The first thing that distracted Thilos from badgering me happened right then. The gates are open all day and night unless the city is under attack. The guards aren’t jerks, or at least they aren’t huge jerks, and it is usually a pretty casual scene. The ground is clear for a long way outside the wall so it’s not easy to sneak up without being seen.

Every time Ansdron has been attacked there has been a lot of warning so the guards are normally fairly relaxed. Not this time. As we approached the gate to the Magrin road I saw that instead of two bored guards lazily watching for trouble there were six guards paying close attention to everyone trying to leave the city. “We’ll just have to bluff our way through. Act like you belong.” I said leading the way to the gate. We were just about to the guards when one of them yelled, “There he is! That’s Thilos! Arrest them all!”

Thilos drew his sword, yelling, “That’s one of the phony warders who tried to kill me! Get them!” He was as good as his word and cut down one of the guards before he had his sword clear of his scabbard. After that he began trading blows with the phony warder. Enick also had his sword out, a giant two-handed beast of a weapon that he used like an enormous crowbar to smash his opponents as opposed to cutting them. I threw five or six knives as I ran, screaming, at the two remaining guards, mainly to freak them out as I closed on them. The knives did mostly stick in them but there was not a lot of damage. The two daggers I had in my hands as I reached the first guard supplied plenty of that. I slammed one into his belly and left it there and with the other I sliced his face pretty good as I moved past him and faced my second guard. He did not look so happy to be there and for a moment I felt bad that we had spoiled his easy gate guard duty. Then I drew my sword, stabbed him with it, and rammed my last dagger into his left eye, just to be sure.

I looked around to see if my companions needed any help or if more guards were coming. There weren’t any guards yet and Enick looked like he was doing just fine. He had both of his guards down on the ground. They looked like they were unconscious, but he was still smacking and hacking at them with his ridiculously large sword. Safety first, I guess.

Thilos was still messing around with his phony warder friend and looking the worse for wear. He had blood coming from several cuts on his arms and chest and looked really tired. I threw a few knives at the warder, to help, and while he moved out of the way of most of them one caught him a glancing blow on his forehead and he stumbled for a moment. It was enough to enable Thilos to slide his sword home in the warder’s chest. Unfortunately, at the same time, the jerk also stabbed Thilos in the gut and now blood was really coming out of my friend at an impressive pace.

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“Shit! Enick get some horses! We’ll be right behind you!” I yelled.

Thilos sat down awkwardly in front of the gate. Some might call it a fall. Either way, he looked up at me as I ran to his side. “Horses?” he asked.

“I have horses at the closest stable to each gate for emergencies just like this one.” I said, as I dug through my bag.

“You have lots of emergencies like this one?” he asked, coughing up a little blood.

I smiled, “More than you might think. Now drink this.” I said, handing him a small flask after I removed the cork. “You’ll feel a lot better.”

Thilos choked it down then smiled as the color returned to his cheeks. “By Anth, Dirk, what was that? I feel better already!” He stood up and seemed amazed to be able to do so.

“Let’s head to the stable. More guards will be here any moment. I’ll tell you on the way.” We grabbed our stuff and started jogging through the gate and to the stable. “It was a healing elixir that is made by the priests of Cindrem.” Cindrem is the God of Healing so he really knows his business, which is, of course, healing. His healing elixirs will heal almost anything. Not death, of course, and they can’t re-grow a limb if you get it hacked off. Other than that, though, they are pretty amazing. Everyone should get a few, if you can arrange it.

Thilos whistled, “But that stuff costs a fortune! Wow, you really are doing well for yourself.”

I smiled, “It is expensive, Thilos, but I got it anyway.” I smiled even bigger. I love that joke even if I can’t use it very much because the Priests of Cindrem will figure out what happened. I guess the cat’s out of the bag now. Thank the gods I am a genuine hero now.

“I should have known.” He shook his head, “No wonder it is so expensive, that stuff is amazing. Do you have any more?”

“Just a couple. I had a feeling we might need it. Of course, I didn’t expect to need it before we could leave the city. There’s Enick! Let’s go!”

We mounted up and headed into the woods. They’d be hard pressed to find us in the forest with a warder leading us. At least that’s what we kept saying to each other as we made our way.