legs, one of which a guard is gripping tightly, his other hand holding his tankard.
Along the wall to the right stands a weapon rack, but it’s lined with unlit torches instead of weapons.
There’s a door to the left, but I infer that it must lead into the support and eventually to the top of the bridge. A staircase rises on the right side of the room, but we ignore it for now, hurrying through the door on the other side of the room.
I’m glad to see that we have found the armory. Or, at least, a small one. A couple of suits of armor hang on wooden mannequin-like structures, and there are a few racks of weapons and shields. Quickly we don the armor and strap some swords to our belts. I choose a long broadsword, and Nathaniel picks up a bow. He takes a few test shots at the dummy on the wall to assess the individuality of the bow, and then decides it is worth keeping.
Quickly we check the second floor of the guardhouse and find an empty bunkroom and an office with stacks of parchment, an inkwell, and some quills atop a desk. There’s nothing of importance. I and Jericho each take a torch on the way out, lighting them with one of the torches outside.
“Now how on earth do we open the gate?” Nathaniel wonders aloud.
“I guess we’ll have to figure it out,” I answer. “Come on.”
We enter the tower to the left of the gate, shutting the door firmly behind us.
Immediately to our right sits an odd mechanism with an enormous crank. To the left of the crank there’s a block of wood lined with steel. Along the bottom of the block are large teeth, like a saw would have, but the teeth are blocky and rigid. They fit into the teeth of the large gear attached to the crank. “That’s simple,” says Percival.
I take the handle of the crank and pull with all my might. The gear begins to turn with a creak, and the wooden block begins to move into the room. I turn the crank until the bar cannot come any further.
“It’s one of the door bars,” I say quietly. “There are four. There must be two on each side.”
“We’ll split up, then?” asks Jericho.
“We can split into pairs,” I say. “Make it go a little faster. “I’m just worried about getting caught. I think we should stay together.”
“I second that,” says Nathaniel.
With that we hurry down the hall a little ways and up the spiral staircase to the left. We find an identical contraption on the second floor, and pull in the bar using the crank.
One of the guards stirs. It’s not important or dangerous, but it makes me nervous. “We should move faster,” I say. “Do two of you want to move to the other side and take care of the bars there?”
Jericho and Percival volunteer.
“Hurry,” I say. “And don’t get caught. I’ll stay here and look for the contraption that opens the gate. We’ll meet up top.”
The other two run down the stairs and out of sight.
Nathaniel and I run to the stairs and ascend to the next floor, where we find exactly what we are looking for.
An enormous wooden bar sticks into the room through a hole in the wall. Upon closer inspection, I notice the bar is connected to the gate.
Nathaniel and I wait for the slight bang to signal that the bars on the other side have been removed. After the sound, we each push with all our might on the bar. Slowly as we push it forward, we hear the monstrous creak that means the gate is opening.
The bar stops parallel to the wall. One of the doors stands wide open.
“We’ve done it,” I say as we run back towards the stairs. “That was almost too easy.”
We emerge in the tower. There’s a table with a barrel next to it, presumably empty. Several bottles lie smashed on the ground. The men are either knocked unconscious or fast asleep.
We run through the room and out the open arch, into the open air atop the wall. Below us we hear the creak of the gate as Percival and Jericho do their work.
“What do you think you are doing?” asks a voice.
“Dingflies,” I see Nathaniel mouth.
We turn and face an authoritative appearing soldier, who is wearing an orange cape and holding a large diamond-shaped shield on his left arm.
“Well?” he demands.
Nathaniel and I look at each other. Then