Mark of the Assassin

8th of summer 89 N.W.

Francis,

I apologize for not writing this letter to you sooner. Things have been hectic for me. It seems like I have no time for sleep these days. Between school, training, and learning new magic, there isn’t nearly enough time to do anything else. Even though there hasn’t been much time, I’ve been training to get better at fighting. I am not very good, but I think that I could block Beatrix if she were here.

My friend Peter is happy because his father is returning. They consider me part of their family I think. They are lovely and the most loving people I have ever met. I am happy that they like me. Their daughter and her fiancé will be married soon. I will help Arabella and Isabel make their dresses for the wedding, that is if Arabella decides she would like to wear a dress. Mostly she wears breeches and a tunic, but sometimes she wears dresses. Anyways, they are the nicest people I have ever met.

I acquired more seeds for you. I also have answers to your questions. There hasn’t been snow since before I got here, so there is no snow on the ground. And it’s so snowy in Drotak because you are closer to the bottom of the world and so it receives less sun.

Hopefully I will be able to continue writing you regularly, even with all that is going on. I wish that you could visit. Maybe I could get Peter to invite you to visit and mother might let you come for a short time. I’m not sure if you alone could come visit though, I’m sure mother and father would send Thea and Beatrix as well. I love Thea, but I do not wish to have Beatrix come and visit me.

One of my eyes has changed color and some of my hair has changed. You would laugh if you saw me. I look a mess. My hair is never as neat as it used to be. I like being able to brush my own hair and choose my own outfits for important events. I like it even more that I can wear breeches and a tunic everywhere.

One day I will be able to see you again. It probably will not be for a long time, as I doubt father will ever invite me back or that Beatrix would either. I love you anyways. I hope everyone gets better in the castle and that you can have a midsummer celebration like you had intended.

Love Aeria.

D’aknu swung her dulled knife at me. I ducked under it before it hit me. Even in training I didn’t wish to get hit with a knife, even if it wouldn’t do any damage. She swung again and I once again ducked under her.

“Swipe at her when you duck,” Eirken shouted at us, “And D’aknu, switch up your technique!”

D’aknu swiped at me one last time. I did what Eirken told me to do. I pulled my knife from my sleeve and hit D’aknu in the belly with it as I ducked under her arm. She brought her elbow down on my back after I hit her.

We wrestled around on the ground for a moment before Eirken stopped us, “She already stabbed you in the stomach. You’re as good as dead- but getting her with your elbow was a good choice.” He told her. She nodded.

“You’ve gotten better at ducking.” She told me when we went back to the group. “When you first started, I got you every time.” She laughed.

“That was ages ago! And I got you every time too.” I told her. She just laughed again and sat down next to Peter. I sat on the other side.

“You two are always together.” One of the other girls in the class said as she sat down next to us. She was a few years older, so the only time we ever saw her was in training. “Do you ever leave each other’s side?”

“Free day.” Peter said. “She sews with my sisters while I meditate.”

The girl snorted, “Do you ever really leave each other though? You’re always holding hands- the scarred hands. You only hold those hands together.”

“I never noticed that.” D’aknu said. Neither had I. I guess it was true.

“How did the two of you get the scars anyways?” She asked.

“We fell.” Peter said. He was more talkative towards strangers than I was. “We tripped in the lower city.”

“Do you live there?” She asked.

“He lives in the castle.” D’aknu said before Peter could answer. The girl raised her eyebrow and looked towards the castle.

She froze for a moment, “You’re the prince! I didn’t even realize that!” She said, snorting. “I must look like a proper ninny!”

“I don’t go around and shout that I’m the prince.” Peter shrugged, “Only the kids in our year would know.”

“I suppose.” She said, “And what are you?” She asked me.

“I’m Aeria.” I said.

“But what are you?” She asked.

“Commoner.” I said. She just nodded.

“I think we have to spar next. I’ll kick your butt, princes friend or not,” She grinned. “I’m Dimea, by the way.” She said.

“I think you’re the first person aside from people in our year that we know.” D’aknu said.

“I just came over to ask about you two.” She said, “But you’re really good at sparing, by the way.” She told D’aknu.

People noticed that Peter and I hardly ever separated. It was true. We didn’t part from each other except for in classes we didn’t have together. I wondered what other students thought about this. The noble students had clearly voiced their opinion, although they didn’t say much now.

Dimea headed back to her group. There were a couple kids from her year left. The first year was the only group with more than fifteen kids. D’aknu said it was because a lot of children stopped after the first year. Training was supposed to get harder and harder. After break, I knew that at least four from our year was going to quit.

There was a short break soon. We would have a month off of classes. This was because most children were from farming areas, so their parents needed them to help tend the crops. For me, this meant that I would be with Peter the whole break because I had no family to go home to. There was already an extra bed set up for me in Peter’s room. His mother didn’t want him to be alone since the assassination and she trusted me enough to help keep him safe.

“Are you guys excited for break?” D’aknu asked. She was going home to help her family out with the farm. She had already secured a ride with a couple of other children from the school. Five or so kids all came from the same village as D’aknu.

“We have a month of free time.” Peter said.

A month of free time was convenient because we still had not figure out who forged the knives. There were still dozens more blacksmiths in the city and at least that many shops too. We had covered a lot of ground over the past couple days, but we hadn’t made any progress. There was also the possibility that the knives were foreign.

If the knives clue did not work out, we could go to the poison pendant. There couldn’t be that many people that sold ornate pendants that held poison like that. If those clue didn’t work out, then we would never know who the assassin was or who sent him- which meant we would have to wait for another assassin and strike accordingly.

After we were done training Peter and I headed back to our rooms. D’aknu had something else to do tonight, so she wasn’t going to get food with us tonight. D’aknu had made a few other friends in her hall and they had gotten ahold of enough wine to share. She invited us, but neither of us wished to drink.

“I hope she has fun.” Peter said as we left the school. “I’ve only seen bad come of wine.” Peter said. This was because he and I had seen plenty of fights due to excess drinking at the pub. Occasionally a fight would get too noisy for us to continue our lessons. When that happened Josef would get an ale and watch the fight from a table. Peter and I stayed to watch once and the man got a glass broken over his head.

“As long as she isn’t a violent drunk.” I said. I couldn’t see D’aknu as being anything but gentle, but she was very good at fighting so I wasn’t sure. Maybe it would be nice to have a glass of wine with D’aknu one day. Today was not good though, Peter and I were too busy.

We had no fruit to give to the children today. None had been given out at lunch. The children were disappointed. I used that opportunity to tell them that the guards needed more workers both to run messages and actual guards. A few of them thanked me and ran off in the direction of the guards station.

Once we got to the pub the people inside were already rather rowdy. There was shouting inside. Peter and I ducked under everybody and headed towards the room the guild met in. It seemed like today was one of those loud days.

“So, someone tried to kill the prince.” Ryia was telling Carac as we entered the room. It hadn’t occurred to me until then that the guild didn’t know that Peter was the prince. Nothing even close to the topic had ever been brought up during the meetings.

“They don’t know you’re the prince?” I asked.

“No. They know who my uncle is though and since we’re not blood related they don’t know that I’m the prince.” Peter said as we took our seats at the table. We could hear the shouting in the pub.

“Ronald is not your actual uncle?” I asked. I had thought the whole time that they were related in some way.

“No. He was a friend of my fathers when they were children and then he ended up as one of the most powerful mages. He just spent a lot of time around us as children.” Peter said.

“Don’t you two go to school with the prince?” Carac asked.

“Yes.” Peter said.

“Is he well?” Ryia asked. We just shrugged. I understood why he never told them. “I suppose the two of you wouldn’t know.”

“I heard it was poison.” Carac said, “which reminds me, we ought to teach you two how to identify poisons and other things that might be useful while spying.” He said.

“We weren’t done teaching them spells they might encounter.” Ryia said.

“Yeah, but those all have to do with spying.” He said, “And everyone knows that a good mage makes an even better spy.”

“You’re the only one who thinks that. There’s a reason the queen only needed you once.” Josef said. This was the first time he had spoken the whole time we were in there. It was unusual. “But we should teach them the spying skills. They come in handy in other situations.” He said.

“Such as?” Ryia asked.

“Finding out your wife is cheating on you with the neighbors oldest son.” He said. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he stared at the wedding ring on the table. I hadn’t noticed that until now.

“Goddess! Are you going to leave?” Carac asked. The room was almost completely silent now. I could hear everyone breathing. “Are you going to leave-“

“I heard you.” Josef snapped. “I don’t know. There’s the little one to think about.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair.

There was another shout from inside the pub. Josef rolled up the sleeve to his shirt and rose from his seat. Ryia and Carac just watched as he left the room. There wouldn’t be lessons today, but I was sure that Ryia and Carac would speak to us for a little bit before we left.

“They’ve been together for nearly 10 years.” Ryia sighed. She sunk into her chair and looked at Carac, “Can you imagine if Leif did that to you?”

“I would throw him out.” Carac said. “But we don’t have children. It is a harder choice for Josef.”

We all sat in the room quietly for a little before there was a roar from the pub. Ryia and Carac scrambled to get up. Peter and I followed them. A young man was shouting in Josef’s face when we got to the front of the pub. Josef looked like he was about to kill the man.

The man shoved Josef back and he snapped. Josef was swinging his fist at another mans face. He was stuck in the gut as he punched the man in the face. Both of them staggered backwards.

Ryia grabbed Josef by the arm and ripped him out of the fight. She hit him in the back of the head before dragging him to a table in the pub. She began to speak quietly to him. He just nodded and rested his head on her shoulder.

“Lessons will continue tomorrow.” Carac told us. We nodded and dodged the people in the bar to get outside.

“Should we go to sleep early?” I asked, “Once we stop by at least once weapon shop, of course.” I added.

“That sounds nice.” He said. Our past week had been so hectic that we were both exhausted all the time. We had talked to at least two dozen shop keepers and blacksmiths that had no clue where the weapons we were asking about were from. It was frustrating.

As we began our walk home, I noticed a man might be following us. I pulled Peter down an alley to see if the man was actually following us. He headed down the alley. I turned down another deserted street and the man still followed us. We were, in fact, being followed.

“We’re being followed.” I told Peter. He nodded and this time he pulled me down an opposite street.

When I had hoped to get better at fighting so that I could get information from assassins, I hadn’t thought that I would need it so soon. Peter stopped and we turned around to face the man. He was wheezing and stopped running once he saw that we had stopped running.

“What do you want?” Peter shouted.

“My father…” He paused to take a breath, “My father sent me because you were asking about a set of knives.” He said. He was still breathing hard. “You told him where to find you, but I had to run to catch up.”

“Sorry.” Peter said, “We thought you might be someone else.”

“What could a couple of kids do to be this scared,” He snorted. He was still out of breath, but he could talk regularly again. “Anyways, my father made the knives- the shopkeeper that buys from us told my father you had been looking around. They were special order.”

“Who were they for?” I asked.

“Not who, what.” The man said. “There is a lot of those particular knives made for a group of basically mercenaries.”

“How much do they charge to kill?” I asked. The man raised his eyebrows and took a step back, “Do they not kill?”

“They kill, but if I had known you were looking for an assassin, I wouldn’t have come.” The man said. He took another step back.

“We aren’t looking for an assassin. We are looking for who hired the assassin.” Peter said. “Do they assassinate too?”

“Yes- depending on how you can sway me, I might tell you where they convene.” The man said. Peter pulled out three bronze nobles and handed them to the man. “They are normally at the Lucky Lady tavern. They are really dangerous.”

“Thank you.” I told the man. He hurried off into the crowd of people in the next street. “Are we still going to bed early?” I asked.

“No. I know where that tavern is. It’s one of the ones I was at when I was looking for the guild.” He said. “Guess we’re going to shake up some mercenaries.”

“Somehow, this doesn’t seem like a good idea.” I muttered. “I didn’t bring any knives, do you at least have a weapon?”

“We aren’t good at weapons. They’re probably far better than we will ever be, so we might as well not have any weapons.” Peter said. He was right. They could probably easily turn our weapons on us if we were handling them wrong. I wasn’t keen on getting slashed by a knife again.

The Lucky Lady tavern wasn’t far from the pub that we met the guild at. I had never learned the name of the pub that we were at nightly, but at least Peter knew it. Peter pulled me through the streets towards the tavern.

The sign in front of the tavern read that there were accommodations available. I wondered if this group of mercenaries stayed at the tavern too. We weren’t even sure that the information the man had given us was completely accurate.

The tavern was much quieter than the pub. There was a large group of people sitting at a table in the corner. They looked like rough people, so Peter and I sat close to their table. A woman came by and took our orders. She looked nervously at the group in the corner as she walked back towards the kitchen.

“You two!” One of the men at the table shouted, “This area is only for customers.”

“We just ordered.” I told the man.

He laughed and scooted closer to me, “Pretty little girls don’t belong in a place like this.” He said, still getting closer. “I can tell you where I think they belong- there’s a nice little whorehouse down the street and-“

“Do not speak to me like that.” I told the man. He and his friends just laughed. He grabbed me by the braid, immediately regretting the action as the spike in my hair tore the skin off his hand. I picked the chunk of skin left on the spike out of my hair.

“We will kill you and hang you by your guts.” The man snarled in my face, holding his hand.

“I can either fix the hand or I can kill you all.” I told the man quietly, “This depends on what you would like to tell me about the assassin that was hired to kill the prince.”

The man swung at me. I ducked, not missing the blood that dripped on my face. Peter continued to sit at the table, just watching the man and his group of friends.

“How dare you even try to threaten me!” He shouted. The tavern was silent, everyone listening to what was happening. “You’re but a child!”

“If I’m a child, then I do not belong in a whorehouse.” I told him. “So you can either tell me what I am asking, or we can take this elsewhere. I would hate to ruin everyone’s dinners.”

A woman pushed the man to the side and examined me, “Child, I will give you the opportunity to leave.”

“I asked a question and I wish to have the answer.” I said. “If the man was yours, he was killed in the castle. I wish to know who hired him, because that is probably the one who killed your man too.” I lied. The woman didn’t seem to notice my lie, because she was too angry at the thought of being double crossed.

“Fool! I could have him killed within the week!” She spat. The man she pushed aside grabbed her by the shoulders and glared at me. “Haran, what the hell are you doing?”

“She could be lying.” The man said. “How do we know she isn’t lying. She knows what happened, so the queen must have sent her.”

The woman froze and grabbed me by the elbow. “Who are you?”

“I just wish to have an answer to my question and I will leave without hurting anyone.” I said. I really didn’t know what I planned on doing if they wouldn’t answer me. I didn’t wish to kill a whole group of people for not answering a question, but maybe I could get one of them separately.

“You’ve got to have shit for a brain if you think you can walk in here and threaten us.” The woman said. She looked at Peter, who had been watching the whole thing. We had been taking turns asking questions all week because neither of us particularly wanted to ask questions that could get us killed. This time it was my turn.

“I don’t think this is working.” Peter said.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have threatened to kill him?” I knew that I had probably taken the wrong approach with this group. I would have to remember to test the waters before uttering threats the next time.

“I said something to you.” The woman said, swinging her hand towards me. I caught her hand before she slapped me in the face. “So you’re not as stupid as I thought.”

“I simply came to ask who hired one of your men to kill the prince. Your man is dead, so I want nothing of him.” I told her. “If you do not want to cooperate, I will have to go about this the hard way.”

“I don’t make it a habit to kill children, especially ones that the gods forgot to bless with intelligence, so I will tell you this- he told us that his name was Anket. I think that wasn’t his real name because our man called him something else-“ She looked back at her group, “What did Cassius call the man who hired him?”

“Ronald. He said the mans name was Ronald.” One of the other women said. “If the man killed Cassius-“

“Cassius is dead. We must move on. He accepted the job even though it was clearly dangerous.” The woman said. “We mourn his loss. Since you seemingly work for the king and queen, send Ronald our regards for killing one of our men.”

“Will do.” I told her. Peter hadn’t moved from his spot. “You ready to go?” I asked as I turned around. Peter shot up and leapt towards me. I felt a pressure in my back and then something dripping down. I had been stabbed again.

“Shit.” I muttered. I reached behind me, the knife still in my back, and I pulled it out. This stung more than the initial stab. It hurt far more than being slashed at with a knife. This had actually penetrated my skin. Peter healed me before I bled over my clothes too much. The healing burned just as much as the actual wound.

“Thank you for the parting gift.” I told the woman. The newly healed would definitely hurt for the next few hours, but at least Peter had fixed it immediately. Hopefully I hadn’t any noises while I was being stabbed.

“To remind you to respect your elders.” She told me. I stared at her for a moment, while I made my decision not to kill someone out of anger.

To make my point, I concentrated all the energy in the room into the knife. I dropped the knife to the floor and let it completely melt. The room went cold enough for everyone to be able to see their breath. The group was concentrated on the molten knife on the floor in front of them.

“I hope that wasn’t expensive.” I told the woman. She didn’t say anything else as I exited the tavern.

“Are you alright?” Peter asked as he exited the tavern.

“Do you think it’s really Ronald?” I asked, disregarding his question, “Or do you think it’s someone who gave two fake names?”

“Are you alright?” He repeated.

“I’m fine.” I said. It took more time for me to register that I had been stabbed than I had to feel the pain. Although I only felt pain for a short period, I wished never to feel that again. It was a very unpleasant feeling.

“Let’s just go home.” He said. “We’ll have an early night after all.”