Twilight's by Stephenie Meyer
Chapter9/The killer
[Alice]
She sat bolt upright, sweating. She could still hear screaming but she was not sure now if it was her, or Bella.
Disturbed by the dream, Alice quickly left the tent she shares with the other women in the queen's retinue. The sky was still mostly gray but the sun's red-orange hues were starting to blanket the horizon.
She tried not to panic but her heart beat was racing madly and she has trouble breathing.
"Rosalie!"
She looked everywhere and couldn't find her sister. In desperation she grabbed a maid and ordered her to find Rosalie.
She sank down on a big rock and buried her face in her hands.
Oh, God.
Breathe, damned it! Think.
She went still, breathing deep, trying to recapture the visions of her dream.
She saw …
An arrow.
It was massive in size and shot from a golden bow.
She watched, mesmerized and in horror, as the notch was released and the projectile of the arrow flew higher, its red arrowhead spinning faster and faster. It swooped at a frightening angle, deadly in its accuracy.
Her dream stopped abruptly, jerking her awake. All she could remember was blood pouring out of a fatal wound.
Who died?
[Jasper]
"Have you been eating wild berries, Lady Alice?"
"No!"
Jasper narrowed his eyes at her. It was very obvious to him that the woman was extremely agitated.
She appeared before him while he was waking up, and told him – a bit hysterically – that someone would die.
"Well … who, then?" he asked, yawning. He stretched and got up, rolling his own saddle pack.
"I don't know," she whispered now, her voice hoarse.
Pity, he was thinking, eyeing her bowed head.
She was pretty in every way, and seemed to have a passionate nature in her beliefs. He liked that in a lady.
What he would not tolerate were fanciful women who would make up stories to get his attention.
"You must take me to Brandon," she said.
"That's not possible, my lady."
Brandon was her home. It was way out of their route and it would delay them a week at least if they would make the detour.
And we won't, he told himself.
"Kind sir, please … take me there!" she implored, clutching his sleeve now.
Jasper looked down and stared at her eyes. He was surprised to find green flecks in her brown eyes. He groaned inwardly.
Edward would have my hide if I do this, he thought, tempted.
"Please …"
Aw, hell.
He grinned, and gently disentangling her tiny fingers from his sleeve, gave her a gallant bow.
[Argyll]
He watched his 10 archers and singled one out, beckoning imperiously to him.
"You will take Edward Cullen," he barked.
"Aye, me lord!"
Agaston, his second-in-command, would target the other one. It was the youngest Cullen, that bastard Emmett, who has deadly expertise in the bow and arrow. He would die first.
As for Edward …
He gritted his teeth.
He was the most dangerous of the brothers.
James absently stroked the long line of scar at the base of his jaw.
They were at the king's castle in London and fiercely engaged in sword play. Since Kent's son was too young to joust him officially on the field, James had challenged the boy to a sword fight in private, only he wasn't planning on using just swords. He had wanted to injure him so bad that he would spend the rest of his short life as an invalid.
He had harbored intense hatred for the Cullen brood for years.
Arrogant, patronizing, land-grabbing sons of whores, all of them!
He had wanted to eliminate the eldest son and work his way from there until all of them were rendered useless, or dead.
But he had underestimated Kent's heir. Even at 14, the bastard was strong, wily and cunning.
His blood boiled at the remembrance of the humiliation he suffered that day, bested by a Cullen and worse! By a boy 17 years his junior!
He growled at the memory.
James was bigger, his muscles more defined and bulky, and even though Edward was taller than him, he was lanky. The bastard looked boyish in his whipcord thin body. But when they started fighting, he quickly realized he was battling a man.
It was a long fight, to his surprise. But he was getting furious by his opponent's cockiness. The bastard was grinning! He barely managed to duck away when he started pursuing him, hacking away.
James knew what he needed to do to end it. He drew his hidden blade from his boot, changing his plans then and there from maiming him, to plain ending his life. When he lurched upwards, Edward was quicker, limber, and quickly struck his hand with the knife.
Edward took one look at the abandoned blade, evidence of his sneak attack, yelled bloody curses at him and with a powerful maneuver, struck his shoulder and he fell to the ground. He remembered looking up when he felt the tip of the boy's sword, threatening his neck.
"You have no honor, sir," the bastard said, with quiet menace.
"And what do you know of honor? You whoreson!"
The last thing he recalled was the feeling of warm liquid dripping down his neck. He was knocked senseless.
He smiled evilly now.
He would destroy him. The bastrich and the queen he was protecting.
"Me lord!"
He was interrupted from his murderous musings by one of his knights.
He glared at him.
"Speak! And this better be good!"
"Scouts sighted dae queen's party, sir!"
"How far?" he growled, pulling up the sword he had struck violently on the ground in frustration earlier.
"Half a day's ride, sir!"
[Alice]
She was grateful of Jasper's escort and protection.
Still, she was afraid, so very afraid. It had been years since she had visited her home.
Her father, the earl, died without a male heir. His title and lands went to the next of kin.
But her poor cousin perished in the bloody heretics' war, and was without an heir, too.
The king bequeathed her father's manor to her and Rosalie but the earldom and vast landholdings were gone.
Her sister has since declared that she had no intention of living in the old house and for that, she was glad. She loved their old house.
The king as their guardian redrafted the property titles for the sisters, where Rosalie would be given yearly earnings from the small lot attached to the manor, while Alice would inherit the house and all the outbuildings. It was a fair partitioning.
She sucked in a breath when the manor came into view. Without thinking she urged her horse to gallop faster and she shot past her surprised escort.
When she reached the pebbled entryway, she jumped on the ground. The door opened and a haggard-looking, scrawny male peered out.
"Awa wit ye!" he hissed.
She stepped back, startled, then she narrowed her eyes at him. She threw the hood of her cloak back and revealed her face.
"I am the lady of the manor."
Alice heard a gasp from inside the door and then it was flung wide open.
"Oh, me dearie!"
She blinked when she saw her old maid, Charlotte. She looked at her in shock.
"What happened to you?"
Charlotte and the old man – she recognized him now as her maid's brother – were poorly and she could smell hunger and sickness in the air.
She heard Jasper getting down from his horse and standing by her side.
"Step aside, if you will, madame. We have errands here."
The servants hastily moved out of the way to allow us entry into the house.
The smell was worse inside. She blinked and closed her eyes. She shouldn't be surprised to see how dilapidated and unkempt the house looked, considering how her servants were.
Wordless, Alice ran for the big stairs, Jasper following behind.
She burst into her mother's old room and went straight to her secret closet. She tapped the wall three times and it magically opened.
She coughed, inhaling years of dust. She quickly brushed aside at the cobwebs and reaching blindly inside, gripped the heavy leather-bound parcel and pulled it out.
She heard Charlotte wheezing, having run up the stairs herself.
"N-no! Me lady!"
She dropped her mother's grimoire on the dirty bed. Dust flew up and when it cleared, all four of them gazed down at the dark brown book.
"What is it?" Jasper said quietly.
"My mother's book of magic."
[Jasper]
He blinked, eyeing the object on the bed with caution, as if expecting it to strike at him, like a venomous snake.
"Spells, incantations, summoning demons, and such?" he said, attempting to instill a lighter tone to the situation.
He failed.
He looked at all the grim faces around him.
"Me lady, ye must leave now," the woman, Charlotte, begged Alice.
She seemed frozen, her eyes dilated, staring at her mother's book.
Making a quick decision, he grabbed the book and took her hand, prepared to drag her out of the house.
Outside, past the door, he felt the hair at the back of his neck bristle.
He went still, hearing it.
A singing of the wind, a glimpse of brown, and something struck his chest, propelling him backward with its sudden force.
Stunned, he dropped the heavy book and staggered, falling to his knees.
"An arrow," he said, amazed, watching his shirt turn red.
***a/n
Part 1: "The beginning" is closing there are just 3 more chapters. Part 2 is entitled "The hunt". Thank you for reading.