James reaches into his backpack and brings out the package bearing the seal of the Archive Custodian. He hands it to the officer.
The officer takes it, examining the package as well as the seal and then hands it back. “Okay, so you have a package bearing the seal of the Royal Custodian, but there is no proof that you are the couriers.”
“Well, no, that’s true,” James admits. “But I assure you that we are.”
Miko nods agreement.
“I don’t have the time or the manpower to deal with you right now,” says the officer, “so I will take you at your word. A spy from the Empire would have a more plausible reason for being here than that. Now,” he continues, looking intently at James, “on your way from the Pass, did you see anything of the Empire’s forces?”
Nodding, James tells him of seeing the columns of men they saw before leaving the river.
“Damn,” the officer exclaims, “we were hoping they hadn’t moved that far yet. What else?”
His men crowd around to hear what James has to say. “We ran into people fleeing the fall of a town called Pleasant Meadows,” he tells them, though leaving out the part he played in their escape. At the mention of Pleasant Meadows, several of the officer’s men curse and James can see anger and sadness appear on many faces.
“And then not too long ago we saw another army heading northeast,” he adds.
“Dire news indeed,” he says. “You may go on your way, though be careful. If Pleasant Meadows is taken then they are most likely continuing up the road to the City.” Pointing east the officer says, “They will be using the road due east of here, so if I were you I would make almost due north and hope to swing around them.”
“Thank you sir,” James says, and then looks over to Miko’s horse that’s lying on the ground, in great pain. “What about our horse?” he asks the officer.
The officer looks over at the horse and then gives a signal that’s followed by two crossbow bolts striking the horse, one in the head and the other in the chest, bringing an end to its pain. “Hate seeing a horse suffer so,” he says. Then to James he continues, “Can’t spare one for you, sorry. You’ll just have to make due with what you have.”
He signals his men and then mounts up. “Good luck,” he says to them before he and his men ride off toward the south at a gallop.
“Grab our stuff;” James tells Miko. “We’ll have to ride double, at least until we can acquire another horse.”
Miko collects the few bags he had on his horse and takes them over to James’ where he secures them behind the saddle. James mounts, then reaches down a hand and Miko swings up behind him. “Still better than walking, eh?” he says as they begin heading northward.
“A little bit,” Miko replies. “How far do you think the City is from here?”
“I’ve no clue,” says James. “Maybe a couple days, more if we have to detour around any of the Empire’s forces.”
They make good time, even riding double. The ground continues leveling off until it’s fairly flat, with tall grass swaying in the summer breeze. They continue their course for another two hours when they see an unusually large congregation of birds off to the east. Curious, James angles eastward to take a closer look.
There they find around fifty of the Empire’s forces, dead and bloating in the sun. The birds squawk and take to the air as they come near. The smell of rotting corpses is nauseating so they keep their distance.
“Looks like the Empire took a beating here,” says James.
“Good!” Miko exclaims. “Serves them right.”
They circle the field of battle for a ways but fail to find anyone other than the Empire’s men. “Either Madoc was really fortunate or they took their dead with them,” James reasons.
“Yeah,” Miko agrees, “the losers tend to stay where they fall unless their rotting corpses will bother someone.”
Not seeing anything of interest, James once more turns and makes speed northward.
During the ride, Miko eventually nods off, head lying against James’ back. He begins to dream of his life before James when he lived on the street and had no one to trust. In some ways he’s glad to be gone from there, but in others he misses his old life. No one was ever trying to kill him, at least not seriously.
Deep in a dream about he and a friend filching fruit from a merchant’s stand, he’s suddenly startled out of his reverie by the sudden motion of James jerking his arm forward. “What’s going on?” he asks sleepily.
James points off to the right where he had dropped a rabbit with one of his stones. “I figured it was time for dinner,” he explains. Then he breaks out in a smile as he adds, “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Wasn’t sleeping,” Miko exclaims defensively, “just thinking is all.”
James grins knowingly. “Let’s take a short break and cook us some dinner,” he says.
Miko nods and swings down, James following right after. While James gets the rabbit ready for dinner, Miko makes a fire from some of the dried grass and small sticks in the area.
James watches him as he begins putting the fuel for the fire together and says, “Make sure you have a bare area around the fire, we don’t want to start a wildfire.”
“Wildfire?” Miko asks.
“If you catch some of the grass on fire, the wind can blow it along and before you know it the entire grassland is aflame,” he explains.
“I’ll be careful,” says Miko as he strikes flint making a spark and then blows gently to coax it into a flame. When he gets a small flame going, he gradually adds more fuel until a sizable blaze is burning.
James notices with worry at the smoke rising like a signal to all in the area that they are there. “We better eat fast and leave before someone comes to see what this fire is all about,” he says.
Miko glances up and sees the smoke rising like a beacon, “Should I put it out?” he asks.
“No, just use the driest grass you can find and that should minimize the amount it emits,” James replies. “Besides, we need to eat or we’ll be too weak to defend ourselves in an emergency.”
James finds a fair sized stick and impales the rabbit upon it, using it as a skewer to cook the rabbit over the fire. When the rabbit is done, he quickly extinguishes the fire by kicking dirt over it until the smoke stops.
They eat in silence, all the while keeping watch for anyone approaching. Once finished, they remount and proceed on again, riding quickly until it gets too dark to see. They make camp, staking the horse out near them.
“We’ll take turns keeping watch tonight,” James says.
“Alright,” agrees Miko. “Do you want me to go first?”
“No, I’m not that tired,” he replies. “You go ahead and sleep. I’ll wake you when it’s your turn.”
Miko settles in and is soon asleep.
James lies back and watches the stars overhead, marveling how different they are from the ones at home. At midnight he wakes Miko for his turn.
“Now don’t fall asleep,” he tells Miko who seems to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open.
“Don’t worry,” Miko assures him, as he stifles a yawn, “you just get some sleep.” He then gets up and begins pacing around the camp, keeping himself awake.
James lies down and listens to Miko’s steps for a few minutes before sleep takes him.
As the sky begins to brighten, James awakens to find Miko asleep a few feet away. Shaking his head, he goes over and nudges him in the side with his foot. “Wakey, wakey sleepyhead,” he says as Miko begins to stir.
Miko’s eyes shoot open and he sits up quickly, “I fell asleep!”
“Yes you did,” James says to him. “Luckily nothing happened, this time. Let’s get going.”
Feeling bad, Miko gets the horse ready and soon they are once again mounted and making good time northward.
They keep alert for others on the plains and once during the late morning have to veer more to the north when they encounter a force over three h
undred strong marching from the southeast. They push the horse hard for a short time to put distance between them and only slow down to a canter again once the forces vanish from sight.
They again come across forces on the move in the afternoon, but this time they are moving from the northwest going generally eastward. “Must be reinforcements on their way to the City of Light,” observes Miko.
“I think you are right,” James agrees. “Still, let’s give them a wide berth, we don’t want to be mistaken for the Empire again.”
They backtrack half a mile before proceeding to the northwest for another two miles. Once they figure they have put Madoc’s army behind them they again turn more easterly. Moving quickly, they press on for several more hours.
When the sun begins to dip toward the horizon, a great body of water appears to the east. A road runs along the shoreline upon which many people are coming from the south. Most are on foot while some ride in wagons or pull carts. Those on foot carry bundles while the wagons and carts are filled to overflowing with belongings.
Coming to the road, James inquires of one traveler, “Where are you all coming from?”
The man looks up at James with a face totally lacking in hope or joy, “The City of Light,” the man replies despondently.
“It’s fallen already?” James asks him in shock.
Shaking his head, the man says, “No, at least not when I left. But those you see here didn’t want to stay and be there when the Empire besieges it.”
“It’s certain then that they are heading to the City?” he asks.
“That’s the rumor,” the man replies.
“Then the Empire hasn’t reached the City yet?” James asks anxiously.
“I don’t think so,” he says. “They said our army was going to engage them in the field before they can reach the city. With our allies and mercenaries, they hope to stop them before they get that far.”
“How far is the City from here?” James inquires.
“It’ll probably take you a day with your horse,” he replies. “I’ve been on the road two days, heading for relatives up north.”
“Thank you for your help,” James tells the man.
The man nods and then continues on his way.
“Still a ways to go,” Miko says.
James nods and turns his head to say, “But at least we’re close, and unlikely to run into the Empire’s forces along the way. Unless they are already besieging the City of Light by the time we get there.”
“Let’s get as much distance behind us as we can before dark,” Miko suggests.
“Good idea,” James replies. He looks at the sinking sun and says, “We probably only have a couple of hours left anyway.”
Bringing the horse to a canter, they quickly make their way down the road. The other travelers on the road are all going in the opposite direction, they are the only ones foolish enough to be going south. James and Miko have little trouble making their way through the people, most move aside when they see them coming.
Once the sun is close to the horizon they stop and make camp near the water’s edge amidst a group of trees. James takes a long stick found near a tree and wades out into the lake and returns with a fish for dinner.
Both are ravenous as they haven’t had anything to eat since the rabbit the night before. Once the fire is going well and the fish is cooking over the flames, they sit back and in the fading light watch the people on the road as they pass by. A few glance in their direction but none approach.
After they eat, James has Miko take first watch tonight. When asked why he replies, “Maybe you’ll stay awake better if you take first watch.”
Miko sits with his back against a tree and sets his mind to not falling asleep again this night.
Seeing that Miko understands he continues, “Wake me around midnight, sooner if you think someone is approaching.”
Nodding his head, Miko says, “You can count on me.”
“I hope so,” James says. “Don’t let me down.”
“I won’t,” he replies. “You just get some sleep. I’ll stay alert and keep the fire going.”
Lying down, James contemplates again the wisdom of going to a city that will most likely be under siege shortly. He feels that this is something he must do, though it scares him to death. Get in, get out, he tells himself as he drifts off to sleep.
“James! Wake up!”
Startled out of sleep, he bolts upright and quickly looks around the campsite. Miko is sitting by the tree where two men are holding him, one with a knife to his throat. A third man is coming toward him, a longsword in hand.
“Stay right there,” the man approaching him says, “and your friend won’t get hurt.”
James sits still and the man slows his pace once he sees that he is cooperating.
“Lim, get the horse,” he says to one of the two men holding Miko, while still continuing to approach James.
Lim releases Miko and walks over to the horse. The other man remains with Miko, his knife held to the boy’s throat.
The man with the longsword comes toward James and raises the point of his sword to rest against James’ chest. He then says, “Give me all your gold.”
James removes his coin pouch and hands it over to the man who opens it and looks inside. Smiling at the coins and gems he sees in there, he says over to his partners in glee, “Looks like we hit the jackpot this time!”
They both grin and laugh at their good fortune.
James begins to concentrate and forms a spell, then releases the magic. From the direction of the lake behind him, a squishing sound begins to be heard as if someone was walking in boots full of water. From out of the darkness lurches a slow moving glistening, shimmering form roughly man shaped.
The man guarding Miko sees it first and lets out with a cry of fear.
The man with the longsword looks up from examining the contents of the pouch and sees it approaching. Letting out a startled cry he backs away as it approaches, not realizing that he has just removed the sword from in front of James’ chest.
James waits until the man has backed up several feet then quickly bends over and picks up a stone. In one fluid motion he arcs his arm back and then throws it at the one guarding Miko. Distracted by the sight of the water creature the man fails to see it coming and the stone pierces his chest. The light in his eyes quickly vanishes as he slumps to the ground dead.
Rolling away from the man with the longsword, James puts distance between them, all the while maintaining his concentration on the creature. It continues its advance, steadily closing the gap.
Eyes wide in fear, the man raises his sword and strikes at the creature but it has little effect. The sword simply passes right through the water.
Seeing one of his partners lying dead on the ground and another battling a creature that is unaffected by the sword, Lim screams in terror and races off into the night, leaving his partner to his fate.
The man turns to run just as the water creature lurches forward and touches him on the arm. Unable to break the contact, the man watches in horror as the water from the creature begins to spread along his skin, moving to envelope his entire body in a thin layer of water.
Miko stares in awe as the man becomes completely cocooned by the creature. Gasping for air, the man’s mouth opens in a vain attempt to breathe. Water from the creature instead flows into his lungs and he starts to spasm as he chokes. Finally his eyes roll up in his head and collapses to the ground.
When he hits the ground, the water from the creature loses its integrity and splashes off him, running along the ground.
Gasping from the exertion of having maintained such a spell, James almost passes out but somehow retains consciousness.
Miko comes over and closely examines the man killed by the water creature. He turns to James and exclaims, “He’s dead!”
Nodding, James sits there and tries to keep the world from spinning.
Miko takes back James’ pouch from the man’s hand and bri
ngs it over to him. “The other one fled into the night,” he tells him.
“That’s okay,” says James. “I doubt if he’ll be back anytime soon.”
“What was that thing?” he asks.
“I suppose you could call it a cross between a water elemental and the blob,” James replies. “It’s something I cooked up a while back for a game a friend and I used to play. It was almost more than I could control though, it kept trying to lose cohesion and break apart.”
“Whatever it was, it sure was impressive,” Miko says. He starts to chuckle, “It sure scared the hell out of them.”
James smiles back, “That was the idea.” He lies back and can feel himself beginning to slip back into sleep. “Miko, you’re going to have to keep watch till morning,” he tells him, yawning. “I’m not going to be able to stay awake.”
“That’s okay, James,” he says. “You go ahead and rest, I doubt if I could sleep now anyway.”
James closes his eyes and quickly falls asleep.
Miko drags the dead men out of camp but not before going through their pouches and removing anything of value. Once the camp is clear of dead bodies, he begins walking around and manages to stay awake until morning.
Chapter Twenty Four
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The following morning, James wakes with a terrific headache and a mouth as dry as a desert. He discovers Miko still to be awake and had remained so throughout the night.
Upon seeing James rise, Miko brings the water bottle over with some berries gathered earlier that morning from nearby bushes. “Feeling okay?” he asks his friend, concerned.
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