The Guild of Assassins Read Online Free PDF Page B

hands clenched into fists until they felt numb, his entire body shivering with the effort of holding back tears.
    He could not bear the thought of losing Kara. Her resolve to return to her Guild and face punishment, his inability to sway her decision, left him shattered. But worse than that, the fact that she broke up with him just didn’t make sense. They had been so happy together. Or so he had thought.
    Was she really as different as she tried to make him believe? Was she incapable of loving anyone?
    Or, was it that Kyth was not the right man for her all along?
    The thought stung him as he blindly wandered along the garden paths. The gleaming waters of the Crown Lake shone unbearably bright through the slits of the outer castle wall. He had always loved watching the lake and the ever-shifting colors reflecting off the water. But now, his gut wrenched as he glanced that way. The last time he and Kara had been sitting together was on top of the wall overlooking the lake, watching the sunset. Only a few days ago, but it felt like an eternity. Would they ever be able to do that again?
    He steered deeper into the grove of apple trees, but their whispering shade brought no comfort. His thoughts were going in circles. He was losing Kara. She was going to die. And even if, by a miracle, she survived, she may no longer choose to be a part of his life. It stung even more to think that everyone else, starting with his father, would feel nothing but joy at such a turn of events. A crown prince could never marry a hired guard, even one released from her former duties. The kingdom had enough trouble dealing with the fact that Kyth was the first royal heir in history to possess magic, a feat that, until recently, had marked him as an outlaw and an ungodly abomination. It had taken a lot of effort on his father’s part to change this law, and some of his subjects were still coming to terms with it. To marry a former Majat warrior would be taking things too far.
    Kyth had always believed things would work out somehow. He loved Kara with all his heart and could never think of any other woman in his life. Even now, when she had decided to leave him, he couldn’t imagine he would ever recover enough to be with anyone else.
    A movement ahead caught his eye. He froze, peering through the greenery into the sunlit glade adjoining the back palace wall.
    Inadvertently, he had wandered too close to the archers’ practice range. And it was occupied. As he watched, an arrow whistled past and hit the very center of the bullseye.
    Kyth narrowed his eyes. The feathers on the arrow shaft looked unfamiliar, green and yellow. Who could this possibly be?
    He carefully edged through the bushes, heading for the archer, invisible behind the protrusion of the wall. As he rounded the bend, he stopped, gaping.
    A slender young woman with long auburn hair stood by the wall, taking aim. She held a Lakeland bow so long that, when raised, it reached down to her knee. He couldn’t see her face, but the colors of her dress, green with a thin yellow trim, left no doubt of her identity. Lady Celana, heiress of the rival royal house Illitand. After her father, Duke Daemur Illitand, had temporarily fallen under Kaddim influence, she had been staying at the Tandarian court in his place, serving on the royal council with fervor, in an attempt to diminish her father’s mistakes in the eyes of the King.
    Kyth knew Lady Celana to be highly intelligent, with a grasp of politics that went far beyond her tender age of seventeen. But he had never seen her do anything physical. To think that she was also an adept archer...
    He watched the royal lady release the arrow, which hit the target very close to the first one. Then he gently cleared his throat.
    Lady Celana spun around with unladylike speed. Her startled expression slowly relaxed into a smile as she recognized Kyth.
    “Your Royal Highness.” She sank into a deep curtsey.
    “Forgive the interruption, my lady,” Kyth