William Foxwind Prologue, Revisited

My first draft of Dreadbane sat on my laptop untouched for a few months before I came back, read it, concluded that it was 100% crap and wrote this version. I wanted to give William a father figure. Interestingly, I named that father figure after my own initials "D. A. Lek." and it came out Dalek. Time Lord not included. I thank you for reading my work!

Dreadbane

A shadow sits perched atop a high fortress, balancing upon slanted slats. The moon was at its highest point in the night sky. Droplets of stressed anxiety shine on the shadow’s young face. He waits both scared and anxious, both completely ready and yet entirely unprepared. He keeps looking to his mentor for a signal. He lets out a sigh, carried by a sudden breeze to the vast city called Fallabor down below.

The mentor speaks with a voice full of strength “Silence, William. Remember what I told you-“

“Control, I remember.” Responds the shadow named William. He began to recite, as if from a book: “An action invokes a corresponding-“

“-reaction.” They finished together. “Your tone suggests a touch of overconfidence.”

“Please, Dalek, spare me the lessons. We’re here for something real.”

Dalek looked at his student with concern, “Exactly, Will, this is real. We have to be careful.”

“Hey, have I ever let you down before?” Will pulled a grappling hook and rope from his belt, and latched the hook onto the hand of a nearby gargoyle. “Hold that for me, mate.”

Dalek raised an eyebrow at his student as he descended the rope down the fortress wall. Assassination jobs were always risky, but this was different. The target was not only a lord, but the leader of a growing party in the criminal underworld. Lord Saxund Legious was his name. Even Dalek’s experienced mind shuddered at the thought of all the things that could go wrong. Their plan was basic, with no fallbacks, making everything even more dangerous. Lord Legious was currently having a business meeting with the assassin guild The Red Knives. Apparently, Legious had the coin to buy the agency and begin forming a syndicate that would stretch across the seas. While he and William belonged to no guild or group, Dalek couldn’t let Legious systematically take over the entire realm.

Dalek began his descent down the rope, which lead to one of the few openings in this fortress belonging to The Red Knives, a window the size of a small child. Fort Daggerhold was only open to Red Knives agents, clients, and invited guests; anyone else was quickly dispatched, a well-known fact throughout the city. The structure itself was large and decently designed to ward off full blown attacks. The worst part was: the only opportunity to kill Lord Legious was while he was in Fort Daggerhold. At all other times he would be untouchable. Fortunately the fortress did have a weakness, it’s aesthetically designed roof had no room for parapets or even battlements. Additionally, some of the nearby buildings were close enough that one could be ascended and crossed over to the top of Fort Daggerhold, which is exactly what put Dalek and William in their current location.

Now both comfortably upon the ledge on either side of the window, Dalek and William carefully leaned around to look inside. As expected, the window leads into a dim hall just outside a commonly used meeting chamber. Two guards stood outside the large door to the meeting hall, facing the window.

Pulling their heads back, the two assassins looked at each other. William started to speak, but Dalek held up his hand, “As soon as they know we’re here, this whole thing will be pointless.”

“What do you suggest, then?”

“We need to get them to leave the hall, or come close to the window. The first is unlikely, so we’ll try the second.”

Dalek pulled out his dagger, and signaled for William to do the same. He lightly tapped the blade against the windowsill. The light “tink” could be heard echoing across the hall to the guards on the other end. Dalek continued to tap with a simple rhythm. Will started to move his head to look, and Dalek quickly glared at him, holding a finger to his lips. After a minute or so of tapping, Will and Dalek heard a single set of footsteps coming down the hall. Will rolled his eyes and whispered disappointedly “Only one of them took your bait.”

Dalek mouthed the words “just wait,” and held his dagger at the ready. The footsteps ceased just outside the window as Will and Dalek pressed themselves against the fortress, trying to stay out of sight. The footsteps picked up again, going away from the window, and Dalek gave another few taps. This time, the steps quickly moved towards the window and flung it open. The single hinged window lightly smacked William as it came around, and then pinned him to the wall. The guard quickly stuck his head out and saw Dalek staring at him from the ledge. Before the man could so much as say “help” Dalek had grabbed him by the hair with one hand and stabbed through his eye and into his head with the other. Hardly a sound was made, and Dalek held the dead guard up by the hair.

From inside the hall a voice called out “Gregor? What do you see?” and a second pair of footsteps crossed the hall. “Gregor? Are you okay?” William heard the guard pull out a blade, and Dalek threw a dagger into the hall, placing it perfectly into the guard’s brow. Without hesitation, Dalek then dove into the hall over the body of the first guard and caught the second before it fell. After gently setting down the body, Dalek went to the window and closed it halfway, allowing Will to climb in.

“You could have warned me about the window,” muttered William. Dalek responded with another finger to his lips, and a gesture towards the two conspicuous bodies. The pair carefully moved the bodies to the ledge out the window.