[Imladris]

Lira swung the rope and watched the gleaming grappling hoock skitter across the roof and latch onto a lip of wood. She hoped that if anyone had heard the rope the guards, or the Master himself, would pass it off as hungry rats scaveging for a stray crumb.

Noiselessly and swiftly, she climbed up the rope and crawled to the wooden roof. Splinters speared her palm and she swore silently. As she waited for the others to climb up after her, she tried to dig them out, but failed for they were buried deeply, and her nails were jagged and stubby.

She ceased her efforts when the rest had climbed the rope and, drawing her blade, she gripped the dagger between her teeth and began to crawl across the roof of the temple. She passed silently over the planks of wood, hoping that the others would do likewise. The grappling hook would be enough to alert their enemies...she hoped ony that they had been too concerned with their own sacrifice to notice a few scratchings upon the roof.

She slowed as she neared the farther edge of the temple and put her ear to the wooden plank. There was silence, save for a soft whisper of metal against metal. She could hear no groaning, pitiful whimperings, or pleas for mercy. She closed her eyes, and murmured a prayer for Eodwine. Then she crouched, dagger held ready in her hand, as she waited for Thoronmir's people to smash through the doors.

Under her hands, the roof began to shiver and tremble, as if some force bade them do so. Lira frowned and hissed, "Back away, back away!" She pushed Falco across the roof, and gestured Esgallhugwen back. Falowick, she gathered, was somewhere behind her, out of sight.

As she began to retreat the wood splintered beneath her, crumbling under her weight. She fell through the roof, struggling to grasp the jagged edges of the cavernous hole. As she fell, she vaguely saw the dim form of an alter, and a man bound to it, naked save for a loin cloth.

Guards filled the room and Lira knew that they had been waiting for them. As she plummeted to the stone floor, a sharp crack resounded in the temple: the sound of her broken neck.