After stuffing the unconscious men into the cupboard, Broneslav took robes and a hood and put them on. It seemed reasonable to him that anyone coming through here was probably part of the group he was after, and that he would gain the element of surprise by wearing the clothes they expected people to see others in.
The question, though, was where next? The door he had just come through would not open again, and there seemed little reason for anyone to return to the mead hall wearing the robes, so that meant there must be another way out of here. He searched carefully, noting dirt and scuff marks on the floor leading under the wall opposite the way he had come in. It did not take too long to find a way to open a secret door in that wall. Beyond was a tunnel under the houses beside the mead hall.
"These people must really like tunneling!" he mused as he reached a junction. From ahead, he could hear faint voices. The passage to his left was apparently silent. Now, why would there be another tunnel here? And should he find out or should he see what was up with the voices ahead? Broneslav mentally flipped a coin, and followed the passage ahead of him towards the voices.
As he reached the end of the passage, it opened into a larger chamber with a couple of dozen people dressed in red robes and black hoods in it. Broneslav stayed back in the darkness of the passage and watched. A man in a red and gold robe was standing on a dais at one end of the room. Unlike the others, he was wearing a wooden mask instead of a hood. His voice echoed hollowly out of the mask.
"Now is our time! We shall take back the city from the traitors while they are still reeling from our campaign against them. The people will side with us because they know we are right! Our enemies will be crushed and the Duke will be forced to kneel before us. Those who oppose us are weak. Those who betray us are traitors. Like that one!"
The man in the mask pointed to one of the assembled people.
"That one must die for disobeying our orders!"
With that, the crowd of robed people fell on the unfortunate individual. Distracted by their brutal death, Broneslav did not see the man in the wooden mask leave the room. There must have been a secret door behind him, but Broneslav was not about to try to fight his way through twenty people to find out. Well, nineteen now, but the point still stood.
He backed off down the tunnel and decided to try the other branch. It ended at a door with a tunnel off to his left. A sweet, sandalwood smell drifted down the corridor to his left and he felt a strong desire to head down there. He tried the door. It opened easily and he went through.
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