A Date With Faet

The four of us stayed put for another four or five hours after dark. We observed the torches lit along the top of the walls and watched the sentries up there move about. We got a bit of a feel for their movement, and Keira was fairly certain she'd have enough time between sentries to do her solo scouting job.

Still, when the time finally came we modified the plan slightly, to minimize the amount of time she'd be exposed and alone up there. It was a few hours past midnight when we put the plan into action.

Kelly and Feichin and I moved back a little ways from the tree-line. The three of us stood together, so I could have a hand on Feichin and tap into the twins' link. Keira stayed closer to the edge of the woods and got herself ready. She had her bow in hand, an arrow ready, and she crouched down.

Feichin and Kelly also had their bows ready, and I'm sure all of them were feeling as tense and anxious as I was.

Keira gave us a little nodd, then she looked towards the castle and a moment later she was gone.

I had my sight active already, and I could see the gold filament stretching out from Kelly. She gave me the signal and I reached out and closed my hand around the thin streamer of energy.

Suddenly I was on the castle wall with Keira. We were crouched down low with our back against the raised part of the wall. We were in shadows here. It felt like a fairly safe spot right now, but we knew there'd be sentries walking past in the next minute or so.

Our eyes swept the courtyard below. There were people down there, and a few small fires. It didn't look safe, there weren't enough places to hide. Our eyes moved along the wall next. Like at castle Brádaigh, the wall here passed through the towers so one could walk all the way around the castle ontop of the wall.

We definitely needed to avoid the gatehouse to our left. From what we could see and hear, there was probably a small garrison inside there, in addition to the main garrison building.

With no really good obvious choices, the best bet seemed to be moving closer to our objective.

/Be careful!/ Kelly's thoughts entered our mind, her concern was clear in her tone.

/Just give me another minute sis,/ we thought back at her.

We focused on the place where the wall passed through the tower nearest the residential part of the castle. It was dark in there, we couldn't see any torchlight or any sign of movement. We cast the teleport spell again, and a moment later we were there.

Our gamble paid off, there was nobody here at the moment. We told our sister, /Ok get your asses here now!/

I pulled my awareness back into myself, but maintained my connection to the twins' link.

"Here goes," I whispered to Feichin. I didn't wait for his reply, I just focused then teleported him to where Keira was waiting.

As soon as he was gone, I cast the spell again and sent myself there too. A second later Kelly appeared with us.

And just like that, all four of us were together inside the castle.

I glanced at the others, and immediately felt a bit sorry for Feichin. He was so far out of his element here, I almost wanted to send him back to the waypoint to wait for us there. Almost. We'd already discussed the plan, and he was part of it.

Keira and I took the lead, Feichin and Kelly moved into place behind us. The three of them were ready with their bows, Kelly and Keira also had magic ready. Kelly knew the shield spell, Keira had offensive magic. I was ready with the shield spell as well as anti-magic spells. And all three of us were prepared to use sleep spells.

We'd all sort of memorized Kaitlyn's map, but I was most familiar with it so I took the lead. I knew from here we needed to go down one level, then we'd get access to the interior of the residential part of the castle. From there I knew roughly where we needed to go, but we'd have to get our hands on someone to find out our exact destination.

The four of us made our way down the winding stairs to the next level below. There we found the open doorway that led into the part of the castle where we'd find Lord Aengus. I carefully peeked around the corner and looked. The doorway led to a wide corridor. It was about ten meters long, with a few doors on either side. At the far end was a large double-door. I knew our target was in the area beyond those double-doors.

There was nobody in the corridor, no guards or anyone else. The only light was provided by a few candles set in holders on the walls. It should have been a breeze to head down the corridor and reach our objective, but the lack of anyone here made me wary. After our near-disaster in Griofa, I was worried about wandering into another trap.

After a few seconds I pulled back. Keira gave me a questioning look, but I shook my head. Something felt off. I whispered, "I don't like it. Let's go back up to the wall. We'll nab the next sentries who come through this tower."

I could tell from their expressions they weren't sure about this change of plans, but none of them tried to question or challenge me.

The four of us quietly went back up to the level where the wall passed through the tower. Me and Keira moved to the exit on our right, Kelly and Feichin went to the left.

Keira and I took a quick look out the doorway at the wall then ducked back in. We'd seen men patrolling along the wall but none were near us here.

Keira whispered "Kelly says there's two soldiers coming from the left."

I nodded and the four of us moved to either side of the doorway. When the two men entered, they were immediately hit with sleep spells. Feichin and Keira grabbed them before they could fall, and gently lowered them to the floor.

This was the part I hated, but I crouched between them and used the mind-reading spell.

Of our two victims, the younger man was no help. He didn't know anything more than Kaitlyn did, when it came to the private part of the castle. The older one however proved to be invaluable. The so-called residential part of the castle was a trap after all. It was a 'decoy', to catch would-be thieves and assassins. Aengus had his private chambers in the fifth tower, the one mid-way along the northern wall. Unfortunately that was a quarter of the way around the castle from where we were now, in the south-west corner.

There were four guards stationed in the tower on the wall level, and four more in the next level above that. Above that point was Aengus's private chambers, but those top levels were also warded against magic so we couldn't teleport in there.

I sighed, then quickly and quietly relayed what I'd learned to my three companions.

The four of us were silent for a few moments, but I still had my sight on. I could see the flickering of conversation going on through the twins' link.

"Can you put a glamour on Feichin?" Keira asked softly. "Disguise him to look like one of these two guys? I'll glamour myself as the other. Then the two of us will just walk around the wall like a couple of sentries, till we get into that tower. We'll take care of the four soldiers in there, then you and Kelly teleport to us."

I looked back and forth between Feichin and Keira then nodded "I can. You two be careful."

Our huntsman just nodded, but I could tell he was probably wishing he was back home right now. I looked down at the two unconscious soldiers, then cast a glamour on Feichin. A moment later he was disguised as the older of the two men. Keira did the same, her appearance flickered and she was disguised as the younger man. They straightened up, took a few deep breaths, then strolled out of the tower along the wall.

Kelly moved to the doorway to keep an eye on the two of them. Meanwhile I put my hands on the two soldiers and teleported them both outside the castle, into that little depression in the forest where we'd spent our day. I figured they could sleep off the magic out there, and nobody would stumble onto them.

Kelly continued to monitor the other two as they made their way along the wall. They had to go through another tower before reaching our new destination. I kept watch out the other doorway to make sure we didn't have any other sentries coming up behind us while we waited.

We had a nervous two or three minutes of waiting, then Kelly whispered "Babe? They're done. Do you need to look through our link, or can you get over there from what you already saw?"

I already had a good enough view of the place through the soldier's mind, I whispered "I'm good. See you there."

She nodded, and I made sure she teleported herself there first before I did the same.

As soon as I was in the tower with the others, I knew we were going to have trouble. Two of the soldiers were asleep, but the other two were dead. One had an arrow in him, the fourth man's throat had been cut.

I looked around alarmed, I knew there were four more soldiers on the level above us. Keira had already dropped her glamour, Feichin was still disguised of course.

"Don't worry," Keira whispered, "We were quiet."

I sighed as I dispelled the glamour from Feichin, then whispered "As soon as the next patrol comes through here they'll raise the alarm. We have to move fast now."

Kelly gestured towards the stairs and said softly, "You and I can take the next level, then Keira and Feichin will follow."

I nodded, but first I teleported the two sleeping men outside the castle to join their buddies in the woods. I figured, even if the alarm was raised, it meant there'd be two fewer soldiers to worry about later. Then Kelly and I moved to the staircase and started creeping upwards.

She had her bow ready of course, but I was hoping we'd be able to just knock these guys out rather than kill anyone else.

Fortunately the levels were far enough apart and the stairs wound around, so sound didn't seem to carry easily from one level to the next. We were nearly at the next landing before we heard their voices. Two of the soldiers were talking quietly. It wasn't anything alarming, from the sound of it they were discussing plans for their next day of leave.

Kelly and I got near enough to have a look, and sure enough there were four men here. The landing was lit by a single torch mounted in the wall. Two of the soldiers were leaning against the wall looking relaxed and carrying on their quiet conversation. A third was sitting on the floor and looked like he was already asleep, or at least resting. The fourth was standing against the opposite wall looking bored.

We worked fast, the two men talking about leave slumped over asleep, then the bored one. The last one looked up when he heard the other three go down, then he slumped back as well.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and moved into the landing. I grit my teeth and used the mind-reading spell once more, and confirmed that the levels above this were Aengus's private chambers, and there weren't any more guards above us. Finally I sent these four out into the woods as well, to join the growing pile of sleeping men.

Kelly whispered, "Another patrol is coming. Keira and Feichin are going to deal with them, that'll buy us a few more minutes before anyone sounds the alarm."

The two of us waited a half minute, then she added "Ok they're coming up."

A few moments later our two companions were with us, and the four of us moved to continue our way up to the last level. Keira moved to my side and the two of us started up with Feichin and Kelly behind. It was another, smaller curving staircase.

Halfway up I was surprised to see Keira's aura suddenly vanish. At that moment I also felt something different in the air, and I stopped moving. Keira stopped at the same time, and so did Kelly. Feichin stopped when he realized the rest of us had.

Me and the twins looked at each other. I couldn't see Kelly's or Feichin's auras either, and it was clear from the twins' expressions something had alarmed them too.

"Our link's gone!" Kelly whispered in a frightened tone.

That's when it hit me. This part of the castle wasn't just warded to prevent people teleporting in or scrying. Somehow this part of the castle was warded to block all magic entirely. Anywhere else in Otherworld I was the Great and Powerful Tegan Vale, hot shit fae mage of legend. But here, I was just a helpless twenty-five year old changeling without any combat skills.

I motioned, and the four of us went back down a few stairs. My ability to see auras returned, Kelly and Keira both relaxed as their link was restored, and I could feel magic was back again.

I looked at my companions and said in a soft, worried voice "There's no magic at all up there. This just got a whole lot harder..."