Chapter Thirteen

It was warm under the blanket. She basked in its folds. She stretched and rolled to her left side. Throwing her right hand over the body next to her, she pulled herself nearer. The tingling had subsided in her hands.

“You feel good,” she murmured and pressed closer.

Her arm slid across a hairy chest as the other body threw the covers back and stood up. Lifting her head, she watched him between her naked breasts as he walked beyond the fire and put on his trousers. Krinna rolled onto her stomach and removed a poisoned pin from the amulet suspended around her neck.

She lay patiently biding her time. He had molested her for the last time. He led her on a merry chase, but she would have his head today. She would finish it and collect her reward.

Her left foot jerked into the air. He held it with a firm grip. He was ogling her nakedness. He lowered her foot and moved away. Before Krinna could jump up and strike without warning, he returned and raised her right foot. She waited. Her revenge would be sweeter. He held her foot up for some time.

“Starla, I loved you,” he whispered. She didn’t know his problem, but would solve it for him. He lowered her foot and moved away.

Quickly, she rose to a sprinting position as he turned away and tied a leather thong around his neck. Off to his side, Gorga’s eyes reflected light from the shadows. She had to act quickly. He bent and picked up a metal object. Jumping forward, she stabbed down into his neck with the pin. He threw the object away with his right hand and caught the striking viper behind its head with his left hand.

Krinna screamed and leaped backward. Her heel caught on a cave rock. She fell and cut a deep gash in her right arm.

Watermelon dropped to his knees. Gorga, with venom-dripping fangs, fought to reach her. Hissing and extending her fangs, she jerked his weakening arm closer.

Ignoring the pain in her arm, she stared at the viper. What did Sar say? “Beware the viper!” She checked her right breast. She laughed at the persistent snake. “You missed,” she scolded.

Gorga lunged at her. Absolute fear chained her to the spot. The pungent odor from her voided bladder embarrassed her. Gorga got closer each time she struck at her. Weakly, he tried to restrain her as the poison worked through his body. Krinna jerked her feet away.

Gorga closed her mouth and bumped her nose against Watermelon’s lips. He placed her on the cave floor. She flicked her tongue at Krinna and moved back in a coiled position until she reached his equipment bag.

Trembling from her near-death experience, Krinna rose and walked to his side. She squatted down, looked into his unseeing eyes, and said, “I want you to know I appreciated the chase.”

“Starla,” he whispered weakly.

“I’m not Starla, I’m Krinna. I’m your executioner. Today, you lose your head to the greatest assassin in the kingdoms.”

“I loved you,” he said, lowering his head to the cold stone.

“Since you don’t want to talk anymore, let’s see what you have in the other bag.” She pulled everything out and dropped it on the ground. “He came well prepared, but it won’t do him any good where he is going, so I’ll wear them.”

Krinna dressed. The hair-out clothing fits perfectly. A pair of snowshoes leaned against the wall. She laughed in the cold tomb. “I didn’t have to carry his junk. The fool brought extra.” Taking a long, thin-bladed knife from her pack, she straddled his back and jerked his head up. Placing the blade under his neck, she started her cut.

A log fell into the fire, causing the flames to shoot higher. The brighter light reflected off a metallic object and flashed in her eyes. She blinked. She released his hair. His face hit the stone with a sodden thud. She walked to the object and picked it up. She carried it to the firelight to examine it.

She gasped in delight at the enormous diamonds and rubies embedded in the gold medallion. Silver stars filled a blue diamond field. Two golden lions stood on their hind legs, supporting an unknown standard between them. She didn’t understand the foreign inscription.

Its heavy weight was suspended from a solid gold one-half-inch link chain. It weighed more than the medallion. She dropped it into a belt pouch.

“It is easier to carry a necklace as proof of death than a smelly, old head. You are lucky, Snake Charmer, because your gold is easier to carry than your head,” she said as the blood formed a dark pool under his neck.

Avoiding Gorga, Krinna searched until she found the entrance to his hideaway. Leaning into the hole, she discovered her tunnel. She retrieved her war bag and the snow shoes, dumped them through the hole, and made her way to the trail. Securing the boots to her feet, she continued through Pilgrim’s Pass.

Jasmine City, named after Queen Jasmine, the northern kingdom’s capital, had doubled in size. She recalled the streets as being much smaller when she was a child. Perhaps her perspective had been wrong.

Fifteen years earlier, pedestrian traffic in the streets was minimal. Now, masses of people crowded every thoroughfare. Royalty navigated the narrow city streets in their coaches or on the backs of less fortunate slaves. A house guard protected them as they went about their business.

In the old days, the king guaranteed security in the city streets. Armed soldiers patrolled the main road and the darkest alleys. Should a felon be apprehended in a crime, they hauled them off to the castle. The next day, he would lose his head at the public execution block or swing from the gallows. Times had changed since the Southern armies captured her country. She observed an unarmed merchant get robbed and beaten six times in three blocks.

What happened in the kingdom? The king believed in capital punishment. Crime appeared to run rampant throughout the city. She saw no armed patrols. Her search would take her into the filthy back alleys where death came swiftly. She smiled at the prospect of someone attacking her. She needed the entertainment.

The scent of Jasmine filled the air. Beneath the pleasant odor, rotten garbage and feces filled the streets’ narrow confines.

Prices soared in the dingy shops and restaurants. A bowl of watered-down slop cost five dollars. She shopped more than she purchased. Inflated prices abounded. Her resources shrank quickly. After leaving Watermelon’s body in the cave, she discovered he had removed the money and jewels she had carried. It didn’t matter. She would stop and pick them up on her way home. She could count her meal money at less than a hundred dollars. Thankfully, she had paid her rent for a month. “Maybe I should have kept his money. He can’t spend it. I’ll pick it up on the way home.”

Ten years ago, she knew all the guilds and their hideouts. Visiting their old haunts yielded no information. She walked the streets for hours, seeking information from possible assassins. No one knew of any active guilds in the city.

She could not sell the medallion or its chain. Every fence and black market shop she entered refused to purchase it. The proprietors examined it and promptly ordered her off their premises. Not one offered an explanation. She carried a fortune in her pouch, yet she could not get a penny.

What warlock’s spell covered it? Was it a financial curse or a death promise? It didn’t matter. She didn’t believe in curses, and death didn’t scare her.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Krinna selected a table in the back of a greasy pigsty called a restaurant where no one could see her. She ordered food and watched people on the street pass the open shop. The waiter delivered a watered-down mixture resembling used, greasy dishwater and a piece of stale bread. She ran her spoon through the putrid, colored liquid. The aroma turned her stomach. Her thoughts turned to Watermelon and the delicious meals he fixed for her. Yes, he prepared them just for her. Too bad he was worth more dead than alive. She would remember him again when she collected and spent his money. Unconsciously, she raised the spoon. The disgusting swill barely touched her lips when someone dropped a metal pan in the back kitchen.

She jumped and jerked her head back. A numbing sensation struck her lips as she rolled out of her chair onto the floor. Something hit the wall. Looking toward the noise, she spotted the spoon pinned to the plankboard wall by a small wrist bolt.

She crawled into the kitchen, stood up, and peeked around the door. She checked the arrow’s trajectory. Anyone passing the entrance could have fired it. She waited. Patience was an old friend. It saved her life on many occasions.

She smiled when the man rose from the shadows of the exterior steps across the street. He was a genius or a complete fool. He entered the alley and walked out of sight.

Krinna laughed. She retrieved the bolt from the wall, entered the busy thoroughfare, and joined the people walking toward the palace. She tossed a coin into a small, wood-weaved basket, selected two apples from a vendor’s wagon, and placed them in her belt pouch. The vendor gave her a pretty smile and said, “Thank you.” She spotted her mark as he approached the castle’s rear gate. The guards saluted him and allowed him to pass.

Casually, she left the road and entered a field filled with day laborers. Several waved at her, and she returned their greetings. She made it to the south castle wall without incident. It was a mystery to her.

Stories were told about how a man from the Southern army scaled the South Wall by hand and captured the king and queen in their bedroom. The city was taken without a single casualty. The king didn’t learn anything, but it suited her purpose.

Krinna worked her way through a thicket that extended to the stone wall. She removed several bushes, extracted a boot knife, and dug out two feet of dirt. She reached inside, grasped a metal handle, and jerked it hard. A rectangular piece of rusted metal grating came out. Checking to see if anyone was watching, she quickly crawled through the foundation.

Krinna didn’t know who created the escape route, but she and Sar used it many times to escape the castle.

Two feet into the exterior wall, she stood to her feet in a room ten feet by ten feet. She pushed her right foot across the stone floor and found the raised block. She stepped up on it and stretched out her left arm. A small stone slid to the side as she pushed it with her left hand. A square hole revealed an empty room in the filthy part of the dungeon. No one occupied it.

Krinna pulled an iron lever, and the wall slowly pivoted on unseen pins. She stepped through the door and hurried to the opposite wall. She pushed a block near its base and waited patiently for the door to close.

Brushing the dirt from her clothes, she entered the armory and stopped before a fireplace. A sword-chipped gargoyle perched above the mantel. She bumped it. Another door opened. Five minutes later, she reached her destination.

Climbing a small flight of stairs, she moved a thin piece of wood, revealing two peepholes. Krinna knew she viewed the room through the eyes of a painting. It was supposed to represent the image of someone’s long-dead relative.

She waited patiently in the dusty, spider-infested hideaway. Opening her belt pouch, she selected the riper of the two apples and took a healthy mouthful from it. She finished it and threw the core down the steps. Placing her fingers in her mouth, one at a time, she licked the sweet, sticky juice from them. She heard the bedroom door open. A young man entered, followed by a sad female, whom the young man appeared to ignore.

“Galvar, stop and listen to me, please.”

“Mother, your fears are unfounded. I come and go in the city as I see fit.” Throwing his cloak on the floor, he flopped on the bed.

She picked it up and laid it over a blue velvet, high-back chair. “I don’t want you leaving the castle without security. Anything can happen to you out there.”

“Mother, I am not a child. Despite your concern, I am more than able to protect myself.”

“I lost one child—”

“Yes, Mother, I know. I have heard the same sad tale for years. Leave me. I am tired. Send a servant with my food when supper is ready.”

Crying, the woman left the room.

“Close the door!” he shouted after her. The closed door muffled the woman’s voice.

Krinna selected a dart and placed it into the blow gun tube. She aimed for his hind end. A strong puff of wind sent the dart accurately to its target.

He jumped and slapped the dart loose. It fell onto the bed. The quick-acting drug paralyzed him. Krinna descended the stairs and opened a portal into the fireplace. She closed it, walked to the massive bedroom door, and slipped its oak locking bar into place.

She buttoned her face mask to the inside of her hood, leaving only her eyes exposed as she turned and walked toward him. His eyes followed her progress. She leaned over his body, picked up the dart, and placed it into a bamboo holder before putting it away.

Krinna pushed hard on his right shoulder and rolled him onto his back. She took four long, narrow leather strips and tied his hands and feet in an X. A thin-bladed knife sliced his trousers off. His tunic buttons flew off the bed as she ripped it open. She straddled his chest and placed her knees beside his head.

"Young man, you and I must discuss your table etiquette. You ruined a perfect spoon and spilled my gruel. Why?”

Galvar watched her eyes. He could read nothing in them. “I don’t have to reveal anything to you.”

“I am truly learning to appreciate your talent. For a fat-headed, childless young man, you are very courageous.”

“You are stupid. I don’t have any snotty-nosed brats.”

“You truth speak,” she said and reached behind her back. She placed her dirk on his groin and pushed. “Wow, I was so wrong. I thought royals had blue blood. Royal blood and peasant blood are red.”

“You can’t fool me. I don’t feel a thing. Your futile attempt to gain information is childish.”

“The drug has numbed your nerves and muscles,” she said, and stepped down off the bed. She crossed the room, carried a long, thin, free-standing mirror, and placed it at his feet. She tilted it forward and sat on the edge of his bed.

He looked at the blood and laughed. “You don’t scare me.”

“I’m sorry, Prince Galvar, if I gave you the wrong impression. I didn’t mean to scare you. I want you to experience a life-changing event.” She flicked the blade across his thigh. “Why did she want you to spoil my meal? Is she jealous of me?” Krinna watched the fear enter his eyes.

“Just think of her disappointment at your next meeting.” She flicked the knife again. “Who knows? Maybe she’ll go back to her husband.”

“He’s dead,” Galvar volunteered.

“Why does she want me dead?”

He closed his mouth and refused to speak.

“I’m tired. I need my rest. Galvar, your kind should not sire legitimate or illegitimate heirs. You have a lot on your mind. I will do the kingdom a kindness.” She got up and stood beside the bed.

The terrifying thought that she planned to emasculate him caused him to shout, “No! No, don’t, please, I beg of you. I’m the only living heir to the throne. I would dishonor my father and shame my country if I couldn’t produce children.”

She leaped onto his hips and pressed her nose to his. Her face mask tickled his chin. Her hazel-colored eyes contained blue flakes. Something was wrong. He furrowed his brows. Carefully, he mapped them.

“I don’t care if you ever sire anything. You tried to kill me. Please don’t waste my time. I have people to kill.”

“Do you have something you wish to communicate to me, young prince?” she asked in a gentler tone.

“I don’t know her name. She is a beautiful woman. I heard she is a queen from Three Falls. I journeyed there to meet her. An old friend introduced us. We got involved.”

“I wanted to meet her. I had an ulterior motive. A confidant said she was the guild leader of the Orange Assassins in our fair city.”

“Why did you want to join them?”

“Years ago, before my birth, a princess was born to the queen. She trained at a prestigious weapons academy. Assassins attacked her weapons master, and she disappeared. I’m using the guild to find her. Mother thinks she is dead. I believe she is alive.”

“What has that to do with me?”

“Nothing, I want you to understand my reason.”

“Is that a reason to kill me?”

“You are carrying an ornate necklace. It is costly. When you tried to fence it, the word was sent to the woman. It became your death contract. You have a priceless, worthless piece of jewelry. No one in Jasmine will touch it.”

“You killed her mark. She is afraid of you. We heard how you assassinated all your guild members. She sent for the “Myth”.

“Yeah, I heard about him. He is supposed to be the best. You tried and missed. Galvar, I tell you only once. Stay away from the guilds. They are animals, and starting tomorrow, I’m going to hunt them. Tonight, I give you your life. If you join them, then I know where to find you.”

“I give you another warning. You'd do well to show more kindness to the queen and honor her. Don’t make me kill you.”

Krinna removed a small vial from her pouch. Pulling his chin down, she allowed a single drop of liquid antidote to fall on his tongue. Untying his bonds, she pulled the covers up to his chin, replaced the mirror, and left the room.

She entered the hallway and turned right. She reached to unbutton her mask when the queen turned around a corner and collided with her. Forgetting her mask, she spun on her left heel and raced back down the dark hallway. Quickly opening and closing a door, she entered a vacant room. She crossed it on an ornate wooden panel and slipped into a dark tunnel.