The creaking of the two wheels on its wooden axles of the wine cart came to my ears softly as I stood in the darkness. Hidden in my Cloak of Invisibility I watched the disguised Gawaith, now an old Rogarian merchant of advanced years, guide the heavily laden two wheeled cart down the snow packed lane toward the stout wooden blockhouse where the paladin and his young Mauk kinsman lay chained. From across the way and hidden in the deep shadows of a tall aviary tower, I knew Gawain stood in silence and watched intently his brother’s daring plan beginning to unfold.
A few yards behind me I knew Beletrix, and a number of his stout-hearted warriors waited in the darkness. They would play a pivotal role in both freeing the Ankor Mauk and his kinsman as well as, later today, in rescuing those con
