Bleeding Ink

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Adeena broke the wax seal on the stark white parchment before she was even back through the front doors of the Guild house. Other than her grandfather, who was still sound asleep in his room, she was the only one there, so she was not in a good mood when the bell rang from outside, signaling there was someone awaiting her. She'd seen the guardsman before but only in passing just as this meeting was then.

"From the empress," he said in a monotone voice, then turned on his heel and strode out into the dark, silent street.

As she read the message written in elegant cursive, Adeena tried not to break her teeth as she tightly ground them together. She was being summoned and yet not told as to why.

Be at the palace at first light. Wear white.

As far as she could remember, there were no criminals in the palace dungeons who deserved the fate she would give them as the Lady.

Adeena didn't like this. Didn't like this at all.

Yet she found herself not half an hour later looking in on her grandfather, still asleep and dreaming peacefully as she leaned down to kiss his forehead in silent goodbye. With every moment, the quiet whisper of her white leather sounded. She walked down the hallway, taking the steps down below the house itself into the underground room where she and her assassins stored all of their most prized weapons of choice. And looming in the far corner, set into the rock wall, was the steel door of the vault only Adeena herself could open.

She wasn't going for anything, though, but rather the arched doorway leading to the tunnel they used when they needed to leave without anyone else in the homes surrounding them see them. This was the whole reason she chose the house she did once she took over leadership of the Guild of Starlight.

As far as Adeena knew, an underground tunnel system spread all throughout Krahzara. Over the years, she'd taken time to go exploring on her off days, mapping every route out, finding every exit point. For an assassin, it was one of the best finds, especially when they needed to be discrete.

Adeena absentmindedly made her way through tunnel after tunnel, hearing the bubbling of the underground spring, catching a whiff of the sewers that made her hold her breath as she crossed the footbridge to another tunnel, seeing the slivers of sunlight coming down from the grate above her head. Her footsteps sure and steady, she ascended the stone steps that lead upward after passing through another tunnel. This one, when she pushed up the grate it led to, put her out in a tight alleyway just a few blocks from the front gates of the palace. Usually, when summoned by the empress, she would find the connecting tunnel into the palace, but she wanted to make an entrance, especially when called upon this early into the morning.

Chin up and shoulders back, white hood of her cloak up on her head and casting her face into shadows, Adeena made her way through the gates, meeting the blurry eyes of the surrounding guardsmen as they widened. They didn't stop her as she strode up the steps and forcefully pushed open both front doors. More tired eyes widened when the staff realized who had made the loud entrance, pressing their backs against the walls as she made her way down the hallway toward the empress's study.

When she pushed open the doors, though, she wasn't met with Sophea. It was Malik.

Still, Adeena didn't speak, didn't remove her hood even though it seemed no one else was in the spacious room with them. Cast in shadows, she moved to his side.

"Do you have any idea of what's going on?" she asked him in a whisper.

Malik shook his head but didn't give her an answer. "It's just us here. You can put your hood down."