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By Root 2462 0

Then he brings his other hand to the ledge and pulls himself up and in through the window. The room he finds himself in is quite dark and wishes he would have thought to have James make him one of his orbs. Too late now. He removes the rope coiled about his middle and tosses a length of it out the window down to Stig below. Bracing himself and taking a secure hold of the rope, he feels Stig test it to see if he’s ready. Then the tension on the rope increases dramatically as Stig begins to use the rope to climb up.

Holding firm with his feet braced against the wall under the window, Jiron maintains a tight grip on the rope. In no time at all, Stig’s hand appears at the window. He grasps the window ledge and lets go of the rope as he begins lifting himself inside. Jiron releases the rope and moves to help him in.

Once Stig is safely within the room, Jiron coils the rope again around his midsection. Moving silently, they make their way cautiously through the dark room until they come to the door. Jiron places his ear against the wood of the door and when he fails to hear anything, opens it a crack.

No light comes through from the other side as the door opens. Swinging it in further, Jiron looks out into a hallway passing to the left and right. Sticking his head out, he looks down both ways, only to find that both are dark. Several of the doors are open allowing the light from the moon shining overhead to spill in.

“Doesn’t look as if anyone’s on this floor,” he whispers to Stig.

“Might be upstairs,” Stig suggests.

Jiron nods agreement. “Let’s find the stairs up and then work our way down.” Moving out into the hallway, he turns to the left as one direction is as good as another. Stepping softly, neither one makes any more sound than the odd creaking of a floorboard. But even that is minimized by them placing the sides of their feet right against the wall.

They pass two doorways, briefly checking them out, before they reach the stairwell that appears to run all the way from the ground floor to the top. The stairs descending down to the bottom floor are dark, while light comes from up above. “Wait here,” Jiron says to Stig who nods that he understands.

Stepping on the flight of stairs going up, Jiron quickly and silently ascends to the third floor. Muffled voices reach him before he gains the top causing him to slow. When it doesn’t look as if they are approaching, he continues the rest of the way. At the top of the stairs, he hears the voices more clearly. It sounds as if there are at least five different men and all are talking in the Empire’s tongue.

Candles burn up and down the hallway on the third floor in wall mounted holders. Peering around the corner, he sees the hallway extends to the left and right. The voices are coming through one of the closed doors down on the right.

Then all of a sudden, one of the doors to the right opens and a man in armor walks out. In the brief glance Jiron had of him before he ducks his head back, he could tell this was not the man he met on the bridge. The man’s footsteps are leading further down the hallway away from where Jiron waits.

Peering back around the corner, he sees the man walk to the far end of the hallway where he turns to the left and disappears. Jiron then glances back down to where Stig waits and signals for him to come up.

When he joins him on the top couple of steps, Jiron indicates the hallway extending to the right and says, “I think there’s a meeting going on in a room down there. At least four men are in there, another just left.”

“Do you think Azku is in there?” Stig asks.

“I would think so,” he replies.

“Do we take him now?” he asks.

Shaking his head, he says, “No. First we have to be sure he’s in there.”

“How do you plan to do that?” Stig asks.

Not for the first time he wishes he could do some of the things James can. A magic mirror to show him who is in there would definitely come in handy right about now.

The door to the room the men are in again opens up and another man steps out. This man is dressed in fine attire with a sword hanging at his