Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (40 page)

He looks over to James and sees perspiration
beginning to form and course down his face. His breathing is coming
in gasps and he’s leaning slightly in the saddle.

“James?” he asks but then stops when James
shakes his head.

The wind suddenly begins blowing harder as
it steadily increases in intensity. Jiron looks to the sky as
clouds appear, moving toward them with unnatural speed from all
directions. James begins to moan in pain but still he concentrates,
directing the magic.

Having just witnessed the power James
unleashed on the men now dead under the rubble, the soldiers
waiting for them at the edge of town become restless. They become
even more so when they see the clouds gathering in the sky above
them. Several crossbow bolts fly in their direction, but the force
of the wind knocks them awry. A man with a commanding presence, an
officer by his bearing, stands there yelling at the nervous
soldiers, attempting to bolster their courage.

Jiron looks on in absolute amazement as he
watches a section of the clouds begin to descend a little ways down
from the dark mass above. And then suddenly, with great speed, it
slams into the waiting men below. Nothing can be heard but the roar
of the tornado as it rips through the gathered men beneath it.
Bodies are ejected from it, flying in all directions to land broken
and lifeless. Those not directly under it are sucked into it until
they too are eventually thrown out, falling lifeless to the
ground.

A very few of the men that were gathered at
the edge of town survived the initial plunge of the tornado. Thrown
around by the wind, the rest flee for their very lives. Suddenly, a
cry comes from James and the tornado splits in two, each half
moving away from the center of the street in opposite
directions.

Jiron glances back to James who is trying to
say something but is having trouble being heard over the roar of
the wind. Leaning closer, he’s able to make it out, “Now, go
between them!” Trusting in James, he gets the horses moving quickly
and they approach the towering funnels. The wind whips them
mercilessly as he approaches the gap between the two.

The horses balk at going between the two
towering tornadoes, but with whips and kicks, Jiron forces them
through. “Hurry!” he barely hears James shout as they pass between
the swirling masses of destruction. Kicking the horses harder,
Jiron at last emerges from the other side, where it takes little
encouragement to get the horses into a gallop.

Another cry escapes James before he passes
into unconsciousness. Jiron looks back to the tornadoes and sees
them melding back together into one large tornado that quickly
dissipates. Seeing no imminent pursuit, he turns the horses
southeast and races out into the desert.

“Please drop your weapons,” the Eye says to
them.

Roland glares at the captain, feeling
betrayed. The captain just returns his stare, his face devoid of
any emotions.

The Eye raises his hand and the crossbowmen
take aim as he repeats his command, “Drop your weapons, now!”

With little choice they remove their weapons
and drop them to the ship’s deck.

“You’ve given us quite a chase,” he says to
them. “Fortunately, that is now over.” Turning to the captain, the
Eye says, “Have your men secure their hands behind them.”

The captain glances behind him to his men
standing there, “You heard him boys.”

“Aye, captain,” one of them says as they
start to move toward Roland and the rest.

As they pass through where the crossbowmen
stand, they suddenly turn and knock the crossbows out of their
hands, quickly subduing them. The captain, in a fluid motion, draws
his sword and rests the point on the Eye’s chest.

“What is this, captain?” the Eye exclaims in
anger when he sees the captain’s sword threatening him.

“You’re not taking them,” he informs the
Eye.

“I’ll have you killed for this, captain!”
the Eye warns vehemently. “I’ll send your ship to the bottom of the
sea!”

“Toss em over, lads,” the captain tells his
crew, ignoring the threats of the Eye.

One by one, the crossbowmen are thrown
overboard until only the Eye remains. “Captain!” one of the men up
in the rigging hollers out as he points toward the docks, “we’ve
got company!”

The captain looks over to the docks and sees
a score of men running toward his ship. “You’ll never get out of
this harbor alive,” the Eye warns him.

“Cast off,” he cries to his men who begin
casting off lines and climbing the rigging.

“Your death will be a pleasure,” the Eye
continues, “watching as you wriggle upon the end of a pole as it
slowly pushes its way through your guts from your ass!”

“Would you just shut up!” the captain yells
at the Eye. He turns him around, boots him in the butt and watches
as he plummets over the rail into the sea below.

“Thank you captain,” Tersa says as she comes
forward.

“Enough time for that later,” he tells her.
“You and the others stay out of our way and we may yet live through
this.”

“Mr. Kerny!” he hollers.

“Yes sir,” a sailor yells from the other
side of the ship.

“Make for deep water!” he cries.

“Aye, aye captain!” he replies as he begins
turning the wheel to steer them out to sea. The wind begins filling
their sails as they slowly turn away from the docks and head out of
the harbor.

Splash!

A rock hits the water not five feet from the
side of the ship. “Look!” Stig cries as another boulder flies
through the air toward them. They brace for impact but it flies
over the ship, landing with a splash twenty feet away.

“That was close,” exclaims Shorty.

“Mr. Kerny!” the captain yells.

“Yes, captain,” Mr. Kerny replies.

“Hard to port, evasive actions!” he tells
him.

“Aye, aye captain!” and then they feel the
ship lurch as Mr. Kerny begins attempting to evade the oncoming
boulders.

“Captain, look!” Delia cries as she sees two
ships beginning to pull away from the docks.

“I see ‘em, lass,” the captain tells her,
“but if we can beat them to open water, they’ll never catch
us.”

“Ahoy aloft! Full sails!” he shouts to the
sailors in the rigging.

Without even a reply, they begin to
completely unfurl the sails. Once they’re fully extended, the boat
lurches as the wind fills the sails.

Delia looks to the ships that are pulled
out, but they’ve already begun to fall behind. She soon realizes
that they are not going to be able to catch them.

The captain comes over to where they’re
crouching by the railing and asks, “So, do you have my fifty gold
pieces?”

She nods to Roland who hands over the pouch
containing the gold.

The captain opens it and looks through it,
satisfied.

“You did all this for fifty golds?” Stig
asks incredulously.

“No, son,” the captain replies, “I did it
because I hate the empire.”

“But you’ve risked your life and your ship
for us,” Delia says. “How can we ever repay you?”

“Having the pleasure of kicking that son of
sea cow overboard was payment enough,” he tells her breaking into a
big smile.

“Make yourselves comfortable,” he tells
them. “It’s a three day trip to Cardri.”

The wind starts to fall off suddenly and
there’s a cry from up above. The captain looks to the sky and
watches in amazement as the clouds begin rushing toward Al-Kur.
“What the hell?” he exclaims.

“It’s James,” Delia whispers to the
others.

“You think so?” Tersa asks.

“Yeah, only magic could make the clouds
react like that,” she explains.

They look back to Al-Kur and watch as the
clouds intensify over the town and then suddenly seem to descend to
the ground in one spot. After a couple minutes, the clouds begin
dissipating and everything returns to normal.

“Hope they’re alright,” Tersa says, worried
for her brother.

“Those two can take care of themselves,”
Scar assures her.

“I hope so,” she says as she watches Al-Kur
slowly disappear in the distance. “I hope so.”

_________________________

The days since the fall of the City of Light
have blurred together until he no longer knows how long it’s been
since it all began. His butt has finally stopped aching from
sitting on the seat in the wagon and the sore on his leg from the
manacle around his ankle is beginning to toughen up and become a
callus. His is but one of several wagons loaded with slaves.

Miko stares numbly out at the water of the
ocean as the wagon he’s in continues its journey. To where, he
doesn’t know nor care anymore. He was sure that James would’ve
found him by now, but day after day of hope unfulfilled has left
him doubting if he would come at all. After all he’s only one boy
and a street rat at that. Hardly worth risking one’s life for. Why
did he think James would even bother coming after him?

His arm still throbs from where he got cut
by a fellow slave back in the city of Azzac. It was during the
night after they arrived at the city and been placed in holding
pens with other slaves. During their journey, as they came to
different cities, they would stop off at the local magistrate’s
building and some slaves would be taken off or others added. Often
the ones who were added were those who had been sentenced by the
courts for some heinous crime and were on their way to wherever
their sentence decreed.

It was during one such stop the day before
their arrival at Azzac that they acquired an individual who took an
immediate disliking to Miko. When the man was put in the wagon, he
sat across from Miko. The chain from the manacle on his foot was
secured to the same eye ring in the bed of the wagon that Miko’s
was.

Miko disliked the looks of him from the
beginning, he was missing two fingers on his right hand and a scar
ran across one eye that was white and obviously blinded. His hair
was greasy and dirty, many of his teeth were missing and those that
remained were crooked and beginning to turn black. He began to
refer to him as Black Tooth, but only in his mind.

Black Tooth kept staring at Miko after the
wagon began rolling and then he said something to him. When Miko
failed to respond he began to grow agitated. One of the other
slaves in the wagon, who had been riding with Miko for a while,
said something to him.

Black Tooth turned to Miko and said
something else before a crooked smile played across his face, which
did anything but put him at ease. The rest of that day, Black Tooth
kept staring at him and by the end of the day, Miko was feeling
very uncomfortable and worried.

When the slave caravan stopped for the
night, they unloaded the slaves and had them all settle in close
together for the night, with several slavers armed with crossbows
standing watch over them. Their legs were manacled together but
their hands were kept free. One by one, they were marched away from
camp where they were allowed to answer nature’s call and then
returned to the others.

Miko was relieved that Black Tooth was
nowhere near his place. He did catch him glancing over at him from
where he was sitting on the other side of the group. Each time he
did, a chill would run through Miko and his nerves would start
getting the better of him.

In the morning, when he woke up, many slaves
were talking among themselves and pointing off the road to the
east. Miko gets up and looks to see a wall of fog off in the
distance. No one there speaks his language so he’s left to his own
imagination as to why they’re so excited about it.

Once more led to the edge of camp, Miko
takes care of nature’s business and then is brought back to the
wagon where his manacles are once again secured to the eye ring in
the bed of the wagon. Black Tooth is seated on his side of the
wagon with two others between them, much to Miko’s relief.

All that day they continue riding under the
blazing hot sun, Miko is surprised at just how dark he’s becoming
from the sun. Near nightfall, he sees a large city appearing on the
horizon ahead of them. One of the other’s in the wagon says ‘Azzac’
to him as the man points to it.

Miko gazes at the approaching city and
wonders if this will be the end of the line for him, where he will
truly become a slave. With apprehension, he watches the city grow
closer until finally they pass through the gates.

They roll on through the city for awhile
until they arrive at a large compound where the wagon stops and
they’re removed from the wagon. Feet still manacled, they’re led
into the building and divided into two holding pens where their
manacles are removed.

Miko is the second to enter the pen and he
watches with dread as Black Tooth is ushered into his pen behind
him. When Black Tooth sees him there, he breaks into the smile that
sets Miko’s nerves on edge.

Trying to put as much distance between them
as possible, Miko moves to a far corner and settles down there. He
watches Black Tooth as he goes over to several guys in the corner
and begins talking to them. From the way they’re acting, it doesn’t
look to him like the others know him at all.

The only time when Miko leaves his corner is
when they’re fed and when he has to use the slop bucket. It’s not
long after they’re fed that the light begins to fade with the
coming of night. The slaves in the pens begin settling down to get
what sleep they can.

Sometime in the middle of the night, Miko is
awakened when someone grabs him. Startled, he tries to break free
but the man only laughs.
Black Tooth!
Frantic
now, Miko struggles harder and strikes out with his elbow, catching
Black Tooth in the side.