Finally they were just walking down the road, without Alyssa's arm sockets feeling any kind of pain. "Wouldn't that be cool?" Merry asked, forgetting that she didn't say her previous sentence out loud.
"Wouldn't what be cool Merry?" Alyssa asked and Merry grinned as Terry blushed.
"That would be really cool." Terry said as her strawberry colored cheeks just served to make Alyssa curious.
"What are you two talking about?" Alyssa demanded and the girls both giggled.
"It's just a silly love story." Merry laughed and Terry agreed.
"But it sounds like a very interesting love story." Alyssa sighed as the girls giggled and she realized that she wouldn't get any more out of them. "What about this store?" Alyssa asked as they passed a home owned tailor shop that Alyssa visited quite often. The older couple that ran the shop actually had some nice dresses hung up in the window.
"Okay!" Terry shrugged and swung her hand forward. "Maybe he'll be here?" She asked and Alyssa shook her head as she realized that the twins were having another one of their awkward 'you have to know what we're talking about to participate' talks.
"I wish, that would be so romantic!" Merry agreed and Terry pointed out a cute blue dress that would look perfect on either of the twins. Merry just happened to pick out the exact same dress in yellow.
"You two are little monsters." Alyssa sighed as she placed four gold coins on the counter and the old lady nodded to her to take the packages that contained the dresses.
"Nothing for you?" The woman asked and Alyssa shook her head. She didn't plan on attending the ball at all. She had recently heard that the guards had started noticing the brands on the assassin's wrists, and she wasn't stupid enough to chance it.
"Come on Alyssa, you have to get a really pretty dress." Terry insisted and Alyssa shrugged as Merry dragged her over to a very frilly dress.
"Not right now you guys, if I need one than I'll get it when the merchants come to town in about a week." Alyssa sighed and the girls seemed to accept that. It didn't occur to her that there would be an occasion worth a large beautiful dress, because she was above going to the Prince's ball.
The inn was strangely quiet when Alyssa and the twins got back a few hours later, laden with various bags and accessories. Terry and Merry couldn't wait an entire fortnight before they wore the dresses again; it was like money burning a hole in their pockets. They were two of the most impatient children Alyssa had ever come across, which is what reminded her of herself and Laura. Even before their parent's death, they had been a handful.
"Papa!" Terry shouted rather loudly and raced toward the bar room where Zackary normally worked around the clock. Alyssa had been a gift from above for Zackary when his wife had died and the girls had been his entire life, now she held a major place in their life as a big sister.
Merry followed her sister with a loud whoop and Alyssa shook her hazel head as she followed closely behind the two girls. She giggled as she stepped into the bar room and suddenly her face fell as she saw the scene before her eyes. Zackary was tied up behind the counter and several customers had been drugged into silence. Two large brigands held the girls three feet off of the ground. Terry was unconscious in the thugs arms and Merry was kicking her feet about wildly.
"Subdue her!" The leader shouted as he pointed as Alyssa. Alyssa caught a glimpse of a man in a mask and scowled. This old biddy was the man that had ruined both her sister's and her lives with the awful brands on their hands. Laura had been branded on her left hand, while Alyssa had borne the brand on her right hand. Neither would forget the traumatic experience they had endured after their parent's deaths.
"Subdue this!" Alyssa shouted and withdrew two miniature knives from underneath her dress. She threw the knife in her left hand and nailed the man holding Merry right in the forehead. She then turned and faced the man that had shouted the order.
"Laura Banks, it has been a while since I've seen that little trick." The man said coolly with a wide grin on his face. Alyssa frowned and shrugged as she flipped the knife upside down to hold it by the blade, careful and practiced enough not to cut herself. "Where have you been?" He asked venomously and Alyssa rolled her eyes.
"I would have thought that obvious you snake!" Alyssa growled, not denying the fact that she was indeed her dead twin. She still preserved some of her old traits, and she had spent almost a year diligently learning everything that Laura had tried to teach her.
"Why the sudden rancid attitude Laura? Not happy with your new life?" The man asked and Alyssa frowned. How had this man been connected with Laura after the branding anyway? He certainly wasn't anyone important that she could recall. His dark brown eyes were somewhat familiar, but other than that she had no clue as to who he could have been to her sister.
Laura had always gone getting herself into trouble and bringing back people and things that would just draw attention to them, more frequently so after she returned to Alyssa after leaving for a few years.
"You're the reason; I don't want anything to do with you!" Alyssa snapped and the man began to chuckle.
"You mean to say that you don't retain the medallion?" The man asked with a laugh and Alyssa frowned again, acutely aware of the medallion that hung around her neck. She had never asked where Laura had gotten it; she'd just accepted that she must have stolen it. It was the only thing she still had of Laura, and she wasn't about to give it up. She'd had to sneak into the palace to retrieve it in the first place.
"So what if I do?" She snarled and the man laughed again.
"Let's go boys!" He shouted and turned to walk through the open door frame. Alyssa watched in amazement as several brigands came out of hiding and headed for the door, all wielding knives and cutlasses. The large man holding Terry roughly dropped her and stepped around his large friend on the ground. Alyssa didn't relax until all of them had waltzed out of the door, and even then she still seemed tense.
"Alyssa!" Terry screamed and ran over to the stiff eighteen year old in the middle of the room, hugging her leg and refusing to let go. Merry was petrified as she looked down at the dead man at least three times her size. He was definitely bigger than Alyssa.
"Merry, untie your father." Alyssa demanded and Merry nodded as she finally looked away from the dead man. "I'm going to drag him outside, you gonna help?" Alyssa asked Terry as the frightened girl started to follow her. Terry shook her head quickly and finally let go of Alyssa's leg. True to her word, Alyssa grabbed the man's shirt and began to haul him out the door.
When she reentered the tavern area of the inn, various customers were amidst waking up and the girls were both hugging their father. Zackary was watching Alyssa with keen interest and Alyssa was evading his gaze as well as she possibly could. Neither of the girls would leave their father's side except to gawk at Alyssa.
"What was all of that Alyssa?" Zackary demanded sheltering Merry behind one of his large protective hands. Alyssa just shrugged and glanced at the wooden floorboards. It didn't matter much anymore to the eighteen year old girl, but she was staring at the exact place the man had fallen. She didn't feel like toppling over, it didn't bug her in the least that she had killed that man.
"That was a part of my life that I thought I'd left behind." Alyssa admitted, not easing any of Zackary's suspicions. He knew that she'd been a thief, he'd seen the brand on her right hand, and she'd openly told him what the T meant, but for some reason, he hadn't thought her past would haunt her as it apparently had. If she had done something horrible enough to get the attention of someone as hideous as that man, she was obviously not the person he'd thought she was. She was painfully discreet when it came to her old life, but it appeared as if she was now facing her old demons.
"I can't condone what just went on here Alyssa, now I doubt what to call you." Zackary sighed and Alyssa bit her bottom lip as she waited for him to toss her out and tell her never to come back. "But I can't forget that you were perceptibly trying to help us, I hope nothing like that happens again, for your sake."
Alyssa sighed in relief and crouched down to the girl's level, beckoning them to her like puppy dogs. Terry came less reluctantly than Merry, but they were both at Alyssa's side within a moment. "Are you two going to show your dad those new dresses?" She asked quietly so that Zackary couldn't hear her. Immediately the girls expressions lightened up and they rushed to pick up their bags. Children were always easy to preoccupie.
"Even after that scene, you still manage to make them two of the happiest girls on this planet." Zackary chuckled and shook his head. It was foolish the way someone as dangerous as Alyssa could possibly live a full life in his little inn, the girl was a liability, and she could snap anytime. "Did you get yourself a dress?" Zackary asked and Alyssa sighed as she shook her head. "I told you
