‘Now,’ Camlin whispered and ran, stooping low to the ground, his eyes never leaving the palisaded wall he was approaching. He heard the thud of Vonn’s footsteps behind him, Baird, Brogan and a few others as well.

They approached from the south-west in the dim of false dawn, the tower a solid blackness amongst the shadows. They headed for a dark patch of wall between two torches, Camlin picking up his speed as he neared the wall, twenty paces, his heartbeat loud as a drum in his ears.

Almost there.

The slope was gentle but Camlin was still breathing hard when his back finally touched the wall, the timber planks smelling sweet and leaking amber.

Other figures reached the wall about him and he searched out Brogan, nodding to the big man from Domhain. Brogan cupped his hands, Camlin put a foot in them, and then he was being hoisted into the air, hands gripping the wall’s rim and he was over. For a horrifying moment his slung bow snagged on the wall. He wriggled, trying not to snap the string, then he was free. He dropped to a walkway with hardly a sound, hand searching for the hilt of his knife.

Baird appeared heartbeats later, the one-eyed warrior grinning like a fool, Vonn and three more following shortly behind.

Camlin closed his eyes and listened. Heard the deep lowing of auroch nearby, further off the whinny of a horse. Nothing else.

Place like this should always have a hound or two. Or a wolven. Or a crow. He missed Corban’s company, and the reassurance of Storm and Craf.

He rose to a crouch and moved along the walkway, Vonn following him, Baird and the other three dropping to the hard ground and shadowing them.

The torchlight over the gates grew quickly closer, two men standing within the circle of light. On the ground there were two more guards, and nearby the window of a small guardhouse bloomed orange with firelight.

Another in there, most likely. He gestured to Baird, then, a handspan from the edge of the light, he put one knee on the walkway, pulled and nocked an arrow, drew and released.

The first warrior toppled and fell with hardly a sound, until he hit the ground with a thud. Vonn had surged past Camlin the moment his arrow had left the string, his sword scraping from its scabbard, the second guard turning weary eyes their way. With a flash of red in the torchlight Vonn’s sword ripped the guard’s throat open.

He saw Baird pausing for a moment in the doorway to the guardhouse. Camlin leaped to the ground, regretting it as he felt the impact in his knees. Vonn ran down the stairs to stand beside him.

I’m getting too old for this. He winced at the throbbing in his knees.