Chapter 3

I had eaten, shaved and prepared to leave about an hour after I had received the letter. The horse that I was paired with was a powerful stallion capable of running long distances. I thanked the stable boy with a quick nod and fastened the saddlebags on the rump of the beast and threw myself onto his back. Guiding the horse out of the stable doors, I stopped to speak to the familiar figure leaning against the fence.

"Here to see me off," I asked him, squinting through the dark.

"Here to see if you want company," he replied. I debated for a moment. He was a master assassin like I was, and I knew from personal experience that he was an asset. His only downfall was that he liked to talk when I preferred to remain silent.

"Only if you're ready to go now, Zosimus," I said giving in. Though I would never admit it, this man had been the closest thing I had to a friend within the order. He was an averaged sized man with black hair longer than mine. He had a long face adorned with thin lips and a thin pale scar cut down his left eye. The scar he had received when he was a young man and had gotten cocky, but he had been lucky enough that it only left his face marred.

"I was ready to go before you even woke up," he declared giving a sharp whistle. His own personal mare responded and jogged out of the stables shaking her mane. She trotted up to him and lowered her head to his outstretched hand. I didn't respond to his comment and waited for him to mount his mare.

We were a few miles south from the villa before Zosimus started to ask questions.

"Who is the target," he began, breaking the night silence. I didn't respond, choosing to listen to the sounds of our horses gallop.

"I know quite a few people in Athens who need to be killed," he continued to talk. I responded with a grunt. There were a lot of people who lead sinful and most often murderous lives in Athens. Everyone from traitors and thieves to rapists and murders could be found in Athens. We had tried many times to set up a home there in the past in order to negate some of the crime but it was too corrupt and the officials were on guard for anyone who may interfere with their own corruption. However, we did have a few, like Zosimus, who kept track of the on goings there and one who had successfully integrated herself to blend in with the crowd. She often offered the assassin's safe haven there after a mission but had not been on one personally in years. Zosimus hadn't found my grunt satisfying enough and pulled his mare to a halt. I stopped shortly after him.

"Who is it," he demanded, "You're going to have to tell me before we get there."

I sighed, "A girl named Sophia Roussos." I turned towards him and through the dark I could see him squint questioningly.

"What's her crime," he inquired. Reading his expression, I could tell he'd heard of her.

"The master said she's a part of a family selling secrets and trading lives," I continued, my voice flat and considerably soft.

"That makes no sense. She's a child," my friend responded, cracking his reigns. His horse took off again, running past me. I kicked my own horse into motion again, catching up to him in the time it took to take a breath.

"Evil comes in all shapes and sizes," I told him. I already knew she was just a child. The order had been informed of the deeds of her father and had taken care of him a long time ago. When someone from a high profile family had a contract taken out on them, the order kept a record of the surviving family members in case they began to cause trouble for us in the future. Although we tried not to let our existence be discovered there were people who knew of us. Typically, someone who had a member of their family killed by one of ours knew who we were and there would always be whispers of an order of assassin's roaming cities, specifically cities with large populations. Nearly every time some drunken man was murdered and robbed on the streets someone would claim it was assassins.

This time it was Zosimus' turn to grunt in response. At the time, I did not doubt the master's decision to take the contract. I also did not know that Zosimus already had his doubts about the master's choices and was determined to make absolutely sure that this girl was truly as corrupt as the master had claimed. I did not dispute his grunt and the both of us continued to ride in silence. Two days wasn't a considerably long journey, especially seeing as we had all made journeys more than three times the distance and frequently on our own, but it was a boring ride. We stopped numerous times, mostly at Zosimus' request, in small villages along the way and made idle chitchat when I grew restless. When we finally reached Athens the sun had already begun to set and the citizens, fearing the evil that came alongside darkness, had returned to their homes. Zosimus and I decided that we would find an inn in which we could rent rooms for the night and get some sleep before we started our search for Sophia in the morning.