The Royal Assassin: Shadows of Myst

by Shireen Nemnich

  Shadowen?

  I’m shocked to see Shadowen rushing through the parting shadows and now her magic engulfs me causing me to fall back flat on the bed, my blades fall just as quickly so as not to injure her. She promptly lands on top of me clutching me with every ounce of strength she has. “Why did you leave me?” her voice is practically a scream for a Mystic. “I couldn’t find you anywhere!” Now her hands ball up into fists and she is pounding on my chest. “You promised you wouldn’t leave and you left! You promised! You promised!”

  I wrap my arms around her and her pounding turns into sobbing and I can only hold her to me. She’s alive! She’s here with me! Relief as well as pain consumes my heart. I start kissing her head even as her dark tangled hair splays out over me. I subdue her pounding hands and she raises her head for me to gaze into her beautiful eyes. My heart lurches at such pain and sadness in her startling eyes. Her voice is thick with tears. “Reis… you promised you would not leave me and I couldn’t find you.”

  “I’m here my little one. You found me. But I thought I had lost you. I couldn’t find you. It’s been two days where have you been?” I brush her hair back out of her face.

  “Two days? It’s only been a few hours.” She says raising her hands to wipe her eyes and I notice right away she has dried blood on her hands and face. I quickly flip her over onto the bed searching her body for wounds. She’s been sliced several times but the wounds are closed. I failed in protecting her!

  I pull her off the bed and carry her into the bathing room just off our bedroom. I wave my hand at the massive tub that is filled with water and it begins to heat up with my magic. “Let’s wash this blood away.” I say and she is much calmer now. I help her remove her torn clothing and now I can see the rips in her gown.

  I’ve never seen her naked before but I can’t avert my eyes. Her soft white flesh is covered in bruises and slices. “You’re bruised all over!” She washes her face and hands dismissing me. I feel her anger now. “Shadowen?”

  “You lied to me!” She says while wiping blood from her face.

  “Lied? What are you talking about?” I touch her shoulder but she quickly jerks her shoulder away from my touch.

  “You said you would not leave and you left. You lied.”

  “Shadowen, I’m sorry. Phantom was…”

  She interrupts me shaking her head, “No! You are supposed to protect me. You are my consort and you left going for a kill instead of staying to protect me.” She tosses the cloth aside and I reach for her hands and can plainly see the cuts on her palms are defensive wounds. I take her hands into mine and start a healing chant so they will heal over without scaring.

  When a mystic is wounded and the wounds are allowed to heal on his or her own, then there usually is a scar, but when they are healed with magic there is no scar. This is another reason for Phantom to die for hurting her repeatedly then allowing her to suffer wounds while they healed on their own.

  She quickly pulls her hands from mine. “No!” She says.

  “Shadowen, they will scar if you do not let me heal them.” I say reaching back but she pulls them away and using her magic she pushes me back. To my astonishment she has a lot more control of her magic today. She wraps a towel around her tiny bruised body saying, “I will keep these to remind me that you lie and to remind you that you did not protect me.”

  She could have stabbed me a thousand times in my heart with my stov-vo-kiev and it would not have hurt anything like her words. She turns away moving back to my… our bedroom. I follow her like a little lost puppy as she swiftly walks through the room then to the corridor to her room. She kneels over picks out a fresh nightgown from her clothing chest. She says nothing to me and I simply watch her as she slips it on. I’m at a loss for words.

  She looks up at me and I see the disappointment in her eyes. I feel my own disappointment. I say the only thing I can. “I am sorry, truly I am. I will not fail you again. I swear it!” She looks away as if she is thinking. She turns back and says, “We are no longer half-way.”

  I nod, “How far are we then?” I ask hoping I have not set us so far back we cannot recover.

  “We are a fourth way.” She says a bit shakily.

  A fourth of the way is far better than I imagined she would say. I nod reaching for her. “Then I shall work very hard to make it up to you.” She nods taking a step back my hand falls to my side.

  She turns her head away then I can see the expression on her face change then I feel a change in her. Her voice softens, “I am sorry about Madrigal. He is angry that I am here now without him knowing or feeling me. He thinks you have taken me from him so he might suffer. So he took her from you, so you will suffer.”

  I don’t understand how she can be a child one minute then so wise the next. I nod and once again I try to reach her by lifting my hand out to her. This time she takes it and says more a command than a statement, “You will not leave me tonight.”

  “I will not to leave you tonight.” I agree.

  We walk together her hand in mine back to our room. She pulls the covers back on the bed then climbs in and I immediately follow. Once I lay back she easily slips in the nook of my arm with her head resting near my heart. We are quiet for a very long time just touching and exploring our magic with each other. It’s a basic form of communicating without words that Consorts do naturally and I’m amazed she is doing this with me. I am cherishing the closeness not just of body but of magic.

  She finally speaks, “I am bruised from shadows.” I say nothing; just silently listen as she continues. “Shadows like to touch me. They feel my life and they try to cling to it. The bruises are from them trying to touch me so they might feel life through me.” She pauses, “They speak to me too. Spector asks to speak to you when I am rested. I told him I would ask.”

  “Spector?” I ask her.

  “He’s the large shadow that lives here. He’s the one who helped me to escape from the assassins.” She is amazing me by the minute.

  “I will speak with him then, if he will not harm or bruise you.” I say.

  She nestles in tighter to me and my heart thunders suddenly at her closeness. I will never leave her again I realize. I am such a fool to allow Phantom to bait me as he did. But I will never allow him to ever do this again. I sweep her even closer to me, more protective over her. My magic surrounds us and I feel her relax and then she’s quickly asleep. It’s another hour before I am able to relax enough to sleep. But sleep soon does find me in the arms of my consort.

  Eight

  I’m having the most pleasant dream when I feel Shadowen’s body nuzzle into mine bringing me fully awake. My heart is pounding and her magic is dancing along my skin. I don’t open my eyes because I don’t want this feeling to end. I like the excitement of her magic rushing over my body. I feel her so snug in my arms and I’m simply amazed she is sleeping through this exchange of magic. We may not be halfway but her magic doesn’t know it.

  Suddenly I feel her pull away from me so I open my eyes; she’s still asleep yet she’s sitting up with her arms moving outward as if she’s calling someone to her or she’s being called. I reach for her but my hand falls short when I hear her soft voice, “Shade, why do you summon me? What’s wrong?”

  Floating in front of her is a shadow and this shadow has emotions, which is amazing. Most shadows you touch you can feel something but this one I can feel fear as if he were literally in the flesh. Shadowen calls him by the name of her brother, could this be Shade’s shadow reaching to her? I can’t hear the shadow speak, but she’s speaking aloud to it. “No I’m fine; he is taking care of me.” Great… I’m the topic of conversation it seems.

  “Thank you. I will take care of it.” She says then lays back and the shadow is gone. She reaches for me and her eyes open. “Mother has called for an inquiry; we will be summoned to Court. She claims you are unable to care for me since I was gone for two days without your knowledge. She is going to try and dissolve our relationship. My trai
ning as well being my consort and she requests for me to be returned to her care.

  I see the sadness in her eyes. “Reis…” She looks away. “Do you… still want me to be your consort?”

  This just isn’t a simple question she is asking. There is so much going on inside of her right now and I just don’t know what it is. I need to figure out how to get her to open up to me. She needs to trust me and I don’t know how to do this. “There isn’t a simple answer to that and I know it’s not exactly what you want to know. You know I am your consort and I have told you that I want this. I do not understand why you need this constant reassurance.”

  “You didn’t want to be saddled with a child. I know you didn’t.” she says softly. “But you were forced to take me as a child.”

  “Shadowen...” I say reaching out my hand to her.

  “It’s my fault; you see I couldn’t keep doing it anymore. I couldn’t take the bleeding anymore. I… I…” She stops and suddenly magic streams through so violently through the air and I feel her pain at trying to express it to me. “I made my reckoning come, but I can’t stop it.”

  “You what?” I say not exactly understanding.

  She quickly moves off the bed. I feel her anger and her frustration but most of all I feel her trying to reach to me and explain. She then turns to the wall and her hands reach out touching them. Suddenly the room is filled with shadows that come streaming out from the walls.

  I take a step back as this large shadow steps forth from the wall and it encircles Shadowen and there is something in her response to it that bothers me but I can’t exactly say what it is. I hear a whispery voice as it slowly, sensually sways around Shadowen over and over. “Royal Assassin…”

  “Yes?”

  “I am Spector… I am the First.”

  “The First?”

  “The First Royal Assassin.” He says in his whispery voice.

  I feel my heart stop and I think of my grandmother’s words. Not knowing what else to say I say, “I am honored.” This is the shadow of my grandfather.

  “As well you should be, but not by me, but by your consort. You failed in your duty but she takes you back!” I can feel something of anger and realize it is being channeled through Shadowen, so she is feeling the anger of the shadow and this distresses her.

  I take a step towards her but Spector flares up and floats in between us. “Do not touch her, she is mine right now!” I look to Shadowen and her eyes flutter slightly closed and her lips part. I try to reach her with my magic but the shadow hisses at me. “You show little respect for her even after she…” he stops abruptly and I see that Shadowen is gently reaching to it with her other hand. I can’t tell if she is calming it or scolding it from speaking of her to me in such a way. But the result is the same. It calms and runs its shadowy form around her again.

  I wait and Spector says, “She fears you will leave her again.”

  “I know, and I have told her I will not leave. I made a deadly mistake and I know I must make it up, and yet I know I cannot.”

  He then says, “I fear you will leave her again.” He hisses slightly then runs along her body again and I feel something akin to joy and love as he does so and it's not coming from Shadowen. He then swirls around her stopping directly in front of her. “You will one day understand how important she is to us, but until then you must…” suddenly Shadowen pulls her hands away and I watch the shadow simply dissipate.

  “Until?” I ask her.

  “I don’t know… He just talks too much. It wears me out.” She sits back on the bed looking up at me while a faint smile touches her lips, but I see fatigue.

  I look at her and smile. “Spector, is my grandfather's shadow.” I mention it as if it's a casual statement. I'm curious what her reaction will be.

  “Yeah? Well he talks too much sometimes.” she closes her eyes. I can only smile in awe at her. What a rare person she is. Most Mystics would be ecstatic or awed by such a revelation but not her.

  I need to somehow reach her. I touch her chin and she opens her eyes, “I have an idea let us start some place not halfway or a fourth way… Let’s start at the beginning.”

  “The beginning?”

  “Yes, we will talk over breakfast.” I pull her up to her feet and we both shift into shadows down stairs. I seat her at the table then I move to the cook top. I brush my fingers along the surface igniting the coals under it with my magic. I see she is looking at the table and so I start out, “I will start. Agreed?”

  She nods then looks up at me. She looks tired and sleepy but she smiles anyway, even if only a wisp of a smile. “First off let’s think about this moment, for now and we will think about the Court if and when we receive the summons. Agreed?”

  “Agreed.” She says, with another small smile.

  “We will talk about Spector’s cryptic message later too. Agreed?”

  Now her smile widens, “Agreed.” She says adjusting her hands in her lap.

  “Alright… let’s see… the beginning…” I think for a moment then say, “You knew my grandmother was Nightelf?” I ask.

  She nods and says, “Father hates your mixed blood and says many bad things.”

  “I’m sure he does.” I say with intimate knowledge of just what he thinks of Nightelves and me. “Well, little one, I am part Nightelf, but most of my magic is shadows but I do have some darkness from my Nightelf side.”

  “Oh! I wondered what that was. I thought it was dark, but I had not thought of darkness, because it’s different from Nightelf darkness.”

  “You can tell the difference in my magic?” I say not withholding my surprise. Yet another revelation.

  “Oh yes, it’s very hard to resist at times.” She then looks back down as if she has said something she shouldn’t.

  She likes my magic… my heart swells a bit. “Well, I must confess. Your magic is nothing I have ever felt or tasted and I want it all the time.” I glance over at her and she quickly lifts her eyes only to lower them again. I then add, “In fact I refuse to resist it one bit. The more you give me the more I will count myself blessed.” I say all this while pouring the rich swey batter onto the griddle. I glance back at her again. She still has her eyes lowered but I see the smile creep up on her lips. It’s this smile that tells me she's pleased that I like her magic.

  I continue, “I was able to part shadows very young like you, but I have never seen anyone part them like you do. You are amazing at it. How long have you been doing it?” I ask flipping the cakes over. I give her a moment to think about it and she answers me.

  “I do not know when I started. I’ve always been able to do it I think. But I just never let anyone see me do it until with you.” Another admission. She has shown only me that she can do it. This is a good step with trust.

  “It’s amazing but I was thinking… you probably shouldn’t let anyone see you do it still. I would rather you be able to surprise anyone who might be after you. I think if the assassins that came for you had known you could part shadows they would have tried to prevent you from doing it.”

  She nods and I see thoughtfulness in her eyes, “You really mean you do not want father to know.”

  “Especially him!” I say but add, “But not just him. It’s good to keep ones abilities a secret if you are an assassin. So you could say that is lesson one on our journey to train you as an assassin.”

  “I will remember.” She says looking at me with those beautiful eyes. Eyes that are so lovely to gaze into I actually stop what I'm doing to watch her soft shadows dance in the purest silver I've ever seen.

  It’s suddenly hard to continue but I shake off the gaze she gives me and say, “Where was I? Oh yes. I was parting shadows early as well as doing some other things, but I never experienced anything like your day of reckoning.” I set a plate of swey-cakes in front of her and she smiles with such an exquisite smile and the shadows in her eyes almost spin with her excitement. “I’m sorry I’ve not figured out what ponafruit or ponamilk is y
et.”

  “It’s alright. This is absolutely wonderful.” She doesn’t even hesitate but takes one bite after the other. I suddenly find myself watching her with my own delight. She starts talking in between bites. “I do not really know why but I’ve always had magic. It’s just getting more and more and when I was twelve I decided I just couldn’t live with him anymore. I thought if I called the reckoning to me you would come and everything would be fine.” She pauses then says, “But it just went crazy and I’ve not really been able to control it like before.”

  I am suddenly so overwhelmed and amazed that she is opening up to me but that she forced her reckoning upon her with her own magic, which is simply unheard of. I suddenly notice she is devouring each swey-cake with tiny little moans. She is actually moaning. Moaning! She is so different than I ever expected. Moaning over swey-cakes? Incredible!

  I am so lost watching her eat I don’t even take a bite of mine and before I know it she has cleaned her plate. She looks at my full plate and before she can even ask, I feel her intention and I easily remove her empty plate replacing it with my full one. I then spend the next ten minutes watching her take one bite after another. Finally I ask, “When was the last time you had them?”

  “Oh I’m not allowed to eat them.” She shoves another bite in her mouth.

  “Why?” I ask hoping she doesn’t tell me she is allergic or something crazy like that. I’ve heard strange things have happened when people eat certain normal foods and it makes them deathly ill.

  “Because I like them so much.” She says in her normal voice.

  “Because you like them? That’s not a reason not to eat them. That’s more reason to eat them.”

  She shoves the last bite down then sighs looking at me. “I think I could love you.”

  What?!?! Where did that come from?

  I smile. “I know that I already do love you.” I say and for some reason I find myself looking down because her eyes are just too beautiful.