One-Fifth Dragon

DRAGONS, ASSASSINS, AND NINJAS!

By a Baen Fantasy and Adventure Finalist and Indie Star

Cover by Dungeons and Dragons artist Todd Lockwood

They call themselves my found family, but they slaughtered my kin. Now, I will pay back the murderers in blood tenfold.

Their ruin is a mirror they polished themselves. They took me as a child and hammered me into a weapon.

They taught me the art of disappearing: how to slip through a room like a shadow at noon, how to dress a face in lies until no one recognizes the man beneath. They taught the small, hands-on cruelties: how to hide poison, how to slit a throat before the man can make a noise.

Most dangerous of all . . . they taught me patience. They taught me to never quit until the job was completed.

So let them sleep in their castles and whisper of safety. Let them keep their cleverness and secrets. I already know their sins. When darkness comes—and it will—I will be the thing beneath the floorboards, the breath on their necks, the quiet that becomes the scream. I will return what they took, multiplied by the cruelty they practiced.

Their hands built the blade.

Their choices sharpened it.

Their blood will be the prize.