Hawksong

Chapter 2

Just a few paces beyond the hallway's bend, I saw two figures fighting. One was obviously Zane; his movements had the frightening fluidity of a serpentine warrior, and he fought as soundlessly as all his people. The only noise came from his opponent, and even that was so soft I would never have heard it had I not stopped in the hall. The second figure was either a slender young man or a plain, shapeless female; I suspected the first.

The loose black clothing he wore left much to the imagination-as much as the silken scarf twined around the assassin's head, which showed only shadows over his eyes. The word assassin came to my mind unbidden, but as soon as I thought it, I knew it to be true. I also knew, from the style of his movements, that the attacker was probably avian.

He was fighting with the long-bladed dirk many of the Royal Flight favored, and he guarded his back with the precision of a soldier who is used to defending wings. Quickly my thoughts shifted. If the assassin was avian, caution made it reasonable to assume the blade of his weapon was poisoned. Depending on the strength, a scratch could kill; he did not even need to land a fatal blow.

I did not wait for an opportunity. Against avian poison, I was safer than Zane, and I hoped that even an assassin would hesitate to harm his Tuuli Thea. All but ignoring the weapon, I grasped the attacker from behind and dragged him backward to keep Zane from the range of his blade. The assassin whirled, and I raised an arm to defend my face.

I felt the knife cut through the flesh of my forearm and the heat of the poison in the wound, but I also felt my attacker recoil. He had recognized me. Obviously unwilling to continue the fight with me in the middle, the assassin spun and took off down the hall.  Zane moved as if to follow, but then he turned to me. "Danica, are you okay?"

I felt the poison going to work but, I needed to chase the attacker. I turned to Zane and said, "Find Rei. Tell him I'm going after an attacker. If he wants to follow me, he can. After you tell him that, tell Adelina the same thing but I want you to tale Rei while he's tailing me. When I come face to face with the assassin, stop 30 paces behind me and let me fight."

Zane shook his head and left to find Rei. After he was down the hall and around the corner, I pursued the attacker. I crept around the castle until I found the attacker. I hide behind a wall until I felt Rei, Zane, and Adelina behind me. I smiled and came out from behind the wall. I started walking towards the attacker when the attacker turned towards me and said, "If you come any closer, I will kill you."

I smiled and said, "Do you not know who you're talking to?" The person didn't respond, just took out a knife and attacked me. I dodged the attack with one fluid motion, a side step to the left. The person's knife got lodged in the wall. I pulled a knife that was attached to my leg out and stabbed the attacker in the arm.

The attacker let out a cry. When the attacker did this, I smiled a sadistic smile, pulled a knife from the compartment on my hip, and stabbed the person in the back. The person fell to the ground and I confirmed them as dead. I turned around to see Zane, Rei, and Adelina staring at me with gaping mouths and large eyes.

I smiled at them and fell to the ground, exhausted as heck . Then, all of a sudden, the poison took effect on my body. I don't know why it did though because the poison shouldn't affect me unless it was nearly pure, which I suspected was the case here. After I fell to the ground, I felt the poison taking affect on my bloodstream. Rei and Zane ran over to me and then Zane yelled, "Danica, are you okay?"

I couldn't answer him the poison in my blood stream had taken effect too fast. I started having a seizure because I moved so much that allowed the poison to move through my body faster. Rei ran over to me, screaming, "Danica, what's wrong?" I couldn't tell him, but before I lost all consciousness, I pointed at the scratch on my arm.

He saw the scratch and said to Zane, "She was poisoned when she protected you from the attacker. She took the blow herself so that you wouldn't die because our poison can kill you." Zane picked me up  and took me to my room where Rei treated me for the poison.