When they reached the prison they would sneak around to the back, slip past any guards, and then use the scroll to enter the prison. Once inside, they would have about ten minutes before their exit vanished into the ether. The three had worked out a few strategies to distract, disable, and render unconscious any guards they might encounter. Picking Robert’s lock would be child’s play to someone like Senke. After that, it was a quick trip out of the prison and back to the safehouse.
“Why are we bringing Will?” Kayla had asked once she could pull Senke aside. “With his size, he cannot be an expert at silence and shadow.”
“That big lug?” Senke had laughed and then grinned at the giant man. “He’s coming with us in case stealth isn’t enough.”
As they neared the prison, she hoped that Will would be of no use to them whatsoever. Of course, she was in a doubtful mood. By night’s end, Will would crack a few heads. She had little doubt of that fact.
“I count only six,” Senke whispered as he and Kayla hunched around the corner of a home and watched the guards make their rounds. Will hung back, either not wanting to crowd them or not caring how many they faced.
“Three at the gates,” Kayla said, tracking the movements of them all. “Two more traveling around in a circle. Another is stationary at the southeast corner. We should assume another guard is out of sight at the northwest corner.”
“Seven, then. Still, far less than I was worried about.”
“The soldiers are inside,” said Will. When he first spoke, Kayla instinctively tensed, expecting his booming voice to alert guards for miles, but instead out came a controlled whisper, deep and quiet. She chastised herself for such naivety. Will had not risen to such high ranks within the Spider Guild by being foolish or unskilled. Big as he was, she started wondering if he would be better than her at stealth and hiding. Her pride said no, but a nagging voice of reason in her mind insisted otherwise.
“Far more men within,” Senke agreed. “Mostly bunched at entrances to all three of the lower floors. They’re far more afraid of people breaking out instead of breaking in. We must use that to our advantage, but also remember, the escaping may be much more difficult.”
They waited a few more minutes, counting how long it took the roving patrol to loop around.
“We’ll have maybe thirty seconds,” Kayla said. “Unless you want to take out the two guards.”
“Take them out, we gain another minute to get in,” Will said. “But then we lose the rest of the night in getting out.”
Senke nodded. If they could sneak in, their entrance would be unnoticed. Dead or unconscious guards, however, tended to attract attention.
“What about the guard at the northwest corner,” Kayla asked.
“We don’t know for sure he’s even there,” Senke argued.
“Then let’s go find out.”
They climbed up to the roof of the home they hid beside. As they prepared to move west along the rooftops for a better view, Kayla wondered at Will’s dexterity. He climbed as well as her, and although he weighed more, the boards and plaster made no extra groans or creaks compared to her.
Lady luck was not with them. Leaning against the corner, whistling a tune, was their unknown guard.
“Damn,” Senke whispered as he lay on his belly peering off the roof. “That complicates things tremendously.”
“We need him diverted,” Kayla said. “But that may mean only two of us going inside.”
“We go as three, or not at all,” Will said.
The woman spun at him and glared.
“Then give us an idea, ox.”
As if this were a serious request, Will nodded and crossed his arms.
“Fine. Wait for me.”
Will climbed down, his giant girth looking comical as he hung from slender handholds. Once on the ground, he strode up to the guard without any attempt to hide his presence.
“What is he doing?” Kayla asked.
“Calm yourself,” Senke said. He put a hand on her shoulder, and this time she did pull away. If he was offended, he didn’t show it. “Will knows what he’s doing. And if he doesn’t, well, we’re up here and he’s down there, right?”
She didn’t reply. Silent, they watched as Will waved at the guard, a noticeable drunken gait suddenly overcoming him. He said something, but what they could not hear. The guard pointed away, as if shooing a mutt. Will turned, as if considering, and then spun around, his massive fist clobbering the guard. His beefy arms wrapped around the guard’s neck as he fell, tightening, twisting, and then the guard went still.
Kayla counted in her head, tracking how long until the patrol would find them. Will had thirty seconds, forty at most.
If Will was worried, he didn’t show it. Calmly, he picked up the body and propped him against the wall. He crossed the guard’s arms, adjusted his legs a tiny bit, and tilted his helmet so that it appeared he had nodded off. He kicked the legs a couple of times until they locked.
A moment later and Will was climbing up the house, rejoining them on their rooftop perch.
“Surely they will wake their friend,” Kayla said, not impressed with the ploy. “Once he’s awake, they will search for us.”
“You don’t know guards,” Will said. A crude smile spread across his lips. “Why is he in back and alone? Because he’s not liked. You will see, but for now, hurry. Our chance approaches.”
They skirted around the light of the various torches hanging from large brass rings off the sides of the prison roof. They were nearing the giant wall surrounding the city, and therefore were out of homes to climb across and use to hide their presence. Only their cloaks and the shadows offered them protection, but they used them with the calm skill of experienced thieves.
When the two patrolling guards walked around the corner, Kayla felt a bit of vindication at how quickly they noticed the guard sleeping. One yanked the helmet off him, while the other prodded him in the stomach with the hilt of his sword. When he did not awake, the first guard slapped him across the face, and then he finally startled. She listened as the guards mocked him, grabbed his arm, and then marched him toward the front.
“He’s to be punished,” Kayla whispered, suddenly feeling very foolish.
“Go, now,” Will said.
The three of them ran behind the soldiers and to the back of the now unguarded prison. They made not a sound. Senke knelt beside the center of the wall and unrolled the scroll from the pocket in his cloak. He pressed it against the stone and whispered the activation word. The scroll sunk inward, dissolved, and then with an audible pop that made all of them wince, it vanished.
Senke slowly pressed his hands against the bare stone, a grin spreading across his face as it passed through like a desert mirage. His arm sank in further, and after a wink to the others, he dove head-first inside. Kayla followed.
5
I t did not exist, but if it did, the temple to Karak would have been a most impressive structure cut from black-marble and lined with pillars. A roaring lion skull would have hung above the doorway. It had no priests, but if it did, they would have been quiet, subdued men wearing black robes and long hair pulled tight behind their heads. They would have wielded powerful cleric magic, and done all in their power to further the cause of their dark god of Order. They played no part in policy of the king, but if they did, the priests would have informed the royal crown of the dangers involved in exposing their presence to the city. If war was ever waged between the priests of Ashhur and Karak, assuming the priests of Karak somehow existed, then the streets would soon be cluttered with the dead.
Maynard Gemcroft, in disguise and escorted by two of his most trusted guards, arrived at the building that did not exist. The gate opened, and inside they went.
