Assassin's Promise

Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

I stayed under shrubs inside the forest for as long as I could. It felt like hours had passed, and I grew restless. Staying still became challenging. It couldn’t have been more than fifteen, or twenty minutes, though. It didn’t matter. I was pretty confident the Watch were gone.

I thought I was alone in the woods when I heard the creatures once again. Squirrels ran up and down trees. Owls hooted. Perhaps they were signaling to me that all was clear, and I was free to come out of hiding?

Cautiously, I crawled out from under the brush and pushed up onto my knees. Looking around, I made sure I was indeed, alone. Despite the darkness that surrounded me, I could still make out the shadows. There was no sign of the King’s Watch.

The shadows didn’t belong to the Watch, if anything they were from my imagination. At least, that was what I convinced myself.

I would have stayed on my knees for a few more moments, just to be sure I was alone, but when I saw the fire through the trees, I got to my feet and stumbled over to the closest tree. I pressed my palms and the side of my face against harsh bark. With one eye, I stared at the fire. It was goinggood. Thick orange and red flames lit the night.

My house. The barn.

As if sleepwalking, I pushed past tree after tree until I’d made my way out of the forest. The temptation to run home caused my stomach to churn the longer I fought off the urge. I wasn’t sure I’d have been able to run. My knees knocked together as if my legs were about to buckle. I found the balance I needed, and walked. The flames drew me closer, and closer.

I knew I was crying as I made my way across the field, but ignored the tears rolling down my face.

The fire roared with life. The structures looked exactly like demons when they haunted my dreams. I swore I could see a face in the flames.

Black smoke rolled into a dark sky and blocked the light from a million stars.

I passed the barn. The roof was gone, the frame was like a black outline inside the fire. The wood moaned, and groaned, and then the entire barn collapsed in on itself. A huge puff of fire ballooned into the air with a whoosh.

The heat hit me as if slapped across the right side of my head, arm, and leg. I stopped walking and for just a moment, turned and watch the barn become little more than ash and support pillars.

The house was close to crumbling to the ground. My mother was inside there. She didn’t deserve cremation at the hands of the Watch. I ran as close as I could, intending to pull her body out through the back door. There was no way I could get inside. The fire licked out at me from the shattered windows.

I coughed and waved the smoke away from my face.

Going around to the front, I stopped.

I stood, staring.

If my father had been alive when I ran away and into the woods, he was dead now.

If I had made it into the house for my mother’s remains, I’d have died inside searching for her, because she wasn’t inside.

The Watch must have pulled her out before setting my home ablaze.

Dangling from nooses on separate maple tree branches swung both of their bodies.

The hanging hadn’t killed either of them.

The fires would bring neighbors around.

The hanging was for show, a warning for others.

For some reason, the King’s Watch had thought my parents were wizards, and for that, they killed them without any trial.

There was no easy way to get them down on my own. I climbed the tree and scooted out on the branch my mother dangled from. I used a knife and sawed through the rope. As sharp as the blade was, it took several minutes. My arm hurt and my hand cramped holding the handle.

The smoke in the air stung my eyes.

I cringed when the rope finally severed and my mother’s corpse dropped onto the ground with a hollow thud. I pressed my forehead against the branch and squeezed my eyes closed.

In death, I hoped her suffering had ended. “I’m sorry, mother.”

I made my way back, and out across the branch that held my father. I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could stand. I looked over the side of the branch. My father swayed back and forth. It was slight, but noticeable.

The heat coming off the house was nearly unbearable, even as far away from the fire as I was. When it crashed down, and that big ball of rolling fire launched into the sky, I went to work on the rope.

I didn’t want the neighbors to see my parents like that.

“Don’t worry, father,” I said, over and over.

There was no getting used to it. When the knife was just over halfway through the rope, it gave. My father dropped faster and landed harder on the ground than my mother had.

I didn’t cry this time.

I was done crying for now. I put the knife across my mouth and bit down on the blade. The steel was hot from sawing the ropes, and burned my lips, until I quickly lifted them off the blade. I gripped the branch in both hands and swung down, and out of the tree. I landed on my feet next to my father’s body.

Without delay, I cut the knots away from their necks, coiled the ropes, and tossed the evidence into the fire.

Torches glowed in the distance.

It could be the neighbors.

It might be the Watch returning, determined to finish their hunt for me.

I did not want to leave my parents face down on the high grass in front of our burning home, but neither could I risk waiting to see who was approaching.

Out back, between what was left of the house and the barn, was a trap door in the ground. If someone didn’t know it was there, they’d never find it. The door was covered with earth and grass. It was like a garden, so that when I lifted the door, none of the cover dropped away.

Descending the six steps into darkness, I patted around for the shelf on the left. My fingers fumbled on what I was looking for. I struck the flint once, twice, and then used the small flame to light a lantern. This was where father kept many of his alchemy things.

I wasn’t sure what all of it was for, I just knew that it was all that was left.

There was a small brown leather satchel. I filled it with what I could, replaced the lantern, blew out the flame, and escaped as silently as I could into the night.