Ok, here comes chapter two! Enjoy!
The assassins' camp, somewhere in the mountains on the Monsean boarder
The sky was a dark grey and the biting wind was freezing, but there was laughter around the campfire that burned in the mountains just east of Suncliff.
"And she said, and this is from underneath me, pinned down mind, 'You know you still owe me that throwing knife?'" There was more laughter and the man who'd spoken, a great beefy man with one moss green eye and one mud brown eye, grinned and ruffled the hair of a girl who sat on his left. She laughed too, and leaned into him.
"But who won that fight?" she asked slyly.
"Well, you, but..." he conceded, and his friends roared with laughter.
"That girl will be the death of you Boar" said one of his mates. "But you never were one to give up."
A shadow fell over their group, and they all turned around to see a thin, tall man whose face was hidden in the shadow of his cloak.
"Having fun are we, my darlings?" No one laughed now; each face wore an identical expression of dread and shame, as if this man knew things about them that they would never have chosen to tell a single soul.
"Panther. Come, my black cat" said the man in a deadly quiet voice. A young girl detached herself from the circle and stood up. Her wild, jet black hair fell over her face, hiding her expression, but her fingers fluttered over her belt, fingering her sword, her dagger, her throwing knives, betraying her anxiety. None of her friends said anything as she turned and followed the man away from the relative warmth of the fire, but no one spoke or laughed for a long time after she'd left.
The man led her away from the fire and past a group of sentries who stood guard outside a small tent. He pushed aside the flaps and entered, beckoning for the girl called Panther to follow him. She entered the tent and looked around curiously; she'd never been in the commander's tent before. The man turned to face her, lacing his fingers together and surveying her.
"Panther, Panther." He watched her like a cat surveying a mouse it has caught. Suddenly he laughed, a high, false sound that held no joy and sent shivers down Panther's spine.
"Sit, my darling cat. You look so tense." Panther pulled up a flimsy, wooden stool that stood by the door and perched on the edge, but she looked no less tense. The man did not sit.
"Now to business; as you know, we are breaking camp tomorrow and moving on. What you do not know is where we are going. We are heading south through the mountains to the coast, where we are being met with horses. We'll all ride west to Suncliff and take a ship to South Bay. There we leave a number of our party. A select group of five or so will take another ship, on which we will travel for a number of days, finally arriving in Lienid this time in two weeks." Panther was shocked into speaking.
"Lienid? So you are putting into action your... plan?" The man laughed again as if he found her delightfully funny.
"Why yes my dear. Yes I am." Panther looked somewhere between thrilled and downright terrified.
"And who will be... the key operative?" she asked, as if she knew the answer and dreaded it.
"Why my dear Panther" said the man in his deadliest calm voice. "That shall be you."
Panther did not go back to the campfire. She found her sleeping sac and carried it a little way off, away from the laughter of the circle that had risen up again, away from the all-seeing eyes of the man with the cold, high laugh and away from any opinions and expectations of her.
As she curled up in the shadows, a tiny voice called out
"Panther? Are you here?" A small girl, about 8 or 9 years old, came into view around the rocks that hid the rest of the camp. She, like all the others in their group, was graced and her one storm grey eye and one sky blue eye gave her the ability to fly dozens of feet from tree to tree like a monkey. Here in the mountains she was utterly out of her element, and as she came closer it was clear that she had been crying.
"Oh Key" sighed Panther. "Come here." She opened her arms and the little girl rushed up to her and snuggled into her sac. Within seconds she was asleep, her little snuffly breathing strangely comforting. Panther smiled softly, and hugged the little girl. The man had told her much more after he'd revealed their route, part of which had been that this little girl, Spider Monkey as her had named her, but Key as the others called her, was coming too. Panther hugged the girl tighter, as if to protect her from what was to come.
An owl hooted, and the girl called Panther gazed up into the stars, as if they could reveal to her a forgotten past, years before, when she'd lived on the isle of Lienid, played on a beach, and been called Lady Maylin, daughter of Sky, Prince of Lienid.