The night before my month of grieving was over, I was called to the palace to have a meeting with the King. I dressed in my best clothes, and polished my boots after trimming my beard and hair.
I knew the meeting had been called to see what had become of his son. I had avoided the boy for the last moon cycle as well as Thekros and tried to heal. Sari was forever in my mind and my heart was wounded more than any battle scar I had ever received.
The palace guards allowed me to enter after presenting the letter with the King's seal and I was escorted to the throne room where Ginfried sat drumming his fingers impatiently. I was five minutes late thanks to my nerves. I bowed low in front of the man that thought himself my King.
"Hassan," he greeted dryly. "Rise."
I stood tall and in position.
"What is your decision with your child?"
With the room full of ears he wouldn't dare claim his bastard son. My fists clenched involuntarily.
"I placed him in the blacksmith's household, Sire."
Ginfried ran his fingers through his beard as if he was still trying to figure out what was best to do with me.
"With that settled, I have an assignment for you."
I glanced at him quizzically. Why wasn't he sending me immediately back to the war in the south?
"What can I do for you, my king?"
He paused looking over me slowly. It felt as if he could read my disdain for him.
"The trade route has been experiencing a bandit problem. You know how skittish the Northerners are of our people already. I need you to lead a group to meet the caravan as they come through the mountain pass and bring them safely to us."
Why was I playing private escort? Wasn't this more a trainee's job? I was near moving up in rank. Surely there were lower level people that could do the job as well as I would. It was as if he could read my thoughts again on the matter.
"If you can handle my personal group of assassins, I will move you up to General."
The King's assassins? I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up on edge. They were rumored to be more ruthless than the Scortha.
"When do we leave?"
"Tonight so you can make the Sacred Ruins by morning putting you within trotting distance of the the Spirit Lake where you will meet the merchant ban."
"As you wish. Where would you like me to meet your assassin's, Sire?"
"The stables. You have one hour."
I bowed and left feeling unrest wash over me. The King never sent guards on missions with his assassins so why now? Bandits would be easy enough to exterminate for them.
I walked back to my hut grabbing my saddle and supplies before donning my hardened leather armor. As I exited my home, I couldn't shake the feeling that I was leaving for the last time. I was the only one that knew of Jaspen's true heritage. What would stop the King from severing that loose end?
As I walked to my door, my war horse whinnied and I saw to my surprise, the five assassin's waiting for me.
"Are you ready Hassan?"
The voice was female. She rode in front of the others wearing all black clothes with a cloak pulled up and having a face cowl.
"Aye."
"Saddle up, soldier. You're burning moonlight."
Her voice was haunting. I saddled my horse faster than I ever had with the same amount of care. A month away hadn't made me forget. We rode hard and fast making better time than I thought. None of the assassin's talked the whole ride making me more nervous.
I wasn't a huge believer in the gods, but I prayed to Sharlek hoping that if they were my fated enemies, I would survive or at least have a quick and painless death. At least if Ginfried's plan was to kill me, I would reunited with Sari soon enough.
The further we rode, the less suspicious I became. They could have killed me hours ago with no witnesses, but here I was, still breathing. At sunrise, we made camp in the entrance to the ruins.
They were made of the same obsidian most holy building were, but worn down by sand and time. It was said to be the birthplace of the first demons.
"I'll take first watch with you," she said pointing to the tallest assassin.
"Do you have names?" I quipped.
The female laughed standing with her hands on her hips.
"So he does talk. I thought you to be simple."
I felt my face warm. How dare she pick fun at me. Anyone would be nervous doing a mission with this lot.
"We do not use our names very often. Our King wishes us to stay as much of a secret as possible, but if you must know, I am Rundra, their leader. That is Sundri," she pointed at the tall one she had asked to join her on first watch.
"Then Kuri, Quam, and Fel."
These were the names of true nightmares and made my hair stand on edge at the stories told of these five. They made the Scortha's look like kittens. Any time the king had one threat and wanted to avoid war, these five were called on a mission. It would be a lie to not say I wasn't scared. Knowing their names burdened me further. Usually if you knew their names, you were told right before death. Had I just been marked?
"Sleep soldier. We may have a battle soon."
Her and Sundri walked out of the entry. I laid my saddle roll on the cool marble floor and curled up under my cloak. I thought for sure sleep would elude me, but I was more tired than I thought and fell quickly to the realm of dreams.
*****
A war yell awoke me from a heavy slumber and I immediately hauled myself to my feet grabbing my sword and heading outside. Adrenaline rushed through my system as I heard weapons clashing. As I walked outside, I saw what looked like a group of bandits battling against four of the assassins. I felt someone grab my shoulder and turned my head to see the shortest of the group, Fel behind me.
"They have it under control. There is less than we thought."
"I will not sit back and-"
Fel hit me hard on my forehead with the butt of his sword with wicked fast speed. Everything went white before I hit the sand.
*****
I awoke later in the blistering heat of the day. What had happened? All of a sudden their was a shadow over me, but my eyes didn't adjust to who the figure was before there was a searing pain running from my right eye over my nose to my left cheek from flinching from the pain. The dagger had to have been dipped in holy water.
"If you live to find the tribe again, Hassan, you will be welcomed back. If you ever speak of the boy's true lineage, you will lose your tongue next time. Are we understood?"
Rundra. That was who had taken sight from one of my eyes. Why had they waited so long to do this? Why would Ginfried let me live?
"You will say you got this wound from a bandit. If I hear you spoke the truth, I will gut you myself."
The agony from the holy water was overbearing as it coursed through my eye and across my face.
I had to clean the wound and the closest water source with the stream that formed off Spirit Lake, but the lake itself was said to hold healing properties. Had they left my supplies?
I whistled for my horse hoping they had left her at least. I was thankful when she trotted up to me. I stumbled back to the ruins to find everything gone including my sword. I cursed the gods for my luck before going out and trying to mount my horse bareback with one good eye. I fell back several times from my equilibrium and the poison. At several attempts on my now very impatient horse, I was able to mount.
If I remembered correctly, I had only two hours to keep the poison from spreading through my whole body and eventually to my heart making it stop. The Spirit Lake was three hours at least and probably longer in the heat of the day. I turned my mount towards the river. Hopefully it would be good enough.
As we neared the river, I slid awkwardly from my mounts back. The sand was hot and the water was only a few degrees off, but what I was really looking for was Inyo Reed that had healing properties when the leaf was covered in warm water and applied to the injured skin.
I searched the rivers edge with the pain almost blinding me completely. Finally, I saw a small amount. I plucked it and dipped it into the stream before pressing it to cover my wound. It took a few moments for it to work. The relief sent another wave of shock through my system, but I pressed through it.