The Fallen Fortress - By R. A. Salvatore Page 0,62

personal," Aballister explained, and he led Dori-gen's quizzical gaze across the room, to the swirling ball of mist hanging on the far wall, the entrance to Aballister's extradimensional mansion. "The soldiers will not be needed."

They looked down from a high perch to new battlements and a singular tower. From the outside, Castle Trinity did not seem so remarkable, or so formidable, even with the new construction that had been done. Vander, who had seen the tunnel networks beneath the rocky spur, assured them otherwise. Work on the new walls was slow now, with winter blowing thick, but guards were in abundance - humans mostly - pacing predetermined routes and continually rubbing their hands together to ward away the icy breeze.

That is the main entrance," Vander explained, pointing to the central area of the closest wall. A huge door, oaken and ironbound, was set deep into the stone, enveloped by walkways and parapets and many soldiers. "Beyond that door is a cave entrance, barred by a portcullis, and a second, similar door. We will find guards, well-armed and well-trained, positioned every step of the way."

"Bah, we're not for going straight in the front door!" Ivan protested, and this time, the yellow-bearded dwarf found some allies for his grumbling. Danica readily agreed by reminding everyone that their only chance lay in stealth, and Shayleigh even suggested that perhaps they should have come out with Carradoon's army at their heels.

Cadderly hardly listened to the talk, trying to think of some magic that might get them in, but that would not overly tax his still-limited energies. His friends had remained optimistic, believing that he could handle the situation. Cadderly liked their confidence in him; he only wished that he shared it. That morning, leaving the cave, with the sky shining blue, Ivan had scoffed at the storm that had hit Nightglow, had called it a simple wizard's trick, and berated Aballister for not being able to aim straight

"First rule in shootin' magics!" the dwarf had bellowed. "Ye got to hit the damned target!"

"Oo oi!" Pikel had heartily agreed, and then the green-bearded dwarf, too, had made light of it all with a quiet, "Hee hee hee."

Cadderly knew better, understood the strength of the wizard's incredible display. The young priest still believed that he walked along the true path of Deneir, but images of Aballister's fury, slamming the mountain itself into surrender, stayed with him all morning.

He shook the unpleasant thoughts away and tried to focus on the situation at hand. "Is there another way in?" he heard Danica ask.

"At the base of the tower," Vander answered. "Aballister brought us... brought the Night Masks in that way, through a smaller, less guarded door. The wizard did not want the commoners of his force to know that he had hired the assassins."

Too much open ground," Danica remarked. The tower was set some distance behind the two nearly finished perpendicular walls, and though the tower, too, had apparently not been completed, it stood an imposing thirty feet high, with temporary battlements ringing its top. Even if the friends managed to get past the guards on the closest walls, just a couple of archers up in that tower could make life miserable for them.

"What tricks ye got to keep them off our backs while we make the run?" Ivan asked Cadderly, gruffly slapping the young priest on the shoulder to force him from his private contemplations.

"The shortest route would be from the right, from below the spur," he reasoned. "But that would leave us running uphill, vulnerable to many defensive measures. I say that we come in from the left, down the slope of the rocky spur and around the shorter wall."

That wall's guarded," Ivan argued.

Cadderly's wry smile ended the debate.

The friends spent the better part of the next hour in a roundabout hike to a point on the rocky spur far above Castle Trinity. With this new angle, around the side of the largest, frontal wall, they could see scores of soldiers, including large, hairy bugbears, ten-foot-tall ogres, and even a giant. Cadderly knew that this would be quite a test - for his friends' trust in him, and for his abilities. If that formidable force intercepted them before they got inside the back door, all would be lost

The tower was fully thirty yards back from the front wall and fully forty yards away from the outermost tip of the perpendicular wall, the wall they had to run around. Ivan shook his hairy head; Pikel added