As he approached the ring leader’s tent once more, Aril pulled his mouth cover up, disguising his face. He pulled off his plain cloak, and pulled the other hood over his face. They wouldn’t recognize him now. He hadn’t planned for this, but he’d conveniently brought everything he’d need to get in and out unrecognized even if he had shown his face.
He pulled open the curtain to the entrance, and as the two guards stepped forwards to search him, he immediately drew his knives and rammed them into each of their throats. They couldn’t scream, but the sound of their gurgling blood and hitting the ground would arouse suspicion. Without losing pace he let them drop, knives still in place, and moved into the ring leader’s room. The third guard from before was already moving to stop him, but was met with a blade to the gut, and he dropped.
The ring leader tried to get up to run, realizing what was going on, but fumbled trying to get away from the screaming and clambering drunk girls all around him. Aril grabbed him by the collar and dragged him out of the pile. Without a word, he drove another blade into his chest, stabbing him over and over until he was sure he was dead. His blood burned with anger and uncontrollable rage. He drove the knife in once for each of the girl he’d seen here today.
The other guards would be coming any second now, so he pulled the blade free and let the girls run out the front door. They were unimportant, who could they honestly tell about this without getting arrested for another crime they’d probably committed before coming here? They posed no threat to him.
Aril drew a deep breath, trying to gather his wits for what was coming next. It wouldn’t be pretty. He readied a knife in each hand and waited in the middle of the room. Two guards burst through the curtain door, swords drawn, and when they saw their dead ring leader on the floor they charged Aril. He parried the first attack, and ducked under the second. He’d never fought like this before, but still had the proper training for it. He’d still have to kill them as fast as possible, hand to hand wasn’t his strong point.
As he moved behind one of the guards he reached his blades around and lacerated his throat on both sides. He stumbled back, blood flowing too fast to stop, and soon dropped next to his partner. He made a go for the door he’d come through, but Aril launched his blade through the air and landed it in his back. He walked over, and pulled it free, he didn’t have many knives left.
With the ring leader dead, he only needed to move onto the girl’s quarters now. The rest of the guards didn’t matter unless they got in his way. Aril made his way to the room where he’d been shown the girls before. There the two guards and the keeper stood with weapons drawn, the girls all huddled in the corner. He didn’t know how many more girls there were, but he knew which direction the guard dragged them from. It couldn’t have been far from here. He looked back to the guards and keeper, their hands shaking. This wouldn’t take long.
Aril lunged forward, and the first guard thrust his blade forward. He knocked his blade aside, drove a knife into his wrist, spun around, and stabbed him in the neck. After pulling the blade in the guard’s wrist free, he moved out of the way of the other guard’s sword, letting it impale the dead guard. Aril slashed his eyes and stabbed him in the chest twice before letting them both drop.
He turned to the keeper, staring him down. He was too scared to move, and Aril noticed the crotch of his trousers were now soaked. He didn’t need to kill him, Aril was sure his point had been made to this near-toothless old man. Letting him waddle off for his life, Aril moved on to the girls in the corner, kneeling down next to them. He put his knives away, and offered a hand to help them up. Slowly, they realized he wasn’t here to hurt them, and he told them where to go so they would be safe. As they ran off, he moved on to where the rest of the girls would probably be.
He followed the path to the back tent. What he saw inside caught him off guard, a line of cages with no light. The smell was terrible, he could hardly believe someone could do this to another person. He paused, remembering his line of work, and sighed. At least killing someone freed them of all their pain, or at least that’s what he told himself. Death was far better than this.
Taking as deep a breath as he could before gagging from the smell, he began unlocking each cage, making sure to tell each girl that they were free and where to go. Before long, each cage was empty. All he had to do now was make sure each girl made it back to the city safely. He’d probably take them all to Miss Wells and her orphanage, until they could make it back to their families, assuming they had families to go back to.
Just as he turned to leave, the sound of tearing canvas broke the silence, and rays of daylight flooded the room from the far side. Someone had torn open the tent’s wall on the far side. He turned, blades in each hand, to see who it was. He lowered his weapons once he saw who it was. Noxe stood in the makeshift opening, wearing his assassin’s robe. He cocked his head, obviously not expecting Aril to be the one at work here.
“What the hell? What are you doing, Aril?” He asked.
“Setting these girls free.” He said, walking towards Noxe.
“The whole fair grounds is in an uproar, but I’m pretty sure those girls got away.” Noxe sighed.
Aril said nothing, walking past him through the opening. He felt a hand placed on his shoulder.
“Good work, I didn’t expect you to have this big a heart.”
“Thanks.”
“But you made a real mess, the master’s going to want to talk to you.” Noxe said, regretfully.
Aril sighed, he should have seen this coming. After the girls were safe, he’d have some serious explaining to do.
