Fairy Tale Assassin - Chapter 8

Going into the lion’s den

Chapter 8

The capital of Morum continued its daily routine while a king and queen remained safely guarded inside their castle. They remained content while their nobles went about their days with impunity over the commoners. Petty people acting as tyrants over the rabble, who kept the city vibrant and alive. Those who did most of the living and dying had to deal with these oppressors daily. Powerful people ruling the weak because of a name or status meant everything. Anything else was a hoax designed to smooth over the masses. While I knew this from the history of my world, the lesson became engrained in my heart when I experienced it firsthand in this realm.

Some might think that getting older leads a person to become softer, gentler, and more understanding. That’s not the truth. People don’t forget revenge and payback just because they’re older. Certainly, I could walk away from Ruby’s kidnapping. The realist in me thought that way for a moment. I’m only one person upset with a noble who has guards protecting him. However, the bastard stole a friend and planned on raping her. The honest side of me wanted to see Gilbert and his cronies die painfully and slowly. God fearin’ was never in my nature.

So much for being a kind grandfather.

While I waited for the night to fall, I sat on a rooftop across the road from Gilbert the Bastard’s mansion. Many thoughts from the day ran through my mind. Angst about Ruby’s situation and my limited ability rose to the top of the list.

After I recovered enough, I walked the streets to discover more about Gilbert, specifically his strengths and weaknesses. The good news was I could understand people now with the conversation spell I carried in my money pouch. He’s from a high-ranking noble house and carries the taste for pretty woman who are powerless. A true bastard of the family who already fathered plenty of children, only to throw them back out on the street. He deserved death long before I arrived. Unfortunately, his estate had plenty of guards and servants for me to worry about. I was going into the lion’s den.

Obviously, I’m not a superhero. Even if I’m like those manga characters my son used to read about, there’s no system to upgrade me. Plus, I’m not an overpowered ex-military who can hold a .30 Cal in one arm and wipe out a platoon by myself. That only happens in the movies and there are no machine guns in this world. At least not yet. So, without an army or a king on my side, I can only do something as a single individual. There are not a lot of options when you stop to think about it.

But I am an old soul, according to Myrddin Wyllt. He’s correct. I’ve seen many things. Worse for Gilbert, I know how to improvise to get by. But the first thing I realized after my beating today is I must throw away the morals I grew up with. My habits come from a land where the law generally protected the innocent, and the police typically fought on the side of the weak. Throwing out such engrained morals is easier said than done, but I went into a rage when I thought about Ruby’s treatment, along with other people like her. My beliefs from another world made me similar to the weakest commoner, a peasant condemned to bow to lesser people. To protect good people like Ruby, something must change. And that change started with me.

Coldly analyzing the situation as I carefully surveyed the estate while walking around the large manor house. I came up with an idea that certainly threw any past concepts of good and evil out the window. You can’t be a knight in shining armor unless there is some supernatural force helping you. Well, I don’t have anyone to help me, so I need to get dirty, like the villain. My options became clear when I decided to take the only path available. Sure, the strong risk of capture and death remained for me. But the anger and humiliation of letting Gilbert harm Ruby burned inside of me. I would be nothing more than a servile peasant if I walked away! Either I forget about Ruby, or I take the route which came to me. Naturally, the plan came from fairy tales.

One of the many things about nobles in the stories was constant references to poisons. The reason for that is simple. Such methods worked. No doubt, the fear factor from the possibility runs strong in the nobility. Some tales I recalled from the Grimm brothers have huntsmen asked by their rulers to become an assassin for them. Loyalty to a king or queen required those people to murder someone. Well, my plan combined both options. The strange part for me was my lack of concern about dying. In fact, I felt eager for my revenge.

While watching the estate, I became familiar with all the entrances and windows at Gilbert’s home. One of the first things I noticed was the broad expanse of garden, which held plenty of shadowed areas. It gave me an idea for moving through the estate come nightfall. Realizing I couldn’t hang out in the area for too long, I went back to the commoner side of town.

After finding a blacksmith, I used some of the blood money the guards threw at me. My first step was to have a blacksmith forge me half a dozen tiny arrow shapes. My claim to the puzzled smithy was the need for tips to attach to fishing spears. He gave me a price, which I immediately accepted if he finished while I waited. The large man frowned before he started making the arrows. While I waited, we talked about his family and children. I guess he found my presence tolerable since he let me sharpen the arrows on his sharpening stone.

With a thankful wave, I left and headed to the nearest alley to assemble the rest of my weapon. Using the small strands of twine from my rope, I attached feathers on the back of the arrows. The same desolate alley gave me a place to test my new weapon when I pulled out my wood blowgun that I purchased on a whim.

It took a while to get the hang of how to use a blowgun again. But I had time, and my frustration lifted as I got better with practice. By the time I left my hiding spot, I could accurately strike a target about fifteen feet away. As a last test of my skill, I even shot a rat in the side when it came around me. The creature ran off squealing in pain with one of my arrows embedded in the side. Despite my anger about losing the arrow tip, I felt confident enough for my next step.

To test my theory about the lethal nature of my child’s toy, I hurriedly crafted a liquid paste from the three types of poisonous berries I still carried in my pouch. After smearing the blue-black concoction on an arrow tip, I waited in the alley for a while. Finally, another rat came waddling by as it headed to the market down the street. Carefully, I aimed, and my shot nailed the rat in the rump. The creature made it about five feet before falling over and quivering. When I got to it, it was already dead.

Perfect!

To finish out the day, I carefully went back to the noble area. Blending in behind the servants as they walked, I tried to avoid talking to people. Even with my hood over my head, I noticed people looking at my bruised face. To avoid more suspicion, I simply turned down an alley where I waited for a while, only to reappear behind another couple of servants. Finally, I found an isolated spot between buildings near the estate.

After climbing up to the rooftop, I hurried across the buildings while keeping out of sight from the street. Finally, I took up a perch directly across from Gilbert’s estate. That’s when my wait became especially difficult. I guessed Rudy already suffered from the bastard who kidnapped her. However, I knew I’d just get myself caught and killed if I tried entering during the day. Still, time seemed to go even slower as I waited. The mounting frustration only lifted when I focused on the guards who walked around the mansion. They acted just like the guards around the city walls, predictable in their patterns.

While I waited, I memorized each window and door I saw on the outside of Gilbert’s home. Counting the number of steps a servant took from each door to the main gate, or their way to the back, gave me information on the number of paces I needed to take. During that time, I memorized the routes between buildings across the road which I intended to use.

As night finally fell over the city, I slid down from the roof. The street lanterns slowly came on as an old man with a lantern torch worked his way down the street. The nobles occasionally wandered by in their carriages, but I could hear them long before they came into sight. Mimicking the careful, upright walk of a servant, I moved across the street to a nearby alley. After taking twenty-nine steps through the darkness, I turned into a narrow passage between two houses. When I came out of the shadows, I stood in an open area next to the fence that ran around the Gilbert estate.

While I waited there, I made sure my hood was over my head. Earlier, I cut some of my cape into a length of cloth. I wrapped the strip around my face to make it difficult to identify myself. As I waited, my nose picked up the smell of cooked food coming from the building behind me. The smaller structure was a kitchen for the main house next to the road. Inside the main house, I listened to the conversation through the open windows above me. Since the voices told me nothing of interest, I focused on the estate while remaining unmoving in the corner’s shadow.

Gilbert’s two-story building was a type of timber and frame construction I remembered seeing in old towns in Europe. The upper floor hung out over a foot or so from the lower story and it had a long-thatched roof with a steep pitch. A narrow balcony was on both sides next to the massive chimneys. While I never saw the inside of this place, I figured the chimneys were for the main rooms. From a noble’s perspective, servants didn’t need heating.  

Climbing over the fence wasn’t difficult since it was mostly decorative. My cover under the shadows of the trees and tall bushes of the garden allowed me to follow a path to the back of the manor. Stopping at each unknown sound, I scanned the area. Occasionally, I noticed shadowed movements coming from inside the windows of the house. As I reached an open area, I crouched down behind the well-manicured bushes. While I was observing the area, I saw servants working at a dining table on the first floor. The sound of approaching footsteps sent a chill down my spine. I quickly spotted the guard following his routine as he strolled down the path. As he passed me, I could see his face lit up from the pale flickers coming through the nearby window.

It was the goon who threw the coins at my feet!

Instantly, my hand guided the blowgun to my lips as the guard continued his walk. Calmly, I blew a puff of air through the wooden tube. The guard reacted, slapping at the back of his neck. After he looked at his hand, he took another couple of steps, then stopped. As he shook his head, I thought he might call out. Instead, the guard turned back my way before he stumbled. Immediately, the goon’s face paled, and he fell face first into a row of flowering plants.

While I waited for him to cry out, my mind went blank for a moment. Shock filled me at the rapid reaction to the poison. The thought of killing someone threatened my heart’s explosion. Taking several deep breaths, I calmed myself while I kept glancing around.

Before long, I hurried over to the guard. I wasn’t completely sure if he was dead, since his arms and legs trembled. Fortunately, I couldn’t see his face under the dim light coming from the nearby window. I carefully pulled out another arrow from the makeshift holder. I stuck it in his arm. Soon, his convulsions stopped. Finally, I dragged his body deeper into the bushes until he was out of sight. With trembling hands, I loaded another poison arrow into my blowgun while praying I didn’t accidentally stab myself.  Then I slid it into a pocket I made in my cape that afternoon.

Stepping closer to the manor but remaining out of sight from the window, I brought out my trusty grappling hook, which I rebuilt. Whipping the hook around several times, I launched it up and over the balcony railing on the second floor. The loud wooden thud above made me drop to my knee.

Releasing a long breath, I found myself reassured by the dull murmurs of conversation inside the house, which continued unabated. Slowly, I rose and noticed the dinner looked like it was finishing up. I didn’t see much, not even my target from the angle I had. Realizing I needed to move, I climbed the rope as fast as I could. When I nearly got to the top, my body ached, and I realized how weak my arms were since they burned from the exercise. Still, I pushed through and got over the banister.

Carefully, I walked to the door. Each creaking step threatened my exposure. Breathing a sigh of relief after I found the door unlocked, I slowly opened it. There was a dim candle burning from a silver candlestick on a dresser by the bed. The four-poster bed itself had red velvet-looking open curtains around it and a red cover across the top. Another larger dresser stood on the opposite side of the room. Desperately, I looked around for a place to hide, but I forgot they didn’t have closets back in that era. There was a small antechamber next to the room, which showed two chairs and a tall dresser. Disappointed, I went back to the door to the balcony to wait outside. Then, an unsettling thought occurred.

What if this isn’t the room?

On the other side of the manor, Ruby sat inside a small room without windows. Women servants already forced her into a copper bathtub in the afternoon and scrubbed her using a scented laurel oil soap. One woman with a large hook nose and missing her front teeth told her what to expect that night.

“Beest thankful for the lord doest not last longeth in the sleep chamber,” she stated with a smirk. “Still, our lord will wanteth thee everynight for a while. Bareth with it until bred.”

“Still, this is wrong. I’m not his servant,” Ruby protested. “I’m a free mistress. Nay, a righteous king wouldst alloweth such things to befall me.”

The two women gave her a blank look.

“King advisor and gentleman Gilbert gets what he wanteth,” the older woman stated flatly. “It keeps that gent hence from other noble family. Doth well, and the gentlemen will pay thee before thee goes back to the street. Heed my warning or perish.”

When they finished, the women took Ruby to the room with no windows and made her put on an elegant linen undergarment about the length of a dress. It fit tightly around her breasts, and they stated Gilbert enjoyed such sights. Afterward, they made her put on two stockings that came up over her knees, held up with a garter.

“Yond’s all thee needeth tonight,” stated the missing teeth woman. She paused, giving Ruby a final warning.

“Maketh sure a manservant doesn’t help breed thee, for Gilbert shall killeth thee for the slight.”

They left Ruby to her bitter thoughts. As she sat on the narrow, hard bed, the woman thought about her time as a prostitute. She lost her virginity months ago, so she knew what to expect. Her grandmother taught her the ways of men and their lust, and she experienced it daily before being sold.

Still, a yearning for freedom welled inside of her. The few days with Covan brought the idea to a head. She saw his caring attitude, even while trying to hide his strange ways. Ruby recognized he hated injustice. She wanted a world where he could flourish, where she could walk with Covan as one of his servants, even a concubine. The woman knew better than to believe she could equal him, for that was an impossibility. He would marry a noblewoman one day. During their trip, Ruby dreamed she could guide him to a good match and help him build a truly noble house.

‘Tis an impossible dream!

Ruby sniffed as she lay there. Emotions she believed long buried surfaced when she thought of Covan. She felt terrible at the beating he took trying to stop her capture. While he broke her heart to see it, the woman felt an underlying warmth at the impossible gesture. The fact that Covan tried to help her still meant more than she could tell him. However, even a noble from another kingdom held no authority over houses under this land’s king. Her only hope was for him to remember her with the dagger she slipped to him that morning. Hopefully, he can escape the city. As her life turned bleak again, Ruby wished for the best for her savior. Then she sighed.

I guess I can’t expect such a valorous fortune in this world!

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