The first thing I felt when I awoke was a throbbing pain in the side of my head, I knew I must have been hit pretty hard, but pain wasn't something that was new to me.
I opened my eyes only to see darkness before me. There was a sack over my head. I could hear low and quiet voices all around me, those must be the guards. I was moving slightly backwards and forwards, the familiar sensation of being on a horse.
I had never had a horse of my own before, of course I could never afford one, but I once made friends with a stable boy and he would often let me ride one of the horses; I even stayed in the stables with them for a while in the colder months. I felt like animals and I had always had a form of understanding between us. I felt like animals were such misunderstood creatures, always being told what to do without a second thought.
I took a deep breath and let me senses take over, trying to get a feel of my surroundings. I couldn't see or smell a single thing thanks to the itchy bag that was tied over my head. But other than the low, masculine voices I was sure I could hear raindrops falling onto leaves, were we in woodland? Strange, I couldn't feel any raindrops falling on my arms or legs. I knew there was a vast expanse of woodland between the city and the Kings castle, perhaps we were in it. I could only feel the leather of the saddle beneath me and the rough coat of the horse I was riding. My hands were bound in front of me with rope. I was still slouched over the neck of the horse as if I were unconscious.
I slowly sat up and waited for someone to notice that I was awake. They didn't.
I sighed. "Can someone take this damn bag off my head? I already know where we're going so there's really no point in it being here." I exclaimed.
"And how do you know where we're going?" Someone asked before I heard a thud and hushed voices.
"You will only speak when spoken to." A low voice sounded from somewhere close beside me, the owner of the voice had a strong accent that I couldn't quite place.
I mentally rolled my eyes. "I know where we're going because I saw your badges before you politely knocked me unconscious, we're going to the King's Castle." No one said anything to that, I guess the one with the accent was in charge and had knocked some sense into the others.
I became tense with boredom as the time passed, I found myself absentmindedly stroking the long mane of the horse as we went a long, and I had only just enough hand movement to run my fingers through the coarse hairs.
"You aren't putting up much of a fight." Who I assumed was the Captain stated from beside me, it wasn't a question.
"I realise there wouldn't be much point in trying." I replied.
He scoffed from beside me and that was that. But my words were only the truth; I knew that there was no way I could escape however many men there were around me, especially the Kings Guards. As far as I knew they were put through extensive and dangerous training so the King could ensure they were good enough for the job. I wouldn't stand a chance, especially without a weapon.
We travelled for what felt like a lifetime but must have only be a few hours before the hooves of the horses hit solid brick rather than soft earth, we must have been getting close.
Soon I heard the bustle of a crowded place as we passed by what must have been the town surrounding the Castle. The voices hushed as we passed. Did the townsfolk know I was coming? Surely not. They must just be staring at the King's new prisoner.
I had travelled far enough to see it only once, and it hadn't seemed worth the foot ache it had caused me. The castle was large and incredibly grand, made entirely of grey stone with an incredibly looming wall around it, the gate appeared impenetrable, but I could hear it creaking open and knew we had walked in without any trouble at all.
We finally came to a halt and I was roughly yanked from atop my steed. I pulled back for just a moment. "Wait." I said.
The large hands that held me still tightened, but we stopped moving for just a second. "The horse... what is its name?" I asked hesitantly.
I heard a man scoff from somewhere close by, but the one holding me did not laugh.
The one with the accent, the one holding me in place, was the one to answer my question. "Ame. It means..."
"Soul. I know." I said before he could tell me. In a language far more beautiful than ours, the word means soul.
He didn't wait any longer, and instead dragged me along, one hand gripping my arm hard enough to bruise, and the other firmly holding the back of my neck, I was pretty much immobile.
My head was spinning and my legs were stiff from the long ride on horseback, but my mind was clear, it had to be.
I heard doors being shoved open and suddenly we were inside. Was I really walking through the King's Castle? How could that be?
"Now listen carefully, girl. You will not speak unless spoken to. You will bow before the king. And if you move a single muscle when you are not supposed to, I will make you regret the day you were born." The accented voice was low but clear, leaving no room for argument.
"Do you understand me?" He growled.
"Yes." My voice was quieter than I wanted it to be. I didn't know how to address the man.
Could they really be bringing me in to see the king? I thought at the very most they must have taken me to replace some slave, not that I would be presented before the King himself.
When my neck was starting to ache from the angle in which I was being held, we finally stopped walking. A fist connected with a heavy door in three loud knocks. The sound shook my bones.
"Enter." Called a voice from inside, and then I was being dragged again. The door opened with a gust of cool air.
Until I was pushed, and my knees connected with the hard floor.
The bag was ripped from my head and the ropes around my wrists were cut with a knife that had been sheathed at the Captains side; my eyes squinted from the sudden intrusion of light.
I was kneeling before King Ivashkov's throne.
My brutal captor knelt beside me, and shoved my head down when he noticed I hadn't given His Majesty the sign of respect I was apparently supposed to.
In the split second I had caught sight of his face, I had seen all I had to see. He was absolutely God-like.
The man had long brown hair that looked like it would brush his shoulders if it weren't tied up at the nape of his neck. I hadn't noticed before but he wasn't wearing the typical guards uniform that the others wore, instead he wore a brown leather jacket, what I believed was called a duster. Was this man so prestigious that he didn't even need a uniform for people to know who he was?
In the time that my head was bowed, I managed to take in my surroundings. The throne room was large but sparse; there was nothing in here except the large throne that dominated the room. There was a man stood to the right of the King, and Guards lining all four walls, and two stationed on either side of the one and only door leading in and out of the room.
"Rise." The King commanded from his throne before us. My jailer rose in one swift motion and yanked me to my feet with him, as if I weighed little more than a feather.
I finally looked at the King, only to find him studying me incredibly closely. He was a somewhat stocky man, with silver hair and a bushy moustache. My eyes were drawn to the sword that hung at his side, it was intricately designed, it made me wonder if he had ever used it to cut someone's throat before. Surely something that beautiful wasn't made for something as harsh and unflattering as killing.
My eyes finally fell onto the man at his side. He had sable brown hair, but the eyes were what struck me, they were unlike any I had ever seen before: dark emerald green. He was tall, though not nearly as tall as the man beside me. He was watching me with an incredible intensity, as if I were a meal he was about to devour.
My attention snapped back to the King when he spoke again, although he wasn't looking at me. "Captain Belikov, are you sure this is the one?" He asked the man beside me, Captain Belikov. He sounded shocked, disappointed even, was I not what he was expecting?
I risked a glance at the Captain, only to see him looking unwaveringly at the King, he practically radiated loyalty. Like a lap dog. I thought that I had lost all appreciation for beauty in this world, but his looks struck me. I had never seen a man like him.
"Without a doubt, Your Majesty. My men and I watched her for several days." I had to work to hide my surprise. How had I not known that several people had been watching my movements for several days?
The King did not seem satisfied by that answer. His attention returned to me. He beheld me like a cat might look at a mouse. "What is your name, girl?" He asked.
"Rose Hathaway." I stated. I was glad my voice came out steady.
"Hm." Was the only response I received.
"She doesn't look like much, little more than skin and bones." I wanted to laugh at that, I weighed more than I ever had in my life, since I could actually afford to eat. But my clothes hung off my body, they were too big for me and had not been washed in some time. I wore leather pants that I had to save for weeks to afford with knee-high boots protecting my feet; a faded shirt covered my top half. I must have lost my hood and mask when they put the bag over my head.
"I can assure you, My King, that this is the girl you requested, the assassin."
Is that why he wanted me? Because I was an assassin? The assassin? Was he going to kill me because of what I had to do to survive? I suppose it would be well deserved after all the lives I had taken. At one point I had kept count of the number of deaths I had caused, I felt like I owed the victims that small mercy. But as the days turned into weeks and the weeks merged into months I started to lose track. I had spiralled into a black pit of nothingness, and even a number seemed unsubstantial to me.
"Prove it. Prove you are the deadly assassin that the people of my Kingdom claim you are." He said. Captain Belikov nodded at once and strode over to the edge of the room and stood before a Guard with bright red hair. I felt naked in the centre of the room without him beside me. I knew all eyes were on me. I had never liked being looked at, being seen was too dangerous.
"Ashford, we require your sword." Belikov commanded.
The redhead- Ashford- nodded and handed the Captain the sword without a second thought. I had a feeling these men had been trained to lay down their lives for each other without so much as a doubt in their minds.
Belikov strode towards me and held out the sword with the handle facing towards me. He was pointing the blade right at his own stomach. It would be so easy to grab the handle and shove the blade deep into his stomach.
I took the sword.
"Castille is one of our best swordsmen, Sir. If you approve, he will spar with the girl to test her skill." The Captain addressed the King, to which he only nodded; he was still watching me carefully.
A blonde Guard stepped forward and faced me. I adjusted the weight of the sword in my hand, it felt unfamiliar to me. I worked better with knives; I had only held a sword a handful of times. I was going to make a fool of myself.
"You aim to disarm, not harm your opponent in any way. Begin." Belikov said from where he stood, watching, a few feet away.
Castille and I circled each other for a moment or two before he stepped forward with his left leg and swung his sword straight across, I dodged the attack with a quick twist of my body.
I was simply defending myself from his attacks; I hadn't had the opportunity to swing my sword yet.
I could tell my audience was getting tired, and truthfully, I was too. I waited until the Guard had just swung his sword before I took my chance. I gripped the handle with both hands and swung.
It was slow, the sword was heavier than I was expecting, and the blade of his sword met mine in mid air. Now we were pushing against each other with everything we had.
I gritted my teeth. I knew I was strong, but he was stronger.
He pushed and pushed against me until I stepped back to balance myself. He took his opportunity.
The bottom of the handle of his sword came up against my clasped hands and the sword went flying from my hands. I was defenceless.
Castille hastily picked up my dropped sword and handed it back to his redheaded comrade before getting back to his post at the edge of the room with his other brothers in arms.
Captain Belikov was back at my side.
"Do you really expect me to believe that you are some deadly assassin, known for killing hundreds of people, when you can barely hold a sword?" The King said, his voice was rising with his temper. It was becoming clear to me that he was not a patient man.
I gritted my teeth once more. If there was one thing I despised more than anything, it was being belittled and under estimated.
I had spied the knife at the Captains side as soon as I had opened my eyes. And quicker than even I could believe, I had it in my hand and at the Captains throat, holding him awkwardly against my body facing the King.
In unison, every Guard in the room had his sword drawn and pointed in my direction.
Belikov held out a hand to his men, and they stopped at once. "Do not come any closer. She knows what she's doing." I felt the knife vibrate as he spoke against the blade. My arm was wrapped tightly around his chest; I could feel nothing but pure muscle. It was difficult holding the man in place when he was so much taller than me; my head barely came up to his shoulders.
The King was smiling.
I kept a firm grip on the knife and shoved the man away, he twisted to face me in a defensive stance, and his hand hovered over the hilt of his sword. I noticed then that his sword hilt was not simply leather like the one I had just held, it was intricately designed, not quite as extravagantly as the Kings, but similarly.
"Draw your sword and fight me, Captain Belikov." I demanded, my voice was low but confident.
I realised that I was risking a lot by challenging the Captain of the King's Guard, but whatever this meeting was, it was not currently working in my favour.
He regarded me as if I was insane, watching me very closely, but drew his sword all the same.
It was in that moment that I finally got a full view of his face, he had a face sculpted as if from stone, a sharp jaw line and high cheekbones, with eyes such a deep brown in colour that they almost appeared to be bottomless.
He was waiting for me to make the first move, and so I did.
I swung myself low and aimed my knife at his knees, he backed up a step just in time and I ducked beneath the sword that was currently flying above my head at an unimaginable speed. I didn't spare a second; I gave it everything I had and he didn't hold back either.
Neither of us had landed any serious blows on the other until I caught the Captain on the cheek with the tip of the blade. Not deep enough to scar, but enough to draw blood.
A low growl emitted from deep within his chest and I knew he was finished playing with me.
His attacks were relentless after that; I had managed to miss all of them by the skin of my teeth until he caught me on my upper arm. The sting brought a gasp from my lips and the dull shirt turned red. There was wind howling in my ears and fire burning through my blood.
"Enough." A voice sounded from somewhere in the room and my opponents attacks stopped immediately. He sheathed his bloody sword back into his holster and snatched the knife from my sweaty palm before I could even take a breath.
The voice that interrupted us had been the King's. "The fact that you are even still alive proves to me that you are who I thought you were." I hadn't realised it before, but there was a layer of ice on the throne and coating the ground around it.
I had heard whispers and rumours that the Royal family had the ability to control ice, but I had no idea it was true. There was once a time, hundreds of years ago, when everyone had control of their powers, but as we humans adapted and the necessity for an ability like it faded, most gifts died out of the bloodlines. Now, only the most elite bloodlines had access to their powers, and the Ivashkov's ability was power over ice.
"Rose Hathaway, the Unseen Assassin. You will train with Captain Belikov every day until he thinks you are ready for what I require of you." He said. I knew he was waiting for me to ask what he needed me for.
"And what is it, Your Majesty, that you require of me?" I asked.
"You are to be my Assassin." He stated, completely confidently.
"And if I refuse?" I asked. I knew I was walking on thin ice by even speaking out of term.
A sadistic smile lit up the King's wrinkled face. "You will not refuse. You will live here, in the castle, and have access to riches you can never imagine. You would be a fool to refuse my offer." His hand rested upon his sword as he said the word fool, and I knew exactly what he meant. If I refused, I would be killed.
He had me cornered and he knew it. I didn't say anything, and it was enough. I suspected that I wasn't being told everything, but now was not the time to doubt such things.
"Wonderful. Captain Belikov, take our guest to her room. You will start training tomorrow as often as you see fit. And see to it that she bathes before she is seen walking around the grounds, we can't have a stray mutt running amongst our best hounds." I clenched my fists and bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from saying something I would regret. Though I was somewhat surprised that he had said I would be going to a room rather than a cell.
"Yes, Your Majesty." Belikov responded with a low bow, before gripping my wrist in a vice-like grip and yanking it to the ground, ultimately making me bend at the hips into an uncomfortable and unflattering bow.
I didn't even have a chance to blink before I was being hauled out of the room. What had I gotten myself into?
There we have Chapter 2! I really hope you liked the first look at some of the most important characters in this story. I just want to thank you all for all of the reviews, favourites and follows that I have received for this story already, it really inspires me to keep writing if I know that it is something that you are all interested in reading. I'm really looking forward to continue writing this story! I really hope you enjoyed the second chapter, and I absolutely love hearing from you all so please let me know what you think! Thanks again!