Myra inhaled deeply, the cool air rushing into her nose brought the familiar stench of Venice. She sighed &, peering from under the hang of her hood, jumped from the church steeple, slipping into the water of the docks with an almost silent dive. She resurfaced close to a wall & began to climb, leaping from window ledge to dislodged brick with the agility of a cat. Her target would be in the town square in under an hour, she needed to get into a good position & possibly take out a few sentries on her way; her presence was becoming too easily recognised in the streets of late. In all honesty she didn't like taking contracts during the day at all; there were too many people around, not enough shadows to conceal herself within, but this time it was necessary. That murderer, Marco Barbarigo, was going to become Doge of Venice, There was no way she was going to let him.
There was an archer just above her, perfect. She reached out an arm, wrapped it round his legs & pulled, simultaneously stabbing a concealed blade into his brain. Letting go of his limp body she pulled herself up onto the roof. From there she moved across the city, never touching the ground, taking out any archers who noticed her. Before long she was in position, a high roof concealed by trees with just a wide enough gap to see the boat. The party started & still Marco & his men hadn't arrived. Another 20 minutes passed but eventually her patience was rewarded; a figure stepped from the crowd cloaked in rich blue robes and surrounded by guards, that had to be him. She drew a knife from her pocket, judging the distance carefully before snapping her wrist & letting it sail through the air, right into the back of. . .WHAT! Where the fuck had he come from? Myra swore violently as her knife stuck into the back of some white robed man. He had to go get in the fucking way, didn't he? Now things were going to get difficult. She quickly moved positions, too bad the man in white had already turned round & seen her, just brilliant, he was an assassin too, & from the looks of it, he was about to get himself killed by the 30 or so guards coming towards him. She cursed her nobleness as she jumped down to help him, dropping a smoke bomb as she landed
'Go.' She hissed, when the idiot still didn't move she rounded on him, 'You're an idiot. Now get lost while I save your ass. No need to thank me.' She shoved him in the general direction of a wall & hoped he had the sense to get the hell out of there before the smoke cleared.
She killed the six guards around her in seconds then waited as the remaining 24 ran towards her. Shit, if she made it out of this alive then she was going to kill that idiot. An axe swung at her head & she ducked, grabbing the guard's left arm & bending it backwards, forcing him to let go of his weapon, which fell neatly into her hands just in time for her to cut his head off with it. She whipped the weapon round to cleave a deep gash into the side of two more guards, letting it go to land squarely in the stomach of another. She disarmed a second guard, stabbing him neatly through the heart with his sword then proceeded to parry & counter the attacks of two more at once. She dispensed of them & jumped up & over the horde of guards, stabbing two in the head simultaneously with her hidden blades. But as she turned one of the guards carved a deep line into her leg & another smashed her arm with his mace. Fuckit! There were just too many of them, she'd have to make a timely escape. That stupid assassin had ruined her perfect plan, she flung a dagger distractedly towards Barbarigo as she tried to figure a way out of this mess, it hit him squarely in the head but she wasn't really paying much attention to that. Just as she'd made up her mind to swim for an escape she noticed Bartolomeo d'Alviano standing in the crowd fending off guards, how did he always manage to get himself into trouble? Fuck it all! She grabbed his hand & took off running through the streets. She turned a sharp corner, then another & another, where was a bloody haystack when you needed one? There! Finally! She dived amongst the dry grass, pulling Bartolomeo with her.
'Stay quiet.' She warned him as she listened for any passing guards, two came near but neither stopped to inspect the hay. Few. She stood up & started running again, back towards the d'Alviano family home.
'Stay inside & keep your men with you.' She warned Bartolomeo as he was ushered inside by some of his men, even though she knew he wouldn't listen. She sighed, there was no way she could climb with her injuries & no way she could go see a doctor with every guard in the whole city out looking for her. Guess it was back to Sister Teodora's brothel then. Fuck she hated that place.