The Face Behind The Veil

The Face Behind The Veil
I stormed into Lord Xeik’s tent with fire and brimstone visibly burning in my heart for having been deceived. The material of the canvas tore again and brought me to the sight I almost stopped breathing. The interior stank of sweat and the desperation before death hung in the thick gloom.

There was a woman dressed in black standing still before me; she was fixing a thin black veil to Lord Xeik’s wrist. The material made his arm disappear as if it were a black cloak that was destined to bring in his evil end. He clung there at the top of his tent with all his strength; his face red and sweating with fear and agony.

His eyes popped out wide open as beads of perspiration glistened on his skin, his curled lips looked like a scream kept inside. His tendons flexed at his neck and the rest of his body followed the muscular attempt of him to escape.

Looking up from my chair, I saw the woman turn toward the door the moment I walked in, her eyes clearly focusing on me. Then I was startled because I realized who she was. This was Lady Asher, a picture of beauty and class reduced to an angry spirit capable of killing.

She had raven, shoulder-length hair, porous like a waterfall behind her back, her face was porcelain. Her face was still smooth and still majestic, those large eyes dark hollows of deep-set alabaster beauty.

How could I reconcile that elegant lady with this ruthless woman? The feeble flickering of the candle illuminated her beautiful face and with each flicker, the shadows staked their forks on her face like serpents on their prey.

Her eyes were alight with some impish desire as if she gathered fire within. There was a burning desire in them, a desire which seemed to him that it was eating her up.

"Lady Asher?" I breathed and whispered my words over the noise of my racing heartbeat. The words tasted like betrayal as soon as I spoke them. "Are you the Black Veil?" I pressed, my words tumbling out in a whispered urgency.

She just rolled her shoulders, dismissively, as if my question was the most meaningless thing she’s ever heard. Her shoulders barely rose, her expression unreadable. 

A hint of amusement danced on her lips, a whispered promise of secrets untold.

There was a long moment of fidgeting and no words, both of which spoke volumes. It was oppressive, like the air before an earthquake and I could feel the tension coiled like a spring.

I did not have a chance to respond and she was gone as if she was an apparition of the night. She took her leave, and nothing could be heard except Lord Xeik’s ragged breathing.

The darkness enveloped her completely as if it wiped her from ever existing. I stood there frozen not believing what I had just seen.

The darkness appeared to move around me as if it were alive, filled with lies and betrayal. Lord Xeik’s desperate plea brought me to my senses.

“Please,” he said barely in a whisper due to the exertion he was putting in. "Let me down."

I quickly rushed forward and slit the rope that had him hanging. He fell down, panting, clutching at his chest desperately. His face was dyed with pain, tears ran down his cheeks.

With a desperate effort to fling the black veil away from him, he felt the crackle of bones in his wrist, his palm slick with sweat. He shook, convulsed with pain, his whole body touching the softness of the bed.

I stood over him, my sword in my hand, my gaze focused on him. ‘ ‘What have you to do with Lady Asher?’ I demanded, my voice firm.

Lord Xeik looked in panic and his eyes rolled to different directions. ‘Well… well I don’t know,’ he muttered.

My thoughts were going round and round; I remembered King Ares, who mysteriously died in the past. "How did King Ares die?" I pressed.

Lord Xeik felt his face grow pale; his eyes were now filled with terror. “The Black Veil,” he breathed out.

The words said it all and they remained suspended in the still air in the room. I clutched the handle of my sword tightly and my arm recoiled for the final blow.

I knelt over him and then thrust the sword into his chest. He cried out in pain and then his eyes widened in shock, then Lord Xeik's lips moved, forming a single word: "Castilla."

It stopped me, this whisper, so quiet that I could barely make out the words, but he was the voice. Castilla? Why would he utter that name?

My mind went round linking Lady Asher to King Ares, and Lord Xeik to each other. The Black Veil’s real person was blurred in my mind, a mystery that bothered me.

What could be so dark and twisted under the beautiful mask of a lady Asher? What could have pushed her to become perhaps one of the most famous assassins in history? But what does she want from Lord Xeik?

I froze on the spot, and still with my sword in him, Lord Xeik whose eyes of deep sorrow met mine, begging me to spare him.

”The South is innocent, when you take over treat our people well,” he whispered his voice trembling. "Do not turn them into slaves."

My heart grew cold to his words and the determination I had left the room for a moment waned a little. I realized that I had to find out what was happening behind the mask of the Black Veil.

I did not care much for words, so I simply snarled at him, “Come on, tell me, dear Lord Xeik.” "What secrets do you hide?"

"King Ares is responsible... Thefts, shapeshifters, and I was going to withdraw from the war when I found out after his death. But the evidence was tampered with by someone else and so the only thing I could do was to defend myself. There was no way I could have stopped the war without looking like a coward. ‘None of the lords nor the people knew what King Ares was up to,’ he began to cough up blood soke more: ‘do not let our people become slaves… Innocent people who became victims of evil deeds our king does.”