Mark of the Assassin

5th day of summer 89 N.W.

You turn 13 soon! I hope you like your birthday present. I sent the game that we used to play when we were stuck in the nursery. I pretended to lose our version, so they would get me a new one. That is the one that I sent. I figured that you wanted the one with all the pieces, so I sent the new one.

The warm weather has just begun. The snow is melting off the ground and I can see the dirt. I cannot wait until the midsummer festival. There will be lots of people from all over the country! The pox is still going around and everyone is still sick. I am not sure if the festival will still happen.

Father has been getting sicker and sicker. I wonder if he will make it sometimes. He would not accept the charm you gave me. He said that he did not wear anything aside from his crown on his uniform. Mother wore it. She liked it. For everyone that was sick, the charm did not help them. They are still sick. I suspect that it only keeps people healthy, not makes them healthy. That is alright though. Once they are healthy again, it will help them.

What is happening where you are? Has the snow melted yet? And since you’re in school can you tell me why it’s always so snowy here. We haven’t learned about that yet. The nursery teacher says that I must stay with what she is teaching. She has become stricter since you left. I think mother and father had a word with her. She is not dead or gone, so they must not blame her for your magic.

I hope that everything is going well for you. I’ve sent another gold coin. I hope that you use them well. Also, for my birthday I wish you would send more seeds. The flowers are growing in my room and they look wonderful. They are so colorful and pretty. I would love to see a garden of these, but I fear they would never grow in the ground outside.

I love you and miss you. Love, Francis.

“Do you like your gift?” D’aknu asked. She had given me material for a new dress that I planned on making. I had been working on sewing since I learned to sew dresses. It was much more useful than just being able to mend clothes.

“I love it- that reminds me,” I said, walking over to the trunk in the corner of my room and grabbing the dress that I was growing out of, “You can have this if you would like. It’s a tad too small on me now.” I told her.

She held the dress out for a moment before hugging me. “It’s beautiful.” She said. I knew that she loved that dress. Eventually, I would give her all my dresses. She said that I couldn’t just give them to her, but I didn’t mind. My money had not bought these dresses.

“My turn. Close your eyes.” Peter said, dropping something into my hands. When I opened them, he was grinning like a drunk.

I looked down at my present. It was a pair of shoes. They were beautiful. It took me a moment to realize exactly what shoes they were; he had given me a pair of shoes that I had been admiring weeks ago. I had no shoes to go with my formal dresses.

“You guys are wonderful.” I said, hugging them both. I couldn’t wait until their birthdays. I would spoil them both.

“We’ve got to go,” Peter said after the three of us had been together for a while. D’aknu had never come to the castle with us. She said that she didn’t want to, but sometimes it seemed like she did. Either way, she said she didn’t mind that Peter and I spent most of the day on Sunday together at the castle.

“I’ve got some training to do.” D’aknu said. She grabbed her dress and said bye to us before leaving. She always trained on Sundays. She was the best at riding and hand fighting in our class, including the older kids.

Peter and I quickly got dressed and headed towards the castle. On free days we went the real way to the castle. We entered through the front gates and greeted all the guards. Actually, we greeted everyone. Every servant, cook, or guard we saw we said hello to.

Unfortunately, today I had to pleasure of seeing Ronald. This was the first time since he grabbed my hair that I had seen him in more than passing. He turned his nose up at me and and walked over to us. Peter noticed this and grabbed me hand.

“Ignore him.” Peter said, holding my hand tighter. “Uncle, we have not spoken in some time.”

“That is because you bring commoners with you everywhere.” Ronald said. He stared at me for a moment before looking away, “When you grow older you may understand that you are only fit for the company of royalty.”

“Maybe Aeria will be royalty then.” Peter said. His uncle snorted.

“You are either born into royalty or your are not. Anabella will never be royalty, even when Isabel marries her. She is a commoner through and through. Despite the fact that your mother is letting two ladies get married in the first place-“

“Do not speak about Isabel and Anabella like that.” I said, cutting him off. “They are the kindest princesses I have ever met.”

Ronald grabbed me by my braid again, yanking me away from Peter. “Do not speak to me like that ever again.”

Ronald let go of my hair and walked away. Peter was frozen in place. His uncle had never been so rude before. Ronald had spoken treason against the princess and poked fun at them. The man would never be punished for such sentences, but I thought that he ought to.

“Don’t worry.” I told Peter, grabbing his hand again.

“He said horrible things.” Peter said quietly. “He hurt you.”

Peter pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me. He buried his face in my shoulder and held me tighter. We stayed like this until I sneezed. He let go of me and led me to his sister’s room. This had been the tradition since his sister taught me how to sew dresses. I would go and help every free time, while Peter would meditate in his room.

“You two look sullen.” Isabel said as we entered her room. We followed her to the room adjoined to hers. This was where she did all of her sewing. She hated to make a mess, although the sewing room was most definitely a mess.

Peter left without saying a word. Both Isabel and Arabella noticed. We only sewed for a moment before Isabel began asking me questions.

“What happened?” Isabel asked. There was no point in lying because Isabel was incredible at getting people to tell the truth. She was also incredible at knowing when people were lying.

“Ronald saw us in the hall.” I said.

“And so your spirits have been crushed simply from seeing a man that you didn’t like? Since when does Peter not like Ronald anyways?” Isabel asked.

“He doesn’t like him since today, I think.” I said. “He was saying mean things and then I interrupted him and he grabbed me by the hair and hurt my scalp.” I said. This was the second time that he had done it. That was already too many times in my opinion.

“He laid a finger on you?” Arabella asked, she looked angry. She hated it when men laid fingers on women out of anger. I suspected that had happened to her one too many times.

“Yes. The second time.” I said. This was too much for Arabella. She got up and quickly walked to the closet. Isabel looked shocked.

“I cannot believe that he would do that.” Isabel said, she set her sewing down beside her and sat next to me. “What did he say?” She asked.

“It is best if I do not repeat it.” I told her. I did not want her being upset that someone within the castle was disapproving of her and Arabella being together. She knew there was plenty of talk outside the castle about it, but she didn’t need it inside the castle too.

“Here.” Arabella said as she came out of the closet. She handed me a heavy pouch. I could hear that the things inside the pouch were made of metal. “You braid them into your hair and if someone ever grabs your hair again, they will regret it.” She said.

I emptied the bag onto my lap. There were a number of spiky metal balls that would fit into my hair. Some of them were bigger than others, but for the most part, they were mostly the same size.

“Thank you.” I told her. “Do you wear them too?”

“I would never leave without them.” She said. Isabel snorted and picked her sewig back up. “And do tell me if Ronald ever acts up again. I might go pay him a visit.”

“I wish you wouldn’t.” Isabel said, “We already know he doesn’t like us much and I would prefer to stay uncursed.”

“He wouldn’t dare raise a finger against a princess.” Arabella resumed her seat and picked up her mending, “And if he did, he would be killed.”

I thought about that sometimes. If no one could prove that it was Ronald, then how would he be punished. He could easily silence people. It didn’t take much to spell someone to silence. Peter and I were learning how to break spells like that now and it was much harder to break them than it was to make the spells.

We sewed until the dinner bell rang. Isabel was nearly finished with her dress now. She had spent several weeks making the dress. It was beautiful. She was planning on wearing it to the midsummer festival. Arabella had already chosen her best dress for the event. I was fairly certain that she was capable of hiding massive amounts of knives under her dress and that she did.

Peter joined us on the way to the dining hall. He didn’t seem to be in a better mood than he was when we had split up. Meditating had not calmed him down today. Normally, when we meditated he ended up much more cheerful than he had started out as.

“Are you alright?” I asked him.

“He hurt you and I didn’t do anything.” He said. He grabbed my hand. “I should have done something-“

“No. Sometimes it is better to let things happen. Standing up to him will do nothing but harm.” I said.

“Then what are you going to do next time? What if he strikes you next time?” He asked. From today forward, I would wear the metal spikes in my hair every single day. I would not permit people to hurt me.

“Arabella gave me these.” I said, letting go of his hand and making him touch my hair. “So I don’t think that will be a problem any longer.”

Peter seemed more relaxed after that, or at least less agitated than he was. Isabel seemed to notice too. She handed him something from her pocket and whispered. I didn’t see what she handed him, but it seemed to cheer him up.

“What guests are here this week?” Peter asked Isabel. Isabel and Arabella were at dinner every night entertaining guests. On almost all days they had guests to entertain. I wondered how they managed to do so without being driven crazy. Entertaining people was not my strong suit. When royalty or nobility with children came to visit, Francis and I were tasked with entertaining them.

“Lord Tarak and his family are visiting.” Arabella said.

“Lovely.” Peter muttered.

“Asketal has been asking about you.” She added. Peter muttered something again, this time I didn’t catch it.

When we entered the dining hall I couldn’t help but notice there were more people than ususal. I wondered quite how big Lord Tarak’s family was for a moment. I didn’t have to wonder long though, as his family marched single file into the dining hall shortly after uss. There were about fifteen of them.

Once Lord Tarak’s wife got closer, I noticed that she was pregnant. With that many children the women must be pregnant nearly all the time. Seeing as Peter wasn’t surprised that the woman was pregnant again, I assumed that nothing was out of the ordinary.

“I remember when that family only had three children.” Isabel said quietly. Peter laughed and pulled me towards the table. Arabella and Isabel did the same thing. It didn’t seem like any of them particularly wanted to speak to the Lord’s family.

The moment I heard the voice of the Lord’s wife, I understood why. She had such a shrill voice, I thought that all the glass in the room would break if she kept talking. Luckily, she did not speak for long because one of her children began to speak instead. Her child had just as terrible as a voice and from that I concluded that they all had awful voices.

“Peter!” A girl nearly shouted. I could tell it was part of the Lord’s family because her voice was comparable to her mothers. Peter squeezed my hand and took a step backwards. Presumably, this was Asketal.

“Hello Asketal. I have not seen you in a long time.” Peter said. “And here I thought that maybe she wouldn’t notice me.”

“Hello Peter.” She said, staring at me, “And who is your friend? She wears a dirty dress in the castle of the queen.”

I looked down and saw that my dress did have a little bit of dirt on the hem. I kicked myself for not noticing that my dress had gotten dirty on the way over. When I had the chance to slip away, I would have to try and get the dirt from my dress.

“It was muddy outside.” Peter said, “I believe that my breeches are dirty as well.” He looked down at his breeches. They were a tad bit dirty, as were his shoes. I felt not better. He was held to a different standard because he was the prince. I was just a commoner here.

“You didn’t play outside, did you?” Asketal said, nearly gasping. “Mother would never let me play outside! She says that I will dirty my clothes and that the commoners will dirty my brain.”

“We walked here from the school.” I told her. She stared at me once more. It felt like she was examining me like a bug before she decided to pin me on the wall. It was uncomfortable.

“You have an accent.” The girl said, “You are not from this country, and yet you and the Prince,” She gestured to our hands, “are holding hands such as you are married.”

This girl was blunt. It took a moment for Peter and I to even breath after she spoke. Neither of us dropped each other’s hand though. Instead we held them tighter. Clearly the girl was a little bothered by that.

“This is her country now.” Peter told her. “And so she belongs here.”

“But where is she from?” The girl asked.

“Drotak.” I answered.

“I know that our country is allies with yours, but it truly is a dreadful country.” Asketal said. “I learned my my geography teacher that it is always snowing and that most of the country just makes fabrics.”

“That is the export of the country.” I said, “And the country is terrible.”

“Do you like it here?” She asked me.

“Yes. I like the people too.” I told her.

She nodded and looked like she was about to say something, but then her name was called. She said goodbye and hurried over to her mother. Although her voice was terrible, she wasn’t as bad as the rest of the nobility that I had spoken too. Many of them were ignorant to many subjects and only spoke their point of view.

Most of the reason I still went to the dinners with Peter was because he wanted me to go. I hated them. I had to sit and be well behaved. I could not do anything without asking and no one allowed me to speak. Children were not to be heard, just seen. Occasionally someone would ask where my parent was, and I would tell them that I had no parents.

Peter said that I had parents. But I disagreed. They had sent me to another country and disallowed me from coming home. They had cut me off. They clearly did not see me as a daughter. It had taken me a little while to think about it without crying, but they were no longer my parents. And Drotak was no longer my home.

“Let’s take our seats.” Peter said. I nodded and followed him to our seats.

We always sat in the same place. Arabella sat on the right side of me and Peter on the left. Isabel sat next to Arabella and the guests. On the other side were the places for the King and the Queen. The king was not scheduled to return for another week, so his seat was vacant. I had never met the king. He had been doing military work since I had arrived in the country.

Dinner was served in the same fashion as always. The servants came out with pitchers of water, wine, and tea. Today I chose to drink tea, as did Peter. Peter got a different tea though. His came directly from the kitchen, as the servant said that he ran out of the tea. I drank my tea while the servant was in the kitchen and asked for another serving. He served me out of the pitcher. I thought that to be odd.

Arabella thought that it was odd too. She examined the tea before nudging me in the side. She looked around the table, trying to see who was looking at us and at all the drinks laid out on the table.

“That’s poisoned. Get rid of it.” Arabella said, staring at Peter’s tea.

“Don’t drink the tea. Arabella says it’s poisoned.” I said.

“Did you recognize the servant?” He asked.

“No.” I said. “Watch the table. Make sure no one else gets poisoned.” I told Arabella. She nodded.

I slipped from the table and hurried into the kitchen before anybody noticed. The servant was new. There was rarely new servants, so it likely would not be hard to find an unfamiliar face. Once I slipped into the kitchen, I looked around at the servants. There was no one that I hadn’t seen before.

Maybe the servant wasn’t really a servant. If he was trying to poison Peter and only Peter, it was probably one of the assassins. Only two had been sent in the past few weeks. We had evaded both of them. Since this servant was probably an assassin, I figured that he was probably trying to get away through the servants tunnels.

I pushed back the curtain that covered the entrance to the servants halls and went inside. They weren’t very well lit. I had been in here only twice and that was to fetch Peter from the kitchen. The servants hall led to an empty hall. I saw someone slip into a tunnel in the wall.

It took a moment for me to figure out how to get into the tunnel hidden in the wall, but not long enough for the man to get away. I immediately saw the man who gave Peter the tea. I also noticed that he had a black mark on the inside of his arm as he hurried down the corridor. This was the secret tunnel that lead into the castle from the garden.

Before doing anything, I sealed the doors to the exit of the tunnel. I shut out all spells into the tunnel as well, so no one could hear or see what I was doing. I doubted that this was going to end pleasantly, mainly because this was an assassin sent to kill royalty. I doubted that he wanted to be caught.

I closed my eyes and focused on the energy of the mark. Before I broke the spell, I wanted to see if I could trace where the spell came from. Carac said that only some mages put their signatures on their spells. Hopefully this was one of those times.

It was not one of those times. Instead of spending longer on trying to figure out where the spell came from, I broke the silence spell. The assassin froze. Creating and breaking the silence spells was painful for the person that they were on, so I assumed that he knew what I had done. Breaking the spell was basically burning it off the skin.

The man had turned around. He saw me and began walking towards me. He was a tall man, much taller than I had noticed when he was serving us tea. Perhaps I should pay better attention to my surroundings, even if they were familiar. He was almost bald, although it probably by choice because he couldn’t be more than twenty.

“Who are you?” The man demanded. He reached into his waistline and brought out a knife.

“I should be asking the same question! Who sent you to assassinate the prince?” I demanded. The answer I got was not quite what I wanted, as no one really wants a large knife being swung at their face. I ducked under the knife, thanking Eirken for forcing us to practice dodging knives for a whole week.

The man kept swinging at me. After a couple swings, I decided that sooner or later he would probably hit me with the knife, he had two out by now, so I should probably do something. I didn’t want to kill him immediately, but those were the only defensive spells I knew.

“Where did you go? Mother is asking for you?” Peter said. His voice caught me off guard and I was hit by the knife in my arm. I could only tell that I was hit by the knife because I could feel the blood dripping down my arm immediately. I couldn’t tell whether or not it hurt, but the man continued swinging his knife at me so there was no time to dwell on that.

I had to stop him, but I needed to know who had sent him. I closed my eyes again and looked at all the energy in the room. Maybe I could get enough energy in him to hurt him. Before I could decide whether or not to do it, I was stuck again, this time in the chest. This time I knew because I could hear the fabric of my dress ripping.

I felt the air go cold as I pushed the energy into the tall man. He dropped his knives at once and fell to his knees. He gasped for air, but blood came from his mouth instead. I could see blood coming from his eyes and nose too.

“Who sent you?” I asked again, kicking his knives out of his reach. He was still gasping for air, so I pulled some of the energy from him. He fell to the ground. “Who sent you?” I asked again, kicking him onto his back.

“R- Ro…” He tried to speak, but he began choking on his blood. Before I could try to help him, he died. Blood was still pouring from his eyes and nose. It was grotesque. I had killed this man and not even gotten information from him.

“I’m in the tunnel. I caught the man.” I told him, “I need Arabella.”

I knew that Arabella had met Isabel because she had been her body guard. I figured that maybe she had more experience with assassins than me. It was frustrating that I had killed the man. All I had needed to do was get the information from him, instead I had killed him before I could get anything useful.

I lost it for a moment and kicked the dead man in the chest. I heard things hit one another in his pocket. Maybe he had something useful in his pocket. Even if he had died before telling me what I needed, maybe I could still get some sort of information out of him.