The Assassin Queen

Chapter 1 Silent as the night Dravena Virelle crosses the bridge between slumps and the capital city of Aleria. Dressed in her black skin tight leather suit, a mask covering her face and a hood pulled over to disguise her blonde her that is practically a beacon in the deadly hours of the night. Her footsteps are light, not a sound echoing as she moves swiftly, keeping to the darkest shadows and far from any candle lit streetlamps. As she steps into the capital of the Kingdom that she has come to call home for the past ten years, Dravena feels a flood of exhilaration coursing through her veins. This is what she had been made for. She was made for the dark, for the thrill of the kill. This is what she has become thanks to the cruel and unrelenting training she had endured from her Master. She doesn’t hate him for it, doesn’t even blame him for turning into a cold-blooded killer. No, she thrives in this darkness, allowing it to consume her, to drive her, anything to keep that monster at bay. Swiftly, she slips from building to building, until she reaches the castle. She should not be here, have been forbidden from ever entering the castle that will surely be her doom, but tonight, she was on a mission and no matter what the cost, she was getting into this castle. Creeping along the sewer drain that flows out the castle, Dravena focuses on her task, not the foul scent coming from the water less than two steps from where she is walking. Soon, she will need to enter this river of filth, it is the only way to get into the castle without being seen. Coming to a stop in front of the gate, she sucks in a breath, thankful for her mask that covers her mouth, barely allowing the stench to fill her lungs. Climbing into the sewer, Dravena tries her best to not think of what she is walking through, keeping her mind on what needs to be done. Silently, she squeezes herself between the bars that are supposed to keep her out, but the idiots probably thought only large men would be brave enough to try and slip into the castle, not a seventeen-year-old girl. Once she is inside, she walks slowly, taking her time to walk through the water, not making a sound. Her twin swords are strapped to her back, a few blades stuck into her boots, strapped to her thighs, hidden in compartments that no one would even think to look unless they designed the suit, or unless her Master is the one to betray her as she is betraying him now. The light at the end of the tunnel flickers and she slips past, listening for any sound of movement. No one should be down here, but the risk of being seen is always there. Dravena finds stairs that lead out of the sewer, and takes them two at a time. She had paid a large sum of gold cions to the layout of the castle, and as she walks down hallways, she runs through those blueprints in her head. The dungeons are just one more flight of stairs up, and the sound of screams echoing through the hallways, confirms it. Dravena wants to run, wants to barge in there, weapons blazing, but she knows that would be a death trap, not only for her, but for the person screaming. Hold it together. Just a few more minutes and you can end them all. Dravena says to herself, trying to steady her breathing. Fear, panic, it is a death sentence. She needs to clear her head, settle her breathing, calm down her racing heart. She can do this, and she will get them both out of here, there is just no other option. She makes her way up the stairs that will take her right to the entrance of the dungeon. Another scream, one filled with so much pain that her own heart cracks. Now, she has to move now and fast. Two guards stand at the entrance of the dungeon and before they can even blink, Dravena is there, there throats slit before they can alert the bastards that are torturing the male on the table. She walks into the dungeon, her swords in her hands, moving faster than any seventeen-year-old should be able to move. This time, the screams that fill the dungeon are not those of the male on the table. One, two, three, men fall before the other five men surrounding the table even turn around. Five, that is how many men were torturing the male on the table, blood dripping from their knives. Their enjoyment from the torture turns into shock and then pure hatred as they take in the female, covered in black with blood dripping from her blades. They all rush at her, leaving the helpless assassin they have been torturing for hours at the king’s request. Dravena smiles behind her mask as the men rush at her. She becomes darkness, moving as if she has done this a thousand times. She kills with no remorse, with no empathy. These men deserve to be struck now, to be slaughtered, and her only regret is that she couldn’t take her time, not with the king’s guards probably already alerted, not with the male bleeding on the table. It hardly takes five minutes for her to kill all five of the men, hardly takes the wind out of her, and for a moment, she feels like air, light and full of energy, ready to take out anyone else that comes between her and the male on the table. “Drav-“ That strangled sound brings her back from that killing calm and makes her look at the male on the table. Horror, that is what consumes her as she take in what had been done to him. No. No. NO! She wants to scream, wants to vomit at the sight in front of her. Her swords drop to the ground she rushes to the table. So much blood on the floors, the table the walks. His blood. There are parts of his body on the floor, skin, fingers and- Dravena rips off her mask, vomiting on the floor. Eyes, those are his eyes on the floor. “No, no, no.” She rushes to his side, but she knows it is too late, that she is too late. How long had they been torturing him? How long had she been planning to rescue him, thinking that he would merely be locked in the dungeon until his execution. He was supposed to simply be beaten up a but, not this, not blinded, skinned and mutilated. Never, she have never seen someone being so completely torn and still alive. They wanted him to feel every bit of this, wanted him to hurt. “Please.” That one word sounds strained, as if it is taken everything he has to beg, not to live, but for her to end it. “No, no, no.” She feels the tears running as she takes in her face that had just last night been so beautiful, smiling at her. His mouth, those lips that had kissed her just this morning before he left her in their small apartment at the end of the slumps. His lids that are sewn shut, that will never open again to look at her with those hazel eyes that could chase any of her demons away. “I love you.” He says, and she knows this is his goodbye, but still, he isn’t dead, not because he is trying to hold onto life, but because even though he has lost so much blood, the torture had been meant to keep him alive long enough to slowly bleed to death. It will take hours, they were still planning on doing this for hours. Slowly, Dravena takes one of the knives from her boot, and she tries to smile at him, even though she knows he can’t see her, but because she doesn’t want him to worry about her in his last few seconds. Wants him to think that she will survive this. She runs one hand through his bloody hair, and then along his temple. As she hears the sound of boots on the stone, shouts of warning that the king wants her alive, she smiles. They will not get the chance to take her alive. “I love you too.” She chokes out and then slits his throat.