The Stars and the Flames (FREE PREVIEW)

CHAPTER FOUR

As promised, dinner was brought up to my room by the couple of maids that were promised to me. Even though I was told ahead of time of their presence, the mere sight of them still caught me off-guard. I did not know their names, for they never told them to me, nor did I ask for them. They just quietly set my meal down on the table below the TV before curtseying to me and asking if there was anything else I needed. I told them that I was fine for the moment and that I would call them if I needed anything else.

As they left the room, another thought struck me. They were Caetanian, and though that might not seem significant, to a Xaenovian who was used to their king harboring only foreign maids, seeing that was a refreshing and slightly unnerving sight. Who were these people that I had been hired to kill? I found myself almost wishing there was something sinister about the Caetanian royal family because that would also make my job easier. Could I bring myself to kill an entire royal family who had no shred of malice in their bodies?

Perhaps I have killed honorable civilians before without realizing it. If a client wants someone dead, I am not allowed to ask questions and then pick and choose whom I kill and whom I spare. The occupation of an assassin does not work like that.

After shaking the disturbing thought of my maids from my mind, I made my way to my meal: a slab of greasy, boarish-looking meat, a substance that resembled mashed potatoes in appearance except for the fact the coloring was slightly off, and some sort of stringy, green vegetable. Beside the plate rested a glass of water as well as a fork and a knife.

I tasted the vegetable first and was soon assaulted by a potent, peppery flavor. Such a flavor was so strong I nearly gagged on the vegetable, but I quickly forced it down and then took a sip of my water. It was unlike anything I have ever tasted before, and I found myself wondering if I would be able to hold any of the Caetanian food given to me down.

As it turned out, the first bite was the worst, since I now knew what to expect.

What looked like mashed potatoes turned out to taste as far from mashed potatoes as possible. A coil of sweetness wrapped around my tongue, the taste closely resembling a Xaenovian cookie. The taste itself also shocked me, but I was able to hold it down a lot better than the vegetable.

The last thing I tasted was, of course, the meat, and the taste did remind me a lot of the wild boar back home, though the flavor was grittier. Even the water, much to my surprise, had a different taste to it, purer, as if each sip was individually filtered before it reached my palate.

Once my meal was done, my maids came in once again and cleared away my dishes, and I had a few hours to kill before nightfall came.

Picking up the remote, I leaped onto my bed and turned the TV on. Immediately, sound filled my entire room as the screen flickered on, and right away I saw the reporter front and center who seemed to be standing in front of a forest of some sort. Below the reporter was the headline: KLEKARAK PACK ATTACKS VILLIAGE; ONLY THREE SURVIVORS REMAIN.

I blinked. I had no idea what a klekarak was, but judging by what the reporter was saying, I guessed they were a very dangerous species of animal.

The cameraman soon cut away from the reporter in order to do a sweep of the village. On screen, mangled bodies were scattered throughout the village, some with their limbs missing, and others with half-eaten intestines strewn about. Other bodies were no more than unrecognizable, bloody pulp, and I felt my heart skip a beat in my chest. Not only did Xaenov have nothing like this on its surface, but Xaenovian news teams would never show any graphic images onscreen. The fact that Caetania seemed to do so as casually as they did shocked me.

I turned the TV off before the cameraman panned back towards the reporter and sat bolt-upright. The images on the screen were definitely not the first graphic ones I have seen in my lifetime, but they were the first that I had seen uncensored on national television. Being an assassin, the images themselves were not what unnerved me. What unnerved me was how easily that stuff could be shown to the public eye, and it made me wonder how much more of Caetania would give me a sense of culture shock.