Su Rou pushed herself up from the red stained grit, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps that rattled through her teeth. Her torn lavender silk hung in ribbons around her waist, drenched in greasy black soot and mud, while her long black hair whipped across her face in wild knots.
"I am not a broken field mouse, you insolent dog!" she screamed, her voice cracking into a high pitched shriek that echoed off the granite walls.
She reached into the inner lining of her silk sash with her left hand, her manicured fingers closing around a concealed hilt forged from cold star iron. It was a five inch skinning dagger with a curved, serrated edge, the very weapon she had purchased three years ago in the apothecary stalls on Miller Creek Road.
"Die in the dirt where you belong!" Su Rou lunge
