The Heartwood
Loch Faast Keep
The Sluice Gates
Attaday, the Eighth Day of Yrick
Cesare, the Raccoon and Mouse ‘sisters’, Quick-Quick and a selection of Forest Folk
The way to the boats was clear and the others had no reason to tarry. Out on the ramparts the moons' light glittered off the still lake, whose surface would not remain still for long. It was already being disturbed near their tower, where the water now rushed through the sluice gate. This close the noise of the torrent made it hard to hear anything else – but, happily, boarding boats was not a task that needed much instruction.
Subterfuge was no longer a requirement. They could paddle and splash – though it was only by the strength of the Rats that they were able to pull away from the current they had created.
They reached still water by the time they heard the shattering, the brittle noise echoing up the Keep’s central shaft. They felt the lake move, rustling their boats, at the sound of the soft thunder, the loud noise betraying the fact something significant had just occurred in the unseen depths.
Ahead, on their way back, they could see that things had become difficult for Pietro and Bekkah; their route to the keep, the main bridge, was now in two parts. One stretch of the roadway had been raised like a drawbridge. The silver light illuminated a strange movement, as if something was being thrown from the raised drawbridge to the shore side portion of the bridge.
Something person sized – or perhaps a few person sized somethings.
It looked like their diversion vanguard was also Home-ward bound.