Prologue

This takes part multiple years before the first chapter.

Prologue

 

        The sun rose over Raganor on what was quickly looking to be a very promising day for the Royal Parade. Merchants set up there wares in street stalls along the streets and in the biggest square in the city, the Great Square, for that is where the Royal Parade would end and all of the people would flow in to buy their products. Birds sang happily as they swept across the square, even more birds gathered along the rooftop, for the feast of crumbs and discarded scraps that would come during and after the parade. A blue jay swooped down to the fountain in the center of the square. The buildings surrounding the square were looking particularly good in preparation for the upcoming events. The previous day had seen women sweeping and the men slapping on a fresh coat of paint.

        The Royal guard were already starting to appear on the perimeter of the square, as they usually did, though there were more today. In light of the recent uprising the crown suspected the Resistance to be behind, security was higher than any one had ever remembered it being. All of the Royal guard would be on duty and half of the city guard would also be on duty. Not that anyone believed anything serious would happen. This was just the King's way of flexing his power.

        A Royal guard stifled a yawn as a group of cloaked and hooded figures walked quietly past. The guard regarded them suspiciously but decided that they were just one of the many freaks that the city attracted. The group continued through the maze of stalls to the opposite side of the square. They strolled to the street the parade would be coming down, stopped simultaneously, looked at each other, and in a silent acknowledgment, split up. Three of them stayed in the square, regarding the merchants and their wares, while the other four continued down the street.

        A baker looked up from arranging his pastry display as one of the hooded figures came by. The figure stopped and looked over at the baker. The baker could only guess at what they were looking at because he couldn't see into the darkness of their hood. After a brief pause, the figure continued slowly to the next stall, still regarding the baker. A chill ran down the baker's spine until the figure disappeared behind the florist's stall. Shaking himself, as if to rid himself of the feeling, he went back to his work.

 

        Meanwhile, the Royal Parade began to raucous applause and shouts. The people laughed as jesters somersaulted and flipped down the street and a group of jugglers showed their skill with balls and pins and even lit torches. As they moved along, a marching band took its place, playing a quick and catchy march that was to everybody's enjoyment. They were replaced by an elite platoon of His Majesty's Royal Army, marching in step to more applause and cheers. After them, the Royal Heralding trumpets announced the coming of the King's entourage. The King and his Royal Court came on their royal horses. As they went by and waved to the crowd, not one of them noticed the hooded figure silently watching from the entrance to an alleyway. As they passed from view, the figure disappeared down the alley.

        As the Royal entourage moved down the street, two more of the hooded figures observed and than disappeared, with no one noticing. Finally, the parade turned a corner, and was a few blocks from the Great Square. They passed the fourth hooded figure just after the bend and disappeared just as the others did.

        The King waved to his subjects with a forced smile on his face. Neither he nor any of his Royal Court had wanted to be there, but it was a Royal tradition, and if the King had to sit through it, than so did his court. And there was no arguing with the King. Some of his court didn't even smile, just looked stone faced or bored and anticipated the end of the parade. Slowly but surely, the signs of the parade ending began to appear: the stalls, as did the crowd, got larger and thicker, as the guards and soldiers provided a barrier, the crowd cheered louder and the inhumanly loud voices of the merchants hawked their goods. The smells of the market reached the King's nose and he couldn't help but to wrinkle his nose. He found all of his city dirty. The dirt even encroached upon his castle.

        None of the people noticed the sour look on the King's face however, as most turned their attention to the market. As the Army Platoon dispersed, no one noticed the seven hooded figures among the crowd. Than again, no one would, the crowd was way to thick to focus on one face. Finally, the Royal Heralding Trumpeters also dispersed, leaving only the thin line of guards and soldiers between the Royal entourage and the thick crowd.

        As the group came closer to the crowd, no one seemed to notice seven people simultaneously slowly pushing their way towards the front. They were a few rows of people from the front when the Royal Entourage finally reached them and began to disperse. As the seven reached the front, daggers flashed and seven guards fell as the small group advanced on the King. There was an uproar as the crowd finally realized what was going on. Women screamed and grabbed small children as the crowd pushed away from these murderers, making it all the harder for the soldiers struggling to there King's aid.

        The group reached the King and the middle figure stepped forward as the King began to pull a pistol. The figure was faster, however, and a shot rang the morning air as the King fell from his steed, a wound in his chest was seeping blood, and quick. As he hit the ground, the soldiers and the guard finally reached the group. Their cloaks billowed as pistols and swords appeared, cutting down anyone who got to close. The figures broke through the soldiers that had managed to surround them, and made a break for the crowd. Unfortunately for them, The Elite platoon, though dispersed, was still largely present. As they disappeared into the quickly dissipating crowd, the elite soldiers surged after them.

        As the thinning mass of people reached the stalls in the square, the hooded figures raced and weaved in between the stalls, the soldiers hot on their heels. Close to the fountain, the soldiers caught up to figure in the rear, and gunshots joined the panicked screams as several of the soldiers fell. The soldiers greatly outnumbered the figures, however, and this proved to be too much for the last figure. The figure put up a valiant fight, and several more soldiers fell, but the sheer numbers overcame the figure and they fell to the ground, riddled with wounds.

        This seemed to infuriate the remaining figures, and they opened fire on the soldiers responsible, without even breaking step, and they killed all of them quickly. They made it to the far side of the square before they encountered more resistance. The guards there barred their paths, and the soldiers were quickly enclosing on them. There was a flash of metal as the figures drew swords and drew them across the guards in the same motion, silently dropping them, and continuing into the alleyway. The soldiers reached the alleyway moments later only to see the last of the figures disappearing onto the rooftops. This momentarily shocked the men, seeing as there was no ladder, the mysterious figures had to scale the three story buildings with no help.

        One of the soldiers came to his senses, however, and pointed out a ladder a few yards into the alleyway. They sprinted towards it and quickly ascended. As the lead soldier reached the top, a gunshot rang the air and he fell three stories with a bullet hole in his head. The second soldier fired blindly onto the rooftop before hastily rolling onto it and hiding on the incline. The figures were disappearing over the top of a house over a block away. Reveling in the speed and elegance of the hooded party, he covered the other men as they ascended to the rooftop. After a fair amount of them were arrayed, they carefully set pursuit.

        It took the soldiers a few blocks, but they finally caught up to the mysterious band as they paused on a rooftop overlooking a main boulevard. One of the soldiers got off a shot that hit one of the figures square in the back and caused them to spill off the roof to their death three stories below. The remaining five drew pistols and picked off any of the soldiers that weren't ducked beneath the rooftop. They then turned and dropped to the street below. They continued down the street fifty yards before climbing effortlessly to the rooftops once again. As they climbed, a group of men that had been giving suit on the streets, caught up and opened fire, catching the last figure to reach the edge of the rooftop, knocking them clean from the roof. The other four once again opened fire and annihilated the group before setting off again.

        The remaining men followed on foot for nearly fourteen blocks before the group jumped from the roof once again. They were now close to the East wall, which was where these people were apparently heading. With the gates closed, however, they would have a hard time getting over fifteen feet tall walls. Seeing as the buildings closest to the wall were no higher than one story, roughly nine feet high, and a gap of twenty feet between the wall and the nearest buildings, things were looking pretty bleak for the assassins.

        As the group of unknown people made their way across the street towards the buildings in direct line with the East wall, the soldiers took cover as the shot at them again. Being elite soldiers, accounted for something, and they managed to shoot another of the figures even with the semi crowded street blocking them. This time, one of the figures threw a black object the size of a basketball at the soldiers while the other two scaled the building. As the object rolled to a stop in front of the soldiers, the one who threw it, drew a pistol and fired once, hitting the object and causing it to explode, sending the entrenched soldiers flying in all directions and shaking the street. The nearest buildings crumbled as the figure ascended like the other two.

        A block from the wall, a tile slipped under the foot of one of the figures, causing them to spill off of the rooftop, even with the other two diving to try to save them. The figure landed in a cloud of dust and a loud crack announced a soundly broken leg. The remaining two made to jump down and assist their comrade.

        “No!” The figure on the ground shouted, “Get out of here! Leave me!”

        After a pause, the larger of the two grabbed the other and took off across the roof. As the soldiers came down the street, and the guards came running from the gate, the grounded figure drew a rifle and without hesitation, emptied the gun into the oncoming soldiers. As the bullets rained into the men, they fell, not a single shot missed. Dropping the riffle, the figure drew dual pistols and began firing one at the remaining soldiers and the other at the guards, who were shooting at the roof-bound figures as well as the grounded one. Emptying the guns with flawless accuracy, the figure drew a dagger.

        “Please forgive me master. Please forgive me Roy” and with that, they cut their own throat.

        With the gate guards being taken down by their comrade, the remaining two made it to the last house before the wall. Drawing an impossibly long sword of twenty feet, the tallest figure thrust the sword towards the base of the wall and launched themselves after it. Acting as a pole vault, the figure dropped to the top of the wall. Stowing away the sword, the figure drew a rope, which they dropped down to the remaining figure at the foot of the wall. The last figure began to ascend the rope as quick as they ascended the walls. When the figure was halfway up the rope, the soldiers caught up once again. There was a volley of shots and the remaining figures looked at each other. With a bullet piercing the shoulder of the cloak, the tall figure struggled to hold on to the rope as the other scrambled up. Three feet from the top, the tall one lost their grip on the rope.

        Falling in slow motion, the other figure's hood fell from their face, revealing a strikingly gorgeous woman with dark brown hair.

        “ROOOY!!!” She screamed as she fell.

        “No! Elaine!” the tall figure, Roy, screamed.

        Elaine slammed into the ground with a resounding thud. With her hair covering her face, Roy could not tell if she was alive or not and with the soldiers closing in fast, he could not go down and help her.

        Roy cursed and dropped over the other side of the wall.

 

        Among the trees a mile from the city of Raganor, Roy paused to administer to his shoulder.

        “I'm sorry Elaine.” He said, sorrow filling his voice, “And you too: John, Edward, Bobby, Cat, and Rebeka. But you didn't die in vane, I killed that b*****d Kantos. You didn't die in vane...”

        Sobs shook his lanky frame for momentarily as he paid his respects. He turned to look back at the city, saluted to his fallen comrades, turned, and disappeared among the foliage.

Author's Note

critique harshly please

Reviews

[Alexander Fox]

you need an editor man!!! I found a mistake in almost every line!!! But it was much cooler then I first thought. Again however, a bit more direct descriptions, like how the hell he got a 20 ft sword out of his cloak...? and what the heck was everyone wearing, or at least the important folks? And if NO ONE is going to notice them, then change the language in that part of the chapter. The repeated use of "noticed them" really left me expecting someone to EVENTUALLY notice them, but no one ever did, and that led to superbly failed foreshadowing. Anyways man, great job. Can't wait for the next one!

[Philosophile. (Maddy)]

Nothing harsh to say! This was pretty good, and I'm glad some of the assassins were women. You can't imagine how many protrayls I've read of fragile women. Good descriptions, but I think you could add more description wise. Though you supplied us with many details, I had a hard time imagining the scene. Overall, this was really well written and interesting!