Assassination

Chapter 11

Brynleigh Pasternack

Brynleigh looked around the bustling and winding hallways of the castle. She had to sidestep out of someone’s way just about every five seconds. They all muttered under their breath about ‘insolent newbies’. She wondered if it was really that obvious that she wasn’t from there.

She apologized at every turn, hoping not to offend anyone on her first day there. She knew that she wasn’t there to make friends or anything, but she also wasn’t there to make any enemies either. So she just let their rude comments slide over her head, for the most part. She was still human.

She looked down at her map that she had pulled out of her large stack of papers, looking at it curiously. She had become incredibly confused about where she was in the castle, and just the slightest bit on where it was she was supposed to go.

She had walked into the castle and been pretty sure of herself. Her first mistake was underestimating the actual sheer size of that behemoth of a building. She had stuck pretty closely to the map for thirty minutes; she was absolutely certain that sticking to it would lead her to the right place.

However, she quickly realized that all of the corridors and staircases were completely identical. Even down to the tiniest details, like what exact accents the walls had painted on them, were complete replicas of the ones she had seen just before them. ‘Why did this have to be so difficult?’ She asked herself.

Brynleigh just tried to pull a smile up on her face. She still had to at least seem friendly. She definitely didn’t want anyone there to know just how lost she was. Only because it would compromise her mission, of course, not because she was embarrassed or anything. Why would she be embarrassed?

She had also noticed that she had no idea where she was supposed to go, literally. She had looked through all the papers, and all they told her was that she was supposed to report to her sleeping dormitories.

Problem: She didn’t know where the ‘sleeping dormitories’ were.

She leaned against a wall in a desperate attempt to try and appear calm and collected, casual. She looked back down at the map but still saw no helpful information. Maybe the names of the corridors and such would help if she even knew which one she was in in the first place. She sighed.

Maybe she could just walk around, following people, until someone eventually led her to where she was supposed to go. No, she probably shouldn’t do that. People would definitely think she was being creepy. Plus, even then, she still wouldn’t know which dormitory she was supposed to go to.

“Hey.” She jumped and shrieked when she heard someone's voice coming right from her blind spot.

She turned around to see the horse handler from before, Cyrus, if she remembered correctly. 

“So you always sneak up on people and scare them half to death? Is that just a fun hobby of yours?” Okay, maybe the whole ‘be nice and polite’ thing wasn’t really working out for her thus far.

“Sorry.” He said sheepishly, his hand coming up to scratch at the back of his neck in embarrassment.

She didn’t respond to him. She just huffed and glared at him, leaning back against her spot in the wall. She looked down at the map the same as she had been before he came along and decided to spooked her right out her very own skin.

He leaned next to her, looking further down the hall. He tapped his foot quietly, but the sound only aided in her annoyance at her situation. She tried not to snap at him or tell him to stop. Her hand’s grip on the paper in front of her face tightened as did the furrow in the center of her eyebrows.