Chapter 48: Red Chickens.

Chapter 48 - Red Chickens.'The damned Prophet was right!' Lee snickered to himself while putting diaries back, and locking the desk.

Evil people will always be evil even though they appear to be nice to someone. The cute girls turned out to be actual bitches, and it didn't matter what the cause was.

One became a murderer and the other, because of a jealousy, wanted to turn into such, except for now she hadn't had a chance yet. But Lee had a feeling he could lend her a hand.

The next morning he left the Newman mansion, but this time didn't go directly to the marketplace. He took a roundabout route and, after passing few inconspicuous alleys, and making sure no one followed, stepped in a tailor shop.

Here, in 'Thousand Needles', worked a person – one of the three contacts Freeda gave Lee upon his departure.

His name was Logan. Actually, he was one of Cai's man, directly responsible for exchanging news with the Third Hand. He was young, only around thirty, but already balding. He was an actual tailor, though, while remaining extremely devoted to the cause.

In the past month Lee visited him a couple of times to send few updates back home, because after he arrived, he realized that his proud grandmother was basically clueless about the transpiring events in the capital.

The war the rebels had with the empire wasn't his, but the situation was beyond embarrassing, thus he simply decided to lend grandma a hand.

"What brings you here?" Logan asked, after pulling Lee inside, and pretending to take his measurements, "Any news?"

"No, I need information." Lee said, "How do I hire assassin around here?"

"Cough ... " Logan almost fell over, and then angrily whispered, "Are you crazy?!"



It was already confusing enough a young boy dared to come and go as if he owned the place, but now he decided to come up with the stupidest idea. Logan's job was to keep a low profile after all.

"Relax, I'm not hiring anyone." Lee said, "What I meant is – if someone wanted to hire an elite assassin, someone with extraordinary skills, maybe even an elemental warrior, where would they go? I'm certain that a city of Sunwell's scale has an organization that provides special services. Or maybe there is only one person, or maybe two?"

Logan slowly glanced around, even though they were the only two people in the shop, and asked in low voice, "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm investigating a situation." Lee lied through his teeth, without a change in his expression, "And it's highly likely a person of interest will look for people like that. WE need to know."

Obviously Logan will report to Cai about Lee's inquiries, but he couldn't care less. If at some point he needed to give an explanation, he would figure something out. As long as the Prophet wasn't involved, Lee wasn't worried.

"In that case ..." Logan took a pause, scratched his bald spot and then whispered, "... there is a ... family. Scary people ... extremely scary, and incredibly expensive. They call themselves Red Chickens. I don't know how to contact them or where to find them, but I can ask around."

'Chickens?' It was time for Lee to almost fall over, 'Not eagles, falcons or crows, and not even nightingales ... but chickens?'

But out loud he said, "You do that. I'll be back in three days to pick up my new ... shirt?"

"Trousers!" Logan held back a swearword.

"Alright! See you soon!" Lee left with a laugh. The tailor was a good guy, too bad he was working for the rebels.

Even though Lee had a few days time, he was not going to waste them. Back in the mansion he used Helen's absence while she was gawking over the lake under the protection of the two bodyguards, and went back into her room.

He picked the lock in her desk again, took out the last diary and, copying her shaky handwriting, added a few lines in the two last pages.



Lee wasn't sure whether she often read her previous scribbles, but he banked on her being bored since there was nothing interesting one could do around here. He wrote 'I need to find someone to do it for me!' in four places between her own original 'I hate her so much!' and 'I want her dead!'.

Then he added 'How to contact the Red Chickens?' in the very end, making sure it was almost impossible to not notice the phrase when she was about to write something again.

Obviously Helen was bound to be confused by these lines, but it was her own handwriting and she surely had to believe she was the one who wrote. After all it was her diary.

The next day Lee returned, and to his great satisfaction saw she made a new entry that, apart from some whining about Mark, mostly consisted of 'dead, dead, dead, I want her dead!'. He immediately added 'need to find the Red Chicken! They will kill her!', then thought for a bit, and wrote 'someone has to know!'.

Lee took a slight gamble. He knew Helen had basically no one to turn to. It was almost impossible the two towering bodyguards, hired by her father, would be willing to arrange assassination in secret, and it was even more unlikely she would ask them to.

She didn't have any friends, nor she spoke with any of the servants. The person she had the most contact with was actually him since he served her during the meals.

He continued to add the short lines every day, feeling that the risk of her noticing that it wasn't her doing was negligible. The young woman was an alcoholic beyond saving, and it was even a question whether she controlled any of her actions.

Two days later, when Lee, wearing his brand new trousers, brought Helen a roasted chicken, she suddenly asked, "What do you think about red chicken?"

Lee pretended to almost drop the plate, but quickly recovered, and said, "This is a roasted chicken, mistress! It's more brown, you know!"

Fortunately the simple act was obvious enough for Helen to think she noticed something with her murky eyes, and after dinner she ordered Lee to bring her a bottle of wine. When he knocked on her door, she didn't take the bottle like she usually did, but ordered him to come inside and open it.

Lee kept glancing at the door behind which the two bodyguards were stationed as if afraid he wouldn't be allowed to leave until finally Helen asked the question, "How do I contact the Red Chicken?"

Lee, faking desperation, tried to change the subject, but she threatened him until he broke. Unwillingly, through clenched teeth, he said, "There is an inn, in the west part of the city. You have to book a room there. Then put a chicken feather on the door, and a man will come, a scary man. And he will make your wish came true, for a steep price."

"What's the name of the inn?" Helen asked.



"The inn ... has no name." Lee said, going for a dramatic effect.

She thought for a bit, and then asked, "You know where it is?"

"I ... I ..." Lee tried his best to look scared out of his mind, "Y ... yes, b ... but ..."

"Alright! Go away!" She commanded, and Lee left as if he just received the emperor's pardon.

He was curious what was about to follow, because he actually told the truth. According to Logan, that was the way one contacted the Red Chickens.

For the next days things went back to normal. Except Helen was contemplating what was she supposed to do, in writing, in her diary. Lee almost didn't have anything to add, except for a few drops of oil in the fire.

It didn't take too long until she entrusted him with a sealed letter, a pouch and a few coins, and ordered to go to the nameless inn. Then Lee left, pretending to be terrified to death.

On the way he stopped at another inn where he warmed up the seal, opened the letter and slightly modified it. Instead of 'Kill Cecil Ironfist!' the letter now said 'Kill Cecil Ironfist! If she suffers a lethal accident, I'll pay triple the price!'.

Then, to re-seal it, warmed up the seal again, and few moments later the letter looked as good as new. Afterwards he wrote another letter, a longer one, folded it, and put in his pocket.

Lee was positive that the satchel contained all the gemstones Helen possessed, maybe even all the gemstones the Newman family had. Even though she was technically the maritime minister's heir, both she and her father were alcoholics who were bound to get expelled from the Imperial Council sooner or later.

Besides that, it didn't look like the household was very prosperous – that was the main reason why initially Sanders received Lee with open arms. No matter what, she was hiring assassins by promising extra money she didn't have.

It looked like the following days were about to get entertaining.