Bride Behind the Mask

Chapter 8: An Unexpected Reunion

Then he heard it—

Silence.

Other than the soft rustle of leaves, the steady breathing of the six men in the clearing and the occasional huff of their horses, there was naught but silence. A forest, even a sparse one, with no birds taking flight and no wild animals kicking up dust, was a forest to be wary of.

Sliding a dagger out of its sheath, he tapped a small pebble to the blade. Three soft rings, a steel warning to the men around him. They kept to their positions: two with their heads down in rest, two munching on stale bread and one napping on the ground, or so they appeared. From his peripheral vision, Drake spied each of his men's hands inch towards their weapons.

In a uniform whoosh, ten masked figures leapt aboveground from the thick piles of leaves around them, the leather straps of their dark armour gleaming a deep metallic green in the bright rays of sun that filtered through the treetops. Surrounded, there was no time for pleasantries as the intruders darted a mass of poison-tipped needles towards them in a wide arc.

What happened next, was a bloodbath.

Four of Drake's men rolled towards him and formed a protective circle around their lord with leather bucklers held up to block the deadly assault. Gery climbed up a tree with the agility of a squirrel and launched his crossbow, accurately eliminating their first foe. As soon as the onslaught of the needles was over, Romund, ever the bold, raised his battle axe and led the charge with a roar. Rewis and Fulke swung out their greatswords; the Serrasi warrior Jurqay lashed his long chain whip into two attackers, the tiny metal spikes of his weapon ripping through their flesh like hot knife through butter; and Drake was nowhere to be seen.

One moment, a masked man smoothly dodged Rewis' arcing advance, prepared to deliver a stab into the warrior's flank; the next, a dagger was buried in his throat, blood spouting in an arc as his body fell limply to the ground. Rewis had only half a second's chance to meet Drake's gaze and convey his silent gratitude before his next masked opponent was upon him.

Drake pulled his dagger out of the dead man's neck, then crouched to inspect the insignia attached to the man's belt. The bloodied insignia featured a green snake wrapped around a black dagger—the mark of the Jeds. Within the Assassins Guild, they were experts in the art of poisons. It was as he feared, these were no easy foes.

A grunt overhead, and he lifted his head just in time to see a red-headed figure falling through the air. He barely had time to react before Gery's empty, lifeless eyes were staring right back at him from the ground beside him, his legs mangled from the fall, and a black arrow planted firmly into his heart.

Gery. Filled with a new desire for vengeance, Drake dashed into the shadow of a tree, emerging seconds later behind another masked assassin and disposed him with a swift stab to the back. As he withdrew the dagger with one hand, he angled the blade in such a way that the jewel at its hilt caught a ray of sunlight and deflected it directly between the eyes of a man in locked swords with Fulke. In a battle to the death, a momentary stagger was all it took for one's guts to spill.

A few feet ahead, Romund had just crushed a foe's skull with his giant axe and was falling to the knees from his own injuries and physical exertion, but another assassin was already leaping through the air, his two curved blades raised and ready to plunge into the large warrior from the back. "Rom!" Fulke yelled, but Romund wasn't moving from his knelt position. Jurqay lashed his whip through the air, its last spikes grazing the assassin's ribs but did nothing to deter his movement.

Without a moment's hesitation, Drake charged into Romund's defence with all his remaining strength. Snaking himself between Romund and his assailant, he swept the assassin's blades aside with one of his own, before lodging a second dagger in the man's throat. Above the dying's man's half mask, his eyes bulged in surprise at how the situation had changed in less than a tick of time. Drake returned his look with a sneer before pulling out the blade and letting the blood gush like a fountain.