“That’s not good,” he says, worried.
“I know. If they have those, what else can they have to throw at us?” James gives his friend a knowing look. Dave nods silently.
“We should stay here and rest,” Qyrll states. Everyone looks to him as he continues, “We haven’t had rest for two days and you two look dead on your feet. If the Empire should show up again, we’ll need to be at our best to survive.”
“Orlander’s bunch too,” adds Jiron.
“Exactly,” he agrees.
“It would probably be best to pass through Illion at night anyway,” says James. “Orlander may have people watching for us.”
Several heads, several tired heads nod in agreement. Breaking out what little rations the Empire’s men had on their horses, they have a quick, cold meal. Eating in silence, each ponders the events of the last several days and wonders just what may lie ahead for them.
After they’ve finished eating and Qyrll is set to take first watch, Miko suddenly asks, “Did you find out about Ironhold?”
“What?” asks James. Then understanding hits and he says, “Damn! I was there and forgot to ask.” He glances to Jiron who just shrugs with a slight grin.
“You going back?” Fifer asks.
“We have to know where it is,” he replies. “If anyone around here would know, it’ll be the Renlon’s. I mean they’re in the iron business and all.”
“True,” agrees Jorry.
“Do you think that’s wise?” asks Dave. At that, grumbling can be heard and ‘coward’ is mentioned by more than one. Giving them an annoyed glance, he looks to his friend.
“No,” James says, flashing the others a looks saying to knock it off. “But I have to get to Ironhold. Since we don’t know where it is, I have to go back and find out.”
“I see,” Dave replies with a worried expression. To him things seem to be spiraling out of control and he doesn’t wish to lose his only friend in this world.
“Let’s get some rest while we can,” Fifer says and they all settle down for sleep. Qyrll takes first watch and moves closer to the road where he can better keep an eye on those using it.
An hour into his watch, Qyrll hears horses coming up the road from the direction of Illion. Hunkering down lower behind a large bush, he watches as seven horsemen gallop past on their way up to the pass. From his vantage point, they don’t look like soldiers from the Empire. He figures they may be part of that bunch with Orlander James had told them about. They’re soon out of sight and the sound of their hooves becomes fainter until finally disappearing.
Chapter Twenty Five
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Securing their horses near the outskirts of Illion they slowly make their way into town, all the while keeping alert for any who may be looking for them.
James, Miko and Fifer walk at a steady pace in an attempt to avoid attracting attention. The others are waiting further from town along the road to the pass for their return. It had been decided for James to take Miko and Fifer with him instead of Jiron this time. Jiron had complained but Fifer told him that Orlander will be looking for two men, not three. Also, Jiron may be recognized which could only confound the situation.
James pulls the hood of the cloak tighter around his head to keep his face from being seen clearly. Though it’s dark he doesn’t want to take the chance. Before they left the others, Qyrll had given him his cloak saying it would help him to avoid being spotted.
As they pass through the streets, they take notice of a crowd gathered around a man standing next to a building ahead of them, bathed in the light of a nearby lantern.
“War is coming!” the man cries.
“We know that,” one man replies.
James slows as they come near the crowd. The man looks like some crazy guy, like one of those who would stand on the street corner in those old movies and hold signs saying ‘Repent!’
The crowd seems more amused by the man than actually taking him seriously. “The Empire isn’t moving any further until spring,” another says to him. “We have awhile before we need worry about them.”
“The Empire is but the finger of the true enemy!” he cries to the crowd. “He shall rain fire down and all will be consumed.” Gesticulating wildly, he begins rocking from one foot to the other.
“James,” Miko says.
Suddenly coming back to himself, James realizes he stopped in the middle of the street. “Sorry,” he says as he resumes his way down the street.
“The ground will burn and dark shadows will walk the night,” the man cries. “They will feast upon the living until none survive!”
A chill runs down James’ back as the man mentions shadows. A memory comes to him of another place where shadows had walked in a fire blackened forest. Coming to a stop again, he turns toward the crowd.
“We can’t stop here,” Fifer warns, glancing down both directions. So far, no one seems to be paying their group any attention.
Not heeding his words, James moves closer to the wild man. Miko and Fifer glance to each other in concern and move to follow.
“You’re a nut!” one lady exclaims to the laughter of the others.
“Go away and tell your tales of doom elsewhere,” another hollers to him.
James reaches the edge of the crowd and begins making his way through to the front.
“We must fight him!” the wild man cries out. “We must drive him back!” He suddenly stills his frantic motion and his voice becomes all but inaudible as he says with quiet intensity, “But it’s not by the sword that he will be turned aside.”
The crowd guffaws at him and other insults are cast at him as James reaches the leading edge of the crowd. “What are we to do?” he asks the man.
Specks of foam form at the corners of his mouth as the man’s eyes turn to him. “The temple must rise,” he says, so quietly that James almost can’t make out the words.
“What temple?” he asks, heart pounding.
Then madness seems to take him as he cries out, “The temple must fall! Else all will be lost!”
“James!” exclaims Miko as he grabs his shoulder.
The crowd begins to scream as several armed men approach with swords in hand. James turns to find Orlander, along with six other men coming toward him. That’s when he realizes his hood had fallen off while he was listening to the wild man.
“You’re dead!” Orlander screams as he and the others race forward.
“Come on!” Miko cries as he turns James and propels him away.
Racing away, he turns to glance one more time to the wild man but the man is nowhere in sight. Must have been scared off by Orlander and his bunch.
“Which way?” Miko asks as they run down the street.
The wild man forgotten, James is now more concerned about losing their pursuers. “Renlon’s are off that way,” he says indicating to the far side of town. “But I don’t want to involve them.” Suddenly, a flash of light bursts into life far above them for a brief moment before disappearing.
“What was that?” asks Fifer.
“Just letting Jiron and the others know we need help,” he says as they turn around a corner and race down the main thoroughfare of Illion.
People are on the street and they receive many words of protest as they race through them, at times knocking people over or items out of their hands. Behind them, the crowd parts quickly when they see Orlander’s group hot on their tail.
“Blast them James,” Miko cries out.
“Too many innocents around,” he says. “I dare not.”
Ahead of them is an intersection where another main street crosses the one they’re on. To the left would lead them to Renlon’s Iron so James turns to the right and moves onto the new street.
Suddenly from out of the crowd on the street, a porter carrying several boxes appears before him and he crashes into the man. Boxes flying everywhere, James and the man go crashing down to the street.
Miko and Fifer in their haste move past before the
y even realize what’s happened. When they do, they come to a stop and return to him just as Orlander and his bunch show up.
James pulls out a rock from his pocket as he and the others ready to meet the charge. Then from behind Orlander’s group, several horses appear in the intersection they had just left. Another starburst in the sky and the horsemen turn to race their way.
“No tricks are going to save you this time,” Orlander says as he readies his sword and advances upon him. He takes three steps forward before he hears the thunder of the hooves approaching from behind. Turning, he sees Jiron and the rest bearing down fast. Lurching to the side, he moves out of their way a split second before they would’ve run over him.
Jiron reaches down a hand to James who swings up onto the horse behind him. Qyrll grabs Fifer and Uther takes Miko. They fly down the street away from Orlander. Glancing back, James sees him picking himself off the ground and staring at him, hate in his eyes.
At the next intersection, he signals Jiron to come to a stop. “I still need to talk to the Renlon’s.”
Nodding, he says to the others, “Go back and get their horses, James and I are going back.”
“Are you mad?” Dave asks from his position next to them. “They’ll kill you!”
“Not now Dave,” James tells him. To everyone he says, “Meet us east of town in half an hour or less.”
“We’ll be there,” Fifer tells him.
As the others begin leaving, Dave hesitates. “Go on Dave,” James tells him. “Stay with the others, I’ll be alright.”
Not happy about the situation, Dave turns his horse and gallops after the others.
“Let’s make this fast,” he tells Jiron.
Turning down a side street, they angle their way quickly around town until the complex of Renlon’s Iron appears before them. The whole place looks deserted for the evening save for a single light coming from the window of the office building where he met them the last time.
Coming to a stop before the door, James gets down and says, “Don’t go anywhere.”
Chuckling, Jiron replies, “That’s a dumb thing to say.”
James flashes him a grin and nods. Moving to the door, he opens it and passes through to the other side.
The older Renlon is sitting at the desk as he was the last time. Looking up, his eyes widen is surprise when he sees him come in. “James!” he exclaims coming to his feet. “What are you doing back here?”
Dispensing with the pleasantries, he asks, “Ever heard of a place called Ironhold?”
“Ironhold?” he asks. “What makes you ask about that?”
“I need to find it,” he explains. “Do you know where it is?”
“Sure,” he says. “Just follow the north road out of town and you’ll run right into it.”
“Thanks,” says James as he turns to leave.
“Just a minute,” the senior Renlon says.
Pausing, James turns back and says, “I haven’t much time.”
Nodding, he replies, “I heard about Orlander’s tavern, bad business that. You do that?”
“Yeah,” he says. “Didn’t mean to, things just sort of got out of hand.”
“Heard he wants you in a bad way.” Looking at him with a worried expression he asks, “He didn’t follow you here did he?”
Shaking his head, James says, “I don’t think so.”
“Good, we don’t need that headache,” he replies. Returning to his seat behind the desk he motions for James to sit in the chair opposite him. “About Ironhold,” he begins. “Just what takes you there?”
“Can’t really explain,” is all the answer he’s willing to give.
He looks at him for a moment before saying, “It’s the northern most town in Madoc, situated in the pass leading to the northern kingdoms. Used to be a mining town, been there for as long as I remember. They say it’s haunted.”
“Haunted?” James asks.
“That’s right,” he says, nodding. “Over the last century or so there have been those who have tried to bring those mines back in service. But every time something happens and the project fails.”
“Like what?” he asks.
“Last time the miners claimed apparitions of those who have died in the mines before appeared. Scared them bad and they left. Other times ore carts are found broken apart, things come up missing. I even heard one time several miners disappeared for several days only to be found wandering around in the forest days later.”
“The whole place is cursed,” he warns. “You might wish to reconsider going there.”
James sits there a moment as he digests what he just heard. Then he says, “Nevertheless, I have to go.”
Getting to his feet, the senior Renlon says, “Then be careful.”
“I will,” replies James as he, too, gets to his feet. “I appreciate the warning.”
The door opens and Jiron’s head pops in. “James, we’ve got to go.”
“Be right there,” he says. Turning back he holds his hand out as he says, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Renlon says, shaking his hand.
Moving quickly to the door, he joins Jiron outside and they mount. He turns to the sound of the door opening and waves to the senior Renlon standing there as Jiron kicks the horse into motion and they bolt away into the night.
As soon as they leave Renlon’s Iron, they turn and ride around the edge of town until they meet up with the others on the eastern side. “Any trouble?” asks Fifer.
Shaking his head, James replies, “No.” He dismounts from behind Jiron and moves over to mount his own steed.
“Did you find out what you wanted to know?” Dave asks.
“Yes I did,” he says. “If we follow the north road out of town, we’ll come right to it.”
“Excellent,” Uther states. “How far is it?”
James’ enthusiasm dampens somewhat when he replies, “I forgot to ask.”
“No matter,” interjects Jiron. “We know where it lies.”
They get their horses in motion and circumvent the town until they reach the north road then turn to follow it. James doesn’t inform them about the strange occurrences at the mines. He figures they have enough to worry about right now. Besides, they could be the overactive imagination of miners left too long alone. Somehow that idea doesn’t bring him any consolation.
Riding through the night, they decide to put many miles behind them before they stop and rest until morning. The road moves through the foothills for the first couple of hours but then finally leaves them behind as it moves into open plains. No inns in sight, they pull off the road and make a camp some ways from the road.
Bellies grumbling from lack of food, they settle into their blankets. The stars are bright overhead which on the one hand is good as there’ll be no rain. But bad on the other as what warmth there is in the air will be gone by morning, escaping back into space.
In the morning as the sun breaks over the horizon, they awaken to find frost covering the grass and their breath fogs in the cold air of a fall morning. Shivering, they break camp and return to the road.
“I’m starving,” complains Dave as they make the road and turn to follow it north.
“We all are,” assures James. “We’ll get something to eat at the next town.”
“If there is a next town,” he hears his friend grumble under his breath.
Sighing, James rolls his eyes and tries not to worry about his friend. Frankly he has too much on his mind. He worries whether or not Orlander will be coming after him, if the Empire has more forces in the area, not to mention those creatures.
Also on his mind is what that crazy guy back in Illion had said. The temple must rise. Then he went and contradicted himself by saying the temple had to fall. He would completely dismiss it if it weren’t for the other things the man had said about shadows and fire. He could’ve been just a crazy man and his ramblings nonsense, but he doesn’t think so. And finally ahead of them is a place he’s been told str
ange occurrences have been happening for some time. Altogether too much to worry about.
Dave rides next to him as does Miko, one on either side. Two hours after leaving camp, a farmstead appears off to their right, quite a ways off the road. People are seen working the fields around it, probably bringing in the last of whatever crop they had.
“Fifer,” he says coming to a stop. “Take Miko and go over there to see if we can buy some food.” He pulls out the pouch he acquired at Orlander’s and removes some coins which he hands to Fifer.
“Sure,” he says, taking the coins. He and Miko then leave the road and begin making their way to the homestead.
James sits there with the others as they watch them approach. When the farmers notice them approaching, they hurry from the fields to the house. Fifer and Miko come to a stop near the house and look to be talking with the locals. After a few moments, one of them is seen going to the house and returning with several sacks and gives them to Miko. Several more words are exchanged before they turn about and return to the others.
As they approach, he sees Miko giving him a big smile as he holds up one of the sacks the farmers gave him. “We got food!” he exclaims once they’re close enough.
“Should be enough for a day or two,” Fifer says.
“Good,” says Dave coming forward.
Miko begins handing out some bread, cheese and dried beef to the others before they resume their northward trek. Once everyone has their share, James is gratified to see that the sacks still contain quite a bit of food.
They continue on for the rest of the day, the sun doing little to warm them. A cold breeze feels like it’s blowing down off the mountain. “Might be an early snow,” Uther announces at one point.
“Let’s hope it holds off until we get back over the mountains,” Jorry says.
“Amen to that,” James adds.
The proximity of the mountains probably has a lot to do with the drop in temperature. Of course a cold northern could be on its way down to make life a misery for the travelers. Either way, they pull their jackets closer together and do their best to keep warm.
The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five Page 32