Seven Stones: Part Fifty
Previously on Seven Stones: Anessa sneaks over the rubble surrounding Karak’s tower. While circling the base, she discovers two robed bodies. When she investigates further, she realises one of them was brought down by a crossbow before they were killed.
Anessa slipped back behind the wall. Why’d Karak use a crossbow rather than the beasts? And why kill a fleeing man? Didn’t he try to drive everyone away…? She sighed. The answers wouldn’t help. She needed to find a way in; one that Karak wasn’t watching.
If he guarded anywhere, it’d be the door. She hadn’t seen windows on the ground floor. If there were some on the other side, they’d be the next most obvious entry; so too risky. The next storey might be safe though; he couldn’t watch everywhere on his own. She reached above her head and felt for holds between the stones.
The blocks were mortared. However, as she’d hoped, it’d crumbled in places, leaving shallow but useable joins. She squeezed the side of her left boot into the wall and eased herself up. The ache in her shoulders blossomed as she pressed her other foot against a crack.
Foot seated — barely — she slipped her right hand free and stretched up. The pain in her left shoulder spread to her elbow. Teeth gritted, she hooked her fingertips into another seam. For a moment, she…
