The Elven Slayer Princess

...This Cruelest Night Part 3

Trevor Nikos, the agent, quickly ran down one of the stairs of the store fronts that was situated in the middle of town and skirted ahead to see if anyone was trailing him. It led to the outside street where there was a couple in a horse carriage riding that was going at a pretty brisk pace. They weren't paying any attention to him, but he ran in front of them. The carriage immediately slowed to a stop. And it almost turned over. The inhabitants inside the carriage breathed a sigh of relief when it didn't but the chase was on. Trevor trotted back behind a vehicle to make sure Liv couldn't see him. He continued to look back as he stumbled through the street.

His heartbeat faster and faster at the possibility of being caught. But he assumed it was the act of carelessly choosing money over sensibilities. In other words, he went "rogue." He was imagining things. They wouldn't catch him and that "Wanted" poster in the marketplace window in the city, displaying one hundred thousand in myats for the head of a wild Uruk, would do nicely in his pocket. In order for him to get the cash he had to escape and get to the next safe house outside of the city. Pretty soon he traipsed through another alleyway which were common in the city like this. There were many side alleys, and back door roads in the city of Denbrook.

But there were few that understood the cities more than Liv. On the nights that her father was delegating in his war rooms and her stepmother was in her secret "fox" clubs with her elite royals, she couldn't wait to sneak out among the commoners. Her father and stepmother never knew. She wanted to taste the fruit, the meats and the delicacies that were all apart of them. The fragrant smells and the sharp sounds were like music to her. They were like sweet notes she heard every time she visited Denbrook. And she recognized where she heard them. This was where she knew she could catch her rogue.

Olivia found a main inlet in the city's market square. She ran toward the hillside to the opposite of that square. The market was having a sale of the fruits and main meats of the day. It had a big sign in the front of the shop. It also displayed the King's warning of finding dangerous Uruks and other rogue elements with monetary benefit on the sign. The King. Her King. Posting his distaste of anyone who didn't approve of his cruel take on his enemies. She decided to let the rogue know she knew that he was in the city. Liv grabbed her silver bow and arrow and observed a cut boar in the window of the meat shop. It had been hanging there for the last two days. She saw it when the butcher put it there for display that week. She slowly aimed her arrow in the bow and squeezed it taut to the string.

The rogue soldier had been running for a while now. He figured he must have lost whoever it was he thought was chasing him. Trevor saw over the hill that the safe house's lights were dark. No one had been there since he had been there in the last week. The Guild members that lived there hadn't been there because they were out in the field testing their equipment. And the King hadn't given any orders to check the barracks. If he had, this rogue soldier definitely would have been testing the equipment because that was one of his jobs. He checked his weapon and put it in his holster. He tapped a mechanism on his armament meant to communicate to his buddies that he had gotten his quarry and was headed in for the night. His mistake was that he was supposed to let one of the night crew know to tag it and move it. But he didn't.

He would be reprimanded by the crew and docked substantial pay on other nights. But not this night. As he scampered to his car, his stomach rumbled. He remembered he hadn't eaten in several hours. And he saw the meat shop several yards away. He hadn't had anything to eat since he took this watch. "Just one bite. The shop keeper knows me. I'll just leave some coins on the counter." As he approached the shop, he heard a whistling. He didn't quite know where it was coming from. But it came in quick. Suddenly he heard the shattering, breaking sound of the glass that he was several feet from go splintering to the ground in front of him.