97

Delissa makes the final preparations before your departure from the cooperage. She dismisses the apprentices and closes the shop, and then she helps you to apply your disguise. When she is satisfied that you will pass for her cousin Jac, you leave the parlour and collect two saddled horses from a small stable at the rear of the workshop. You mount up and Delissa leads the way along an alley that gives access to Flank Street. At the end of the street you arrive at a plaza located before the city’s North Gate. It is late afternoon, a time when this square is normally crowded with people, yet as you ride towards the north gatehouse you can count the number of citizens that you see on the fingers of one hand.

On reaching the gate you are challenged by the spear-wielding guardsmen and told to dismount. Delissa protests, and she demands to see the Sergeant of the Guard. The sergeant arrives and greets Delissa with a wide smile. They are old friends. The sergeant listens sympathetically to her story that you are her cousin and together you are bound for Luyen to nurse her sick sister. When she has finished her tale, the sergeant nods his approval to a face that is peering out from a window of the gatehouse. Moments later you hear the rattle of heavy chains and the grinding noise of moving gears.

As you are waiting for the heavy gate to rise, the sergeant turns to you and asks: ‘Are you from Luyen?’ You nod your reply. ‘Ah, ’tis a fine place. I have a cousin there, myself. He’s an armourer by the name of Daliem. He has a shop in the centre of the city, at the Square of the Dragons. Perhaps you know him?’

If you possess Telegnosis, turn to 2.

If you do not possess this Grand Master Discipline, turn to 246.