The Strings in the Shadows

Chapter. Three- In which Kitchen Boy meets Shadow

  Kaira had been schooled in never being caught off guard, but she was very surprised (and if she could admit it, slightly afraid of being found out) when she felt the tremers of someone climbing her tree. She quietly shut her small, crammed notebook and cautiously leaned over the side of her branch near the top of the oak tree she was hiding in. Piercing through the thick branches, Kaira's eyes saw what looked to be a servant boy noisily making his slow, but steady, way up the tree. Her sharp eyes noticed the rectangular lump in his apron pocket. Poison? A box with weapons? But why would you keep weapons in a box? That would limit your speed at getting them out, costing you valuable fighting time.

Just my luck that Luke went and jinxed me this morning, thought Kaira as she remembered her brother had said she hadn't had an attempt on her life in over a month. The boy was half way up the tree. Kaira shifted from her seated posistion to a crouched one, returned her notebook to its hiding place in an old owl's nest she'd found years ago, and waited for the assassin.

Kaira knew she was missing something, something obivious. But what was it? This, she thought, is why fear is a distraction. She glared at her notebook and what its secrets represented in the dogeared pages, the reason she was struggling with this emotion. She took another glance at the tree climber. He was just a few branches below her.

"That's far enough," she said in a commanding voice. The boy went rigid. He gulped, then looked down.

"Mam? Is that you?"

Kaira was baffled. Why was he looking at the ground? Clearly he was a poor assassin if he forgot his target was above him.

"Mam, I thought it'd be better for everyone if I stayed out of the kitchens today," the boy was still addressing the grass, turning his head side to side, looking for whoever he thought he was talking to. "I told you, paring potatoes always ends up with chunks of my hands missing, and I didn't want to get blood everywhere in the food, so I'm taking the rest of the day off."

"I'm up here, kitchen boy," said Kaira. The boy froze again, then looked up. Fear was evident on his face as he realized his "mam" was actually a girl with twigs in her hair and a knife in her hand. Kaira twirled the dagger lazily, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Lady!" he breathed, shocked. Kaira decided that no assassin would be so foolish as this boy was doing, grasping the tree so hard his muscles weren't loose enough to dodge attacks or give them. He was not here to kill her, but what was he doing up in a tree? Prehaps he was a spy.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Jack, your Ladyship," the boy was watching her dagger instead of her. While fear was a great motivater in finding information, Kaira did not approve of the use of it for having conversation. She flipped the knife and replaced it in her sheath at her side. Jack relaxed slightly, before remembering he was thirty feet up , upon which he grabbed the tree as hard as ever.

"Why did you climb this tree, Jack?" Kaira asked. If he said anything along the lines of, "This person told me to," or "I've seen you climb this tree," then the result would not be good for Jack.

"I was... I was looking for a place to read, Lady."

"You can read?"

"I was taught by Henry, the old butler, ma'am." Jack said proudly. Most of the younger generation of servants couldn't read, so he could claim something that made him stand out. Kaira noticed his muscles were beginning to tremble from exersition.

"Sit down, Jack," Kaira said graciosly. Now that she had established this red headed boy was not a threat, she wouldn't want him to fall and die for no reason.