Yup, if he didn’t count the ring of soldiers guarding the place, he’d swear nothing had changed.
They’d crept as close as they dared and had been observing the place for days. Ari and Janco were dressed in green tunic and pants to blend in with the Greenblade workers who buzzed about the site with far more energy than Janco had ever had in his life. Pah.
The best time to approach Oran was when he was alone in his room at night. Otherwise, the man spent all his time inside the hothouses. They’d identified which building he slept in, but not which room. For that to happen, Janco needed to get past the ring of guards.
The soldiers stood within sight distance of each other. If one of them were to suddenly collapse or disappear, his neighbors would know right away. Even if Ari and Janco neutralized half a dozen, there would still be soldiers left standing to raise the alarm.
Well away from the compound, Ari and Janco discussed their pitiful options as the sun set.
“Why can’t we use that fancy cloak?” Janco asked.
Ari arranged the kindling into a lattice. “If you had bothered to listen, Teegan explained that since the compound is already covered by an illusion, the mirror illusion would cancel them both out. As soon as we stepped through the barrier, we would be visible.”
“Great, just when I was thinking magic might be good for once,” Janco muttered.
“At least you’re thinking.” Ari patted Janco on the head as if praising a well-behaved dog.
Janco growled.
Ari ignored him. “What else can we do?”
“We can create a distraction,” Janco said.
“Only if you can create a distraction that won’t alert them that something else is going on. As soon as the ruckus dies down, you know they’ll search the place,” Ari said.
“We can start a fire. That’ll keep them busy for a while.”
“And risk it getting out of control and harming innocent people? No.”
Janco flopped onto his bedroll. They’d set up a small temporary camp that could be quickly abandoned without too many tears.
Ari settled next to him. He dug a piece of jerky from his pack and chewed on it. “Let’s face it. We can’t complete this mission. The risk of getting caught is too high, and even if we did manage to escape, we might tip our hand, ruining Valek’s plans.”
Janco disliked failing. Very much. He lay back and stared up at the darkness. However, he agreed with his partner. They lacked recourses. Nothing here but dirt, leaves, bushes, trees— An idea popped into his heat. What an idiot!
He jumped to his feet. “Ari, do you still have that rope?”
“Yes. Why?”
“’Cause I have a plan.”
“The guards—”
“Won’t suspect a thing.”
“Why not?”
“’Cause I’m not gonna try to go through them. I’m gonna go over their heads.” He pointed up to the tree canopy.
“Nice.”
*
The plan was simple and easy, which should have clued Janco in that it wouldn’t be as simple or as easy as he’d thought. First, using a rope to climb a tree required a lot of upper body strength. The darkness complicated things as well. Hard to find handholds when you couldn’t see your hands.
Once he reached the upper limbs, he didn’t need as much muscle. He wound the rope around his waist. However, in order to keep the noise of his passage from tree to tree as quiet as possible, he inched along the branches, which meant he probably sounded like a fat, out-of-shape Valmur. At one point, he imagined the soldiers below having a great laugh as they took bets on how far he’d get before plummeting to his death.
Good thing he wasn’t afraid of heights. Or was he? A limb dipped with his weight. He clutched another while his heart swung from rib to rib. Easy there. When his pulse returned to—well, not normal, but not thumping as if his life depended on it—he transferred his feet to a thicker perch. Whew.
When he’d moved far enough away from the ring of protection, Janco unwound the rope and tied it to a sturdy trunk. Going down was easier on his arms but burned his palms. Once on solid ground, Janco paused, listening for sounds that he’d been discovered. All quiet.
Ghosting through the forest, Janco kept to the shadows as he aimed for the building they’d suspected housed the officers and other important people. Not many windows had been installed, probably for security purposes. A few people hustled between the structures even this late at night. Since he was dressed for the part, Janco strolled into the open as if he belonged there.