“That would be General Dunedain,” Magret said. “You’ll likely find her in the gate tower at this time of night.”

Han walked to the window and looked down on a sea of fog. Dancer’s work, to hide the Fellsian advance. They’d be waiting out there, looking for his signal. Time was wasting. They had to act.

Smothering down worry, Han turned back to the others and said, “Let’s go wake up the southerners.”

C H A P T E R  F I F T Y - F O U R

A SPECTACULAR
DIVERSION

Han Alister looked down into the city of his birth.

Enemy campfires smoldered in the black predawn, burned down to embers. Even at this distance, Han caught the stench of overflowing privies. The Ardenines had knocked down some of the houses near the castle close to make room for the encamped armies. The Red Hawk of Arden flew from many of the blue-blood houses outside the close. Southern officers were bedding down in sight of the palace.

The Ardenines had set up a gibbet on the parade ground, big enough to dangle two at once. Who would they be hanging? Deserters? Spies? It would be more efficient to simply run them through, Han thought. Unless they were trying to make a point.

The castle close and parade grounds were clear; beyond that, Dancer’s tethered cloud clung close to the ground. Han thought of his friend, somewhere out there in the predawn darkness. The clans and their wizard allies would be moving into the edges of the city under the cover of the friendly fog.

Ardenine troops were camped on three sides, but had removed themselves from the area immediately south and west of the palace. Han frowned. What was that about?

Their siege engines stood at the edge of the parade ground, ready to be brought up to the walls. They were located close to the gallows and what looked like a prisoner enclosure. Candidates for hanging?

Han backed away and ducked into the gate tower.

General Dunedain had roused everyone that wasn’t already on duty. It still wasn’t many—less than a hundred in all—mostly bluejackets, a few highlanders, and some sturdy servants.

“All right,” Han said, calling together his handful of fighters. “There’s only the three of us gifted, so we want to cause as big a distraction as we can while using a minimum of flash. Whatever we do, we want to leverage it so we look like a magical army. Wizard flame and killing charms are magically costly, while glamours are cheap.”

“Unfortunately, you cannot kill anyone with a glamour,” Micah said dryly. “Unless, of course, you are fighting a conjured army.”