Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (52 page)

This section of the wall is not as long as
the one by the gate so only has two guards. They’re standing next
to each other a couple yards from the tree Jiron is climbing,
talking to each other. Contemplating what he’s going to do, he
watches Jiron as he climbs up to the limb that’s extending over the
wall and sees him give him a signal that he’s ready.

James begins concentrating and then releases
the magic. The two guards are suddenly pulled over the edge by an
unseen force and plummet to the ground on the outside, just as if
someone had grabbed them and pulled them off.

As they go over the edge, one of them cries
out in startlement and then is silenced when he hits the ground.
Running over to them, James finds that one has broken his neck and
the other is unconscious. Tying and gagging the one still alive, he
looks up to see Jiron lowering a rope down for him to climb the
wall. “Hurry up!” can be heard as the rope reaches him.

He grabs the rope and tries to pull himself
up but fails, his arms just not strong enough. In gym class, this
is one of those things that kept causing him to almost fail every
year. He was never able to get the hang of it. When Jiron realizes
he’s not going to be able to climb the rope, he whispers down,
“Make a loop at the end for your foot and I’ll pull you up!”

Waving back up to him, James bends down and
ties the end in a loop. Putting his right foot in it, he gives two
quick tugs on the rope and waves up to Jiron.

The tension in the rope suddenly increases
and then the rope begins to rise. Gripping the rope tightly with
both hands, he holds on until he’s up to the top of the wall. He
reaches out and takes hold of the ledge and begins pulling himself
the rest of the way. Jiron releases the rope and helps him the last
few feet. “Thanks,” he says.

Jiron gives him a slight nod and says, “Just
pretend you’re a guard so if they look up here, all is normal.”

“Alright,” James says.

“What about those two down there?” Jiron
asks him.

“One’s dead,” he tells him. “Broke his neck
when he hit the ground, the other is tied and gagged.”

Jiron shakes his head and says, “Should’ve
just killed him.”

“I can’t do that,” asserts James.

Shrugging, Jiron points over to a building
twenty feet from the wall and says, “From what you showed me in the
mirror, that should be where your friend is.”

“How do we get down?” James asks.

Gesturing off to the right, he says,
“There’s a ladder over there we can use. Once we do though, it’s
only a matter of time before someone realizes there’s no one up
here and will come to investigate.”

“We better hurry, then,” James states as he
makes for the ladder, Jiron right behind him. Jiron has him wait
while he descends the ladder first to be able to deal with any
trouble should it arise.

Just as Jiron reaches the bottom, a guard
rounds the corner of a nearby building and walks up to them as he
begins talking. His words cut off suddenly when he realizes he’s
not facing fellow guards but intruders. He turns to run as a cry
begins to escape his lips just as Jiron tackles him. A quick strike
with his knife and the guard is soon lying on the ground, choking
as blood pours out of the wound in the side of his neck. In a
moment, the guard is lying still and quiet.

A quick check to be sure no one heard the
fight, they leave the dead guard behind and stay to the shadows as
they work their way to the corner of the building. The side with
the door to Miko’s room is illuminated by a line of torches that
shed light on the interior of the compound and the mine
entrance.

“Don’t think we can sneak in,” Jiron tells
him when he’s assessed the situation. “But if we walk as if we
belong here, we might make it before anyone realizes what’s going
on.”

“Alright,” he says nervously, “let’s
go.”

They look around the corner to make sure the
immediate area is clear before Jiron steps out as if he owns the
place with James right behind. Going past the first three doors,
they stop in front of the fourth where Jiron grabs the handle and
pulls it open. The stench that wafts out from within catches him
unexpectedly and his stomach tries to spew forth its contents.
Keeping it under control, he steps into the room and sees bodies
lying all over the floor.

James rushes past him and stops next to a
boy with a man’s head on his lap. “Miko,” James says as he kneels
on the floor next to him.

Miko’s head comes up and as if he can’t
believe what he’s seeing, asks, “James?”

James nods his head, tears coming to his
eyes.

“I thought you had forgotten about me,” Miko
says.

“Never,” he asserts. “We’ve come to get you
out of here.”

“I can’t leave without Nate,” he says
indicating the man whose head he’s cradling.

Closing the door, Jiron asks from where he
stands just within the room, “What happened here?”

A look of anger overcomes Miko’s features as
he says, “A fellow slave I call Black Tooth slipped poison in the
wine and now everyone’s dead.” Tears come to his eyes as he looks
around at the friends he lost. Slaves though they were, they had
been a team. His team.

“Why aren’t you dead?” James asks.

Miko turns his red rimmed eyes to him and
says, “I was too busy eating the meat and didn’t drink that much of
the wine.” He motions to the man in his lap and says, “Nate here
didn’t drink much either, but he did have more than me.”

Jiron comes over and checks Nate, finding
him still alive but unconscious. “I don’t know if we can take him
with us,” he says to James. “It’s going to be hard enough to do it
with just the three of us.”

Miko gets a defiant look and says, “Then
leave me here with him, I’d be dead by now without him. I can’t
leave him, he’s my friend!”

Jiron glances to James who nods his head and
says, “Then we take him with us.”

He comes over to James and whispers, “Aren’t
we going to be a trifle conspicuous carrying an unconscious body
around?”

“Be that as it may,” James replies, “Miko’s
not leaving without him so he comes with us. Besides, if he has
kept him alive all this time, then I owe him.”

“Alright,” he says, “but you’re going to
need to carry him, I’ll be too busy fighting off the guards when
they see us leave.”

Nodding, James gets up and says, “Let me
carry him Miko.”

Miko removes his arms as James bends over to
pick him up. As he slings him over his shoulder, Nate gives out
with a slight groan but otherwise doesn’t regain consciousness.

Jiron helps Miko to his feet and asks, “Are
you alright?”

“Not really,” he replies. “I did drink the
wine, though just a little bit and it’s causing no end of pain in
my stomach.”

As they make to leave, Miko looks around at
the friends he’s leaving behind. They were the best.

Jiron moves to the door and cracks it open,
“Ready?” When he gets a nod from both of them, he says, “We’ll make
straight for the ladder and get over the wall. If anyone tries to
stop us, they’re dead.”

Opening the door, they step out and hurry
back the way they came. Suddenly a cry goes up and they look over
to see a one handed slave looking in their direction as he lets out
with another yell.

“Black Tooth!” Miko exclaims with hatred.
“He’s the one who poisoned us!”

From the door of an adjoining building,
Black Tooth continues crying the alarm, as guards come running.

“To the wall,” Jiron cries out as he begins
running to the edge of the building. When he gets there, a man
turns the corner and Jiron’s knife flies into his hand and is
suddenly tackled from behind by Miko. “He’s a friend!” he yells at
Jiron as they hit the ground.

“What’s going on here?” Essin cries out when
he sees Miko on the ground with a man wielding a knife. Eyes widen
when he sees James standing there with Nate slung over his
shoulder.

“Black Tooth poisoned the wine,” Miko tells
him as he extricates himself from Jiron. “The whole team is dead,
except for Nate and me. We’re leaving, come with us.”

Jiron gets up off the ground and gives Miko
a dirty look and says, “There’s no time for talk, let’s move!” He
then turns the corner after giving Essin an annoyed look and heads
for the wall.

A crossbow bolt strikes the building next to
where Essin is standing and everyone turns to see the guards coming
toward them.

Crumph!

The ground beneath the guards explodes
upward. Essin gasps at the sight and then nods his head as he turns
to follow Miko and the others to the wall.

“Get down!” James says to Jiron who is
already several rungs up the ladder. Coming to the wall, he places
his hand upon it and begins concentrating.

Jiron looks down to him, realizing what he’s
about to do and then jumps to the ground as far from the wall as he
can. James releases the magic and a section of the wall fifteen
feet across explodes outward, leaving them a clear exit from the
compound. His knees begin to wobble and Essin comes to his side and
says, “Let me carry Nate.”

With relief, James hands the still
unconscious Nate over to the man, who slings him over his shoulder
and then follows the others. Once they’ve passed through the trees
for a ways, James glances behind them and realizes none of the
guards have followed them through the opening in the wall.

“Wait a second!” he hollers, bringing
everyone to a halt. “Keep a watch out and I’ll try to arrange a
slight distraction for them.” Sitting down he tries to relax as he
calms himself as he summons the magic and begins to sink his senses
down through the earth, to the depths where the magma flows.

Searching for fissures and cracks, he uses
the magic to create a path up to the lowest level of the mines.
Just like bringing the water up in the desert, he creates a pathway
for the magma to travel. Widening the way here, closing off another
route there, he continues to bring the magma up to the floor of the
mines. The ground begins to shake violently from the pressure he’s
creating, causing those on their feet to lose their balance and
fall to the ground.

Finally, his senses detect that the magma
has broken through and has begun seeping into the mines. He is also
able to sense a continued building of pressure as more magma
presses to push through the path he made. Realizing an eruption may
be imminent, he gets back to his feet as the shaking finally
subsides. “We’ve got to move! NOW!” he shouts to the others. Essin
again takes Nate and they race through the forest until they come
to the road. Without even pausing, they burst out of the trees and
run to the south to where their boat is waiting for them. As they
race down the road, the ground begins to shake once more. With
visions of volcano movies in his head, James gets ready to live his
last moments on earth.

“What did you do?” Jiron shouts at him over
the roar of the earthquake.

“Let nature loose!” he replies as they
continue running, doing their best to remain upright as the tremors
steadily increase in intensity.

Suddenly the ground stops shaking and all
becomes unnervingly quiet. “Get down!” James yells. From behind
them a massive explosion rips through the night as fire and lava
burst from the ground and shoots up into the sky. The shockwave
rolls over them, burning them as it goes. But just as soon as the
burning starts, it stops. They get up, singed and feeling like they
have just been roasted over a campfire. The smell of burnt hair
permeates the air.

Looking back, they watch as lava balls are
shot into the air and then come to land in the forest with terrible
force. Fires begin to rage wherever one of them lands.

“You can’t do anything halfway, can you?”
Jiron yells at him.

James just gives him a look as he stands up.
“I don’t think it’s over yet! Come on, we have to get off this
island!”

They continue to race down the road as more
lava balls are ejected from the mine. One arcs through the air
toward them. “Watch out!” Miko cries out. Everyone pauses as they
turn to watch the lava ball fly over their heads and strike the
road a hundred feet ahead of them, entirely blocking the road with
flame and setting the nearby trees on fire.

Immediately, Jiron leads them off the road
in the direction of where they left Kristo and his boat. The sound
of screams and yells come from all around as people flee the hot
magma spilling out of the mine. Behind them, the sky is aglow from
the numerous fires burning all across the island, the smell of
sulfur infuses the air and begins causing them to cough.

Suddenly, three guards fleeing the eruption
appear in the forest ahead of them, both sides surprised at seeing
the others. One of the guards hollers something out and then all
three draw their swords as they advance.

Jiron moves forward to meet them, both
knives at the ready as one of James’ stones sails past and takes
one full in the chest, spraying gore upon the one behind. As the
man in front of him falls, the gore covered guard stands there in
shock and belatedly recognizes the threat Jiron poses as he
approaches. Jiron is able to easily dispatch him and then steps
around his lifeless body as he joins with the third guard.

This remaining guard, finally able to
release his pent up anger and fear by all that has happened, comes
at him with a vengeance. Crying a battle cry, he wields his sword
in both hands as he slashes at Jiron.

With agility gained from hundreds of fights
in the pits, Jiron maneuvers to avoid the sword and returns with a
strike to the leg, drawing blood as his knife sinks an inch into
the man’s thigh.

Crying out in pain, the man brings his sword
around for another attack which Jiron deflects with one knife while
following through with the other, opening a four inch long cut
along the man’s left forearm.