Kanjar: Prologue

In the late cover of the night, when the guards were to be most alert, a group of assassins struck the palace. No sound was made, no alarm raised. They stalked quickly through the vast corridors, knowing precisely where their target would be.

At dawn, it was discovered they had come. The Princess' chambermaid was the first to know something was amiss. As she was new to the position and illiterate in the noble language, she was unable to tell what the warning said. Fearing her Ladyship's injury or death, Alexis awakened the Princess with a scream for the guards.

Pinned to the head of the Princess' bed by a serrated dagger, only inches from the head of the formerly slumbering Princess Laurinda, was a note. The wood of the headboard already rotting away as the thick caustic ooze bled from the blade. The note simply Read:

          Majesty,
          You are warned, cease this investigation
          into the matters of the Brotherhood. It
          will avail you nothing but sorrows and
          then death to continue. There will be
          no other warning, for the Brotherhood
          will not accept your interference any
          longer. Next time, you die.

Without hesitation, Laurinda sent word to her cousin, Baron Vladimir Harilm. Within the same day, the baron sent all the men he could spare to her aid. A task which was easy enough, as he was less than a days march from her. Unfortunately, many of his men were engaged in dealing with a number of abominations created by the Brotherhood.

With his men, he sent four individuals. None of the four showed the discipline of the Palace Guard, or even the various warriors of the royal armies. These four, would be by many called mercenaries. They are not at all like the many around them. None carried insignia indicating their loyalties. Only two of them carried shields at all. But these four, were requested by Laurinda by name. There was little he could do but comply with this strange request from the rightful heir of the throne.