[littlemanpoet]

"I have been in the fortress, or I would not know of the pipe. The Master chooses to keep his fortress cleansed of rubbish, unlike most such abodes. So his slaves are ordered to sweep and shovel away food that is tossed away after it is eaten, and human dung, and any other filth that collects in the fortress. Even the prison cells below are kept clean. I wager this is so that the blood he collects is unspoilt.

"The upper floor is no more than a ring of rooms built from the wall of the fortress. One gets to them by stairs at each corner. It is much like any fortress without lookout posts along the walls. The main floor has matching rooms beneath the ones above. In the center of the main floor is a square gutter down which all the rubbish is dumped. It is caught in a round basin below. From the basin extends another gutter, which leads to the wall, where it joins the pipe. The gutter passes by the prison cells. If Eodwine is in one of the cells, the pipe into the fortress leads us to him by the shortest way.

"If Eodwine is not in the prison cells, then he has been taken by the Master to the temple, which is on the main floor. The temple is walled off from the rest of the fortress, its own little house within the larger house. I have not been inside it and can tell you nothing about it. If the Master has taken Eodwine in there, our only hope is to overcome the guards we meet, and fight our way in. We would lose more lives trying to save Eodwine than we would if we let the Master have him."

Falowik stood. "That is a cold, calculating thing to have said, Furman. It may be true, but we have sworn to save Eodwine, and to save any others that we may. So if it is as you say within the fortress, be assured that we will free what prisoners we may, as Falco did back at Lake Evendim. Who knows? It may be that they can help us to overcome the Master's guards."

"Aye," said Furman, "that may be. I hope so. I have told you all I know."