Chapter Three

   In the building west of the compound, the two shadowy figures moved quickly from one torchlit passageway to another in search of their target. They were fast, so fast that even stationed guards saw them as little more than shadowed blurs caused by the flickering lights. They stopped a few meters away from where seven guards say on benches laughing and drinking together. Behind them was a small dark and dreary cell built into the wall. Its sole occupant was a girl that looked to be about nineteen years who lay horizontally on a small bed in the corner of the cell.

   She had pretty features with an oval face and almond-shaped eyes that reflected the light from the passage's torches brightly. Snow white hair fell in a straight curtain around her head, slightly dirtied by the less than pristine surroundings. Her nose was small and pointed in a manner that that fit well with her soft looking pink lips. But her facial  disposition was quite different from the way she looked. The girl's face resembled that of a prisoner condemned to death, filled with despair and resignation.

   The hidden assassins scanned the area before them and after reaching an agreement, they separated into the shadows. The guards were still talking and laughing boisterously, completely oblivious to the approaching danger. Just like the previous times, a imperceptible breeze wafted through the passageway and one of the two torches went out, plunging them all into partial darkness.

   In an instant, the guards became alarmed and reached for their weapons. One of them noticed movement in the pitch black area beyond the illumination of the remaining burning torch. He squinted his eyes to see better, only to find a concealed face staring back at him. Fear shot through the man and he spun around on his heel to alert the other guards. Before he could get out more than a whimper, a chain sprung from the darkness and wrapped around his neck. His eyes expanded in size as the chain dragged him off into the darkness. A second later, a strangled cry sounded through the quietened passageway.

   Now aware of the threat facing them, the men rallied together and stood with their backs to one another. Uncertainty permeated the atmosphere around them and some clutched their weapons with shaky hands in terror of an invisible danger. Out of nowhere, the chain returned and dragged off a young man with low cut hair to his quick death. They turned their attention to the direction the chain had come from  immediately, a fatal mistake on their part. The other assassin dropped silently in their midst and snuffed the last light.

   With darkness came unbridled confusion. The men scattered apart aimlessly, alarmed shouts and screams ringing out in the passageway. An  individual tried to locate the torch stick and was struck across the face by the blunt hard metal end of the second assassin's staff. The blow was strong enough to crack his skull and he crumpled to the floor in a heap. Without breaking his stride, the assassin spun around and smashed the head of one guard into the wall then bent low to sweep the staff in a wide arc, shattering the legs of another.

   The first assassin was a much more skillful killer. His weapon of choice, a long metal that had a small scythe blade attached to it, moved around like a living serpent, bringing death everywhere it went. He threw the blade towards one of the remaining guards and the man brought up his sword to defend the attack. The assassin then made a swift and subtle  movement with the hand holding the other end of the chain and altered the direction of the blade.

   Deflecting off the the guard's sword, the scythe blade went around him and wrapped around the neck of another man behind. A quick tug on the chain and the blade severed the man's neck halfway, spraying blood everywhere. The assassin then leapt up into the air and in an incredible display of acrobatics, rotated clockwise over the heads of everyone in the hallway with his weapon spinning around him.

   As soon as his feet touched the floor, the dismembered bodies of the slaughtered guards fell to the ground in pieces. Blood dripped from the sharp edge of the blade onto the already soaked floor. The fight now over as there were no guards alive, the assassins went toward the cell with slow careful steps. Inside the cell, the girl stumbled back from the door in an effort to put as much distance as possible between her and the dark clothed men. For the first time since her capture, she was actually glad to have been in a prison cell. Having watched the men massacre the guards who had been watching over her, she eyed them with severe caution and no small amount of fear. For all she knew, they might be worse than her initial kidnappers.

   Unfortunately her plan to hide behind the cell door fell through when the one with the reaper chain swiped the keys from one of the dead guards. With an ominous click, the door creaked open and he slipped inside only to vanish instantly into the shadows. Alarmed, the girl attempted to escape through the now open door. However before she could get farther than a few steps, a gentle yet firm blow to the back of her head knocked her out cold.

   Her eyes closed and she fell back into the arms of the assassin who lifted her up on his shoulder and came out of the small room. The man with the staff was already their recently arrived spear-wielding comrade when he saw them. Both men laid eyes on their acquired target and nodded furtively to the third man. All three slipped away from the passage in quick bursts of speed. Their mission here was over, now it was time for them to leave before things got more complicated.