The northern wall of the gardens is not like the southern one. On the other side of this wall is V’Rel Manor. Before the city expanded its borders, the edge of the gardens was the city’s boundary. So, the wall here is a large defensive one with intermittent guard towers. When they expanded the city and built V’Rel manor, they made the wall a bit of a theme and built the wall all the way around the property.

  This is why it was chosen as the home for the prince when the alliance was arranged. It has great defences and there was initially fear that people would sabotage the alliance by killing Rosario or Phoenix.

  This means that we don’t have a hope in hell of climbing it. Fortunately, because Phoenix visits the gardens often, she has a strong lad stationed at the watchtower to raise and lower the mini-portcullis. That means that, as long as he has not left his station, we can enter through the watchtower, climb to the top of the wall, cross the manor, and exit through the northern property exit.

  We actually lucked out for once. The portcullis guy was still there. Perfectly nice lad named Sean. Smells of ale and pork rinds. He’s clearly not a knight or guard or anything. But that makes sense. The paranoia about them being assassinated disappeared ages ago. Phoenix only hires somebody for this gate because she lacks the strength to do it herself. And when it comes to hiring, Phoenix tends to hire the common-folk where possible. She doesn’t like people who have been trained for service. Claims you can never trust them to give you an honest opinion.

  He opened the door for us and up we went. He offered to come with us to assist. Which we accepted. At this point, we need as many people as we can get.

  Once we reached the top of the wall, we could see the inner courtyard. It was clear that something was trying to smash its way through the main gate. Whether it was a horde of small creatures using a battering ram, or just some huge beast, we were unable to tell. And we did not want to hang around and find out.

  The wall connects with the southern and northern sides of the manor though bridges. We decided to cross through the manor because crossing the wall by the main gate would just aggravate whatever is bashing its way in.

  As we headed for the bridge, I caught sight of somebody moving inside the manor. They were heading towards the same door as us.

  Dwynfel: “Sean, go back and raise the portcullis. There are people here that will need to evacuate through the gardens.”

  Sean: “Righto.”

  He rushed off towards the watchtower as we approached the bridge.

  Knight 3: “Why would they still be inside? They should have evacuated ages ago.”

  Kiyui: “They probably thought it was another false alarm. Or maybe they thought this place was secure enough.”

  Dwynfel: “Either way, the fact the front gate is almost smashed in is clearly giving them cause to panic. We need to let them know that they can get to the temple through the gardens.”

  Kiyui: “Isn’t the Duke’s manor closer?”

  Dwynfel: “Only if they take the main streets. And I really would not recommend that right now.”

  We reached the door at the same time that they did. They burst through the door and nearly knocked me out. Hang on… what the hell?”

  Dwynfel: “Charlie? What are you doing here? And what the hell is that?”

  I gestured towards Charlie’s arm. Not his actual arm… but the arm that had replaced his absent arm. He raised it up and it looked to be made of metal.

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  Charlie: “Phoenix hired me to be Rosario and Wynrun’s research assistant. They made this arm for me.”

  He started wiggling the fingers and waving it about.

  Charlie: “Cool, right?”

  Knight 3: “Are you the only one here?”

  Charlie: “Of course not.”

  He leaned through the door.

  Charlie: “Its fine, you guys can come out now.”

  Thomas emerged carrying Tarquin and holding Jacob’s hand. He was followed by Rosario’s butler who is a tall, thin, and gaunt man by the name of Giles. He was carrying Rose on his back. They were in turn followed by the cook of the house. She is a large stocky woman by the name of Gladys. She has bright orange frizzy hair and a crazed look in her eyes. She had Violet perched on her hip and was wielding a meat cleaver in her spare hand.

  Then Lady Bushel appeared… barging past Gladys with no regard for her at all. She then proceeded to storm past all of us and straight to the hammer guy.

  Gentle: “Oh, finally. They send somebody to rescue me. Well, hurry along knight. Escort me to safety.”

  Knight 3: “You misinterpret the situation, madame. We are on a different mission.”

  Gentle: “Oh, don’t you know who I am?”

  Knight 3: I know exactly who you are. But your status is irrelevant right now.”

  Gentle: “Oh, excuse me? I order you to…”

  Knight 3: “You may not order me to do anything. If our mission fails, then we all die. You included.”

  Gentle: “Oh, I will have your knighthood removed for speaking to me in this way.”

  Knight 3: “You are welcome to try. Assuming you survive.”

  Gentle: “Oh, I have never…”

  Knight 3: “Be quiet now, madame. You are not helping.”

  Gentle recoiled in shock and disgust. I could tell that she wished to storm off in a dramatic tirade. But she clearly feared for her safety, and thus refrained.

  Kiyui: “Thomas, what are you doing here?”

  Thomas: “We were here on a play date when this whole thing kicked off.”

  Dwynfel: “Where’s Phoenix? Rosario? Wynrun?”

  Giles: “The lady Phoenix has not been present since the early hours.”

  Charlie: “She wasn’t here when the alarm sounded. Rosario and Wynrun have a plan to deal with whatever’s trying to break in. Then I saw you through the window. Figured you would know the best way for us to get out of here.”

  Dwynfel: “Stay off the main streets. They are an absolute nightmare.”

  Knight 3: “The gardens seem relatively empty. You should be able to cut through there to reach the Temple of the Father unmolested.”

  Kiyui: “I don’t mean to alarm anybody, but look.”

  We all turned to the east to see a swarm of imps flying over the gate.

  Knight 3: “Shit… how many arrows have you got?”

  Dwynfel: “Five.”

  Shit… that’s nowhere near enough. And I’m the only ranged fighter here. If they swarm us, then there is no way we can protect the kids. And if we retreat inside, then we’ll be here when the gate breaks. The manor will be swarmed and everyone massacred. This is bad.

  We heard the main door of the house open. We moved onto the bridge to see who was emerging. A group of four strange mechanical looking mouse men started walking down the stairs, led by Rosario. They each carried a strange stick and a large bag. The sticks looked like much longer versions of that pistol thing that Vance has.

  They took up positions halfway down the steps. They each took some small items out of the bags that they were carrying and placed them in the long pistols. They then pointed the sticks at the imps. There was a series of small bangs and four imps fell to the ground.

  As the robot mice started putting things in the long pistols again, Rosario spread his wings and took to the air. He started flying towards the imps and these beams of light started jetting forward from his horn. Any imp that was hit by the beams burst into flames and fell to the floor.

  Rose & Violet: “Go Papa!”

  I leaned in to Charlie.

  Dwynfel: “Care to explain to me what the hell is going on?”