Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (14 page)

Jiron reaches James’ side and claps him on
the shoulder as he says, “You did it!”

The others come to his side, congratulating
him. They watch as the water fills the depression to capacity and
begins creating a small pond, thirty feet in diameter. Then the
water starts spilling over the side and is quickly absorbed by the
ground.

Tinok kneels down by the water and cups his
hands, tasting it. He looks over to the others and shouts, “It’s
good, and cool!”

They all come over and drink their fill from
the pool of cool water. The horses smell the water and begin
straining against their tethers in an attempt to reach it.

Jiron runs over and releases them, allowing
them to come and drink their fill. Everyone fills their water
bottles before returning to the wagons.

“We were lucky there was no one around,”
James says as he lies there near the campfire, relaxing.

“Why?” Cassie asks.

“Don’t want anyone to know I can do magic,”
he explains. “They may still be on the lookout for the rogue mage
that caused the destruction back at the City. I really don’t want
them to begin putting two and two together.”

“What does two and two have to do with
anything?” asks Tinok.

“Sorry, that’s just an expression from where
I come from,” he replies. “It just means they might connect me with
the things I did at the City. If they knew I was a mage, that
is.”

“Oh,” he says.

“Maybe the next town we come to, we should
buy several water barrels to carry with us,” Jiron suggests.

“That may be a good idea,” agrees James. “We
should have plenty of money left in the chest.”

“What is the next town?” Cassie asks.

“Haven’t a clue.” James admits. “I’ve never
been here before.”

“How do you know that we’re even going in
the right direction, then?” Jiron asks.

“I figure Korazan should be further south,”
he replies. “A major slave market would hardly be on the edge of
the Empire. They would want it accessible to a large number of
their people, so it stands to reason that it would be further into
the Empire. Thus, south.”

As they relax around the campfire, James
absentmindedly reaches for his backpack, but then remembers that
they left it back in Mountainside when they broke out of jail.
Thinking of the things that are now lost to him, he gets sad and
then mad.
This place is just going from bad to worse
, he
thinks to himself.
Now I’ve gone and lost my backpack.

“Oh my god!” he suddenly exclaims, sitting
up abruptly.

“What?” Jiron asks.

“My backpack!”

“What about it?” Tinok inquires as he joins
the conversation.

“It’s back at the jail.”

“So?” says Tinok. “We all lost some things
when we left there. We were in a little bit of a hurry.”

“You don’t understand,” exclaims James “I
had some papers in there, notes I had been keeping about magic and
other important stuff.”

When he sees that he’s not getting through
to them, he says, “My notes will make them realize that a mage was
there. If they assume I’m the same mage as was at the City of
Light, then they will know we’re heading south.”

“And the only reason we would be heading
south,” continues Delia, “would be to rescue someone from the
slavers that had been taken when the City fell.”

“That’s one reason,” James agrees. “And if
they come to that conclusion, they’ll be waiting for us there.”

“What do we do?” Cassie asks.

James looks to Jiron and says, “Someone
needs to go and retrieve it. Or at least destroy it and the papers
it carries.”

He flashes James a dark look, “You mean go
all the way back there, on the chance that no one has yet looked
inside and seen them?” He shakes his head, “I don’t know.”

“You’re the only one who can do it,” James
urges.

He sits and thinks for a few minutes,
everyone else remains quiet, waiting for his response. “Alright,
I’ll do it,” he finally says. Getting up, he goes over to his horse
and begins putting the saddle and tack back on.

“Shouldn’t you wait till morning,” Cassie
asks.

Shaking his head, he says, “No, I better get
started now. The sooner I get there, the less likely someone will
have read the papers.”

James comes over and gives him some coins.
He looks at them and James tells him, “For traveling expenses.”

He takes the coins, putting them in a
pocket. Once he has the horse ready for travel, he mounts and says,
“Where shall I meet up with you?”

“Well continue down the road and stop at the
next main town,” James explains. “We’ll stay there for a day, and
if you don’t show up we’ll continue on to Korazan.”

“Alright,” he says. “I’ll meet you
there.”

“Be careful,” Delia and Cassie say at the
same time.

“I will,” he assures them. “See you in a
couple days.” He then heads his horse back down the road to the
north and kicks it into a gallop as he races for Mountainside.

“Hope he’ll make it back,” Cassie says,
worry in her voice.

“He will,” Tinok says with confidence. He
looks into the night where Jiron had disappeared and says again,
“He will!”

_________________________

Jiron leaves them quickly behind as he races
through the cool of the night. As frustrated as he is at James for
having to go back and retrieve his stupid backpack, he finds it
refreshing to ride in the cool of the night, on his own.

Making very good time, it’s not long before
the lights of Arakan appear in the road ahead of him. Remembering
the soldiers stationed there, he swings wide to avoid being
spotted. As he rounds the town, he spies one of the townsfolk
standing outside one of the outermost buildings, his form
silhouetted by the light coming through an open doorway. The man
must’ve heard the sound of his horse, for he turns in his direction
and peers intently, but is unable to see him in the darkness.
Sensing no threat, the man returns to what he was doing. Jiron
finishes bypassing the town and then returns to the road, soon
leaving Arakan far behind.

Continuing to race north, another hour finds
him at the quiet village of Bindles. Only a few lights can be seen
amongst the buildings, the rest are dark as the inhabitants are
asleep in their beds for the night.

He swings wide around the town and reaches
the juncture of roads on the far side, where he follows the road
eastward. The mountains now loom large on his left as he races down
the road. He begins to detect the faint odor of burnt wood,
testament to the forest fire they escaped from some time
earlier.

Once he’s several miles east of Bindles, he
gets down from his horse and walks for a while, giving his horse a
break. Ten minutes later, he’s back in the saddle and riding
hard.

As he continues north, the odor of smoke
becomes stronger and stronger. After another two hours, he begins
to see a glow coming from far ahead, where the fire is still raging
upon the mountain. As he rides, the glow becomes more and more
pronounced, until he’s finally able to see the flames themselves as
they arc into the sky.

Off to the east, the sky begins to lighten
with the coming of dawn, enabling him to see an incredibly large
cloud of smoke extending for miles in every direction.

Down the road ahead, a town comes into view
amidst the smoke. The fire is within a mile of the outskirts and at
first looks to be deserted. As he comes closer to the town, he sees
that it isn’t as deserted as it had first appeared. A few people
are seen passing from building to building and they all have cloths
tied about their faces to protect them from the smoke.

Realizing an opportunity when he sees it,
Jiron pulls up to one of the houses at the outskirts of town. He
ties his horse to a tree out back before going up to the backdoor.
Finding it locked, he moves to a window and looks inside, the place
looks deserted. Going back to the door, he looks around quickly to
make sure no one is near and then kicks it open. Entering quickly,
he shuts the door behind him.

The house is quiet, the people most likely
having fled the approaching fire long ago. He quickly finds a cloth
and ties it around his face, effectively disguising himself. Coming
back out to where his horse is tied, he remounts and tries to find
where the jail had been.

He passes several people moving along the
streets as he makes his way through town, but no one gives him a
second thought. Up near the fire, he sees dozens of people trying
to halt the advancing flames with axes and shovels, doing their
best to save their homes but it doesn’t look as if they’re being
too successful. Just as a group has a space cleared in the hopes of
preventing it from spreading, a tree engulfed with flame falls
across the cleared area, starting new fires past the fire break.
People rush to beat them out before they have a chance to spread
but are having limited success.

None of the firefighters on the mountain
look to be soldiers, though from this distance and with all the
smoke it’s hard to be sure. As he continues toward the jail, he
doesn’t come across any soldiers here in town either. Guess we got
them all up on the mountain.

Out of the smoke ahead of him, the jail
suddenly comes into view. Cautiously, he slows down as he takes a
good survey of the surrounding area for any soldiers. Not finding
any, he makes his way toward the jail all the while continuously
scanning for anyone approaching. But with all the smoke in the
area, they would have to be really close before they would even
know he was there.

Upon reaching the jail, he secures his horse
to the rail outside and goes up to a window to look in. A quick
look reveals the jail to be empty, a lucky break. Off to one side
of the main room a table had been overturned, most likely during
their jail break. Spilled on the floor beside it is James’ backpack
along with their knives and other belongings.

Surprised and pleased to see all their stuff
still there and apparently untouched, he glances around to make
sure he’s unobserved and then enters the jail. Hurrying over to
where his knives lie on the floor, he picks them up first and belts
them on, feeling good now that he has them again. Stuffing Tinok’s
knives into the backpack, he then slings the backpack over a
shoulder and proceeds back to the front door. The sound of
approaching horses stops him before he opens the door.

Moving to a window, he looks out and
discovers twenty enemy soldiers approaching on horseback. He
watches them for a few seconds, and when he realizes they’re on
their way to the jail, he runs to the cells in the back and slips
through the hole in the wall James had made during their escape. By
the time he’s reached the alley behind the jail, the sound of them
talking can be heard from where they’ve stopped out front. What
they are saying is unknown as Jiron doesn’t speak the Empire’s
language.

He slips around the back to the side alley
and moves to the end where he can peer around to observe the riders
out front. The majority of the soldiers are still upon their
horses, one lone horse stands without a rider. Jiron’s horse sits
in the middle of the group and it doesn’t appear as if anyone is
paying it any attention. Shortly, a soldier’s voice can be heard
calling out to the others from within the jail.

The one whose attire marks him to be an
officer barks out orders and half of the remaining men dismount, as
does he. The others remaining on their horses turn and proceed to
move quickly in different directions through the town, as if
they’re looking for something. Then he hears another soldier’s
voice from inside shout excitedly as he finds the hole in the
cell.

Jiron looks longingly at his horse sitting
there amidst the others for a moment and then begins to hurry back
to the alley running behind jail. When he reaches it, he turns to
follow it away from the jail. Just as he reaches the end of the
alley, he pauses a moment and glances back toward the jail. A
soldier sticks his head out of the hole in the wall, looking first
one way then the other.

He quickly slips around the corner to avoid
being seen by the soldier. Not hearing any outcry from him, he
breathes a sigh of relief at not having been spotted. He continues
down the side alley until he comes to a door. Finding it unlocked,
he slips inside and closes it behind him.

This one looks to be another residence, the
room he finds himself in has two tables, four chairs and a one long
couch. It was probably where the lady of the house would greet
guests and have tea. He moves to a window and keeps a lookout on
what the soldiers are doing.

They appear to be searching for something,
maybe he and the others. The riders seem to be combing the streets
while the officer stays within the jail with several of the others.
He hopes they’ll just up and leave so he can retrieve his horse.
He’ll never make it back to the others without it.

The entrance to the jail is barely
discernable through the thick smoke that envelopes the town, but
he’s able to see the officer come out, obviously upset and angry.
He barks out more orders and several of the men on foot climb back
into their saddles, racing off to the south. The officer stands
there a moment as he looks at the fire and the people trying to
halt its course.

Jiron continues to watch as two of his men
appear out of the smoke with a man held between them. They bring
him over to the leader and when they’re five feet from him, force
the man to his knees.

The officer asks the kneeling man in the
northern tongue, “Where are the men that were stationed here?”

The man on his knees just shakes his
head.

The officer signals and one of the men
twists one of the man’s arms, making him cry out. “I said, where
are my men?”