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Crouching in the shadows of the trees, I watched King Tarrak’s encampment outside Adan’s stronghold, trying to stay out of sight of the guards. Not that they could see me, but I still didn’t fully trust in the magic spell I’d done to cloak myself a half-hour before. For one thing, I had no idea how long it would last, but I thought it was good for a little over an hour—maybe two, like the other one had been. It was still too new and untried and too fantastical to believe in completely. I had stopped a good way back from Tarrak’s camp to light a small fire and cast my spell. I wasn’t too worried about the smoke because there was too much of it already drifting around from the Ice Soldiers’ campfires and the one they had built outside Adan’s gate. The air was full of the smell of burning wood.

I had set Violet free near a small stream and left him some food before I took off, hoping he would stay nearby for a while and come when I called him later. It may have been a foolish idea. God knows I had a lot of those. But I couldn’t bear the idea that I might not be able to come back to free him, and he’d be trapped. If he did wander away, I knew he was well-trained, and he’d eventually make his way back to the palace stables.

The first test lay before me—if I could walk unnoticed through the Elven camp where Tarrak was currently laying siege outside Prince Adan’s castle, then I should be able to keep going until I found a way inside the stronghold. I took a deep breath, sent a quick plea to the Demon Lords, and stepped out of the trees behind the camp.

When no immediate outcry came, I was emboldened enough to walk directly through camp. I could see that Tarrak’s army had been moving quickly, surrounding the castle, cutting off its supplies of food and water with the hope of eventually starving the defenders out. There were already a few catapults outside near the walls as well, so they could loft projectiles over into the courtyards.

Tarrak’s men were in the process of making huge scaling ladders that they could set up against the castle's outer curtain wall. The invading Elven soldiers could climb the ladders to gain access to the castle. However, it made them vulnerable to arrow fire and objects being thrown at them from the battlements on the castle walls. I thought maybe I might be able to use one of these ladders to climb over the walls myself. I tried not to think about the fact that defenders could also push the ladders off the walls.

The best bet for Tarrak’s men was to break down the castle gate, of course, so they would need battering rams to pound against it. That must have been the current plan because at the moment a group of Elven soldiers were outside the gate building fires to weaken it, while others stood by to help cover them. A siege cannon, which used gunpowder to hurl stones and iron balls against the fortified gate, was standing by farther back, and Tarrak and Glorfindel were just behind it, staring grimly at the action down by the gate. If they could create a breach, they could storm the castle.

I walked boldly over to Tarrak, coming within arm’s reach of him, but he never so much as glanced at me. Glorfindel, on the other hand, looked directly at me. I froze, thinking for a moment that he saw me. He even cocked his head to the side and looked confused for a moment, but then a noise from the soldiers drew his attention, and he looked away again. I reluctantly turned away from Tarrak, wanting to touch him but not daring to. I steeled myself against the temptation and made my way to the castle walls.

I had made my way around the walls to the back of the castle before I saw where some soldiers had tried to set up a scaling ladder. The defenders inside had thrown it back down, but it had gotten caught in some kind of heavy vine growing up the side of the walls. It was hanging precariously, hopelessly tangled in the climbing greenery. The Elven soldiers must have been in a hurry when they built this ladder, and I could see it would have been way too light to hold more than two or three soldiers at a time anyway, and that was more than likely why they’d abandoned it here. It was nowhere near the top of the wall, but I could use it to reach more of the clinging vine that did lead very near the top of the wall. It would take some time, and the vines might not hold my weight, but I thought it worth a try.

It took several tries before I could jump up high enough to reach one rung of the ladder and pull myself up to it. It held my weight just fine, and I used it to climb up as far as I could. It was a little more frightening when I had to leap up to catch a vine, but I did it and managed to climb all the way to the top of the wall. As I feared, there were guards perhaps fifteen meters away on the battlements—an ogre, along with two of Adan’s Elven soldiers. The ogre kept himself apart from them, staring morosely out over the walls, so I had a chance to take a good, long look at him.

The creature looked human-like—if that human were extremely ugly and had also been dead for a few weeks. His skin was a peculiar shade of gray with a slightly greenish cast. He was tall—a full two heads taller than me, but almost cadaver thin, with long arms like an ape’s. He wore an ill-fitting uniform like the other Elven guards, with the sleeves and pants legs comically short, though I doubted anyone would dare laugh at him. He had an enormous battle axe resting beside him on the battlement and a bow with a quiver of arrows slung across one hunched shoulder. He wore no helmet but had a red crest of hair that stood up in a wide strip along his scalp, and he was bald on either side of that. I couldn’t see his eyes, but the creature looked sullen and thoroughly unpleasant.

I eased a leg over the top of the wall, and the ogre turned his head to look straight at me. I froze, begging whichever Demon Lord might be listening to please keep me invisible. Like Violet had done, the ogre sniffed the air. He made a suspicious face, and I knew he smelled me, but I could tell he didn’t see me. He leaned over the wall to scan the side, turned around to look behind him, and then finally turned his ugly head away and went back to staring out over the battlement again.

Carefully, I managed to swing my other leg over the side and ease myself over the wall. I walked in the opposite direction of the ogre and the guards and eventually found a set of stone steps leading down off the wall. I could smell the smoke from Tarrak’s fires strongly down here and I could hear the shouting of both Tarrak’s and Adan’s men as they traded insults and threats through the gates. Quickly, I turned away and went up another set of steps that led into the castle residences. I waited a few minutes until some servants opened the door to come outside and I slipped in behind them into the great hall.

I managed to take about three steps inside when I heard two people coming down the wide, curved staircase at the far end of the hall. One of them was a woman, very elderly, with white hair and a mean, cold face, the delicate bones sharply etched in her face. She was dressed richly but leaning heavily on a cane with one hand and her other hand was on the arm of a handsome man. I knew she must be the old queen, Adan’s mother, Queen Olga.

I made my way past a crowd of people, both servants and others dressed more richly, until I found myself in front of the staircase, watching as the couple descended. It was difficult to tell the age of an Elf, but I thought the female was ancient, though still maintaining a kind of regal beauty. As for the male, he was a bit older than Tarrak and not as handsome. Although, with Elves, it was like comparing one rose to another. One might be a bit more perfect. He had the golden hair streaked with silver and the icy blue eyes of his brother, though in my opinion, Tarrak’s hair was brighter and his eyelashes thicker. Tarrak was more muscular as well and not quite as lean as Adan. I stood there staring at the pair as they descended the steps, and it took the old queen’s startled gasp to make me realize that I was suddenly materializing right in front of them. It was an interesting moment.

I turned to run and slammed right into a group of guards who had come up behind me. They wrestled me quickly to the floor and I looked up to see Prince Adan himself gazing down at me with an icy, contemptuous sneer.

“What is this human doing here in my hall? How on earth did the scum find his way in here?” He waved his hand and said, “Never mind. Just kill him at once and throw his body out for the dogs to eat.”