Strong Mystery: Murder, Mystery and Magic Books 1-3 (Steampunk Magica) Read Free Page A

from her earlier reckoning that the window did
not belong to her employer. That should have been the end of her obligation in
the matter. She should raise the house to deal with them by shouting the alarm.
Instead she followed her intuition, drew her short swords and padded forward. A
muffled cry and the flare of light from the window in question caused her to
speed up, diving through the window like a dart towards its target.
    Jinhao came up in a roll inside the room, blinking at the
sudden illumination. A ball of light floated in the middle of the room throwing
strange shadows against the walls. She slashed out by instinct as she came to
her feet. One of the shadowy figures from outside crumpled, eerily silent as it
fell.
    One of the others, covered head to foot in close black coverings,
turned towards her, drawing dual swords as they crept towards her. Jinhao
spared a quick glance to see the Westerner she had helped out before struggling
with the third assassin. Then she had no more time. Their fellow closed in on
her.
    They exchanged a testing pass with their blades. Jinhao was
surprised. Whoever they were they had Adept training. No one else could
match her speed and precision without it. Her surprise came from not being able
to sense his Qi. From his movements, she was almost certain it was a man. She
should have been able to do sense his Qi or energy. They circled each other,
still in the same eerie silence as before. Not even the meeting of their blades
produced any sound. It must be some form of Quizi sorcery she decided.
    She could tell her opponent was also surprised at her
abilities. She wondered who they were, and if she knew them. It was impossible
for her to tell with the head covering, but whoever it was should recognize
her. There were not that many Adepts in the hall. If they did recognize
her, they gave no indication of it. Instead Jinhao almost lost her head to a
quick combination move from the monkey form. One blade sliced the air where her
neck had been the moment before.
    Her opponent’s miss served like a shock of cold water might,
clearing her mind of idle chatter. Gathering her Qi, Jinhao moved, blades a
blur in the closing moves of the crane form. Her strike landed solidly. Her
opponent’s head rolled free, severed cleanly by the sharp Adept -forged
blades. She turned from the kill towards the remaining assassin, snapping her
swords down to clear them of blood. She paused as she saw the Westerner thrust
out with his cane towards the assassin’s chest. A gout of flame sprouted from
the assassin’s back where the cane touched.
    As the assassin fell, Jinhao could hear the twin blades fall to
the wooden floor. Whatever the strange sorcery that had kept the deadly fight
silent, it seemed to have died with him. The Westerner looked up at her with
the glowing cane tip pointed towards her. He stood, she recognized, in some
kind of prepared guard pose, similar to a stance she would take before engaging
a foe.
    Jinhao, to her chagrin, giggled. She supposed that given the
circumstances she should be impressed by the figure he cut. After all, with the
sorcerous light overhead, together with the smell of human death that began to
fill the room, it made for impressive surroundings. However, the Westerner was
wearing some absurd white robe that flapped around his knees and made him look
quite ridiculous. He cocked an eyebrow at her.
    “Well,” he said, lowering his cane, “either you are brave
enough to laugh when death looks you in the face or you are no part of whoever
they were.” He gestured at the dead bodies. “In any event, I like a brave person.
So, are you friend or foe?”
    Owen Strong , she remembered his name, and such a strange
name it was too. She forbore from giggling again. Really, her tendency to
giggle at inappropriate moments was her bane. It was simply that others didn’t
see the humor that she did in life. Instead she sheathed her swords across her
back, looking at him squarely.
    “I