The next few days were actually pleasant, from my point of view. Other than some light paperwork, (I was milking the missing fingers to escape what my could, but it was only so much.) and my few lessons with the other bard I was free to do much as I pleased. I either spent time with Elindiel or hurrying along my hand. The former was a distraction, the latter a limited action.

My fingers were now growing at an extreme rate, but there were still practical concerns. I was physically a bit strained, slightly malnourished, and it was energy intense. Unless I was willing to commit to a rather extreme dietary plan I would need to take things slow. It could be done faster, but that would only lead to problems down the road, so it was frowned on rushing things except in an emergency.

My boyfriend, as I had now accepted him as such, had guard duty, and a few minor tasks of his own, but spent quite a bit of time with me as well. We couldn't really do much, or go anywhere, but we could chat. He even sketched me a couple of times in various places throughout the castle, sitting by a window, or walking through the courtyard. There was care taken to omit any militarily relevant details from any of these.

He asked me about the people we were up against, and I told him what I could. I told him the names I knew, and the appearances, and what they were like. I even told him how it was a bit odd, because I'd met the leader of this enemy force many, many years ago, when we were both children. Elindiel listened closely as I told him of the undercity and our adventure there, and how Leif had come off as so kind. He also sat in deep attention when I described their spymaster and the fear he still made me fear with his snake-like face.

Around the time the soldiers moved out en masse I received a letter. Rooke had been a wanted man, who was an enemy of the state and had a sizable bounty on his head. A large quantity of gold had been allocated to me for my service in stopping him. It felt... dirty, the money for killing someone who I'd once had such a close relationship with. Rooke had been my mentor and guardian, and while I'd done my best to forget about how I was responsible for his death, I was indeed. I satisfied myself that had I not acted not only would Durin be dead, but I would probably be being tortured right now; it still felt sickening though.

Verren

Expeditionary force to Ice's End

After a couple of long weeks we were nearing the end of this journey, but there were problems. There always were with any operation, but these were worse than average, and I personally wanted not one of the rats to escape our assault. Perhaps we'd been spoiled with the absolute victory we'd managed again and again, and now struggled against an enemy we couldn't so easily abuse.

The main problem we were having was that there were absolutely no gates anywhere near the city. When the network had first been built it had apparently not been considered important enough to warrant one, if it had even existed. By our standards the city was only middling in size, and very, very far from anything of great note. The only reason it hadn't been forcibly annexed by someone else earlier was that it was just too far from anything else.

The general plan was to use the mountains to close in without being seen, then swing around and down from the north side. Getting warships up here would take weeks longer than we had, and would alert our enemies, the same reason we wanted to avoid the coast to the city's south. There was a chance that we'd get found out, but that was viewed as very minor.

Once we got close enough, a team was going to go in posing as the hunting party those bastards had sent after my daughter. Their goal would be to get inside the walls and set up a gate we'd brought. From there we could quickly move our strongest people into the city and begin taking it, resistance from the civilians was expected to be near zero, and some might even help us.

The problem with the plan was that there was a good chance that the infiltration would fail, or the gate would be destroyed before enough of our people were in. In either of those cases we'd need to move fast to break into the city walls, and begin taking down the nobles who'd hidden here. Time was not on our side, since if Selene broke, or was moved away, one of our strongest weapons could fall into our enemies' hands.

I sighed as we entered the final stretch, looking down at the maps we'd managed to cobble together.

"Something wrong father?" John asked. He looked more like I had at his age by the day.

"It's a mess, we need more time, but we don't have it. The men are also unhappy about the orders concerning the wizard girl." I couldn't bring myself to say her name, not until we had her safe.

"None of us like them, but we all know it must be as it is." He winced as he thought about our orders. "We'll get her back though, our best are being sent in."

"I know they'll do what they must, but I can't help but think of how I would be if it were your sister."

We stared at each other for a long moment. Our orders were clear, and everyone understood it. If Selene couldn't be brought back to us, she was to be executed. There was no room for leeway there, if at any point we failed and it seemed like she might fall back into their hands, the soldiers were to kill her without hesitation.

"It won't come to that," my son said, trying to convince himself as much as it was for me.

"No, it won't. Your team and mine will be the ones attacking the prison. Look here," I pulled over the map and went through with him our angles off approach, and where we were to strike.

Marco

The day had finally come and I was ready for it. While a lot of the soldiers had insisted that only those capable of magic should be in the forward team they couldn't deny me, I knew the city and its routes better than anyone. I would be here as we pierced the gate and made our way inside, and I would see to it that we succeeded in kicking these haughty monsters out of my home.

My team as it was was carefully chosen. We needed people who could fake, at least at a distance, the look of those who'd gone out hunting the bard girl, so choices were a bit limited. The biggest of the limits though was that everyone involved had to be able to hide their aura like it wasn't there, not that I really understood what that meant really. Apparently casters had some way of identifying those who could use magic, but the traces could be hidden, something like that.

Other than the weird magic stuff, we had to make sure the clothes looked right, and provide enough hounds that were close enough to our own that the guards wouldn't question it. I dreaded the idea that some of them would be killed for opening the city gate to us, but there was no way around it. We needed in, and enough time for the gate, a folding contraption hidden in bundles like it was our target, to be set up.

Snow crunched under my feet as we approached the gate, and I let my eyes roam. Something seemed slightly off, but I couldn't place my finger on it. I gave another hard look towards the wall and squinted.

"Something's wrong cousin," I said to the man beside me. He was in the guise of my now dead kinsman.

"Hm?"

"Less gate guards than normal, and I don't see the captain anywhere."

We'd been warned to try and keep conversation as casual and normal as possible. It seemed silly, but one of the soldiers told me they had men with senses that would boggle my mind, and we had to assume our enemy did too.

"I'll tell the wizard, he should know what to do," he said.

My heart was thundering in my chest as we came nearer and nearer. I was no soldier, just a man trying to do the best I could for his people. If this was a trap, or if something was wrong, I'd have to depend on those with me. I didn't know if they could stand up to whatever might be thrown at us, but I'd just have to trust them.

The gates opened at our approach, we were expected after all. In an instant it all came to a head.

Soon as we stepped in one of the guards came down. He was in a hurry it seemed, and looked at only briefly.

"Sirs, we're so glad to see you. There's been a bit of worry that you were so slow to return and I'm told His Majesty wants a report as soon as possible," the man said. "We sent a runner to the castle as soon as we saw you. They should be sending someone down promptly."

As he spoke a woman on horseback sped towards us. She was yelling from beneath her cloak. "Oh thank goodness..."

Her eyes landed on the man impersonating the dead wizard and I could see the shock for only a moment. Before she could say anything else the impersonator's hand twitched up and a lance of fire speared the rider's head, taking it clean off. The gate guards looked shocked as soldiers revealed themselves and began the attack in earnest.