The Assassin's Mask (On Hold)

5 | "With suspicious eyes."

How do you guys like the title, "Behind the Assassin's Mask," if I were to change the title?

Yes? No?

Recap (of Chapter 7): Danny has a nightmare that she (not Ren) is shot and poisoned with an arrow. Ren tells her she deserved "far worse than this." He then becomes Raphael, who taunts her. The figure morphs into all her victims until it becomes a man with peppered hair, brown eyes, a golden crown, and a gold ring. She cries. The man's head seems to be cut off and it falls in her lap. She screams.

Danny is awoken by a guard, who tries to hit her. Another man stops him; the man from the forest. He begins to speak with her. Danny wonders why they left her mask on.  He tells her they have plans for her, then sticks her with something to make her sleep.

She wakes up once more, in a chair, in the throne room of King Marcus Ledger of Eldin. The man who poisoned her is the Captain of the guard. The King blackmails her into kill the Prince of Luxum by marrying him, giving Luxum to Eldin, and he takes her mask off all in order to save Ren. She is to pose as the King's daughter and form an alliance with Luxum. Ren struggles, but he is very weak. Danny escapes her binds and kills the Captain of the guard and grabs Ren's hand. He coughs up blood. The King tells her the Ren is in love with her. Danny stops all thoughts of the subject, but still notices every good trait of Ren.

The King promotes a soldier to Captain of the Guard. He takes Danny away, and she knows that she has to kill the Prince.

⚔ Copyright © Reilly 2016 ⚔

It was strange, the way that the trees swayed in the breeze, the birds that chirped in the moonlight, the peaceful, cool crisp of the autumn leaves that fell. Danny watched them fall, one by one, as she was jostled, bumped, and rigorously shaken within the carriage. To say her irritation with the driver was little would be an absolute lie. Danny looked down to her hands, seeing them cleaner than ever brought back so many memories. The Princess Ambrosia's signet ring cooled the skin of her finger.

She blew a deep breath through her nose, blowing away her thoughts, but they came rushing back: King Marcus Ledger of Eldin, the dead captain of the guard, Ren, but, most of all, the mission.

When the new Captain had taken Danny to her room, she had pushed all thoughts of Ren and the look that had been in his eyes as the guards had dragged him out of the throne room, his painful screams tearing at her heart like a wolf.

She had almost no recollection of what happened, only hands. Cautious hands that scrubbed, plucked, waxed, massaged, oiled, and dressed the pensive, solemn assassin. Danny did not know their faces, nor their names. When they reached for the brooch in her hair, she had barked at them, "Leave it!" They cowered away, setting it aside as they managed her black hair. It was later placed back in her dark wisps. She had thanked none of them as they departed, curtsying to the mysterious lady who had received such special treatment; after all, why would she be thankful for anything King Marcus did? He was blackmailing her to kill the Prince of Luxum to save her—to save Ren. Danny held no doubt what had truly happened to those maids who had helped her after they never showed for work again.

The castle of Eldin was evil, just as many others, it was corrupt. King Marcus was corrupt.

The Captain had then taken her to see the King. They discussed what she was and was not supposed to do. The King described how she was to act while in the presence of anyone in Luxum's castle. She was to be his daughter, Ambrosia Ledger. It was that simple. The King droned on and on of how a princess was to act; Danny ignored every word. Her thoughts were of Ren, though she pushed some away.

Stop it, Danny. She had told herself while the King spoke. Shut up and listen.

She had done just that and turned to the King, listening. The Captain's eyes had slid over her with suspicion. She had barred her teeth at him.