Ch. 2, Page 13

Well...not every bandit at the fort was killed.  Eventually Tenser tired of watching the slaughter and suggested it might be valuable to take some prisoners.  Robilar thought it was a terrible idea, but Terik was not overly opposed.  Though Robilar was miffed at being overruled, his participation proved invaluable, for he knew that the bandits actually had their own prison ---- a separate tower at the rear of the small keep -- and Robilar knew where the key was kept.  After handing the key over to Terik, Robilar wandered off without telling anyone what he was up to.

"Does he always do that?" Tenser asked as they were waking up the last of the sleeping guards.

"On your feet, you dogs!" Terik was shouting at their prisoners to scare them.  "Does he always do what?"

"Just do his own thing like that."  Tenser tried to multitask and direct prisoners during their conversation as well.  "March to the prison if you want to stay alive!" he admonished, with his dagger drawn.

"Oh, well, that's Robilar for you, isn't it?" Terik asked rhetorically.

If Tenser planned to press for more information, he was interrupted when a young bandit they were about to put in the prison looked for a moment like he might bolt for freedom.

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Ch. 2, Page 12

"Allow me to stay behind," Gronan had said.

Captain Drake had looked at him curiously.  "You have never disobeyed my orders before, Gronan.  What makes you question them now?"

On Gronan's mind had been his distrust of Robilar.  This whole business of having spotted adventurers in the woods that no one else had observed just rang false to him and Gronan was sure that Robilar was up to something.  But Drake trusted Robilar too much for Gronan to bring up any of this without proof.  So instead Gronan talked tactics for awhile, ending with, "What Robilar saw could have been intended to draw us out of the fort so the fort could be attacked from the opposite side.  With your leave, I would reposition some of our remaining men there."

Drake nodded through it all.  "That seems a reasonable request," he had said at last.  "Granted."

But that was then.  Now Gronan came running up into the midst of Drake and his men, panting and out of breath.  Gronan fell forward onto his knees, while catching his breath, but Drake was impatient for an explantion...

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Ch. 2, Page 11

Despite Robilar's jest, there was grim business to be done before the looting -- men magically asleep who would not remain so long.  Tenser, who had never warmed to the task, was surprised with how cavalierly Robilar and Terik dispatched every brigand who was still alive.  But, of course, he should not have been surprised, as this had been exactly according to the plan they had fomented over the long months past.

Overhead, Luna and Celene watched what transpired from their orbits, without comment, as they continued their slow trek across the nighttime sky...

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Ch. 2, Page 10

Terik fell off the drawbridge and hit the ground.

In the moment that Tenser watched the other, more lithe warrior tumble over the top of the partially-lowered drawbridge, he was struck by the ineffectualness of most of his spells in a situation like this.  The combat spells he knew where highly effective in mass combat, but a waste on one-on-one confrontations. 

He did have one spell that could be useful here -- the enchantment for charming persons that Ehlissa had shared with him.  It was quick to cast and very powerful, when it worked.  Tenser went through the motions and recited the incantation, but it did not seem to even slow down this somersaulting acrobat.  Terik was still on the ground and now Tenser was standing alone and had called attention to himself.

Some days it just didn't pay to be a magic-user.

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Ch. 2, Page 9

The battle for the drawbridge did not range far across the courtyard, with neither Robilar nor Gronan willing to lose any ground.  The winner was clearly whoever had control of the winch that operated the drawbridge.  Again and again each sought to drive the other away from the mechanism, but they were both excellent swordsmen and too evenly matched.  Neither drew blood from the other, though their blades were now lightning swift flashes of steel that would have shredded a lesser warrior to ribbons. 

Slowly, though, Gronan was able to win himself into position and...

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Ch. 2, Page 8

"Now comes the hard part," Tenser said.

"How's that now?" Terik asked.

"Well, we can assume that there are still at least some defenders inside and that they'll be watching from the palisade.  We have to get me into spell range to take them out, without getting hit by any arrows or crossbow bolts."

"I know what you're asking."  Terik changed to a mocking falsetto.  "Oh no, I'm a dainty little spellcaster.  Will you be my meat shield, big tough guy?"

"Hey now--"

"Aw, save it," Terik said with a dismissive wave of his hand.  "I like charging into danger; makes me feel more alive.  Come on."

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Ch. 2, Page 7

As Robilar watched his burning arrow leave a fiery signal across a cloudless nighttime sky, he saw one potential flaw in Tenser's plan. The signal arrow had gone over the east wall of the fort, but Robilar now had to be on the west side of the fort to open the drawbridge.  There was no more than a skeleton crew left in the fort, with Captain Drake and his men out looking for an adventuring party that did not exist, but that still left Robilar an awful lot of killing to do from one end of the fort to the other.

Good thing he had a sword.

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