Prologue

My eyes were locked on his as they turned glassy and lifeless. And I felt nothing. And I did nothing. I just stood over his slumped figure and watched as his life flowed from him.

The knife clattered to the ground. It wasn't important anymore. I barely felt it leave my fingers.

He took his last shuddering breath and fell silent, and it was only then that I realised what I had done.

I killed a Turk.

His blood had soaked through my clothes, coating my hands and arms. I shivered suddenly, the warm liquid now freezing on my skin as I stood there looking over him. I didn't understand. He was a Turk. The best of the best - the elite. They killed us. We did not kill them.

I killed a Turk.

I turned calmly, and walked through the crowd and out of the main street. I ducked down an alley and kept walking until I saw the building that meant I was safe. I nudged the door open with my foot and walked into the dimly lit room, heading for the wash basin, thankful that no one was in.

I was still numb when I scrubbed the blood from my body. I barely remember stripping my clothes off and burning them in the yard. If my mother hadn't been watching silently in the shadows no one else would remember it either.

"You killed that Turk, didn't you." Her low tone rang through the silence and I jumped at her voice, spinning and trying to stand casually, my steel blue eyes staring into her own. I nodded curtly and moved to the chest by my bed, pulling out a fresh set of clothes and changing with my back to her. Every time I looked at her I wanted to run into her arms and cling to her whilst I sobbed out my guilt. But I couldn't. A White Snake never cried over spilt blood.