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I saw Casja hiding her smile too. Luckily, Cari did not see it.
“We still have to find our way inside,” Gethin said. “And we don’t know what’s expecting us in there.”
“We should scout the castle,” I said. “To see what else they might have put up as protection.”
We couldn’t wait too long. Fiona was to be married to Lugh in five days.
“We don’t have to do that,” Cari insisted. “I can hide us all.”
“No,” I said firmly. “We need to be cautious. Our lives aren’t the only ones we will be risking if we fail this. It never is.”
That stopped Cari’s objection.
“Take note,” I continued. “We don’t know what details are important. We should find a place to stay for a while as we observe the daily routine of the castle. Note when they come out and go back in. When the food is delivered and from where... The more we know, the smarter we can be about our plan.”
“I think we’re wasting our time,” Cari commented. “But you are the prince.”
I did not correct her. If she needed my title to follow my lead, she could assume I still had it.
I SAT ON A COLD STONE that was flat enough to be used like a seat and stared at the castle. The others were inside the cave. Like me, they could not light any fires to protect themselves against the cold, but at least they had the protection of the cave whereas I had to brace myself against the wind.
But I did not mind it. After all, I was the one who had insisted on waiting to see if we could find out if the castle had any weaknesses.
Surely if we took our time, we would discover something important about the prison.
Or at least, I had thought so. My assuredness was starting to wither as the night grew older.
The castle was lifeless.
The years passed had taken away the vibrancy of the stone walls, but it was built to withstand an attack. The drawbridge over the moat was pulled, and on the other side, the portcullis closed over the gateway solidly as though it had not moved in decades. I could almost picture the rust that would have taken over the iron, even though I could not see it from where I was.
It seemed no guards ever walked the perimeter. The battlements were deserted, and so were the standing towers. At this time, on a moonless night such as this one, there was no way for anyone to be visiting those towers to keep watch on the surrounding regions without using any light sources, but I saw no torches or oil lamps flickering amidst the wind.
From my vantage point, I could see the top floors of the castle. Similarly, no light came off any windows. I heard no sounds.
Perhaps Cari had been right. Lugh was cautious, and he had ordered his men to remain completely out of sight. With lights and even smoke prohibited, there was no way to discern patrol routes and guard schedules.
We would have to go in blindly.
I braced my coat against the wind and shuddered. If I weren’t going to discover anything, it was useless to sit in the cold and stare at the castle from a distance. The cave would at least be warmer, and there, we could come up with a plan to alleviate some of the obstacles that going blind would likely cause.
I got up. And then, just when I was about to turn around and go back to the cave, I stopped.
It might have been the sudden pause of the wind’s howling or something I’d heard. Perhaps it was my hope and inability to let go of it that caused me to look over my shoulder once more before I gave up.
I thought I saw something in the distance. But despite a strong feeling that something was happening, I could not spot it in the moonless night.
At least, not at first...
What had caught my attention was a shape in the sky. It moved abruptly and awkwardly, like a piece of hollow wood drifting in the sea. My eyes had adjusted to the darkness a while ago, but it still took me some time to stare at it until I realized what it was.
A man...
A flying man...
He did not seem to have any talent for it. Casja had flown us into Crimsontown from Qam and I had watched her direct herself in the air. That had been an elegant thing. This looked nothing like it.
He was a shadow as he rose from the battlement on the western side of the castle. Then, he became a silhouette as he pushed himself over the moat with great force.
