Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (17 page)

Hassin turns at just that moment and sees
Tinok there helping Roland to his feet. He shouts out, but is
unable to be heard over the cries from the crowd. He advances on
Roland with the long knife, intent on killing him.

Tinok sees him advancing and is able to
easily deflect the long knife with one of his own. Remembering what
James told him, he strikes out with the blunt end of his other
knife and connects with Hassin’s temple, dropping him to the
ground. The two men there with him are oblivious to what is
happening to him as they continue to watch the creature take
shape.

“Let’s go!” he hollers to Roland as he
directs him over toward James. He looks over his shoulder at the
now fully formed vision of Hell that is walking out of the oasis
toward the panic stricken people who’re fleeing for their lives.
You’re good, James
.

Reaching James, they turn and race through
the town together, toward where the horses had been left. They help
James, as he is still trying to maintain the hellish vision.
Throughout the town, cries can be heard as some people race back to
their homes, slamming and barring their doors. Others just race out
into the desert as fast as their legs can carry them.

When they reach their horses, Roland says,
“I don’t know how to thank you!”

James opens his eyes just as a flash of fire
comes from the creature and then it slowly disappears. “We’ve got
to get you out of here!” he says to Roland.

“I can’t leave!” cries Roland. “Not without
my wife and child!”

“But they’ll try to sacrifice you again if
you remain,” Tinok exclaims. Then he looks in Roland’s eyes and
sees the determination there.

“Do you have a horse?” James asks him.

“Yes, I do,” he replies.

Turning to Tinok, he says, “Go with him and
get his family, then meet me back here.”

He gives James a nod then turns to Roland
and says, “Lead the way.”

Roland hurries down the street, followed
closely by Tinok. They soon leave James behind as they turn down
another street, making quick speed through the darkened town. He
goes past several more houses and then turns down one more side
street, stopping in front of the third house. The light from a
single candle comes through an open window and voices can be heard
coming from within.

They look through the window and see his
wife sitting in a chair surrounded by three men, one of whom is
Hassin. He’s yelling at her, gesticulating wildly with his hands,
obviously demanding to know where Roland is.

She just sits there crying, not saying
anything as she glances through the doorway to where the baby lies.
Tinok can hear the baby’s wail.

Smack!

He backhands her across the face when she
fails to answer his questions. Not waiting to see more, Roland runs
over and slams open the door with his shoulder, bursting into the
room and tackling Hassin.

Seeing him come crashing through the door,
his wife cries out, “Roland!”

Tinok is right behind him, knives flashing
from the light of the candle. He immediately engages the other two
men, the same two who had been guarding Roland during the
ceremony.

They quickly draw their swords, but the
speed of Tinok drops one of the men to the floor with a stab
through the chest before he even gets his sword all the way out of
its scabbard.

The other guard tries to slash at Tinok but
he parries the sword with the blade of one knife while striking
with the other one. The guard steps back, blood now oozing from a
fresh wound in his left shoulder.

Roland is on the floor, struggling with
Hassin for control of the long knife. Curses from the two men fill
the house as they roll back and forth.

The guard grabs a small chair from the floor
and uses it as a shield as he strikes out with his sword.

Tinok easily blocks the thrust, but is
unable to adequately close with the man as the chair is keeping him
at a distance. He continues exchanging blows with the man when
suddenly Roland’s wife comes up behind the guard and strikes him
across the back of the head with the long handle of a broom.

The man is dazed by the blow and Tinok
easily gets within his guard dropping him to the floor.

Tinok comes over to the struggling pair on
the floor, neither one has been able to gain the advantage over the
other. Laying his knife across Hassin’s throat, he looks into his
eyes and can see him contemplating different courses of action and
their consequences. Suddenly, he makes his decision and releases
his grip on the knife. His eyes flick murderous hate between them
both as Roland gets to his feet, holding the knife.

Roland looks and sees his wife standing
there with their baby clutched in her arms, eyes filled with
uncertainty and fear, her face turning red from where Hassin had
slapped her. She says something to him and he goes over to her,
replying in the same language. Giving her a hug for reassurance, he
speaks to her again and she nods a reply as she goes and gets a
satchel which she begins to fill with clothes and other things.

Turning back to Tinok, who still has his
knife to Hassin’s throat and his knee on his chest, he asks, “What
are we going to do with him?”

“You know him better than I do,” replies
Tinok, never taking his eyes off his captive. “Should we kill him
or not?”

At that, Hassin’s eyes widen slightly but
gives no other response to what is being said.

“I hate to kill someone who’s helpless to
resist,” Roland replies. “Even one who tried to kill me.”

“I have no such qualms about this piece of
trash,” Tinok says seriously. “Take your family outside and wait
for me.” He looks intently at Roland then turns his attention back
to Hassin.

Roland takes the satchel from his wife and
then ushers her out the front door, closing it behind them.

Once the door is shut, Tinok turns his
attention back to Hassin and says, “Since your people destroyed my
city, I have been waiting for my revenge and the time has come for
a part of it.” Looking into eyes now filled with fear where
contempt and hate had been, he continues, “This is for my little
brother.”

With a quick motion of his hand, he slits
Hassin’s throat and stares into his eyes as the life slowly leaves
them. Choking and gasping from the blood filling his lungs and
spreading across the floor, Hassin tries to stop the bleeding with
his hands, but is unsuccessful. Tinok gets up and stands back as he
jerks in his death throes until finally becoming still.

Wiping his blade on the dead man’s shirt, he
says to the now lifeless body, “Thus begins my revenge for the
destruction your people has brought unto mine.” Turning his back to
the room filled with death, he goes to the door and leaves, joining
Roland and his family outside.

Roland leads them around back where there’s
a stable with two horses inside. Roland saddles them while Tinok
keeps an eye out for anyone coming. When he’s done, he helps his
wife up onto the horse and then hands their baby up to her.
Swinging up onto the other horse, he takes her horse’s reins and
leads them out to where Tinok is waiting at the front of the
house.

Moving as quickly as they can, they make it
back to where James is waiting.

“Any trouble?” he asks Tinok.

“None worth mentioning,” he replies as he
mounts his horse.

Roland just glances over to Tinok but says
nothing.

The baby starts crying and his mother bares
a breast and begins to feed it as they ride through the town.
Riding as quickly as they can, they clear the edge of town, which
by now is completely deserted. Everyone has either fled or is in
their homes with the door barred.

Moving quickly along the road for a couple
hours, they come to where Delia and Cassie wait with the wagons.
James is relieved when he sees the wagons and girls are fine and
undisturbed, he had been worried about them. The girls have a fire
going, and Cassie is awake as they approach. When she sees who it
is, she wakes up Delia, saying excitedly, “They’re back!”

Delia wakes up, happy at seeing them back
unharmed, but surprised at the appearance of his wife and son.

“We couldn’t leave his wife and child
there,” Tinok explains, “so we brought them with us.”

Cassie comes over to help his wife down from
her horse and coos when she sees the baby. “Can I hold him?” she
asks.

His wife, understanding her request, nods
her head and hands the baby over to her. Cassie takes the baby and
holds it close going “Gootchi, gootchi, goo!” and other inane child
noises. The baby laughs, obviously they’ll be getting along.

Once they have all the horses settled for
the night, they gather around the fire and Roland asks, “I
appreciate you rescuing me and all, but why did you do it?”

They look at each other and leave it to
James to answer. “We did it because we didn’t feel it justified for
you to be sacrificed in vain.”

“How do you know it would’ve been in vain?”
he asks.

James looks at the others and says, “Well,
you never know for sure of course, but we just felt that it was
wrong this time. After all, even your own clerics were talking
against it.”

“True,” Roland admits.

“Now what do you plan to do?” Delia asks.
“Is there elsewhere you can go? Family?”

Shaking his head, he says, “I have no
family, at least not around here and Ezra, my wife here, all her
family is back there.” He points back to the town they just rescued
him from. At the sound of her name, she smiles at him.

“Does she understand what we’re saying?”
Cassie asks.

“A little,” he replies. “She’s been picking
it up from me over the last year, ever since we got married. She
doesn’t speak it too well, but is able to understand most of the
words being said.” He looks over to her and she just smiles and
nods her head in agreement.

Sighing, he says, “I really don’t know what
we’re going to do, I just know we can’t go back home, not with the
dead bodies there.” He puts his arm around Ezra and continues,
“Hassin has many powerful friends and they would cause no end of
trouble for us, maybe even kill us.”

“Well, you’re welcome to come along with
us,” James offers. All the others nod their agreement for the
idea.

“We don’t want to be a burden,” he says,
“but we don’t have any other choice. Thank you.”

A small laugh erupts from the baby where
Cassie has him in her lap, playing with him. Ezra smiles fondly at
the sight.

“Just where are you heading?” Roland asks.
“Are you traders?” He glances over to James, not really believing
that they are, what with the display back at the oasis.

“Not exactly,” James replies. Then he smiles
and says, “Now just where are my manners. My name is James and
Tinok here you’ve already met.” Tinok nods his head, Roland returns
the gesture. “Here is Delia,” who gives him a smile, “and the one
who’s taken over your son is Cassie.” Cassie gives him a big smile
and says, “Hi.”

“My name is Roland,” he says to the group.
“I am originally from Cardri but for one reason or another wound up
here where I met Ezra, the light of my life.” He gives her a kiss
which causes her to blush slightly. “That little wiggle worm that
your Cassie is holding is Arkhan, Arkie for short.”

“Arkie,” coos Cassie to the little baby,
“what a cute name.”

“We’re currently heading south,” James tells
him, “going by way of Korazan. We have some packages to drop off
there, and then we’ll see.”

“Then I think we’ll come along,” he says to
them. He goes over to Ezra and begins talking to her in their
language as they get Arkie settled down for the night.

Everyone is pretty tired and begins to get
ready for sleep. Delia draws James away from everyone else and
asks, “With what we’re heading to, do you think it’s wise to have
them along?”

“Probably not,” he replies. “But they’re
better off than they were. Besides, we’ll have more of a chance of
not standing out if we have others with us.”

“Maybe,” she says. “I’ve also been going
over the items we’re carrying as well as the delivery orders and it
turns out we’re carrying some very high priced items.” She looks at
him and continues, “The person who actually owns this may come
looking for it.”

“If so,” James says, after contemplating
what she just said, “he’ll have to find us first.”

“Maybe we should hire some guards?” she
suggests.

“We’ll look into that when we get to the
next big town,” he replies.

“That may be wise,” she agrees as they make
their way back to the group. Ezra and little Arkie have already
lain down near the fire and the rest have bedded down as well.
James and Delia join them, the last thought going though his mind
before sleep takes him is what’s going on with Jiron.

_________________________

Before they head out in the morning, they
transfer as much cargo as possible from one wagon to the other,
clearing a spot for Ezra and Arkie. Roland and Tinok ride point on
horses while James drives the now fully loaded wagon. Delia takes
the reins of the other while Ezra and Cassie ride in the back with
Arkie.

Everyone is becoming quite thirsty since
they gave the bulk of their water to the horses, enabling them to
continue pulling the wagons. Pushing on, they continue under the
glare of the desert sun, slowly eating away the miles. Roland tells
them of an oasis along the road ahead where they’ll be able to get
water.

A little past midday they arrive at the
small oasis and note several other travelers who are already there,
filling their water bottles and taking a break from the road. A man
sees them coming and waves a friendly greeting, Roland answers and
then turns to James, saying, “He’s just a merchant, nothing to
worry about.”