The Purple Jade Palace: The Hummingbird's Plan

Assassins

The next day, Prince Rathner and Jale called their councils into a meeting to inform them of what had occurred. Menelt was also present in a hope he could shed some light on the matter. The meeting exploded into chaos as the men argued at how their leaders had been subjected to such a threat, right underneath their noses and without anyone knowing. The news put everyone on edge.

It had an unexpected outcome however. The news helped to create a respect and willingness to collaborate further between the two camps. Even Uleron buckled down and worked alongside the Talbecans without complaint, his focus now to find and obliterate the assassins. 'Never can trust a Telekan Assassin' became his new saying.

It wasn't just the soldiers, the council members of each group also bonded, and evening meals were often held together while they discussed their day and strategies of their watch.

Unfortunately, Menelt had not come across or heard of the assassins before. He sent word to his father. There was no help from the chief clansman either. Menelt informed Prince Rathner and Jale they were none the wiser.

The two camps settled into a routine. Just as Prince Rathner suggested, they set up group trainings, language sessions and times for entertainment. In addition, all rotations of duties were conducted with a mixture of Talbecan and Keglan soliders. Travel down to the town was banned on Brelen's advice. To stop resentment from the soldiers, they could have company at camp as long as it was on their free evening and as long as the visitors made their presence known via a new post set up just for the task.

Drean moved up to the camps and joined Jale in his tent. He was a wonderful companion, and Jale enjoyed having him in the tent when he finished his tasks at the end of each day. To stop him from becoming bored, Jale found jobs for Drean to complete, namely administrative tasks and checking on the condition of the horses. He was also a source of entertainment, whether it was playing his musical instruments or singing in the evenings when Jale dined with Prince Rathner and his men.

It was such a successful arrangement, Jale started to imagine more and more of what his life could be like with Drean at the end of the post. Jale was also aware of Prince Rathner having a steady stream of female visitors although it did appear that Delba was more frequent than others.

For the first five days, the two camps ran smoothly. The soldiers completed their duties, the horses were looked after, communication between Menelt and his men remained positive, and not a single person saw the cloaked figure that had approached Prince Rathner and Jale. On the sixth day, when it seemed as if everyone was starting to let their guard down, Brelen came to Jale's tent, white-faced and nervous.

He held out his arm to reveal the tattoo that had been engraved onto his arm, and Jale swore.

"When did it happen?" Jale asked.

"Last night," Brelen informed him. "When I was on duty at the base of the pass. I had a dozen men with me, and no one saw a thing but me."

Jale stood up and paced in his tent. "What is the meaning of this? I was starting to think it had been a random act of foolishness. How is this possible? How did this person do this without anyone else seeing?"

"I don't know," Brelen stated, visibly shaken.

"Please, sit down and rest," Jale told him, not used to seeing Brelen in such a rattled manner.

It occurred every day after that. Different men who were close to either Prince Rathner or Jale were selected, and when they woke in the morning, whether they had been on duty or sleeping in their tent, they now bore the strange symbol engraved on the inside of their wrist.