16 Intruders

Darkly clothed men with covered faces moved unnoticed through the capital toward the Talley residence. They went unnoticed by the common populous. People would only know that something had happened the next morning. These men were not hired killers, but well-trained men who would obey any command given by their superior. They wouldn't question any order, nor hesitate in carrying it out. They were coldblooded killers. Their newly assigned order was to infiltrate the Talley household and dispose of any who showed signs of mixed blood. The leader of the small band was given an additional task, which was to take back any evidence of the lineage, and any information Lord Talley might not want seen.

The people of the Talley household had no idea what was about to fall on them that night. The Talley guards on the night watch were alert, but were not skilled enough to notice as the walls were breeched. But their lack of skill saved their lives. If they had seen the intruders they would have been killed before they could have even blinked.

All of the family members were peacefully asleep in their beds. The men in black moved silently, disturbing no one. Once over the walls the leader signaled for his six men to split up. They had been informed that there were two sons and five daughters, three of them children of the main family branch.

The oblivious boys had been closely observed during the day as they went about their work, but the people watching them discovered nothing out of the ordinary that would lead them to think that they were of mixed heritage. So tonight, they would examine illegal daughters, born from concubines, and the one legal daughter of the main wife. They were told to be weary of the legal daughter as she was highly suspect.

The leader sent three of his men to go check the nonlegal daughters, and three to the room of the legal one. If the girl really had awakened the ancestral blood, then she could be very powerful, but someone who just awakened wouldn't know how to use their power so the three men would be more than enough to take her down. The leader, by himself, headed toward Lord Talley's study in hopes of uncovering any useful information.

The leader arrived at the study and began carefully sifting through the neat piles of paper on the desk, but he found nothing but notes and work reports of the Talley land and properties. He then moved to the drawers, but found little of the same. Nothing was placed in plain sight and there were no obvious locked compartments that screamed that something was hidden inside. The night was short and there wasn't much time left. The leader made a decision. Getting the information, tonight, was more important than letting their time here stay unnoticed, so he was no longer careful and began to hurry the search. Their leaders could make a story and plant evidence to blame any multitude of people for the break-in. It wouldn't be so easy for those working for the Talleys to find the culprits.

He started ripping books of the shelves and throwing them on the ground. He flipped over paintings and decorative figurines, and tore out drawers and cabinets, breaking the hinges, in looking for any secret compartments. Once everything in the room was destroyed, even the cushioning of the small couch which now had a large slash through it, the frustrated man stopped. The entire room was a disaster. Papers were scattered all over the room, and were still floating in the air, furniture been overturned and was now unrecognizable, and priceless antiques were shattered and now in pieces.

In his anger, the man kicked the desk. [There is nothing here, there must be something somewhere else.]

But he didn't have time to check the whole residence. And he wouldn't be able to come back another night. In the morning, people would know that they had come and anything that they didn't want discovered would be moved or destroyed. He could only take this loss. Right now, the most important thing, the main mission, was finding the mixed breed.

The man left the study and ran to the central location where they had agreed to meet beforehand, and waited. Soon his other men started to show up.

The first three to arrive were the men he had sent to check the illegal daughters. "Sir, there was nothing in the ladies' chambers. It's clear."

"Good." As he said this the last group of three came.

"Sir, she wasn't there."

Frowning the leader clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes. "Explain," he spat out.

"The courtyard was deserted. We found one maid watching over it herself. We took the intuitive to wake her and get some answers. But don't worry there is no way that she will be able to call of help tonight."

"What did she say?" the leader asked confident that his men wouldn't let this one little maid get away.

"She said that the lady was moved to a different courtyard a few days ago because of an illness."

The leader grinned. He was sure of it, his instincts told that the girl was one of those mixed breeds.

"Find her." He would not let this one slip from his grasp.

The men speedily made their way to the back-guest house. They knocked the door down and rushed inside, ready for a fight. One of them tore open the bed curtains, but then he paused, stunned. It was empty. They looked around but found that no one was there.

"Damnit!" one of the men cursed. They had no leads, and no idea where the girl had gone.

"You have one hour to search the rest of the residence. Find her," the leader ordered.

"Yes sir!" the men flew out and checked over every part of the residence in search for the girl, but found nothing. After one hour they had to leave. If they stayed any longer their presence would be discovered.

"There's nothing left for us to do here. Go back and report," the leader was forced to order.

"Yes sir!" the men said and left as silently as they had come.

*

The next day when the servants got up, they were met with wreckage from the night before. The master's study was in shambles, and the young lady's old room was also in rough shape. One maid was also found, laying on the floor, knocked out with a large lump on her head.

The servants were panicked and rushed to wake Lord Talley. When Lord Talley entered his study, he stopped and looked around. He looked to the servant behind him and ordered, "Clean it up," before leaving.

Lord Talley then made his way to his wife's rooms. When he entered, he found her still peacefully sleeping, with nothing out of place. With a sigh of relief, he sat down at the edge of her bed and leaned his forehead to his hands.

[Luckily everything had been done in time. Thank the gods.]

Lord Talley kept all of his private and secret documents hidden in his wife's rooms. Most wouldn't think that he would ever put such highly important documents under the watch of a woman. Recently, he had moved the family records here too.

He softly stroked the foot of his wife from the top of the covers. Luckily, he had been informed that their lineage was being investigated. Once he learned this, he knew it was just a matter of time before someone came. He didn't think that people would come this quickly though, but luckily, he was able to move A-Narah two nights ago, before the assassins came.

Hopefully A-Narah would be safe now, but he and the rest of his family now had to live a life of lies. To the family, A-Narah was now be considered dead and would never be spoken of by name again.

Later today they would hold the funeral and the house would go into mourning.

*

When the rest of the family awoke, they learned of the tragedy. The home had been broken into and the legal daughter had passed on. A-Narah's two brothers were devastated and demanded to see her body, but were prevented in fear that they would be contaminated by the disease as well.

When the captain in charge heard of this he frowned.

Could he have been wrong? No, he felt it. That girl was one of them.

"Keep watching them. If it's all an act they are bound to slip up."