Kael and Shae drew their swords. The monster bellowed at them and then charged. It was quick, but not agile so the party variously dived, span and flipped out of its way. Turning for another attack, it pawed the ground. Amelia darted forwards, stabbing with her daggers and the beast reared up, allowing Kael to take a swipe at its underbelly. When it crashed its front paws back down to the ground, Shae jumped on its back and started hacking at whatever she could. It screamed and ran, knocking Shae off and disappearing back in to the outcropping.
'Easy.' Kael smiled.
There was a growl like grinding rocks and another bear-monster came lumbering out of the rocks. This one was almost three times the size.
'Scatter!' Shae yelled.
They all ran in different directions, the beast looked around and then followed Amelia at a lumbering run. Kael tried to get its attention by attacking its back legs, but it didn't seem to notice and was gaining on Amelia by the second. Tom was about to fire a spell at it when Shae swooped in in dragon form, biting the back of its neck and clawing at it. With a mighty roar, the beast turned to attack Shae, who baited it away from the others.
'Quick, lets get hidden again.' Amelia said.
'What about Shae?' Tom asked.
'Shae can fly.'
While Shae continued to taunt the bear-monster the others ran for the relative shelter of the ditch again. Their progress was slow as they tried to keep their heads down. Every so often a large creature would shuffle past, freezing them in place, but by mid-day the activity around them had dropped to the point where Tom decided they could stop and take stock of their situation. He laid the maps out as best he could in the cramped conditions and found Risoli again. The path they had been following skirted the Magehold to the South, but the ditch they were in, which was a remnant of a tributary, tracked North and came very close to the black stone walls at one point.
'We can't carry on down here.' Tom decided. 'We'll be the wrong side of the tower and too close for my liking. We'll have to take a chance and go overland South East to try to pick up the original path.'
'I want to go looking for Shae.' Kael said.
'She'll see us if were going overland.' Amelia said. 'Probably the only reason she's not here now is that we've been hiding.'
Kael looked troubled, but agreed. They clambered out of the ditch and started on the trek across the nightmarish land.
Visibility was good, and the fire-idol were distracting the monsters, so they made good progress back to the original path, only having to hide twice in the ten miles.
'I don't like the fact that Shae still hasn't found us.' Kael said, when they reached the path again. 'I'm going to look for her.'
'Splitting up isn't going to help.' Tom said.
'I won't leave her.' Kael stood firm.
'How about we go get Isabelle, then we look for Shae on the way back to the boat?' Amelia suggested.
'How about we go find Shae, then we can rescue Isabelle and get back to the boat?' Kael countered.
They both turned to Tom.
'Shae could be anywhere. We know where Isabelle is.' Tom reasoned. 'Plus Shae isn't exactly helpless, while Isabelle is imprisoned. I think we should go to the tower first.'
Kael looked defiant for a long moment, but finally relented. Tom produced the maps again.
'This is where we can get in to the Magehold.' He explained. 'There's a waste pipe that empties in to the moat. We need to swim across and then it's just a case of removing the grating.'
Kael was dubious.
'Will that really be it?' He questioned. 'Are you sure they won't guard it more.'
'I'm just going by the information we have.' Tom said, gesturing to the maps. 'If you think we should try somewhere else then show me where.'
'What about through the front gate?' Kael asked. 'It won't be expected and they probably get tributes or something. Pilgrims maybe?'
'We won't get as dirty.' Amelia mused.
'Well we're probably going to get caught anyway.' Tom said. 'Let's set up here and watch the comings and goings, then we'll try it.' He pointed to a spot on the map that indicated a small rise in the ground near the gates of the Magehold.
Darkness had descended once more by the time the three companions had picked their way to the observation point. Only one tent was set up and they took turns to sleep or look out. About an hour after sunset the fire-idols winked out in unison, leaving purple after images on Tom's retina. He wondered again at their purpose, but could fathom no reason behind the phenomenon. Looking back to the Magehold, Tom could trace the shape of the high outer wall by the torches burning on its ramparts. The tower itself had few lit windows, standing out by dint of being darker than the night sky behind it. Now they were closer, Tom was beginning to have misgivings about the whole thing – he should have brought an army.
'Well there's nothing you can do about it now.' He murmured to himself.
The tent was packed before the weak morning light spread across the land. The fire-idols started up again, but they were all a safe distance away today. Lying prone on the rise, the party watched the road to the gate. After a few hours, a cart made its way up the winding road, pulled by an old oxen and laden with foodstuff. The guards opened the gate and then came to inspect the supplies. They didn't look too hard, Tom noticed.
'They can't have many people trying to break in.' Amelia mentioned, somehow reading his mind.
'But how often do they get deliveries?' Wondered Kael.
A few hours went by and then another cart appeared.
'Sod it, let's go.' Tom said.
They circled around behind the cart and approached quickly. The driver was hauled from his seat by Kael and told to run in the other direction, which he was only too keen to do. Tom and Amelia hid in amongst the bags of flour while Kael took the reigns.
'I'll have to drive the cart back out or they'll get suspicious quick.' He said over his shoulder. 'Then I'll go looking for Shae.'
Tom couldn't think of an argument against it, so he just told Kael to be careful. The big man smiled at him and nodded.
Before long, the gate was being ground open and Tom felt the cart bumping over the drawbridge in to the fortress. Kael slapped the wooden seat a few times to signal Tom and Amelia to get off. They scrambled from their hiding places and dropped off the back of the cart while they were still under the thick stone wall. The cart continued on, led by the guards, while Tom and Amelia crept in to the shadows. There was an opening in the wall where a staircase went up to the battlements. They carefully ascended the steps and cautiously stole out on to the wide walkway. The nearest guard was looking down on the courtyard at the supplies being unloaded. Tom put him to sleep and they dragged him in to the stairwell out of sight.
'What now?' Amelia asked. 'We can't wait 'til dark and there's no way to get across the courtyard.'
Tom wracked his brains.
'We need a distraction.' He said, looking around.
Across the courtyard were a stack of barrels. Tom concentrated hard and managed to levitate one on the bottom layer before dropping it. The barrel and those resting on it rocked a coupled of times and settled. Tom tried again, lifting the barrel a little higher this time. When he dropped it, one of the bands holding it together snapped, allowing what looked like wine to flow over the cobbles. With part of it broken, the barrel was no longer level and started to topple, taking the layers above with it. The guards rushed after the escaping alcohol, leaving one side of the courtyard empty. Tom held on to Amelia and levitated down from the battlements. Then they scurried to the base of the tower where one of the side doors had been left ajar as the commotion started. The room on the other side of the door was bare. It appeared to be just a guard station, with a small table and worn wooden chairs. Mugs of tea sat next to playing cards and stacks of chips. Tom and Amelia cracked open the far door, then eased in to the tower proper.
They found themselves at one end of a long corridor that split the tower. Doors lined either side except for about half way along, where a large open area was visible. Amelia listened at one of the other doors and, after hearing nothing, beckoned Tom inside. This room was a store for unused furniture, the dusty air caught in their throats as Tom unfurled the map of the tower.
'That must be where we came in.' He said pointing at the map. 'If Isabelle is here she'll either be in a room upstairs being interrogated or she'll be in a cell in the dungeons.'
'How long before that guard is discovered?' Amelia queried. 'We'll have to split up – you take the upstairs, I'll take the dungeon.'
'Ok.' Tom was reluctant.
'We'll be fine.' Amelia said with a grin. 'I've robbed more secure places than this.'
They made their way to the back stairs, then parted with a kiss.
'Meet back here in ten minutes.' Tom said, climbing the stairs. Amelia gave him a thumbs up.
There were guards on every floor, but as Amelia had said: they weren't expecting anyone to break in so they were lax in their patrols, spending time chatting or looking dully in to the middle distance as they daydreamed. The most likely rooms were close to the top of the tower, so Tom climbed as high as he could before venturing back in to the corridor.
The guards on this floor were gossiping about some waitress one of the was seeing. Tom waited for their voices to start receding down the corridor before poking his head out. They appeared to be the only two guards on this floor and as they were walking away from him, Tom decided to try and sneak to one of the rooms. The first two doors he tried were locked, but the third opened in to a study.
Books covered two of the walls and were open on the solid mahogany desk or stacked on the floor. A well-used leather chair was tucked under the desk and an armchair sat in the corner, more books resting on the seat. Tom closed the door and listened as the guards reached the end of the hallway and started back on their patrol. While he waited for them to pass, Tom glanced around the room. The view through the window was as bleak as expected, but it was useful to see the lay of the land from height. Tom quickly scribbled down some extra details on the maps he had, then scanned the book shelves for anything informative. There was a full set of magical instruction books, from Novice to Archmage. He reached out to pick up The Book of the Archmage, when another book caught his eye. On the top shelf, at the far end was what looked like a very old tome. The black leather was flaking off of the spine and showing the binding. Curious, Tom took the book down. The cover held no clues to the content, but when he opened it, he discovered it was a diary.
Before he had time to rifle through it, there were shouts in the corridor and running feet that passed the door and continued down the stairs. Tom swore under his breath and tucked the book in to his pocket. He waited a moment, then slowly opened the door and looked out. One of the guards that had been gossiping was now guarding one of the locked rooms and immediately saw Tom, who slammed the door shut again. There was more shouting and then some pounding on the door. Tom wedged the desk chair under the door handle then took the only escape route open to him by teleporting to the observation point. When tom opened his eyes, he was inside a cave. Unsure what had gone wrong, he looked around as best he could in the gloom, but couldn't work out where he was or how to get out. Feeling panic start to take hold, Tom ventured off in a random direction with the firefly pendant held up to illuminate his path. In the dark, eyes clouded by hatred watched him go.
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