"Impossible... This is impossible..." Earl Eisenberg felt the world spin around him, his hands clamping onto the cold stone, his knuckles whitening from the force.
A roar filled his mind, and only one thought was screaming: I've fallen into a trap! I've fallen into a trap!
The Royal Capital! The intelligence that Sauron's main attack would be on the Royal Capital, those military reports sworn on oaths, those messages about Blackstone Pass and Worton Fort massing heavy troops with the intent to march south... all of it was fake! It was a smokescreen carefully planned and deliberately released by Sauron!
The purpose had been to draw all the kingdom's attention, the armies rushing to defend the king, and countless precious strategic supplies to the south, to that Royal Capital which looked the most important, but whose defenses had in fact already been strengthened!
And the truly fatal fangs had long since turned soundlessly in another direction, aimed at this gateway to the Northern Territory, at Eagle's Nest Fortress, which seemed as solid as a golden soup and iron walls, yet had exposed a flaw because of its troops and attention!
Bone-deep cold swept through his entire body in an instant, and Earl Eisenberg felt as if he could hear his own teeth chattering.
He remembered how perfunctory he had been toward the Royal Capital's urging, how slack he had been in strengthening forward reconnaissance, how he had scoffed at warnings that Sauron "might" attack the Eagle's Nest... Enormous panic and regret nearly swallowed him whole.
Yet, right on the verge of collapse, the "experience" Earl Eisenberg had gained over years of pampered privilege, though he had weathered some storms as well, and an almost instinctive urge to protect himself and cling to luck, abruptly overwhelmed his initial panic.
"No... no!