Limits

Chapter 44

We traveled whole day according to the map and late in the afternoon, we finally managed to arrive at the village. I was a bit nervous when it came to Shelly. I didn't want anyone to see it because people then can recognise me. I had to either smuggle Shelly somehow inside or make it wait outside. The later was much more simple than the former.

I said to Shelly "You will have to wait 2 or 3 days for me. It's too hard to smuggle you into the village without anyone noticing". Shelly was not happy about that and pulled on my trousers. I said "There is no way around that. I will return for you, I promise". Shelly seemed to be reluctant to let go but after struggling a bit, it managed to calm down and agreed to that.

Before I parted ways with Shelly, I said "Hide somewhere near but make sure that hunters cannot find you. If someone tries to attack you, just run. I will be back in couple of days and we shall meet in this area". Shelly nodded its head and I left towards the Grasshill Village.

At the entrance to the village I noticed couple of guards. The people were coming in and going out of the village constantly. I looked at the behaviours of different people and noticed some paters. Usually wealthy people were not stopped and pheasants or poor people were stopped once in a while. The guard asked these type of people some questions which I could only assume were about reason for entry and so on.

The entrance was too far from my location to be able to hear the actual questions but due to situation and the people that were stopped, I could kind of guess what type of questions they would ask. After watching people going in and out for about 30 minutes, I decided to copy a behaviour of a miner. Miner was not wealthy but as a worker that contributed for the village they were rarely searched or questioned.

I didn't have a pickaxe but not every miner that walked through the gate had. It was the air and look of a miner I was after. I used some soil to make my hands as well as my face dirty. Then I copied the airs of a miner. It wasn't very difficult after all the training I did and the most important aspects were tiredness but also sturdiness. Not in a sense of a lot of muscles but in a sense that each step taken was not shaky even if the miner was tired.

With that set up, I went forward to cross the gate. At the gate, one of the guards looked at me but then averted his sight. He believed that I was a miner and therefore gave me a break. I was now inside the village and had one thing I had to do. Find the place where this so called young master lived at.

I didn't believe it would be difficult, after all the whole village knew about this cerebration. After searching for a while, I found the place where Senty and her future husband lived. I didn't immediately infiltrate it. I wanted to spend some time to learn the movements of guards and gain better understanding of the surroundings.

I watched the guards that were patrolling the mansion and noticed a pattern after about an hour. The guards would do one or two circles around the mansion and then stop in front of the main gate to speak with the guards on duty there.

I could use this to sneak in. If I had to deal with 2 guards instead of 4, it would be much more simple. I also couldn't eliminate the other guards because the ones at the main entrance would suspect something. I would have to sneak in while only 2 guards were at the main entrance and also when the other patrolling guards were behind the mansion.

I suspected that there might be some people with similar skills to that of the guy I killed that used to monitor me in the Horseplain Village. I would just have to watch out for them. The first thing was to infiltrate the mansion and find out the layout as well as location of several people. I needed to know where the so called young master's bedroom was and where was Senty's bedroom. It would also help to know where was the chief's bedroom as well as other rooms that I would like to avoid.

Knowing the layout would also help me with my escape route, I wouldn't have to run aimlessly in case I was found out. When I saw the guards leave, I waited for couple of minutes and then used speak as well as some trees to jump over the tall fence that surrounded the mansion.

I was going the opposite direction to that of the patrolling guards. That meant I would encounter them sooner or later. I needed to hide or at least find a place before they can spot me. I searched the area near me and found a small orchard not far away from the fence that I jumped over.

I hid in the trees of the orchard and waited for the patrol to pass me. It took about 10 minutes for them to get there and it would take another 5 to get to the main entrance, where they would converse with the other two guards a bit.

After they left, I moved towards the mansion. There were other stationary guards that guarded other entrances to the mansion. The security was quite good here but I guessed that this was the case due to the people living in this mansion. There was no easy entry to the mansion, so I would need to take care of one guard. I circled the mansion and saw couple of doors protected by guards. The problem was that the patro would be able to spot the missing guard if I took care of him, doesn't matter which door he guarded.

I would have to bypass the guards which if I could meld into the shadows would be very easy or find another way in. There were some windows at the ground floor of the mansion, but all of them were closed, I had no equipment to climb to the 2nd or 3rd floor where some windows were opened.

My options were very limited here. I assumed that during the day, a lot of windows would be open but at the same time, loads of people would be around. If they had so many guards which was 8 and that was only outside the mansion. I had no way of knowing how many guards were there inside.

The next day, Rand and others would arrive and my timeframe would get even shorter. I just needed to do the poison and that was that. I decided to rest for now and return very early in the morning. I would watch the mansion and decide my course of action.

I knew that Rand and others would not arrive in the morning, so I still had loads of time. If worse comes to worst, I still had time during the wedding ceremony which would be held in couple of days. For now I need to rest and be ready tomorrow. If I can't find a way to get inside or it's too risky, I will need to do something at the ceremony otherwise my plans would go to waste.