No One

Chapter Twenty One

No One wasted only a few moments before she killed three, three guards who were foolish enough to fall into her trap. With her newfound power and strength, she was dangerous, she was deadly, but she had set her sights very high, her eyes on the prize and her prize was the king's head, to prevent others going through the same thing, she would have to get rid of him, to run a blade across his throat.

The guards were such idiots, not checking how many people there were in a household before slaughtering them, they left her alive and that was proving to be their biggest mistake. Her family's motto was 'The Brave Heart Survives' and she made sure she had survived, having moments where she felt hopeless, where things seemed hopeless and having moments where she felt much stronger but there was one thing she was certain about, she was going to survive.

Some were born with a silver spoon in their mouths, she was one of those lucky ones yet was unlucky enough to lose it. Often it was lost due to debts, death or in her case, greed and making the wrong enemies. She was lucky, she found a friend, a new place to rest her weary head. Many would have died or given up, accepted they were now nothing, that their house was gone, by marriage, dissolved because no woman could carry on the family name and keep the family's honour. She could not carry on the line, not like that but she was working to avenge it, to make something of her life.

"Why No One?" Bowen asked as he dragged the bodies, helping to hide them.

"My name is easy to identify, people would know who I am... I do not want that," she admitted tearfully, watching his every move carefully.

"There is no need to see me as a threat."

"There are questions I have and I need those answers." He nodded, waiting for her question, glancing at the bodies. "That day we met, how... why were you in there?", she questioned.

"The why, I cannot answer, I have been sworn to silence."

"You promised."

"I did not promise you answers, I merely waited for the question."

"Then tell me how."

He took a breath, watching her like a hawk would its prey, she felt like she was in the jaws of something, that she had been lured in to be killed. "I let the guards catch me committing a minor crime, I needed to make sure I was not to be sentenced to death, none of us can survive the axe and hanging is painful."

"How did you know where I was?" she questioned.

"I brought you into the fold, do you think I cannot sense you? I know where you are, just like if you wished, you could know where I am."

She held her tongue, wishing she could lash him with it. Every answer he gave led to another question, more annoying questions that he often refused to offer an answer to. She hated him for that, yet saw him as a father figure, younger than her father but she had few doubts about how they would have got on, had he been alive to meet Bowen. Her father loved mysterious people, he liked to study them, finding the mind... interesting to study but No One rarely cared to learn all that, she hoped she would never use it.

There was a brief moment of sadness as she realised what had happened to her. If someone had told her that she would become a killer, a monster with grey skin in the moonlight, she would have thought they were mad, she would have cast such an idea aside with as much laughter and doubt as possible and hope it was a selection of alcohol talking rather than the person's mind, but then she was once a girl with marriage on her mind, love and a family on her mind. She was going to marry a highborn, like herself and take on a new name, her brother was to be married to someone only a year younger, from another noble house like himself, so he could marry, have a family and continue the family line.

Cruel was the hand that ordered the blade, soon dead but not too soon, she wanted him to know she was coming, to fear her knowing his king would not allow him to flee. She wanted him to feel like the rabbit, cornered and afraid, hunted down by the wolf, only be killed, torn up and finally devoured. That rabbit had been a foolish one, like her father it had made a very bad choice, made an enemy and was going to pay for that horrible mistake, it was going to meet the teeth of the wolf.