"Did you hear that?" the first soldier said, his head turning as he searched for the noise.

Silver clung to the wall and hung still as a statue. His fingers and toes, the only points of contact with the wall, were beginning to burn with the inaction. He bit the inside of his cheek to keep himself from groaning.

As the sun had sunk far to the west, the southern wall was shrouded in shadows. The Guardian hoped it was enough to shield him from the soldiers' gaze. While he trusted the uncertain edges of his cloak to hide him, too much of his body was exposed to rely solely on the Fate's gift.

After an eternity the second head pulled back. "Probably just some rock sheering off," he told the first. "We can report it when we get done with our shift. No use making a ruckus for nothing."

The first head also disappeared and after a moment, and the talking faded as the two walked away toward a turret.

"What are you two lollygagging at?" a voice at the turret teased.

"Just your girlfriend. She wanted you to know that she likes me better," the second answered. The men joked a moment at the far end of the walkway, giving the Guardian a moment to breath before making his move.

Satisfied that most of the guards were distracted, Silver edged to the top of the wall and peeked between two of its raised edges. While he would have liked to wait until he could gauge the soldiers' whereabouts on the second turret, his arms and legs were threatening to give way.

'Even a Guardian has his limits, I suppose.' He hoisted himself up onto the ridge and sprawled out in the shadow of the crenellations. Wiggling his fingers and toes, Silver winced and stifled a groan.

The pause on the wall had disrupted the Guardian's timing. He realized now that he would have no time to rest. Sure enough, the next pair of soldiers came marching down the battlement, scanning the horizon.

Without a sound, Silver matched the movement of a passing cloud and crossed the width of the battlement. He hoisted himself over the opposing side just in time for the soldiers to barely catch a glimpse of him in their peripheral vision. One turned his head, but the phantom was already gone.

The inner side of the wall was also rough and jagged like its counterpart, and the cloaked figure easily found footing. Thanks to his evasion tactics to avoid the probing eyes, Silver found himself in the middle of the long inner wall, which was not the path he would have chosen with more time.

Fortunately, the castle's gardens abutted this side and the hanging ivy below him would obscure much of the view as he scrambled down.

So Silver lowered himself down the wall until he found the upper reaches of the creepers. Knowing they would better hide him in the failing light, he gripped onto the sturdy vines which had clung to the weathered stone for generations.

They strained but held tight, giving the Guardian a much more comfortable grip.

With great care, the Guardian then edged his way along the wall toward the southeastern turret. The lateral motion was unfortunate, but the idea of lowering himself into the garden blindly held no appeal. So sideways he went like a spider clinging to the web of tangled greenery.

Once he had inched along to the rounded wall of the southeast corner's turret, Silver released his grip and landed stealthily on the flattened ground below. The fall would have seriously wounded a normal man, but the Guardian knew his body could take the impact. He had fallen from a much higher height before and come out of it unharmed.

'Sometimes it's good not to be normal,' he mused. Keeping to the shadows, the Guardian searched to see if he had been spotted. The garden was empty, and only a few tower windows faced the lush foliage. Everything was quiet and seemed to be in order until...

His eyes lit on a figure silhouetted in the closest tower. Silver's vision was keen, and he could swear the woman was looking right at him. The Guardian froze, staring intently high above the garden at the slender frame. 'How long has she been watching me?'

After anticipating that she would cry out, a puzzled look came across Silver's face as no sound came. He could see the outline of her chin move but only slightly. If she had spoken, it was so soft that not even Silver could hear her words from such a distance.

Suddenly a man joined her at the window, his face hidden from view. By his swift arrival, he was alerted by something.

'The jig is up!'

However, the lady's figure turned effortlessly away from the Guardian and pointed to something else in the garden, directing the man's attention to the far side of the courtyard.

'Either I'm imagining things, or she intentionally did not raise the alarm.' He listened a moment longer to the silence of the courtyard, waiting for any sign that he had been spotted. Nothing happened. He shrugged. 'I'll take any help I can get.'

Silver picked his way along the ground, carefully selecting the smallest gap between the wall and the castle to traverse. The castle structure was large, with four tall towers at each of its corners.

The towers were connected by an inner curtain wall on three sides and the keep along the fourth. The keep was almost as tall as the towers that abutted it and contained the heart of the castle. The library, throne room, kitchens, and even King Rhodri's private chambers all lay within the walls of the fortress.

Silver, however, was not interested in any of these. His goal was only one place: the commander's private office.

As the hooded figure came alongside the wall of the keep, he eyed a large wooden door that was propped slightly open. A bulky cart of fruits and vegetables stood next to the door, and various servants were appearing to gather baskets full of produce before disappearing into the darkened doorway.

Based on information from his informants, Silver had known the cart was due, but he was happy to find that it was still being unloaded. As one of the servants turned to go, the Guardian grabbed a basket and piled it unusually high to block his head from curious eyes.

Boldly, he entered the door and walked into the kitchen with his goods. The kitchen staff, mostly busy feeding the rest of the castle's servants, assumed he was with the grocer who delivered the produce.

The grocer, passing the figure on his journey to retrieve another load, thought the kitchen had a new member of the staff.

'No one questions you when you look like you know what you are doing,' Silver mused. It helped that he had already penetrated the outer curtain wall. No one looked for danger here.

Casting his gaze to make sure no wary eyes were watching, Silver set down the basket and slipped out into a servant's passageway.

Beneath the castle, servants' tunnels ran like game trails below the fortress's foundation for servants to traverse unseen, and the entry to one such pathway was where the Guardian found himself now.

The hooded figure walked down the narrow staircase and took in the burrow before him. It was only around three people wide and poorly lit, the cool earthy smell mixing with smoke from oil that burned in lamps dotting the walls.

He had no time to ponder the enormous building overhead, nor wonder how long these tunnels had taken to dig out. Instead, Silver ducked into the shadows and moved along silent as a wraith.

Once a servant crossed his path, hurriedly hoping she hadn't missed dinner after her mistress kept her too long brushing her hair. But the girl only had eyes for the stew that awaited her, and she passed the Guardian without knowing he was there, his form melding into the dark earthen wall.

'Stay still and people only see what they want to see,' Silver repeated over and over in his head.

While certain things about being a former master thief were still second nature, like walking silently and moving with the shadows, the fear and tension of possible discovery never became old. Silver took a moment to settle his nerves before moving on.

'An incautious thief is invariably a captured thief,' he recalled. Carrying on noiselessly at last, Silver emerged from the servants tunnels into a long corridor. This area was still underground and carved crudely into the magnificent stone that cascaded halfway down one side of the hill.

A sharp metallic clang filled the air, making Silver's blood run cold. Pushing back the distinct desire to run, the Guardian peeked around the corner.

In the unfriendly opening of the passage, a soldier sat on guard duty.

He was armed. He was menacing. He was sharpening his spear.