an occasional "Oo," showing that even the dwarves, the most battle-hardened members of the troupe, did not think the idea feasible.
But Cadderly remained undaunted; his smile had not ebbed an inch. The first volley will alert them - the second should get them into positions where we might get near the wall," he explained.
The others looked around to each other in confusion, their expressions incredulous. Most eyes centered on Shay-leigh's quiver and the hand-crossbow at Cadderly's side.
"On my cue, when the third volley of flaming pitch soars out for the front wall, we go for the tower," Cadderly went on. "You lead the charge," he said to Danica.
Danica, though she still had no idea of what "volleys" the young priest was talking about, smiled wryly, pleased that Cadderly would not patronize her, would not try to protect her when the situation obviously called for each of them to perform specific, and dangerous, tasks. Danica knew that not many men of Faerun would allow their beloved women to rush out into danger ahead of them, and it was Cadderly's implicit trust and respect of her which made her love him so very much.
"If the archers up above catch sight of us," Cadderly continued, aiming this remark at Shayleigh, "we will need you to cut them down,"
"What volley?" Shayleigh demanded, tired of the cryptic game. "What flaming pitch?"
Cadderly, already falling away, deep into his speUcasting concentration, didn't reply. In a moment, he was chanting, singing softly, and his friends hunched down and waited for the clerical magic to take effect
"Wow," muttered Pikel at the same moment that one of the guards along the front gate cried out in surprise. Balls of flaming pitch and large spears were appearing in midair, thundering down near the wall. Soldiers scrambled and dove from the gate; the giant hoisted a slab of stone and put it in front of him defensively.
It was over in just a few instants, with no fires left burning and no apparent damage to the stonework. The soldiers remained under cover, though, calling frantic orders and pointing out many potential artillery hiding places in the ridges beyond the gates.
Cadderly nodded to Danica, and she and Shayleigh began the procession from the side, slipping from stone to stone. The diversion had apparently worked thus far, for few guards seemed concerned with the high ground to the side of the walls.
The second illusory "volley" roared in farther down the front wall, well beyond the main gates, luring the enemy's attention to the vulnerable corner where the third wall would be built. As Cadderly had predicted, those soldiers along the side wall rushed into defensive positions behind the shielding, and thicker, front wall.
Again the explosions lasted only a few seconds, but the guards were in a near-panic now, huddled tight against the battlements and the base of the wall. Not a single eye turned to the southwest, to the higher ground from which the companions approached.
Danica and Shayleigh led them up to the now-abandoned perpendicular wall without incident, light-stepped along its base away from the front wall, and peered around to the empty courtyard.
Cadderly moved in front of the group and held his hand up to keep his friends back. He concentrated on the front wall and reached out to the particles of air about him, seeing their nature revealed in the notes of Deneir's song. Slowly and subtly, using triggering words and the energy of clerical magic, the young priest altered the composition of those particles, brought them together, thickened them.
A heavy mist swelled up around the front wall, and around the front half of the uncompleted courtyard.
"Go," Cadderly whispered to Danica, and he motioned for the dwarves to follow, and for Shayleigh to come into position where she could view the tower. Without hesitation, the brave monk ran off, zigzagging across the rough, frozen ground.
On impulse, Cadderly took Shayleigh's arrow from her hand. "Get it up on top of the tower," he instructed, casting an enchantment over it and handing it back.
Danica was twenty yards out, halfway to the tower, before anyone there noticed her. Three archers took up their bows and started to call out, when Shayleigh's arrow smacked solidly into the shoulder of one. The man went down in a heap; the other two went into a frenzy, their mouths wagging wide as they tried to cry out for their companions manning the front gate.
Not a sound came from the top of the tower, the area magically silenced by the enchanted