"Anyone who ever said Shahid was a poor excuse of a brother never met him."
-Altayih
This was it, end of the line and the beginning of either the first and last worst mistake he would ever make or the start of a great one. Either way it would be the most important decision in his short life.
No one had even looked at him when Shahid passed through the gates and into Iuny nor questioned him when he wandered around memorizing the streets and alleys one by one. He had decided to take someones advice and make a better plan but he was no rogue let alone sneaky by nature.
Quite a few times he had tripped over himself when someone rounded a bend, his nerves were already frayed and the spear in his hand trembled a little as he walked. This was entirely new to him and try as he might to convince himself that the people he was passing were not spies it did little to help calm his nerves.
Too much fear and uncertainty remained for him to focus on the task at hand so he walked on and on till well into the night. Any light cast by torches made his heart skip a beat as he ducked into any nook or cranny he could find to escape notice by the handful of guards patrolling the streets.
Stopping himself and sitting down in an alley Shahid let out a low, heavy sigh. Skittering about the streets was not going to get him any closer to his sister. But he was shaking so much he doubted he could walk to the wealthier area of Iuny and begin searching.
Forcing himself to stand he held onto the spear and tried to squeeze the life out of the lifeless pole before returning to the streets in order to make a straight line for where he suspected his sister was still being kept.
He would not be stealing anything more than he already had: a hammer and chisel to break any bindings off his sister assuming she was at all chained. Most likely not due to the number of guards and his own experience as a slave, they simply locked them into a room with a window so small it barely let any air or light in.
One or two guards would stand at the door to make certain no one got out, or in. Beyond that he would have to investigate further and pray that whichever house she was held in would not have too many guards.
But which mansion? Wandering down the single street that ran the length of the wealthy area of Iuny would get him into no small amount of trouble since his former "masters" lived here as well. Assuming they could even remember him well enough to identify him.
There were still too many to search and he knew that attempting so many break ins would get him caught long before he found her. Already a plan had formed and as he walked and scanned the buildings, guided only by moonlight. Shahid found what he was looking for: a concealed vantage point.
Climbing into it was a task and a half but after a few attempts he managed to scale the crumbling rampart and slipped into the abandoned tower. Well it was almost abandoned, the guards used half of it, the half that had not sagged dangerously thus granting him a wonderful if precarious view of all the houses and mansions below.
With nothing more to do but watch and wait he listened to the guards gamble, fight and argue all night long. The change of the guard came at dawn after they had long ago fallen asleep from boredom thus granting him a chance to sleep. When their replacements arrived they were roused from their slumber and wandered off while the new group picked up where the last left off.
As the sun yanked itself into the sky and the moon disappeared below the horizon Shahid watched the buildings below with bated breath. One unfortunate reality became apparent: in the darkness he had not realized he could not in fact see everything clearly from here, but he could see well enough, he hoped.
Well enough to see anyone who walked the narrow street at least which mattered a great deal because if they had his sister out on collection or disposal duty she would have to walk it. This meant he could watch to see where she came and went from quite easily or at least narrow things down.
What would he do if they kept her inside all day? How long would he wait? Whatever food he had left was already rationed and some saved aside for her when they made a run for it but how long would that be?
As long as it takes.
Shahid jumped a little as someone was slammed into the crumbling walls of the tower but calmed down as the drunken brawlers moved away. While he kept watching the buildings below no other guards came to break up the fighting, they simply kept swinging and screaming till they either passed out or collapsed from exhaustion.
He wondered how this town had managed to survive so long with such inept guards.
Leaning forward a smile crept across his face as a familiar form appeared from a mansion and began clearing the garden of twigs and leaves. She worked her way around with a basket quickly cleaning everything before using a brush to dust down the marble statue then polish it with a cloth.
Once in a while someone would step out and say something that made her flinch but otherwise she was left alone and from what he could see there were no shackles except the metal band around her neck that he was familiar with.
He wondered what was being done with the shackles the smith in Wete took off of Altayih and himself. Last he had heard Sefu was going to give them over to that creature at some point for whatever reason. So long as he never laid eyes on them again it did not matter.
All day he watched her bustle about before disappearing inside then never coming back out again. Shahid now knew which mansion to break into and even knew how many guards there were, their patrol path and timing.
When night finally fell the guards in the tower changed to the previous lot of gamblers judging by the familiar voices, if someone stormed the room they would all be dead before they had a chance to even call out considering how lax they were.
Carefully climbing down the wall he traced his steps carefully to the small mansion Alriyah was being held in. Moving around the walls he found the lowest point and after listening for the guard laid his spear against the wall then took a steadying breath and jumped.
His hands barely caught the top of the wall and with effort pulled himself up so he straddled the small, narrow ledge. Grabbing the tip of the spear carefully he lifted it over the wall and then slid down the other side quietly, after a quick look at his surroundings he made a mad rush across the garden to the mansion's back door.
Everything was locked up tightly of course save the small windows. Unfortunately, he could not fit through them due to the elaborate wood pattern that acted like bars.
This left him with only one possibility: wait on a guard to leave the building and knock them out cold. Already he was slipping back into that predictable movement but he had no alternatives at this point so he waited.
And waited, when he was almost ready to give up the door he sat next to ground a little before opening. The guard that stepped out shut the door behind them without ever bothering to look down at Shahid's crouching form.
A heavy *thwak* filled the air as the shaft of the spear collided with the guards head dropping them unconscious to the ground in a crumpled heap. Using the hammer had been a possibility but killing the guard would only make them hunt that much harder. At least this way the only thing injured would be their pride and that would not encourage them to tear apart the city or surrounding area to find his sister or himself.
Pulling a key off their prone form he slipped inside quickly as the guard never had the chance to lock the door behind them. Somewhat worrying however was that there was only one key and he knew that there would be at least one more to wherever the slaves were kept.
From his observation that meant five slaves total, two male, three female.
Shahid tried his best to walk as quietly as possible so his hooves would not clack on the polished tile floor but it only muffled the sounds of his hoofsteps. Inch by inch he worked his way through the building and towards what he had assumed were the slave quarters.
Instead he found a series of closet like rooms that were heavily barred from the outside and locked, whoever owned her apparently believed in giving them their own "private" rooms. Was it out of kindness or something else?
Without a key there was no way inside but neither did he know which door held his sister. On the plus side one room was clearly unlocked and empty as the slave was who knew where, maybe assigned to some menial task for the night.
An idea popped into his head as he looked at the last four doors and moving along quietly made soft rasping noises on the doors and listened. One by one the occupant woke up and mumbled aloud but the muffled voices were not the one he was listening for.
Stopping his rasping the moment he heard them they each mumbled something before going back to bed. Standing before the last possibility he hunkered down and with his ear to the keyhole prayed before making the noise.
Hearing a familiar sounding voice brought a smile to his face before leaning up and whispering through the hole. He had finally found her and after a great scramble on the other side assured her that he was going to get her out somehow.
Lifting the bar off the door and setting it aside he placed the key into the hole and prayed. What he got was entirely the opposite of what he had hoped for.
Having forgotten that there was more than one guard in the mansion had caught up with him as a well armed figure stepped into the hallway before freezing. The two stared at each other a moment, the one holding an oil lamp the other hunkered down somewhat with a key jammed into a door.
Shahid twisted the key to no avail much to his sisters bereftment but his actions snapped the bored guard out of their stupor and a yell filled the air.
"Thief!"
In a split second a million thoughts crashed through his mind, he desperately wanted to stay, to fight and free his sister. However, the words and warnings of another overpowered them causing him to let go of the key. An act that made his heart sink and some part of him die inside as he turned and bolted hoping there would be an exit even if he had to make one.
The mansion came to life as voices yelled out and onward his legs drove him through the halls before making a final bend and dropping low Shahid waited on the guard. As they rounded the bend he took their legs out from under them with a short sweep of the spear and broke into a run back the way he had come.
Despite their fall the guard managed to not drop the oil lamp and with a quick movement drew a dagger and rolled towards Shahid as he tried to move past. He jumped in time to avoid having his leg slashed open and hit the floor running for his life as the angry guard screamed in rage.
Whatever misfortune had looked upon him this night smiled this time as he turned the last bend and blasted out the same door he had used to get in. Racing across the garden with the rest of the guards on his hooves he forced his legs to go faster as a spear howled past his shoulder.
Casting his spear aside he made a wild, running leap towards the shallow part of the wall and with an impact that drove the wind from his lungs slammed into it but managed to pull himself over.
Crashing into the ground on the other side he staggered a moment before tearing off in full flight down the street and back into the shadows. There would be no going through the gates now, he had to get out some other way.
Even now the howls of anger were drawing a great deal of unwanted attention as the usually lax town guards that wandered in a stupor came to life, there was something going on and they all wanted to share in part of the glory.
This of course would mean his head if they succeeded, in which case what the creature said would come true in that he would be no good to his sister if dead.
If. Shahid had no plans on dying tonight, he had to try again but that meant getting out alive first. Slamming past the two guards at the tiny gate leading out of the wealthy area had been easy but now things were getting harder as more poured out to cut him off.
Not wearing any armor or indeed much of anything at all meant he was at least staying ahead of them somewhat but they were slowly making ground on him.
Pain lanced through his leg as they pounded harder and harder in an effort to get ahead of his growing army of pursuers. A few more objects whistled past in the darkness when he realized he had been hit by an errant arrow. That they were firing wildly into the darkness despite being in a town spoke volumes to him of their carelessness.
As the pain grew worse and worse his pace began to slow as he ducked down an alley and then started to duck and dodge down them in the hopes of loosing them or buying more time. When the plan to memorize the streets and alleys worked he stopped to examined his injury.
It was now only a matter of time before they caught and killed him, he was bleeding, in horrible pain and he needed two legs to run not one. With the guards closing in rapidly Shahid left the arrow where it was because pulling it out would only result in a howl of pain that would be the death of him.
Grinding his teeth a bad idea came to mind but it was the best one so far for escaping. Taking off at a run despite the pain he hoped he could suffer through it just long enough.
Getting past two guards had been somewhat easy but the blood trail brought them back around quickly and the pursuit was on once more. Pace slowing he half ran, half limped towards the one place he did not want to go back to: the docks.
Objects whistled past once more as shouts of alarm rang out, they knew where he was going and what he was planning. Luck was on his side tonight however even as Shahid's pace lagged severely while he limped haggardly down the wooden gangway.
The sound of hooves pounding on the wood were dangerously close when he reached the end and kept going off into the darkness. He made no attempt to swim or float but instead sank a bit before grabbing onto one of the supports.
His lungs cried out for air from both the pain of wanting to scream and for lack of oxygen but he held himself under the water before slowly slipping under a moored raft. Following its flat bottom he prayed he was moving out and into deeper water before reaching its edge then slowly brought himself up.
Just poking his nose through the water he took a slow, steadying breath before pulling his head out enough to look around. Guards swarmed the docks, their torches casting light out across the water. His own location was illuminated well enough that if one were to look they would see him.
Slipping back under he held his breath again and waited till the illumination above moved away. Surfacing only to take short breaths he waited for an eternity to end allowing him to surface and look into the small raft he clung too.
Looking inside he thought about freeing it and floating away but he knew a missing boat would be too obvious. Instead he worked his way over to a larger boat loaded with cargo. Slipping onto the ship he searched for some rags and after finding them gagged himself and removed the arrow before tying the wound up. Taking one last look around Shahid hobbled to the edge of the boat and slipped back into the water.
It would be a long night of floating and paddling to get away, harder still with an injured leg but at least he was still alive. However, it also meant his sister would remain a slave that much longer and now that they knew someone had tried to free her they might do something to her.
Or perhaps not, the guard yelled "thief" after all. Maybe they would both get lucky and the owners would make the mistake of thinking a dumb thief had gotten in and tried to steal things... A thief armed with a spear.
Shahid needed help, but no one came to mind as he floated along with the current driving him farther away from Iuny.
As the lights faded away along with the last few voices to be replaced with the sound of moving water one did come to mind. Would a mercenary even work for free? He had already given him a spear, now lost forever and advice. Could he ask for help after having been given so much?
He had to, his sisters life depended on it now but it would take days to get there in his current state and he could only guess how long to heal.
Closing his eyes he let out a pained sigh, there were no other options left except to find the mercenary and ask for help. Free help, as he could not pay for the services of a mercenary but all of which assumed that he would even lift a finger.
Grave doubts crossed his mind but he had to try something because this was not going to work otherwise. They would expect someone to try at some point now and he had no idea what he was doing or even how to do it. Everything was a wild guess that had so far worked for the most part but also nearly got him killed.
His sisters freedom now hinged on convincing the mercenary and probably Altayih to help in a suicide mission that he could not pay for. He was doomed.