“Over there, through the trees, look very hard.” Pointing Son followed my fingers carefully.
“A buck, six point.”
“No, ten point. Switch your eyes over.” He looked at me and smiled; suddenly the familiar yellow glow appeared and dulled into the iris. “Hit it between the eyes.”
The movement was so swift a normal person couldn’t see it. He grabbed the arrow, knotted it and shot. There was a small thud as the body fell, the fawn didn’t even notice however. We were swift to the next tree, moving from branch to branch, carefully crossing and walking down a branch and finding a new one to walk down. Pryia though it was funny and called us her ‘tree people.’
“DAD! RAIDERS!” This was it, Arem was in my hand as I ran. Son understood that he was to retrieve the deer and stay here, he was to valuable to lose. My youngest son however, he had learn at a very young age how to kill.
“Dorian, get out Lyisha.” Lyisha was Dorian’s dagger, the one he used to kill his first person. Dorian was kind of tall for eight, thick dark black hair and a certain affinity for finding himself in trouble. Just like me. Just like his mother, and just like his brothers. We ran out of the forest to find my house, I jumped on and pulled Dorian up on the seat. “Remember, don’t tell you mom I let you kill people.”
“Okay Dad. They were just north of the ridge coming; we should be able to pass them off quickly.” He said and pulled Lyisha out and looked at the blade. He was a child, but none the less his demons were already getting to him. Once a week, he joins the clergy for an extreme cleansing. I tell him if it’s in the name of others safety, who’s ever up there won’t mind. He just smiles back at me and laughs, telling me its okay, he knows all too well what he’s done, and he says he can see the faces when he sleeps. I do that sometimes. We arrived just south of the ridge, and there they were coming at us. Three more horse joined us. My other sons were here to help us.
Talon, the eldest of what really is mine is fourteen, a large yet slim build just like me, but he has the rare grey hair you see every now and then in Carithga peoples. He too has the assassin’s dagger, Micha, after his first kill of a young sergeant in the Carithga Honor Guard, he still keeps the shirt with blood on it.
Wave and Storm are twins, Pryia named them in honor of her two favorite things. They don’t carry assassin daggers, Pryia wanted to raise them as scholors. They may only be twelve, but they’ve already abandoned that. They had no weapons of their own, I told them a few months ago, when they get their first kill, they can have one. Now is the time. “Dorian, Talon, step back. Today we initiate your brothers into the merciless void known as assassin.” Dorian and Talon smiled. Wave and Storm looked at me awkwardly. “Today, on this, the field of battle we crissin thee. ‘Into the dark depth, from which none may return. Assassins. To your marks. To your blades, no more light.’” It was the assassin’s motto for the entire world. If you recite it to another assassin, they will not kill you, but embrace you as a brother. I put Arem to my lips, kissed her and placed her back. Dorian copied and Talon decided to keep his out just in case. I heard another horse approaching.
I turned to see Son had shown up, the deer tied on the back of the steed. His golden eyes starred down at me and he pulled out his own dagger, I knew what he wanted. He was twenty-five, I couldn’t stop him anymore, he wasn’t a little boy. I nodded down. He stepped in front of Wave and Storm and smiled. “’Into the dark depth, from which no one may return. Assassins. To your marks. To your blades, no more light.”’
Storm said it word for word right after Son said it. Wave muttered it somewhat under his breath. If anyone was scared of pledging themselves to this, it was Wave, he was always nervous. He can’t help it though; Pryia had pampered him from birth. Son turned to him and looked him eye to eye, the golden sight overpowering him, “say it with pride and kill or go home to Mother.”
“Alright…” Wave repeated it louder and Son returned his view to the enemy. They were maybe fifty yards when they spotted us and Son walked out and threw his dagger. He had hit a man square in the chest and he fell to the ground. Son didn’t stop though, he continued foreword and I noticed what he was doing. I had read about it if I may digress.
The very hour before I met him, I had snuck into the library. By orders of the princess I was to find out about the golden eyes if I could. This is where I saw the scroll lying open on the table. A man, strong and tall, in golden armor, a golden shield, and golden eyes. The magic of the Predom’s if ever there was.
It was this that placed it self on Son. Talon turned to the boys, “throw your daggers or Son’s going to kill them all.” He snickered. If anything, Talon and Son were best friends, they acted almost completely alike. Both, hard headed, and nothing more then hooligans most of the time. But Talon knows how to kill; it looks like Son does too. Wave stepped up and threw, it surprised me because he hit. Storm followed and hit as well, but like twins, they hit the same, in the leg. They ran foreword towards wounded prey and finished their job. As they moved their heads to see past the horses, it was seen a fog of extraordinary thickness. Out of the cloud ran horses, blood on them. Out walked Son, the gore touch, striding he placed a hand on his little brother Storm and smiled.
The dusk settled around the town and more or less around my house. The boys beside Son were in bed and Pryia had fallen asleep earlier then usual. We think she may be pregnant again. There was a small knock at the door, I opened it and shook hands with Rudolph, now grown and as sturdy as a rock, hauling bricks every day would do that. “What brings you by so late?”
“Is it a bother?” He asked concerned. The one thing that he never lost was his concern for other people. When he was fourteen he was secretly sworn in as an assassin too. I figured, it was better to be overly safe with a bunch of trained killers than with a simple farmer’s militia.
“Never.” Son said shaking his hand.
“Oh, congratulation
“Like that’s anything new, it was disgusting then and it’s the same now.” I said. He laughed a little.
“No, a revolution, the people are uprising, calling to kill the king and his daughter. They’ve escaped and called on any assassins in this area to protect them. They don’t want to die. Plus, it’s a lot of money.”
“Rudolph, please tell me you didn’t accept this.”
“No sir, I wanted to wait, you lead the guild here, it’s up to you.” He sat down on the chair nearest and looked up at me. “I think that we should say yes, however. I mean, we adopted you, can’t we adopt them? They put in the notice that they were willing to undertake anything to stay alive. Rumor is the princess is knocked up.”
“Where are they?” Son asked getting out a map. He was going to do it either way, he like to play the good boy. Rudolph stood up and circled a part of the wastelands with his finger, “a small cabin there. All assassins know of this however, so if we purse, it’s going to have to be fast.”
“Son, get the boys up, Rudolph, go and kiss your wife good bye, we leave in ten!” The doors opened and closed all over the house until the black masses were surrounding. Pryia got up half dazed and smiled at me, her eyes sparkling.
“Be good, okay, and come home quickly, I get horribly twitchy when I don’t have you in bed.” I had to laugh, it was funny, but she was right, if she didn’t have me holding her still she’d move all over the place. I kissed her gently and held her. She pulled back and moved my mask over my face. “Go play assassin.”
I bowed and exited, the boys all copied, kissing Pryia goodbye, she’d put up their mask and then they’d bow and leave. To her, it was like we were all going to war, some horrible bloody bath that’s inescapable. To us, it was normal, like riding a horse or fishing.
Well placed, precise, perfect coverage, the three rules on getting a pick up. Personally, I can’t be seen by the Carithgans, ever if I wanted, I was the best and had to stay a safe distance away and constantly look for exactly what I just saw. Three men, slowly and carefully, sneaking up, ribbons of Carithga draped around the small of their waist. I turned to Dorian, he nodded and proceeded to make his way around while I readied Arem in case I needed to throw her. It was when Dorian was stabbing them that they realized they had failed. Two assassins, never send two. Always one or a lot.
The door was knocked on by Son and Rudolph. It opened to an aged but familiar face. Valkeria, a touch of grey dotting the front of her normally black hair opened the door, a small sword drawn. She was in a peasant’s outfit, a small white dress with a crudely sown leather vest, her face shrouded in a pain. It was the first time I saw her as human. Son held out the paper with our objective, I had written it in the plainest handwriting. ‘We have come to get you to safety. Follow us. Be silent.’
She nodded and grabbed the note and handed it to someone behind her. I looked across the way to a thicket and nodded for the twins to go ahead. I shoved Dorian foreword too since he’s the only one with actual killing experience worth trusting. He went and they took off on their horses and went ahead. I still had Arem out; I gripped the handle tightly, hiding the royal insignia on her.
Son and Rudolph split as they walked outside, they being Valkeria, her father the former King Alum, and several men and women. It was then Son and Rudolph paused to look for direction from me. They under stood that the group was too big for just two. I leapt from the tree and ran over. The royals back away in fear until they saw that the other two stood calmly facing me. I nodded and pointed to the front for Rudolph, the left back for Son and I took the right back and the group went enclosed in that triangle. The Carithga princess began talking about how awkward this was. “Y maen huw era wa soppusad tu trost thasa paupla? Whet yf thay laed os tu uor daeth?”
I would like to point out that in no such way am I perfect which is why I made the mistake of talking. “Shot iuor muoth, iour wara told tu ba sylant.” It was a stare of shock and stupidity. They never would have thought someone spoke the same language as the royals of Carithga. Really, if ever I was foolish and wise at the same time… Anyway, it was at that point the three horses of my sons charged back at us and stopped.
“DAD! It’s more raiders, but it’s a larger force this time!” Dorian said pulling up to me. Son stepped foreword. “Father, let me go and…”
“Stay here, all of you. I have this. I will come back for you.” I said quickly and ran over the hill away from them. I needed to recover myself. I will say one more thing about me, I have done some amazing things as well as stupid, but the amazing things are covered in blood. It was mockery I heard as I ran forth and stabbed the nearest with Arem and pulled her out to kill again. All in all, they never stood a chance. Most raiders never do, they get killed easily, yet I hate that they always seem to attack when I’m near, maybe I have a special scent or something? I counted as I usually do, forty-nine in total. Forty-nine different bloods on Arem, she hasn’t seen such glory in a while.
I walked back after wiping her clean, kissing her and putting her away. I walked back over and looked at the group being controlled by the small eight year-old. I lifted him back on his horse, “we are heading out, go through the field, I don’t want to waste anytime.” He nodded and raised a hand, swiveling it back and forth the procession started and the nobility looked on the bodies. The women were getting nauseated except for the princess, she was used to this. Some of the men even looked disgusted, I felt proud of myself in a twisted murderous way.
It took an entire day and night to return to the village, we arrived and were greeted by the serenade of Roger hammering away making a wooden frame to the church. I stopped and so did Rudolph and Son. It was time we went to work. Rudolph stepped foreword. “You all are free to wander about, but stay within the village.”
“Also, beware the silver berries, they are non editable. They have a large one roomed hall set up for you right now. If you wish to stay here permante residency will take an interrogation by my aunt.” Son said as the large woman walked out, wooden spoon in hand.
She began talking and they all removed they’re masks, I looked over at Valkeria who was starring at me awkwardly. I took off my mask and she smiled at me, “Whara heva iuo baan?”
Pryia walked up and threw her arms around me, “Hey sweetie, the roof leaking, I tried to have one of the boys fix it but they were scarred to get on the roof.”
“I’ll get to it after work.” She nodded and we kissed and I went to work down in with Roger and picked up the frames for the bricks that had recently been empty and walked out to the mud pit, all the while I knew she was starring at me in disgust.
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