The Blood of the Merchant King

Claudia sat perched on the top of a tower. Her knees were bent and she resembled a roosting owl as she stood on the highest point of a tall rod on top of the tower. The moon radiated the perfect amount of light for her to search for her qarry. Where was he? He shouldve shown up by now. That was the questoon Claudia wondered as she looked for him. "Where are you?" She asked herself. Claudia wasn't worried about someone seeing her from this high up whilst she waited, she was too high up for people to notice unless theu wlked with their eyes to the sky. And even so, it was night, and people were at home and sleeping, leaving the streets devoid of any living human. It was the perfect night to strike, the perfect night to draw the blood of oppressors wrong. Claudia rubbed her thumb down the edge of the feather in her hand. This feather hungered for blood, and it would have it, as soon as HE showed up.

Sedikit stood in the corner of the street, watching the moon rise over the city. He knew he had somewhere to be, but the moon was so pretty. Taking a deep breath, Sedikit took in the crisp air of the night. He sat down and folded his arms into his lap, a small smile on his face. The night was too beautiful for assassination. But it had to be done. Slowly and unwillingly the youth stood up and pulled the neck of his undercoat over his mouth and nose. His hair was tied back loosely, his muscles were stretched and ready, and the blade under his coat was ready to kill. Who ever he was suppose to be working with was waiting for him. Not that that bothered him greatly; Sedikit never cared about what others thought.

He climbed up the building to the shadowed roof. No moonlight touched it. The streets were eerie and empty of people and sound. It was a dead night. Beautiful and deadly. A woman crouched at the edge of the roof. She crouched there like an owl, ready to sweep down on its prey. Sedikit strode up to her silently and knelt next to her. He recognized the woman, she was one of the trainers in the Order. He met her gaze and nodded. He was ready.

Claudia saw him; Sedikit, her partner for this mission. She was going to have to brief him once he showed up. Claudia waited until he climbed up the tower and the she began to speak. "We need to kill Maj'du Addin," she said, "He's a known as the Merchant King, because he's the richest Merchant in all of the Light Kingdom. Which wouldn’t be so bad if he didn’t pour all of his money in rebel efforts, which is why it’s bad. He’s constantly trying to topple the Royalty; see because he’s rich he’s charged a fair amount more in taxes—as is normal—each month. But being the big glutton that he is, Maj’du Addin doesn’t like that. He wants to topple the Royalty and take over as king, so his abnormally fat ass can sit on his piles of money and not have to pay a dime.”

Claudia scanned the city until she saw what she was looking for. “There,” she said to Sedikit pointing to a tall Palazzo with a tower and a large, high, red stone wall, “That’s his home: the Palazzo of the Light Capitol. My informants have told me that he spends most of his time locked away in his room; he is ashamed—of what I don’t know though. Though once a month he’ll throw lavash parties for all the merchants and rebel leaders. During that time he will come out onto his balcony, give a speech, and then join in on the festivities. Unfortunately, lately he’s been seeing my informants’ movements—again how I don’t know—but his number of guards has increased. That’s why I had the Grand Master send me a second Assassin. It’ll be easier if he has to try to escape two of us.”

“Now, as for the Palazzo, it may seem very hard to climb—being that the wall is extremely high and has almost nothing to grab on to. But I hear that part of the wall was destroyed during the last rebellion and it was just recently rebuilt. The scaffolding that they used to rebuild the wall is still standing there right now—one of the workers forgot to remove it. That’ll be advantageous for us while trying to get in. Because, you see, Maj’du Addin is throwing one of his grand parties right now, in his dining hall. His guards may circle the parameter of the building, but the scaffolding is all ours to use.”

Claudia then stood up and pulled out a map of the Palazzo, it was highly detailed and was covered in several x’s. “The x’s on the roofs mark archers. The x’s around the walls mark guards. And the ones within the walls and inside the palace mark the places where Maj’du Addin’s personal, high guards patrol. They’ll be heavily armored and heavily armed. They’re not going to be as easy to get out of the was as the archers, but if we’re lucky we’ll be able to bypass them. The arrows show the paths they walk—I got this off a servant in the Palazzo—and as long as we avoid these arrows, we’ll be fine. So here’s the plan: We’ll use the scaffolding to enter the Palazzo and we’ll slide down into the courtyard. From there we’ll make our way to the roof and enter the place through there, then we’ll have to find where the party is and sneak in—we’ll blend in with the crowd—we’ll wait for Maj’du Addin to appear—he usually joins the parties after his speech which never happens until exactly midnight—and when he turns his back to come down the stairs that lead from his balcony into the internal courtyard of the Palazzo, we’ll sneak up the balcony and assassinate him. If he runs, we need to make sure we chase him down and kill him before he exits the Palazzo, because as soon as he passes through those walls, all the guards in the place will be on to us, and he’ll have no doubt gone into one of his hiding holes or escaped by horse. Do you understand the plan?”

Sedikit listened to every word she said, staring into Claudia's face as she spoke. She was very knowledgeable and it pleased him to drink in everything she told him. Anything that would help him was welcome. Sedikit observed the great building in front of him and gritted his teeth. So this Merchant King lived here. Sedikit wondered just how many resources were torn from the earth to build that house. No one should be allowed that. This man had to die now.

Sedikit nodded to Claudia to show that he understood what they were suppose to do, and jumped off the building, landing silently and stealthily. He blended in with the shadows perfectly, and he thought their plan was perfect. It would be even more perfect if he was allowed to wear normal clothes to blend it. Sometimes he thought their Grand Master was ignorant of reality. Still, Sedikit consented and stalked through the shadows to the grand building. He didn't want to look conspicuous by being on the streets when they were empty. He didn't bother waiting for Claudia either. She knew the plan, she had come up with the plan, so they were both good as far as he could tell.

Claudia dived from the tip of the tower and landed on her feet gracefully. One of the secrets of the Assassyun's: the Leap of Faith. She continued on a run through the shadows, silently stalking towards her prey. As her and Sedikit neared the walls she jumped and grabbed onto a platform of the scaffolding. She pulled herself up and ran up the scaffolding; jumping up the wall in order to reach the next level of platforms everyone once and a while. Once she reached the top of the wall she crouched down on it and looked over at Sedikit, "Do you know how to do the Leap of Faith?" he asked, "You see that patch of hay over there? Jump into it. When you jump off the wall, make sure your spin yourself so that you fall with your back facing the ground. You should be looking up at the sky as you hit the hay. Just have faith that you will land properly, and you shouldn't hurt yourself...just be careful anyway, alright? I'd hate to loose someone so skilled as a partner."

Sedikit paused in the shadows and watched Claudia scale the wall, his bright blue eyes gleaming in the flickering light from inside the building. She reached the top and paused as well, scanning the area. When it looked all clear she leaned over and shouted to him. Asked him if he knew the Leap of Faith. Sedikit said nothing. Instead he observed his surroundings. The streets were silent but he could hear the sound of music and laughter from inside the building, and when he touched the wall, it seemed to hum with life. The weak light that flowed out from where Claudia perched was artificial, though. With a small sigh, Sedikit stepped back and ran up the rough wall to join Claudia. He flashed a smile at her and, remembering her Leap of Faith talk from a few seconds ago, he nodded.

Inside was uninhabited. Light flickered through from the other rooms, but the hallway they were looking down had been recently remodeled and wasn't ready to show the guests. Stepping down onto the floor and brushing the walls with his fingers, Sedikit noted that it was cold like stone. He turned his head back to Claudia and tilted it, silently wondering which way they should take to reach the Merchant King.

Claudia nodded to him, he was smart, scoping out the area would help soon enough. Claudia nodded then, with a powerful bound, jumped from the tower and spun so her back faced the ground. She landed perfectly in the bale of hay as the wind whistled around her. "I love doing that," she said hiding her smile beneath her hood as she whispered it to herself. Claudia looked back up at Sedikit, waiting for him to come down. As she waited, Claudia wondered how it was the Assassin's could use the Leap of Faith and even the Eagle Vision which allowed them to see friend, from foe from target. It was like something she had never imagined before, and it didn't seem humanly possible. Claudia was able to jump and climb and run and even hit the ground like never before, and yet, she didn't feel a thing. She was surprised the Leap of Faith hadn't killed her the first time. So Claudia made a mental note to ask the Grand Master once she returned.

Suddenly, there was a voice from around the corner. "I think I heard something over here by the hay!" called one voice. Another voice soon joined the first, "Why don't you go check it out?" it asked. "Alright, I will, lazy ass." Claudia thought fast, she waved up to Sedikit to stay where he was and then jumped back in the hay. Claudia managed to peak through the holes in the hay and saw that it was an armed guard. He was holding a sword, with the point towards the hay bail. "Here goes nothing..." whispered Claudia as she remembered what she was taught. She flicked her wrist and one of her hidden blades shot out, then as the soldier neared the hay, she jumped out, stabbed him in the chest and pulled his body into the hay. Claudia stuffed hay in his mouth to keep him from screaming...though it was pointless, the stab wound was near the heart, and he wouldn't be alive much longer anyway. Still, you could never be too careful. Claudia looked back up at Sedikit, he would need to be careful not to hit the body when he landed in the hay. So Claudia moved the body temporarily, and signalled for Sedikit to come down, and fast.

Sedikit looked at Claudia with his eyebrows pulled together, puzzled, as he wondered what the point in coming up to the hallway had even been if they were just going back down. He watched her jump off the ledge and twist in that ridiculous way that caused one to land on their back. The jump would only work if there happened to be something soft underneath where ever one was jumping from, and honestly, the chances of there being a bale of hale under every window and ledge was small. He never understood it, and had only done it when required by the trainers. Sedikit always preferred to land on his feet; that way he could make a quick get away if danger arose.

He watched with emotionless eyes as Claudia stabbed the guard in the stomach and stuffed his body in the hay. She pondered for a moment, then took the body out and finally motioned for him to come down. Sedikit couldn't help but roll his eyes and leap out of the balcony, bending his knees and landing stealthily and silently on the ground next to the hay and Claudia. He raised his eyebrows at her, as if to say, Whatever, I can manage. He looked to the spot where the guard had come from. The other was bound to notice soon. He gave Claudia a 'so what now?' look and pulled his hood over his head.

"We infiltrate the Palazzo itself," said Claudia quietly, "Hidden blades at the ready, there's bound to be more guards." Claudia strode across the Palazzo courtyard, they were in compound, but not in the building. Claudia finally reached a set of locked oak doors, she went to pick the lock but stopped. "This is too easy.." she said, "Somethings wrong....I think he knows. Or at least, he's expecting us. Come with me, we're taking the express route." Claudia scanned the courtyard until she found was she was looking for. It was a wooden lift used to send bricks up to the rooftops, but if used correctly, it could propel her right up to where she needed. Standing at the base of the lift, Claudia grabbed hold of the rope, and then looked at Sedikit, "Take my hand," she said, "This will only work once. As soon as the rope is cut it will jettison us onto the roof. But we can't uncut that rope and this is the only way up. So we'll need to go at it together. Once we're at the top, we'll split up to find the Merchant King alright?"

Sedikit nodded curtly and wrapped his thin, dark fingers around her hand. In the pale moonlight he looked like a child, his large blue eyes glinting with wonder. Then the hard focus came back into him. He was a killer. It was all he had ever known. Sedikit waited and let Claudia handle the technical aspects of it, and in no time they were on the ledge just below the roof. He released Claudia's hand and landed carefully on the ledge, perching there like a dark bird. Sedikit scanned the area and turned his gaze to Claudia. They would now split up and look for the Target as she had said. Carefully, Sedikit lowered himself into the manor and stalked along the right path, motioning for Claudia to take left.