Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (6 page)

He notices that Delia needs Tinok’s help in
climbing into the saddle and that she is favoring her left arm. He
walks his horse over to her and asks, “Are you okay?”

“A stone hit me when the building exploded
last night,” she explains. “It hurts, but I don’t think it’s
broken, just bruised.”

Feeling guilty at being the cause of her
pain, he says, “I’m sorry.”

She smiles at him and says, “Hey, don’t
worry about it. We got out didn’t we? This is pretty minor compared
to the fate I would’ve had if we hadn’t.” She pats him on the arm
with her right hand and gives him a reassuring smile, then
continues, “So don’t feel bad. I don’t, okay?”

He smiles back at her and says, “Alright, I
won’t” Glancing around to see that everyone has already mounted and
is ready to go, he turns his horse to the south and breaks into a
canter. The others follow along behind.

He takes the lead with Jiron next to him,
the girls in the middle, and Tinok eating their dust at the rear.
After they’ve traveled a ways, he asks Jiron, “Just where did you
and Tinok learn to fight so well?”

“The Pits,” he replies.

“Pits?” James asks.

“Yeah,” he says, as he continues riding.
“They’re not altogether legal, but many of the wealthy pay to have
people fight one another with weapons for their amusement. It pays
pretty well, but you usually don’t survive long.”

“I always did the knives, so did Tinok. We
both rose up through the ranks quickly, you see we both kind of
have a knack for this sort of thing. We never were set against each
other and were able to become friends. Friendship with another in
the Pits is rare, because often you have to face them; many don’t
even bother. But we got along well, even though we knew a day would
come when we would be set against one another.”

“Finally, the day came when we were set to
face off in the pit. You never know who you will be facing until
your name is called. When our names were called, we both marched
out into the pit and by this time, our friendship had grown very
strong. We both could see that the other’s heart was not in this.
When the order was given, Tinok opened himself up to me, didn’t
even try to defend himself, he was willing to sacrifice himself
rather than strike me. The crowd was not happy, they had come to
see blood spilled. They began calling for me to kill him, but I
couldn’t.”

“I came and stood next to him and cried to
the gathered people, ‘We will not fight each other.’ You can
imagine what happened next, they sent in the bruisers, the ones who
deal with problems in the pits. Two came in, wielding clubs. We
stood our ground and in no time at all, they were dead at our feet.
We stood defiant before the crowd, side by side.”

“Next, they brought in two armored guards
with swords, and to the shock of everyone there, they soon laid
dead at our feet too. After that the crowd began to realize what
they were seeing, and started applauding us. Two upstarts, who
wouldn’t play their game, ended up playing their game.” He breaks
out into a laugh. “So from then on, they paired us up. They would
send two, three, sometimes four against us at a time, but none
could match us.”

“Incredible,” James says.

“Yeah,” agrees Jiron, “it was.”

“What made you start in the first place?”
James asks.

“My sister and I used to live on the
streets,” he explains. “And one day, a man came to me and told me
about the clubs and that he thought I might have some talent at it.
He offered me a silver if I came and at least tried some sparring
with him. I did and found I actually did have some talent for it.
I’m pretty good with any weapon as it turns out, but with the
knives, I’m very deadly.”

“The man trained me for six months and then
I had my first fight. They put me against another knifer and I took
him relatively fast and received coins for winning. After several
fights, I was able to get a small place where my sister and I could
live, a place she would be safe until she could hopefully find a
good man. She never wanted me fighting, but you gotta do what it
takes to survive.”

“I understand that,” he says.

From behind them, Cassie interrupts and
asks, “Do you think they’re going to follow us?”

James turns into his saddle and says, “Most
assuredly, it’s only a matter of time. I’m just hoping they won’t
think that we’re escaping further into their territory. Most likely
they’ll think we’ve already headed north or due west toward the
Silver Mountains and Cardri. That’s where I would think to look if
I was them. I doubt if anyone will remember which way, exactly, we
were heading. They were a little preoccupied at the time.”

Next to him, Jiron breaks out into a laugh
and nods his head.

They ride on for another hour before they
begin to see a town appearing on the horizon. They keep an eye out
for movement but the place appears to be abandoned. As they
approach they can see why, buildings stand empty, gutted with flame
and dead bodies are scattered around the area. A road passes
through the center of town going from east to west, though there
appears to be no one upon it.

“Do you think the Empire did this?” Cassie
asks, as they stop well away from the town.

James says over his shoulder, “Most likely
they did it on their way to the City.”

“Shall we go see if anyone is alive?” Delia
asks.

“I think anyone who’s alive would’ve gotten
away before now,” James replies. “Besides, we can’t take the chance
that we will be discovered here.”

“But someone there could need our help!” she
insists as she points toward the town.

“Sometimes,” he begins to explain, “you have
to think of…”

She gives him a dirty look and kicks her
horse, galloping toward the town before he even has a chance to
finish.

“Damn!” Jiron exclaims as he races after
her.

The rest hurry after, attempting to catch up
with Jiron and Delia.

“Are you crazy?” Jiron yells at Delia when
he catches up with her.

Getting down from her horse, she goes over
to one of the bodies lying on the ground to see if they’re still
alive. Not paying Jiron any attention, she moves on to the
next.

He dismounts and goes over to her, grabbing
her by the arm and turns her to face him. “We cannot stay here! The
Empire will use this road and it’s only a matter of time before
they get here.”

Staring him in the eye, she says, “Let go of
my arm!” and continues staring him down until he does. When he lets
go, she says, “Then help me, but I’m not leaving until I know there
is no one here to help.” She turns her back on him and continues on
to the next person.

James rides up and says, “We gotta get out
of here.”

Jiron looks at him and says, “She won’t
leave until she’s sure there’s no one to help.”

“Damn!” James curses, and then looks up and
down the road, making sure no one is approaching. “Alright,
everyone fan out and search for survivors. Cassie,” he says to her,
“you keep a lookout and if anyone comes from either direction, you
let us know, fast.”

She nods her head and then finds a position
where she can keep both directions of the road in view. It’s not
too hard as this is a rather small town with only a dozen or so
buildings.

The others move from body to body but are
only finding dead ones. Jiron goes through the buildings, but
again, no one alive is found.

“Someone’s coming!” Cassie yells as she
hurries back toward them.

“Where?” yells Jiron and James
simultaneously.

She points off toward the west and says,
“There.”

James looks and asks, “Did you see how
many?”

“More than one,” she replies. “But I didn’t
count, I felt you needed to know as soon as possible.”

“Delia!” James hollers over to her. When he
has her attention, he points to the west and says, “We’ve got
company!”

She looks west and sees the rider coming and
runs over to where the others are. Tinok has already gathered the
horses and they all enter one of the larger buildings, bringing the
horses inside. James and Jiron take position by the window and
watch. The others hold the horses, trying to keep them as quiet as
possible.

It’s not long before they hear the
approaching riders. James watches as perhaps a score of riders make
their way through the center of town, passing right in front of
where they’re hiding.

“…the dead? Seems wrong,” they hear one of
them say. The man speaks with the accent of one from the
Empire.

“We don’t have time to take care of it now,”
another one replies with the same accent.

As the riders pass by where they’re hiding,
one of them glances over at the window they’re looking out. Ducking
to the sides of the window, James and Jiron quickly move out of
view. The man must not have seen them for he turns back and
continues riding through town. Twenty riders in all pass by on
their way through the town.

They wait for several minutes, allowing the
riders to move further down the road before they exit the building.
James peeks out and sees the riders have already ridden out of
sight.

Seeing no one else on the road in either
direction, he asks Delia, “Can we leave now?”

“I’m sorry for putting us in jeopardy,” she
says a little guilty, “but I couldn’t leave without knowing.”

“We understand,” Jiron says, “but think
before you act next time, our lives may depend on it. Okay?”

“Alright,” Delia says.

Once the horses have been brought back
outside, they remount. Then with James in the lead, they head south
out of town, making their way into the grasslands.

Several times during the afternoon, they
have to make detours when riders appear in the distance. Each time
they were sure they would be discovered, yet each time the riders
continued on until they were again out of sight.

When the sun begins to dip toward the
horizon, they are still out in the middle of the grasslands. They
decide to make camp, forgoing a fire in favor of not alerting the
countryside to their presence.

They quickly eat before the sun sets
completely and picket the horses close by their camp, leaving the
saddles on in case they need to leave quickly. Not good for the
horses, but necessary.

“Do you think we’re catching them?” Cassie
asks while they’re eating.

“Who?” James responds. “The slavers?”

Cassie nods her head and says, “Yes.”

“I would think so,” he answers, nodding his
head. “They have lots of people walking while we’re riding, even
though we are taking a more roundabout way we have to be gaining on
them.”

They sit there in silence for the rest of
their meal. When they’re done, they all settle down and get ready
for sleep. James lies there and stares up at the sky as it
continues to darken into full night.

“James?” he hears Delia say.

“Yeah?” he replies.

“Where’re you from?” she asks.

“A long ways from here and probably won’t be
back for quite a while,” he replies. “Why?”

“Just curious is all,” she answers.

“Is everyone there mages?” Cassie asks.

“No, there are actually none there,” he
says. “I may be the first.”

“You’re the first one I’ve ever met,” she
says.

“Do I live up to your expectations?” he
asks, amused.

“No,” she said, “you’re nice.”

James laughs then sobers up and asks, “Are
all the mages here mean?”

Tinok says, “Most people believe them to be.
All you ever hear about is how mages ruin things and hurt people.
Seeing what you’ve already done, it’s not hard to understand why
that is.”

“It’s all perspective,” James says, “plus
most tales of how mages help won’t be believed and only the
interesting ones are told again and again. Those tend to be the
ones where they are not very nice.”

“Suppose you’re right,” he concludes.

“Maybe we should all be thinking about going
to sleep,” Jiron’s voice cuts through the night. “We have lots of
ground to cover and people to find.”

“You’re right,” James agrees. Turning over,
he tries to find a comfortable spot on the ground. I hate sleeping
on the ground! Eventually, he’s able to drift off to sleep.

The morning dawns beautifully and James
wakes up stiff and aching due to another night spent on the hard
ground. After getting up, he rummages through his backpack and
comes up with some food for breakfast. While he eats he begins
walking around the camp, trying to work the kinks out of his
muscles.

It doesn’t take long before they’re all up,
eaten, and ready to ride. Once everyone is mounted, they continue
south, hoping to find where the slavers are heading. At one point
during the morning, James takes out his compass and locates the
general direction of where the slavers are. The needle points off
to the southeast, more east than south.
We’re gaining on
them
, he thinks to himself. Putting his compass away, he
continues on, beginning to feel much better about the possibility
of a rescue.
Just hang on Miko.

They don’t travel much further before a
running man appears from the east. Behind him, two fast moving
riders are in hot pursuit, racing to intercept the man.

“We must help him,” Delia cries.

Jiron and Tinok glance at one another and
with a cry, they kick their horses to a gallop as they ride to aid
the fleeing man. James and the girls follow behind at a safer pace,
keeping an eye to the east for any other pursuers.

One of the riders aims a crossbow at the
fleeing man, and James sees the man’s pace falter as he’s struck by
the crossbow bolt. Stumbling, he loses his balance and hits the
ground.

The riders, so intent on the man they are
chasing, they fail to notice Jiron and Tinok until they are
practically upon them.