Talon looked uncomfortable as well but at the moment his concern was for the captives. Once they were safe, they could always go back and help finish Daniel off.

Again.

He grimaced - how many times was it going to take to kill this man? "Well let's go," he sighed.

[Northen Light36]

Echo nods, leading the way through the frozen city and towards Daniel's house. Small and plain, unlike Daniel's former home in Talen'sul, there's nothing to direct anyone's attention towards it. Which makes it the perfect place to keep and torment three captives.

Looking for any sign of Daniel, Echo peers carefully through a window. Mat and Bas can be seen easily, huggled in a corner of the living room. Daniel doesn't need ropes to hold his captives. Stripped to their underclothes as they are, Mat and Bas would freeze before they got to safety.

It's a few moments before Echo sees any sign of Acqua or Daniel, but then Acqua's roughly shoved out of a bedroom, in a similar bruised and undressed state to Mat and Bas, and the door slammed behind her. Mat instantly gets up and goes to hug Acqua. "You all right?" he asks softly.

"I'll survive," Acqua replies, retreating back to their corner with Mat. As she's pulling Bas into her lap, Acqua catches sight of Echo and her expression brightens.

[Kender Bard]

Talon stays a fair distance back, letting Echo do all the creeping. He watches the woman, trying to glean what he can from her expression. Unable to contain his curiosity, he brought up a whisper of wind around him and tread silently to peep in the window as well, smiling as he saw the trio alive.

[Northen Light36]

Seeing her mother, Bas squeals. Acqua instantly clamps a hand over the little girl's mouth as she and Mat look at Daniel's bedroom door in terror. Echo swears and swiftly yanks Talon down, out of sight of the window, just as Daniel flings his bedroom door open. "Can't you keep that fucking brat quiet?" he bellows.

"She had a nightmare," Acqua snaps back. "It probably has something to do with being kidnapped by a madman!" A moment later there's a slapping sound and a brief cry of pain.

"Shut your mouth unless I tell you to open it, Acqua," Daniel growls. "And if I hear one more sound out of you three, I'll settle for the lesser satisfaction of sending you to Echo in very small pieces!" Turning on his heel, Daniel strides back into his bedroom and slams the door shut. Echo sighes in relief and leads Talon back to Amaro.

"I've got some of Mat, Bas and Kit's things with me," she tells the two men. "I'll handle the lock on the door and keep Daniel busy. You get them out of here, just as we planned."

[Kender Bard]

Talon nods and glances at Amaro. "Up to you how we get in - I'll silence our movements and try to get to the kids as fast as I can. Bas is kind of loud - I'll need to keep her quiet."

[Northen Light36]

Amaro nods, thinking as he takes a saddlebag stuffed with some of the clothes Acqua and Mat had left at the guild over the years from Echo. "Echo, take care of the lock. Talon, you make sure no one hears anything and get Bas outside as quickly as possible."

At first everything goes to plan. Echo picks the lock swiftly and hurries in to hug Acqua, Mat and Bas as tightly as she dares. "I let you down," she whispers. I'm so sorry..."

"You never let us down, Echo," Acqua replies softly as she pulls her shirt on. "Now what?"

"You, Mat and Bas are coming with us," Amaro tells his little sister. Mat looks at Echo.

"You're fighting him?"

"I have to."

"Yes, Echo, you do." The group whirls around to see Daniel standing in the doorway.

[Kender Bard]

"HeyDanielthinkfast!" Talon says, throwing two daggers as fast as he can at Daniel, not even bothering to see where they land as he runs to Bas to scoop her up and try and herd the other two out.

[Northen Light36]

Mat resists Talon's attempts to get him to leave, watching in shock as Daniel doesn't even bother to move, simply spreading his arms and letting both daggers bury theirselves to the hilt in his chest. As Echo, Amaro and Mat stare at him Daniel calmly glances down at his chest, then yanks the daggers out. "Nice shot," he hisses, a slightly beathy, gargling sound to his voice.

"Impossible..." Amaro and Mat say in unison.

"What in the name of the Forces?" adds Acqua, her brother and lover's reactions making her resist Talon's attempts to get her outside and turns to stare at Daniel.

[Kender Bard]

Talon is in shock too but he's got his mind set on a single track. "Let's GO!" he shouts at the two stubborn kids and touches his sign, trying to shove them bodily out of the door with his wind. "Or he'll return the favor!"

[Northen Light36]

"Get out!" Echo adds with a shout. "All of you." Seeing Talon has his hands full with Bas and that Acqua's stubborn trying to get to Echo, Amaro hurries over and picks her up.

"Mat, come on!" he orders.

"I'm staying with Echo. Go!" Mat snaps. Darting forward, he snatches up one of the daggers Daniel had cast aside, reciving a kick in the head for his trouble. As Amaro follows Talon out the door, carrying Acqua, Daniel watches, then shrugs and turns his attention to Mat and Echo.

"They won't get far. After you two fools are dead, I'll go after them," he taunts. "Do you really think you can defeat an immortal?"

"We can try," Echo remarks grimmly. Taking a couple of steps back, she sets an arrow to her bow and, pushing her fear to one side as an unneeded distraction, aims carefully. As soon as she's sure of her shot, she fires. Daniel bellows in pain as Echo's accuracy proves true and the arrow strikes home in his eye.

"You're going to pay for that you little bitch," he snarls, but before he can take more then two steps towards Echo, Mat throws himself at his former lord, tackling him to the ground and stabbing him over and over again. Dropping her bow in favour of her long bladed dagger, Echo hurries over.

"Mat, off!" she shouts. As her friend rolls away, Echo throws herself to her knees, ignoring a sudden sharp pain in her stumach. "Survive this, bastard," Echo hisses, slashing deeply into Daniel's throat, nearly to the spine.

Blinded and in extreme pain, Daniel shoves Echo off him and flees through his kitchen and out the door that connects with his stable. Within a minute he's mounted and galloping away as fast as he can manage.

With the danger gone for now, Echo glances down to look for the source of the pain. It's not hard to miss. Glittery with the blood bubbling out of it is a deap gash cutting upwards from her groin almost to the bottom of her ribs. Mat follows her gaze, then picks up a blood stained dagger that was lying by Echo's feet. Licking his finger, Mat swiped it along a small section of the blade that wasn't wet with blood, then touched his finger to his tounge and grimaced at the tingling numbness that assulted the spot he'd touched. "Poisoned," he whispers.

"Does't matter," Echo replies through gritted teeth, instinively pressing her hands to the wound.

"Don't talk like that," Mat snaps, scooping Echo up and hurrying outside with her in his arms. "ACQUA!"

Seeing her friend, Acqua gives a cry of fear and shock before pulling away from Amaro and running to Mat as he lies Echo down in the snow. Together, the two waters begin pouring healing water into the hole in their friend and leader's body. Watching, Amaro just shakes his head and turns away with a regretful look.

[Kender Bard]

Talon holds Bas tight, trying to keep the girl's head against his chest so she wouldn't see what was happening to her mother. "We're gonna get you out of here and safe," he whispers in the child's ear, bouncing her lightly in his arms as he walked a little bit away from the house and drew his cloak around her to try and keep her warm. "And you'll get to see Pas again. We'll celebrate with sweets."

[Northen Light36]

She was dying. Even as Acqua and Mat poured every drop of healing water they had into the hole in her guts, Echo was accepting the reality of the situation. She could almost feel the toxins of her intestines and the poison of Daniel's dagger mixing with her blood. The only pain she felt currently was the stab wound its self, but she knew that would be nothing compared to what she would feel when the infections took hold.

The idea of death didn't really bother Echo. She'd known she would die for either Mat or Acqua since the day she'd first fallen in love with them. They'd been more then a brother and sister to her, however she had seen from the start that their hearts would one day belong to each other. And so, she had kept her heart under strict control, allowing herself to be only sister and protector. Nothing less, but certainly nothing more.

She had known what she was doing when she slept with Vortai that night. Not taking her herbs to prevent pregnancy had been far from the accident Echo had pretended it was. The boy was Acqua's adopted brother, and he even had a hint of both Acqua and Mat in his features. She could never have her loves, but she'd hoped for a child who had something of them in it. Bas and Pas had Echo's looks, but they had the spirit of her loves inside them, Echo saw that every day. Her children, though born out of selfishness, had selflessly and unknowingly made their mother's heartbreak less bitter every day. Echo was the third wheel in Acqua and Mat's relationship, but it was no longer an open wound in her soul. Although watching her loves dancing around their feelings for a decade had made Echo long to shove them both off the roof of the tallest building in Ilyamen.

“Stop,” she said, putting a hand on Acqua's as her softly spoken words carried like a shout in the icy air. “You know it's hopeless. Stop exhausting yourselves, both of you.” Echo turned her head to look into Mat's eyes. He bowed his head in despair, refusing to meet her gaze.

“No!” Acqua half shouted, half sobbed. “I can't lose you Echo! I need you!” Amaro moved to comfort his sister, however Mat was closer and beat him to it.

“Echo's right,” Mat whispered, hating his own words. However, there was no saving a person in Echo's situation. The poisons in her gut would already have spread beyond countering, propelled by her own racing heart. Mat had seen this before, for gut wounds had always been Daniel's favourite method of execution. Even when Mat had been too caught up in Daniel's charm to resist him, he had been privately horrified by the few such executions he had seen. Tead claimed victims of such wounds slowly, only after days of agonising pain as one's body rotted from the inside out.

“Mat...” Echo wished there was anyone, anyone at all, here so she could spare her childhood friend the burden she was about to place on his shoulders. However, it would utterly destroy Acqua, Echo was certain, and she had fought too hard to protect the youngest of their group for her to risk destroying the child's life. “Mat...” she repeated. “I can't die... Not like this... Not at Daniel's hand.” Acqua's hands flew to her mouth and Mat turned as pale as the snow around them as they realised what Echo was asking.

“Echo, I can't... Don't ask this of me...” Mat whispered, even as his hand slowly came to rest on the dagger they'd watched Daniel pull out of his body only minutes before. Echo marvelled at that. Had it really been so short a time? It felt like another lifetime.

“You can and I must,” Echo whispered. “I'm already gone, Mat... You know that. But for the sake of the guild, Daniel must not be the one to take my life. Finish it Mat, please, and look after our people.” Acqua's soft sobs made Echo reach out to wipe away one of the girl's seemingly endless flow of tears, succeeding only in staining the tears that followed with her blood. “Don't cry for me, Kitten sweet,” she whispered. “Please... I need you to be strong now, Kitten... Who else could I trust to look after the twins and Mat?” Acqua's tears didn't stop, but she managed the weakest traces of a smile and a nod for her friend before she leaned forward to kiss Echo's forehead then hurried away to join Talon and Bas, unable to watch what was about to take place.

For a moment, Echo could do nothing but wonder, for the first time in her life, if Acqua might have known what was in Echo's heart after all. Then another wave of pain drove the thought to the back of her mind. “Mat...” she whispered. Mat closed his eyes tightly for a second, then rested the dagger against Echo's throat.

“The bastard will pay for this,” he promised, half choking on his own sobs. Echo gave him a tired smile.

“Just remember to treat Kitten well,” she whispered back. “She needs you as much as you need her, Mat.” Closing her eyes, Echo proudly tilted her head to the sky. She barely felt the bite of the dagger slicing her throat before it was all over.