coming for them. James begins tossing slugs and riders start to fall.
Crumph!
The ground under the riders once more explodes upward and Jiron sees James take a step back, staggering, almost like he was about to fall. He turns to Fifer and says, “Whatever happens, we’ve got to keep them off of him.”
Fifer nods to Jiron as they move to put themselves between the few remaining riders and James.
Miko draws his sword and begins advancing upon the dozen riders still coming toward them. Four veer off in his direction, the others come straight to where James and Fifer are standing.
James manages to throw two more slugs before he sags to the ground. “Close your eyes!” he hollers and a split second later, a brilliant burst of light flashes between them and the riders.
“Ah!” Fifer cries out as the light stabs like needles into his eyes. He hadn’t heeded James’ warning.
The horses of the approaching riders neigh in fright, and come to an abrupt halt, throwing the riders to the ground.
Jiron had heard James’ warning and had shielded his eyes. Now he quickly moves forward and begins to dispatch the blinded riders. The first one he pulls from his horse as he stabs him with his knife. The next two he kills while they writhe on the ground, holding their eyes in pain.
The fourth one he comes to isn’t moving, a cursory look shows him to have broken his neck when he’d fallen off his horse. As he stands up from inspecting the dead man, a horse runs into him and knocks him over. The rider strikes out with his sword but in his half blinded state, misses by scant inches.
Jiron rolls out from under the horse’s hooves and quickly regains his feet. He moves toward the rider who is turning his head this way and that trying to locate him. The rider shakes his head and rubs his eyes in an attempt to clear them, enabling Jiron to move close without being seen.
He jumps the last few feet and pulls him from the horse, both tumbling to the ground. His knife flashes but the rider gets a hold on his arm, keeping the blade inches away from his face.
They roll and Jiron manages to knee the man in the groin, taking the fight out of him. The rider’s arm loses strength and Jiron brings the knife down, puncturing the man’s throat all the way to the spinal column in the back.
Jerking his knife out, Jiron rolls then comes to his feet as he looks around for another rider.
Miko stands amidst eight dead bodies, four men and four horses. His head swivels around as he looks for another to fight.
Jiron can hear the remaining rider as he races back the way they’d come, horn blaring. Answering horns can be heard further away in the dark.
Moving to where James sits with Fifer standing guard, eyes slowly regaining their night vision, he says, “There’s more on the way and not too far back. We gotta go!”
James nods his head as he gets to his feet, Fifer lends him a hand when he almost falls back to the ground. “I’m alright,” he says to him.
He sees Miko standing there among the dead and begins walking over to him. “Miko!” he calls out. When there’s no response, he calls his name again. Glancing to the others, he says, “Gather some horses.” Then he returns his attention to Miko.
Miko’s head turns in his direction and he begins walking toward him. James can see the sword still gripped in his hand.
“Miko! It’s James,” he says in a calm and soothing voice.
Miko pauses a moment then continues toward him, his sword at a slightly less threatening angle. “You okay?” asks James.
“I think so,” he replies, his voice sounding tired and slightly distant.
“Good, we need to get going, okay?” he asks him.
Nodding, Miko approaches him and then stops as he wipes his sword off on one of the dead riders before replacing it in his scabbard.
Jiron and Fifer come over to them, each leading two horses. Once they’re all mounted, Jiron asks, “Which way?”
“Where did Lord Pytherian go?” asks James.
“He went more to the north, why?” replies Fifer.
“Then let’s move eastward and try to draw off those behind us and give him time to get through the lines,” he says.
“You sure?” Jiron asks.
“Yeah,” replies James.
They turn and begin moving toward the east, the sky there behind the mountains beginning to show the first signs of the approach of dawn.
Chapter Twenty One
As they push on eastward, they keep to a steady, mile eating pace that won’t overly tire the horses. When the sky becomes brighter, they see ahead of them where the terrain is once again turning into hills before finally becoming the mountains rising in the distance. It isn’t long before they leave the grasslands behind and enter the hills.
Behind them, there is still no sign of the approaching force, but they know they’re there. They come across a small spring in the lee of a hill and decide to pause for a short break to eat and give the horses a chance to regain their strength.
Jiron climbs to the top of the hill and looks to the west. “See anything?” Fifer shouts up at him from where he’s filling his water bottle at the spring.
Shaking his head, Jiron hollers back, “It doesn’t look like they’re following us.” After a few more minutes of scanning for the enemy, he returns back down the hill to the others.
James is lying stretched out on the ground, trying to rest for the few minutes they’ll be staying here. Jiron comes over and sits next to him. Gesturing over to Miko, he says quietly so only he can hear him, “Is it my imagination, or is he getting taller?”
Sitting up abruptly, James looks over to where Miko is sitting quietly next to Fifer. Nodding, he replies, “Maybe, I hope not though.”
“Why?” Jiron asks.
Lowering his voice so as to practically be unheard, he says, “If he is, it’s the Fire doing it to him and that can’t be good. The sooner we can get it away from him, the better.”
“Why don’t you take it?” asks Jiron.
“I don’t dare,” he replies. “It might be safe enough hanging in a pouch, but I might inadvertently reach in and touch it. From what the ghost of the priest of Morcyth said, that would be bad.”
“What if one of us takes it?” he suggests.
“No,” he replies. “I think it best if only one of us is affected by it.”
“So what are we to do?” he says as he glances to Miko.
“Nothing right now,” answers James. “Just hope nothing too bad comes of it. As soon as we’re back in Cardri, I’ll find somewhere to hide it.”
Changing the subject, Jiron asks, “Can you do your scanning thing to see where those forces that were following us went to?”
Sighing, he says, “Alright, but after that I’m going to need to avoid magic for a while. I’m starting to feel the effects.”
“Headache again?” guesses Jiron.
Nodding, James replies, “Yeah. It’s not too bad right now, but if I should need to call on the magic in an emergency, it could get much worse.” Getting up, he moves over to the spring and kneels down in front of it.
“What’s going on?” asks Fifer.
“He’s going to try to find the force that was behind us,” explains Jiron.
