Shades of the Past: The Morcyth Saga Book Six (49 page)

Jiron nods at that and continues down the
corridor. They pass by another corridor extending into darkness on
their right and shortly after that arrive at a small room. Standing
in the room are two pedestals, upon each sits a statue of a demonic
creature. They give them but a cursory glance as they pass through
the room to the corridor on the right. Hurrying along, they pass
three more corridors branching off to the right before entering the
room at the end. So far there has been no telltale indication that
the warrior priest has appeared on the dais.

Just as they remembered, they find the
stairway leading to the room above them. The only exit from the
room is an opening in the right wall where a corridor begins. At
the top, James pauses and says, “Let’s rest a moment.”

“You sure?” asks Jiron. “There could be more
coming.”

“I know, but I need to.” James leans against
the wall by the stairwell and sags to the floor. “Just for a minute
or two,” he tells him.

Seeing just how tired his friend is, Jiron
nods and takes position at the top of the stairs to keep an eye out
for anyone approaching from below. He’s not doing too great either.
His chest throbs from where that dead creature blasted him, not to
mention the multiple strikes of those small flying creatures that
burn him like acid. Nothing would please him more right now than to
lie down and fall asleep.

He turns his attention from the stairs to
James and says, “You know, those dead creatures really weren’t that
hard to defeat.”

“I know,” James replies. “I don’t know if you
noticed, but a warrior priest appeared on the dais before we
left.”

“I saw something but didn’t realize it was a
warrior priest,” he admits. Getting a confused look on his face he
asks, “Then why didn’t he come after us?”

“I don’t know.” Shrugging, James leans his
head against the wall and adds, “I suppose we shouldn’t question
our good fortune.”

Grinning, Jiron returns his attention to the
stairs. “I suppose not,” he agrees. He absentmindedly rubs the arm
that fell numb when the creature touched it.

“Arm okay?” James asks.

“The feeling is beginning to come back,” he
says. “What would cause something like that to happen?”

Shrugging, James contemplates what happened a
second before answering. “One of the theories that were kicked
around back home was that the energy needed to keep a dead body
‘alive’ would have a detrimental effect on the living,” he
explains. “When it touched you, the energy suffusing it entered
your body and ‘shorted out’ your nervous system.”

“Shorted out?” he asks perplexed.

James gives him a grin. “Sorry, it’s a term
from my world. It simply means it stopped your arm from
communicating with your brain. If the contact had lasted for any
length of time, the damage probably would have been permanent if it
didn’t kill you outright.” He indicates the arm that’s numb and
adds, “Since the feeling is coming back, it stands to reason
nothing permanent was done.”

“That’s good to know,” he says.

Closing his eyes, James tries to relax a
moment to quiet the headache that throbs painfully behind his eyes.
His restless mind continues trying to make sense of the last few
hours.
First, Jiron and I are in a city buried by sand and are
about to kill each other. Then we wind up in that other place where
the little demonic flying creatures were trying to kill us. If the
dais is some kind of magical transport device, why did we end up
here? It makes no sense! It can’t be a random transporter, such a
thing would be useless to the warrior priests. There has to be a
way to control it.

Okay, suppose there is a rhyme or reason to
it. How did Jiron and I trigger it the first time? Could it be set
up to trigger for anyone who does magic? That wouldn’t make a whole
lot of sense. The warrior priests have made many enemies over the
years who can wield magic. They surely wouldn’t want anyone other
than themselves to take advantage of their teleportation system. So
the trigger must be something that has to do with them and that
only they and their agents would have. Maybe some ability they
posses or an aura or something?

“James?” questions Jiron softly.

Eyes opening he glances to where Jiron is
still keeping an eye on the stairs. “Someone coming?” he asks.

Shaking his head he says, “No. I was thinking
we might want to get out of here.” Grinning he adds, “Seeing as how
you are awake and all.”

The headache has subsided to a dull throb. He
feels a little bit rested and able to continue, though the thought
of using magic makes his headache throb even more. “Doubt if I
could do anything if we were to be attacked,” he says. Getting to
his feet, he says, “But I am fit enough to walk without your
support.”

“Good,” he says as he comes to him. “Then
let’s get out of here.” He moves past James and crosses over to the
corridor. There he pauses and glances back to make sure James is
following before leaving the room.

He proceeds down the corridor until he comes
to where another corridor crosses the one they’re in. Remembering
the way from last time, he takes the corridor to the right. They
don’t go far before coming to the three skeletons of the dead
priests lying on the floor. The whole area of the corridor has been
blackened as if by fire.

Jiron steps over the skeletons and continues
down the corridor. He stops when he realizes James isn’t following
him. Looking back he finds him standing before the skeletons,
staring at them. He starts back toward him when he hears James
exclaim, “I got it!”

“What?” Jiron asks as he rejoins him by the
skeletons.

Reaching into his pouch, he removes the
amulet he acquired here the last time. Emblazoned with the symbol
of the warrior priest, he holds it up and shows it to Jiron.

“So?” he asks. Puzzled as to why James is
standing there with a wide grin, he waits.

“Don’t you see,” he says as he shakes the
amulet slightly, “this is the key!” He looks to Jiron as if that
should explain it all. When Jiron shrugs that he isn’t following
him, he adds, “The dais. This is what triggered the
teleportation.”

“Still not sure I’m following you,” admits
Jiron.

“Do you remember me telling you about my time
in the City of Light before it fell?” he asks. When he sees Jiron
nod he continues. “Ol’ One Eye was sure interested in this when he
found it in my possession, said it ‘changed things’. I didn’t
understand it at the time but it makes sense now.”

“Also, back in Mountainside when we were
taken into the jail back when Tinok and Cassie were still with us,
the officer there was mighty interested in it as well. I think it’s
no small coincidence that the dais sent us here. After all, this is
where it belonged.”

“So…” Jiron begins as he tries to work this
out. Shaking his head he says, “I still don’t understand.”

Holding the amulet up before him he says,
“This is a portal key! It activates the magic in the dais. That’s
why we ended up here, it’s keyed to the dais below. When we jumped
on the dais back in that other place, it sensed this key and sent
us here.”

“But, why didn’t we come here first then?” he
asks.

“I don’t know,” he admits. There his
reasoning breaks down. He considers it for a minute then says, “But
the fact that I found the amulet here and that we were ultimately
sent here has to be connected in some way. It could be that each
key is set for a specific temple and will always return the wearer
to that temple.”

He can see the doubt in Jiron’s eyes. “Of
course,” he tells him, “the only way to test the theory is to take
another ride through the portal.”

Jiron laughs at that. “I don’t think so,” he
says shaking his head.

“I agree,” James states.

“Can we go now?” asks Jiron.

With a nod of his head, James indicates for
him to lead on. As he follows Jiron, a memory of what he told Aleya
during their last visit when she had asked about the amulet:
“Maybe it was only given to a priest once they achieved a
certain level of the temple hierarchy,” he had suggested. “Simply
having one may have afforded them some privilege or it could’ve
been a sign of rank or trust as well.”
If that is the case,
then only the higher ranking priests would have access to the
portal, which would make sense.

Jiron continues to lead until they come to
where another corridor converges with the one they’re in. James
shines the light of the orb down the left to reveal the cave-in
they ran across last time. Knowing they are on the right path,
Jiron continues straight ahead.

Twenty feet or so they come to another
cave-in. A space just large enough for a man to crawl through has
been cleared at the top of the obstruction. The last time they were
here, they had crawled through that hole and found themselves out
among the trees on the mountainside. Taking a look at the ground on
this side of the cave-in, they find impressions in the dirt from
where they previously rested until it had grown dark outside.

Jiron immediately goes to the opening and
crawls a short way through before stopping. He pauses a moment
before coming back inside. “It’s dark,” he says.

“That’s fortunate,” comments James and
indicates for Jiron to continue on through to the other side.

He cancels the orb before he follows Jiron
through the hole. It takes his eyes a moment to adjust to the
darkness before he’s able to see the moonlight filtering in through
the opening. Making his way through he finds the half moon to be
high overhead. Jiron offers him a hand as he crawls out and helps
him to his feet.

“Now,” he says, “let’s see about finding our
way back to the others.”

They work their way along the mountainside
toward the south. Somewhere ahead in the dark lies the road running
along the southern edge of the mountains which will take them
toward Madoc. The last time they came this way, there was a
sizeable presence of the enemy along the road.

It doesn’t take them long to reach the road
leading down from the summit, appearing in the moonlight ahead of
them. Carefully looking in both directions, they determine the road
is empty. With Jiron in the lead they move onto the road.

Traveling upon the road affords them much
better speed than forging their way through the forest. “We need to
find a couple of horses,” James whispers.

“I know,” comes the all but silent reply.

The road takes them quickly down the
mountainside. It isn’t long before the lights from the encampment
of the Empire’s soldiers at the base of the mountain come into
view. The number of campfires indicates there isn’t nearly the
number of men there were the last time they passed this way. “Maybe
they don’t feel a large presence is warranted here,” suggests
Jiron.

“Could be,” agrees James. “Or they could have
sent most of their force to deal with Illan and the others.”

“That would make sense,” he says with a
nod.

They continue following the road until it
begins to approach the perimeter of the enemy camp before moving
into the shelter of the trees. Working their way through the hills
at the base of the mountain, they make their way closer to the
enemy lines. Pausing a moment upon the top of a hill overlooking
the enemy camp, they have a commanding view of its layout. Off to
their right they see where they have their horses kept.

A series of stables have been built to keep
their steeds out of the elements. Six structures with corrals
adjacent to each stand in an area to the rear of their lines. In
the corrals, horses are visible in the moonlight.

They wait several minutes before descending
the hill. Jiron points out four sentries as they make their way
through toward the stable area. Two remain in and around the
stables while the other two continue on toward the main camp. He
waits for the two continuing on toward the camp to leave the area
before making his move. When only one of the two remaining sentries
is close, Jiron motions for James to stay on the hill. Receiving
James’ nod, he makes his way down the hill and toward where the
sentry is patrolling.

James watches as the shadow that is Jiron
moves toward the closest sentry, covering the distance quickly. He
gets in behind the sentry and is within a dozen yards of him when
the man suddenly turns in his patrol and begins heading back in
Jiron’s direction. Ducking behind a tree, Jiron waits for his
approach. A glint of moonlight flashes from the knife in Jiron’s
hand.

The sentry continues to approach, oblivious
to the danger poising to strike behind the tree. His path doesn’t
take him directly past the tree, rather five feet to one side. When
the sentry draws even with the tree, Jiron slips around to the
other side until he’s behind him once again. Moving fast, he closes
the distance silently. Grabbing the sentry from behind, he strikes
with his knife and then lowers the dying man to the ground, the
whole incident happening without a sound.

Jiron wipes his knife off on the man’s
clothes and then moves toward the second sentry. The nearest stable
is twenty feet away with an open area easily twenty feet wide.
Running quickly and silently, Jiron makes the side of the stable
and then presses his back against it. Listening for the other
sentry’s position, he hears the man’s footsteps approaching from
the right side of the stable. Moving quietly, he works his way to
the right.

The remaining sentry calls to the other as he
nears the edge of the stable. Despite the fact the man is speaking
in the Empire’s language, Jiron can tell by the inflection in his
voice that he’s asking a question. As Jiron reaches the edge of the
stable, the sentry again asks the question with a slight edge in
his voice.