Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fan fic apart from Blaire and Kaide as I made them up myself. The rest of the characters belong to Kristen Cashore, who wrote Graceling.
Chapter 1– Tealiff's Capture
The heavy sound of the ocean crashing hard against the jagged cliff face hid any sound that two dark shadows were making as they crept silently against the top edge of the cliff. Combined with the darkness of midnight and the loud ear-shattering cracks that the thunder made, the two shadows were invisible as they crept towards their unsuspecting prey.
"This weather is bad. The King won't be happy if the Prince gets sick in this weather," a voice said wearily during a quiet spell between the cracks of thunder. As the lightning illuminated the sky once again, a jagged crack of lightning zigzagging towards the ocean lit up the small party of men that were about to climb onto the pulleys that rose up into Ror's City. The two shadows trailing them froze, the only thing preventing the party of guards in front of them from seeing them was the fact that they happened to be standing behind a sagging Po tree.
"Agreed," said another voice from the centre of the guards. Near him, on a horse, an old man shivered heavily in the cold and rain, despite the extra layers of blankets wrapped tightly around him. But the quality of the jewellery, clothing and rings that he wore identified him as Prince Tealiff, father of the current King Ror of Lienid.
"We better hurry. Prince Tealiff shouldn't have visited the Prince Greening anyway. This time of year? He's getting insane in his old frame of mind."
This time, the thunder and lightning appeared almost simultaneously. The two lurking shadows that hid behind the Po tree spoke for the first time since arriving at the top of the cliff.
"Blaire, we need to intercept them before they reach the pulleys, or Leck is going to cut half our reward. I say that we remove the guards and grab the Prince before they even realise that we are there," one of the shadows smirked eagerly in the dull light. However, even in the dull lighting, it was easy to see the one metre blade that swung easily on her waist, as well as the outlines of several daggers and knives that were stuffed into various locations on her body, the most prominent outline on her boots. Beside her, Blaire drew her slightly shorter sword as she considered her partner's words. In the poor light of night, the two shadows of the lurking strangers looked almost identical, the only thing separating them was the style of their hair. Blaire's was short and spiky, while her partner's was long and straight. It was impossible to tell the colours of their hair.
"That sounds like a stable enough plan, Kaide. But do you want the King and his men to later come down and find the Prince's men dead and the grass covered in blood? Something a little less obvious that will buy us some time," Blaire replied softly in the quiet between the thunders. In front of them, the Prince and his guards were walking slowly, the rain, wind and thunder causing them to travel in a slow crawl.
"Fine, but you aren't considering this blasted rain are you?" Kaide muttered unhappily. In her anger, she let out a low, but violent hiss through her teeth. Her eyes flashed suddenly, and for a moment it seemed that her eyes had glowed a pale sky blue. A second later, this blue colour could be dismissed as a hallucination. Kaide's eyes were pale amber when the lighting revealed them.
Blaire slid her sword back into its sheath, but from the wary way she eyed Kaide, she had clearly noticed the sudden change in Kaide's eye colour.
"No swords, just the daggers. Just snap their necks if you can, or slit their throats, but hold one or two hostage in case we need to keep Tealiff quiet. Okay with you?" Blaire asked, not bothering to wait for a response, as on queue with the thunder, she left the scant cover of the Po tree and ran out into the rain, running in a smooth, but swift manner. Kaide let out a small sigh as if she had anticipated Blaire's reaction, and followed silently after her, moving so quickly that she seemed nothing more than a blur.
Within seconds, the pair was mere metres away from Tealiff and his guards. In a swift and deadly motion, Blaire swung herself onto the nearest guard and with a crack coinciding with the thunder, snapped his neck. Kaide followed milliseconds later with the same graceful motion, and by the time the rest of attacked men were aware of the fact that they were under attack, Blaire and Kaide had already killed half the men.
"We're under attack!" a man shouted in terror. But Blaire and Kaide had chosen the day of their attack well. With the whistling of the wind, the hard pattering of the thunder and the booming strikes of the thunder, any yells that would have arisen couldn't be heard anywhere, even if someone was mere metres away from the scene of the attack. Instead, it was covered by the bleak yet dangerous weather.
There was only enough time for several rasps of drawn swords before the entire guard was dispatched, leaving only one alive, who was struggling in Blaire's iron grip. Meanwhile, Kaide had looked ahead to see the solitary figure of Tealiff galloping towards the base of the mountain that led to Ror's castle.
"Stop him Kaide!" Blaire shouted clearly over the thunder. Kaide remained mute as she turned into nothing more than a blur as she pursued the reason that the pair were hunting in the bleak weather in Lienid. Prince Tealiff.
Blaire smiled the moment that her sharp eyes caught the sudden fall of Tealiff's horse. Tealiff was thrown roughly onto Kaide's back, as she returned to Blaire with the same superhuman speed that she had shown before.
"What are you?" the guard that was taken hostage by Blaire choked.
"What are we? Deary me, you need to keep up with the times. You Lienids are just so out of it sometimes. I mean honestly, what else do we look like, apart from human?" Blaire replied sweetly, sarcasm dripping in her tone.
"Hey, look who we got," Kaide sang, as she dumped the shivering figure of Tealiff on the ground. But as Tealiff fell limply onto the wet grass, Kaide turned away from Blaire before a flash of regret flashed fleetingly in her eyes.
"Prince," the guard coughed. Blaire suddenly tightened her grip around the guard's throat and turned to Tealiff.
"Are you coming with us quietly or are you going to let this man that I am carrying die…painfully?" Blaire asked, grinning. Tealiff looked up at Blaire and Kaide with fear in his eyes.
"What kind of humans are you? Your eyes are the same colour, meaning you can't be Graced, but yet you possess the power of the Graced. You must be… those assassins that I heard work with Leck. What does King Leck want with me?"
"Oh, you aren't going to Leck. I think you will enjoy the hospitality of a certain King Murgon of Sunder. He certainly has some really comfy dungeons for you to stay at for the moment. Not that you will remember this little bit of information anyway." Kaide's chuckle was as chilling as the weather around them.
"Enough questions!" Blaire snapped. Tealiff looked at her suddenly, as Blaire suddenly whipped out a black blindfold that she threw to Kaide, who tied it tightly around his head. Tealiff moaned with protest. "Are you coming?"
"Yes," Tealiff whispered hopelessly. Blaire let out a smile to rival Kaide's. She gave Kaide a slight nod, and suddenly snapped the neck of the guard that she was holding. Tealiff's shocked gasp made the chilling smiles on Blaire's and Kaide's face increase even further.
"You said you wouldn't hurt him if I co-operated!" Tealiff said. Despite the blindfold, the audible snapping of the guard's neck had been more than enough to notify Tealiff of his murder.
"You know what?" Blaire whispered. "Never trust assassins. Priority no. one will always be us. He was a threat. And bait," Blaire tacked on in an afterthought.
With a swift motion, Blaire bent down towards Tealiff, and cupping his head firmly in her left arm, she pinched his nose shut with her right hand. Within seconds, Tealiff opened his mouth to breathe through, and it was in this short space of time that Blaire acted. A small, pale blue pill was forcibly shoved into Tealiff's mouth, and choking slightly, Tealiff swallowed the pill.
"Ah. Good," Blaire said satisfied as Tealiff's eyes took on a dazed and drugged look. She jabbed at a pressure point at the base of Tealiff's neck. He went limp instantly, as Blaire repositioned and slung him over her shoulder.
Kaide yawned widely to attract Blaire's attention. "Can't we wait until tomorrow morning before we step back onto those bloody boats? At this rate with the storm and all, I will be puking out all my organs, and I'll feel better if I get a chance to recover in Ror's City."
Blaire laughed. "Not my problem that you are so sensitive to everything that just stepping onto a boat is enough to make you sick."
Kaide let out a disgruntled groan, annoyed.
"Well, I am the one who has to lug Tealiff down this damn cliff without dropping him or letting go of the rope either," Blaire snapped back.
"True," Kaide admitted grudgingly. "I wouldn't want you to fall to your death as we climb down this cliff. It is a long drop, after all," she added with a slight smile.
The thunder continued to bang as the two assassins and their captive travelled towards the cliff face, and with a smooth movement, they suddenly leapt off the cliff, the only sign of their presence were the two ropes that were tied and taut on the Po tree that lead towards the cliff face.
The ship that waited for them at the bottom of the cliff rose and fell with each battering of the waves. Several deckhands waited anxiously for them to arrive on board the rocky ship. The lead man on the ship had a black coloured right eye and a blue left eye, and his Grace allowed him to intensify weather patterns. On this night, on Blaire's orders, he had made the thunderstorm that was brewing above Ror City into a near hurricane, the perfect atmosphere for an abduction.
"Calm the storm down, but make sure that the weather gets us onto land as soon as possible. Kaide, you know?" Blaire ordered with a wink as she boarded the ship with a jump, rope and Tealiff on her shoulders, as the lead man instantly calmed the storm down. Blaire walked across the deck and roughly threw the unconscious Teacliff into a musty and wet cabin.
"Keep him asleep, or else," Blaire said to the two frightened deckhands that happened to be mopping up the cabin at the time. As Blaire stepped back out onto deck, she saw a green-faced Kaide run to the stern of the ship before throwing up. The clouds in the sky had already lost their black intensity, and the thunder and lightning became less frequent. The rain had turned into a drizzle within minutes.
"You 'kay?" Blaire asked, struggling to keep the amusement off her face.
"Shut up, Blaire. Tell the guy to get this damned ship moving," Kaide moaned, just before she let out a loud retch and threw up over the edge of the ship.
Kaide ran off the ship the moment it touched onto South Bay in Sunder. To her, the land was like silk, firm beneath her and instantly curing her sea sickness. She hated it whenever Leck ordered that they needed to do a mission by ship. Kaide suspected that Leck did that to spite her. She had always known that while Blaire was well liked and trusted by Leck, while she was only tolerated due to her skill and the fact that she was Blaire's partner in crime.
As she sat down impatiently on a nearby fallen tree, the clear sunny day revealed the differences in appearance between Kaide and Blaire. Kaide had straight light tan hair that went down to her waist. Her forehead was covered by a thick fringe, framing her exotic amber eyes. Meanwhile, Blaire on the ship had short, spiky black hair with clear, dark brown eyes.
When Blaire finally stepped off the ship and walked towards the fallen tree where Kaide was sitting impatiently, her face was pinched with amusement.
"Getting to Sunder must be heavenly for you. At least you don't get sick whenever you get onto a horse," Blaire laughed. Kaide gave her a hard glare.
"We of course need to ride horses to deliver Tealiff to his new…temporary home before Leck brings him down to Monsea. But next time you try and made fun of me, remember that I am only helping you serve Leck because of my friendship with you. If you push me too far, I'm leaving, and there will be two extremely satisfied people in this world. And one of them won't be you. Have you noticed that in our pairing that it is me that does all the close range and dangerous stuff while you just sulk on the highest building or tree?" Kaide said bitterly. She drew out her long metre sword slowly, allowing the sunlight to illuminate the pale blue colour of the blade. She swung her blade until it was only millimetres from Blaire's throat.
"Remember that. And I will not serve Leck for the rest of my life. That is one thing I am certain on depending on any circumstance. That may be what you want, but I can see him for what he is. I believe that the seven kingdoms deserve that too. I hate him. He hates me. Simple exchange of feelings."
Kaide slid her sword back into its sheath, and she turned away without a word. Blaire watched as she walked inland, and with a sigh, followed her. She knew that the relationship between Kaide and King Leck was like a faulty fuse – one day the fuse would break, and all hell would break loose. And Blaire would be forced to choose between the two halves of the broken fuse.
