Doria crept up to the castle, and into one of the great doors which wasn't lying in an ashen pile. This door was golden and carved with leaves and fairies, and as he pushed it open it didn't make a sound. Once he was inside, he scanned the hall for guards. Because only half of the castle was left, less guards were being posted every day and there had only been two at the gate, who had been swiftly dealt with. Through the eye holes in his mask, Doria could see perfectly. Only two guards, at the very end of the corridor. Outside the door to the very staircase which he needed to climb.
Their armour looked very hard and their weapons looked threatening, but Doria continued. This was what he loved about his secret job: the subtlety, the darkness, the guilty pleasure. He was almost like a cat, creeping through the shadows, unseen. He came closer.
The guards were very bored. I'm hungry, one of them thought stupidly, imagining plates of meat and potatoes, huge barrels of wine, and many half dressed women serving it up to him. Mmmmmm.... he began to drift asleep, and slumped in his position. He felt a sharp nudge from his companion and caught a glimpse of accusing eyes through armour.
"Sorry..." he mumbled. "I just ca-aaaa..." his words ended in a strangled mess as the air was squeezed from his lungs. An arm had looped around his neck from behind and squeezed just in the place where the helmet stopped and the hauberk began. He slumped to the ground.
The other guard stared at who appeared to be an assassin, looming over the body of his companion. "Wh... What did you do that for?" His voice was shaking so he clasped his gloved hands together tightly.
The assassin wore a mask, revealing nothing but a pair of dark eyes, and the guard almost flinched back, but stopped himself. He was a guard of the palace. A strong soldier. How could he quake under the gaze of a criminal?
A voice sounded, smooth and utterly emotionless. "Drag his body out of sight, and then return to your post. If anyone comes by, knock them out and don't let them up this staircase."
"But-"
The voice overpowered him. "He is only unconscious, not dead. Now do as you're told or maybe I will kill him." The threat hung in the air for a second before the guard dragged his companion off into the shadows. When he returned, warily, the masked man was gone.
The guard stood up straight, spooked, and resumed his post, keeping a beady eye out.
Doria slipped through the door to the staircase and once he had ghosted up the spiraling stairs, he stopped and let out a burst of silent laughter. What an idiot that guy had been.
He crept along the corridor, every shadow looming, every portrait watching. But Doria was never discouraged; he had done this so many times...... he tried to convince himself that this time was no different, that he wouldn't be caught. Of course he wouldn't. - But this was the palace.
He reached the door.
Inside he half expected the Queen to be lying on her bed in a deep sleep, and to be awakened by the sound of his soft footfalls, but the room was deserted and haunting. The Queen hadn't slept in the castle since the fire, but the bed was made and the surfaces spotlessly clean.
He had acquired a plan of the room through one of his many sources, and he had studied it for hours, memorizing exactly where he would find what he needed. He headed straight towards it. A glass case on a shelf against the far wall, an amazing diamond necklace shining out from within in on a scarlet cushion. The diamonds were so tiny and delicate that Doria had to shaker himself to remind himself of where he was. He had to do this now. He produced his laser cutter, and held it up into a beam of moonlight from the window. Easy, he thought.
It was at that moment that the sound of clanking metal reached Doria's ears, and he froze, not because he was scared, but because he needed to find a way out. The guards were coming.
Doria leaped out of the window, necklace in a pouch at his belt, just as the door burst open and the room succumbed to a score of angry guards with swords.