The Assassin

Dagger

The day passed much faster than the princess would have liked. A pit of dread formed in her stomach when she heard the happy announcement from her father that they would be arriving to Nostar tomorrow during the afternoon. She laid in her private tent that was right next to the King's, imagining every possible thing that could go horribly wrong tomorrow, she knew it was the last thing she should be doing but when she tried to distract herself with an innocent thought it would turn into something much more twisted than the last.

She tossed and turned on her increasingly tangled blankets, soon she'll tire herself out, right? Luella laid on her back looking directly up at center tip of the tent where everything met. It was eerie how silent everyone was, it almost felt like they were playing a prank on her. For the amount of sleeping soldiers surrounding her tent, there should a least be occasional clanks of armor or shuffling of sheets. 

If it weren't for the faint snoring of Luella's father floating from his tent to hers and the chirps of crickets, she would think she was lost in the void of space. As time flew past she became more and more anxious.

Being sleepy during a fight sounds like a recipe for death. 

Luella was never afraid of death itself but of the unpredictability of when you would die. The day of your death is like every other, you wake up and you go on about your business thinking "There's always tomorrow" when reality there isn't...not for you anyways. Sometimes you'll pass away in your sleep which a death most people would consider favorable but not to Luella. 

No chance to say goodbye to family and friends, even if she were to be suddenly stabbed in the middle of the desert, at least she'll have a few seconds to run through her memories even if it's brief. 

Yes...she'd like that. 

Oddly the thought calmed her mind as she closed her eyes. Her hand slipped under the pillow and held the dagger's hilt loosely. 

And if anyone did try to kill her in her sleep, she'd kill them first.

Her rest was short that night, the princess had fallen asleep three hours before the king had joyously awoken his troops and her. Charles pulled his daughter to her feet and packed their tents at record speed throwing it onto the carriage and waiting for everyone to catch up with him. She was irritable that morning but watching the soldiers scramble to put away their tents and squeeze into their carts was no less than amusing.

When everyone was finally ready to go, the recognizable jerk of the carriage from yesterday started to bring them closer to the makeshift town of Nostar. 

Luella rested her head on the edge of the window of the vehicle trying to make up for lost sleep but the rattling of the carriage's wheels sent vexatious vibrations to her head, she gave up, accepting her sleepy state.

The princess yawned.

"Yawning?!" Charles said surprised. His abrupt yelling awoke the young woman just a tad. "We're almost to Nostar and you're yawning, look at you." He said with a teasing smile.

Luella didn't appreciate the reminder of how close they were.

"I didn't sleep well last night." She admitted.

"Oh well, of course! No one's expected to be fearless on their first quest." Charles said. "If you'd like you can stay in the carriage the entire time, I just wanted you to see what it was like up close." 

Luella was trembling just thinking about it but she did not travel all the way here to watch from inside a carriage.

"No, I'll go outside." She said. Charles beamed.

"That's my girl! Be careful now, I don't want you to be standing in the middle of the field, watch from a distance."

She nodded. 

The long plains they were riding through gradually became a forest as the horses slowed from a gallop to a trot, carefully avoiding thick tree trunks and bushy areas. Out of all the anxiety-inducing reminders of how close they were, why couldn't one of them been told to her now? Luella wasn't prepared to see dark green banners come into view. Goldfinches were stitched in the middle with yellow thread and matching yellow tassels hung from its pointed end. 

Unwelcoming faces stared directly at the king's carriage as it stopped right in the middle of the village entrance of the hostile group of Nostarians. 

King Charles stepped out as confident as ever, the princess followed him out of the horse-pulled vehicle. 

"Good evening." He greeted a man who marched his way in front of charles.

"Leave." Was all the man said in return. 

"No need to be rude, Mr..." Luella's father waited for a response.

"You need not know my name you tyrant." The man's voice was low and calm but his words dripped with deadly poison. "What you need to do is turn around and return to your slums."

Luella watched the tension rise as people began to scatter and hide in their homes. She herself walked backwards until her back was pressed up against the cart.

"I'm sure you know well enough that I most definitely do not live in the slums, I've actually come to negotiate, you Nostarians refused my offer to live in my kingdom the first time but I've come back to reinstate my proposal and I'm sure after about...seventeen years of living off of nature, your people might want to ponder over my offer a little longer this time around." Charles' smile was unwavering from beginning to end.

The man stood before him and held his stony expression but said nothing in return. 

"So?" The monarch asked. "What'll it be?"

"...Give me a minute." He said swiftly pivoting and walking toward a large cabin in the middle of the homes. 

Charles' strode over to his daughter.

"If all goes well we might not have any casualties." He said.

Luella hoped that's what would happen. After a few minutes passed the man exited the tent with a piece of paper and a quill, he went from home to home having everyone mark something down. The king waited patiently for them to make their decision for it was an extremely important one. As soon as the last house was visited he stomped his way back to Charles sticking the paper he held in his hand in front of the king's face showing tally marks under one heading and zero under another.

"Not one of us have any desire to join your phoney saviour act kingdom-"

"Shame." Charles interrupted him by shoving the sharp end of his sword through the man's chest.

Luella gasped and jerked her head back hitting her dome against the carriage as the man's pupils shrank to a size she didn't think was possible. The impaled man let go of the paper attempting to cover her gushing wound as Charles removed his sword and watched the man fall to his knees and hit the ground loudly. It was almost comical how long it took for the man's piece of paper to drift softly on the ground compared to his ungraceful nosedive into the dirt. 

The king yelled a war cry at the top of his lungs unleashing his army on the quaint underdeveloped town. Wind picked up as troops sprinted past the princess and demolished homes, pulling out its residents and killing them on the spot. 

The scene was laid out synonymous to a tragic landscape, the green banners were in the process of being painted vermillion and the golden bird on its surface was being drowned in blood, its single black sphere of an eye staring back at the princess, shrieking for help. 

She could hardly find her father amidst the swirling filth and the merciless soldiers gripping and pulling at the Nostarian's limbs and hair, no matter how hard they distorted their bodies attempting to twist their way out their clutches, they couldn't escape the iron grip that dragged their despairing somas into the pit of death.

 Luella could almost see white wings of angels snatching up souls of innocent children, altruistic women and benevolent men but really it was simply her father's white fur coat rippling and swaying behind him as he drove his weapon into another being's heart. He was so enraptured by his s*******r he didn't notice the woman running at him with a sword, her eyes wild and eager with bloodlust. 

She's trying to kill her father.

She trying to kill...

Luella didn't finish the thought, her legs already racing toward the woman. She didn't reach for her sword, instead she tightly held the serrated silver dagger Oliver gave her and charged with intent, the woman was starting to get too close to her father for her liking and picked up her speed, her calves already burning with pain.

The princess saw the woman drew back her arm to get enough force to penetrate the man's flesh, her heart was thumping against her ribcage so hard it almost felt like a heart attack, Luella unsheathed her dagger and swiped at her neck.

It took a moment for the blood to begin pouring from the incision she had made, the woman gaped at Luella. The princess was most uncomfortable, not because of the color draining from the woman's face, not because of the unnatural way her eyeballs rolled up to the back of her head, not because of the blood flowing out of her throat like a fountain down her front, but because she looked terribly similar to Arabella.

The king spun around to see the woman collapse and his daughter holding her dagger, pride swelled in his chest, Luella had saved him.

"Wonderful job, Luella!" He praised, there were only a few more people left. The callous soldiers finished them off and soon she stood in the center of the result of butchery. Bodies were strewn about the ravaged town, the blood seeping from the Nostarians were filling small ditches and dents in the ground making numerous small pools of red. 

"I tried to give them a chance." The king said looking down at the terrified looks frozen on the corpses faces. Luella gazed at them with him.

At least they hadn't died in their sleep. 

Charles and his troops searched the few structures that were still standing upright for anything valuable. Not much was found as you could imagine.

Everyone climbed back into their carriages and just like that they were on their way back to Astor.

"Ahh." The king let out a satisfied sigh. "Wasn't that an experience? Aren't you glad you came?" 

Luella nodded with her eyebrows slightly raised. 

"Yes, I am." She answered, and she was. The bright undertone of her voice surprised her. It was odd, very odd. After the woman fell and the dust had settled, Luella felt...what's the word?

Numb?

No, that wasn't it.

Fine? Yes, she felt...fine, peaceful, at ease.

The carriage ride back home felt a bit more stable than the ride going to Nostar. 

She relaxed in her seat and let her eyes roam, eventually they settled on the petite flowers growing on the vibrant green bushes that left a blur of color as the cart kept a steady pace. 

"What pretty flowers." Luella thought as they whizzed past.

*  *  *

Vernon had returned to The Dens as the sun began to set, his injury had made the trip much longer than usual and he had to lean on Gavin for support on the walk back because apparently walking was putting too much strain on his body.

He didn't like feeling so handicapped and it was getting increasingly more difficult to playing off a stab wound as simply being tired. Gavin unnecessarily apologized to him because he couldn't let him lean on his shoulder anymore while walking through The Dens, it was Vernon's own fault. Not only did he let himself get stabbed he also won't tell Cassandra, he just doesn't want her to worry. She already has so much on her plate and he doesn't need to distract her with his own shortcomings, he can take care of this on his own just fine.

Deep down he knew he wasn't telling Cassandra not only because he cares about her but to protect his pride. Vernon cares about her first and foremost of course but he couldn't bare the thought of being useless, a beggar, a parasite. 

Jasper already loved to publicly humiliate him, he could only imagine what he'd do if he found out he's messed up this badly.

And Gavin, what a saint. Why was he putting up with all of his idiocracy? Gavin helped The Dens everyday, he religiously does the laborious task of setting up traps deep into the forest and checking them every few hours, he has to find new hunting spots to see if it's easier to catch game in that area, and sometimes he even goes hunting himself with a rifle and all when he manages to trade something for bullets.

Vernon hardly gets any jobs these days and the time he does he manage to get one, he screws it all up and throws into a blazing fire stacked with coal and wood.

Relief washed over the pained man as he slowly lowered himself onto his bed, Gavin rushing to help him. The one good thing to come out of this was Queen Ruth said once the princess returned to Astor he had one more week to assassinate her, thank the heavens. Apart from the good news, he could tell the bearer of the message wasn't all too content.

The queen's hands were balled into fists contradicting her collected guise and her starless eyes were much more intense than they were at his last visit. Her obnoxious advisor, on the other hand, had no issue with showing Vernon exactly the way he felt. If looks could kill Vernon would be a unrecognizable, decomposing carcass. The man owned a mean snarl and probing, penetrative eyes that could give you heart pains, though Vernon still wasn't sure if the pain was caused by his injury or Lawrence.

At the very least he increased his pain. 

"I don't want to see you leave this bed until you're fully healed, okay?" Gavin told Vernon. He nodded.

"Gavin?" 

"Yes?"

"Will you please tell me when the princess returns?" Vernon asked.

"Sure, but why? I thought you weren't going to kill her." The man looked at him with a puzzled face.

"..I.." The singular word drifted into nothingness as he stared up at his tent-mate embarrassed.

"You like her, don't you?" Gavin said, he spoke with a off-center tone.

"Yes...I do. She wanted me to go back..so I am." Vernon spoke slowly.

"She wanted you to go back?"

"I know, I was surprised too."

"No, no, Vernon that doesn't make any sense." Gavin said, his caring face turned into a sour expression.

"What do you mean?" Vernon said.

"You broke into her room and now she wants you to come back? It has to be trap, she'll be waiting for you with guards." He stressed.

"If she really wanted to turn me in she would've done it while I was lying on her bed injured or she would've let me bleed to death." Vernon countered.

"You don't know how she thinks, she could be twisted in the head!" Gavin's voice began to rise.

"Again, if she really wanted me captured why would she risk letting me leave? She doesn't know if I'll come back or not, I didn't answer her question." 

Gavin looked down at the man with curved furrowed eyebrows and a frown. 

"I have to know when she returns anyway so I know when my week begins."Vernon said. The man looking over him teared his eyes away from him for a second and contemplated.

A low "Alright," fell from the man's lips. "but you've better be careful."

"I will and thank you." Vernon replied. 

Gavin went to his bed and soon both men were sleeping soundly.