Assassin's Promise

Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

My mother turned away from me, faced the men who burst into our house, and raised a fist in defiance. I stopped, straddled the threshold with one foot inside our house, and one outside of the house on the stone path by the back door.

I saw my knife from filleting fish in her hand held in a closed first. She brought it down in a wide arch, and screamed.

The blade of a sword popped out of her back, and then was withdrawn. The knife fell out of her hand. It clanked on the floor. My mother fell onto her knees. Her dress absorbed the gout of blood spilling out of her back.

She lowered her head, her long hair draped over her face, and the ends dangled just above the floor. She gasped for air, wheezing heavily. She clapped both hands onto her belly, but I could only see her from behind, and helplessly watched as her back rose and fell each time she struggled for air.

I knew I should have run, but my legs wouldn’t move. The man who had driven his sword through my mother smiled down at her, with yellow-stained teeth. That was the first thing I noticed. Then I saw his eyes. They were blue, cold, and hard like ice. His nose was long, surrounded by wrinkled skin. Warts like anthills dotted his face. Some had long, dark hairs growing from the centers.

His chainmail was stained crimson from blood. I didn’t think it was his. Nothing about the way he stood indicated that he was injured. He reminded me of a bear the way he towered over my mother.

Someone said, “The boy!”

The bear’s eyes found me.

He grinned.

A shiver raced down my spine. All eyes fell on me. Without a command, five men lunged forward at once, tripping over each other and my mother’s body.

I found my legs and exploded out the back door. I started toward the barn. It couldn’t offer me safety now with the Watch so close behind. I ran past the barn and toward the forest. My heart pounded fast and hard. The sound filled my head and throbbed inside my ears. It wasn’t long before I felt a burning in my chest, and a stitch at my side. I pressed a palm over the pain, but kept running.

Concentrating on my footing, I worried if I tripped, they would catch, and then kill me. It kept me going. There was no way I could get revenge against them for the death of my parents if I was dead. Somehow, I was going to get away. And, more importantly, somehow, I was going to get even.

I didn’t dare look behind me. I was running far too fast. If I chanced a look back, I’d fall for sure. I would either escape…

Or I wouldn’t.

My imagination messed with me. At any moment, I expected hands to latch onto my shoulders; I expected a sword through my back, my mother’s blood mixing with mine, as I died in the same way.

My legs pumped faster, and harder. I had the advantage. I knew the land around here. The Watch wasn’t from the area. If I could keep ahead of them, I could find a place to hide. I knew how to hide. They’d never find me.

The intense heat inside my chest grew as if my lungs were catching fire. I wasn’t sure how much further I could run, not at this pace. The men chasing me were on foot. They wore heavy garments and were burdened with bulky weapons. Would they be able to keep up?

It was dusk, the sun nearly vanished behind the horizon. The trees were so close, I grew confident I would survive if I could just get into the forest.

My parents were dead.

My mother was. I watched her die, but I hadn’t seen my father.

Could he still be alive, lying in the grass, wounded, and bleeding, but alive?

I couldn’t hear the Watch. I thought I should be able to hear chainmail rattle as they ran, but all that filled my ears was the sound of my heavy breathing, the beating of my heart, and the sound of my boots slamming hard on the dry ground.

My face felt hot and knew my skin was turning red around my cheeks as if I were outside in a winter cold for hours.

The forest loomed ahead of me. It seemed like a haven, a sanctuary. It also seemed miles away, as if a mirage. So, close, but unreachable.

My back muscles tightened and I cringed as, finally, I made it into the forest—still fully expecting steel to pierce my skin, or arrows to come through the backs of my legs.

The pain from such an assault never came. Instead of worrying about an attack from behind, I concentrated on the woods. This was where I played, where my father and I hunted with bows and arrows.

The groundcover was tricky, with plenty of fallen limbs, and thick brush, ideal for tripping up anyone carelessly sprinting through the foliage. I didn’t slow down, though. Instead, I picked up speed, and darted right, left, and right again.

It seemed futile, but I continually listened for any sounds coming from behind me. If they were going to kill me, I wanted to know it was coming. Especially now when I was so close to escaping.

In front of me was a long trunk from a fallen tree. I only saw it at the last possible moment and leapt into the air. My right toe clipped the bark. It was my fault for losing concentration. With my arms pinwheeling, I was propelled forward and crashed hard onto the ground. My forearms and elbows absorbed the brunt of the fall, and my breath raced out of my lungs from the impact. I gasped for long seconds, unable to breathe.

They had to of heard me.

The fall was far from graceful, and my gasping sounded like a strong wind moaning as it whipped past the tin on my parents’ house.

A twig snapped. It wasn’t too close to where I’d fallen, but neither was it all that far away. Panicked, I rolled into an extended patch of green shrubs and used leaves and branches for cover. Thorns scraped against, and dug into, areas of exposed flesh. I winced but didn’t cry out.

The Watch had never stopped following me.

It didn’t sound like they were running, but were still in pursuit.

Another twig snapped.

I didn’t think my fall had given away my location. I hoped it hadn’t. My eyes strained to see between parted leaves into the darkened forest. Everything was becoming shadows. The shadows moved. I couldn’t be sure what I was seeing.

I noticed the forest animals had fallen silent, and wondered if they, like me, were waiting for the intruders to leave.

“He’s around here,” one of the Watch said.

I held my breath. It sounded as if the man were standing right over my hiding spot.

“Yeah? Do you see him?” another called out.

“No, but I can promise you he didn’t just vanish.”

“He’s hiding,” the second man said.

“Well, of course, he’s hiding. Check the trees. Little monkey probably scurried up a trunk.”

There was a long moment of silence.

The second Watch said, “If he did, I can’t see him.”

It was far too dark.

“Poke the ground with your sword. If he’s hiding in the shrubs, we’ll find him.”

I stayed still, fought every urge to roll out of my hiding spot, and run. My heart still beat fast, but my breathing was more controlled. The pain in my side was gone, and the fire inside my chest had vanished.

I listened as the Watch stumbled around, and at the sound of their swords swinging through shrubs.

I thought it might’ve been just the two men who followed me into the forest.

A twig snapped near my head.

One of them was close, too close.

I was about to be discovered.

Or stabbed.

I didn’t want to die hiding beneath groundcover. If I was going to die, I wanted it to be on my feet, fighting.

The sword cut through the foliage near my head.

I sucked in a deep breath, ready to roll out of the shrubs.

Someone whistled.

The whistle came from far away. I barely heard it.

“What was that?” the man standing beside my hiding spot asked.

“The captain,” the other said.

“Do we keep looking?”

“He’s calling us back. Forget the kid. What was he, like five years old?”

I heard the sword pass through more branches and twigs.

“Come on. Leave him,” the other man said.

“Hear that?” the one man yelled. “It’s your lucky day!”

Lucky day? They’d killed my parents.

If anything, it was their unlucky day. They made a mistake.

They left me alive.