Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three (29 page)

Jumping to his feet, Jiron takes the severed
pieces of the bola which had bound him and throws them at the
approaching horsemen. One flies wide, but the other half connects
with the lead horse in the chest causing him to stumble and throw
its rider.

A stone flies and takes the remaining rider
through the middle, gore exploding out his back.

Jiron engages the man who had just been
thrown from his horse, his knives easily deflecting the sword of
the rider. From behind he hears James yell, “Need him alive!”

Concentrating now on the sword and less on
attack, he bides his time. Suddenly, he sees the maneuver he was
waiting for. When the rider thrusts with his sword, he locks his
knives together around the blade and with a twist of his wrists,
the sword goes flying.

The rider tries to turn and flee, but Jiron
tackles him and puts a knife to his throat.

James comes up to them and asks the captured
rider, “Who are you?”

The rider just stares back defiantly.

“You are not of the Empire,” he says holding
a bola. “This, if nothing else, would indicate that. I have not
seen anything like this in the Empire before.”

Continuing on maintaining a defiant
demeanor, the rider lies there uncooperatively.

“Are you from the Kirken Federation?” he
asks. “That would be my guess, perhaps a raiding party?”

The man’s eyes flinch just enough for James
to know he’d hit the mark. “Let him go Jiron,” he says.

Not taking his knife away, he says, “But
they tried to kill us.”

Looking at the man, James asks, “If we let
you go, will you return from where you came and leave us
alone?”

The man stares at James a moment,
considering the voracity of his words. Then, he nods his head
affirmatively.

To Jiron, he says, “Let him go.”

Jiron slowly pulls the knife away from the
man’s throat. When no attack is forthcoming from him, he gets
slowly to his feet, never taking his eyes off the Kirken
soldier.

As the man stands up, James tells him, “We
are not of the Empire, we are from the north and are currently at
war with the Empire ourselves.”

“Madoc?” the man asks.

“He is,” James says, indicating Jiron.
Gesturing to Miko and himself, he says, “We’re from Cardri.”

The Kirken says, “We thought you to be the
Empire’s men.” He looks around at his men lying dead around him
before returning his attention to James, “A costly mistake.”

“We would not want to count the Kirken’s as
enemies,” James says.

The man nods, “You are not, and I’m sorry we
attacked you.” He goes over to a horse and grabs the dangling
reins. “I must return and tell of what happened here. You’re
welcome to come with me.”

Shaking his head, James says, “No, we cannot
take the time, I’m afraid.”

“As you wish,” he says. He rounds up the
other horses and then places the dead upon their backs, securing
them into place. Then he ties the horses in line before mounting
the lead horse. Then with a wave, he’s off.

They watch him as he disappears into the
night with the bodies of his dead comrades. “It’s a shame they had
to die,” James says.

“Fortunes of war, I’m afraid,” Jiron
adds.

“Why didn’t we go with him?” Miko asks. “It
seemed like a good idea.”

“We don’t want to get caught up in someone
else’s war,” he says. “We’ve got our own problems and duties.”

“What duties?” he asks.

“Have you forgotten so soon?” he asks,
pointing to his pouch.

“Oh, right,” he says then drops to a
whisper, “the Fire.”

“Exactly,” replies James. “We can’t risk
anyone getting their hands on it or even knowing about it.”

Getting back on their horses, they begin
moving once more toward the north. They travel for several minutes
when Jiron asks, “Just what did they hit us with anyway?”

“It’s called a bola,” he explains. “It’s a
length of rope with weights at both ends. They twirl it and then
let it fly at their target. If they do it right, then the target
gets wrapped up and entangled.”

“Those things seemed pretty effective,” he
says.

Nodding, James continues, “I’ve known them
to be spiked and even have metal wires running the length of the
rope to prevent it from being cut.”

“Nasty,” he hears Miko say.

“It can be,” admits James.

They ride on in silence as they eat up the
miles. In a short while, they come to where a new road forms going
west, into the heart of the Empire. Staying with the northerly
route, they soon leave it behind.

After midnight, they stop for a quick meal
of old rations, plus some from the Parvati’s. “You know,” James
begins, “this riding at night is a whole lot better than riding in
the day.”

“Yeah,” pipes up Miko. “No one can see us
passing by.”

“Exactly,” replies James. “Maybe we can keep
this up till we reach Madoc.”

“Maybe,” Jiron agrees. “As long as we’re
able to find a place to hole up during the day.”

From up ahead, lights of a town begin to be
visible. This town is a lot smaller than the one they’d skirted
around earlier in the evening. Jiron leads them westward around it,
making their way again through the farms and homes along the
outskirts.

Once they made it to the north side of town,
Jiron again leads them along the road to the north. The trees
become denser as they move further away from the town. After only a
mile or so, the trees become so thick, their upper branches
virtually block out the light of the moon.

The road is quite dark now so James casts
his light spell, just enough to be able to discern their way and
stay upon the road. The night becomes stiller as they continue
along the road through the forest. Off in the distance, they can
hear the sound of wolves and other nocturnal creatures.

A shiver goes up James’ back as he remembers
his first night in this world when poor Seth had been torn to
pieces.
If I would have known then what I do now, he would still
be alive.

Several hours later, they come to a small
river flowing to the south, a bridge had been built over it. The
hollow sound of the horses’ hooves walking across reminds James of
Ichabod in Sleepy Hollow. He almost expects to hear the maniacal
laugh of the headless horseman as he comes charging out of the
woods.

They continue through the forest for several
more hours before the sky begins to lighten. Once it becomes bright
enough, James cancels his light spell. The forest is a little less
foreboding in the light than it had been in the dark.

“Should we find a spot to hole up for the
day?” asks Miko.

“Naw,” replies James. “We’d loose too much
time, daylight’s longer in the summer than the winter. Let’s ride
another hour or two before we stop.”

Obviously tired and wanting nothing more
than to get off the horse and sleep, Miko nods his head. James
looks over to his friend, understanding his need, but they must
continue to make time while they can.

He feels like they must be nearing the
border, couple more days or so and they should be there. That’s
when the fun is really going to start as they try to break through
the lines. Hopefully, Madoc’s soldiers won’t mistake them for the
Empire and attack. That’s been James’ biggest worry for the last
day or so. Ever since the Kirken’s mistook them for the Empire and
attacked, he’s been worried about other non-hostiles doing the
same.

From up ahead, they begin to hear the sound
of wagons coming their way. Jiron leads them off into the woods to
hide as they approach. A small caravan of ten wagons and an
accompaniment of twenty of the Empire’s cavalry slowly make their
way by.

“Those wagons are coming from a mine,”
whispers Miko.

“How can you tell?” Jiron asks him.

“I know, trust me,” he replies. “There must
be a mining complex somewhere to the north.”

“I’m not destroying this one,” James
announces a little too loud. One of the cavalrymen turns to look
out into the forest in their direction as he pauses a moment.

Holding very still and quiet, they look
through the trees at the rider as he continues to search. Another
of the cavalrymen comes over to him and they begin having a quiet
conversation. The other man looks out in their direction as well,
but after a couple more moments, he says something to the other and
they both resume their place along the wagons.

Once the wagons have passed their hiding
places and have moved further down the road, Jiron walks to the
road and looks south after the departing wagons. When he sees the
wagons are out of sight, he waves the others back onto the
road.

“Sorry,” apologizes James for his lapse in
judgment back there when he spoke too loudly.

“Don’t worry about it, nothing happened,”
assures Jiron.

They turn and continue back toward the
north. “Wonder what they were carrying that requires an escort?”
Miko asks.

“Could just be so the Kirken’s won’t attack
it,” suggests James.

“You’re probably right,” agrees Jiron.

“We’ll need to keep on our guard from here
on out,” says James. “If this is an ore shipment route, they’ll
probably have patrols or guards all along this stretch of the
road.”

Jiron glances back to him and nods before
turning back. They quicken their pace, anxious to get out of the
confining forest.

Two hours later, they’re all getting
fatigued, and the horses are starting to show signs of wear. They
decide it’s time to stop and move into the forest, far enough from
the road so anyone passing by will be unable to see them through
the trees. Tying the horses to neighboring trees, they take a
moment to clear a camp before settling down.

James takes the first watch, with Jiron
taking the last. Miko hates the middle watch, he never seems to get
adequate sleep when he does. During James’ watch, he hears horses
moving fast from the north and disappearing to the south. He tells
Miko about the riders when it’s his turn at watch.

Jiron wakes everyone up when the light in
the forest begins to fade. They have a quick meal of stale rations
before mounting up and moving back to the road.

After several miles, James begins to realize
the trees here don’t seem nearly as thick as the ones the night
before, light from the moon is able to filter down through them
more effectively. The road is barely discernable in the faint
light, but enough can be seen so James doesn’t have to create his
orb.

They travel down the road for several more
hours before the trees begin to thin out even more. The ground
begins to rise and fall as they enter what seems to be rolling
hills. “If there are mountains ahead, that would explain where
those wagons had come from,” James says.

“We’ll see,” replies Jiron. Leading them on,
he keeps a brisk, distance eating pace.

The road begins to wind through a series of
increasingly tall hills and after it goes around a large one, the
lights from a small village appear in the distance ahead. The road
proceeds directly down the center of the village. There are not
many buildings, kind of reminding James of a ghost town he once
visited with his family.

“Do we go around?” Miko asks.

“The hills are getting pretty steep,” Jiron
says.

“We may have no choice but to go through,”
James tells him. “We can’t afford to stumble around in rugged hills
at night.”

“There doesn’t seem to be any guards or
soldiers around,” Jiron announces.

James gives the village a long look and nods
his head, “You’re right, I don’t see any either.” He glances from
one to the other before continuing, “Let’s chance it. Move in and
pass through as quickly as possible.”

Moving quickly, not so fast as to draw undue
notice, they move toward the town. As soon as they pass the first
building, someone sitting on its steps calls a greeting to
them.

Unable to speak the language, Jiron just
waves as he continues on through. As they pass by the one who
greeted them, the man calls to them again but they pointedly ignore
him. Then from behind they hear the man obviously swear at them,
Miko turns around and sees him waving his fist. The man soon stops
and to Miko’s relief, settles back down on the steps.

Others call out to them as they pass through
the town as well, and they hear curses follow them when they fail
to respond to them.

At the outskirts on the other side of town,
they breathe a sigh of relief as they pass the last building. They
glance back to the town and see several people there staring after
them but are making no move to follow.

“Guess we got off lucky there,” Jiron says
once they’ve put the village behind them.

“Looks that way,” agrees James.

“I’ll be glad to be back where I can
understand what someone’s trying to tell me,” Miko pipes up. “It’s
unnerving when you don’t know what they’re saying.”

“I know what you mean,” agrees James.

The road continues to wind through steep
hills, with little in the way of hiding spots should the need
arise. They continue along the road for several more hours, the
hills continuing to be steep and inaccessible.

The light from another town begins to be
visible from up ahead. This one is sizably larger than the one they
recently passed through. There are many buildings and when they
pause a moment to survey the area, they see guards walking the
streets.

“We could pass by over there,” Jiron
suggests, pointing to an area west of town.

James looks where he’s pointing and sees
just a few buildings. The whole area is fairly dark, just some
light escaping through several of the windows. Nodding, he says,
“Looks like our best bet, let’s go.”

With Jiron in the lead, they stay as close
to the sides of the hill as they can. They’re forced to pass close
by one of the buildings and as they move past, the door suddenly
opens and a man steps out.