His well laid trap
skin.
I feel strangely protective toward him, which is insane. I’m specifically
here to help plan his assassination.
But I have more questions about him than I started with, and I won’t
ever have another opportunity like this, with him in a drug-induced sleep.
He won’t wake easily or sense me at all.
I wait until I’m sure he’s asleep, his breathing slow and his body
relaxed, and touch his shoulder. It happens without effort when my fingers
touch his skin. Unlike my encounters with others, there’s no pain, and his
thoughts drift closer to me like toy sailboats floating on a stream. It’s
effortless.
In his mind, I see a woman standing over him, her eyes dark as his, her
hair streaming over a white gown. Behind her is a tapestry of a weeping
willow.
His mother.
Now, a raging storm clouds the sky, lightning igniting the landscape.
Thunder rumbles over the horizon.
She’s led to a wooden scaffold, her hair draped over a long, thin gown.
Her arms are tied behind her back. Wind tears at the landscape, rain
hammering, as she’s bound to a stake with kindling at her feet. A keening
sound rends the air as someone brings a torch to the wood. Talan’s fear cuts
me to the bone.
He wants everyone to feel like he does.
I’m shaking now, but the storm in his mind rages, sweeping the image
away.
He’s alone, wandering through empty gothic halls. It’s like he’s been in
these halls in solitude for centuries.
Finally, I catch a stray thought, more of an image than a sentence. A
map. I recognize it at once. I’ve studied this map myself for weeks,
alongside other agents of Avalon.
Seeing I'm yours, I rouse me from afar
to come near the heaven I owe my being to.
With your allure the bait, I'm drawn to you,
tugged, as with hook and line poor fishes are.
Reklam
“I look like bait,” she says, and she meant it as a joke, but Lottie doesn’t laugh. She only smiles and says, “I’d fall for you again.”
because every woman knows if she has the right bait she can have anything she wants.
The Way of War is a Way of DeceptionTarih
❝ When able, Feign inability;
When deploying troops, Appear not to be;
When near, Appear far;
When far, Appear near;
Lure with bait;
Strike with chaos ❞
Bu kesinlikle iki yüz yıl sonra da hatırlayacağımız bir yıldönümü olacak.
Belki bin tane bile...
Reklam
Reklam