Part 2, Chapter 40

Jiangou waits for news…

Ch 40

Jiangou sat in his tent, head in his hands, as he waited for news of the assault on the God of War’s camp. Guilt knotted his stomach into a small ball of pain. He didn’t want to fight his uncle. He hadn’t wanted to displace his brother. He only wanted his child and his wife to be safe.

He heard movement from the front of the tent. “Is it done?” He asked the silence. 

“It will be soon.”

The voice was unfamiliar. Jiangou was moving before his brain had registered what was happening. The assassin’s knife slid past his shoulder and cracked the delicate carvings on the back of his chair. Jiangou drew his sword from where it had been laying next to the desk. He held it in front of him with a confidence he didn’t feel.

“Who sent you?” He asked, he knew there would be no answer, but the words seemed to be pulled out of him by narrative expectations.

As anticipated the man didn’t respond. Not a single muscle in his incredibly bland face twitched. 

Jiangou swore and threw the ink stone at him. The assassin deflected it easily and began to move slowly forward. Jiangou screamed for his guards and edged his way to the tent opening. He almost tripped over the out flung arm of his personal page, who lay still and silent just outside the tent. 

In the moment that Jiangou stumbled and looked down the assassin moved. He lunged at Jiangou, his knife cutting into his target’s sword arm. The corner of his lip twitched upward. 

Jiangou barely hung onto his sword as he turned and ran, expecting a knife in his back at any moment. He darted between the tents, screaming for someone, anyone. It felt like lifetimes, but was only moments before he saw people moving towards him. He screamed again and right as he was about to step into the main barracks area he felt the pain well up in his back.

His last scream died in his throat as his soldiers swarmed around him and into the darkness after the assassin.