Chapter 44: The Assault
Nimbrethil paused at the edge of the woods and surveyed the keep standing on the other side of the barren fields. After her scouting trip with Bishop, they had discovered that there were indeed a couple of warpriests, three mages, and one champion in the courtyard. Also, the total number of enemies came to twenty-eight, considerably more than Vale had said there were. They didn't see any members of the Arcane Brotherhood, which meant that they were all inside the keep itself. Leaving Bishop waiting tensely at the base of the east wall of the keep, she had carefully climbed up and peeked through a window, and sure enough she spotted two of the wizards inside along with more soldiers. She didn't dare try to slip in and scout more, so she had climbed down and headed back towards camp. When she had informed Vale and the others of what they had discovered most of them had gone pale. They realized that if they had done things the way Vale wanted, that it would have spelled disaster for them. She had quickly told them what she had in mind and after getting everything ready, had led them through the woods to the striking point.
She reached into her quiver and pulled out two arrows and placed one in the ground, the other on the string. There were only two guards on the main gate, and two guards on the towers, one to each side. Her plan was to take out the guards, sneak over the wall, and open the gate before the shift change occured. This would enable them to reach the courtyard before those inside knew they were coming. Bishop and her had already picked out vantage points from where they could send a hail of arrows into the enemy. Ideally, they were to take out the warpriests first, then the mages, and then anyone else who was still alive at that point. She sighted down her bow at the first guard and released the arrow. It had barely left the string when she had the second one nocked and fired it at the other guard. Both arrows tore into the throats of the guards and they collapsed without a sound.
"Nice shots," Bishop murmured. "I'd like to see how many in a row you could take out like that sometime."
Nimbrethil held her finger to her lips and then cast Camouflage on herself. Once the spell had taken hold, she quickly and silently moved across the empty fields to the outer gate wall. She carefully climbed up, pausing once when the guard to her right stopped to look. Once he had moved on, she slipped over the edge, climbed down the other side, and moved to the gate to open it.
Vale had watched silently the whole time, and shivered at the deadly accuracy of her shots as well as the way she seemed to become invisible as she crossed the fields. His eyesight was excellent because he was an elf, yet even he could barely see her as she climbed the wall. "I have never seen a ranger of her talents before, although I've heard stories about elven warbands and their archers decimating whole armies in such a manner," he murmured to Sand, unable to keep the awe from his voice.
"Well, from what I've heard, Daeghan is even better," Sand murmured. He too had been impressed by the elf for her skills seemed to be even sharper than before. Obviously she had been getting alot of practice in.
"She's inside, let's move," Bishop told them, then gave them an acid look. "And try not to make too much noise, this is supposed to be a surprise attack," he sneered. He turned and set off at a run with barely a sound. As he neared the keep, he saw the gates start to open and, without pausing in his stride, knocked an arrow and took out the guard on the right tower. He prepared to take out the one on the left tower when the man dropped over the side, an arrow visible in his throat.
By the time the alarm sounded it was too late, for the group was already inside and attacking full force. Nimbrethil quickly moved to her vantage point and set to work, firing arrows as rapidly as possible. Bishop was doing the same from his vantage point opposite hers. Between the two of them they could site down on the entire area, providing deadly cover for their companions down in the thick of things. She saw that Sand and the other mages were doing what they did best, blasting the entire area to the Hells. Having taken out the warpriests, Nimbrethil sighted along the path to the main doors and saw more Luskans coming down to join the fight. Too late to stop them, she saw two men run inside and closed the doors. Cursing under her breath, she put it from her mind and focused on the newcomers. Quickly taking down two of them, she caught a brief movement out of the corner of her eye and instinctively jumped from her position into the courtyard below. After rolling to break her fall, she immediately nocked an arrow and sighted back up to her postition. Firing the arrow, she struck the dark armored figure in the neck just as he was about jump. As the body fell at her feet, she peered closely at it and discovered similarities to the ones who had attacked her in the Solace Glade.
"Yeah, that's an assassin," Bishop spat on the body as he came over. "He didn't cut you or anything did he? Their blades are usually tipped in poison."
Realizing that everything had gone quiet, Nimbrethil looked around and saw that no enemies remained and that everyone was alive, if not completely well. Casavir and Elanee were moving amongst them healing wounds serious enough to require it. "No, I saw his movement and jumped before he could attack," she replied absently. She was hearing the sound of some kind of spell hitting something and had a pretty good idea what was happening. Getting to her feet, she walked up the path to the main doors of the keep. Once there, she stopped and watched as the mages with Vale threw spell after spell at the door, to no effect.
"Too bad we don't have any blast globes with us, that'd take the door out pretty quick," Grobnar stated as he joined them.
"Vale, we're being counterspelled," one of the mages turned to face them. "Must be members of the Brotherhood."
"Looks like you'll have to use the escape tunnel after all," Vale said as he came over.
"What are you talking about?" Nimbrethil asked, her eyes narrowing. "I scouted the entire area around the keep and saw no such thing."
"The entrance is located in a glade about a half-mile down the side road," Vale said.
"You mean to tell me that you knew of another way into the keep and just forgot to mention it?" Nimbrethil snarled.
"The tunnel was crawling with all kinds of creatures and to traverse it would have required the use of our spells, spells we would need to fight the Brotherhood," Vale said angrily. "I decided it was not a viable option and so chose not to mention it."
Nimbrethil just glared at the wizard while several of her companions began complaining all at once, with Bishop being the loudest and most insulting. She waited until they started to quiet down before speaking. "Well, seeing as how your short-sightedness and arrogance in assuming that you could just blast your way through anything has left us with no other way in, we now have no choice but to use it," she said to Vale, her voice colder than ice. She turned away in disgust.
Sand hesitated for a moment and then turned to Vale, a disapproving look on his face. He was about to speak when there was a hiss and an arrow thudded into the wall a mere inch from Vale's ear. With a gasp he turned to see Nimbrethil had another arrow nocked and aimed right at Vale.
"Is there anything else you conveniently forgot to tell us?" Nimbrethil asked, her voice a low growl "Because if I find out about it afterwards...," she left the sentence unfinished but tightened her pull on the bow string, leaving no doubt in their minds what she meant.
"Nimbrethil, this is not the way to handle the situation," Casavir murmured quietly in her ear. "While withholding the information was not right, it is not something you can kill someone for doing."
She hesitated for a second then lowered her bow, seeing looks of relief wash over Sand and Vale's faces. "There are ways to make someone sorry for lying that don't involve loss of life," she said loudly enough for everyone to hear. "And that's what you'll be if you 'forget' to tell me something and my friends end up hurt or dead because of it." The smile she gave Vale didn't reach her eyes, which were cold and hard as the stones they mimicked.
Vale swallowed a couple of times before he could speak calmly. "I assure you that is all the information that I have."
Nimbrethil turned and stalked angrily towards the main gates. Casavir watched her go and then turned towards Vale and Sand. He walked over to them and stared long and hard at Vale. "You should have informed us beforehand of the escape tunnel, for while it may not have been a viable option for your group, it would have posed no problem for ours. If we had known and used it before now, our situations would have been reversed, with the Luskans trying to get in and you holding them at bay."
"You can't possibly condone with what she just did," Vale sputtered angrily.
"No, I don't approve of it, but I understand it," Casavir replied calmly. "She is angry because we risked our lives and gained very little for it. She tends to take such things very personally."
"Time is wasting gentlemen," Sand broke in. "I suggest we hurry before she gets too far ahead of us." He waited until Casavir had left and then turned to speak to Vale quickly. "I feel I must apologize to you, for I know that you did what you thought was best. However, I would suggest that the next time you have to cooperate with another group as diverse as this one, that you lay all your cards on the table and discuss matters openly. It will save you from unfortunate misunderstandings."
"The sooner we're finished here, the happier I'll be Sand, so just go and get the job done," Vale stated flatly.
Sand shook his head at the stubborness of the young. Vale may be an adult but he was still young and hadn't learned much yet about how to deal with people other than wizards. Nimbrethil was still little more than a child and she too was just learning how to deal with others. Which left ones such as him caught in the middle. Fortunately, he had always had a smooth tongue and a gift for words, for he had a feeling he was going to need those talents even more now that he was assigned to the girl. Sighing, he hurried to catch up with the others and hoped that nothing else untoward happened tonight, for his patience was beginning to wear thin.