Echoworld

But not enough to stop from killing her if necessary. Right? Shaun shook his head the tiniest bit. All this worry over a dream? That was ridiculous. What would happen would happen. And he could figure things out from there.

He stolidly continued the walk without thinking about the dream. It was just a dream. Nothing pertaining to reality whatsoever.

Fortunately, the castle was not far outside the city limits. Once they'd reached the outside stone walls, Wren looked at him. "Now what?' she whispered.

He knew, from past assassination attempts, that she always left the outer doors open, as a sort of threatening invitation. The inner doors were usually open, too. Finding her would be the tricky part. "We go in."

She shrugged and followed him. Sure enough, the doors were open, and in almost no time, they were standing inside the entrance hall.

The room was huge, several hundred feet to the ceiling, at least. The ceiling was covered in abstract mosaic artwork and was held up by six columns, each big enough that ten large men would have to hold hands to reach around each one. The marble beneath their feet gave a cold look to the room. Beautiful tapestries from the Old Times hung along the wall. And about halfway down the hall, on the right side, stood on a staircase, also made of marble.

Torches lit the hallway intermittently, giving off the impression that the castle really was from the Old Times. A great number of torches lit the base of the staircase, begging any harmful visitors to take one and go to meet Wren.

Not knowing any other way to the study, Shaun reluctantly took a torch and began climbing the stairs. Wren followed closely.

About halfway up the long staircase, Wren tripped and fell, making a racket. Shaun caught her before she fell too far, but the damage had already been done. As he helped her up, he held his breath. Nothing. They'd been lucky this time.

"Sorry," she mouthed, as she checked her injuries. A bruise began forming on her cheek - the only wound she sustained.

They reached the top of the flight without another incident. Shaun had the map of the castle memorized. It was part of his job to memorize the locations of potential marks, and Wren was definitely a mark. He took the T-intersection at the top of the stairs right and the next two lefts, one more right and they were right outside Wren's study. The door was ajar.

Placing the torch on the floor, he motioned for Wren to be silent. He opened the door the tiniest bit. It squeaked.

Wren looked up from the book she was reading. "Who's there?" she demanded. "Show yourself." Shaun stood motionless until she returned to her studies.

He and Wren moved down the hallway. "All right. You go in first and I'll follow you," Shaun whispered.

"Me?" she whispered. "Why me?"

"You're the echo. Maybe just seeing you will kill her."

"And me."

"Perhaps. Go," he ordered.

"Thanks. Love you too," she grumbled as she pulled her knife from its sheath. Shaun followed her closely, loosing the sword in its scabbard

She took a deep breath and kicked the door open, going for Wren before she had a chance to defend herself. Shaun unsheathed his sword, the ringing sound echoing off the study's stone walls.

Wren stood up from her seat and put her hand up to Shaun, knocking Wren to the floor in the process.