Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three (50 page)

The man looks to the councilman and then
shakes his head as he says, “No, I don’t.”

“Don’t lie to me!” Jiron hollers at him. “I
heard you say you did when you two were coming up the stairs.”
Pointing at James he says, “I want you to give it to him. If he
dies, you both shall die.” Drawing his knife he puts the point to
the man’s throat as he stares into his eyes.

From the corner of his eye, he sees
Councilman Rillian begin to reach for the knife at his belt.
Pushing the underling away, he rounds on the councilman and before
he’s able to grip the knife, he takes hold of his arm. “Don’t even
think about it, milord,” he says.

“Stop!” he yells to the underling when he
sees him moving toward the door. “One more step and your boss here
is dead. Understand?”

Turning his attention back to the
councilman, he says, “I’m sorry to have to do this to you milord.”
He removes the outer coat of Councilman Rillian and with his knife
cuts it into strips which he then uses to secure him to the chair.
All the while casting glances over to his underling to make sure he
gets no closer to the door.

When at last the councilman’s secured and
his knife rests with the others in Jiron’s belt, Jiron turns to the
underling and asks, “What’s your name?”

“Stephen,” the man replies.

“Well, Stephen, get over there and
administer the antidote,” Jiron demands. When he hesitates, Jiron
places a knife at Councilman Rillian’s throat and says menacingly,
“Now!”

Pulling a small crystal vial from within his
jerkin, Stephen moves over to where James lies on the couch. “Don’t
do anything stupid,” Jiron warns him.

Suddenly from the door, more banging can be
heard as the guard returns with help. It sounds like they’re using
a battering ram or perhaps a bench in an attempt to break the door
down.

Jiron moves to the window and looks out over
the courtyard. The soldiers in the courtyard below remain oblivious
to the events taking place within the Councilman’s offices. He
moves back over to the councilman, indicates the door and says, “So
those are just your own personal guards eh? What, don’t you want
everyone to know what’s going on in here?”

The councilman just glares at him, keeping
silent.

Stephen has finished administering the
antidote to James. When Jiron looks over to them, Stephen says,
“It’ll take a few minutes to work.”

“How many?” asks Jiron as the pounding on
the door increases. A crack begins forming in the heavy door.

Shrugging, Stephen replies, “I’m not sure.
The instructions I was given wasn’t that clear.”

“What did they tell you?” Jiron demands to
know.

“That a few drops would bring him out of
it,” he explains.

“How much did they say would restore his
powers?” Jiron asks.

He glances over to Councilman Rillian and
says, “Half again as much.”

“I assume you didn’t give him that much?” he
inquires.

Shaking his head, Stephen says, “No, I
didn’t.”

Jiron puts a knife to the councilman’s
throat and says, “Do it!”

“Don’t!” Councilman Rillian orders.

“But he’ll kill you!” cries Stephen.

“If they get out of here, we’re dead
anyway!” he exclaims then cries out as Jiron gently punctures the
side of his neck, allowing a small drop of blood to trickle down
his neck.

“Smash it!” orders the councilman.

As Stephen raises the vial high, Jiron
screams, “Don’t!” He rushes toward Stephen to try and prevent the
vial from being smashed, but is too late. With a crash, the vial is
thrown to the floor and smashes into a thousand pieces, the
precious antidote splattering across the floor.

“Damn you!” Jiron curses as he lashes out
with his knife in anger.

Stephen cries out as the knife strikes his
chest and pierces his heart. Jiron kicks out with his foot,
knocking him off his knife. Eyes beginning to glaze over, he trips
over a chair behind him and hits the ground with a grunt. His blood
begins to spread across the floor as his life quickly leaves
him.

Jiron bends down over the spilled antidote
as Councilman Rillian begins to laugh. “Too late,” he cries out in
glee. “Without his magic, you’ll never get out of here alive.” He
pays no attention to the councilman’s words as the looks down at
the shattered remains of the vial. In the center of the shards, he
finds a small pool of antidote. Bending over, he dips his finger
into it, gathering as much as he can upon its tip.

Getting up, he moves quickly over to James’
side all the while trying not to allow the liquid to drip off his
finger. James opens his eyes as he inserts the antidote covered
finger inside his mouth. Once he’s felt James suck the antidote off
his finger, he says, “You okay now?”

James nods his head and says, “Better.” He
tries to sit up, but the spinning of the room causes him to fall
back down on the couch. “Not perfect, it seems.” The antidote
hasn’t reversed the effects of the poison completely. Hopefully it
won’t take longer than they have.

Just then, the door bursts open and they see
four men holding a wooden bench as a battering ram come through the
broken remnants of the door. The bench is dropped as one guard
kicks out with his foot and clears the remaining portion of the
broken door out of the way. Then the guards begin moving into the
room.

Jiron moves to Councilman Rillian’s side and
places a knife at his throat as he says, “Stop! Or he’s dead!”

The guards come to a quick stop, just feet
within the room. They take in the scene as the lead one says,
“Milord, are you okay?”

“I’m alive” the councilman assures him.

“Now,” Jiron says to the guards, “Get out or
I slit his throat.”

“Milord?” asks the guard as he looks to the
councilman.

“Stay right where you are,” he orders. “If
they kill me, then you kill them. Understood?”

“But…” the guard stammers.

“You heard me!” shouts Councilman
Rillian.

The guards glance among themselves and
remain where they are.

“I said leave the room!” Jiron hollers at
them.

James finds his head is becoming clearer by
the second. Whatever that stuff was that Jiron had given him seems
to be doing the trick.

From the hallway, a crossbow bolt flies
through the door past the guards in the room, and strikes Jiron in
the right shoulder. The force of it knocks him backward and away
from the councilman. He stumbles for a few feet before falling to
the floor.

“Kill him!” Councilman Rillian shouts.

The guards begin rushing forward. A lit
candle sitting upon a table before them suddenly flares up and a
roar can be heard as fire shoots in their direction, halting their
advance.

“It’s the mage on the couch!” he cries out,
indicating James with a nod of his head.

The guards see James sitting there on the
side of the couch and start to move toward him. The flame from the
candle becomes greater as it forms a fiery barricade between
them.

“Milord!” cries the lead guard, the heat
from the fire too hot for him to come any further into the
room.

Attempting to ignore the throbbing pain in
his shoulder, Jiron gets back up as he sees the flame from the
candle shoot out to block the guards. Leaving the councilman where
he is, he moves over to James.

“Can you walk?” Jiron asks him.

Nodding his head, he continues concentrating
on the flame as he moves it to force the guards back out of the
room. His head is still fuzzy, but is able to maintain the spell as
the antidote continues to remove the effects of the drug.

The temperature in the room is rising from
the heat of the flames. Everyone begins sweating and a nearby
candle begins to droop as the heat softens the wax.

Jiron checks Fifer who’s barely conscious.
With his shoulder the way it is, there’s no way he’ll be able to
carry him.

By directing the flame, James is able to
push the soldiers back out the door. A couple brave souls bear
burns from when they didn’t move back fast enough to avoid the
flame’s touch.

When the guards are all once more outside
the door, James erects a wall of force within the doorway which
prevents them from regaining the room. He extinguishes the flame
and then realizes he’s quite light headed and short of breath.
Thinking it’s the use of magic in his current state, he sits back
down.

Looking around, he realizes everyone in the
room is having a hard time breathing.
Oxygen! I used up most of
the oxygen in the room in sustaining the flame.
He gasps over
to Jiron, “Open the window, we’ve got to get some fresh air in
here.”

With the bolt still sticking out of his
shoulder, he makes his way over to the window and throws it open
wide. A breeze from outside begins circulating within the room
bringing much needed oxygen to its occupants.

The men behind the invisible wall pick up
the bench they used previously as a battering ram and begin
smashing it against the invisible wall. Each time the bench hits,
James feels a brief increase in the amount of power being used to
sustain it.

“Even with your magic, you’ll never make it
out of here,” Councilman Rillian warns.

“We’ll see,” James says to him. Turning to
Jiron he asks, “How’s the shoulder?”

Jiron gives him a look that says, ‘That’s a
dumb question’, and replies, “Hurts. But I’m not going to pull this
thing out until we’re out of here.”

“Good idea,” says James. “I suppose the
entire area is up in arms over this?”

Shaking his head, Jiron says, “Actually,
other than the men in the hallway, it looks like no one else even
knows what’s going on.”

“Really?” James asks as he turns his
attention over to Councilman Rillian.

“My men can handle the likes of you,” he
says confidently to James.

“I wonder,” he says as he moves over to the
window.

“What do you plan to do?” asks Jiron.

From his position on the couch, he replies,
“Maybe I’ll just let everyone know that we’re here.” Pausing a
moment, he says, “What do you say to that, milord?”

“What do I care what a bunch of thugs do?”
he states. “When they learn how you came in here and tried to force
me to help you open the gates for the Empire, you’ll get what’s
coming to you.”

“Oh, by the way,” Jiron says, “Miko said to
tell you that ‘One Eye’ is in the city. Said you’d understand.”

“He’s here?” he asks incredulously. Turning
on the councilman, he asks, “Is that why that army is sitting out
there waiting? For Korgan to open the gates like he did back at the
City of Light?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” he replies nonchalantly.

“If he’s here, we’ve got to get to Lord
Pytherian now,” James states matter-of-factly.

“And how are you to do that when you can’t
even get out of this room?” asks Councilman Rillian smugly.

“Like this,” replies James. Moving to the
window, he creates his orb and tosses it out, causing it to
increase in size as it slowly descends to the ground.

As soon as the orb passes through the
window, the soldiers below become aware of it. They back up as a
murmur begins to grow as more and more of the waiting escorts come
over to see what’s going on.

Once the orb is on the ground, he has it
flare to intense brilliance before disappearing abruptly. Framed in
the window, James looks out over the faces gazing up to him.
“Please inform Lord Pytherian that James is here and would like to
meet with him. And ask him to hurry!”

His words produce another round of muttering
and then one of the faces breaks off and runs for the castle.

“What are you doing up there?” demands one
of the faces.

“I’ll tell that to Lord Pytherian and Lord
Pytherian only,” James announces to the crowd.

James continues looking out over the crowd
and finally sees a group of people coming out of the castle’s
gates. Striding in front of them is Lord Pytherian himself. The
crowd of onlookers parts as they allow him to come before
James.

When he’s at last close enough to hear him
well, James says, “Greeting milord.”

“This is a strange way to come for a visit,”
Lord Pytherian says.

“Unavoidable, milord,” James replies from
the window. “If you would come up here with some of your own
guards, I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Very well,” he says. “I’m coming up.”

James watches as Lord Pytherian begins
moving toward the entrance of the building. He calls out to guards
in the area who fall into line behind him. The men he’d come from
the castle with begin to follow him as well, but he pauses a moment
to talk with them. When he again moves toward the building, they
remain in the courtyard. Once he’s moved out of view, James goes
over to a chair near Councilman Rillian and sags into it.

Jiron moves over to Fifer and attempts to
bring him back to consciousness with little success. The throbbing
from the bolt in his shoulder flares up periodically as he moves
around.

From where he sits in his chair, James
glances over to the councilman and is amazed at how calm he
appears. “Aren’t you worried?” he asks him.

“Not especially,” he says. “You are the
trespassers. You’re the ones who’ve spilled blood this night, not
I.”

“But you lured us here and drugged us,”
James accuses.

“It’s your word against mine,” he tells him.
“And who are the people here going to believe?”

Just then, the beating upon the invisible
wall blocking the doorway stops. James turns his attention to the
doorway and watches as the men there put the bench down and begin
backing away.

Lord Pytherian appears in front of the
doorway and James removes the invisible barrier. “It’s clear now,
milord,” James tells him.