With weapons in place, he slipped from the inn, and made his way to the walls, unseen. Like most castle towns, the walls, and indeed the castle and Keep within, were built long ago, in less peaceful times. The mortar that bound the blocks of stone together was crumbling; countless years of wind and rain, ice and snow, and the heat of summer, had taken their toll. Climbing the wall was easy.
At the top, Gawain paused a while, listening for the booted footfalls of a solitary guardsman to fade, before he heaved himself up and over the parapet. Torches flickered at intervals along the wall, and he flitted silently from the shadows of one to the other. In little time, a very little time, he was well within the town, and moving quickly through the shadows between buildings.
If all castle towns were this easy to penetrate, it was a wonder that Morloch had not sent assassins to kill all the Crowns, and replace them with Ramoth emissaries…it could be done in a single night, Gawain had no doubt.
The Ramoth Tower loomed high, higher even than the Keep a short distance away. Gawain grimaced. How Juria had permitted its construction so close to hearth and home, the Court, the centre of the kingdom, Gawain did not know.
What concerned him most was the sight that met his eyes when he climbed a nearby roof to remind himself of the compound's layout. He'd visited Juria before. Before Raheen. But with the emissaries knowing of his approach, he had to check to be sure that his plans would work.
He didn't expect to see Jurian Household Guard patrolling the perimeter, practically side by side with the Ramoth mercenaries.
A noise from below caught his attention, and he looked down. Allazar, in dark robes but with his head bare, stood in the shadows beneath him. The pale head, to Gawain at least, seemed to gleam like a beacon in the night, and he cursed the wizard's incompetence. Then his eyes widened, as Allazar's hands began to make curious movements, and the wizard seemed to be enveloped in darkness, as if fading from view.
Gawain climbed down from the wall, slipped around the building, and slid along the wall to the spot he knew Allazar occupied. Knowing he was there, he could see him. He doubted any casual glance would reveal the man, even with his head bared.
"You came.” Gawain whispered.
Allazar started, and gasped. "Longsword? You see me?"
"I do.” But then Gawain was forced to admit "But only because I know you to be here."
"What now?"
"Now I must gain entry to the tower, and you also."
"I?” Allazar sounded terrified. "If Ramoth's Eye sees me…"
"Be quiet, whitebeard. I must think. I cannot slay the Jurian Guard."
"I cannot harm them." Allazar answered the unspoken question.
Gawain made a slight noise, indicating his disgust. "Useless. Stay here until I signal you to come. You will enter the tower with me."
Gawain slipped away, leaving the shaken Allazar in the shadows. It took an hour to circle around the tower, when he suddenly caught sight of an opportunity that might spare the Jurian guardsmen. An erect figure strode purposefully from the Keep towards the tower, and spoke with one of the guardsmen. It was an officer, making his rounds, and the officer wore the familiar colours of a Captain in the Royal Jurian Guard.
It was Jerryn, and Gawain pondered a moment before moving away through the shadows…
Jerryn gasped and his hand reached for his knife when Gawain clamped his hand around the officer's mouth and dragged him into the darkness between a row of dwellings.
"Peace, Jerryn, it is I, Longsword. My word to you, peace, if you do not call out."
Jerryn nodded once, and let go of the knife's hilt. Gawain slowly released his grip.
"You told the Crown this tower would be spared!" Jerryn hissed.
"It may yet be. With your help, friend Jerryn. The Crown may be saved, and the Ramoth destroyed also."
"How so?" Jerryn gasped, "And what must I do? I have a duty!"
Gawain briefly outlined his plan, and after a few moments, Jerryn reached out his hand. "I shall help, Longsword, for the Crown, and for my sister. My word on it. It shall be as you say."
Gawain accepted the hand, and then watched as Jerryn straightened his tunic, and strode out into the street again, towards the tower and its long huts. He watched as the officer approached the Jurian guardsmen, gave his orders, and waited.
A short time later, the Jurian guards that had been patrolling the tower's perimeter were assembled, and marching under their sergeant's command back towards the Keep, their onerous duty relieved for the night. Most were smiling happily as their booted feet crunched in step across the cobbles towards their barracks.
Jerryn walked slowly back towards the Keep, and never cast so much as a glance towards the shadows where he thought Gawain yet lurked.
But Gawain had already circled to the rear of the tower and cut the throat of the first Ramoth sentry.
From his vantage point in the shadows, Allazar watched with rising horror as time after time, a black shadow loomed up behind a sentry and felled him, silently. Never had such cold murder been seen in the land outside of foulest brigandry.
In no time at all, it seemed, the shade was beckoning, and Allazar knew his time had come. With a final glance around the silent and empty compound, and a last look to the parapet of the Keep for watchful guards, Allazar hurried briskly across the open space to the base of the tower.
"Stay silent, and stay behind me. Or your life."
Allazar nodded hurriedly, and Gawain eased open the low door in the base of the tower for the second time, stooping and stepping over the body of the mercenary on the threshold. Allazar followed close at heel, and pushed the door closed.
Gawain indicated that the wizard should hang back, and then began his ascent up the spiral staircase. This was the tallest tower yet, and it took some time to make his way to the top, testing each step to ensure that no creaking boards would announce his presence. None did.
It was the darkest hour when he reached the top, that darkest of hours, when death stalks the unwary in their beds. Gawain stalked silently in through the arched doorway, despatched the single acolyte sitting asleep beside the entrance, and then crept cautiously to the shrouded bed.
He stood in the darkness, short sword in hand, listening intently. Breathing. One person breathing. He quietly parted the curtains, eyed the sleeping man on the bed with loathing, and then brought the flat of his blade hard down across the emissary's forehead and nose.
Then he slipped the eye-amulet from around the unconscious man's neck, and ground it under his heel.
"You can come in now, whitebeard." Gawain said quietly.
Allazar crept through the doorway, eyed the dead acolyte without feeling, and then strode across the room to stare down at the emissary.
"Have you killed him?"
"Not yet. But he's not going to wake up for some time. Take down these curtains, we'll use them to bind him. I want him hanging from that cross-beam when he opens his eyes."
"Why?"
Gawain gave no answer, and together they bound and gagged their prisoner. Within minutes, the emissary was hanging by his wrists from one of the roof-beams that criss-crossed the tower's ceiling.
"Good. Now, look for a phial of green liquid."
"Green liquid?" Allazar asked, puzzled.
"That's why you're here, wizard. To do something slightly more useful than killing your own horse or taking down curtains. This vermin claims to be 'curing' Juria with his green medicine."
"Perhaps he is."
"And perhaps you'll be able to fly when I throw you out the window. Is it not convenient that Juria fell mysteriously ill when news was received that the tower in Callodon's castletown had been fired? And is it not convenient that only this scum can administer the cure? Or that no whitebeard has been able to examine the medicine?"