Chapter 5

"Sir, a missive jus' came from the duchess," Grunthor said as he entered the room where Achmed sat pouring over maps and plans for his security net.

Looking up, Achmed reached out his hand to take the letter. Quickly tearing it open, he scanned through it before dropping it on the table with a slight smile. "It seems that Rhapsody and Meridion are going to be here soon to make sure that everything is being taken care of before the Cymrians start arriving."

"Oh good. Oi'm sure that's great to hear."

Nodding, Achmed returned to scanning over the plans in front of him. Time seemed to drag on as he checked and doubled checked every possible problem that might go wrong with these plans. Grunthor had long left and retired for the night when Achmed finally sat back from the table and closed his eyes for a moment.

A whisper of a breeze brushed across his face. As small and insignificant that the draft had felt, he knew that there was no reason for it. Someone had opened the secret door in the back of the room that lead up a staircase to the Teeth. Achmed was not as alone as he had thought.

Unfortunately, this was all that he had time to register before the attack came. Leaping from behind, a lithe figure wrapped its arms around his neck as a knife was plunged into the king's left shoulder. No doubt the attacker had been aiming for his heart, but Achmed did have enough time to begin to pull away from them enough to change the impact point. Hissing in pain, Achmed forced his way out of the hold the attacker had on him, shoving his chair into the other's ribs.

Spinning around, Achmed saw the cloaked figure rise quickly, holding its ribs and gaining a better grip on the knife that it still held. Drawing his own sword, Achmed stood ready for the next attack. The figure moved out from behind the chair and, without warning, dropped into a roll and came up inches from the king. But unfortunately for them, Achmed was even quicker. The attacker came up right onto his sword, impaled before they even knew what had happened. The attacker fell to the ground, dead. The sword had been stabbed right through the heart.

"Bloody hrekin," Achmed swore under his breath as he reached back to clamp his right hand over the wound in his shoulder. Warm blood oozed through his fingers as he watched the attacker's blood pool under the body. Bending over, Achmed tore the veil from the attacker's face and was mildly surprised to see a woman. And not just any woman, but a Lirin woman. This was something new. First a man attacks him, then a Lirin woman. What is the connection?

Loud footfalls were heard racing up the hall as Achmed continued to look over the body for any clues as to who may have sent her. Suddenly, the doors were violently thrown open as a raging giant entered the room.

Taking one quick look at the scene, Grunthor let out an enraged howl that shook the mountain, waking the entire Cauldron.

"What 'appened 'ere?" The giant demanded.

"Much the same as before. The assassin snuck up from behind in an attempt to catch me off guard. Almost succeeded this time too," Achmed grumbled as his put his hand back to examine his wound once again.

On the edge of being livid, Grunthor stormed about the room rumbling as Achmed finished his search. "'Ow could this 'appen? We 'ave over twice as many guards at each entrance!"

Finishing his search, the king sat heavily down in his now righted chair with a soft grunt of pain. "It seems we left at least one entrance unguarded. I had thought that the entrance on the Teeth was unknown and didn't need guarding. I guess I was wrong."

""Ow did they know 'o this one? The only way they could is…"

"The only way anyone would have known about that entrance is if they were here back when the place still belonged to Gwylliam. And even then, it would have to be someone who was close to the king or built it."

"Why don' I like the sound o' that?"

Shaking his head, Achmed leaned forward against the table edge, still holding his shoulder as blood continued to seep through his fingers.

"Oo might want ta get that taken care o' sir," Grunthor suggested.

"Yes, I know. I'll take a trip down to the hospice. You could clean this mess up and seal that entrance for now."

"O' course, sir."

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How could this have happened again? And this time it was close, too close. Achmed stormed down the halls on his way to the hospice as these thoughts pounded in his head. This was getting a little unnerving that assassins were seemingly gaining such easy access to him. It was extremely difficult for an assassin to pull off an assassination on a former assassin, but it apparently was not impossible.

Achmed kicked himself mentally when he thought how stupid he had been to think that the mountain top entrance was not an option. How many times had he used these very types of ways in to get at his own targets? He felt that it was as if he had gone brain dead for a moment. Spending all of those hours pouring over the plans and maps and still he missed that one point of vulnerability. It was sickening.

Krinsel was there in the hospice when he stormed in. He was glad that it was her and not some other since she knew to not ask questions about what had happened to him. She was one of his Archons and so was trusted with the inner workings of the mountain. He would not have to worry about word spreading that he was injured through her mouth.

Krinsel quickly cleaned the wound and stitched it up without a word. Finally, she secured a bandage over it to keep it clean and to keep it from seeping. As soon as she was done, Achmed grunted a word of thanks to her and left just as suddenly as he had arrived. He had more plans to make tonight.