horses harder, Jiron at last emerges from the other side, where it takes little encouragement to get the horses into a gallop.
Another cry escapes James before he passes into unconsciousness. Jiron looks back to the tornadoes and sees them melding back together into one large tornado that quickly dissipates. Seeing no imminent pursuit, he turns the horses southeast and races out into the desert.
“Please drop your weapons,” the Eye says to them.
Roland glares at the captain, feeling betrayed. The captain just returns his stare, his face devoid of any emotions.
The Eye raises his hand and the crossbowmen take aim as he repeats his command, “Drop your weapons, now!”
With little choice they remove their weapons and drop them to the ship’s deck.
“You’ve given us quite a chase,” he says to them. “Fortunately, that is now over.” Turning to the captain, the Eye says, “Have your men secure their hands behind them.”
The captain glances behind him to his men standing there, “You heard him boys.”
“Aye, captain,” one of them says as they start to move toward Roland and the rest.
As they pass through where the crossbowmen stand, they suddenly turn and knock the crossbows out of their hands, quickly subduing them. The captain, in a fluid motion, draws his sword and rests the point on the Eye’s chest.
“What is this, captain?” the Eye exclaims in anger when he sees the captain’s sword threatening him.
“You’re not taking them,” he informs the Eye.
“I’ll have you killed for this, captain!” the Eye warns vehemently. “I’ll send your ship to the bottom of the sea!”
“Toss em over, lads,” the captain tells his crew, ignoring the threats of the Eye.
One by one, the crossbowmen are thrown overboard until only the Eye remains. “Captain!” one of the men up in the rigging hollers out as he points toward the docks, “we’ve got company!”
The captain looks over to the docks and sees a score of men running toward his ship. “You’ll never get out of this harbor alive,” the Eye warns him.
“Cast off,” he cries to his men who begin casting off lines and climbing the rigging.
“Your death will be a pleasure,” the Eye continues, “watching as you wriggle upon the end of a pole as it slowly pushes its way through your guts from your ass!”
“Would you just shut up!” the captain yells at the Eye. He turns him around, boots him in the butt and watches as he plummets over the rail into the sea below.
“Thank you captain,” Tersa says as she comes forward.
“Enough time for that later,” he tells her. “You and the others stay out of our way and we may yet live through this.”
“Mr. Kerny!” he hollers.
“Yes sir,” a sailor yells from the other side of the ship.
“Make for deep water!” he cries.
“Aye, aye captain!” he replies as he begins turning the wheel to steer them out to sea. The wind begins filling their sails as they slowly turn away from the docks and head out of the harbor.
Splash!
A rock hits the water not five feet from the side of the ship. “Look!” Stig cries as another boulder flies through the air toward them. They brace for impact but it flies over the ship, landing with a splash twenty feet away.
“That was close,” exclaims Shorty.
“Mr. Kerny!” the captain yells.
“Yes, captain,” Mr. Kerny replies.
“Hard to port, evasive actions!” he tells him.
“Aye, aye captain!” and then they feel the ship lurch as Mr. Kerny begins attempting to evade the oncoming boulders.
“Captain, look!” Delia cries as she sees two ships beginning to pull away from the docks.
“I see ‘em, lass,” the captain tells her, “but if we can beat them to open water, they’ll never catch us.”
“Ahoy aloft! Full sails!” he shouts to the sailors in the rigging.
Without even a reply, they begin to completely unfurl the sails. Once they’re fully extended, the boat lurches as the wind fills the sails.
Delia looks to the ships that are pulled out, but they’ve already begun to fall behind. She soon realizes that they are not going to be able to catch them.
The captain comes over to where they’re crouching by the railing and asks, “So, do you have my fifty gold pieces?”
She nods to Roland who hands over the pouch containing the gold.
The captain opens it and looks through it, satisfied.
“You did all this for fifty golds?” Stig asks incredulously.
“No, son,” the captain replies, “I did it because I hate the empire.”
“But you’ve risked your life and your ship for us,” Delia says. “How can we ever repay you?”
“Having the pleasure of kicking that son of sea cow overboard was payment enough,” he tells her breaking into a big smile.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” he tells them. “It’s a three day trip to Cardri.”
The wind starts to fall off suddenly and there’s a cry from up above. The captain looks to the sky and watches in amazement as the clouds begin rushing toward Al-Kur. “What the hell?” he exclaims.
“It’s James,” Delia whispers to the others.
“You think so?” Tersa asks.
“Yeah, only magic could make the clouds react like that,” she explains.
They look back to Al-Kur and watch as the clouds intensify over the town and then suddenly seem to descend to the ground in one spot. After a couple minutes, the clouds begin dissipating and everything returns to normal.
“Hope they’re alright,” Tersa says, worried for her brother.
“Those two can take care of themselves,” Scar assures her.
“I hope so,” she says as she watches Al-Kur slowly disappear in the distance. “I hope so.”
Chapter Twenty Two
The days since the fall of the City of Light have blurred together until he no longer knows how long it’s been since it all began. His butt has finally stopped aching from sitting on the seat in the wagon and the sore on his leg from the manacle around his ankle is beginning to toughen up and become a callus. His is but one of several wagons loaded with slaves.
Miko stares numbly out at the water of the ocean as the wagon he’s in continues its journey. To where, he doesn’t know nor care anymore. He was sure that James would’ve found him by now, but day after day of hope unfulfilled has left him doubting if he would come at all. After all he’s only one boy and a street rat at that. Hardly worth risking one’s life for. Why did he think James would even bother coming after him?
His arm still throbs from where he got cut by a fellow slave back in the city of Azzac. It was during the night after they arrived at the city and been placed in holding pens with other slaves. During their journey, as they came to different cities, they would stop off at the local magistrate’s building and some slaves would be taken off or others added. Often the ones who were added were those who had been sentenced by the courts for some heinous crime and were on their way to wherever their sentence decreed.
It was during one such stop the day before their arrival at Azzac that they acquired an individual who took an immediate disliking to Miko. When the man was put in the wagon, he sat across from Miko. The chain from the manacle on his foot was secured to the same eye ring in the bed of the wagon that Miko’s was.
Miko disliked the looks of him from the beginning, he was missing two fingers on his right hand and a scar ran
