James moves toward the building and pauses next to it as he watches the body of the fallen mage. After several moments, it shimmers and then disappears. An illusion!
He begins to look around, trying to find where the mage actually is. From up the street, a brown robe begins walking toward him. Without pausing, James launches a stone at the brown robe, and again, it falls to the ground dead.
James bends down and picks up a stick from the ground. He casts a seeking spell to find the source of the other mage’s magic and the stick begins to point to the building across from him. Canceling the spell, he searches all the windows before he catches a movement out of the corner of his eye. Looking all the way to the top, he sees a shadow moving upon the roof.
Gotcha! He begins to let the magic flow and directs it to the building the mage is on. Suddenly, cracking and snapping can be heard coming from within it as the support beams begin to break in two. A section of the building collapses and then the whole thing falls in.
A thick cloud of dust rises and a second later he sees the mage stumbling from the rubble, coughing and holding his broken left arm tight to his chest. Letting the magic flow, he strikes out with an energy wave which strikes the mage with great force. He’s propelled back into the wreckage and James can hear more boards break as the mage smashes into them.
Moving toward the collapsed building, James hunts for the mage. A prickling sensation can be felt as the mage begins a spell. James doesn’t wait for it to be completed, he lashes out with waves of force, pummeling the mage.
The prickling wavers and then stops. He creates the orb of light and moves into the rubble. He finds the mage, lying unconscious as blood oozes from her nose and mouth. A woman? Unable to outright kill her, he leaves her where she lies as he makes his way out of the rubble and back onto the street. He cancels his orb so as not to be a beacon in the night for his enemies.
Back on the street which is now empty, he moves further into town to find the others.
Jiron, meanwhile, turns a corner and is knocked down by a running, terrified woman. The woman falls on top of him and begins screaming. She claws at him, leaving red lines along his left forearm before she gets back up to her feet and runs away down the street. He gets back up quickly and looks down the way the woman had come, he can hear the clashing of swords. “Miko!” he cries out as he runs toward the sound.
As Jiron moves toward the sound of battle, a townsman rushes from a nearby doorway and hacks at him with his sword. Easily blocking the attack, Jiron kicks out with his foot and hears a snap as the man’s knee breaks.
The man falls to the ground, and Jiron moves around him, leaving him there in his agony. James must be rubbing off on me he thinks as he leaves the man alive behind him.
Suddenly, the sound of fighting stops and from around the corner steps Miko. Covered in blood and carrying a gore covered sword he walks toward Jiron.
“Miko!” Jiron calls out but it doesn’t seem as if he’s hearing him. Running forward, he stops in front of him and places a hand on his shoulder. “Miko, are you alright?” he asks as he shakes him slightly, looking intently in his eyes.
Miko suddenly starts, as if seeing Jiron for the first time and replies, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Thank god!” Jiron says. “Let’s go find James and get out of here.”
Nodding, Miko looks at the sword in his hand, almost seems surprised it’s there. Tossing away the sword he follows Jiron as they hunt for James.
As they run back down the street, they see him coming toward them. “You guys okay?” he asks as he comes close and sees Miko there, covered in blood.
“We’re fine,” replies Jiron. Miko nods as well.
“Then let’s get out of here,” he says. He quickly surveys the area and sees an inn. Moving quickly, he leads them around back to the stables there. Entering the stables, they find a terrified stable boy who runs to his room and hides. While they are saddling three horses, they catch him peering out at them. Whenever he sees he is being observed, the boy ducks back inside the room.
When the horses are saddled, they mount and ride out of the stables. No one is there to challenge them. As they race out onto the street and make their way to the north side of town, they see people staring out of windows and from behind doorways.
If there are any guards or soldiers remaining, they’ve decided it more prudent to be absent than to stand in their way. They make it to the north road and quickly leave the town behind them.
After they leave, the townsfolk start to come out of their homes. They begin to take stock of the damage wrought by the intruders. The most ghastly sight of all is the area where the boy had walked out. A dozen soldiers lay dead as well as several of the townsfolk who tried to help, their bodies literally hacked apart. Some wonder what had visited their town that night. Many pray that it never comes back.
Chapter Seventeen
They find a small stream several miles past the town where they pause to allow Miko a chance to clean off the blood.
While he’s by the stream, James pulls Jiron aside and asks, “What happened?”
Shrugging, he replies, “I don’t know. I heard fighting and by the time I got near, the fighting was over and he walked around the corner.”
When he pauses a moment thinking about it, James asks, “What?”
“It’s just that, when I first approached him, he didn’t seem to be aware I was even there,” he explains. “When I took him by the shoulder and shook him, that’s when he became aware of me.”
They both turn to look at their friend over by the stream. James is worried about him, not sure what happened. Maybe he was just in shock over the fighting, he hopes that’s all it was. But how had he even survived?
When Miko finishes cleaning himself as best he can, they once more mount and quickly put distance between themselves and the town. He’s not sure when it will materialize, but James is positive that pursuit will be forthcoming, and soon.
As they ride, James keeps an eye on Miko but he seems his same old self and soon quits worrying about him.
The hills begin to fall away as they move further away from the town until they finally pass into grasslands once more. As the road starts to turn more to the west, James suggests cutting cross country across the plains in order to maintain a more northerly route. Everyone is in agreement with the idea so they turn off the road, making their way into the grasslands.
As they cross the grasslands, the moon begins to reach the horizon, what light it gave them about to disappear. Once it sinks below the horizon, travel becomes more risky as they only have the light from the stars to guide them. Like ghosts, they move silently in the night, hoping there are no holes or anything else for their horses to trip upon.
Throughout the night, they maintain a quick pace, pausing now and then to allow the horses to rest and grab a bite to eat. When dawn approaches and the sky begins to lighten, they find themselves still in the middle of grasslands. Off to the northeast, the lightning sky silhouettes a range of tall mountains.
“We’re pretty exposed here,” says Jiron.
“I know,” agrees James. “But not much we can do about it now.” He glances back to Miko and sees him asleep in the saddle. Despite being asleep, he’s somehow managed to remain on his horse. James cracks a slight grin at the sight.
They continue on as the day gradually brightens until finally the sun tops the mountains to the east. With the sun comes the heat of the day, James can tell it’s going to be a hot one.
As the sun makes its way up into the sky, they see a sizeable city ahead of them. This one is even bigger than the previous one. It even has a sizeable defensive wall. A small keep can be seen situated near its center. Not wishing to take the chance of being noticed by the men patrolling along the top of the wall, they turn east and move quickly toward the mountains in the distance.
