ALL NOVEL 91. Deployed
We were up before dawn, and me and the twins got dressed in some new travel-clothes. We met Siobhan and some soldiers in the courtyard, and the three of us rode out to the meadow in the south forest with a small escort.
Feichin met us outside the garrison, he was there waiting for us of course. He was wearing the same dark clothes and long black coat as always. He and the twins were armed with bows, and all four of us had daggers.
Me and the twins also had small packs containing some food and drink. Feichin had a wineskin slung over one shoulder, and for all I knew his coat pockets might still contain the bread and meat he'd stuffed in them yesterday.
I had the two maps Kaitlyn provided, they were folded and tucked inside my jacket. I also had a letter my mother had written up, with her ransom demand. When we nabbed Aengus I'd leave that letter behind, so his sons would know where to find him. That would save us the time of sending the letter the slow way, and it would likely save the life of the courier who'd otherwise have to deliver it.
Now the four of us were talking quietly as we waited for the sunrise.
"Our prisoner says the forest we're heading to should provide good cover," I explained. "She said nobody's allowed to harvest firewood there, and it's mostly left alone. Lord Aengus and his family use it for hunting game, so most everyone else stays clear of it."
Kelly added, "She also said the terrain there is a bit hilly, but not too much."
Feichin nodded slightly, "Good to know."
He didn't look happy about this trip, and I couldn't blame him. I wasn't that enthusiastic about it either. I was anxious, and I'm sure the twins were too.
Unlike our two trips to Griofa, this would be taking us a lot further out of our comfort zone. We were literally going to invade another territory, infiltrate an enemy's castle, and kidnap someone. And as much as I hoped we'd do it all without anyone getting hurt, I knew there was a good chance it wouldn't be that easy.
As the first hint of sunlight started peeking over the horizon I let the others know, "It's about time."
Kelly moved in close to my left and Keira stood to my right. We linked arms as usual, and Keira reached out to take hold of Feichin. I cast the spell, and pulled us all through.
A few moments later we were in a tiny clearing in an unfamiliar forest. I immediately cast my shield spell just incase, but there didn't seem to be anyone else around.
We were at the bottom of a little gully or something, a depression in the landscape. It was hard to see very far through the trees and underbrush, but it felt like the ground sloped up from us in every direction. Once the others got over their disorientation, they all got their bows ready.
I whispered "Everyone try and memorize this spot alright? This is where we'll fall back to if we run into trouble, and this is where we'll be bringing our prize if all goes well. It's also our ticket back home."
We all took a minute or two to familiarize ourselves with the spot. For me and the twins it was about being able to teleport back here. For Feichin I assumed it was the trees or the landscape or something. Honestly I had no idea how he could find his way around the woods when it all looked the same to me.
Finally we set out. Feichin took the lead, then Keira followed him. I followed her, and Kelly was behind me. Even though he'd never been here before our huntsman quickly found the best route out of the gully and soon the four of us were winding our way south, towards castle Faoláin.
We were all on alert of course, we were all well aware of how dangerous it would be to get caught here.
The terrain was a lot hillier than I'd expected, based on Kaitlyn's description. Though I realized she'd have been describing the area in terms of the strong healthy six foot tall man she was when she'd last been here. So what was 'a bit hilly but not bad' to her turned out to be a little more up-and-down than I'd bargained for.
It meant it took us longer to get where we were going, a two-hour hike through the woods became more like three and a half hours, and my right thigh was burning by the time we got closer to the castle.
Feichin signalled us to be quiet and move slowly, as he kept us inside the thicker part of the woods while manoeuvring us as close to the castle as we could safely go.
At long last he indicated we'd got as far as we were going to go. I could just make out the castle. We had maybe thirty meters of trees between us and the edge of the forest, then there was probably another three hundred meters of cleared ground between there and the castle.
We weren't going to do much observing from here, but I realized he picked it because it meant we weren't likely to be spotted here either. There was a small, shallow depression in the ground, and some fairly thick underbrush on either side that would help keep us hidden.
Feichin whispered, "Lady Tegan and one of you two lasses, take a break and get rested. Me and the other lass will stay on watch. In a few hours we'll swap."
I nodded and found the other reason he'd stopped us here. There was enough leaf litter on the ground to make it somewhat soft and on the sides of the little depression the ground was dry, so we could basically sit or lay down and we'd be pretty much invisible to anyone passing by.
Me and Kelly lay down next to each other, while Feichin and Keira stayed on guard-duty for now.
I massaged my thigh for a few minutes, as quietly as I could. Then I finally closed my eyes and tried to get some rest.
We spent almost the entire day taking turns resting and watching. Me and Kelly had two hours, then Feichin and Keira had a couple hours rest. We swapped twice more before dusk, so everyone got about four hours rest and spent four hours on guard duty.
It wasn't good rest, but it helped. Me and Kelly had a light meal during our second turn on watch. Happily the entire day passed without incident.
Now that the light was fading, Feichin and Keira were finally up and the four of us were preparing to move a little closer. I wanted to get a better look at the place while there was still enough light to see it, but our huntsman was worried that would make the four of us more visible too.
In the end, we got moving right around the time the sun was actually setting. There was only about a half hour's worth of light left in the sky and it was already fading as we crept forward. Feichin took the lead of course, and he moved us to a point where we still had some relatively thick brush to provide some cover, while still giving us a view of our destination.
This was only the third castle I'd actually seen after all my visits to Otherworld. On a scale between the squat square frontier castle Griofa and the tall huge impressive castle Brádaigh, castle Faoláin was closer to the Brádaigh end of the scale.
Castle Faoláin was more or less rectangular, with six towers. There was one in each corner, with a fifth tower in the middle of one of the longer sides. The sixth tower was on the other long wall but closer to one corner. It and the tower in that corner stood on either side of a large gate-house. The walls were at least twenty meters high, and the towers had to be twice that.
There were soldiers standing around and walking around the tops of the walls, and I could see ó Faoláin pennants hanging from the walls and from posts here and there. It was hard to make out the details at this distance in the fading light, but I was pretty sure they depicted a wolf's head in black, on a background of alternating grey and green stripes.
Overall the place had to be about two thirds the size of castle Brádaigh, which was still pretty impressive. Even though we had the map Kaitlyn had drawn, for some reason I was envisioning it would be more like castle Griofa. Maybe because that was the only other castle I'd seen up till now.
As I took in the scale of the place, I suddenly felt a whole lot less confident about our plan. In my mind, when I was thinking of this place like Griofa, it all seemed relatively simple and straightforward. I'd been confident we'd have the job done in thirty minutes or something like that, that it'd be a snap.
Now I was playing it out in my head thinking of it more like my mother's castle, and I felt like maybe we only had a fifty-fifty chance of even succeeding. And I had no idea how long it would take.
With the last of the light, I quickly dug out the floor-plan map Kaitlyn provided and started trying to translate what was on that small piece of parchment to the huge structure towering in the distance. I finally realized at least part of my mistake. I hadn't been seeing the place in three dimensions. I'd looked at the flat map and assumed everything was all on one level.
Now I could see it, and even without seeing the interior I was getting a better handle on how the map translated to reality. Kaitlyn had indicated relative distances on her maps but I hadn't really been able to visualize it as a real full-sized place until now.
"Looks like the sentries here are armed with bows, rather than crossbows," Feichin commented softly. "And they'll likely have swords and knives too of course."
Keira leaned closer to me so she could have another look at the map, then looked up towards the castle again. She sort of looked back and forth between the two a couple times, probably getting a feel for the layout same as I was doing. Finally she gestured, "That stretch of wall on the east between the two towers? That looks like the best spot for us to start. When it's dark enough that they have to use torches, if there's a spot there that's still dark that'd be the best place to arrive."
I glanced at the map then back to where she was indicating. The residential area was in the south-west corner of the structure, almost the opposite end from where she was looking. "That's pretty far from where we need to go once we're inside."
She smiled, "We only need one of us there, to get eyes on the interior and find the next spot to jump to."
Feichin and I both frowned at her, and I asked "How do you figure that?"
"I'll play scout," Keira explained. "I'll teleport myself onto the wall there, then check out the courtyard and everything else I can see."
She looked at me and continued, "You tap into the link between me and Kelly and you'll see everything I'm seeing. You teleport Feichin to wherever our next jump should be, then yourself, then Kelly will follow. And finally I'll teleport there too. Presto, all four of us are safely inside the castle, and only one of us had to spend time up on the wall in the open."
Kelly added, "If we do it right, and with a bit of luck, we should all be safely inside and out of sight in under a minute."
I looked back and forth between them, "I take it you two have already discussed this plan?"
They both grinned, and Kelly nodded "We were discussing this and other options during the walk. And the past fifteen minutes we've been debating what was the best choice."
"We both decided this would be quickest and easiest," Keira said.
Kelly added, "Though I'm not happy about my sister having to be alone on the wall like that. But she made the point, it's one of us up there, or it's all of us up there."
Feichin looked back and forth between the two redheads. His expression was a mix of curiosity and concern.
Keira grinned at him and shrugged, "Turns out at least one of those 'twins legends' is true after all."
