The assassin followed her around the throne room, staying out of sight of her guards but keeping an eye on their backs. It was tricky, since the widow kept changing directions every few moments, going over to look at something on the wall or at one of the doors. But he stayed just close enough so that if she turned around, he could take her down in a heartbeat.

He heard a door close and looked up. One of the knights walked into the doorway behind the widow, and when he left, the assassin darted forward and caught him by surprise, knocking him unconscious with one punch. He dragged him back through the doorway before he fell and laid him out.

The Widow had been looking at one of the tapestries near the wall. She turned and saw the man with the sword in the doorway, then looked away as quickly as she could. As soon as she'd looked away from the assassin, he moved. He threw himself at her and tackled her to the ground. She screamed in panic and struggled against him.

The assassin pulled out his sword and slashed it down at her neck. Her scream died into a gurgle and she stopped moving. A moment later the knight in the doorway woke up, and started screaming too. The man the Widow had knocked out rolled onto the carpet.

The assassin grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back into the shadow of the doorway. "If I were you, I'd leave now," he said. "Get the hell out of here. Go tell my boss to stop trying to kill me, because she's about to succeed. And I don't intend to stick around after that."

By the time the knight came back, the widow was gone.

He looked around for a moment, then went to fetch the captain of his guard.

The assassin waited in the darkness until midnight, when there was no one left in the throne room. Then he slipped in through the back door and walked up to the throne and lifted the Widow's sword off the chair and held it up in the light. The blade had a sharp edge, and the metal was well made and polished. The wood hilt was carved and shaped, though his hand felt dwarfed by its size. And there was a golden band around the handle. He couldn't see how it fit over the hilt, but it looked impressive.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

He set the sword on the floor at the Widow's feet and took the ring from her fist. It looked like gold, and there was an inscription on it.

He picked up the sword and slid the ring on over his finger. It wasn't much bigger, and it fit perfectly. As soon as he slid the ring on, the sword became lighter, and the grip seemed to conform to his hand. He tried to flex his wrist and swing the sword, but found he didn't have any strength. He'd have to do that with the sword.

The Widow had been sitting in the throne all along. "You should go," she said.

"But-"

"Go now. Go back to your home. I can still kill you if I want to, but I don't want to anymore."

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"I've decided to make amends," she said. "All of this was my fault. If it hadn't been me, then it would have been someone else. I killed my father. Now I've got to try to fix things."

"You're not going to kill me?"

She laughed without humor. "No. I won't kill you. Not unless you give me cause, and right now you don't have a choice." She stood up. "But go now. Go back to your house and live there."

"But I don't know where that is."

"There's a map in my office. It has the name of it written on it. There are directions to get to it. Get in a boat or a ship and sail down the river until you reach a large city, and then find one of my agents. They'll send you back to your own house."

"How am I supposed to know which one?"

"There's a list inside my office. Pick the one who knows where to find you."

He left. When he was safely out of the throne room, he realized that he could have used the map the Widow had given him to find his way back to his house. It wouldn't make any difference to her, if he did, because she couldn't come after him now. But he wasn't going back. He knew he couldn't stay there.