He lay in bed for hours, but sleep didn't come.
He hadn't expected it to after all someone just tried to kill him
Shen Yao sat up in the dark of his room and looked at his bandaged wrist and thought about all the ways the night could have gone differently. A fraction slower on his side and it wouldn't have just been a small cut. The original's body — the one he'd inherited was weak and neglected for years but due to persistent training it had been rebuilding for weeks.
I wouldn't be sitting here; he thought him fast.
He clenched his fist feeling the pull of the bandage as the cut opened again blood spreading around its layers the cloth losing its original color.
In his previous life the attacks had come frequently and differently — boardroom maneuvers, legal pressure, the slow careful dismantling of everything he'd built by people who smiled at him across conference tables. His father had been creative about it. Patient even the attacks becoming more direct as time went on
He shook his head.
Not now, he told himself he couldn't be thinking about all this not now
He stood up.
The room felt smaller than it had yesterday not because of anything else but the number of guards that had gathered his courtyard — rows of guards moving in careful formation across his courtyard surveying every corner their footsteps regular and deliberate a rhythm of determination in every step they took
He'd seen the expression on Xi Shu's face when they found him. Shen Miao's. On Old Shen's — the old general's jaw tight in the way of someone controlling something he didn't want visible.
Just because you survived an assassination this time doesn't mean you should be careless, Xi Shu matter-of-factly
I'm a general, he'd replied he turned to his grandfather and Xi Shu who were trying their best to look at everywhere but him you canpretend not to hear me butit's the truth
Shen Yao tried to reason with them, but it was as if his words went through one ear and left in the other drifting away with the wind and so the three resolved to lock him in the room claiming it's for his own safety and he can always deal with it in the morning.
I appreciate the concern; he stood by the window watching the guard rotations through his window. but i need to go to the far east court yard
He needed to see the prisoner. More precisely — because he got this feeling, he needed to see the prisoner before anyone else got to them first.
The thought had been sitting at the back of his mind since they brought him back to his room and told him to rest. Someone had sent an assassin to his courtyard in the middle of the night and on top of that it hadn't been a day since he returned to the capital, and someone had chosen a grand way of welcoming him back. Too specific not to be informed. That meant someone had been watching his movements. But the question was who
from planted soldiers, he thought. to physical threats which he dealt with he knew they would notice soon but what he didn't expect was that they would strike this fast he had to be on guard
He needed to know who it was how was keeping an eye on him but for that to happen he had to go meet the captured assassin who may, or May does not have information
He watched the guards for a while looking for any gap any loophole he could use to his advantage to escape but nothing, he couldn't find any he glanced around seeing no path and was pondering on whether knocking everyone out would suffice he shook his head not too many people. as his eyes moved around his brain pondering on other possible solutions, he saw it the guards on duty had changed
A shift change, his eyes now absorbing the information it received, tracking the pattern. They rotate at the hour. The gap between the departure of one patrol and the arrival of the next is approximately forty seconds.
He had forty seconds; he was excited and quickly shrugged on his outer robe. Picked up his sword. And waited. Waiting for the right time and it didn't disappoint the shift change came an hour later as expected the opening came fast and closed as quickly as it opened
Shen Yao breathed out slowly — he felt his body lighten as he adjusted his breathing to avoid being detected —he felt the world around him shift, but he didn't have time to dwell on that feeling and so he moved
Performing Shadow walk he climbed out the window and with a swift flip landed on the roof which accepted his weight without sound.
Landing on his heels quietly — a technique that had taken two weeks of early mornings drills to feel natural and felt natural now. The night air was cold against his face. Below him the guards moved in their careful patterns, unaware.
Thirty seconds, he counted the time as he glanced down at the rotation of guards, crossing the inner courtyard he jumped down landing on the compound then with a swift tilt he blended into the shrubs barely missing a pair of guards that had just turned the corridor. They were silently talking about what just happened and for a minute Shen Yao pondered on whether knocking them out was an option, but it would be burdensome if someone found them but then again, they were moving really slow he tossed that idea to the back of his mind.
Shen Yao stayed still not making an inch until the sound of footsteps gradually faded away then he shot out of the corridor at the fastest speed before spearing straight to the outer courtyard
The outer courtyard was less defended — the logic of whoever had organized the security placing the density of protection closest to his room and trusting the outer layer to general vigilance. A reasonable decision. Not quite right
He moved through the gaps with the patience and speed — fast when the path was clear, absolutely motionless when it wasn't, the guards passing close enough that he could have reached out and touched them, but he didn't he couldn't afford to alert anyone not right now when the task he came for was still not done yet
The prisoner's courtyard. An open and free courtyard separate from the main house but not too far off to make movement easy the walls were coated black inlaid with bars surrounding the walls in all directions, a place far away where the Shen couple used to keep enemy to be executed by the emperor before they were taken to the royal cells.
He landed in it with the particular relief of someone who has completed a complicated calculation correctly.
Looked around.
Empty.
He frowned.
The space that should have contained at minimum four guards and one restrained prisoner contained nothing — just the quiet of an unoccupied courtyard and the particular quality of silence that lingered eerily.
Did Grandfather station all the guards in my residence, he thought his brow furrowing That's— not possible he pushed the thought away.
He walked forward hands already on his hilt prepared. He felt a bad premonition before he reached the door — the specific instinct of something close to danger but not sure of what kind. He slowed his breathing and his pace his eyes scanning the shadows.
Reaching for the handle his instinct basically raised sirens in his head and even with that opposition he pushed open the door to the side and stepped in the opposite direction immediately as if his body felt something approach
An arrow hit the wall where his head had been a few minutes ago when he pushed the door in then took a glance in moving aside dodging another arrow this one perhaps aiming for his heart hit lower than the first.
Three, he registered and jumped back creating some distance, his sword already in his hand. Two new arrivals and the original prisoner.
The prisoner wasn't restrained anymore it would actually be more accurate to say he was dead perhaps silenced to prevent any loose ends
Of course, he thought. Of course they did.
The one with the bow had a new arrow knocked before he'd finished the thought.
He dodged again the arrow barely scraping his cheek as it left a scratch on his face