they get out.
“Could be,” he replies, staring at the men in the distance. “Hard to tell from here.”
“I think it would be wise to assume they are the Empire’s for now,” James suggests. “We better leave the river and head overland.”
Miko takes the bags from the boat as he says, “Yeah, let’s hurry and get out of here.” When the bags are situated about his person, he looks back at the soldiers and asks, “Wonder where they’re going?”
“Don’t know, but we better find some horses soon or we’ll never get ahead of them and beat them to the City of Light.” Picking up his backpack, he slings it across his shoulder and sets out to the northeast, angling slightly more north than east to begin putting distance between them and the soldiers.
As they walk James scans the ground and gathers several fair sized stones, placing them in his pocket.
Miko sees what he’s doing and asks, “Expecting trouble?”
“Never know,” he replies as he bends over to pick up another, “but it’s best to be prepared.”
“Wish I still had my crossbow,” Miko says, thinking of the crossbow left under the stairs with the rest of their things in the abandon keep.
Nodding, James hurries them along.
They travel for no more than half an hour when dozens of people appear on the horizon ahead of them. Some are running but all are making the best speed they can. Several have small children in tow, others are burdened with bundles either tied to their backs or carried in their arms.
“Must be refugees fleeing from another town the Empire has taken,” James guesses. “Or is about to.”
“What’ll we do?” asks Miko, obviously concerned seeing as how the refugees are heading their way.
Coming up behind the fleeing people and riding hard to overtake them are six riders wielding clubs. As the riders reach the stragglers, they strike them in the head with their clubs, felling them. Then they leave them where they lie as they race to the next fleeing refugee.
Behind the riders roll three wagons, each trailing a line of naked people, both men and women of varying age. Out in front of each wagon walk two people who, when they come to a felled refugee, start slapping or hitting them until they regain consciousness. Once they’ve regained consciousness, they are pulled to their feet, stripped of their clothes and then have their hands tied behind them. After that they are taken and added to the line of naked people behind the wagon.
“Slavers!” James says in disgust. He stands there watching them for a moment as a woman carrying a baby gets struck in the head. As the woman falls, the baby goes flying out of her arms and strikes the ground where it begins crying piteously. The mother doesn’t lose consciousness and crawls over to her baby, wrapping her arms protectively around it. In a vain attempt at escape she attempts to crawl away. When the wagon comes, one of the men pulls the baby out of her arms. James can hear the woman’s scream as she tries to hang onto her child. The man strikes her across the face with his fist and rips the baby from her arms. With the mother’s pleas falling on deaf ears, the man returns to the wagon and hands the baby to someone inside. He then returns to the wailing woman, and dragging her by the hair, takes her to the rear of the slave line trailing behind the wagon. There she is stripped and put in line with the others.
“James!” Miko says as he pulls on his arm insistently, “we have to get out of here!”
Shaking his head, James says, “No.” He turns his head to look at Miko and says, “You don’t have to stay.” Turning back toward the oncoming horsemen, he reaches inside his pouch and grabs several of the stones he collected and holds them in his left hand. He then takes one in his right and starts walking toward the horsemen.
“Crap!” he hears Miko say behind him as the boy follows him into battle.
One of the horsemen is fast approaching a man who is carrying a bundle on his back. The man looks back and sees the horseman almost upon him. Tossing the bundle aside, he breaks into a run. The horseman closes with him and raises his club to bludgeon the man to the ground. Suddenly, something strikes him in the chest, going through the leather armor he’s wearing and blasting out the back. He looks at his chest for a moment in disbelief before toppling off his horse, hitting the ground dead.
Another horseman sees his partner fall and cries out alerting the other riders. He hooks his club to the saddle then draws his sword as he pauses, looking around for whoever it was that killed his partner. Seeing James standing defiant when everyone else is fleeing, he kicks his horse and charges straight at him, sword raised to cut him in half.
James cocks his arm and lets fly another stone, striking the charging rider through the forehead and blasting out the back of his head. Like a limp rag doll, the rider falls from his horse.
“Miko,” James says over his shoulder while indicating the horses of the fallen riders, “grab the horses, we’ll need them. Also search the dead riders for valuables or any papers.” Not looking to see whether or not Miko is doing what was asked of him, his attention remains focused on the four riders racing toward him, swords raised.
James concentrates and then lets the magic flow.
Crumph!
The ground under two of the charging riders erupts, throwing debris, horses and riders into the air.
James turns to the remaining two riders who are almost upon him and throws another stone, catching one in the chest, creating a hole as it passes through. James jumps to one side, rolling on the ground when the remaining rider strikes down at him with his sword. He feels its passing as it comes within inches.
The rider turns and tries to trample him with his horse’s hooves as he lies there on the ground.
James rolls out of the way quickly and then tries to stand up when one of the horse’s hooves clips him in the side of the head, knocking him down, causing the world to spin wildly.
He rolls on his back and sees a blurry horseman with sword raised, ready to finish him off. Sure that his time has come, James is surprised when two other blurry shapes jump up and grab the rider, pulling him off the horse.
Another blurry shape comes over and asks, “James? You okay?”
“Yeah,” he replies as he sits up, recognizing Miko’s voice. “The horse clipped me in the head. Be okay in a few minutes, I hope.”
“Thank you!” a woman cries as she kneels down, putting her arms around James and giving him a big hug.
As his vision begins to clear and becomes steady, he sees many people around him, all trying to express their gratitude. That’s when he realizes they were the people fleeing the oncoming slavers. Miko is standing there with two horses, smiling broadly.
The two riders who had been knocked off their horses by the erupting ground have been torn to pieces by the refugees. Several people are walking toward him from the dead bodies, each wielding a bloody knife or stick.
“We need to free the people in the slave lines behind the wagons,” he says as he tries to get up.
“Already being taken care of,” a man says as he points to four horses racing toward the wagon. Riding each is a man who earlier had been fleeing for his life. Now with a sword in their hands and vengeance in their hearts they ride to free their neighbors and friends. Others are following on foot to give what aid they can.
James regains his feet and looks around at all the faces. Some smiling but many have seen too many horrors to ever smile again. “Where are you from?” he asks.
“Pleasant Meadows,” answers one woman. “It’s further downstream where the road crosses the river. The Empire was seen last night heading in our direction and the whole town fled in every direction.” She looks at James and says, “I guess we were fortunate to flee this way.”
Many people around her nod their head in agreement.
James looks off toward the wagons and sees that two of them have already been liberated, the people in the slave lines being untied and led this way. The four riders are closing fast with the remaining wagon, engaging the two men on foot as they try to make a stand. One of the riders is struck and James sees him fall from his horse while the remaining riders strike and kill the last of the enemy.
“You better make as best time you can before the Empire sends scouts out this way and discovers what has happened,” James says. “If you follow the river toward the mountains, you’ll find an encampment of soldiers at the beginning of the Pass, they look to be friendly. You definitely don’t want to be here when the Empire shows up.”
James motions to Miko and he brings over the horses, giving him one. James swings up on the horse and
