She didn’t particularly want to do that, but she guessed Arling was just as safe going with her as staying behind, and if they were together she could keep an eye on her sister. So together they set out for the west wall, descending the stairs from the ramparts to the courtyard, cutting across to the first of several walls that bisected the outer courtyards like spokes from a wheel, allowing them quick access through the Keep proper and the courtyards adjoining the west wall. Aphen was thinking that somehow things were getting away from them, that all their efforts to stay safe were on the verge of failing. It wasn’t hard to pinpoint the source of this premonition; they still hadn’t found out who fired the rail sling the previous day. If there was a traitor within the walls, they were very much at risk.

She had asked Cymrian the previous night for his impressions of the boy Deek Trink. “Too clever for his own good,” Cymrian had responded. “Too ready to persuade you he’s your friend when maybe he’s not.”

He didn’t say aloud what was clearly in his mind—that he didn’t like Deek Trink—but it was obvious enough. It made her think she should have locked the boy away in spite of Bombax. But that would have meant another confrontation, and she wasn’t certain her suspicions were valid. It was easier just to have him watched.

Now she was wondering if she had made a mistake putting but a single guard on him.

“What do we do if they attack?” Arling asked suddenly. They were climbing the stairs to the west wall now, hurrying to have a look at what was happening outside. “Can we stop them? We’re so few.”

Aphen shook her head, unwilling to answer. In truth, she didn’t know. Her only plan at this point was to rely on the wards of the Keep to protect them. If that failed, she didn’t see how thirty could stand against what looked to be close to five or six hundred, even with Paranor’s walls to protect them.

They reached the ramparts and peered over. The clear-cut area that separated the Keep from the forest lay empty below. No sign of anyone. But the walls had been built in a zigzag fashion to allow for defense from more than one angle, and from where they stood they could see only a portion of this one. So Aphen, wanting to be sure the others were safe, as well, began walking north with Arling trailing after in silence. Together they reached the end of that section of wall, rounded the watchtower, and turned down the next.

Instantly they saw the line of armed men slipping out of the trees and sprinting for the Keep, one after another, before disappearing inside through an open door.