Colour of the day: Red (Mazarin series)

The interrogation was going terribly.

David crossed his arms, trying not to look bored or irritated. The interrogator had asked the same question three times now, trying to trick Mazarin into changing her story. 

"And how did you get caught by us?" The interrogator repeated, eyes fixed on his notes.

Mazarin breathed in deeply, chains jangling as she moved. "You know, I've been here for weeks now and managed not to kill anyone. Couldn't we get rid of these?" She held up a reddened wrist and the cuff that went with it. 

"You murdered my sister at the Battle of Archan." The interrogator replied, his voice full of contempt. 

The room got impossibly tenser, and David wondered if he could just leave. 

"I'm sorry about that," Mazarin said heavily. "I didn't-"

"Do you expect us to believe that you stumbled upon our base and then got captured? You killed at least fifty soldiers on your own at Archan. So, I ask again, traitor, why did you let yourself get captured?" The interrogator asked, his pen cutting across the page.

There was a pause and David leaned forward to hear this. He hadn't even thought of that, how did they capture Mazarin?

"Like I said three times now," Mazarin spoke evenly, clearly trying to be polite. "I found-"

The lights suddenly went off. In a second, David had drawn the knife from his sleeve and then the backup lights came on, painting the metal room red.

The interrogator looked annoyed in general and faintly alarmed by David's knife. "Your highness, I think our power's just off. No cause for-"

An alarm went off and Mazarin whistled lowly. "You were saying?" She asked the interrogator and David frowned, trying to remember which alarm this was. 

"Open these chains," Mazarin demanded, and the interrogator laughed incredulously.

"You must be joking." The man said. 

David ignored both of them, opening the door. Both guards were gone from their post. 

It took him seconds to remember his training. "The guards are gone, that alarm means there's been a breach, and the power's down." David demonstrated by pushing the door aside. "No locks." His heart started thudding dully in his ears, and he forced his face to remain expressionless. If Salos had invaded or sent an assassin, they'd kill him. Probably painfully.

"You. Tell us what's happening." The interrogator ordered, slamming a hand in front of Mazarin.

"I have no idea." Mazarin sneered at him, then looked at David. "The guards have been gone for a while, something is very wrong. Open these chains, I can help protect you." She looked at David, her gaze a lot like the General's.

Both of them ignored the interrogator's scoff. 

Should he? What would the General say?

From the distance, David heard a muffled explosion, and he opened the useless door further. 

CRASH! David whirled around, pulling out his sword and bringing it in front of Mazarin's throat.

The former assassin stared back at him. "You need to trust me. I know who I am now."

David looked back over to the table. Melted chains and an unconscious interrogator. He'd forgotten that Mazarin had some magic. David made up his mind, passing her a knife.

She could kill him now, or the intruder could kill him later. He really needed to stop being so relaxed about his own death.

The sounds of commotion were building up all around them. "What should we do?"

"Depends, you want to hide? Or you want to fight?" Mazarin asked, looking effortlessly calm and tying back her long, brown hair.

"Fight." David strained his ears. It was quiet in their area. "The explosion came from the Main Hall. But for the blackout, you would have to mess with the Electrics department." It was unsettling how easily he turned to the assassin for guidance.

Mazarin's eyes narrowed. "The way Salos trained us, the intruder isn't in either of those places. It would have been a bomb, or distraction or there could be two. But they'll have moved on by now. Where would you be right now?"

"Normally? Either the Sec room or the gym." David started moving towards it. Their top command used the Sec room, a cross between a lounge and library of military information.

Mazarin followed silently, closing the door behind them. Every time her remaining chains rattled, David's heart skipped a beat.

The alarm was still faintly wailing somewhere, so not all the electricals had been blown out. And to make matters worse, everything was still red, because the lights hadn't come back on.

Where was the General right now?

"Your father might be in the Sec room." David blurted out suddenly, feeling like he had to say it before his head exploded. In the corner of his eye, he saw Mazarin nod. 

The door to the Sec room was wide open.

Mazarin put her hand on David's shoulder, her eyes unusually wide. "Trust me." She covered David's mouth before he could say anything.

In a second, David saw why. A woman stepped out of the room, wiping her bloody hands on a white handkerchief.

"Oh, my, little Red!" The woman cried out happily, and in a second, David felt the coldness of his own sword pressed against his throat. His hands shot up but Mazarin dug in the blade warningly.

"Hello, Klutz," Mazarin replied, her voice loud next to David's ear. David recognized the same feverish glint in Klutz's eyes that he'd seen when he first met Mazarin.

"You know, Little Red, you might wanna loosen up on the knife, we kinda need him alive." Klutz stepped forward and Mazarin forced David to step back with her.

"So you guys have a way out? I'm coming with you."

The same creepy smile all the Salosi assassins wore slid onto Klutz's face. "Now, now. Don't make this hard, Red. You got captured, you know the rules. You seem a little less dead than you're supposed to be."

"The king will want me back alive, you have no idea the things I've found out." Mazarin's voice was beginning to distort.

David couldn't control his spiralling breathing, or the thudding of his heart, slamming into his brain over and over.

"If you don't take me with you, I can paint the hall a new, kingly colour."

"Alright, alright. You win. Just-"

It was like before. Why did this keep happening to him?

David was only half-listening, half struggling as Mazarin made him move forward. He couldn't breathe.

"Keep moving." Mazarin's voice snapped in his ear, but he felt the pressure lighten on his throat. "David." She said quietly. "What is happening?"

His voice failed him, coming out as sharp breaths that meant nothing.

Klutz was chattering the whole way there, and David watched with detached horror as she snapped the neck of the first guard they came across.

David felt like he was drowning. His throat had tightened and he was shaking. Vaguely, he knew that.

Why was he so useless? David felt separated like he was watching all of this from a different angle; like time had slowed.

"Where is everyone?" He asked.

"He speaks!" Klutz clapped gleefully, skipping a little. "Oh, Cherry is currently killing your citizens and all the soldiers and personnel are engaged. We also blew some stuff up! Clever, huh?" She winked at him and David resisted the urge to spit at her.

Mazarin's hold on him had loosened to a ridiculous level, and when David risked a glance at her, she narrowed her eyes and shoved him hard.

He slammed onto the ground, just barely catching himself on his hands. He was right in the middle of them both.

"Get up," Mazarin demanded coldly, and David clenched his fingers around the object she'd pressed into his hands.

"Now, now, Red, we raised you better than that." Klutz bent down at his side. "It'll all be over soon-"

David sliced a path up her throat and face with the knife.

Mazarin leaped forward to kick at her head, but the assassin rolled away.

David got to his feet, knife tucked into his wrist.

Klutz was giggling, straightening up immediately. "Aw, Red, you even make the same faces you used to." David felt sick watching her try to smile, the blood spreading on her face, glowing in the light.

Tireless. The same unstoppable energy that Mazarin used to have.

He lunged for her, aiming for her stomach. Klutz grabbed his arm and twisted his wrist.

David dropped the knife, landing a square punch on her cheek and feeling something give.

The assassin barely recoiled, ducking low and sweeping his legs out.

"Not one step closer." Klutz slammed a hand down on David's throat, a favourite move amongst Salosi assassins apparently. He choked, grabbing at her wrist.

"S'posed-to-keep-me-alife!" He reminded her painfully.

Mazarin scoffed at Klutz. "You think it'll take me ninety seconds to kill you?" She scooped up the knife David had dropped and threw it at the assassin. 

When Klutz moved to block it, David pushed her hand off his neck and just breathed for a second.

Klutz leapt over him and he heard the sound of his sword cutting through the air. 

When he got up again, both assassins were trading kicks and blows.

Klutz swung a hook at Mazarin. Mazarin ducked, grabbing Klutz's arm and throwing her over the shoulder onto the floor.

David watched tiredly as Klutz rolled, kicking Mazarin in the stomach.

Mazarin slammed into the wall, which felt in the wall he was leaning on.

He felt like he should do something, and he picked up the abandoned knife lying on the ground.

Mazarin was up in a second, and she turned, smoothly hook kicking Klutz into the floor.

David hit the assassin with the knife's hilt for good measure.

Mazarin slid down against the wall, panting. "Finally, you chip in."

"You've been saying you were bored. I wanted to let you have the fun," David said between gulps of air. Sweet, beautiful air.

"I forgot what it felt to be like that." Mazarin gestured to Klutz's barely recognizable face.

"Ugly?" David asked, pausing in collecting his weapons.

Mazarin rolled her eyes. "Unstoppable. My everything hurts right now, and she barely felt a thing."

"Speaking of. We should go help the others." David held out a hand.

Mazarin raised an eyebrow at him, taking his hand. "Are you okay? I know I should have-"

"We can talk about that later." David interrupted, his veins singing with adrenaline as he peered down the dimly lit hallway, trying to hear sounds of fighting.

Mazarin was right next to him, nodding. "We need to go right, I can hear them."

"Lead the way." David gestured, feeling a sickly, foreign euphoria.

"It goes away." She said suddenly, not looking at him.

David didn't answer. The sounds of fighting were getting clearer to him too.

"If that was Klutz, what the hell is Cherry like?" He asked instead, as they jogged down a hall of bodies.

"Cherry is...pyrotechnically inclined," Mazarin said dryly. "He has no eyebrows. He also killed all of us once testing out a bomb in the middle of the night."

"Almost? What a pity." David and Mazarin grinned at each other.

"You think we can take him?" David asked. "Everyone else is clearly battling it out in there."

Mazarin exhaled slowly. "You'll never know unless you try." They were about to enter the next one. 

"After you," David gestured to the door, and Mazarin held up three fingers.

One...

Two...

Three.