Flogger, Hoyt, Lorgan and two Guild soldiers left via the alley returning back to the lanes. Lorgan could see the sky beginning to darken, Time was running out.
‘Ok’ Flogger began.
‘The plan has been set into motion. Our spotters report that Bryant is coming from the palace in a horse drawn secure carriage, as expected. He will slowly be paraded through the streets, eventually getting to the Main square four lanes down. As to whether Machiavel is putting in an appearance, we don’t know, and frankly we don’t care. The plan is to get Bryant out before reaching the square’ He than looked up ‘We need to get to the roof tops’ Lorgan and Hoyt looked at one another, shruggin their shoulders. They followed the guil members as they jogged along the lane, again turning onto an alleyway unknown to Lorgan. It became apparent to him they Guil;d knew every short cut, and secret path the Slum had. Continuing along they reached a ladder that went to the roof, around three stories high. All five men scaled it reaching the top of the wooden home. The slanted roof made moving difficult, but they moved along regardless. From up here, the slum took on a different appearance as the roofs stretched out before them. The Palace was visible, so two were the stone walls that surrounded the entire city. The rules of travelling were different up here Lorgan realised, and would definitely beat using the packed roads.
‘What exactly is the plan?’ Lorgan asked as they jumped from house to house. The guild soldiers led the way, clearly adept at this task.
‘You will see, Scammer’ Flogger replied, as he jumped across another thin alley onto a home. This was the last building they could travel on as a large gap stood before them. The two uniformed guild members raised their hands and they all slowed. They went to the edge peering over Followed by Hoyt and Lorgan, crouching as they went. Looking over they could see below them the Slum high road. It was busy as usual as people went to and from their destinations. The stalls had now been packed away and stood empty at intervals along the road. Lorgan glanced to the west, seeing now that the sun was a large orange glow hanging low in the sky, time was quickly running out. ‘What now?’ Hoyt asked. Flogger sat down, and pointed downwards to a group of men.
‘Watch’ he said. Around ten men in normal clothing looked up to the roof tops and gave a small hand gesture, which Flogger replied. Suddenly Lorgan noticed activity on the houses opposite them across the High Road. Two more guild men, uniformed looked across, again waved. Flogger returned the wave. Lorgan tried to decipher what was occurring, but he could only wander. Across from them, one of the guild men raised a large bow diagonally upwards in the direction of Lorgan, Hoyt and the others, and fired. Lorgan watched the projectile flew upwards towards him. It pulled a rope of some kind with it. and its strength took it fully across the lane, landing on the roof metres away. Flogger quickly seized the arrow, and lifted it pulling the rope with it. On the other side, the unknown guild members wrapped the bow around a large beam that protruded from the building, followed by a thumbs up. Flogger carefully walked along the edge, finding another beam and wrapped the arrow around and around. Flogger gave the thumbs up also as he made sure it was tight. Now there was a large rope that stretched across the main road two stories up and Lorgan had no idea as to its purpose. But he soon understood.
Flogger spoke to the two guildsmen, and turned to face Lorgan and Hoyt.
‘I will stay up here to lead. You two go down onto the road where my men will meet you. Good luck Scammers’ He pointed them to a nearby ladder, and they descended down onto an alleyway that led onto the high road. ‘These guild people seem to know what they are doing’ Hoyt said as he jumped off the ladder to the ground. The pair began walking to the bustling high road from the quiet side alley. ‘Let’s hope so’. Before they did, they were met by what appeared to be a beggar. His face was dirty, and he had a stick holding his weight up ‘Scammers, We are almost ready, put theses on’ and tossed them both some badly worn clothes, followed by two walking ticka. After putting them on, he ushered them to follow.
‘It seems we have a reputation Hoyt. Let’s leave the card games for a while, its getting us into all sorts of trouble. If we hadn’t of done it in the first place wed probably be back at the flat drinking tea right now and not scaling roof tops.’ Hoyt chuckled ‘Agreed.’
They met up with other men on the road, who all looked like beggars. The disguise was very convincing, and Lorgan thought this beggar convention must have looked quite comical to passing strangers. The man who gave them the clothes told them of the plan, and gave directions on everyone’s positions. Lorgan and Hoyt made their way to one o fthe closed stalls by the side of the road, and the others dispersed going to different points on the roads. Along the road, they could here shouting and booing. Lorgan stood tall seeing a horse drawn carreiage come into view round the bend. The people of the slum were throwing anything they could muster at it. Vegetables and rocks rained down on the Carriage that housed the captain. Around 15 to twenty fully armoured Imperial guards followed it from all sides. They looked around them for anything suspicious There swords were held in their hands, and they looked ready to deliver harm to anyone that tried to come too close to their prisoner.
‘Traitor, Traitor, Traitor, Traitor!’ Lorgan recalled the plan in his head, and prepared him self. Him and Hoyt sat at either sides of the roads, both sitting apparently begging for money. Now he could here the carriage as its wooden wheels rolled along the hard cobbled streets, the hooves of the pulling horses clip clopping along. It was now only metres away, and Lorgan looked towards the lead that stood silently against a shop front looking upwards to Flogger. From the roof, Flogger looked down onto the carriage. He had to time it perfectly, or the whole plan was a failure. He stood, and prepared himself. He estimated the speed of the carriage…. He waited….. a little more and just as it passed underneath him. ‘Now’. He raised two hands to the sky. That was the signal.
The lead raised his hands. The carriage was literally feet from the stall Lorgan sat by; guards were standing around taking no notice of him as he threw his stick into the wheel. Hoyt did the same on the other side and the whole carriage came to a sudden halt, as the wheels refused to turn caught up by blockage in the spokes. The guards shouted at the driver to continue, who shouted back saying he couldn’t. Than suddenly a small army of beggars came up to the soldiers, pleading for money. The crowd increased their ferocity, as they pounded bricks and anything they could at the Carriage. As it had stopped, it meant some of them could get closer and they banged on the hard wooden doors, spitting and throwing anything that would fit through the tiny barred gap at the top. They rocked the carriage and the soldiers were overwhelmed by a mixture of angry slum dwellers screaming their ‘hatred’ at the carriages prisoner and the beggars that harassed them for money. They began to panic, and started lashing out at people. They hit out with the hilts of their swords at people, shouting for them to stand back. They kicked, punched as the stones rained down on them. They raised their shields in defence, still beating people back. The driver jumped down from his seat covering his head from a hail of rocks and rotten food. Seeing the problem, he kicked the sticks out from the spokes returning to the driver’s seat. He lashed the horses to increase in speed, and they galloped away with the soldiers jogging alongside, who still had to block the debris that was flung at them. Lorgan sat close to the stall, and watched as the Carriage departed away along the road, followed by angry citizens who carried on jeering the passing carriage. Looking upwards he could see that stars began to appear in the sky, but that wasn’t all that stood above him. Two stories up, an amazing sight entered his eyes. A guild member was crawling along the rope, legs and arms wrapped onto the rope. He had a knife in his teeth, and just following along behind him was a man Lorgan recognised. The brown muscular frame of the man from the carriage crawled along the rope. His green eyes locked onto the roof ahead of him, and as he reached he jumped up quickly. Flogger stood forward and gave the man a handshake. Back down on the high road the other guildsman looked up at the sight smiling to. Flogger walked to the edge of the roof above them with the man and shouted to his men below:
‘Rufio returns!’ patting him on the back. The Smuggler’s guild legend just chuckled modestly, and Lorgan smiled again looking up. Lorgan knew the man by reputation, but he knew this would be someone he would like to meet. The infamous Captain Bryant was free.
