Chapter 338: Infiltrating Malbork

Alfred stood looking at Malbork, his eyes cold, as Charles came up behind him. "Snowid has yet to attack my King. We will eventually have to move forward with the plan. They will get suspicious after a while."

Alfred took a deep breath and looked at the large fort. "I know. Has Henryk found someone yet?"

"Yes. A man he trusts who is from the east of the Commonwealth. His accent is a little strange but can be explained away easily." Charles looked at Alfred and frowned. "Are you sure this is the right course of action?"

"Whether it’s right or not, I don’t care. That fort will fall, it’s just a question of whether they will let us in or not." Alfred sighed and tapped Charles’ arm. "Fake an assault tonight, have Henryk’s man sneak in. Charles bowed and walked off. Looking at Malbork, he couldn’t help but wonder if his plan would even work or not.

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Emil crawled through the thick grass with a bag on his back. The smell was sickening as the corpse, despite its best efforts, had started to decay. Thinking of the gold reward he had been offered if it worked, he pushed out any distractions and focused on his mission. Getting in would be hard, nearly impossible.

He knew that, but he needed the money. Henryk knew that. He didn’t know how long he had been crawling for, but eventually he touched the wall and took a deep breath. Putting the bag down, he leaned back for a few minutes and closed his eyes. In the distance, he could see the camp. Standing up, he pulled his sword, letting it glow from the moonlight’s reflection. The camp moved quickly, and in the distance, he saw siege equipment begin to move.

Emil ran. Ran to the back of the fort. If he got caught by his own side’s artillery, that would be embarrassing. Looking up at the high walls, his heart beat with terror. Seeing it up close made him terrified. He pulled the makeshift grappling hook out and waited for the alarm bells to go off. Closing his eyes, he calmed himself down, telling himself it was no different from a ladder.

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"Ahhhh. FUCK!" Snowid slammed his fist into the wall, hearing the bells going off. He had hardly slept, and on the one day he did, the Empire decided to launch an assault. Gearing up quickly, Snowid walked out with a messy appearance and ignored the looks his men were giving him. "What’s new?"

Snowid asked one of his commanders, and the man handed the telescope over. "Siege equipment accompanied by soldiers. It looks like the Emperor got bored of starving us out."

"He could have waited till day." Snowid groaned, getting a chuckle from his commander. "Have archers at the ready. Bring them off places of low importance and focus on the main assault. We can’t risk giving a foothold." The commander bowed and ran off. Snowid leaned against the wall and watched as the trebuchet loaded its first shots.

’How did he know I was sleeping? Is there a spy, or was it a coincidence?’His mind wandered whilst he fought the urge to stay awake. ’Once they shoot those things, it will wake me up.’Snoiwd yawned and watched with a carefree attitude. To his men, it was a morale boost seeing their king unfazed by the attack, not knowing that he was too tired to process what was happening properly.

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Emil waited a couple of minutes. Taking a few steps back, he tried to look up and see if anyone was still around the wall, but couldn’t. Clicking his tongue, he decided to risk it and began swinging the grappling hook. The first time he missed it, he jumped out of the way to avoid it hitting him.

"How am I..." Muttering to himself, he wondered how he was even meant to get the hookup on the wall. He was the one who could throw it the highest when selecting someone for the mission, but even then, he could barely get it up to the top of the wall.

Taking a deep breath, he took a couple of steps back and began swinging it again. Throwing it up, he watched it fall again and groaned. Despite that, he didn’t give up and repeated. His eyes narrowed, aiming for the gap in the walls. Throwing it up, he watched the hook arc over the wall.

Pulling as hard as he could, the rope tightened and locked in place. Jumping up and grabbing it, he let himself swing for a minute and, once deeming it safe, steadily climbed. His arms instantly became tired after only getting a quarter of the way up. The bag on his back weighed him down, and each breeze made it feel like he was about to fall off.

Closing his eyes, he silently prayed, ignoring everything. He just wanted to get it over with. He could hear the sound of fighting on the other end of the wall and knew that he had a short amount of time to get this done. Climbing quicker, Emil reached the top in five minutes and threw himself over. Sitting down, he quickly caught his breath and thought about the instructions Henryk gave him.

The Duke was the only one who had fully analysed the castle. When he was still loyal to Snowid, he was the man in charge of inspecting the forts around the Kingdom, finding their weak points. Malbork and the other three were special in that they were made to have none, so they checked every few months to ensure none occurred. But it didn’t mean Henryk didn’t know where things were.

Emil looked around and saw his target running down the steps. He tightened the straps around his helmet. Soldiers ran around, trying to get to the wall, ignoring Emil, believing him to have another job. Despite the horrid smell coming from his bag, it wasn’t strange. Alfred’s plan to launch the bodies of dead soldiers in the fort had made the stench in Malbork worse than it should have been, and body clean-up was still going on.

Emil just pushed past those who got in his way. Even if he was their enemy, he was a soldier; it wasn’t hard to blend in. Emil looked down and saw boulders crashing into the stone towers, debris crumbling around him. He tried his best not to get caught off guard, but the occasional dust falling onto him made him jump every time. It was enough being in the enemy camp; dying to his allies’ distraction was worse.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING? ALL MEN TO THE WALL!" Someone grabbed Emil back and turned him around. His nose quickly scrunched at the smell, but he pushed it aside.

"I got orders. Take this to the others." Emil blurted out what Alfred had told him to say if asked. Throughout the day, they had seen black smoke rising from the walls, and everyone who saw it knew what it meant. When Henryk saw it, he smiled and said it was lucky they were burning the bodies by the main well, or things would have been annoying.

The soldier looked Emil up for a few seconds, but with the overwhelming stench of a decaying corpse bothering him, he waved his hand and ran off, not sparing a second glance. Emil didn’t waste any time. Although he was tired, he ran off to the well. Cutting through areas with a low amount of men, he arrived at the well and dropped the bag. Cutting it open, he stopped the urge to throw up.

He had seen death. He had killed men. But seeing the decaying corpse and knowing he was going to put it in the well made him ill. Looking around, he saw no one and opened the top. Dropping the body, he brushed his hand and closed the well once more, quickly running off.

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Snowid watched the assault with strange eyes.’There not commited.’With years of experience, he could tell in an instant. Clicking his tongue, he sighed and walked off. It was a trick to keep his men awake. It was simple but annoying.

Walking along the wall, he yawned, fighting to stay awake. The entire siege didn’t seem to matter. Had it been any other time, Snowid would have noticed the grabbing hook he walked past, but the tiredness mixed with his knowledge that the assault wasn’t real dulled his sense, and he walked past yawning.

Emil saw him from below and slipped into the darkness, holding his breath. He could tell Snowid was half asleep, but even like that, the man could easily kill him. Watching him walk past, he begged that the grappling hook wasn’t found, and seeing Snowi continue on, he finally breathed again and went up.

Looking around, he loosened the hook and vaulted the wall. Carefully climbing down, he made sure not to make any sudden movements that would knock it loose. Only when he got down and pulled it off did he rest. Sitting down on the cold ground, he leaned against the wall and chuckled, unable to believe that he managed to do it.