Fairy Tale Assassin - Chapter 9

Death of a Noble

Chapter 9

Footsteps coming up the stairs told me I had no time to worry about my questions while I waited on the balcony. I pulled out my dagger and crouched down with my ear next to the door. The voices I heard appeared to be servants. Another door opened and the light coming through the cracks of the door frame next to me grew brighter.

“Our master has another common wench tonight. It’s a shame we’ll need to teach her how to be a proper servant,” a male voice said.

“Well, only until the lord grows tired of her. I swear, how many ladies the master need?” A female servant sighed. “He should find a good noblewoman and rid himself of such lowly women.”

The man chuckled.

“Yes, on that we can agree.”

My anger grew as I listened to them. Finally, they left the room and before long, I heard more footsteps, this time heavier. A voice bellowed out.

“Damn king keeping me away. I’ve waited all day for my bite into that tasty wench I saw this morning. Bring me the woman along with more wine. Your lord shall enjoy another virgin this night.”

At this point, it took every ounce of control to keep me from rushing into the room. But my rational mind kept reminding me to get Ruby out of the manor quietly. Once the servants left her alone with the bastard, I intended to make my presence known.

Damn right, this son of a bitch will remember me!

After a while, the footsteps slowly grew stronger. A door opened, and I listened expectantly. I could make out the man talking to his servant before sending him away.

“Come, fair maiden, show me what I’ve paid for,” the male voice said.

The whispering I couldn’t make out. I wasn’t even sure it was Ruby’s voice. Then, I heard a slap and the tearing of clothing.

“Bitch, let me see what I’ll despoil tonight!”

After a moment, I heard his voice again. My hand squeezed the latch while I recognized I had only one shot. If it’s not Ruby in there and I kill him, I probably won’t get another chance. Still, I pulled out my blowgun and ensured it was ready.

“That’s better. You’re a true red hair!” the man chuckled.

You’re a dead man!

Immediately, I squeezed through the door and saw the fat bastard with his pants partially dropped. Rage filled me while I forced myself to keep from charging. I see the bastard forcibly kissing her while groping her breast. A couple of paces away, I brought the dagger out of my cape with my other hand. When I thought about the poison covering the blade, I almost let out a triumphant chuckle.

Then I sent an arrow into his exposed, hairy butt. He flinched, slapping his hand behind him.

“Ah, damn bugs!” The bastard yelped.

When I moved forward, I glimpsed Ruby staring at the ceiling. She refused to acknowledge the worthless creep on top of her.

Gilbert shook his head suddenly.

“What?”

Unfortunately, the floorboard creaked under my foot. Gilbert glanced back, and I saw his eyes grow wide. There was no hesitation when I drove the dagger into his back. His gargled yell muffled immediately when I forced my hand over his mouth. He bit down, crushing my finger into the blowgun I held. I grunted in pain while I stabbed him again with the dagger. The man frantically elbowed me with his arm while he tried to roll away.

While the two men wrestled, Rudy fell to the floor. She looked back in confusion, unsure about Gilbert’s attacker. The assassin’s face remained hidden from a scarf. Then, Ruby saw the man’s hood pushed away amid the fight. Her eyes widened with recognition. A sudden surge of hope combined with fear filled her.

Covan!

Gilbert’s teeth cut into my fingers, which nearly drove a scream out of me. Desperately, I forced the fingers of my other hand between his jaws and pulled back on his lower jaw. He tried to yell out, only getting out a strange, gasping animal grunt which grew louder as we struggled. Suddenly, Ruby grabbed the edge of the bedsheet. She landed by my side and stuffed the cloth over the shocked nobleman’s mouth and face. The nobleman’s strength quickly weakened while I painfully extracted out my fingers from his jaws. With a determined expression, Ruby kept the pressure on the cloth over his face. I pulled back the bedsheet covering Gilbert’s unfocused eyes. I pulled out one more arrow point while I lowered the scarf covering my face. Then, I slapped him. The noble’s eyes widened when he recognized my battered-up face.

“Payback is a motherfucker, isn’t it?”

I pushed the tip of poison into Gilbert’s neck to ensure his death. As the noble convulsed, his head shook in disbelief. Finally, white foam emerged next to the cloth jammed in his mouth and his stare into the abyss told us he was dead.

Lifting his heavy body by his coat, I struggled to pull Gilbert fully onto the bed. The fat bastard required Ruby’s help. She stared at me while I noticed her torn clothing. There were scratches on her exposed breast, which made me want to kill Gilbert again.

“Find anything you can use as clothes in those drawers!” My ragged whisper sent Ruby toward the nearby chest.

Glancing over the body, I realized my stabs didn’t go deep into the man’s back. It reminded me of how weak I was. But a grin came to my face when I noticed his money bag still attached to his belt. My hurt fingers made me gasp in pain when I used the dagger to cut off the bag. After I pocketed the coins in my cape, I covered Gilbert’s body with the bedcovering. Arranging another lump in the bed using a pillow, my work was complete. A quick peek inside the door should fool the servants into believing he was sleeping with Ruby in the bed. It should give us a chance to escape from the city.

Going over to Ruby, I could tell she wanted to say something. However, I shook my head and whispered for her to dress. The linen dressing ground was too large, but it would have to do. She pulled a brown woolen cape from the dresser. It carried the noble’s seal. After I turned it inside out, I glanced over while she dressed. Ruby’s body still trembled from her treatment. My sudden urge to burn the house, along with the servants who allowed her to suffer, came to mind. But my senses came back to me as I put the cape over her. Then I kissed her on the cheek.

“Let’s get out of this place!” I whispered.

After helping her down from the balcony using the rope to slide down, I removed the improvised grappling hook and dropped it to the ground. Then I went over the banister and let myself fall from the lowest part of the balcony. A couple of my fingers still hurt from the crushing bite, but happily I didn’t do any damage to my body. I quickly gathered up the rope and led Ruby into the garden.

We exited the estate using the same alley which led us to an empty street. Quickly, we crossed over to the other side. As we followed the road, I felt like eyes were watching us. Ruby sensed it as well. She whispered about her concerns, and we slunk into a dark corner by a building.

“Something is wrong,” I mumbled.

After a long moment of watching over the darkened street, I didn’t see any movement. However, I heard the marching sound of boots coming down the street toward us.

Damn!

Taking Ruby’s hand, I led us into another alley. While we watched and waited for the guards to pass, instead, they came to a stop a few buildings away. Each of them had lanterns and the officer of the watch told them to split up and make their rounds.

One guard came toward us and we hurriedly went deeper into the alley. Without light, Ruby and I groped along the wall, trying to keep quiet. I ran into a water barrel, but it only caused rats to squeal as they hurried away. The pain in my aching knee almost made me let out a groan. The man with the lantern heard the rat’s movement and slowly came toward us. Fortunately, he stopped occasionally to check the doors before he came closer. His light only lit up a few feet in front of him, so hoped we could find a spot to hide.

After pushing deeper into the blackness, my heart stopped when we came against a wooden structure in the way. I felt around the area and realized it was a tall fence of some type. But I couldn’t see how far up it went. Worse, the guard continued to come our way.

“Over here!” Ruby whispered.

She discovered a door to one side that seemed to enter the building next to us. We struggled to find a handle, but it appeared to be latched from the inside. In growing desperation, I pushed one of my sickle blades through the edge of the door and tried to use it as a lever.

Suddenly, we heard a latch click behind us. In the shadows, a figure dressed in black held a lantern under his cape. The sliver of light coming out showed us a gate in the fence. It stood open. The figure waved us toward the gate. Sliding out the sickle blade, I sighed.

“I guess we don’t have an option.”

We carefully stepped toward the figure as it backed into the darkness behind the open gate. A quick glance down the other end of the alley showed the guard steadily getting closer. With a sigh, I went through the gate with Ruby following. A voice whispered for us to close the gate. After Ruby did, we heard the click of a latch locking.

“Follow me!” the male voice ordered.

As we followed, we could barely make out the path. The light from under the person’s cape in front of us only showed the moss-covered stones and our guide’s pair of boots occasionally. We came to a building with an open entranceway and followed a flight of stairs down. We continued on for a while until we came out into a dark, open space. A moment later, I found us walking between rows of headstones. After going into the cemetery further, we came to a small type of stone building.

Inside, we found several benches near a type of altar. Our guide told us to wait and left through a dark passage by the altar. The temperature of the room felt cooler, and the blackness played with my mind as I heard noises all around us. Sliding out the dagger, I kept it hidden under my cloak.

“I don’t like this place,” Ruby breathed with a shiver.

A smile came to my face at her words. No longer did she sound like a Shakespear actress. But I agreed with her caution. A light suddenly flared behind us. I turned in time to see a long rapier blade pointed at my throat. At the other end of the sword, a handsome young man stared at me with cold blue eyes. A pretty woman with an old-fashioned handgun pointed at us stood next to him. Her eyes glittered with amusement while she held up a lantern.

“You stole our contract!”

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Chapter 10 Coming Soon - As always, the first 10 chapters are free reading. Become a subscriber to get every chapter.