The Fall of Granada, scene two

Robert Locke had been inside the citadel since the night before.

After scaling the high castle walls with his bare hands and feet, he leaped down from the upper parapets and crept noiselessly through endless hallways lit only by the occasional flickering torch. Moving from shadow to shadow, he edged ever closer to the base of the highest bombard tower.

Even in the daylight next morning, the Moors were so focused on watching the gathering Spanish field armies, or on rounding up treasure for transport, that they could spare few troops to patrol the back corridors. As a result, Locke was easily able to reach the tower undetected.

Only a pair of guards blocked his access to the small wooden door at the tower’s base, and they were distracted by the thundering of bombards high above and the dull roar from the activity of the Spanish armies outside the walls.

Locke emerged from the shadows and crossed the smooth stones of the courtyard in a flash. The guards noticed him too late and were not even able to draw out their own swords before Locke had run both of them through with his.

He tried the handle on the door, but it was tightly secured. A thorough search of the guards revealed no key.

“Enough subtlety,” Locke murmured to himself as he stood back, drew out his one-handed musket from its hip holster, and fired a slug straight into the key hole. The blast loosened the bolt enough that it broke free after he followed up with a solid kick against the door.

Pushing his way inside, Locke encountered another guard. This one, however, was nearly the size of the first two put together, and he wielded an equally impressive wide curved Arabian-style sword.

With no time to reload his musket, and skeptical of trying to fend off such a heavy weapon with his thin rapier, Locke dove and somersaulted away to avoid the first deadly sword-stroke.

After several more swings and near-misses, the enormous guard’s sword sliced deep into one of the vertical wooden buttresses lining the walls and became temporarily stuck.

Locke seized the moment and delivered a series of fast hard punches against the guard’s face and head, but with little to show for it other than a modest trickle of blood from the man’s nose.

The guard countered with a quick and fierce backhand that sent Locke tumbling to the floor. The giant then turned back to his sword and, with a roar of determination, pulled it free from the wood.

Lifting the weapon over his head, the beast prepared to cleave Robert Locke into two pieces. Yet before the downward swing gained any speed, the Englishman delivered a fast kick upward into the guard’s unprotected groin.

The sword fell away as its owner pitched forward, and Locke rolled to the side just in time to avoid being crushed beneath him.

After quickly gathering his belongings, Locke used the hard oak handle of his musket to club the guard in the head until he fell silent. He then took a deep breath before proceeding up the tower steps at a full run.