The timing was perfect.
Einar sprang up onto the wall like a nimble cat, landing without a sound.
He drew the Ladder Knife from his mouth and gestured to the two Sauron veterans who had just climbed up on the other side as well.
The two men nodded, holding the same short blades as they silently crept toward the two sentries on the other side.
Thomas and the dozen or so others climbed onto the wall one after another. Following their prior drills, they quickly split into positions on both sides of the entrance to the passage leading inside the tower, holding their breath and focusing, Armed Swords or Ladder Knives drawn, ready to cut down any enemy who came out from within.
Another small squad, at Einar's signal, moved swiftly and lightly toward the wall stairs not far away. Their target was to open the city gate.
Einar and his companion on the other side struck almost at the same time. Like a ghost, he pressed close to a sentry sleeping soundly, his left hand clamping over the man's mouth and nose while the Ladder Knife in his right hand stabbed accurately, viciously, into the heart beneath the man's leather armor!
The sentry's body shuddered violently. A muffled "guh" sounded in his throat, his eyes snapping wide, and amid utter terror and pain the light in them swiftly faded. The whole process was fast as lightning, not even disturbing another soldier curled up just a few feet away.
However, when one Sauron veteran on the other side made his kill, perhaps because his frozen wrist was not nimble enough, perhaps because the sentry shifted unconsciously in his sleep, the blade missed the heart and pierced through a lung instead!
The sentry's eyes flew open. Agony and suffocation jolted him