Aiden gave the dagger a brutal twist and eased the lifeless guard to the ground. He wiped the blood from his face and took one last look at the battlefield. From atop the city wall, he had a commanding view of the carnage. The army had been completely routed. Those who had not been poisoned had begun to flee once the command tent had burned to the ground. Aiden shivered as he watched hellish fiends picking off retreating soldiers.

He forced himself to turn away. It would all be in vain if he did not succeed. He anchored his grappling hook to a parapet and tossed the rope over the wall. In any other city he would have been certain that his movements were observed by none but the occasional star peaking through the feathered gray clouds. But this was Hyde’s city; eyes were everywhere, not all of them living.

Aiden descended the rope with ease and ducked into a dark corner of the wall. A guard on patrol made his way down the city street, his armor unnaturally silent. Aiden drew his dagger and crept forward.