Assassins bond chapter 5
'holy shit, a talking pig'
the assassins were situated on a small bluff to the left of the main force of the Varden and just behind the cavalry, opposite them was the empires army, fairly small, some 2000 soldiers strong with no siege weapons but behind was thorn and murtagh they were currently on the ground and so you could only see thorn's massive red bulk but it was a safe bet that galbatorix wouldn't send on of his dragons without his rider. The envoy could also see Eragon and Saphira both in full armour preparing to take off, when they did the Varden charged forward while the empire soldiers just stood there, then about 200 yards from the empire soldiers the Varden's soldiers just simply fell their screams of agony being heard by everyone, the ones behind them tripped up and some fell on the embedded spikes that the first soldiers had stood on. Some however the Varden had made it over the trap and thorn had taken off so the main force of the empire began their attack. The assassins however didn't even bother helping them even as the empire broke through the Varden's left flank they did react when they saw the familiar cloud of dust that indicated the approach of cavalry, based on current situation and the Varden's lack of control of the surrounding countryside in any great number it was likely that these were empire soldiers that had come to exploit the Varden's glaring lack of anti-cavalry or indeed any type of soldiers defending the flanks, apparently the tacticians of the Varden hadn't heard of a wonderful new thing, its called a brain and with it you can have logical analysis and reason both of which pointed to the need for defence of the flanks. So faced with around 200 cavalry of various types, war horses, light horses and archer cavalry were 13 assassins. It wasn't looking rosy.
"draw weapon 16" they all nodded and twisted their hands, little balls of glass popped into their hands. These little balls were actually two balls of glass inside one another and in the middle a highly concentrated acid useful for fighting people who were by some miracle faster and more agile than an assassin. However they would work equally, if not better, in this situation, which is not really comparative beyond the fact there is and assassin, a target and little balls of acid. They all then settled in to wait. The cavalry was about half a mile away and no one in the Varden's ranks even bothered to glance at either flank, something that if the assassins wanted continual employment he would have to fix.
When the cavalry was about 20 yards away he nodded and they dropped the little balls of acid, which hit the men and horses breaking and releasing the acid, this caused the horses to buck in terror and the men to scream, which in turn frightened the other men who were behind them. Then, when the first wave of cavalry had been dispatched the assassins prepared their normal weapons and got ready to fall on the men, when they were waiting they moved as many of the bodies as possible, so when the heavy cavalry charged forward they had no inkling of what was to come.
The Varden were doing rather well by all accounts both riders had stayed on the ground to conserve energy and neither dragon would want to fight without their riders for magical protection. The right flank was being overwhelmed an wouldn't take much more for them to control it, the left flank however was being undermined and nothing short of a miracle would keep it from routing entirely.
The cavalry were just about underneath them, the envoy nodded and they all simply fell on the men, the men for their part were completely unaware of what was going on until it was to late, they all collapsed and were quickly killed, the assassins then jumped to the next and so forth making short work of the men and letting the horses run free, with the cavalry dealt with they all cast a glance at the ongoing battle. After a few seconds the envoy snapped his fingers, the other assassins stood to attention and formed into a small square he pointed at the battle and they nodded before setting off to help the collapsed left flank. The envoy then turned his attention to the riders who had both taken flight and were currently shouting at each other, he sighed and began to walk towards the pair, when Saphira smashed into thorn who struggled to counter balance the sudden weight on his left side and started tumbling helplessly downwards, his rider pulled out something and waved it over the dragons wing which began to heal, he then righted himself and pulled up, the two dragons then continued to fight until both, by some sort of agreement flew to a small plateau which both settled on and the riders leapt down and began healing the various gashes on their dragons, by this time the envoy was running but trying to avoid drawing attention to him doing so. Finally he made it to a little dip just before the plateau he ducked into it and got up just enough to see what was happening, unfortunately they had gotten closer and were now talking, which meant that he couldn't hear what was going on, but from the expressions, finally murtagh got angry and jumped at Eragon who brought his sword up to deflect the blow, the dragons were circling and hissing at each other, finally Saphira rocketed into the air and thorn followed, by this time Eragon was tiring from the continued battering from murtagh, so the envoy drew out his one handed black sword, finally Eragon was on his knees with murtagh pointing his blood red sword at his neck. That was when the envoy decided to make his move, jumping over the lip of the plateau and firing hiss dagger and snapping his hand which rewound the dagger, this combined with a small jump had the assassin moving towards murtagh at high speed, he then flipped backwards pulling the dagger out of the ground and kicking murtagh, who had no idea what to do. He stumbled a bit while the envoy spun sideways and landing rather like a cat. By this time murtagh had got his balance back and waved his hand and said
"brisingr" a fire ball erupted from his hand and screamed towards the assassin who just stood there until the last second when he raised his hand and the dagger slipped into it and deflected the fire ball, which spun out shedding layers of fire until it disappeared, by this time murtagh had thrown himself forward, hoping to catch the assassin off guard, unfortunately for murtagh this was what the assassin had counted on and when he raised his sword for the killing blow the assassin shot one of his daggers into Murtagh's armpit it lodged itself in his armpit leaving Murtagh's right arm completely paralysed from both the pain and the severing of most of the neurone connectors, the assassin then ducked out of the way of the falling sword and tore of Murtagh's helm, he allowed murtagh a chance to look at the dagger before plunging it into his eye, murtagh screamed and Eragon, who had gotten up, gasped from the pain the assassin had inflicted, then they all heard a roar coming from somewhere above them, as thorn dived to attack the assassin, who then pulled off the neck guard forced murtagh to his knees and forced the dagger against his neck
"come any closer and you can say bye-bye to murtagh" thorn stopped and growled loudly. Unfortunately for everyone murtagh had got past the pain that was clouding his mind and while he couldn't speak had to think the magic and sent the assassin flying backwards, thorn dived froward and they exchanged words before murtagh got back on thorn and took off, Saphira didn't bother to chase them but settled down while Eragon set about healing her, when she had been healed he went and found the assassin,who was just in the lip of the plateau, he wasn't particularly harmed but his armour was dented from the fight and magic, so Eragon picked him up and put him on Saphira and then got on, when this had happened they took off.
2 days later
the assassin still hadn't woken up but his guards continued to guard his bed and none except healers and Eragon could come near him. And while they would usually wait for the envoy as he had played such and important part the rest of the main figures had to hold the debriefing.
One thing that assassins learnt to do was rest and wait, be patient and so on, all were important before, during and after and operation. To create the plan, make the plan a success and to analyse how successful the plan was and what could be learned from it. Currently the envoy was analysing Eragon's combat performance, it wasn't half as good as what he could do if you listened to the rumours, like tearing apart a dragon head as one rumour went, but the real problem wasn't his strength, rather his own morality, he had heard the gasp from Eragon when he destroyed one of Murtagh's eyes, which is standard practise for him but Eragon obviously wasn't into what he did, certainly he couldn't train him to be an assassin, his oath interfered with that, but there was nothing stopping him from training him by himself. His men were loyal to him and wouldn't tell the guild master. And what the guild master didn't know couldn't hurt the guild master.
The envoy gasped as he returned from the dream state he held himself in, the other assassins scattered into the agreed hiding places as he got up and put on his armour feeling the dents and gashes in it. Then he got his sword and strapped it to his back and walked out of the room, the others followed in the shadows, when they reached the main door to the meeting room the night hawks let him in without a word, they had heard of the legendary ability of the assassins as well as what had happened to the previous nighthawks. The doors opened and everyone that was around the table turned to look a the envoy, who sat down without a word in-between Eragon and Jormunder,
"I think that concludes this debriefing, unless the envoy has anything to add" Nasuada spoke with wariness and the others never took their eyes off him
"yes, I have two points, first; who creates the strategies for the battles" he growled this and everyone looked at each other nervously before Jormunder and 2 other people raised their hands
"Eoi, you...you buffoon's, you imbecilic morons, what on earth were you thinking when you decided that it was a smart idea to leave you're flanks wide open?" none of them dared even breath, they remained like this for a few seconds before he regained his composure and continued
"and second, I would like to train Eragon to be an assassin" everyone gasped and even the assassins positioned around the room leaned in slightly, Eragon looked as if he was about to faint
"having reviewed what he did during his duel with murtagh I believe that the best way for him to improve your combat performance is to be trained as an assassin" they all looked at each other before Nasuada stepped forward and offered her hand. The envoy took her hand in the same death grip he did before.
"lets just hope you don't live to regret it"