Queen's Gambit Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The streets of the city hadn’t been clean since the day they were laid, and it showed by grime left behind day after day. Even the melted snow that made the ground wet wasn’t able to wash it clean. The cold and pollution in the air made it hard to breathe and made her pull her fur hood tighter around her neck and face.

Her boot heels clicked on the pavement, louder than she would have liked. She was used to walking silently, never letting anyone know she was there until it was already too late. She didn’t like meeting in person either; all of her contact was done electronically. If you ever saw her in the flesh, it was because she was there for yours. She was lost in her thoughts as she turned into a dark alley where a gruff voice greeted from the shadows.

“Been a long time Josephine,” breathed the man sitting on a dumpster.

“Not nearly long enough Balthazar,” she replied.

“Maybe just not as long as you wished it had,” he said with a dark chuckle.

“Why did you call me here?” she continued.

“No chit chat? Not even a how have you been? Did I teach you to be so cruel Josephine?” he whispered gruffly as the streetlight reflected in his eyes. She stayed silent in the cold air. He had taught her many things, but the things he had not taught her had cost her dearly. She decided not to give him any more satisfaction other than getting her here for a meeting.

“I guess I shouldn’t blame you after what happened all those years ago. But you should be grateful that you’re still around to witness what is about to unfold. Can you not feel it in the air? Does your blood not spark with excitement?”

She had felt something different recently. Her dreams were vivid and colorful, that way they had been before. And the wind smelled different, like something was coming. “I may have felt something in the last few weeks, what of it?” she said coldly.

“The time of The Gathering is upon us once again, child, and soon new battles will be fought and new blood will be spilled,” he said.

“Impossible. It cannot be near time for the next generation to take power,” she hissed through her teeth. It had only been 15 years since her participation, too short a time for the cycle to be repeating so soon.

“The Grand Court has come under attack and the balance has been disturbed to the point where extreme action must be taken,” Balthazar explained.

“Under attack? You’ll pardon my skepticism, but I didn’t think that was possible. And if it was, what would these ‘extreme actions’ have to do with me?”

“Well, I’m glad you asked. You see we’ve come into a very peculiar situation or should I say three situations and we thought you would be perfect for the job,” he replied mysteriously.

“If this was about a job you could have gone through my regular channels. And now since I know you’re behind it, it will cost you three times the regular rate for me to do it,” she said turning to leave.

“No you misunderstand, though you are a gifted assassin that is not what we require,” Balthazar continued quickly. He couldn’t have her leave without hearing what he had to say.

“What then?” she asked without turning around.

“We believe you are to be a Knight of the new Court.”

At this she turned around very quickly and ran at him full force with her fists clenched tight. As she neared him she pulled back her right hand and threw it full force at his face. She felt it connect but didn’t feel him go down with the punch.

He caught her hand less than an inch from his face and stopped it dead cold.

“Temper, temper, child; you really must learn to keep a better grip on that,” he said lightly. He turned her wrist over and sent her tumbling into cold slush on the ground.

“It’s insulting to me that you would come here to speak to me of the court,” she spat at him as she stood up and brushed her black coat.

“It should not be an insult, it is an honor to serve in The Court,” he said perplexed at her anger.

“But I should have been a QUEEN of the Court not a Knight!” Josephine screamed at the top of her lungs in his face.

“But alas you are not,” he said keeping an even tone.

She stood for a moment, her breath making large puffs in the cold winter air. It was a long while before she decided to say anything. At least this would different from the past decade of her life. She thought she at least hear what he had to say.

“What’s the deal?” she finally said.

“You’re going to be teaching,” he started.

“Yes, a girl, I was a candidate once you remember?” she cut him off agitated.

“Three girls,” he finished.

“What?” she asked after a moment, startled by his answer.

“Three,” Balthazar repeated.

“That would never be allowed, don’t be ridiculous,” she said.

“The powers of the White Queen are beyond your comprehension. If she wills it to be, she can make it so. And we’ll need your answer immediately.”

“Are you saying she’s going to break the sacred rules set down millennia ago? Can her power really be that strong?” Though she knew it couldn’t be possible a doubt lingered in her mind. According to the rules a knight could never be shared between students. This had to be a mistake or some kind of trick the court had devised to get her back to them.

“Yes or no?” he said calmly. Her thoughts began to swim in her head as possibilities began to bloom and take shape in her mind. This went against what she had been taught, how she had been raised, but what if it was possible, “I need to know what I’m dealing…”

“Yes or no?” he cut her off.

“I need time,” she started.

“There is no time. I can see inside you and we both know where your thoughts are going to lead you. You had better get a move on, it’s a long journey and you are already late.” As he spoke his shape became fuzzy and he began to disappear like smoke in the wind.

“No you don’t,” Josephine growled as she stretched her hands out in a vain attempt to stop the vanishing smoke.

Mysterious and vague as always, she remembered why she hated the agents of the Court so much. She pulled her coat securely around her and began the walk back to her hotel.

XXXXX

Sleep was in short supply that night as she remembered her youth and the events that had led her to where she was now. Her training had given her a way to survive, but it was a cold lonely existence full of money and hate. When she found she couldn’t sleep, she put on her coat and walked without any destination in mind.

How did the court intend to give her charge over three girls? Surely there had to be some kind of mistake. One bishop, one knight and one rook soldier per candidate, no exceptions. Besides, each of the girls was going to need complete devotion to prepare for the tournament; there would be no way for her to teach three girls individually. She was going to have to train them all together. She had never had one student let alone three. What was she going to do?

As dawn broke and people began to leave their houses she began seeing the same looks on their faces that she always saw. When in public people didn’t look her in the eye, they looked away in fear and it wasn’t hard to understand why. She was an attractive woman, average height, dark hair and eyes, light skin. It was the other things about her features that threw people off. The lack of sleep left dark circles around her eyes that clashed terribly with her light skin. That paired with the scowl she wore made people know she was not someone to be trifled with.

It was always a pain when she didn’t get any sleep before a job. Her senses were either heightened or dulled depending on the day and today they had become dull. It was hard to focus on the idle chatter of people around her or to count how many people were within ten feet of her at any given time.

This was going to make it difficult to fulfill her contract tonight, especially since this one was a specialty contract. She had taken a job to kill every member of a street gang that called themselves the Pitbulls. Their rivals had gotten enough money together to meet her price, and this job would get her one step closer to retirement. Normally she would have gotten a second person to help her, but the meeting with Balthazar might have raised unnecessary suspicion.

As she made her way back to her hotel she went over her plans. Tonight there would be a large party last night in honor of the bosses’ birthday and she would slip into the house in the wee hours of the morning while everyone was asleep. Back at the hotel she readied her guns with flash suppressors and sharpened her blades, knowing she would need them both. She fell into a restless sleep around eleven, and woke up around eight, long after the sun had already disappeared from the sky.

Josephine suited up, feeling herself go into what she called ‘killer mode’. She donned her black suit with black boots that wouldn’t make noise as she walked across a hard surface. She strapped her polished guns into their holsters and slid her blades into the sheaths on her thighs. As she put her long black coat on, she wondered if this would be the last time she suited up for a job. If she were to get back into the Court she wouldn’t need to do jobs like this.

She took a cab to the far side of the city where they would be gathered at a house in an older neighborhood. The music was loud as she approached the house from the back, walking along the stone wall to survey the situation. The one who were asleep would be easy enough to deal with. The ones still awake would be a bit more difficult, but not impossible.

She ducked behind a small storage shed as two men came out the back door into the night to have a cigarette. She took her guns from their holsters and took aim from behind the wall. Two faint whooshing sounds and the two men fell to the ground. She stepped forward slowly, waiting to see if someone else came to the door. She scowled in disgust as she stepped over the bodies, and strode silently into the house and closed the door behind her. She knew the body count would be high tonight; after all, that’s what she had been paid to do.