Jenny and I were just chatting over IM, and she asked me to post some of the ideas for what's about to unfold at Sorn's.
On the necessity of chaos:
Chaos is probably needed right now for Scyld and Lin to escape unnoticed, and for it to make sense that reinforcements would be required. Right now, the manor is only defended by Sorn and Osfrid, and possibly Gurth and the dog, if he returns to Sorn's side of the fight. With Gurth coming to Sorn's defense, which isn't certain, the best Sorn can do is 3 men and a dog to 12 riders. Not terribly good odds for Sorn.
To help the chaos, Jenny suggested the cellar door leading to Lin's cage might not be obvious, so Deren's group might waste some time exploring and trying to figure out where she is. Also, since no one with Deren has seen Lin, they might mistake a terrified Muriel for her. I'm not sure how inclined Osfrid would be to correct the mistake, so some more confusion could come from taking Muriel to either Eodwine or Thornden before the mistake was corrected. Meanwhile, Thornden and Deren might hear that Lin's been rescued, and not know for hours or even the next morning that they found the wrong girl. Which raises a lot of questions. How would they act thinking she'd been rescued and found in one of the men's quarters, and not the cage they would eventually find in the cellars? How would that affect what they did?
About Sorn and Gurth:
Jenny mentioned that the mutally fatal encounter shouldn't happen too soon because Haleth is not intended by his author for long life, and it would be terribly anticlimactic for him to fall off his horse or something. Maybe they could meet, but Sorn could still escape...maybe after doing something to really, really make Gurth angry at him.
And that was the conclusion of our conversation.
Did I miss anything, Jenny?