A Masquerade of Spiders

Chapter Two: Let The Blood Fall Thick

Chapter 2 - Let The Blood Fall Thick

The noble family of Accipitri who ruled over the state of Desmelas in South-Tal all wore masks shaped like birds with strongly hooked bills.

My target wore a mask of cast silver highlighted with thin threads of yellow gold. It was shaped like a hawk with wings outstretched. The hawk's body ran down the bridge of her nose with its talons curving the shape of her nostrils. Its head and open beak, positioned in the centre of her forehead, was inlaid with two violet amethysts for its eyes.

By any measure, it was a beautiful piece. I admired the details of feathers in the body and wings. The mask-maker's technique was utter perfection. A hawk meant this girl was of the Tvereman family, the leading branch of Accipitri. However, amethysts and silver told me that the girl wearing the mask was perhaps the lowest ranking in her family.

That would explain why she was here, in Klesei. The Accipitri Lords didn't marry north of the Tal. The fact that they sent one of their daughters here meant she was expendable, a necessary evil to gain influence with the Fel or Rosace families.

She stood apart from the group. By the look of it, she wouldn't have minded the noble pens.

I continued my journey through the crowd, keeping a steady pace. Finally, I passed the group of nobles entirely, without sparing them a glance, heading for the first alley that broke away from the square.

Twice a week, my mistress, the Mask-maker sent me to market to purchase cloths, dyes, leathers and, on occasion, precious metals. Some of the best cloth and leather merchants of Kelsei, those who sold to the artisans, kept shop off the market square. I knew this web of alleys on this side of the square as if I were the spider that wove them. My feet took me to the narrow, shadowed alley that opened up onto the square right behind my mark.

I approached her, but kept close to the wall of a building and its shadow.

A collective intake of breath rose up from the entire square when the spectres descended.

Spectres came for those unmasked for a fatal embrace. At first, when drifting towards the ground, they looked like a veil of mist. But the closer they came, the more the details of human features became evident. Willowy arms, long silken hair that fluttered behind them in a sheet of white, heavy, round breasts, beautifully sculpted faces. All spectres resembled youthful women, naked, sorrowful and pure.

They descended slowly, slowly. They would pass through my mother and father.

And take away their souls.

Everyone watched, in total silence, with bated breaths.

Everyone, except for me.

I wouldn't look. Above all, this was the distraction I needed.

I moved in close behind the noblewoman, pulling out the knife in my pocket, and pressing it to the side of her neck.

"Make a noise and I'll kill you." It almost didn't sound like my voice that whispered in her ear. It wasn't me.

She stiffened, emitting the faintest squeak which no one could hear amidst the gasps and cries of those gathered in the square when the spectres went for their prey. I pressed the knife against her soft skin, enough for her to feel its sharpness, and she let me pull her back into the shadows

She shivered as I guided her into a nook created by an odd angle between two crookedly built buildings that were all but leaning against one another. My chest was stony, there was no turning back. I had to go through with this.