Chapter Fourteen; Leanunya

Leanunya walked along a dirt packed road headed for the capital city. She knew she was close and subconsciously picked up pace. She wanted to arrive before dark, if not sooner.

She walked swiftly, soon arriving before the city gates. They were huge and dominaniring steel gates unlike the wooden city gates other cities had. After she paid the entrance fee she walked through the gates.

The gates were several feet thick built for resisting against sieges. There were also several notches in the walls for archers. The capital city was built to be easy to defend but hard to attack. That also included the fact it was built on the edge of a cliff on the far end of the city.

She looked around as she walked into the city going through the thick crowds of people. The place was packed with people and stores truly showing the city's wealth. Leanunya counted the number of guards she could see in the city discreetly. She didn't like the numbers she could see around and knew there would be more in the castle. She was unsure if she should attempt to try killing the king this year or later.

While she was here though she figured to go to the capital library and see if she can find any maps on the castle and capital city layout. She headed off for the library walking swiftly even as the suns set. She would gather as much information as she could before making her move. The last time she had gotten away due to pure luck.

Leanunya wouldn't leave her life up to fate. She was going to use her research and skills to get in and out. She wasn't going to let herself die just because she had been foolish and believed in her own luck.

Leanunya made it to the library and went in. She was extremely glad the library had only a few people moving about in it. She went deeper into the large library with thousands of selves filled with books on just about anything one could hope to find.

She started to look for the history of the capital city figuring that was where she could find the maps for the castle and city. She walked through the library looking through the books on the ground level but even after several hours of looking she still had no luck.

She sighed and went over to a librarian who was repairing the binding of an old looking book. She had already spent several hours in the library but had not yet even covered the entire first floor of the library as she looked. She only had the option to ask someone who knew where she could find the books she wanted.

"Excuse me, could you tell me where the capital city's history is?" The librarian looked up at her and spoke, "It's on the second floor on the east side wall." She nodded, "Thank you."

Leanunya headed upstairs to the second floor and headed to the east wall. She reached the wall and found the section of books about the history of the capital city. She started to look through the books glad the library had lamps all about the library making it easy to see what she was looking at. Though it did help she had very good eyesight so even if there was minimal light she could still see everything around her but would have some trouble reading.

She looked through the books on the shelves looking for a map on the capital city and the castle. She doubted she would find anything about the castle but anything she found would be more than what she has currently.

Leanunya spent the night in the library looking for any maps but still hadn't found what she was looking for and when sunlight shone through a nearby window she left to get some food. She went to a nearby food stand and bought a bowl of rice and meat. She would have swiped it but there were far too many guards nearby and so she just bought it and ate silently.

She finished her food and left the clay bowl before going back to the library to continue her search. There were hundreds of books on the capital city and going through them all was taking quite some time to find any maps.

——

Leanunya continued her search throughout the day and back into the night. It was close to the middle of the night when she finally discovered a book with a map with the layout of the city excluding the castle. She smiled and started to study the map sitting on the floor near a lamp.

She suddenly sensed danger and without thinking rolled to the side dropping the book. She looked up to where she had been sitting and saw Wolferan. She bounced to her feet and ran for the nearest exit which was the window. She heard a curse from behind her even as she jumped through the window the glass shattering.

She landed hard outside but didn't bother to look back as she rolled to her feet and ran. She could sense danger close by even as she ran as swiftly as she could. She had never been so close to being caught as that back in the library. A split second later and she would have been caught. She was thanking the heavens for her fast reflexes.

Leanunya ran swiftly ducking in and out of alleys. She finally stopped running, panting needing to rest a moment as she looked around still sensing danger. She needed to get out of here.

She looked around panting to catch her breath back. She felt a strong sense of danger and tried to jump to the side but was a moment too slow and was hit in the back bringing her to the ground. She heard a snap and felt unbearable pain in her right wing and on her chest and was unable to tell what had snapped.

She yelped from the pain before she gritted her teeth and rolled out from under the weight on her back. She stood unsteadily and glared at the culprit, Wolferan. She growled pinning her ears at him barring with the pain.

"Give it up. You are not getting away this time, Silver-eyed demon." Leanunya spat out, "Go to hell!"

She drew her dagger facing him. She knew she had no chance to win but that was not her goal. Her goal was to try to injure him and have a better chance of escaping. She had to give it her all to escape if she didn't she would be caught and that'd be the end of it.