Chapter Nineteen
Continuing, Grandfather reads, "Lady Sandwind was the first to recover from the tumble that she and Sir Otto took after overcompensating for the illusion. She stood up in time to see the General die, a look of shock on his face.
Before he dropped his sword to the ground, the Assassin had vanished, melting into the shadows, yet again.
This time, the attack was not so forthcoming. Sir Otto stood up, wary, with Lady Sandwind scanning around, looking at every shadow as though it might suddenly attack her. From a voice high up above, the very place where one former Assassin had been found after he seemingly hung himself, they heard a voice.
"Let down your weapon, good Lady, and I shall spare you. Leave now, and no harm will come to you." the Assassin said. "Fool Assassin!" Lady Sandwind spat the words. "I run from no man!" and with that, she taunted, "Unless you're too weak to fight me."
That was all the prompting the Assassin needed. For he was not one to back down from a direct challenge. Then, yet another thing that would make the legends of the Bards happened.
Daggers, at least six of them, started flying at Lady Sandwind from seemingly every direction at once! It was as if every shadow in the room suddenly threw a dagger at her! There was little Lady Sandwind could do other than dodge, using her shield to try to deflect the oncoming daggers.
It was during this time that she looked down, after falling to one knee in the onslaught, and never looked up again.
Dropping her sword to her side, slumping where she kneeled, Sir Otto, the King, and the Princess all stood in horror and amazement as they saw what had killed her, and where that strike had come from.
Her own shadow had been the opening that the Assassin had used to strike at her last. The dagger, rammed to the hilt, had gone straight through the exposed part of her neck, just under the chin, straight up toward the ceiling.
The Assassin had shadow walked through her own shadow! Using the other daggers as a distraction, and had killed her as easily and quickly as if she had been standing there without any armor on." Grandfather stops at this, and looks to the boy, who is truly amazed this time, with his mouth agape at the concept of his own shadow being used against him.
"Now, my boy, this is truly something to consider. For Shadow-Spinners are rightly named. They traverse the shadow plain at will, and may strike from almost any shadow. However, this shows the Shadow-Spinner's true respect for the woman Knight, for only the most desperate Shadow-Spinner would risk walking into someone's shadow.
It is not something to take lightly, for the Shadow-Spinner could die if the shadow changes place too quickly. But the Assassin must have truly wanted to kill Lady Sandwind quickly and cleanly to take such a risk upon himself."
Dumbfounded, the boy could still only sit and stare at the wall, still contemplating the scene as it was described to him.
"Perhaps that is enough of a story for this evening, my boy?" Grandfather asks. Nodding, as if returning to this reality, the boy says, "Yes, Gran-pa, amazing. But..., could you leave the lantern on tonight?"
Ever caring for his grandson's well being, grandfather smiles knowingly, and leaves the light burning and the door cracked on his way out. At which time, the boy, still thoughtful, took a good long while to get to sleep.