Mark of the Assassin

After Peter awoke from his nap, we decided to head down to the kitchen to get a snack before dinner. Hopefully the kitchen would let us take food, otherwise we would have to starve until dinner. Since Josef had arrived home today, dinner was scheduled to start two hours later so that he may spend time with Eliza.

“Is my eye really that bruised?” I asked. If anyone asked why my nose and eyes were bruised like this, I decided that I would tell them I slipped and fell while riding. That seemed like a reasonable accident.

“Yes.” He said, “I didn’t say anything in the stable because I didn’t want to upset you. You look fine though.” He added.

“I don’t care if I look good, people are going to ask why my face is bruised.” I said.

“I know. I was going to say that you tripped and slammed your face into the stable.” He said. I liked his excuse better. It seemed more believable than me slamming my face on the ground without putting my hands out.

The three children in our hall had already been moved to the guest hall, so we were alone in the hall once again. The children hadn’t made a noise the whole time they were there anyways. They seemed like well-behaved children; likely trained by their mother to behave in order to find their husbands and wives.

As we rounded the corner we saw Ronald walking towards us. It was clear that he didn’t want to speak with us, as he clenched his jaw the moment he laid eyes on us. His hands were shoved in his pocket and he tried to walk past without saying anything, but Peter grabbed his sleeve.

“You’re not going to say hello! Ronald!” Peter said, as if he had no qualms with the man.

“I do not wish to say hello when there are vermine in the vicinity.” He said, spitting at me. If I hadn’t stepped back so quickly, he would have gotten spit onto my dress. I kept my fists balled by my sides to keep from striking him dead, as I could feel my hands heating up every word he spoke.

“I do not see any mice.” Peter said, “Aren’t you glad that father is home now? Have you seen where he is?”

“No. Your father is not a baby, so I have no reason to watch him.” He said. He stared at me, clearly noticing the bruising along my eyes. It also seemed like he may have finally noticed that my eyes were different colors.

“Would you like-“

“Why does your face look like that?” Ronald asked me.

“There was a stray arrow in the stable and I fell moving out of the way.” I lied. Ronald gritted his teeth and flared his nostrils. He looked like an angry animal. “Luckily, no one was hit though. People really should be more careful about their archery, especially when they’re near the stable.”

“At least you only fell, instead of getting hit.” Peter said, snorting.

“Easy for you to say. You didn’t break your nose.” I said, “Or nearly get shot-“

“I have to go.” Ronald said, slamming his body into mine as he walked passed me. I fell to the ground. He stomped off, his footsteps resonating in the hall until he turned the corner. He was definitely angry.

“I would say that made him angry.” Peter said. “Do you think he’s really the one who is doing it?”

“Unless he’s angry for another reason.” I said. I was almost completely confident that it was Ronald trying to kill us. If it was not, I would be nothing but nice to him for the rest of my life.

Peter sighed and helped me up, “Let’s go get some snacks.”

The kitchen was more than obliging to give us a few stale treats from the night before. The kitchen staff probably still felt bad that Peter had been poisoned. They gave us tea and let us sit at the table at the back of the kitchen.

“How are you two doing?” One of the servants asked. Peter knew all of them by name and just about everything about them, I however, had a hard time with names. I recognized her though.

“We’re doing good.” Peter told her. “How have you been Aribe?”

“I’m doing great,” She said, pausing, “If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get the bruises?” She asked me.

“I fell in the stable.” I told her.

“Goddess bless you! You’re lucky it wasn’t worse.” She told me.

“She broke her nose.” Peter said, “That’s why it is bruised.”

“Chicken shit.” She said, shaking her head. She sat down with us at the table and laid down some more food. “I’m glad that you’re alright.”

“Peter healed me.” I told her.

“Is that right? You’re turning into quite the little mage.” Aribe said, passing us some more food.

“Would you like to see a trick?” Peter asked.

“I would never say no to a trick.” She said. “Why don’t you light the fire.”

“Of course.” Peter said. He lit the fire and took a bite of the food that she had laid down, “What is this?” He asked as I took a bite of the food as well.

“Duck tongue.” She said.

I immediately swallowed what I was eating and stopped eating it. It was really good, but the idea of eating the tongue of anything made me nauseous. Peter, however, continued eating. I would stick with the stale pastries.

“It’s really good.” Peter said, “Are you going to eat some?” He asked me. I shook my head, so he took a few larger bites.

“You really like it?” Aribe asked, laughing, “We are serving duck at dinner, so we figured that we should use all the duck.”

“This is wonderful. How did you make it?” He asked.

The two of them went on about how she cooked the tongue for a while, but I tuned them out. I drank my tea and ate my stale pastries in silence. Just thinking about eating the duck tongue made me sick. I did not consider myself a picky eater, but tongue, liver, brain, heart, and feet were things that I would never eat off of an animal. Those were not meant to be eaten, they were meant to be fed to the dogs or pigs.

“You didn’t eat much.” Peter said as we exited the kitchen.

“I’m fine.” I told him.

“You didn’t like it?” He asked.

“I don’t eat tongue.” I said. “Should we go back outside and train until dinner?”

“We might as well because after dinner we’re heading to the pub.” He said. “So we won’t have time after dinner.”

The schedule of what we did once the sun went down had been constant since break started. It stayed the same every day. We would wake up and ride horses before going to lunch. Then we would keep ourselves occupied until it was nearly dinner, then we would go train outside. Once dinner was finished we would go to the pub to train more.

Our run-ins with Ronald became shorter and shorter. It got to the point that he wouldn’t speak to us. Peter and I decided that he was losing his grip, or his money. He had seen out four assassins in one week and none of them had been any good. He either couldn’t afford to keep paying good assassins and was settling for whomever he could find, or he was just hiring people and hoping that someone would land the fatal blow.

None of the assassins landed the fatal blow. Only one of them even landed blow and they only glanced the skin of Peter when they were attempting to stab him. Once the silence seal was broken on them, they would all leave quietly. They knew that they were outmatched and once the threat of death wasn’t waived over them, they were content with escaping without being injured too badly.

The constant threat was taking its toll on Peter though. He was looking over his shoulder nearly every second of the day. At this point, the only people that he trusted were his family and me. While he still spoke to everyone he usually interacted with, he feared that they might be caught in the cross fire. This meant that we didn’t leave our room other than for meals and training after the fourth failed attempt.

Peter went to sleep directly after training. He looked so peaceful. I put blankets on top of him and locked the door as I left the room. I wasn’t tired and I felt to awake to even sit still in a chair. In a while, once I was tired, I would return to the room.

It was getting closer to the midsummer festival and the next time I thought there would be an attempt was on that night. There would be too many people to be able to track someone through the crowd easily. I wished to resolve this issue before the festival began so that Peter and I were not at the disadvantage.

As I wandered the halls, I thought about how I could force Ronald to show his hand. Unless we struck first, I saw no feasible way to get Ronald to try to kill us on his own. He knew that if he tried to kill us himself, whatever goal he was trying to achieve would never work.

This led me to wonder what he wanted to accomplish. He was not trying to kill a child that he had watched grow up for no reason. The man wasn’t a complete ninny, he had to have a reason for killing Peter. Maybe if I figured out the reason, then we could figure out how to beat him without violence.

I was jerked out of my thoughts by the noise of footsteps. I looked up and Ronald had turned a corner and was now walking in the same hall as me. At first I did not plan to say anything, but he spit on me as he passed. This time he got on my clothes.

“Coward,” I hissed. He stopped where he was walking and turned around.

“Disgusting.” He said. “Not only are you allowed in the castle, but you’ve got the nerve to speak to me like you are the same social status as me.”

“You spit on me. I did nothing wrong.” I said. I gritted my teeth, trying not to say anything rash. I could feel my body heating up. Just looking at Ronald made me want to kill him, even though I had no idea if Ronald and I were an even match. He was the most powerful mage in the kingdom and Peter and I planned on killing him.

“You are but a commoner and you do not belong-“

“This is nothing to do with my social standing. You only assumed who I was, when I am, in fact, a princess. This has everything to do with Peter. You and I both know that you are the one who wants Peter dead. Every time you see him and he is not dead, it angers you so you take it out on me. He has been the one taking the silencing spells off the assassins? You think that he doesn’t know that it is you?” I said.

Ronald was stunned for a moment, but grabbed me by the braid to pull me towards him. Grabbing me by the braid ensured that he grabbed one of the spiky balls in my hand. He pulled his hand back and just stared at me, blood dripping on the floor.

“I will kill you,” He said, his whole body shaking, “I will ensure that Peter watches you die.”

“Then I shall have forever to live.” I said. I thought about spitting on him, as he had done to me, but I was better than he was. Instead, I walked passed him without another glance. I had either just done the stupidest thing or I had baited him to finally show his hand. Neither choice was a pleasant option.

When I got back to the room Peter had awoken. He was sitting bed quietly. He watched as I came in and frowned. He saw the blood in my braid and sighed.

“I thought it was a dream.” He said. “Why did you tell him you were a princess?” He asked.

“I didn’t mean to.” I said. I hadn’t meant to say a lot of what was said. “I lost my temper.”

“Are you alright?” He asked, gesturing to the blood in my hair.

“It hurt him more than it hurt me.” I said. I took the braids out of my hair and laid the spikes next to my bed. “I have to wash my hair.”

Peter got back into bed as I grabbed my things for the bath. He got under his blankets and stared at the ceiling. His stuffed animal fell of his bed, so I grabbed it and put it back on the bed before I left the room.

Isabel was in the hall as I left the room to find the bathing room. She also looked slightly bewildered, which was uncharacteristic of her. She kept looking back and forth between me and the floor.

“What wrong?” I asked.

“I heard you talk to Ronald in the hall.” She said, not looking back at me. “Is it true?”

“What?” I asked. I hoped that she hadn’t heard all of what we were talking about. There was no reason for Isabel to be involved in this, especially since Arabella was already involved. If Ronald found out that more than Peter and I knew, I feared that Isabel could be in danger.

“I heard what you said to Ronald-“

“Come with me to the bathing room.” I said quietly. I wasn’t sure what sort of spells Ronald had laid around the castle, so I didn’t want her to be heard saying that. She just nodded and followed me.

We were the only people in the bathing room. The water was luke warm at best, as the coals that heated the water had gone out long ago. This was the only place in the castle that was completely private. I knew no spells would ever be placed in this room, as it was a place of relaxation and privacy.

“Was what you said true?” Isabel asked.

“Which part?” I asked. It was all true, but I didn’t want to reveal more than I had to. There was no reason to give anyone more information than they needed to have.

“Ronald is trying to kill Peter?” She asked.

I stayed silent for a moment. I really didn’t know how to answer this question. Isabel was not my family, but I did know that if someone was trying to kill Francis that I would want to know. At the same time, I did not wish to put her in more danger than she in Arabella were already in.

“Yes.” I finally answered. There was no way I could come up with a plausible explanation for the quarrel with Ronald if he was not trying to kill Peter. Not to mention, Isabel always got the truth out anyways.

She sat down on a bench next to the water. I took the opportunity to begin washing the blood out of my hair. Once I was finished, she was still sitting still. Maybe lying would have been the best choice. Or maybe I shouldn’t have answered.

“Did an innocent man die?” She asked.

“No. The man was an assassin.” I said. It was so silent between the questions that I could hear the water from my hair drop to the stones covering the floor.

“You saw the man then?” She asked.

“Yes.” I said.

She stopped questioning me for little while to try and compose herself. Tears welled up in her eyes, some dropping down her face. I hoped that Peter was not listening. She wiped her nose with the sleeve of her tunic and took a deep breath.

“Who are you?” She asked. “And does my mother know all of this?” She added after a moment. She was steering clear of the questions she didn’t want the answers to, which I was thankful for.

“Your mother doesn’t know and I am Aeria.” I told her. I was still the same person that she knew, even if Peter and I were keeping a few secrets from them. It did not change who we were.

“But what does that mean? Were you sent here? Are you really Peter’s friend? Did he hire you-“

“I am Peters friend. I will be with him until the day we die.” I told her.

She wiped her tears away, “You said you were a princess.”

I paused. The other questions were hard to answer, but this was different. I didn’t want her perception of me to change because she found out I was a princess. I also didn’t want her perception of me to change because I hadn’t told the truth about who I was to begin with. Hurting anyone had not been my intention by not telling people I was a princess, I simply wished to start over.

I nodded my head. She wiped her tears again and leaned against the wall. I had never seen Isabel have anything but perfect posture. It was strange to see her crying and hunched against the wall. If I had paid more attention to my surroundings and ignored Ronald when he had spit on me, this could have all been avoided.

“Nothing changes then?” She asked.

“I cannot answer that.” I told her. There was no way I could know what would happen when Ronald decided to face us. Peter and I could die. We had just started to control our magic since the beginning of spring. There was no way we could engage other people in our private squabble with Ronald, especially if it meant that they could die.

“Then we should tell mother.” Isabel said, standing up. “We should have him hanged and caste out from the country.”

“No.” I said, almost cutting her off. “There is no proof besides what the mercenaries say.” I told her.

“Mercenaries? You have spoken to mercenaries?” She asked, her voice getting shrill. “You put yourself in danger because you were already in danger!”

“We had to find out who was trying to kill Peter. Other than who hired the assassins, we had no idea who it was.” I said. I looked around the bathhouse. I really wasn’t comfortable having a conversation like this in the castle. The bathing room wasn’t supposed to be spelled, but I had no idea what Ronald had done.

“Was Peter hurt?” She asked. I shook my head. “Were you hurt?” She asked. I shook my head again. Some things were better kept as secrets, especially since they had already happened. She sighed.

“Don’t tell anyone about it.” I told her. I didn’t even want her telling Arabella. If they knew that each of them knew something, they might speak about it. I didn’t trust anything in the castle to be safe from Ronald.

“Let’s go to bed.” She said after we stood for a moment longer. “I’ll talk to you about it in the morning-“

“We will not speak of this until Ronald’s body has been cast into the ocean, unless Peter and I are killed.” I said. “If he thinks that you do not know, then maybe he will not kill you.”

“That is shit.” She said. I blinked a few times, shocked that Isabel had uttered a curse word. “If he is trying to kill Peter, then there is a bigger picture. There is no reason for a man to kill a child. Ronald is trying to do something more than just kill a child. If Peter dies, then I am surely next.”

“Everything will be taken care of.” I promised her. She was correct though. If Peter and I were killed, that was just the beginning. Ronald wasn’t just killing Peter just to kill him. I couldn’t even promise Isabel that I could do anything.

That was the end of our conversation. We exited the bathing room and went our separate ways. I hurried back Peter’s room. Everything that I had just spoken to Isabel about was starting to make me rethink our plans.

Peter was still up when I got back. He sat up in bed and made room for me to sit next to him. Once he lit the fire we sat and stared at it. The silence was nerve wracking. We had no plan to fight Ronald once he showed his hand. We didn’t know if we were strong enough or what we would do if we weren’t strong enough.

“You look upset, are you alright?”He asked.

“No. We don’t have a plan. We can’t just show up and fight Ronald and not have a plan. This isn’t like the assassins. Ronald could actually kill us.” I said, leaning into him. There was silence again. Neither of us knew what to do. We were still children. Who were we to fight the most powerful mage in the kingdom?

“We do have a plan.” He said. He was still staring into the fire. “One of us defends and one of us fights-“

“That is not a real plan.” I said. That was how it always was. Peter always backed me up when we had to deal with the assassins. I was better at the offense, so it was always me who attacked.

“Is there a way to dampen his magic without dampening ours?” He asked.

“I don’t know. What kind of magic does Ronald have anyways?” I asked. I didn’t know what a dampening spell was. I felt like crying. I didn’t know answers to what seemed like a simple question and we didn’t have a plan.

“Just a normal mage.” He said. For a moment I felt hopeful. If he was a normal mage, then maybe we had a chance.

“What? How is he the most powerful?” I asked, hoping that maybe he was not in fact the most powerful. If we were lucky, maybe Ronald had gotten his place purely from knowing the king as a child.

“There aren’t many people that are specialized mages, but that doesn’t mean that general mages can’t be powerful. They have to work at their spells, just like us.” Peter said, dashing my hopes that Ronald wasn’t better than us.

“So, we shouldn’t expect to be turned into ice?” I asked. I hoped that there were no surprises in Ronald’s magic because I had no idea what to expect.

“Spells that mimic specialized spells take up a log of energy. Because we are energy mages, we don’t have to use our personal reserves of energy. We can do as much magic as we wish, but uncle cannot.” He explained as he scooted closer towards me.

This made me feel a little bit better. He didn’t have an unlimited source of magic. This made me lucky, since all my magic relied on the energy of my surroundings. If Peter and I could manage to block his spells, we just had to wait until his supply dwindled.

“So, we just have to outlast him?” I asked.

“I was thinking that one of us distracted him and another one stabbed him. It is hard to focus on both at once.” He said. His suggestion sounded easier and faster than mine.

“I know.” I said, remembering the brief fight with the assassin in the tunnel. Spells required almost full attention and formulating plans required the rest of it. We had two plans now.

“So I will do defense, aside from stabbing uncle, and you will do the offense because you’re best at that.” He said. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. He had managed to make me feel considerably better.

We stared at the fire for a little while longer before deciding it was time to go to bed. I curled under the blankets in my bed and stared over to Peter’s. He was staring back at me. I closed my eyes and pulled the blanket over my face.

Now we had a fighting chance. There was the slight possibility that Peter and I might come out of this situation unscathed. The other slight possibility was that Peter and I got completely annihilated. Either way, we were going to have to face Ronald at some point.