A Dark Disguise

Quickly he pulled the thread back up, ensuring none of the toxin found its way onto his hands and replaced the board back in its original position. The thread, he left in a corner of the dusty attic in a discarded heap, but the poison, he returned to his belt pouch. It was a rare type and not easily obtainable, even by the assassin’s guild. He had been greatly privileged in being allowed to use it. With his task completed, he stood and softly padded over to the hole in the roof. A less experienced assassin would have relaxed now, confident in his escape, but he knew that one was never truly safe. Not ever. He looked at the beams above him and silently latched a hold on one of the ones nearest the aperture in the slate tiles he had created. He yanked himself up pushing off the beam and placed his hands on the tiles surrounding the hole. Slowly and silently, he clambered on to the roof that overlooked the ancient capital city. Daybreak was glimmering on the horizon now; a pale blue aura shining from behind the mountains in the East, yet the moon still glowed intently behind its patchwork blanket of clouds.

The young man slowly came to the edge of the roof that lay at the side of the house and looked down into the empty street below. The morning markets would be opening soon and the first vendors would be rushing to set up their stalls imminently. Reaching down towards his feet, he gripped tightly on to the black iron drainpipe that ran down the side of the house and smoothly swung down, placing his feet against the wall. Silent as ever, The Spider, master assassin and initiate of the Council of Nine crept down the drainpipe to ground level and brushed himself off. One last time, he calmly looked about to check no one was nearby and confidently walked out the side gate into the cold, deserted streets of Paaren Disen.

A cockerel crowed in the distance, and, as he walked, his soft leather boots glided silently across the shiny cobbled streets. Yet above everything, presiding over all below, a thin moon continued to glint evilly, behind its dark disguise.