Black Shadow and Gavner had taken cover just in time. As soon as the doors to the hall burst open, a barrage of flaming arrows were let loose into the hall. Black Shadow looked up at the throne and saw an arrow lodged directly into the back of the throne where the king’s heart would have been, had he not moved. Black Shadow stood up to find an army of dwarves marching into the hall, rank after rank. He grabbed some arrows from his quiver and began picking off the officers of the divisions as they entered. Out of the corner of the dark archer’s eye, he saw that Gavner had dislodged a massive stone from the base of the platform on which the throne sat and carried it back to the table.

Just then, Black Shadow noticed another barrage of flaming arrows incoming. He ducked behind the table where the king was cowering away from the incoming danger. Black Shadow grabed a small stone which he found on the floor, created from the newfound destruction, and threw it at the side of Gavner’s face with exceptional precision. Without looking, Gavner dropped the stone he had been struggling with and dove behind the table. About thirty arrows lodged into the table and set the hard mahogany ablaze.

“Hold on,” Gavner shouted over the chaos as he picked up the stone once more. Black Shadow stood up and continued picking off the higher ranking dwarves when he heard a massive shattering behind him. The archer spun around on his heel to see that Gavner had thrown the stone through the window on the far wall of Al Konvar. Their exit point had been made. Black Shadow motioned for the king to follow him. Grabbing a rope from the massive curtains above the window, Black Shadow tied it to an arrow and turned toward the newfound exit.

Without thinking, Black Shadow sprinted full speed at the window and jumped off the mountainside into the crisp night air. He knocked the arrow and fired it at the side of the mountain above the window, then grabbed onto the rope with one hand and held onto baby Espoir with the other hand. The arrow lodged into the side of the mountainside. There was still quite a bit of slack left in the rope, and time seemed to freeze as the archer was falling in space.