Page 6 of The Anointed's Paladin

It was cruel of her, really, to not command me to come on time.

Three hundred years had given me plenty of different masters and mistresses, but Cassandra was the worst. She could compel every choice away from me, if she wanted to. But she didn’t. She still gave me ordinary directions.

Arrive on time to the breakfast table, no later than five minutes after your lamplight.

Kneel, Kaine.

Hand it over, Kaine.

Slit her throat, Kaine. Now.

Each instruction daring me to disobey.

I pictured it in my head—staying in bed, rolling over, and closing my eyes.

Cassandra, tapping her foot impatiently as she glared at my empty seat.

She would rise from the table, stalk down the halls. Her lips would be pursed, and she would open my door, fury in her eyes, her voice raised as she admonished me.

Then would come the pain.

The starvation.

I really should go.

But I didn’t want to.

Today, I decided, was a day for exerting my free will.

I’d regret this later. Probably chained in a dungeon, cuffs chafing my skin.

Ugh.

Let'snotthink of that.

I heard the door open and groaned. She was early. And she hadn’t slammed the door. Or started her yelling fit yet.

I looked over at the door and bolted upright, scrambling backwards.

It wasn’t Cassandra at the door; it was…

…well, something disgusting.

Their face was sunken, gaunt, with leathery skin and snakelike eyes. Rows of small horns decorated their pale head like a crown. Theirfeatures shifted, escaping my efforts to pin down the shape of the nose, cheeks, chin. Long, clawed fingers extended from their faded black robes.

I slipped my hand under my pillow to grab the daggers I stashed there and turned, frowning. My cramped room was not a good spot for a fight. All for the best, I supposed.

“Peace,” they said in a deep voice that reverberated around the room. They blinked, their eyelids closing vertically.

I wasn’t an idiot. I kept a firm grip on my daggers.

“Kaine. A soul trapped far from home. Tormented by the hands of the greedy and powerful. Forsaken by the world.”

Nice to meet you too, I thought.

“How would you like to be free?” they laced their long fingers together.

“What do you mean?” I asked slowly. Perhaps this was another game Cassandra had thought up.

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