The Strings in the Shadows

Chapter One- In Which Jack and Kaira get rudely awoken

"Okay, okay, I've got it. Forget I said anything-" he started to say, but his mam was already half-way across the kitchens, shouting out more orders as the rest of the servants started making breakfast for the nobles. Jack looked sadly at his almost-healed hands as he quickly washed them. They'd have lots of cuts after a three-hour session with a paring knife, he thought ruefully. His belly grumbled from lack of food.

Jack quickly looked around. All the other servants were busy, and his mam was looking the other way, so he quickly snaked out his still wet hands and snatched an already made lemon muffin from the muffin platter and a boiled egg from an overflowing bowl. He stuffed the muffin in his mouth and slipped the warm egg into his trouser pocket; he'd eat that later. Jack glumly took his seat on the wobbley stool in the corner and picked up a potato and the paring knife and began to peel.

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Kaira Wellington's forest green eyes snapped open from sleep at the soft sound of stocking feet sneaking into her bed chamber. Without making a noise, she flicked her wrists, releasing the knives she kept there in small wrist sleaves. The soft feet stopped a foot from the bed, and, without warning, slashed at Kaira's bed with a pair of war axes. Feathers and slivers of linen and fluff flew through the air at the assailant's brutal assault.

Kaira kept still.

The mysterious man (for now she could hear a man's slightly heavy breathing from waving the axes so visciously) grunted as he realized there was no bloody body in the bed. He swiveled to face the attack from behind he was sure the missing lady would attempt. It was then Kaira struck. Not from behind, but from below.

Kaira had been sleeping underneath her bed.

Her right leg spun in an arc gracefully as she kicked the man's legs out from underneath him. Using the momentum of the kick, Kaira launched her self out from under her now destroyed bed, and, twisting her hands, drove her twin knives into the torso of her attacker. What she met was the stone flooring as the assailant quickly recovered from the shock of being thrown on one's back and rolled out of her way at the last second. Both fighters sprang to their feet at almost the same instant. Noting his stance, Kaira could see he was a skilled fighter and killer. Doubtless, she thought as she grinned humorlessly, he was noticing the same thing about her.

She tried to see his facial features, but soon realized that even though her eyes had adjusted to the darkness of her room, the assailant was wearing a mask. She rolled her eyes. Such drama was inpractical on an assassination mission. Either the assassin was killed or the target was killed. It wouldn't matter if the soon-to-be-dead target saw the face of the murderer, for they couldn't tell anyone, and if the assassin was killed, the still-living target would simply rip the mask of the corpse.

The assassin adjusted his grip on his axes. Those would be a problem, Kaira thought. Her knives wouldn't hold against a master axe man. Her thoughts sparked as she instantly devised her strategy.

"Thought I'd be a sweet, pathetic noble you could kill for some quick cash?" Kaira said scornfully as she took a step back. Her attacker stepped forward a pace. She kept talking as she inched her way toward the hat post near the head of her bed, adlibbing. "Guess your employers didn't tell you. If they had, you would have brought more to kill me than a couple of axes and that small knife at your waist." If she was being honest, the knife wasn't all that small. It was practically a short sword. "They probably thought you wouldn't take the job if you knew who I was." She had reached the hat post. The assassin, thinking she was bluffing and cornered, hurried forward, swinging his axes simulataneuosly. With practiced throws, Kaira launched her knives at the assailant, one at his head and one at his spleen. With equal practice, she saw, he parried them with the axe blades as she spun and kicked in a circle. Distracted by the knives, the assassin backed up unbalanced, thinking she meant to hit him with her bare foot, but Kaira had another target in mind.