As James enters, Jiron says, “Time to leave?”
“I would think so,” James replies. They come out of her cell just as the doorway at the end of the hallway slams open. The officer strides in to see what the commotion is all about. He comes to a sudden stop when he sees the guard lying before him on the floor unconscious. Looking down the hallway, his eyes widen when he sees their cell doors open and them out of their cells, two with knives that are red with blood. He begins yelling as he quickly turns and exits the hallway, returning back to the front room. Even though James can’t understand what he’s saying, he has a pretty good idea.
“Jiron,” he says, “give Tinok your knife, quick!”
When Tinok has both knives, James says to him as he points down the hallway, “They’re going to be coming through that door. You’ve got to stop them for a minute or two.”
Tinok glances at Cassie, then with an evil grin he says, “You got it.” He walks close to the end of the hallway and awaits the first soldier to pass through the door.
Grabbing Jiron’s arm, James says, “Come with me.” He leads him to the rear cell where Tinok had been, whose little window overlooks the same narrow alley that his had. The girls follow them in there.
“What are we doing?” he asks James.
“Just wait,” he replies as he begins concentrating.
Jiron hears the clash of metal from the hallway and sticks his head out to see how Tinok’s doing. One soldier lies on the floor, bleeding to death, while his knives dance with another. A third soldier has entered the hallway behind the one battling Tinok, but the narrowness of the corridor allows but one to come at him at a time.
He turns back to the cell and watches as James begins tracing the seams of the stones surrounding the barred window. His finger follows the seam all the way around and when he reaches his starting point, he stops and says, “Alright, give me a hand.”
Reaching up to the bars, he begins pulling on them. Jiron steps up and lends his strength to the effort.
“Give up,” they hear the officer exclaim from down the hallway, “you’ve got nowhere to go!”
“Bring ‘em on!” they hear Tinok’s reply. More clashes can be heard as he parries and blocks, giving them time to do what they need to.
“What’s the count?” Jiron yells over his shoulder to Tinok.
“Four!” they hear him hollering back.
James and Jiron pull with all their strength on the bars and a section of the wall surrounding them suddenly slides outward half an inch.
“Five!”
Delia joins them and together, they slowly pull the bars and the adjoining stones away from the wall until the whole thing crashes to the floor with a thud.
James looks out the hole and doesn’t see anyone around, while Jiron goes back to the dead guards in Cassie’s cell and retrieves a sword.
Coming to the hole, he tosses the sword through and then follows it, climbing through the hole.
“Six!”
He takes the sword and comes back to the hole. “Cassie,” he says, “come on!” Keeping an eye out for anyone entering the ally, he offers his hand to help her through.
James and Jiron help Cassie make it through the hole, and then Delia. Once they’re safely on the other side, James climbs through as well. “Tinok!” Jiron yells, “Time to go!”
“Seven!” they hear just before he runs through the door. Upon seeing the hole in the wall, he yells, “Stand back!” as he races toward it and dives through. He sails through the opening, hits the ground on the other side, and then rolls, coming to rest against the wall of the opposite building.
James sees guards rushing into the room after him. When they see the hole in the wall, one yells something back down the hallway as most of them turn and race back the way they had come.
“Let’s get out of here!” James says, as he leads them down the alley. As they reach the end, he looks back the way they had come and sees soldiers entering the alley, hell bent on catching them. They turn and run down the lane, trying to make the edge of town. A guard runs around a corner in front of them, and before he even realizes they’re there, Jiron has cut him down with the sword.
“Good with a sword too?” asks James, panting from the exertion.
“Didn’t always use the knives,” he replies, “I just prefer them.”
When they come to the end of the lane, they realize they’ve made it to the edge of town, rising before them is the mountain. Behind them are dozens of soldiers racing after them and several crossbow bolts fly past, missing by a narrow margin.
They make a break for the mountain and the relative safety of the trees. The ground begins to rise as they reach the treeline.
From behind, they hear the soldiers in pursuit. James glances back and realizes they’re gaining on them. As he runs, James searches the ground for rocks, but in the dusk of early evening, it’s hard to make any out. Spotting a couple, he pauses only momentarily to pick them up before he races to catch up with the others.
He glances back again and now can make out about a dozen and a half soldiers are in pursuit, it doesn’t look as if the officer is among them. “We’re either going to have to convince them to not follow us, or take them out,” he says to the others. “We’ll never outrun them.”
Jiron looks back and says, “I agree.”
“Ladies,” James says, “you continue on up, we’ll find you.”
Delia grabs Cassie’s hand and together they continue on up the mountain as fast as they can.
“Alright gentlemen,” he says, “let’s do it.” He stops and turns to face the soldiers while Jiron and Tinok split off to either side.
He finds the crossbowmen and using the stones he collected, begins taking them out one by one. Jiron and Tinok move forward to engage the oncoming soldiers. Jiron using his sword and Tinok with his knives, they weave a dance of death that begins felling soldiers at a quick pace.
James stays to the rear and continues throwing stones, with the added speed and accuracy only magic can achieve, until all but a couple of the soldiers have been eliminated. Turning tail, the remaining soldiers promptly retreat back to town.
When they come back together to watch the retreating soldiers, James notices Jiron has acquired two knives from the fallen soldiers. “Let’s find the girls,” he says as they turn and hurry to catch up to them.
Chapter Five
“Are they dead?” Delia asks when the boys catch up.
“Most of them, the rest fled back to town,” Jiron replies.
With relief evident in her voice Cassie asks, “Then we’re safe?”
“Until morning at least,” James assures her. “But you can bet they’ll be coming after us at first light.”
“And they’ll probably bring everyone,” adds Tinok.
“Quite likely,” agrees James. “We’ve killed over a dozen soldiers and embarrassed their leader. So yeah, they’ll be coming.”
“What are we going to do?” Cassie asks, scared.
“Let’s get higher in the mountains and at first light, try to find a place to make a stand,” James says.
“Good idea,” agrees Tinok. Anger still burns in him over the attempted attack on Cassie.
They proceed further up into the mountains, the dark of night making the way difficult at best. When they come across a somewhat level area, they make camp. Tired, hungry and a little scared over what the next day will bring, they lie down and do their best to get some sleep, the boys taking turns at watch.
James takes the first watch and sits there as he hears his companions, one by one, fall asleep. He knows that tomorrow’s outcome will depend heavily upon him and what he can do with magic. Going over in his mind different strategies and solutions that he came up with in similar situations back home, during their role playing campaigns, he tries to find one which would work the best giving their situation. Thank god he at least has a couple of good fighters to hold them off while he does his thing. After coming up with several nasty ideas, he finishes his
