Lynn cried. And cried. She hasn't stopped for a while.
Mama had found out about her gifts, despite her efforts. She'd lost her temper at a stupid servant and shifted into a leopard. Exactly when Mama was outside her door and heard the scream.
Lynn didn't remember her father, but she heard enough whispering from her family to know he was a shapeshifter just like herself. When she asked, they just told her he went mad and was killed by the city guards.
That must be why Mama had grabbed her by the hair and hauled her out the front door, slamming it behind her when she shifted back.
She had never seen such disgust in Mama's face. And the crying-on-the-doorstep thing didn't work.
She huddled up in a tree as a sparrow. The hasty nest she built herself could hardly preserve any warmth, even with her extra-thick feather coat. She shivered. This was her tree一the one in her backyard, where she climbed and sat to watch the sunset countless times.
She couldn't sleep, with the cold and hunger gnawing on her. Thanks to the birdbath only metres away, she was nowhere near dehydration. But the bugs. She was horrified when she first got the urge to swallow a worm.
So at dawn she ruffled her feathers and flew to a deserted alley behind the Shadow Market, desperate for a job. She had had no luck yesterday when the Main Street shopkeepers had flat-out refused to keep her as an apprentice or even a maid.
Lynn pictured her human form and just wished to look like that. Power coursed through her veins and the walls shrank, then she was on her bare feet once again. She was still wearing the filthy dress she last wore when Mama had thrown her out days ago. Her clothes disappeared upon shifting, and appeared when she was back in her human body in a way she couldn't explain. Magic.
She slipped out of the alley into one of the main passageways. The Market had just quieted down after a night's business. Vendors were packing up their stalls, a few noticing the little girl with her dirty demeanour. Probably dismissing her as a street urchin.You're here for a job, Lynn. She sucked in a collective breath, and shuffled into the nearest not nasty-looking stall.
The plump man stopped packing his various potions to give her a sidelong glance.
She noted the muck-covered pavement. " D-Do you need any help? I can do anything. Please," She could barely manage a hoarse whisper, due to the weeping these past few days. But she did her best to look pathetic, using those bright, bright green eyes of hers.
The vendor just squished his bushy brows and said," Drag your filthy ass out of here, vagrant."
Lynn's eyes went was the meanest thing anyone had said to her ever, given that the girl had always been spoken to with flattery and sweet words when she dealt with merchants.
Tears welling and lips wobbling, she made a show of stumbling out with unsteady steps, but something caught her on the left that sent her sprawling on the grime. Pain shot through her elbow; the sound of glass shattering behind her was deafening.
"Get up," The man growled, "You're lucky that potion wasn't worth any more than a copper. Now shoo!"
She scrambled up and fled, not daring to look back for fear of seeing disgusted sneers directed at her. She didn't think she could stomach that.
Back into the alley where she first emerged, Lynn collapsed on the ground. She was lightheaded and cold to the bone, the scratch on her elbow burning like fire. If she didn't treat it soon, the wound might get infected.
She couldn't fly away the way she flew in. Her bruised and scratched elbow, if turned into a wing, wouldn't support her weight for long. She would have to walk home.
Groaning, Lynn slunk back into the Market.
Only a few passersby lingered on the streets. Beggars dotted the sewer entrances, no doubt waiting for someone looking rich enough to spare a copper.
They did get a copper or two though, especially the cleaner looking ones. A pretty woman even got a handful of coins.
Well, it's better than getting nothing at all, and her stomach really hurts. So from what she had observed一pretty face equals to more money; she imagined a face and hair that she would call beautiful and changed her features. There! If she got enough money maybe she could eat a feast and get bandages for her wound later.
She held on to that hope as she fell to her knees, and begged.
She lost count of time. Groveling for food, protecting her earnings, shifting back and forth all blended together into a big nothing. She had no purpose, no goal to achieve. Her inner animals were the only ones keeping her alive; she ate when they told her to, she slept when they told her to. She wore a different face everyday, and steered clear of anybody who came her way. Until one day she felt a physical blanket of nothingness spread over the continent, threatening to suffocate her. She tried to shift into a hawk, to lift those strong wings and get out of where breathing was starting to become hard. But she remained a little girl. No, it couldn't be. She searched for the power inside her, if she could just feel a lick of it一
Empty. Like all magic was sucked away from her.
She was stuck in this body. Permanently.
She swore she could hear the anguished cries of magic wielders all over the land.
Magic was gone.
Arobynn Hamel strode into the Shadow Market. He'd just moved his Keep from the borders of Terrasen to Rifthold, where the glass castle shimmered in the distance. Keep your enemies close, his master had once told him. That was one of the reasons he went through the trouble of 'befriending' the Crime Lords and brothel madams in the city.
He marveled at his luck. Not just he is now the unspoken King of the Assassins when he won his grotesque duel with the protégée of their master; a week later, when the news of the royal family of Terrasen being murdered had barely been spread, he found an eight-year old girl half-frozen on a river bank. Who'd had the Princess' Ashryver eyes and the heirloom of the royal family, the Amulet of Orynth in her clutch.
Not many people have seen Aelin Galathynius with their very own eyes, but they say she was a clone of her mother Evalin. The girl looked exactly like her.
Arobynn had found the biggest jewel the the world. He just had to cut and polish it to make it shine.
And to hide his precious gem from the King of Adarlan, he opted to live right under his nose, here in Rifthold.
With the late afternoon sun, he was comfortable in his thin tunic and pants, which did nothing to conceal the toned body beneath. He didn't bother to put on a hood一too obscuring to see the fear on people's face when they learnt of his name一and he brought many, many gold. To buy slaves, which were far more loyal and cheaper than hired servants, once made presentable. To buy weapons, the ones so fine and balanced the air sang when he whipped them around. And to buy a child's sparring outfit.
He was told to get all these in this Market, where dark dealings were made so often even his keen eyes couldn't keep track of all.
An hour later, he had spent all of his gold pieces. Those money-sucking vendors, always persuading him to buy more and more. They knew he had a weak spot for exquisite blades.
His pouches felt light, replaced by daggers and swords of all sizes strapped to his belt. More were on their way to the Keep.
But there was something he could gain if he looked beneath the grime. Certain brothel madams were looking for acolytes and would pay a lot for a beautiful one.
He noticed an unusually pretty face among the beggars kneeling on the ground. The girl lifted her head when she felt his attention.
Not just pretty, but breathtaking. Those green eyes一wide, pleading and with a speck of curiosity. Worth the trouble if sold with a high price. But wouldn't survive long in this hellhole without help. Maybe he would give her just a little money to see if she had the wits to live.
He flicked a silver at her; it landed precisely in front of her knees. Her brows rose, gaping at the small fortune before her. Not a second later she scooped up the coin and latched on Arobynn's leg.
"Thank you! May the gods bless you with the same happiness you bestow upon me! I will be forever grateful一"
She was cut off with a shove from him. "Don't you dare mess up my clothes," he tilted his head to her filthy hands. She released them immediately. But he was secretly pleased to hear her words. Educated, and spoken with a lovely voice.
He purred, "Use it wisely, girl, or you'd be dead in a matter a days before I could visit you again."
"Why?" Her face held her question.
"Because you have the potential to succeed in a very, very special career." He raked an eye over her body. She flinched.
"I suppose you're not mature enough to understand," he heaved a sigh. "Maybe later." he turned to leave.
"Wait."
The girl got to her feet. "P-please take me away. I'd like to leave here," she paused. "For whatever cost."
Arobynn studied her with liquid silver eyes. He was satisfied to detect desperation.
"What's your name, my dear?"
"Lynn."
"Good. Forget it. It is now Lysandra."
Aelin was burning. She was gifted with wildfire, but the heat had never bothered her. Until now.
The sunlight illuminated the ruby red stains on the mattress. Her parents laid on top of it, their necks sliced open ear-to-ear. She was too stunned to move away from between her parents' corpses, her nightclothes as red as the blood still seeping from their wounds.
Then Lady Marion was pushing her out the kitchen door telling her to run run run, as the predatory footsteps neared. Although she had closed her eyes when she fled, she couldn't escape the torturing scene that played in front of her many, many times一Marion flung to the wall like a ragged doll, bones crunching. The swing of steel that took her life.
She screamed. Every step she took sent a jolting pain to her head, and the insufferable heat cocooning her一
She sat up too fast from the four-poster bed. Dizziness hit her, and she fell back, panting and sweaty. A pair of steady arms caught her.
"Whoa, careful buddy, that was a real nasty nightmare," The owner of the pair of arms, a young man in his mid twenties said, laying her gently back on the sheets.
"Where-where who一" she broke into a rasping cough. The pressure in the air was overwhelming, the invisible weight snuffing out her very existence. That's when she realized一no fire. The flames that had once swirled inside her gut, wild and uncontrollable一had vanished.
It wasn't only a nightmare. This time, she couldn't go to her parents' bed to seek comfort from her mother's cool embrace. Because they are dead.
The pain was a dull ache in her chest.
"To start with, I'm Ben, and you're safe," He put a hand on her forehead and frowned, "You're burning with fever. Get some rest, Celaena."
Aelin blinked. She was sure there wasn't another person in the room. Ben was staring straight at her, watching her reaction to the name expectantly.
She just nodded. She would have given him a false name if he asked. Better to let him call her what he preferred than exercise her pounding head to think of a believable name. She whispered, "Where am I? Who's that man with the long red hair?" She had a vague memory of the man who had found her beside River Florine, and carried her to somewhere warm.
Ben's eyes sparked with surprise. It vanished a second later, replaced with a grim sadness that didn't match his age.
"That's Arobynn. He's your master now一our master." Her heart skipped a beat. "He is the King of the Assassins. I'm an assassin. You will train to become one too."
Assassin. The word echoed through her. She was to become a killer, like the person who had murdered her father and mother. Ben looked at her with something that resembled pity.
"This is your room in the Keep. It's the base and fortress of the Assassin's Guild in Adarlan, full of trained professional killers. Arobynn controls us all." So do not try to escape, he didn't need to add.
As if he could sense her alarm, Ben sat back a bit and smiled wistfully. "Your training starts once you're fully healed. Consider yourself lucky; you'll be trained by Arobynn himself," His expression said otherwise, "His methods might be a bit一cruel," He winced at the word, "but you will survive if you're tough." Aelin decided that she did not want to know what punishment awaited her if she failed.
Ben took in her pale, hopeless face. "There is a way out," he said quietly, "Freedom can be granted by your master. Absolute freedom." Aelin's breath hitched at the thought of being free. She had never been, however loose the shackles of her throne were. Her fate was sealed the moment she had been born. "But I don't think that has happened in the past. Most die before they could pay off their debt." She wanted to ask what debt, but he cut her off with a hand.
"Now rest," he commanded, "I've been given only a week to nurse you to health, with no headaches or cramps. I don't want to be assigned to toilet duty." With that, Ben stood up in one fluid motion and sauntered to the door silently.
"What's my last name?" She asked when he pulled the door open on well-oiled hinges.
He smirked a little. "Sardothien," and he walked away, shutting the door with barely a click.
Celaena Sardothien. A new name, a new place to start a new life. A life promised to be brutal, bloody and torturous. And free, she mouthed. Such a foreign and delicious word on her tongue.
She staggered into the spacious bathroom. In the mirror she faced a gaunt girl with white lips and smudges of purple beneath her eyes. Still Aelin but somehow different. Closing her eyes, she bid a silent goodbye to Aelin Galathynius, the princess and heir of Terrasen.
She'd do anything to survive. To gain her freedom. Aelin embraced her new identity and opened her eyes.
The monster in her did the same.