A/N – Hi, this is my first fanfic, please read and review and enjoy!
Disclaimer: As much as I would like to, I can't claim credit for any of the characters or places in Maria V. Snyder's Study Series, (especially Valek!) and without further ado…
He smiled, as he heard her pained squawk. The feather was soft and snow white in his hands. Carefully stowing it in his breast pocket, he headed out. The night was cold, extremely cold, but it was not far to his workshop.
When he arrived, he removed the feather, and slowly lowered it into the mold. Then with the utmost care not to scorch the feather, he slowly pumped the liquid metal into the mold. It needed one night, then it would be ready, and so would he.
Satisfied with his work on the feather, he turned to inspect every part of his plan, from his clothes to his poisons, for if he wanted to please the Commander and see the end of the cruel monarchy, every last detail needed to be absolutely perfect. This was the last feather, ninth of nine. A parting gift, for the nine members of the royal family. They were foolish and weak, to overconfident in their magical defenses. To bad, he thought, a vicious grin twisting his features, that I'm immune.
The light finally began to fade, and the evening rolled in, misty and cold; perfect for his needs. He was dressed in a full body camouflage suit, and armed to the teeth with concealed weaponry and poisons. The key would be to be quick enough. Once he killed one, he must kill the rest before the first was discovered.
In the palace courtyard, he awaited the Commander's signal. It was finally here, the day they had been planning for years; the takeover. Even though he was supremely confident in his abilities, having perfected them over time to perfection, he could not deny that there were butterflies in his stomach, this was his hardest mission yet, and likely his hardest ever. He, the Commander and his men, had hammered out every detail, of not only the attack, but also the government that was to follow. They would create a utilitarian state, where everyone had all they needed, where none would be forced into poverty from horrible and un-just taxes, where no one would be murdered by cruel and callous tax-collectors.
Valek smiled at the thought. They would create the perfect government, where the Commander could take charge and rule the people with fairness and justice, no matter the situation. Of this Valek had no doubt. But his task remained all the same, for to establish this ideal government, his role would be crucial; he had to destroy the ruling royal family.
There were nine of them, the king and queen, their two children, the king's brother and his wife (formerly a foreign princess), and the queen's sister, husband, and teenage child. They all had to die tonight.
He hid in the shadow of the courtyard, anxiously awaiting the Commander's final instructions. At long last, he appeared in the courtyard, his deceptively delicate features drawn and hard. His golden eyes flicked to me, starring with a sharp intensity. I held his gaze with my own; I hoped I looked strong and determined. Then he spoke, "I need not remind you how vital your task is. If anyone of the royal family or the magicians," here he paused to spit on the dirt beside him (he harbored and extremely strong long grudge against any and all magic), "survives the night, we are all doomed. Our government will fail, and all shall be lost and conditions in Ixia will be even worse for everyone; everyone will have to surrender all their meager earnings in taxes. Not that we will be around to witness that.
"You are the most important part of this plan. Do not be proud, call for help if you need it, and I shall send my most capable men. It is imperative that the mission gets completed. Report to this courtyard when you are done. And good luck."
I gulped. The Commander had no skills in sugarcoating. But he had picked at old wounds (probably intentionally) and I let the anger flow within me. This king and his family had sat aside while mine perished, toiling in the mines for generations to give the king his precious gold, but even that was not enough. We had to pay taxes on top. Then when it got so bad that my father, a proud man, had to stoop to pleading for mercy with the tax-collector, begging to keep enough of his wages to feed his family, instead of mercy, he was met with cruel laughter, and instead of understanding, the tax collector simply killed my three older brothers, saying "now you have no need for the extra money, hand it over." And when my father still refused, the evil tax collector, sprang upon him, and stabbed him with the same blade, still dripping with my brother's blood. Then with an evil smirk upon his face, he bent to the dead body and snatched up the money, and laughed on his way out of our door. I was six years old, and if I had not been playing hide-n-go-seek with my brothers, I too would have died that day.
"Yes sir. I understand. I will wait here when the job is done."
"Good. Go, and I hope to see you again, come this morning."
With a final salute, I hurried off, vanishing into the mist. Slowly, I began to climb the walls, mentally reviewing my plan one final time. Inside my suit, along with a number of other un-pleasant surprises for an un-wanted attacker, I had nine darts, all tipped with the most lethal poison known to man, My Love***. I also carried a stash of darts tipped with other poisons, for any un-wanted guards, intended to knock out, but not kill. In addition I was armed with 5 concealed blades, all poisoned to kill with just the slightest nick, two sheaths strapped around my thighs and two around my wrists and a final one around my neck. The last one was risky, it could turn into my noose in a fight, but I trusted my abilities. I had other arms, and of course, the nine feathers.
In my supplies, was a thin rope and grappling hook, which I threw up to the fourth floor, where it hooked on the royals windowsill.
They were all fools, the entire family, including the siblings and families lived in one wing, all within casual spitting distance from the others, and the only guards were posted outside the corridor, they relied on locked windows to keep intruders out. This eased my concern about the speed, a little. This was still the most risky endeavor I had ever attempted.
Testing my hook, I smiled with relief it had caught satisfactorily. Quickly shimming up the rope, I stayed close to the building, hoping to escape notice for as long as possible. When I reached the window I hung by the tips of my fingers off the sill. Deciding it was worth the risk of being caught, I quickly pulled myself up onto the sill, and removed my lock picks. The window lock gave immediately, and mentally I laughed at the royal's illusion of safety, this lock was a toy.
Quickly I slipped into the now open window and into the hall. I crouched low in a fighting stance, my breath quick, and heart pounding, expecting ambush at any second. Slowly, still wary, I crept down the hall and slowly tested the royal's door. This one was a bit trickier, but still yielded under my efforts. Knowing that quiet was crucial, I mentally blessed the royal's taste for thick carpet, it muffled any noise I might make. It was rumored that the Ixian Prince was a very light sleeper, therefore, I had decided to make him my first victim.
I saw the king's brother and his wife; sleeping, they looked almost sweet. Then I remembered my own family and my will hardened. Fingering the first My Love dart, I crept very slowly towards the bed. Silence was more important than speed, for now.
When I finally got to the bed, he still had not stirred, and moving with all the speed and grace I possessed, I grabbed the man and plunged the dart into his neck, at the nape; this paralyzes the victim, making his death silent. I stayed until the blood dribbled from the man's mouth, the sure sign that he was dead.
Next his wife got the same treatment. After I was certain I was the only live person in the room, I withdrew two of my precious meal-coated feathers from my hidden pouch, and placed them tenderly in the victim's bleeding mouths. This was my brand, so all the world would know that I killed them.
Two down, seven to go.
Once both my victims lay dead, feathers in mouth, I re-entered the hall, and crept down to the next room, still expecting a hidden guard. There lay the queen's sister and her husband. Quickly and efficiently they too went down.
The next task was to find the children. I made my way to the other side of the hall, and there in the nursery, slept the two royal heirs. Once they had been eliminated, I put two of my three miniature feathers in their mouths, and cut one lock of hair from each of their dead heads. Dipping it gently in their blood, I put them in a special pouch, a special souvenir for the Commander.
From there, I went into the hall again, this time seeking the dead heirs cousin. She was in the next room, slumbering fitfully. I'd have to be careful with this one, not to wake her. Not that I couldn't subdue a teenager, but if she woke she would squawk, and the guards would be drawn like ants to honey. No, much better to avoid waking her if possible.
With that thought in mind, he crept slowly to towards the bed. When he was merely a few hand-spans away, she moaned and rolled in her sleep, and I froze, afraid to breathe. I waited, crouched over her bed, until she settled, and then, he pounced, silently ending her life.
After the feather was in place, I left, seven down, two to go. Only the king and queen remained, but not for long.
I crept again, this time reaching the end of the hall. This door had a slightly more complex lock, but it still surrendered to my picks in less than 30 seconds. Then ever so slowly, hoping to avoid creaky hinges, I worked the door to the royals room open. There they lay, sleeping! This was almost too easy.
I walked in with a little more speed and less stealth, and hit a groaning floor-board! I mentally cursed, and waited for the inevitable response from the guards that lay sleeping a few feet away. They slept on like rocks; this really was too easy.
Slipping over to the knot of sleeping guards at the foot of the royals beds, I grabbed each by the neck and pricked them with darts that would knock them out for the next day or so, then quickly tied their hands and feet and gagged them in-case the drug failed; not that it would, since I had poisoned them myself, but it never hurt to be certain; except when it did.
Finally I reached the king's bed. First, he had deiced, would kill the queen, and did this, with a swift My Love dart. But this was then that the plan shattered; instead of the silent kills he had done for the rest of the family, the queen squeaked as she died, waking the king.
He sprang up, and seeing an assassin, grabbed his dagger from under his pillow, and hurled it at me. It missed, but by a smaller portion then I'd like. Briefly I marveled at the king's fighting skill, that was difficult to keep a secret, particularly from trusted servants, who he had recruited to serve as spies in the Commander's network, after the takeover.
In the time it took for that idle thought to cross my mind, the king had leapt from the bed, tears of grief streaming down his face, and snatched the broadsword from it's concealed spot under his desk and attacked.
"You. Killed. My. Queen." He pronounced the words with a cold fury; each word equaling one calculated thrust.
Cursing my lack of a long weapon, I was forced to move back to avoid the thrusts. "You really are a sad pathetic creature. Sneaking up in the night, and attempting to murder a king." I couldn't pay attention to his taunts, I had to focus on movement. The magic made it harder to concentrate, even if it did not effect me as much as most. He was chanting now, and attacked me with renewed strength. The magic thickened, and though it still had no effect on my body, it made it even harder to move.
Still we spared, dancing around the room in an intricate pattern of blocks and thrusts; I had whipped out my longest dagger, still much shorter than his, but it was holding up. However, it ensured that I was constantly on the defensive.
He thrust, I moved; he chopped, I moved; I didn't dare try to block his sword with my dagger, so my only option was to stay moving until the king tired himself then in a weak moment, end his life. He kept hacking at me, and chanting, and I kept moving, as the sun slowly crept up from its sleep.
Finally the king stopped chanting, and said one thing I could understand, "May the blood of my kin haunt you forever!" I had been so intent on our fighting that I had not even realized that he was cursing me in the mage's tongue, until that final phrase, but it did not matter, I was immune to magic. After that he leapt towards me, in a fit of rage, his sword pointed straight at me.
I spun to the side, and allowed the sword to graze my arm, as I plunged my dagger straight into the king's heart. He was dead before he could hit the ground. Smiling triumphantly, I placed the last two feathers in place and turned to clean my blade, and realized that it wouldn't clean. Frustrated, I tried again, but the blood stubbornly remained; and I realized that the king's curse could not work on me, so it attached itself to my blade. Well, it would be a good souvenir, but I would not find another blade of that caliber anywhere in Ixia.
Finally with the king was dead, blade still dripping with his blood, I returned to the courtyard, triumphant, awaiting the Commander's orders in the first watery light of dawn.
*** (I know that in the book My Love is not a quick killer, but it's MY story!)