Chapter 2
Aislynn studied the task before her. The wall wasn’t as high as some she’d had to scale in the past, but it was more difficult. The bottom part of the wall was constructed from the stone typical to the region – rough and easy to scale. The upper part, however, was covered in cedar shakes, which wouldn't provide hand- and footholds with anything related to the same ease as the lower part.
Her path planned, she started up the wall, easily scaling up the first and second storeys, as she had expected. She paused briefly on a window ledge before continuing. From this point-of-view, the next part of her climb seemed a lot more difficult. It looked like she’d have to hang on to the bottom of the shakes, trusting the majority of her weight to her fingers, while wedging her feet up underneath the shakes a bit lower down.
Aislynn started upwards again, more slowly this time. She tried to reach up as high as she could to minimize the number of movements she needed to make to reach the roof. Sound was likely to carry more easily while she moved up the wood, and she didn't want anyone to hear her. She stretched her left hand up and grabbed on to the next shake, then raised her right foot to continue moving upwards.
Once she settled her weight, Aislynn reached up with her right hand, stretching for the lip of the roof, but just as she grabbed on, her right foot slipped, leaving her dangling by her hands alone. She swung a little, smacking into the wall and knocking the breath from her body, but her years of training wouldn't let her fall. She clung to the wall and slowly pulled her feet back under her, gaining purchase on the shakes below.
Once she had her weight settled again, she gave one final pull, and she was up and over the lip of the wall and lying on the flat roof of the building. She lay there for a moment, gathering her thoughts and getting ready to move on to the next part of her task. This first leg of the assignment had been the easiest, just like usual.
Now she needed to get from this roof to the one across the street and slightly below. Flipping her long brown braid back over her shoulder, she studied the situation in front of her. Her target was a building with only two floors, so she had a bit of a fall to handle, but she had chosen this building specifically with her destination in mind. The street was narrow here, and the buildings tightly packed, so she should be able to jump across the gap with relative ease.
Aislynn backed up to the farthest edge of the roof, and took a running leap off the building, keeping her arms extended away from her body as she fell and trying to angle her descent properly. At the last instant, she pulled her legs up into her chest and bent her arms slightly at the elbow, catapulting her body into a somersault as she landed and using the momentum to roll back up onto her feet. Unfortunately, the landing was a bit loud. She froze immediately, listening for any indication that anybody had heard her. Hearing nothing, she moved on.
Nearly there, she thought to herself as she moved carefully to the edge of the roof. Her final target was a second floor window, which was open to the summer breeze. She hooked her legs over the edge of the roof and leaned back, reaching down the wall for the top of the window frame. She stretched her fingers out, extending the whole of her long, wiry five-and-a-half foot frame, stretching and reaching, until she finally touched the rough wood of the frame. With a deep breath, she kicked her legs free and started into the flip that would bring her into the room, and to her target.
Suddenly, Aislynn felt a horrible burning pain in her left arm and she was falling, having lost her grip on the window frame. The ground hurtled toward her as she writhed in agony, not able to get her weight under her properly.
“Concentrate!”
The voice rang out of nowhere and seemed to wake her from her pain-induced frozen state, and she managed to align herself just as she reached the ground, rolling into an awkward tumble. This time she wasn’t graceful or controlled; she was in too much pain to care if someone caught her in the middle of the street, so she just lay there, panting. She heard footsteps and felt herself picked up from the ground as she slipped into unconsciousness.
The King's Assassin Page 4
