She looks west and sees the rider coming and runs over to where the others are. Tinok has already gathered the horses and they all enter one of the larger buildings, bringing the horses inside. James and Jiron take position by the window and watch. The others hold the horses, trying to keep them as quiet as possible.
It’s not long before they hear the approaching riders. James watches as perhaps a score of riders make their way through the center of town, passing right in front of where they’re hiding.
“…the dead? Seems wrong,” they hear one of them say. The man speaks with the accent of one from the Empire.
“We don’t have time to take care of it now,” another one replies with the same accent.
As the riders pass by where they’re hiding, one of them glances over at the window they’re looking out. Ducking to the sides of the window, James and Jiron quickly move out of view. The man must not have seen them for he turns back and continues riding through town. Twenty riders in all pass by on their way through the town.
They wait for several minutes, allowing the riders to move further down the road before they exit the building. James peeks out and sees the riders have already ridden out of sight.
Seeing no one else on the road in either direction, he asks Delia, “Can we leave now?”
“I’m sorry for putting us in jeopardy,” she says a little guilty, “but I couldn’t leave without knowing.”
“We understand,” Jiron says, “but think before you act next time, our lives may depend on it. Okay?”
“Alright,” Delia says.
Once the horses have been brought back outside, they remount. Then with James in the lead, they head south out of town, making their way into the grasslands.
Several times during the afternoon, they have to make detours when riders appear in the distance. Each time they were sure they would be discovered, yet each time the riders continued on until they were again out of sight.
When the sun begins to dip toward the horizon, they are still out in the middle of the grasslands. They decide to make camp, forgoing a fire in favor of not alerting the countryside to their presence.
They quickly eat before the sun sets completely and picket the horses close by their camp, leaving the saddles on in case they need to leave quickly. Not good for the horses, but necessary.
“Do you think we’re catching them?” Cassie asks while they’re eating.
“Who?” James responds. “The slavers?”
Cassie nods her head and says, “Yes.”
“I would think so,” he answers, nodding his head. “They have lots of people walking while we’re riding, even though we are taking a more roundabout way we have to be gaining on them.”
They sit there in silence for the rest of their meal. When they’re done, they all settle down and get ready for sleep. James lies there and stares up at the sky as it continues to darken into full night.
“James?” he hears Delia say.
“Yeah?” he replies.
“Where’re you from?” she asks.
“A long ways from here and probably won’t be back for quite a while,” he replies. “Why?”
“Just curious is all,” she answers.
“Is everyone there mages?” Cassie asks.
“No, there are actually none there,” he says. “I may be the first.”
“You’re the first one I’ve ever met,” she says.
“Do I live up to your expectations?” he asks, amused.
“No,” she said, “you’re nice.”
James laughs then sobers up and asks, “Are all the mages here mean?”
Tinok says, “Most people believe them to be. All you ever hear about is how mages ruin things and hurt people. Seeing what you’ve already done, it’s not hard to understand why that is.”
“It’s all perspective,” James says, “plus most tales of how mages help won’t be believed and only the interesting ones are told again and again. Those tend to be the ones where they are not very nice.”
“Suppose you’re right,” he concludes.
“Maybe we should all be thinking about going to sleep,” Jiron’s voice cuts through the night. “We have lots of ground to cover and people to find.”
“You’re right,” James agrees. Turning over, he tries to find a comfortable spot on the ground. I hate sleeping on the ground! Eventually, he’s able to drift off to sleep.
The morning dawns beautifully and James wakes up stiff and aching due to another night spent on the hard ground. After getting up, he rummages through his backpack and comes up with some food for breakfast. While he eats he begins walking around the camp, trying to work the kinks out of his muscles.
It doesn’t take long before they’re all up, eaten, and ready to ride. Once everyone is mounted, they continue south, hoping to find where the slavers are heading. At one point during the morning, James takes out his compass and locates the general direction of where the slavers are. The needle points off to the southeast, more east than south. We’re gaining on them, he thinks to himself. Putting his compass away, he continues on, beginning to feel much better about the possibility of a rescue. Just hang on Miko.
They don’t travel much further before a running man appears from the east. Behind him, two fast moving riders are in hot pursuit, racing to intercept the man.
“We must help him,” Delia cries.
Jiron and Tinok glance at one another and with a cry, they kick their horses to a gallop as they ride to aid the fleeing man. James and the girls follow behind at a safer pace, keeping an eye to the east for any other pursuers.
One of the riders aims a crossbow at the fleeing man, and James sees the man’s pace falter as he’s struck by the crossbow bolt. Stumbling, he loses his balance and hits the ground.
The riders, so intent on the man they are chasing, they fail to notice Jiron and Tinok until they are practically upon them.
Riding straight for them, Jiron and Tinok jump from their horses and each grabs one of the men, dragging them to the ground. When they hit the ground, they roll and come to their feet quickly, knife blades flashing in the sun.
The two riders get to their feet quickly and draw their swords as the two teens advance upon them. James sees Jiron divert a thrust of the man’s sword and then strike with his other knife, dropping him to the ground. Tinok’s man is wielding a sword in one hand and a knife in the other and is pressing Tinok backward.
Tinok sees out of the corner of his eye that Jiron’s man is down and quickly begins a series of fast attacks. The pattern makes the man defend and through precisely timed and aimed attacks, causes him to leave a spot open where Tinok strikes, puncturing a lung.
The man stumbles backward and begins coughing up blood. Falling to his knees, he chokes on the blood filling his lungs. Unable to breathe, he soon falls to the ground, dead.
“Took you long enough,” Jiron says to Tinok as he wipes his blades on the dead man’s clothes.
Tinok just looks at him and they both start laughing.
Cassie by this time has made it to the man whom they were chasing, lying in a puddle of his own blood. The crossbow bolt must’ve struck an artery in his leg, for the blood is flowing from the wound quickly.
James comes over, and sees the amount of blood on the ground and when Cassie looks at him, just shakes his head, indicating there is nothing that they are going to be able to do for him.
“Thank you,” the man says when he sees them approach.
Cassie comes to him and asks kindly, “For what?”
“For letting me die a free man,” he tells her. He’s dressed in just a loincloth, the garb of a slave.
“Were you part of the people who were captured when the City of Light fell?” James asks. “We’re seeking friends who were taken by the Empire’s forces.”
“It fell?” the man asks incredulously. “Bad news indeed.” The man begins to get a glazed look in his eyes and his voice gets weaker. “They’ll probably be taken to Korazan, to t
he slave markets. That’s where I heard the slaver say we were being taken, before I escaped.”
“Korazan?” Jiron asks intently, “where is it?”
“Don’t know,” the man says, weakly, “somewhere to the south…I…think.” The man takes one last light breath and then death takes him.
“Poor man,” Delia says sadly.
“At least he didn’t die a slave,” Jiron says. “We should bury him before we go.”
“I agree,” Cassie says. She gets up and looks around until she finds a rock. Then she begins to scrape out a grave for the man. The others find rocks and sticks and before too long have a fair sized grave dug. Jiron and Tinok carry the man over to it and lay him respectfully within. They cover him with the excess dirt and when they are done, mount up and ride on.
“Korazan,” James says after they get going, “anyone heard of it?”
“No”, Delia replies, the other just shake their heads no.
“It must be within the Empire,” he guesses, “at least we have a destination now.”
“How do you know if they’re actually being taken there?” Cassie asks.
“Don’t,” James replies, “but it’s all we have to go on.”
The rest nod in agreement.
They continue on, eating in the saddle to save time. A couple more times before nightfall, they see riders off to the east. Angling more to the west each time to avoid being seen, they find themselves gradually being pushed more and more westward. By the time night begins to approach, they begin to be able to see the Silver Mountains off in the distance to the west.
“Didn’t realize we had been going so far westward,” James says when they stop for the evening.
“What do you mean?” Jiron asks.
He points over to the mountains in the west and says, “That’s the Silver Mountains, they run the length of the border between Cardri and Madoc.”
“Are we going away from Korazan?” Cassie asks him.
“Can’t say,” he explains, “since we have no idea where it is.”
“Oh, right,” she says a little embarrassed.
“But I would think that the further we are to the west, the less of the Empire’s soldiers we will encounter,” he reasons. “Of course, that assumes that the Empire and Cardri haven’t gone to war yet.”
“Think they have?” she asks.
“Doubt it,” he assures her. “The Empire probably has all it can handle with Madoc right now.”
“I hope so,” she says as they get settled in for the night.
Chapter Four
The morning dawns cloudy, a relief from the sun that had been beating down on them throughout the day before. It takes them little time to be ready to go and soon are off, heading south to find Korazan.
Throughout the morning hours, they are able to hold a fairly southern course, only once having to travel westward to avoid roving patrols. About midday they begin to see a large river flowing from the northwest to the southeast. It spans several hundred feet and runs deep.
As they approach the banks of the river, James looks both upriver and downriver but is unable to see any bridge that they may use to cross. There is also no place along the course of the river shallow enough to allow them to ford. He turns to the others and says, “It appears we have a problem.”
“Can’t we go down one way or the other until we find a way to cross?” Cassie asks.
“That’s what we’re going to end up having to do,” he replies. “The question is, should we go that way,” he says as he points upstream to the northwest, and then points downstream, “or that way?”
“If we go downstream, that will take us closer to Korazan,” Tinok says.
“And closer to the Empire’s forces,” Jiron concludes.
“It’s probably safe to say that any bridge to the east of us will be used by the Empire,” warns James, “possibly even guarded.”
“Then we go west?” Delia guesses.
“But how far will we have to go and will it take us too long to get back?” Jiron questions. “If we spend too much time going west and then have to backtrack, we may be too late to save Tersa.”
“Let’s go west for a day, and if we don’t find anything suitable, then we’ll turn around and go east,” offers Tinok.
“A day!” Jiron exclaims. “I’ll not waste two whole days when Tersa is being marched to the slave markets!” He looks around at everyone defiantly and says, “I go east! You can all do what you want!” He then turns his horse eastward and gallops away, not looking back to see if they are following.
Tinok looks to James and says, “I guess we go east.”
“It would appear that way,” he replies. They all turn their horses and gallop after Jiron.
They follow the river for several miles before a town begins to come into view along the river ahead of them. It sits on the north bank of the river and at the southern edge of town, a bridge spans the river. They see several figures moving in and around the town, plus several upon the bridge itself. They pause only a moment before turning back toward the west and ride until the town is once again out of sight behind them.
“That bridge would be perfect to get across,” James says. “But it looks as if there’s guards posted on it. I think we should wait for night and see if we can’t find a way to sneak across.”
Indicating Jiron and himself, Tinok says, “We can take out the guards before they even know we’re there.”
“But that would tell everyone that there are hostiles in the area,” James counters, “then they would be searching for us. If we can sneak across somehow,” pausing for effect, he looks at Tinok and says with emphasis, “without killing anyone, then we may be able to get further south before they even know we’ve been through here.”
“Can we sneak across?” Cassie asks.
“Won’t know until tonight,” James replies. “Let’s find a spot away from the river where we can have a bite to eat unobserved while we wait for dark.”
“Why do we have to move away from the river?” Cassie asks.
Sighing, James explains, “In the event that someone is traveling down the river, we don’t want them to alert those in the town as to our presence.”
“Oh,” she says.
They move about a half mile away from the river and find a spot near a hill that provides them some cover. They keep watch for anyone coming and remain undisturbed until night has fallen and they’re ready to make the attempt to cross the river.
Once night has deepened enough that the only light is that of the stars, they mount up and ride back toward the river. They follow it until the town’s lights appear and then come to a stop. Jiron says, “I’ll go and scout the town, then we can decide what to do.”
“Alright,” James agrees, “but be careful.”
He gives James a look that says, ‘Of course’, and then disappears in the night as he heads for town. Twenty minutes go by before they hear his return.
“Well?” James asks when he rejoins the group.
“Looks to be about twenty soldiers garrisoned there,” he explains, “with four on duty at the bridge and two walking patrol within the town itself. Most of the others are gathered in a tavern located near the center of town.”
“Is there a way to create a diversion that would draw off the guards at the bridge?” Tinok asks.
“Maybe setting fire to a building or two,” he says, “that may do it. Unless the guards at the bridge have an extraordinary sense of duty and remain there.”
“Most likely they are bored and would leave just to see what’s going on,” James suggests.
“Probably,” Jiron says. Looking to Tinok, he says, “Wanna come start some fires with me?”
“Every boy’s dream,” Tinok replies with a smile.
“Now make sure it looks like it could’ve been an accident, or the search may be on,” James cautions.
“Do the best we can,” Jiron says. “When we’re done, we’ll meet you back here.”
“Be careful,” Cassie says with concern.
“We will,” Jiron assures her, and then he and Tinok run off toward town.
James mounts his horse after some time passes and advises the girls to do the same, “We may need to be ready to move fast should they return with soldiers in pursuit.”
They sit on their horses and wait. “Where are they?” Cassie asks after an hour has gone by, concern in her voice.
“Don’t worry,” Delia assures her, “they’re just taking their time to make sure they are not caught.”
“I hope so,” Cassie says.
Me too, Delia says to herself as she watches the town for their return.
Suddenly, two shadows approach. “Get ready,” they hear Jiron say as he mounts his horse. Tinok mounts his as well.
They all sit and wait, but nothing happens.
“What did you do?” James asks.
“We found a stable where they had most of their horses,” Jiron explains. “A guard was there sleeping in a pile of hay, with a bottle of wine lying next to him.”
“Yeah,” Tinok says, chuckling a little. “We took one of the lanterns down, lit it and laid it beside him on the hay. The hay was just beginning to smolder as we left.”
“But he might burn to death!” Cassie gasps.
“Fortunes of war,” Jiron says, with little feeling.
“Besides, it’ll look like an accident,” Tinok explains. “It’ll look like he got drunk and was careless.”
“And with their horses in danger,” Jiron says, “they’ll want everyone to help with putting the fire out, which should draw the men off the bridge.”
“Let’s hope so,” James says.
Suddenly, from the north side of town, a reddish glow blossoms as the stable catches fire. Even from this distance they can hear the horses neighing in terror. From within the town, they hear the cry as the soldiers move to combat the fire and save their horses.
The men on the bridge turn and see the flames reaching high in the sky as the fire roars to life. As one, they race away from the bridge and head for the inferno at the stables.
“Now’s our chance,” James says, once the guards have left the bridge. Getting their horses moving quickly, they make their way toward the bridge and race across it to the other side without anyone raising the alarm.
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