The Assassin's Arrival

[Kamar Deythal]

On the very edge of the Residential District, right where it meets the Shanty Town Market, a shadowy form moved silently down the street.

Kamar Deythal stopped before stepping over the boundary of the Shanty Town Market. He moved to the corner of a building, allowing the shadows to swallow him like a dragon would swallow cattle. He paused, waiting. His senses reached out to listen, smell, and look for anything out of the ordinary. The smell of human feces and rot was strong, blocking out any underlying smells, not that his normal human sense of smell would have picked up much more than that. He allowed his eyes to shift to a slightly different spectrum in the deeper darkness of the shadows, a trait passed down from his mother’s elven heritage. It allowed him to see a little better at night, but did not give him the entire supernatural ability of a true elf to see in the dark like it was daylight.

As he scanned the area in which he stood, a high-pitched cry pierced the night, coming from the Downtown and Business District. Kamar tensed, pushing himself more tightly against the wall. He waited a few minutes, drawing back his hood to allow his ears to hear more. Once he determined there would be no repeat performance, he again took stock of the area in which he was as he moved the hod back up to cover his features. He slipped across the street, carefully keeping himself from being exposed for long periods of time in the moonlight. He moved silently into an alleyway, again putting his back to the corner of the house, letting the deep shadows help hide his darkened form from most regular sight. There he waited.

Several minutes went by before another form moved down the alleyway, coming from the opposite end at which Kamar stood. Kamar waited, remaining still and quiet. As the form moved closer, Kamar began noticing more about it. The form was a rather seedy looking fellow, with several days of beard growth on his face. Every now and again, the fellow would glance left and right furtively, as if not wanting to be noticed.

A sure way to be noticed, Kamar thought to himself, allowing an ironic smirk to cross his lips.

Finally, the man crossed in front of Kamar, and Kamar slipped from the shadows, drawing a dagger from his belt. Moving swiftly, he placed the dagger in his right hand at the man’s throat as he moved silently behind the man. He quickly moved his left arm over the fellow’s shoulder and clamped onto the man’s forehead, drawing his head back to further expose his neck.

“Quietly now, my friend,” Kamar hissed. “No need for us to spill your blood all over these dirty streets.”

Kamar quietly eased the man back from the street and further into the alley. He used his own body to help brace the fellow, whose weight was back as he tried to keep away from the glinting edge of Kamar’s dagger. Kamar stopped several paces back, and leaned forward to whisper in the fellow’s ear.

“Let the word be passed,” Kamar whispered, a note of exultation sounding in his voice, “An assassin has come to town, the best from a far away land. Let the people know that if they have dirty work that needs to be done, they have but to ask for me, and I will find them.”

With that, Kamar released the man and stepped back into the deeper shadows. He remained for a moment, allowing the man to spin and get a look at his darkly robed and hooded form. Then the shadows convulsed, almost like a dragon’s throat might as it swallowed its prey of cattle. Once they settled, there was no sign of Kamar.