Ch 43

The attic in the decrepit old house had been renovated to look like a bedroom with fresh paint on the walls and clean linens on the bed. Laying in that bed fast asleep was a woman I had never seen before. Her bright blonde hair cascading down over the thin sheet that covered her sleeping form. Her body had luscious curves that excited my senses even though they were hidden by a cloth and whatever she was wearing underneath it.

I stood there motionless and silent for a while, completely nonplussed. I had been instructed by Lilly to meet her here at the test to the sneaking and lock picking skills she had taught me. Instead, after breaking into this house I found someone else here in her place and sleeping of all things.

I wondered what I should do now. Should I leave and go back to the arena to meet up with Lilly? Getting out had been easy but it would now be more difficult to get back in until after nightfall with the goblin sitting with his back to the door, watching all who approached. On the other hand, I could try to wake this young woman up and ask her if she knew Lilly and what I was supposed to do. The problem is, if Lilly had played a trick on me and someone actually lived here, then they would respond to being woken up by a stranger in their house in the worst sort of way.

I carefully crept around the room, looking to see if Lilly was hiding in any of the dark corners or under the bed. She was quite spiteful enough to do something like that just to mess with me. After checking the entire room, I turned back to the bed where the woman was… no longer asleep, or even there.

I backed up, casting my gaze around wildly, Before I can find where she went or a decent place to conceal myself, I feel a strong arm wrapped around me from behind, pulling me back against their body. At the moment that my body reached theirs I felt two things simultaneously. On my front side I felt cold metal press against my neck in a most threatening manner. On the back of me I felt two soft mounds of flesh that told me quite definitely that my assailant was a woman.

“Hey, lets talk about this,” I said to the woman who had been sleeping when I picked the lock and broke into her room. “This is all a misunderstanding, there is no reason for anyone to die today!” I was panicking and trying to think of a way to talk myself out of the situation which would quite likely result in corporal punishment at the least and could even spell the end of the miserable life which I had ended up with.

Strange to say, but after so much suffering in this life, I still did not want it to end. I felt that better things could potentially be right around the corner and I was not ready to throw in the towel this close to escaping out from under Silvan’s thumb. While contemplating these things and trying to make a plan to ensure my survival I suddenly heard laughter from behind me. A laughter that sounded strangely familiar.

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The next thing I knew, the blade was quickly removed from my throat and I received a rough shove from behind which sent me sprawling forward to end up crash landing onto the bed. As I frantically began turning myself over to get a look at my assailant, I saw the blonde who had been sleeping in the bed before, now brandishing a sharp looking dagger and grinning ear to ear. “Took you long enough to get here dummy!”

I was still having a hard time figuring out what was going on. Based on her words and her voice this sounded like Lilly but how was that possible? Had she used some magick spell to alter her appearance? I must have looked pretty foolish sitting there on the bed with my mouth hanging open looking at her because she began to laugh once more.

As she laughed, she put away the dagger and then started removing pieces of her disguise and everything became clear. First came off the blonde wig which had covered her normally short brown hair, next came something that looked suspiciously like a leather balloon of liquid from either side of the front of her dress and the back of her skirt.

After that came some platform heels and the tall, luscious, long haired blonde had once again become Lilly. In the end she pulled the dress over her head too and discarded it. I froze for a moment thinking her to be stripping but relaxed when I saw she was wearing her usual leathers underneath. Seeing my discomfort, she winked at me.

“Well, you sure took your time, but you got here. You even managed to avoid making any noises to alert the prey as you entered the location. I didn’t even tell you there was going to be anyone here and you still managed to not freak out so full marks!” The beaming, and excited Lilly seemed to be pleased with my performance in entering the building. There was just one thing that was bothering me. “What do you mean by not alerting the prey,” I asked her quietly, my eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“Well I suppose the easiest way to say it is by calling it your target. Neither I nor Gikats could speak about it before because you never know who is listening and this isn’t the sort of thing that most people take kindly to, but we are going to make you quite valuable as a slave.”

Her explanation seemed to answer my question but then why was I feeling even more confused. Why would we be worried about being overheard in the arena? What skill set exactly was I training here? All this time I have been learning to dodge and hide and sneak and fight with daggers. Now this lock picking and breaking and entering was starting to point towards career thief. Unfortunately, my gut said that my future was going to be a bit darker than that.

My voice quiet, almost too much so to hear I asked her the question that was weighing so heavily on my mind. “So, when you say my target you mean?” Lilly looked at me with an unreadable look. Was that pity? “You really are dense, aren’t you?” she said in a voice that was now rather exhausted. “What kind of skill set do you think makes you valuable enough to leave a life of killing people in the arena?”

My mind was running in circles. I knew what she was getting at, but I didn’t want to admit it. In the arena, when you killed someone at least it was a fair-ish fight. You both had a weapon and they had the opportunity to fight back. What she was talking about was not a fair fight. Also, as a slave, I had no call in how I would apply those skills, my new owner would have the entirety of the say in it.

“Have you figured it out yet?” Lilly’s voice came to me as from a distance, I was having trouble hearing her all of a sudden. “Your new job, the one that gets you away from the violence and killing in the arena, is also killing. Your new job will be killing people in the streets, in their homes, and in their tents as they camp in the wilderness. Your new skillset is that of an assassin.”