Beheading, Neck Snapping and Mayhem: 101

Do you have what it takes? Learn the art of beheading, neck snapping, etc. in three quick courses:

Class One:

Don’t kill the wrong person. The following is an example of waiting until you know you’ve found a suitable person to murder.

Not that I actually practice these things. Not in real life. You got that, right?

Seriously, this is a brief scene I’ll post over the next few days. Hopefully it’s a nice, violent Christmas offering. Hmm. Maybe I should have done this for Halloween?

“The plan’s working, Haga,” Aiyu called, slowing. Haga was speechless as Aiyu passed. Then the boy smelled blood. He stopped and looked at his friend. They had played sixes on their journey west, but Haga was a huge, childlike man, near-sighted and a poor lookout, so he always drew guard duty. Since Aiyu’s age made him everyone’s messenger boy, he had developed sympathy for the simple-minded giant.
“Haga, do you want a rematch when we get to the caves?”
Haga stared at the ground. Aiyu knelt and touched Haga’s chest.
Haga slumped to the ground, dead. Why would anyone in Xien Ye kill Haga? It couldn’t be an enemy from outside the city or Xien Ye would already be overrun.
Behind Haga’s body the thick board used to bar the door fell, too. Aiyu glanced at the shut, but unbarred postern door. His answer exploded like a firecracker in his mind. A traitor from within the city was inside the passageway, breaching Xien Ye’s defense to allow the enemy inside.
“Alarm!” Aiyu clapped his hand over his mouth. Had Haga’s murderer heard him shout?
Aiyu rushed into the tunnel’s darkness, then stopped. His gasps filled the air around him like the rush of wings. The enemy would hear him. He slowed his breath and let his vision adjust to the light provided by the open door behind him. In tiny, silent rat steps, he ran.
Aiyu’s fingers twitched for a weapon. His dagger was a short eating utensil and his sword was no friend in this confined space. He pulled the knife. His arms brushed the cold walls on either side. Here at the base, the city’s wall was as wide as four oxen carts laid side-by-side. The light dimmed until his hand before him was only visible if he moved it. He slowed to a walk, then stopped.
A dim light glowed ahead, flickered and all but disappeared. He strained to hear if he had been discovered. No. The candlelight returned. He saw the partially hidden silhouette of a man and heard him struggling with rusted locks.
At last, Aiyu had found his quarry.