His Ghostly Assassin

Chapter 5

Taron

All of us, myself, my guards, as well as my entire staff waited just beyond my gates as the Southern King and his men made their way towards us. A scout of sorts had already coming running to me and alerted me that he would be trotting in at any moment. I could see that everyone around me was excited, to have nobility staying and getting a chance to see the Southern King in all his glory.

Almost everyone was excited. I, personally, was a nervous wreck. I had barely gotten any sleep during the night, even reading hadn't calmed me enough to get some rest. It didn't help that my favorite book had somehow gone missing from its usual spot. And no amount of searching helped.

Ken was the picture of calm, standing proud in his green armor as he stood by my side. I guess having done this a few times, granted in different circumstances, gave him a bit of an advantage to this whole situation.

Thankfully, Salzen finally decided to make an appearance. He casually walked over to where I was and stood next to me, although he did have to shove Su out of the way, much to his chagrin. He wasn't dressed up at all, simply wearing his usual dark assassin robes with a deep red sash tied around his waist.

Ken raised a brow at him. "Keeping the uniform on the low today huh?" Salzen simply sighed deeply. "Where's Lyra?"

"Right beside you." Salzen answered as he adjusted his robe.

Both mine and Ken's head snapped over to his side to see that, indeed, Lyra was standing next to him. She was also dressed in her robes, but her black embroidered mask was pulled over her mouth and nose. Her hair was pulled up so it sat in a high ponytail on her head. I smiled at her, I was happy that she had decided to join us.

Ken, however, was staring at her with a frown. "Did you bind yourself? Why would you do that?"

Bind? Bind what?

She rolled her blue eyes at him. "Salzen asked me to do this, and why was the first thing that you noticed was that I bound my chest?" Oh, she wrapped herself so her chest would be more flat. Lyra had quite large breasts, not that I tried to notice, but I was also curious as to why.

"Actually, your hair was the first thing I noticed. You tied it like a man does. I'm going to guess that Salzen doesn't want the king to know you're a woman?" He glanced back over at said man, who nodded in agreement. "Telling her to bound her beautiful breasts is a cruelty I wasn't expecting from you Salzen."

I saw Lyra rub her brows, she went without her gloves so her black nails were on display. "He didn't ask me to do that but I felt like it was stupid to do my hair and not follow through with the rest of the disguise. Taron was the one who asked me to be up here, otherwise I'd just be hiding in the shadows and not have to worry about any of this."

We all heard Su mutter something under his breath, but Lyra was the first one to scold him. "You're the first one on my list if things go south tonight, dance with one eye on the shadows councilman."

Ken and Salzen snickered while I just shook my head. The sound of pounding hoofbeats drew all of our attention to the gates, the Southern King had finally arrived.

His guards followed behind him as his horse cantered into my courtyard, they all stopped neatly lined next to each other. Two guards dismounted quickly and offered any aid to their king as he dismounted.

I had heard stories about the man's luck with the ladies, and it was quite clear why.

Blonde hair tied up in the traditional long hair style, it almost looked like sunshine as it moved and shifted with the wind. Despite being in a part of the country always covered in sun, he was quite pale. Soft light brown eyes seemed to lock onto every member of my staff until he finally got to myself. Pink lips pulled into a smile, pearl white teeth tht also looked as though it shimmered in the sun like his hair.