The Gift

Chapter Ten

The next week passed in safety.  Brandon and Daniel refused to leave me alone unless I was in a closed room that nobody could get in or out of without them knowing and one always stood outside the door.  At night, one of them sat by the window and watched over me as I slept.  In the morning when I would awake and watch the sun come up, they would switch so that whoever had watched me overnight could sleep.

The days passed tediously.  If they had had their way, I would have been confined to my room at the inn.  I insisted on being able to leave the inn.  Even leaving the inn and going about the town, there wasn’t much to do.  After three days, I was bored.  After a week, I found my only amusement by riling up Brandon.  I would sit by the window and every once in a while pretend that I’d seen somebody I recognized or that could be one of the assassins.  He’d jump up and rush over to the window to see who it was.  Then he’d rush down to the streets when I said I didn’t see them anymore.

Every time it took him about half an hour to come back.  By then I’d moved on to some other method of entertainment.  He would walk into my room and glare at me for five minutes before sighing and saying how he just wanted to protect me and that I shouldn’t mess with him like that.

Then Daniel would agree that I shouldn’t mess with him.  I’d just roll my eyes at them both and go back to whatever I was doing.  By the next morning, he forgot all that I’d done and we’d go through it again.

After a week, the attacks started up again.  Daniel had got back to the Southern Province to check in with Samuel and make sure that they were all alive, so it was just me and Brandon for the day.

“I’m bored,” I said, kicking my feet against my bed.

“Then find something to do,” Brandon told me.

“You don’t like the game I like to play.”

“That’s because it’s a mean game.”

“Then let’s go somewhere.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“Anywhere!  I just want out of this room.”

“Fine.  Get your jacket and boots on, little sister.”

I rolled my eyes at the name he still insisted on calling me as I pulled on my boots and grabbed my jacket.

“Are you properly armed?” he asked as he put his own boots on.

“Always,” I replied pulling my jacket back to show the knives on my left leg.

“Good.”

We walked through the town and I stopped and looked at shops.  As I was looking at a jewelry stand, my little voice gave a warning.

Pull Brandon and move to the right.

I grabbed Brandon’s arm and moved three steps to the right.  Just a moment after we moved, a spear planted itself in the side of the stall, where it would have hit one of us without fail if we’d stayed still.

“Isn’t this one pretty?” I held up a necklace.

“It’s wonderful.  Time to go, little sister.”  He grabbed my arm and started to pull me down the road.

“Hang on.”  I pulled my arm free and turned to survey our surroundings.

He’s pulling his spear from the stall right now.

I looked over toward the stall.  Sure enough, there was a man tugging the spear free from it.  He spun it around and tucked it under his arm expertly.