Chapter 39 - The Maiden and the Assassins

"No!" The maiden couldn't suppress the surprise, and Dieter turned back, but it was too late. The blade was already buried between his ribs, and he still let out two deep moans, looking at her with an expression of surprise and pain, before collapsing to the side. Dead.

The other assassin, dark-bearded with grimy yellow teeth, grinned at her, and took another blade from his waist.

Alexa started stepping backward in fear, and when he came toward her she kicked the dead assassin's blade to the air, catching it right by the hilt.

The assassin was not impressed by her blade trick, and Alexa wondered how much he knew about her. Still advancing, the killer apparently intended to corner her, so Alexa couldn't waste time. With half-moon motions of her blade she tried to push him away and gain ground. He gave in, leaning back so as not to be hit, and Alexa seized the moment to quickly sneak into the ship's lower deck.

She needed to hide, and fast!

Unsure of who to trust, the maiden thought of rushing to the store parts, but knew that if she got trapped there, she would have little chance of getting out of the ship alive. Unless she could hide in a crate… But if she couldn't trust the crew, that wouldn't be a good idea either!

The maiden just threw an object into the basement, closing the hatch, and using her hands and legs, used the passageway bulkheads to climb to the overhead, her specialty after all. Tight space and darkness covered her, though her face was now covered with cobwebs older than Noah's ark.

She watched the yellow-toothed killer approach, drawn by the noise she made as bait. Alexa held her breath, to avoid being betrayed by her own anxiety, only hoping that the loud noise of her heart was only in her ears.

Suddenly, she felt a strange weight on her leg, and turned her head just a little backwards… A rat, and not a small-type rat, decided to use her body as a bridge as she was in the way.

'Oh Gosh oh oh oh!' Alexa held back, gathering the willpower to stay still, as it happened just as the assassin was under her. And the bastard decided to stop, looking back too. 'Mouse mouse, go away please, please! Don't bite me, please!'

As if listening to her thoughts, the bright-eyed creature squeaked and quickened its pace past her back and paused for a moment just around the maiden's neck!

Below him, another man, the third member of the group of assassins, apparently joined the first. They started talking in whispers, and Alexa soon realized that they were not Portuguese but Slavs. She didn't understand much of their dialect, but she could understand that one of them would investigate the basement while the other got rid of the corpses. At that moment the rat was on her head, deciding its next destination, and the maiden's hands tendons began to hurt badly from the excessive strain. Right now that her palms were almost completely healed! She really didn't know how much longer she could endure it up there.

Fortunately, the men split up, and the first killer entered the storage compartment while the other went back out onto the main deck.

Breathing out of her lungs, she tilted her head to one side, forcing the animal out of where it had decided to be a great nest. With a squeal the creature finally left her head, and Alexa slowly climbed off the ceiling, looking for a better place to hide.

If she could stay hidden until dawn, she might have a good chance of escape. Figuring that the thug who was on charge of getting rid of the corpses was really busy on deck, to keep his activities undiscovered, Alexa decided to risk going back there as it would be easier to get off the ship later.

Cautiously she managed to avoid him, and hid in the folds of one of the lowered sails, leaving only a small crack to peek from.

It seemed like an eternity, and every crack of the ship made her heart start to beat, until the sailors' voices began to be heard again, at dawn.

Why did everything sounded normal? However, they soon noticed something wrong, a boat was missing, and they also found bloodstains on the deck. A bell rang in alarm. But Alexa also noticed that they were already arriving at the port.

The maiden didn't think the assassins would have all left the ship without having found her. She had seen the face of only one of them, and most likely this was the one who had left the ship, as he knew she also had only two options: trying to continue the trip to England, or trying to escape after the ship docked.

But… what would she do?

Her little entourage was looking for her in the ship, with the help of the sailors, and Captain Diego Braga was shouting like a madman, already threatening the night watch for relaxing in its duties by being near the coast. They would be whipped. Three people were missing. The English messenger argued with the captain, demanding that he return to the port of Holstein because Lady Saskia had been kidnapped, but eventually someone shouted that they were seeing Holstein's flags in the port. A royal comitive was waiting at the village pier.

The captain ordered to dock at last; Alexa patiently waited, still hidden, now intrigued, as everyone else, about the motive of a royal entourage of the capital in the port. Had they discovered something?

As soon as they announced that the ramp was ready, the maiden quietly began to emerge from her hiding place. She crouched down and braced herself for a run up the ramp, but someone shouted,

"There! Near the main mast! A stowaway! Get him!"

Alexa was a little astonished that she hadn't recognized her, Lady Saskia whom they had been bowing to the day before, but then she remembered that she wore a bag-cap and men's clothes, and she certainly looked like a dirty 14-year-old boy!

Before the sailors came, the maiden simply fired on her run, zigzagging through them to the ramp. Later on she intended to dispel the misunderstandings; she just didn't want to risk taking an 'accidental stab in a stowaway urchin' at her last moment inside Philomena!

Her head hit something hard, and she almost fell back, but two hands held her in place, her head nestled in someone's solar plexus.

"Uh ?!" She looked up.