Before we left, I’d gone over the plan of attack with the heads of the teams. Loki thought it would be best to break up our army into several smaler teams that would sneak into different places in the Vittra palace.

Around two hundred trackers had joined our army, and most of the Tryle from Oslinna. Maybe two or three dozen Markises and Markisinnas had come along, including Marksinna Laurent. I promised myself to be nicer to her when we got back to Förening. If we got back.

A few mänks had even volunteered. I’d sent Rhys and Rhiannon away this morning, and I tried to send Matt away, but he refused to leave Förening. Matt had even wanted to fight with us, but I’d convinced him that he would only distract Wila and me, and he agreed to stay behind.

Wila would be leading her own team of twenty trackers and two Markises. They would be going in a side door off the kitchen, and Loki thought there would be hobgoblins in there getting a midnight snack. But Wila could blow around the pots and pans, and one of the Markises with her could control water, so maybe they could flood the place.

Finn and Thomas led two different teams, but they would be doing about the same things. They were coming up through the dungeon. Loki had escaped through a celar off the back of the palace that opened up into the dungeon. It was actualy interconnected to the whole palace, like a long maze beneath it, and through there, Finn, Thomas, and their teams would be able to sneak up and deflect a lot of hobgoblins.

Tove had volunteered for the most dangerous mission. He would go through the front doors, leading a team of fifty trackers.

His objective was to make noise and alert the hobgoblins that he was there. That way, the other teams could sneak up behind hobgoblins while they were busy trying to focus on Tove and his team.

Duncan had wanted to be on Tove’s team, but I reassigned him to Wila’s team. So far, hers sounded about the safest. Not that any of this was realy safe.

Loki’s job would be to get me in the palace to Oren, and then he would go help Tove fight. He wasn’t thriled about the idea, but he knew that I had to this, and I had to do it on my own.

In the long history of Tryle, we had never attacked. No matter how provoked we might be. That might be the one thing Oren would never expect, and it might be enough of an advantage to stop him.