Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (9 page)

As James enters, Jiron says, “Time to
leave?”

“I would think so,” James replies. They come
out of her cell just as the doorway at the end of the hallway slams
open. The officer strides in to see what the commotion is all
about. He comes to a sudden stop when he sees the guard lying
before him on the floor unconscious. Looking down the hallway, his
eyes widen when he sees their cell doors open and them out of their
cells, two with knives that are red with blood. He begins yelling
as he quickly turns and exits the hallway, returning back to the
front room. Even though James can’t understand what he’s saying, he
has a pretty good idea.

“Jiron,” he says, “give Tinok your knife,
quick!”

When Tinok has both knives, James says to
him as he points down the hallway, “They’re going to be coming
through that door. You’ve got to stop them for a minute or
two.”

Tinok glances at Cassie, then with an evil
grin he says, “You got it.” He walks close to the end of the
hallway and awaits the first soldier to pass through the door.

Grabbing Jiron’s arm, James says, “Come with
me.” He leads him to the rear cell where Tinok had been, whose
little window overlooks the same narrow alley that his had. The
girls follow them in there.

“What are we doing?” he asks James.

“Just wait,” he replies as he begins
concentrating.

Jiron hears the clash of metal from the
hallway and sticks his head out to see how Tinok’s doing. One
soldier lies on the floor, bleeding to death, while his knives
dance with another. A third soldier has entered the hallway behind
the one battling Tinok, but the narrowness of the corridor allows
but one to come at him at a time.

He turns back to the cell and watches as
James begins tracing the seams of the stones surrounding the barred
window. His finger follows the seam all the way around and when he
reaches his starting point, he stops and says, “Alright, give me a
hand.”

Reaching up to the bars, he begins pulling
on them. Jiron steps up and lends his strength to the effort.

“Give up,” they hear the officer exclaim
from down the hallway, “you’ve got nowhere to go!”

“Bring ‘em on!” they hear Tinok’s reply.
More clashes can be heard as he parries and blocks, giving them
time to do what they need to.

“What’s the count?” Jiron yells over his
shoulder to Tinok.

“Four!” they hear him hollering back.

James and Jiron pull with all their strength
on the bars and a section of the wall surrounding them suddenly
slides outward half an inch.

“Five!”

Delia joins them and together, they slowly
pull the bars and the adjoining stones away from the wall until the
whole thing crashes to the floor with a thud.

James looks out the hole and doesn’t see
anyone around, while Jiron goes back to the dead guards in Cassie’s
cell and retrieves a sword.

Coming to the hole, he tosses the sword
through and then follows it, climbing through the hole.

“Six!”

He takes the sword and comes back to the
hole. “Cassie,” he says, “come on!” Keeping an eye out for anyone
entering the ally, he offers his hand to help her through.

James and Jiron help Cassie make it through
the hole, and then Delia. Once they’re safely on the other side,
James climbs through as well. “Tinok!” Jiron yells, “Time to
go!”

“Seven!” they hear just before he runs
through the door. Upon seeing the hole in the wall, he yells,
“Stand back!” as he races toward it and dives through. He sails
through the opening, hits the ground on the other side, and then
rolls, coming to rest against the wall of the opposite
building.

James sees guards rushing into the room
after him. When they see the hole in the wall, one yells something
back down the hallway as most of them turn and race back the way
they had come.

“Let’s get out of here!” James says, as he
leads them down the alley. As they reach the end, he looks back the
way they had come and sees soldiers entering the alley, hell bent
on catching them. They turn and run down the lane, trying to make
the edge of town. A guard runs around a corner in front of them,
and before he even realizes they’re there, Jiron has cut him down
with the sword.

“Good with a sword too?” asks James, panting
from the exertion.

“Didn’t always use the knives,” he replies,
“I just prefer them.”

When they come to the end of the lane, they
realize they’ve made it to the edge of town, rising before them is
the mountain. Behind them are dozens of soldiers racing after them
and several crossbow bolts fly past, missing by a narrow
margin.

They make a break for the mountain and the
relative safety of the trees. The ground begins to rise as they
reach the treeline.

From behind, they hear the soldiers in
pursuit. James glances back and realizes they’re gaining on them.
As he runs, James searches the ground for rocks, but in the dusk of
early evening, it’s hard to make any out. Spotting a couple, he
pauses only momentarily to pick them up before he races to catch up
with the others.

He glances back again and now can make out
about a dozen and a half soldiers are in pursuit, it doesn’t look
as if the officer is among them. “We’re either going to have to
convince them to not follow us, or take them out,” he says to the
others. “We’ll never outrun them.”

Jiron looks back and says, “I agree.”

“Ladies,” James says, “you continue on up,
we’ll find you.”

Delia grabs Cassie’s hand and together they
continue on up the mountain as fast as they can.

“Alright gentlemen,” he says, “let’s do it.”
He stops and turns to face the soldiers while Jiron and Tinok split
off to either side.

He finds the crossbowmen and using the
stones he collected, begins taking them out one by one. Jiron and
Tinok move forward to engage the oncoming soldiers. Jiron using his
sword and Tinok with his knives, they weave a dance of death that
begins felling soldiers at a quick pace.

James stays to the rear and continues
throwing stones, with the added speed and accuracy only magic can
achieve, until all but a couple of the soldiers have been
eliminated. Turning tail, the remaining soldiers promptly retreat
back to town.

When they come back together to watch the
retreating soldiers, James notices Jiron has acquired two knives
from the fallen soldiers. “Let’s find the girls,” he says as they
turn and hurry to catch up to them.

_________________________

“Are they dead?” Delia asks when the boys
catch up.

“Most of them, the rest fled back to town,”
Jiron replies.

With relief evident in her voice Cassie
asks, “Then we’re safe?”

“Until morning at least,” James assures her.
“But you can bet they’ll be coming after us at first light.”

“And they’ll probably bring everyone,” adds
Tinok.

“Quite likely,” agrees James. “We’ve killed
over a dozen soldiers and embarrassed their leader. So yeah,
they’ll be coming.”

“What are we going to do?” Cassie asks,
scared.

“Let’s get higher in the mountains and at
first light, try to find a place to make a stand,” James says.

“Good idea,” agrees Tinok. Anger still burns
in him over the attempted attack on Cassie.

They proceed further up into the mountains,
the dark of night making the way difficult at best. When they come
across a somewhat level area, they make camp. Tired, hungry and a
little scared over what the next day will bring, they lie down and
do their best to get some sleep, the boys taking turns at
watch.

James takes the first watch and sits there
as he hears his companions, one by one, fall asleep. He knows that
tomorrow’s outcome will depend heavily upon him and what he can do
with magic. Going over in his mind different strategies and
solutions that he came up with in similar situations back home,
during their role playing campaigns, he tries to find one which
would work the best giving their situation. Thank god he at least
has a couple of good fighters to hold them off while he does his
thing. After coming up with several nasty ideas, he finishes his
turn at watch and then wakes Tinok for his turn. Lying down, he
does his best to fall asleep.

Morning dawns overcast, the sky beginning to
lighten even though the sun is still behind the mountains. Jiron
returns to camp just after dawn from reconnoitering down the
mountain for signs of the enemy to find no sign of James. Worried,
he wakes up everyone else and is about to begin searching for him
when he sees him walking back toward the camp, a couple of rabbits
in hand.

“Here,” he says as he hands the rabbits to
Cassie, “take these further on up the mountain and cook ‘em.”

“But a fire will lead them straight to us,”
objects Jiron.

“Exactly,” James says. “We want them to
think we’re just a bunch of stupid kids who think they’ve gotten
away from them. That we are lulled into a sense of security and are
careless enough to light the way for them.”

“There’s a spot another hundred feet up that
would be prefect to set up camp,” he tells them.

“What will you be doing?” he asks.

“While the girls are up there alerting them
as to which way to come,” he explains, “we’ll be down here setting
up several nasty surprises for them.”

“Surprises?” Delia asks.

“Yeah,” he replies, “surprises.” He points
down the way they came last night and says, “We inadvertently
followed a game trail up the mountain and I’m betting they’ll
follow it too. Especially when they see the smoke from the
fire.”

“What should we do?” Cassie asks.

“You and Delia go up the mountain and begin
cooking the rabbits,” he says. He then points to Jiron, “You stay
with me.” To Tinok he says, “You need to stay with the girls in
case anyone gets past us.”

Tinok nods his head in agreement though he’s
dismayed about missing the fun.

“Save some for me and James,” Jiron says,
indicating the rabbits.

“We’ll see,” Tinok says, a grin playing
across his face.

As Tinok and the girls begin to head up the
mountain, James and Jiron start setting up the surprises. “Just
what do you have in mind?” Jiron asks him.

“Well, you see…” he then explains what he
plans to do as they make their way down the trail.

“Here they come,” Jiron says from where they
hide behind a fallen log. The first man can be seen coming up the
trail below them. “They’re following the trail just as you
figured.”

“I wasn’t sure they would,” admits James.
“Though I’m glad I was right.”

“Looks like they brought the whole
garrison,” Jiron observes as more and more men come into view.

“Hope so,” James says, “can’t afford to miss
even one.”

“You’re a bloodthirsty one, aren’t you?”
Jiron asks.

James turns to him and says, “I don’t like
killing, to me it’s just a waste. But if I have to, then I want to
make it so they’ll never trouble me again.”

“See your point,” he says.

They watch as the men proceed further up the
trail. “You ready?” James asks him.

“Yeah,” he replies with a grin, “let’s do
it.”

They stand up from behind the log as James
throws two stones in quick succession, killing two of the forward
soldiers.

Then they yell as if scared, “Run!” and turn
to race back up the trail, the soldiers immediately follow in hot
pursuit.

They don’t run too far before they come to
an area where the trees and plants all look like they’re wilting,
dying. They continue on until they are back into the healthier part
of the forest, then abruptly stop and turn to face the oncoming
soldiers.

Their pursuers are following the trail for
the most part, though some have fanned out into the forest
alongside the trail. “We’re not going to get all of them,” Jiron
says.

“Perhaps,” James agrees, “but hopefully
we’ve planned well enough for that.”

They watch as the soldiers begin to enter
the wilted area as they race to reach James and Jiron. When the men
in the front nears the end of the wilted area James shouts,
“Walls!”

Six foot high walls of force spring up
around the men in the wilted area, boxing them in. The men in front
run full force into the forward wall of force, coming to an abrupt
halt as if they’d run into a brick wall. The men are confused at
first and then panic sets in. James can see the officer who locked
them up near the back of the men trapped within the invisible
walls. He’s trying to keep his men under control but the fear of
being entrapped by invisible walls overrides whatever discipline
he’s trying to establish.

Jiron watches the men trapped inside,
hitting on the invisible walls with their hands and weapons in an
attempt to break free. He can hear their screams of terror.

“Shut!” James shouts and the walls slam
together, pulping the men inside, abruptly silencing their cries.
He can hear Jiron next to him exclaim, “Good god!”

“We haven’t gotten all of them,” James says,
indicating over a dozen men, standing stunned over the fate of
their comrades on the trail.

James takes out another stone and begins to
head back down the trail toward the soldiers, Jiron beside him.

When the remaining soldiers see them coming
forward, the men lose heart and turn to flee back down the
mountain. Letting fly his stone, James takes out another one. Again
and again, he lets fly with stones, striking one after another.

When the remaining men reach a certain tree
with a cloth that he tied to it earlier, he says, “Fire!”

Fire erupts from the ground in a circle over
a hundred feet across. The fleeing men scream as it burns and
consumes them. The trees in the area burst into flame as the dry
leaves and needles crackle as they catch fire. The wind coming up
the mountain begins to blow sparks from tree to tree, spreading the
fire rapidly.