The Final Redemption by Michael Manning (little red riding hood ebook free .txt) 📕

also dampened any noises they might make. Asimilar group stood across the road from them with his son Georgeshielding twenty others, plus Sir William and SirThomas.

One unfortunate side effect of aninvisibility shield was that it blocked the entry of whatever itwas hiding the user from. This meant that if you were using it toblock visible sight, you were effectively blind. For a wizard thiswasn’t so bad, since they still could see using magesight, butWalter and George were forced to hide them from that as well. Thesound dampening also made it impossible for them to hear beyondtheir small groups.

They were deaf, dumb, andblind.

However, Walter had been using hismagic to hide for decades, and his family was known for theirspecial talents in that regard. “There’s a hole in our perceptualshield,” he explained. “It allows me to see out through a tinyspot, but only using physical eyesight.”

“Because they might find us if youused magesight?” questioned Harold.

“Yes,” responded Walter. “I think aphysical peephole is easier to hide than a magical one, especiallywith so many people full of aythar inside.”

“How do you hide a hole?” asked SirEgan, clearly enthralled.

“With an illusion,” said Walter withsome exasperation. “I’m looking through what, from the outside,appears to be a perfectly normal bird perched in a tree righthere.”

“But there isn’t a tree here,”objected Egan.

“There isn’t a bird either,” Waltertold him with no small amount of sarcasm. “Will you let meconcentrate? I know I make this look simple, but it reallyisn’t.”

Penny fought the urge to laugh attheir conversation, though she needn’t have. Her sounds would havegone unheard by the outside world, but old habits die hard. Whenshe did speak she continued to whisper, as they all did, “Youshould relax Egan.”

“It isn’t easy, standing in the pitchblack on the side of the road, waiting for the order to move,knowing that at any moment we could be discovered,” protested theknight, also in a whisper.

“Imagine Cyhan is standing behind you,watching over your shoulder,” suggested Penny.

Sir Egan shuddered in the dark. “Thatreally doesn’t help. I don’t think anyone would want that,” hecomplained.

“Then just shut up, or I’ll have himwatch you sleep for the next month, after we’re done today!” hissedHarold in frustration. He wasn’t enjoying the circumstances either,but he kept his complaints to himself. They were all on edge,nervous with pent up adrenaline, afraid to move or even speakloudly for fear of disrupting their wizard.

“The wagons are rolling up now,”announced Walter. “They’ll be opening the gate anymoment.”

“That’s a relief,” said one of thesoldiers in the group. Penny didn’t recognize him by hisvoice.

Harold sighed, “Keep itquiet.”

“See, I’m not the only one that’s abit anxious,” said Egan, feeling validated by the other man’scomment.

“I’m starting to think Mordecai boundyou to someone’s grandmother instead of the earth, because that’swhat you’re starting to sound like!” barked Harold in a slightlylouder voice. “Just like my Nanna, next you’ll be complaining aboutyour rheumatism.” His remark was met with a number of quietchuckles.

Even Egan saw the humor in the remark,“I rather like your Nanna. She’s a sensible woman. She’d knowbetter than to be standing out here on a cold morning in thedark.”

“Alright, be quiet!” ordered Walter.“We’re going to start moving carefully forward. Move at a slowpace, the last thing we need is to bump into each other, or heavenforbid, into George’s group.”

Each person kept a hand on theshoulder of the one in front of him and another on the waist of theperson to their right. Standing at the front of the group, Walterled them carefully forward. His peephole was no longer disguised,but it would be difficult for anyone to spot; although he knew fromexperience it wasn’t impossible.

His son should be on the opposite sideof the road from them now, moving in the same direction, but he hadno way to confirm the fact. So long as their shields rendered theminvisible to aythar, even direct mental communication would beimpossible. They had discussed their routes earlier however, andeach group had a different target.

Breathing a sigh of relief as theypassed through the gatehouse without incident, Walter guided themthrough the mostly empty courtyard toward the main keep. Once theyreached the main door to the keep, they would discard theirinvisibility and break into three subgroups. George’s group woulddo the same, once he saw them enter the keep.

Walter’s group would divide into threeparts. One, including him and Penny, would head for the key chamberthat controlled the castle’s magical defenses. They were fairlycertain that these had remained undiscovered, since the enemy hadshown no sign of using them yet, but it would be important to gaincontrol of them quickly. Harold would take seven men and head forthe barracks and armory, racing to catch and eliminate any enemyreserves who weren’t on duty, while Egan and his seven would headfor the roof to eliminate the archers there who threatened thecourtyard. Once that was done they would sweep the walls andsmaller defenses to eliminate the other defenders.

George’s group would also split, withone team, led by Sir William, taking control of the main gate asquickly as possible. At the same time, as soon as their game wasrevealed, Sir Thomas and his seven would run for the postern gateto take control of it before their enemies could coordinate to stopthem. George and the remaining six would sweep the top of the outerwalls to help take control of the courtyard.

It was a simple and direct plan, madepossible by two things, the element of surprise, provided by thePrathion wizards, and the strength of Doron. They couldn’t sneakenough men in for their initial surprise attack to have succeededif it weren’t for Doron’s enhancement of their soldiers. Each ofthe men with them would be nearly as fast and strong as one of theKnights of Stone, and although their armor would be simpler andtheir weapons mundane, they should be able to handle any humandefenders they encountered easily enough.

As soon as the walls and gates wereunder their control, the Kriteck would land to deal with whatever‘servants’ Mal’goroth had left behind, and the rest of theirenhanced soldiers would enter to solidify their hold on the castle.It sounded easy enough.

I can’t wait to see whatgoes