The night has fallen and a girl was creeping to a small camp in the woods. The full moon was shining down and the night wasn't really dark which messed with girl's plans. It's always easier to creep in the dark. Still, the disposition was good. As far as she could see there were only three men, two standing guard at the opposite sides of the camp and the third sleeping by the nearest tree.

The girl waited for the cloud to cover the moon and when that finally happened both of the guards were dead within a minute. A small shadow quickly moved to a man under the tree. He was still fast asleep. The girl knelt by his side and slowly started stretching an arm with a knife to his throat. The blow had to be sure. At the very moment she's got to the perfect position to strike the cloud passed. The moonlight revealed the man's face and the girl hesitated for a second. A drop of blood fell from the blade on the man's neck and his hand darted upwards clutching the girl's wrist. The knife felt from her hand.

"My prince" said the girl giving him an awkward smile. That wasn't a proper form of greeting of a member of a royal family but she didn't think that proper greetings could save her in that situation.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Man moved to a sitting position without losing a grip on her wrist.

"I'm an assassin and I want to kill you"

"That's an honest answer though it was quite obvious. Who hired you?"

"There's no use for me to be dishonest, now is there? One of your brothers of course, Prince Primus to be exact"

"My brother is dead. All of them are"

"Oh... The deal's off then, I suppose." She gave it a thought and added: "...My king"

"Unfortunately, I'm not. Not yet." Septimus looked around and stated: "You've killed my men"

"They were in my way"

"Never mind. They were useless anyway. I've hired them after losing a bunch of even more useless idiots in a fight with pirates"

He finally let go of her wrist and stood up. The girl stayed on the ground rubbing her wrist. She was sure the bruises would appear soon. Well, that unless she got killed even sooner. Septimus glanced down at her speculatively. She didn't look very efficient but the two dead men proved her efficiency well enough. He reached out to help her up and said:

"Will you work for me?"

The girl looked up in surprise. Then she got herself together and switched to a businesslike manner.

"How much will you pay me?"

"Your life"

"Fair enough" said the girl and took his hand. Even when she was standing Septimus was about a foot taller than her. Constantly looking down at her. She felt uncomfortable. And irritated but that was a very wrong time for irritation. He still could change his mind about not killing her.

"Are you a fully trained assassin?"

"I'm still an apprentice. But I'm good, honestly"

"How come that my brother hired a mere apprentice to kill me?"

"Professionals prefer to stay away from royal feuds. And those who accept ask unreasonable amounts of money for their job. Apprentices, on the other hand, are always in need of practice... And fame"

Septimus didn't like ambitious people. They were unpredictable, they were hard to manipulate, they were trouble. Though it was always better to have them as allies rather than enemies.

"How do you seal your deals?" he asked.

You could hire an assassin without properly sealing the deal but then he would be simply a hired sword, doing his job and ready to betray you as soon as anybody offered better money. Sealing the deal made it nearly sacred. After that moment the assassin would rather die than see you in a harm's way.

"With blood or with a kiss. As Your Royal Highness will prefer" She smiled a bit mockingly and made a ridiculous curtsy. All curtsies look ridiculous if a person making them is wearing pants.

Septimus silently picked girl's knife and handed it to her handle first. She took it and said:

"The blade's poisoned"

"So is mine". He shrugged a little.

"I could search..." she wanted to finish it with "your man" but was stopped mid-sentence by a hand on the back of her head and the other lips pressed against her own. The kiss lasted for a mere couple of seconds and wasn't romantic in any way. It could have hardly been called a kiss. It was rather in terms with "business transaction". Septimus stood back and looked at the girl indifferently. She tried to stop repeating "He has warm hands" over and over in her head and look back at him with the same lack of emotions. Not that she was moved or anything. She just somehow expected his hands to be cold. Yes, that's it, she was surprised, nothing more. Or at least that was what she tried to tell herself.

The man was the one to break the silence.

"We move in an hour. I apparently have two spare horses so you can take one"

She made an effort to leap from a quarrel inside of her head and answered:

"I have my own. It's tied in the woods, I'll go fetch it" She whirled on her heels and walked swiftly towards the woods. He looked at her as if trying to say something but that moment passed and he went in the opposite direction to collect some firewood.