There was one person I could ask for help, but she was young and I didn’t want to endanger her. However, she was also strong and was well able to assist.
Witch assassins are not like spooks; traditionally they do not take apprentices. But I am not like previous assassins. I trained a girl in secret. Her name?
Thorne.
That beast has arms strong enough to tear you limb from limb, a fanged mouth big enough to bite off your head. What chance have you against such a foe? None at all; you are as good as dead. I know the answer; it is simple: kill it from a distance!
THORNE SOUGHT ME out five years ago when she was just ten years old. I was sitting cross-legged under an oak tree close to Bareleigh village and meditating on my next task: to seek out and kill something that wasn’t human. In the forest northeast of Pendle a bear had turned rogue and had killed three humans in the last month. There were few bears left in the County but it had to die.
I was not aware of the approach of danger because I did not recognize it in one so young.
The child came very close to me and kicked me hard on the thigh with the toe of her pointy shoe. In a second I was on my feet. I lifted her by her hair and dangled her so that her face was close to mine.
‘If you ever do that again,’ I warned her, ‘I will slice off your foot!’
‘I’m brave,’ she said. ‘Don’t you agree? Who else would dare to kick the witch assassin?’
I looked at her more closely. She was just a slip of a thing with hardly any meat on her bones, but she had a determination in her eyes that was very unusual in one so young. It was as if something much older and more powerful glared out of that young face. But I wasn’t going to take any nonsense from her.
‘You’re more stupid than brave!’ I retorted. ‘Be off with you. Go back to your mother – there’ll be chores for you to do.’
‘Don’t have a mother or a father. I live with my ugly uncle. He beats me every day.’
‘Do you kick him?’
‘Yes – and then he beats me even harder.’
I looked at the girl again, noting the bruises on her arms and the dark mark under her left eye. ‘What do you want of me, child?’
‘I would like you to kill my uncle for me.’
I laughed and set her down on the ground, then knelt so that we were eye to eye once more. ‘If I killed your uncle, who would then feed and clothe you?’
‘I will work. I will feed myself. I will become a witch assassin like you.’
‘To become the witch assassin of our clan you will need to kill me. Are you capable of that? You’re just a child.’
Traditionally, each year three witches were trained to challenge the incumbent clan assassin. But no one had confronted me for many years. After slaying the fifteenth pretender, I had put a stop to the practice, having grown sick and weary of slaying challengers. It was a foolish waste of lives that was gradually bleeding away the strength of the Malkin clan.
‘Soon I’ll be as big as you but I won’t kill you,’ the girl said. ‘You will die one day, and then I’ll be ready to replace you. The clan will need a strong assassin. Train me!’
‘Go home, child. Go back and kick your ugly uncle even harder. I will not train you.’
‘Then I will come back and kick you again tomorrow!’
With that, she left, and I thought no more about it, but she returned the next day and came to stand before me. I was in my forge, sharpening a new blade.
‘Did you kick your ugly uncle again?’ I asked, unable to prevent a smile creeping across my face as I rested the completed blade on the anvil.
The child did not reply. She stepped forward and tried to kick me again, but I was ready. I slapped her hard and threw her down into the dirt. I wasn’t angry, though I’d had enough of her foolishness and wanted to show her that I was not to be trifled with. But the girl was stubborn and – yes – she was brave. She attempted another kick. This time I snatched up my blade and pointed it at her throat.
‘Before the end of the day, child, this new blade will taste blood! Take care that it isn’t yours!’
Then I threw her over my shoulder and carried her off towards the forest.
It was late afternoon when I found the tracks of the bear; dusk when I reached its lair, a cave in a wooded hillside. There were bones outside, scattered across the loam. Some of them were human.
I could hear the animal scuffling about inside its den. It soon caught our scent and moments later emerged on all fours. It was big, brown and fierce; blood was smeared across its snout and paws. It had been eating but still looked hungry. It glared at us for a moment, and I stared back hard and hissed at it to provoke it. It reared up on its hind legs and gave a terrible bellow of anger.
I set the girl down on the ground at my side. ‘What’s your name?’ I demanded.
‘Thorne Malkin.’
I handed her the blade I’d forged and sharpened that morning. ‘Well, Thorne, go and kill that bear for me!’ I commanded.
She stared at the bear, which was now lumbering towards us, its mouth open, ready to charge. For the first time I saw fear in her eyes.
‘It’s too big,’ she said.
‘Nothing is too big to be killed by a witch assassin. Slay that bear for me and I will train you. Then one day you will take my place.’
‘What if it kills me?’
I smiled. The bear was now getting very close. ‘In that case I will wait until the bear starts to eat you. Once it is distracted I will kill it.’
Something happened then that was completely unexpected. By now the child was shaking with fear and looked ready to flee at any second. This was exactly what I wanted. My intention was to cure her of the folly of wishing to become a witch assassin.
And she did run, but not in the direction I expected.
Thorne lifted the blade, gave a yell and ran straight towards the bear.
When I drew and hurled another blade, she was just seconds away from death. I rarely miss and my aim was perfect, the dagger burying itself up to the hilt in the bear’s left eye. It staggered and started to fall – but Thorne was still sprinting towards it. As she stabbed it in the left hind leg, the dead animal collapsed on top of her.
She was lucky not to have been killed, or at least seriously hurt by such a weight falling on her. When I dragged her out, she was covered in bear blood but otherwise unhurt. I had been impressed by the courage displayed in one so young; she deserved to walk away unscathed.