Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two

Copyright 2005, 2008 by Brian S. Pratt

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The Fantasy Worlds of

Brian S. Pratt

The Morcyth Saga

The
Unsuspecting Mage

Fires
of Prophecy

Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li

Trail
of the Gods

The
Star of Morcyth

Shades of the Past

The
Mists of Sorrow*

*(Conclusion of The Morcyth Saga)

Travail of The Dark Mage

Sequel to The Morcyth Saga

1-Light in the Barren Lands

2
-
(forthcoming 2010)

The Broken Key

#1-
Shepherd’s Quest

#2-Hunter of the Horde

#3-Quest’s End

Qyaendri Adventures

Ring
of the Or’tux

Dungeon Crawler Adventures

Underground

Portals

The Adventurer’s Guild

#1-Jaikus and Reneeke Join the Guild

For my father. Even though we may not have
spent as much time together through the years as I’ve wanted, he is
still a very special person to me and always in my thoughts. A
wonderful grandfather to my children, who love him dearly, as do
I.

_________________________

“Find someplace to hide, I’ll find you,” he
hears James say.

Miko glances back and sees James turning to
confront the oncoming soldiers. His desire to stay to help his
friend is strong, but he knows that he’ll be more of a hindrance.
His first duty is to help the kids get away. Turning back, he finds
the fleeing children far ahead, turning down a side street. He
hurries to follow, trying to catch them before they move too far
ahead.

Rounding the corner where they fled, he sees
the last few children turning another corner, even further ahead
than before. Running as fast as he can, he comes to where they
disappeared around the corner. Almost losing his balance from
taking the corner too fast, he comes to a sudden stop. The kids are
no where in sight.

Crumph!

The sound of a loud explosion comes from
where he left James.

“James!”

Glancing back at the cloud of smoke and dust
rising into the sky, he fears the worst. Torn between his duty to
the children whom he’s lost and to his friend, he stands there a
moment in indecision. Finally making up his mind to return to help
his friend, he turns around and races back the way he had come.

As he rounds the second corner, a billowing
cloud of dust engulfs him and he’s unable to see anything. After a
moment, the dust clears and a large pile of rubble is revealed
blocking the street where several buildings have toppled over.
Amidst the rubble are the bodies of Empire soldiers, lying there
crushed to death under large sections of the toppled buildings.

“James!” he cries out, but receives no
answer. Looking around frantically, he can’t find James anywhere.
Scared and alone, he races back again along the path he and the
children originally took in an attempt to find some place to hole
up until James finds him.

Whenever he comes to an intersection, he
stops before entering and carefully looks around the corner. Making
sure no enemy soldiers are there before he enters the street, he
then races toward the next intersection. Panic begins to take hold
of him as enemy soldiers begin to appear as they move along the
adjacent streets.
He’s got to get off the
streets!

Hoping to find a place to hide, he tries
opening one of the doors lining the street and is relieved when it
actually opens. Pulling it open quickly he makes to enter when a
vase smashes into the door next to his head. “Get out!” he hears a
woman shrieking wildly and quickly ducks as he sees another pot
come flying at him out of the corner of his eye. The pot strikes
the door and ricochets into the street. “Out!” the woman screams
again as she readies another projectile.

Slamming the door closed, he races down the
street, panicking. From up ahead, a door opens and a man pokes his
head out as he looks down the street. When the man notices him
running, he opens the door wider and yells, “This way!” motioning
for Miko to quickly come inside.

Seeing the man holding the door open and
gesturing for him to hurry, Miko sprints forward, his panic
subsiding. When he reaches the door, the man opens it further for
him to be able to run inside. His anxiety decreases rapidly when he
passes through the door and is safely inside.

Once he’s inside, the man closes the door
and Miko begins to say, “Thank you…” but stops suddenly when he
realizes the man is advancing on him with a knife. A quick survey
of the room reveals several men with bared knives and swords. Dread
fills him when he sees a dozen or so people, both men and women
along with a few children, sitting along one wall. To his
astonishment, they are completely naked with their hands tied
behind them.

“Strip!” the man from the door says. Miko,
panic ready to consume him, remembers the slavers they fought on
their way to the City of Light. Shaking his head in disbelief, he
backs away from the man. Someone from behind grabs him and two of
the men proceed to strip him naked, using their knives to cut the
clothes off of him. He struggles to resist, but only gets socked in
the eye for his efforts.

Shortly he finds himself sitting naked on
the floor next to the others, his hands secured behind his back.
Over to the side is a pile of clothing sitting in the corner,
what’s left of his clothes is tossed on top. The little boy sitting
next to him starts to cry and the woman on the other side of the
boy tries to comfort him but to no avail. The boy’s cries grow
louder and louder until one of the men comes over and strikes him
on the head, knocking the boy unconscious.

“You bastard!” the woman yells at him.

The man turns to her and backhands her
across the mouth. “Shut your mouth!” he yells at her. “Open it
again and I’ll slit your throat!” He draws his knife and menaces
her with it, then sheaths it as he walks away, laughing.

The woman scoots closer to the boy and does
her best to comfort the unconscious child. Miko can see tears
streaming down her face.

“Here come some more,” the man by the door
tells the others. Opening the door partially, he sticks his head
out and yells, “Over here!” while he waves to whoever is out there
to come inside.

A man with a woman and two kids run inside.
He begins to express their gratitude when the woman sees Miko with
the other naked people sitting on the floor and screams. Realizing
their danger, the couple grabs their kids protectively.

“Strip!” the man by the door commands.

The father pauses momentarily then launches
himself at the man by the door. He throws a fist but is easily
blocked. The slaver strikes back with the handle of his knife,
clubbing him in the side of the head. The father stumbles backward
from the blow, dazed. Two of the other slavers grab him and proceed
to cut his clothes from him.

The woman screams as others grab her and the
children, tearing them apart. Soon, all four are sitting naked
against the wall with the others, arms securely tied behind their
backs. They try to talk amongst themselves but are quickly silenced
by the slavers.

Several times over the next hour or so, that
scene is replayed as more people rush into the room seeking safety
only to end up captured.

There finally comes a time when the man at
the door turns to the other slavers and says, “I don’t think there
are anymore out there.” To the naked people he says, “Alright, get
up.”

Miko finds it hard to rise with his arms
tied behind his back. Using the wall for leverage, he makes it to
his feet and stands there waiting while the rest of them get
up.

One of the naked people remains seated
against the wall. A slaver goes over to the man and kicks him,
saying, “Get on your feet. Now!”

The man on the floor begins to topple over
and falls to the ground, remaining motionless. The slaver checks
him and then turns to the one by the door. “He’s dead,” he tells
him. Then he glances over at one of the slavers and says
accusingly, “You hit him too hard and cracked his skull.”

The slaver being accused just shrugs and
says, “Oh well, happens sometimes.”

Giving him a dark look, the man by the door
says, “Next one you kill, you’re paying for. I don’t intend to lose
money because of a heavy handed thug.”

“Thug?” the man asks, his face going red in
anger.

“Yes, thug,” he replies. “Now, let’s get ‘em
lined up and back to camp.” He stares down the man until he backs
down and joins the others in tying the naked people together in a
line.

Miko is tied in line between two children.
Once they are all secured to the rope, the man takes the lead and
they head out the door.

The sun is already beginning to rise above
the horizon as they leave the building. Miko squints in the glare,
eyes unaccustomed to the light after having been in a semi dark
room for hours.

One of the women begins wailing and crying.
A slaver comes over and uses a whip across her shoulders saying,
“Silence!” When the whip strikes her she cries out with pain and
shock. After two more blows of the whip she tries to muffle her
cries and the whip stops.

Miko just looks on in shock at the red lines
across her shoulders and back from where the whip struck her. He
keeps his head down as he plods along, doing his best to not think
about being paraded though town naked. The enemy soldiers they pass
hardly even give them any attention, except for a few calls to the
ladies in the group.

After moving down several streets, their
group joins with another slave line and together they make their
way to the southern wall. More and more of the enemy’s soldiers can
be seen. When they draw close to the gate, the head slaver brings
them to a halt and has them wait while he talks with the guards.
After a few words are exchanged, the slaver shows them a letter and
they are allowed to pass through.

Outside the walls, Miko sees teams with
carts filled with the dead as they take them over to a large,
communal grave where they are deposited. Soldiers are everywhere, a
veritable forest of tents covers the area outside of the gates for
over a mile. When they pass a tent with several men standing in
line outside, Miko can hear the cries of several women coming from
within.

One of the smaller children asks, “Mama,
what’s that lady crying about?”

The woman, trying to hide the tears in her
voice replies, “She’s just sad,” her voice beginning to crack.
“That’s all it is, don’t worry about it.”

Then a slaver comes and whips both of them
saying, “No talking!” When they both remain silent, he goes back to
his position next to the line.

Out away from the encampment of soldiers is
a large area with many wagons and strings of people tied in lines
just as they are. The only difference between those people and
Miko’s group, is that those people have clothes. The males all have
a cloth wrapped around their loins while the women have a very
short dress, all a drab brown in color.

When Miko’s group arrives, they are taken to
an open area nearby where they’re told to stand and be still. The
lead slaver moves to a nearby wagon and begins pulling out garb,
similar to what the other slaves are wearing and begins handing
them out to the other slavers. The slavers then take the garb and
tie it around the men, and with the women they untie their hands
before putting it on them. Miko feels somewhat better for having
his privates covered. All the captured people visibly relax once
they’re dressed and covered.