Sophia paced her small room up and down, trying to figure out her next move.
That first day had been a nightmare, she had crumbled so quickly that she could hardly believe it. At first she'd tried to convince herself she was biding her time, but soon realized that she was just making excuses. Since then she'd been thinking over escape plans.
There was always killing her guards outside her door, but that didn't seem to be an option. It was locked from the outside and there were five of them out there. The only time it ever opened was when the king or Emily came inside to get her. She could easily over power Emily and the maids she often brought with her, but couldn't bring herself to do it. Emily was kind to her even when she was in a bad mood.
It had been two days since he had taken her so cruely in front of his men, she still couldn't wrap her mind around it all. The last few times he had visted her, he had hardly spoken. He'd just wandered in and nodded at her before leaving again.
Not that she wasn't thankful for the time to think. She'd thought over every possible escape, from poisioning the king to wittling the wood on her bed with her teeth into a stake. She knew that all of them were insane and impossible, yet couldn't stop herself from dreaming.
She dreamed of returning home. Her life back in Elania wasn't perfect of course, there were many things she could change. When she was the King's own assassin, she prided herself with that. She had fooled the competitors into underestimating her because of her size and looks. She'd beaten out men three times her size in competitions from races to hand to hand combat. She would duck beneath their punches until she tired them out, which is when she would leap onto them and wrap her small hands around their throats, cutting off their air until they surrendered.
No, she dreamed of returning to her time before she met the king. To before she got caught up in any of this. When she was fourteen or thirteen and still lived with an older brother in a small cottage on the green hillls of Larni, one of Elania's smaller provinces.
She was still awakened at night with nightmares about his murder. It was a bright sunny day and she was just returning from gathering berries from the forest when she saw the five men, all cloaked in black. She saw her brother lying in front of them, his body limp and lifeless, his clothes stained with dark blood. All she saw was that red as she ran at the men. Rage overtook her and she leaped onto one of their backs and knocked them to the floor. She rolled away as the others attacked and slashed at her with daggers. She managed to elude their efforts and trip them all up. She still didn't fully understand how she got to the point where she was covered in blood. Their blood.
It was at that point that a man stepped out from behind their shed, smirking at her. "Well done." He had told her, "And it seems that you and are at an impass. You have killed all my men, but I have slain your brother."
