The Forgotten Kingdom

~Chapter Two~ Xanto

Evadynn Audovera, the greatest assassin of all time, was standing over him, pushing him against a wall by the front of his shirt. She really was as beautiful as everyone said, even if she looked like she wanted to kill him in the most horrible ways imaginable. Xanto had heard that she'd been trained by Master Warik himself since she was six but he had never imagined all the horrible things that must have been done to her. Even though she was making him feel like the smallest man alive, Xanto could not help but feel something akin to awe when he looked at her. This was the woman who, through all the boundaries set by men, had surpassed every person at her age (and older). She was a living, breathing legend.

Evadynn leaned in so close that he could smell her skin. She smelled of rose petals and left him breathless.

"You are going to learn how to toughen up, Boy. The next punch will be to a place you will not enjoy," she said and with that, let him collapse to the ground. Xanto put his hands on his knees and stood up to face her.

"You can't hurt me, Warik wants his apprentices to be spotless every week." He said as bravely as he could but as he looked into her cutting blue eyes he found nothing in there. No love, no joy and definitely no compassion for such a lowly apprentice.

Evadynn turned around so he could not see her face.

"Does it look like Warik really cares about what we do to you apprentices? As long as it is not on your face I could skin you for all Warik cares," she said to him behind her back, motioning for him to follow.

Normally he would have yelled at someone who even suggested that he was low but this was Evadynn Audovera, she was perhaps the one person he could not argue with. The incident in the dining room had been an accident, Xanto had just been rejected by a woman he had been in love with for months and had been ready to lash out at anyone who had even suggested that he was not worthy. It was just his misfortune that it had been Evadynn Audovera.

"Now," she said to him, she was walking fast and he had to run to keep up, "I need you to supply me with the items on this list." Evadynn turned around and gave him a rather short list of items, the script was elegant and the items were common enough to find.

"I am not your servant," Xanto argued, in his old house there had been plenty of servants and he was not about to become one.

"Actually you are, see, you are my apprentice so that means I am in charge. Some trainers may make you practice in the late hours of the night and some may get you to pull heavy buckets of water up the mountain. You do whatever we wish, and speaking of, you are going to have to change into some warmer clothes. The mountains can get cold, especially if you are wet," Evadynn sneered at him and stepped into a narrow alcove pulling him in with her. Xanto had never been this close to a woman before and it would have been intoxicating if the woman in question was not holding knives in her hands.

"Evadynn, you can't make me do this. As an apprentice I need to train in order to become a full assassin, if you make me do chores instead I will be no better than a servant," he said to her, trying not to whine. Before his parents had drafted him into being an assassin he had lived a pretty privileged life and since coming here he had done some things that he would have rather left for the servants, but he was not about to cross that invisible line and start doing work that was for someone way below him.

The small alcove seemed to be tightening around them as Evadynn's glare heightened.

"You will not call me "Evadynn''. You are not worthy enough to refer to me by name, instead, you will call me Madame Audovera or I will make you rue the day you were born." And with that Evadynn pushed him off his feet and stalked down the corridor, her auburn hair snapping as she briskly turned. In a matter of seconds, the dim light coming off the candlesticks swallowed her whole. She had not answered his earlier complaint but Xanto reasoned telling her of this would yield nothing good. Xanto shivered as he stepped out of the alcove and looked down at the list in his hands: