Mark of the Assassin

My father and mother were still eating as I finished up eating at the table. The rest of my siblings, with an exception of Francis. We had both eaten our food as quickly as possible because as soon as supper was finished mother and father said that we could play in the courtyard until dark. They didn’t often let us play in the courtyard- the reason for the exception today was that the weather was unusually nice out.

My older sisters didn’t want to come and play with us. Francis and I had asked them the moment mother and father gave us permission. They wanted to work on their embroidery instead. I was not a fan of embroidering, mostly because I was not so good at it. My sisters did it well, but I kept pricking my fingers.

“Slow down or you will choke to death.” My mother said. She watched me for a moment before returning to eating. She often warned us, but never actually followed up with her warnings.

“Finished-“

“That is not how we behave.” Father said. “You will wait until all of us have completed our meals as well. If you do that again, you will not be allowed outside.”

I sat at the table quietly watching my family eat. I couldn’t remember the last time Francis and I had been allowed into the courtyard without supervision. Mostly I was excited because I had something to show him.

I knew I wasn’t supposed to play with magic, but I couldn’t help it. The magic made my fingers buzz when I sent little bolts of lighting to the ground. I really didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. Francis thought that it looked cool. I had only been able to show him late at night because someone was always watching us and I didn’t want to get in trouble.

Yesterday I had figured out a new trick when I was trying to fall asleep. If I concentrated I could make things cold. I burnt myself, although I couldn’t see the burn marks, because I was staring at the fire wanting it to go out. All of the sudden it went out and my hands felt like they were on fire. The bolts of lightning shot out of my fingers and struck the stone that surrounded my fireplace. Once the bolt escaped my finger, the burning had subsided, but the log had been completely smoldered and was room temperature at best.

“Children, you are dismissed.” Mother said as she took the last bite of her food. She was always the last left eating.

Francis and I jumped out of our seats, not forgetting to push them back in, and ran to the front doors. I was so excited to be left in the courtyard alone with Francis. He would love my new trick.

We found a spot in the courtyard that was mostly surrounded with trees. There was a puddle of water left over from the spring rains next to one of my trees. I stared at it for a moment before deciding that I would show Francis what I learned on the puddle of water.

If I could completely put out a fire, I was positive that I could freeze a puddle of water. I nudged Francis and pointed at the puddle of water. He watched as I stared at the water. I wanted it to freeze more than anything that I had ever wanted in my life. Nothing happened.

“What are you doing?” Francis asked.

“I’m trying to freeze the water.” I said.

“That’s impossible.” He said, crossing his arms.

“I put out a fire last night! I can freeze the water-“

“You can do more magic?” He asked, whispering. He looked around us and looked back at the puddle of water. “Do it again.”

We stood in the courtyard for almost an hour staring at the puddle of water. Nothing happened. The puddle of water was still a dull old puddle of water. I hadn’t frozen it and my hands hadn’t been burned. Even though I knew that the magic pained me sometimes, I still wanted to do it. Every winter I could make sure the water was frozen enough to ice skate on if I could figure this out. Every time my room was too hot, I could just cool it down. If my afternoon tea was still scalding when it was served, then I could cool it down.

I fell asleep staring at the fire. I wanted it to go out. There was nothing else in the world that I wanted more than for my magic trick to work again. I knew that Francis wanted to see it too, which made it more frustrating that I couldn’t do it.

When I woke up in the morning, the room was freezing cold. It was often cold in a castle of this size and especially since it was only spring. It didn’t often get hot enough in our kingdom that it was unbearable. My thinner dresses were just fine during the summer. I had traveled to other kingdoms where it was too hot for even my thinnest dress.

I could feel the air slowly vibrating around me. I closed my eyes and made it vibrate faster. When I closed my eyes and pictured the air vibrating, it worked better than just telling the air to vibrate. The room got warmer.

I stared at the fireplace for a moment. I wondered if there were vibrations in the fire too. The covers fell to the floor as I got out of bed, but I ignored it and hurried over to the fireplace. Maybe the fire vibrated too. If I concentrated, I could probably feel it.

The fire lit immediately as I threw a match into it. I sat a few feet from it and closed my eyes. I could feel the fire. It was already vibrating much faster than air ever vibrated. I pictured the vibrations in the fire slowing down.

“Slow down,” I said to them. The vibrations slowed down and listened to me much more effectively than they had before. As I slowed down the vibrations more and more, my hands began to heat up. It didn’t take long for my hands to become unbearably hot. My hands were now vibrating instead of the fire. I released all the vibrations back into the fire.

The fire roared, licking my skin, as I had come too close, and burning me. I jumped back without taking my eyes off of the fire. I had just controlled the fire like the other night, except better. Maybe all I had to do was focus on the vibrations like I did with my other tricks.

A knock on the door interrupted me. I walked back to my bed and pulled my covers back over my body. Even though I knew that the servant wouldn’t leave, I was hoping that they would, so I could try to get better at my tricks.

They knocked again. I sighed and gave permission for the servant to come back into the room. She was the regular servant that took me into town with my other siblings on nice days. She was not normally the servant who woke us up in the mornings though.

“What happened to Jenai?” I asked.

“She is sick.” The woman answered. I could never remember the name of this particular servant since nice days were so rare in our kingdom. She only took us out a few times a year and for the rest of the year I was fairly certain she helped my mother out with mending all the clothing.

Although we were royalty, we did not have surplus money to spend on new clothing every time something ripped. It would spend all of our yearly budget within a week because Francis and I often fell and ripped our clothes. Mother got after me quite regularly for ripping my tights or ripping the hems of my dresses.

“Get up.” She said after a moment. “We are going into town.”

I hurried to get dressed, clumsily putting on my socks and shoes with my dress getting in my way. The servant tapped her foot every second it took for me to get dressed. She wasn’t satisfied when I was finished either.

“Your sisters already finished.” She told me.

“Did you wake them first?” I asked her.

“Yes.” She said.

“Then it is expected for them to be finished first.” I told her. She stared at me and pursed her lips before leading me out of the room. She had no reason to be rude to me. She had just woken me up and I complied.

“I will be speaking to your mother.” She said quietly as we started towards the entrance hall. She may say something to my mother, but her and I both knew that mother never did any of the disciplining in the castle.

My mother did not do much aside from entertain guests. She was fabulous with company, showing them far more friendliness than I had ever known from her, and entertained quite frequently. Noble’s from other parts of our kingdom visited on an almost constant basis. Occasionally noble’s from other countries visited. A few months ago a few noble’s from Kudeba visited. My father complained about it the whole time.

My father was similar to my mother in the way that he did not really do the disciplining. He mostly did his work. He rarely left his office unless required by my mother while entertaining guests. He was not a very talkative man, except when it came to manners. Neither mother nor father were very amicable or loving to me or any of my siblings.

The discipline was dealt, very harshly, by my eldest sister. I was not sure if the women knew that or not and I hoped that she didn’t. As long as my eldest sister did not punish us where other guests might questions the marks on our skin, my mother and father did not care. They had seen her deal lashings to Thea before. Beatrix had never gotten into trouble for dealing the discipline, in fact, my mother applauded her for making sure we behaved and getting an early start on being a mother. I just thought that Beatrix was a cruel woman- if she could even be considered a woman.

“Hurry up,” Beatrix said, her voice echoing through the entrance hall. It was easy to see that she was already in a bad mood. Francis stood next to Thea, quietly, and clung to her dress. Thea was only 14, so she was only 2 years older than the two of us. The gap between Thea and Beatrix was more considerable, as Beatrix was 16. My parents were on the search of a suitable husband for Beatrix, part of the reason so many noble’s had been visiting as of late.

Beatrix gathered up her skirts as we walked through the almost dry mud. Thea did the same. I did not and received a hard smack to the back of my head. I picked my skirts up until we reached the cobblestone area that lead up to the outside of our castle as a result. Beatrix dealt Francis a hard slap as well, but his was because he did not pick up his feet as he walked.

The town looked the same as it had months ago. We were only allowed to visit the upper district of Tal’ong, our capital city, because the lower city was too dangerous to bring princes and princesses, or at least that was what Thea had said when I asked why we did not visit all of our citizens. I thought we should, but I did not voice that to anyone else for fear of being punished for thinking such things.

“Your highness!” A shop keeper said as we entered. It was a clothing shop. Beatrix knew that we didn’t have the allowance to buy new clothes, and yet she pulled the money out of her cloak anyways. She paid the man and took the dress. It was a beautiful purple color with lace trim at the arms. I wondered if mother would give me the allowance to buy a dress like that for the summer ball.

“Aeria,” Thea nudged me, “Beatrix was talking to you.”

“Sorry.” I said. Beatrix thinly smiled and shoved her dress against my chest.

“If you make it dirty, then I’ll push you out of your window.” She said. I held the dress against my chest because I knew that if I dropped it then Beatrix would discipline me like when I had accidentally ripped a page out of her favorite book while I was studying. Sometimes I still woke up in a cold sweat from that night.

“I want to go home.” Francis whispered when Beatrix and the servant were far enough away from us. I nodded and we lagged behind the rest of the group. Thea noticed after a bit and made sure that we caught up before Beatrix noticed.

Thea was nice, but Beatrix controlled her every move. She probably would do the same with Francis and I once we were out of the nursery. We had to stay in the nursery until we turned 13. It seemed like Thea still remembered that we were good to her sometimes, but other times she stood by while Beatrix abused us.

We made our rounds and ended up at a restaurant. The owner insisted that he give us our meals for free. Beatrix and Thea drank glasses of wine. The servant was against Thea having wine, but Beatrix said that she was no longer in the nursery. Thea didn’t like the wine, so Beatrix drank it instead. I think that maybe she knew that Thea didn’t like wine and told her to get it so she got extra. Mother and Father did not let them have any sort of alcohol. They said that we had clean water and that only poor people drank in excess.

Mother and father said many things like that, but often times they broke their own rules. At social gatherings Francis and I sometimes spied on them. They often drank more than several bottles of wine. They drank so much that servants had to take mother and father up the stairs. Neither of them could stand straight enough to get to their rooms alone. Sometimes they did this without social gatherings.

I suspected that Beatrix knew that our parents did not mean what they said. She was very good at manipulating our parents, just as she had been doing to Thea. Sadly I knew that I would be the next one out of the nursery and probably her next play thing.

Francis ate slowly. Beatrix had managed to bully another glass of wine from the restaurant owner. She watched Francis eat as she sipped on her wine. She had an evil look in her eye. I feared for Francis.

She finished her wine and threw a golden coin on the table. The owner quickly snatched it from the table. She watched the owner waddle back into the kitchen before walking out the door. I could already see that she was wobbling. They had been rather large glasses of wine and she was only a few years older than I.

Beatrix lead us back to the castle, hiccupping the whole time. The moment we entered the front hall the servant took Beatrix’s dress from my hands and disappeared. Beatrix grabbed me by my wrist and Francis on his wrist as well. I knew not to struggle, but Francis still tried.

The moment Beatrix got us into an empty hall she threw us to the floor. She struck Francis. The blow sent him to the floor and he hit his head. He immediately began to bleed, as his head had split. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him back to his feet. I could see tears coming from the corners of his eyes.

“Beatrix, stop!” I said, before I even knew what I was doing. She tightened her grip on his wrist. “Stop-“

“I will kill him and blame a servant if you say another word.” She said.

“No. I will tell father that it was you.” I said. She dug her nails into Francis’ skin, breaking it and making him bleed, and began to breath so hard that her chest heaved.

“I will kill him,” She said. She was angrier than I had ever seen her in my life. If I didn’t do anything, I was afraid Francis might be killed.

“If you touch him one more time-“

She dropped Francis. He braced himself this time. I could see him silently watching me. He didn’t move a muscle. I did not blame him. Beatrix had never been this violent before, not even towards me.

“I’ll kill you,” She hissed, swinging her fists towards me.

“Stop!” I screamed, closing my eyes and putting my hands up to defend myself. Before I could even think, I could feel the vibrations around me completely froze. Nothing hit me. I feared opening my eyes. Nothing stirred around me.

“Goddess smite her!” Beatrix screamed after a moment. I opened her eyes and her hand was completely frozen. The vibrations around me slowly started to move again. I was stuck in place this time.

“I’m sorry,” I managed to whisper. Beatrix did not stop screaming. It did not take long for servants to follow the screams to the empty hall that we were in. The saw Francis on the floor and hastily helped him up.

“She tried to kill me!” Beatrix screamed, “Kill her! Hang her like the rest of the monsters! She’s an abomination!” She screamed, charging at me and swinging at me. I ran behind the servants to protect myself. She struck the servants too, just for getting in the way.

The ordeal did not last long. Beatrix was contained and I was brought in front of mother and father. They examined me, as if I was an animal. They did not get too close; the servants had likely told them what Beatrix had been screaming when she found us.

“You can’t go unpunished.” Father said after I had been sent to a room, so he could speak to the servants who had seen what happened. After he spoke with the servants I could hear him speaking with Beatrix. Mother was silent. She often was.

Beatrix screamed. She called me horrible names and my mother and father just listened. They did not quiet her like they did to me when I spoke, nor did they ask me what happened. I knew that I would be in trouble. I sat quietly in the room, knowing that whatever punishment awaited me was worse than whatever Beatrix could have dealt.

I wished that I hadn’t tried to stop her. She would have left Francis alone and began to abuse me instead if I hadn’t spoken. The only difference between today and what normally happened was that we hadn’t deserved this. Now, in her eyes, we did deserve this. Francis would receive a few strikes when no one was looking because I defended him.

I would likely receive a worse punishment. I had used magic. No doubt a punishment much worse than anything Beatrix could have ever dealt awaited me. We had been taught since we were kids that magic was evil and that it could only be used for evil purposes. I didn’t think that this was true. I was only doing a few tricks to entertain Francis. Hurting Beatrix had been an accident and I would never hurt someone on purpose.

The throne room was quiet for some time before a servant was sent to fetch me. They did not come close to me. They stared at me like a creature, instead of their princess. There was a clear difference. I trembled on the way to the throne room, knowing that a beating awaited me.

My father and mother looked down at me from their seats. Neither of them rose to greet me. Neither of them told me to stop trembling either. Mother stared at me with disgust and father with something I couldn’t quite understand.

“You have broken the law.” Father said.

“Father-“

“You will be sent to Kudeba to finish your studies. You are not permitted back in this country without and invitation or you will be executed if found.” He said.

I froze in front of them. Father had banished me from the country and told me that he would kill me if I returned. I had never even left the city before and I was being sent to an entirely different country.

“Father-“

“The use of magic is a criminal offence that is punished by hanging. I will turn my head this time and let you get away before issuing a decree.” He said. “But if you ever return without an invitation-“

“I think she understands.” Mother said. She dismissed me. Neither of them said another word. The wave of their hand was the last thing I saw of them before they had their servants drag me out.

I could tell that none of their servants were happy handling me. They dropped me to the floor the moment we exited the throne room and disappeared. I moved nearly as quickly as they did to get back to my room.

Father was always serious. He would kill me if I returned. My own family would execute me because of something I could not help. I didn’t understand their way of thinking. I didn’t understand most of what they spoke of. Maybe I didn’t belong here. Mother and father were akin to strangers and Thea was no better than them.

Even though I knew I didn’t belong, I couldn’t help but cry as I packed as many things as I could into my chest. Before I packed away all my papers, I wrote a letter to Francis. I knew he would be back in my room after I left, so I put it in our secret hiding place.

I pulled my chest out of the room behind me. It made a horrible noise as the chest dragged across the stone floors. Tears streamed out of my eyes, not matter how many times I tried to tell myself that I was going to be fine.

When I got outside soldiers waited for me. They took my chest from me and watched as I climbed into the wagon. I prayed to the goddess that my father was going to keep his word and let me escape the country.