her back to the cliff, trying to hide her panting breaths. For once, the cold seeping through her coat felt good.
Julien halted next to her, pulled out a pocket watch, and checked the time in the faint light. “We have about forty-five minutes until the bombardment starts. Essie, you should rest.”
She didn’t want to be the weak member...but she was. There wasn’t anything she could do to change that. But, she could at least not be a burden.
Resting was the sensible thing to do. She would only get in the way of those trained for things like this, and she would need her strength for the next part of their mission.
Edmund talked quietly for a moment with the three elven scouts. Moments later, he and the elves melted into the darkness, probably to scout the area.
Julien and the three Escarlish soldiers set to work opening packs and laying out equipment. One soldier set out a large bundle and unrolled it, revealing numerous iron spikes tied to the canvas and padded to keep them from rattling. Julien took their various lengths of rope and began sorting through them.
Essie found a seat on a nearby rock. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Not at the moment.” Julien pulled a bundle of paper-wrapped sticks from his pack. “Unless you want to help me inspect these blasting sticks?”
“Blasting sticks?” Essie’s voice squeaked, and she cleared her throat. “Are those for the back door, if the trolls have it locked up tight?”
“Yes. These will blast it to pebbles.” Julien turned over each stick in his hands. Essie wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he must have been satisfied for he gently set each stick onto the padding of his pack.
Good thing she hadn’t realized her brother had been toting around volatile explosives while they had been hiking through that gorge in complete darkness. She might have been a lot less bored and a whole lot more worried.
This was why they had to wait for the bombardment to start before they made their move. The sounds of hammering the spikes into the rock to climb the cliff would be audible on the quiet night, and blowing off the door definitely would be. Hopefully the trolls wouldn’t realize that one of the explosions had come from the back instead of the front.
Edmund appeared out of the darkness, followed by his three elven shadows. He pointed over his shoulder. “No one’s around, and they couldn’t detect any recent use of troll magic that would indicate someone is hiding nearby. Arlanor here found a place a few yards down where he thinks he can scale the cliff and reach the ledge by the hidden door without needing the spikes.”
Julien glanced past Edmund toward the elf he’d pointed at, a shorter elf with lighter hair, though Essie couldn’t make out the exact color in the darkness. “Are you sure? If you fall, you won’t have a rope to catch you.”
Edmund turned and repeated the words in elvish.
Arlanor glanced up at the cliff, then shrugged. “It is not that tall.”
Even after living in their treetop palace for three months, Essie wasn’t quite that cavalier about heights. But she could see how the elves wouldn’t find a hundred-foot cliff that daunting after they had grown up wandering treetops hundreds of feet in the air.
“If he is willing to risk it, then let’s try it. If we could have the line secured and start planning where to place the blasting sticks, we’ll be able to start drilling as soon as the bombardment starts.” Julien glanced at Essie. “Even fifteen minutes might make a difference.”
Essie clenched her fists, trying to breathe normally. It was a risk, waiting to enter until the cannons started firing. The troll king might order Farrendel killed the moment the bombardment started. Or he might have Farrendel brought from his cell and used as a shield to stop Weylind and Averett from firing on Gror Grar. If either of those things happened, they would never get to Farrendel before the trolls did.
They were gambling that the troll king would wait to either kill or fetch Farrendel until the actual fighting at the gate started, trusting the walls of Gror Grar to hold against puny cannon fire in the meantime.
Essie reached deep inside for the heart bond, but Farrendel was either asleep or unconscious. Would she even be able to tell if the trolls took him from his cell if he remained unconscious?
“Yes. I think we need to