“What did they tell you?” Jiron demands to know.
“That a few drops would bring him out of it,” he explains.
“How much did they say would restore his powers?” Jiron asks.
He glances over to Councilman Rillian and says, “Half again as much.”
“I assume you didn’t give him that much?” he inquires.
Shaking his head, Stephen says, “No, I didn’t.”
Jiron puts a knife to the councilman’s throat and says, “Do it!”
“Don’t!” Councilman Rillian orders.
“But he’ll kill you!” cries Stephen.
“If they get out of here, we’re dead anyway!” he exclaims then cries out as Jiron gently punctures the side of his neck, allowing a small drop of blood to trickle down his neck.
“Smash it!” orders the councilman.
As Stephen raises the vial high, Jiron screams, “Don’t!” He rushes toward Stephen to try and prevent the vial from being smashed, but is too late. With a crash, the vial is thrown to the floor and smashes into a thousand pieces, the precious antidote splattering across the floor.
“Damn you!” Jiron curses as he lashes out with his knife in anger.
Stephen cries out as the knife strikes his chest and pierces his heart. Jiron kicks out with his foot, knocking him off his knife. Eyes beginning to glaze over, he trips over a chair behind him and hits the ground with a grunt. His blood begins to spread across the floor as his life quickly leaves him.
Jiron bends down over the spilled antidote as Councilman Rillian begins to laugh. “Too late,” he cries out in glee. “Without his magic, you’ll never get out of here alive.” He pays no attention to the councilman’s words as the looks down at the shattered remains of the vial. In the center of the shards, he finds a small pool of antidote. Bending over, he dips his finger into it, gathering as much as he can upon its tip.
Getting up, he moves quickly over to James’ side all the while trying not to allow the liquid to drip off his finger. James opens his eyes as he inserts the antidote covered finger inside his mouth. Once he’s felt James suck the antidote off his finger, he says, “You okay now?”
James nods his head and says, “Better.” He tries to sit up, but the spinning of the room causes him to fall back down on the couch. “Not perfect, it seems.” The antidote hasn’t reversed the effects of the poison completely. Hopefully it won’t take longer than they have.
Just then, the door bursts open and they see four men holding a wooden bench as a battering ram come through the broken remnants of the door. The bench is dropped as one guard kicks out with his foot and clears the remaining portion of the broken door out of the way. Then the guards begin moving into the room.
Jiron moves to Councilman Rillian’s side and places a knife at his throat as he says, “Stop! Or he’s dead!”
The guards come to a quick stop, just feet within the room. They take in the scene as the lead one says, “Milord, are you okay?”
“I’m alive” the councilman assures him.
“Now,” Jiron says to the guards, “Get out or I slit his throat.”
“Milord?” asks the guard as he looks to the councilman.
“Stay right where you are,” he orders. “If they kill me, then you kill them. Understood?”
“But…” the guard stammers.
“You heard me!” shouts Councilman Rillian.
The guards glance among themselves and remain where they are.
“I said leave the room!” Jiron hollers at them.
James finds his head is becoming clearer by the second. Whatever that stuff was that Jiron had given him seems to be doing the trick.
From the hallway, a crossbow bolt flies through the door past the guards in the room, and strikes Jiron in the right shoulder. The force of it knocks him backward and away from the councilman. He stumbles for a few feet before falling to the floor.
“Kill him!” Councilman Rillian shouts.
The guards begin rushing forward. A lit candle sitting upon a table before them suddenly flares up and a roar can be heard as fire shoots in their direction, halting their advance.
“It’s the mage on the couch!” he cries out, indicating James with a nod of his head.
The guards see James sitting there on the side of the couch and start to move toward him. The flame from the candle becomes greater as it forms a fiery barricade between them.
“Milord!” cries the lead guard, the heat from the fire too hot for him to come any further into the room.
Attempting to ignore the throbbing pain in his shoulder, Jiron gets back up as he sees the flame from the candle shoot out to block the guards. Leaving the councilman where he is, he moves over to James.
“Can you walk?” Jiron asks him.
Nodding his head, he continues concentrating on the flame as he moves it to force the guards back out of the room. His head is still fuzzy, but is able to maintain the spell as the antidote continues to remove the effects of the drug.
The temperature in the room is rising from the heat of the flames. Everyone begins sweating and a nearby candle begins to droop as the heat softens the wax.
Jiron checks Fifer who’s barely conscious. With his shoulder the way it is, there’s no way he’ll be able to carry him.
By directing the flame, James is able to push the soldiers back out the door. A couple brave souls bear burns from when they didn’t move back fast enough to avoid the flame’s touch.
When the guards are all once more outside the door, James erects a wall of force within the doorway which prevents them from regaining the room. He extinguishes the flame and then realizes he’s quite light headed and short of breath. Thinking it’s the use of magic in his current state, he sits back down.
Looking around, he realizes everyone in the room is having a hard time breathing. Oxygen! I used up most of the oxygen in the room in sustaining the flame. He gasps over to Jiron, “Open the window, we’ve got to get some fresh air in here.”
With the bolt still sticking out of his shoulder, he makes his way over to the window and throws it open wide. A breeze from outside begins circulating within the room bringing much needed oxygen to its occupants.
The men behind the invisible wall pick up the bench they used previously as a battering ram and begin smashing it against the invisible wall. Each time the bench hits, James feels a brief increase in the amount of power being used to sustain it.
“Even with your magic, you’ll never make it out of here,” Councilman Rillian warns.
“We’ll see,” James says to him. Turning to Jiron he asks, “How’s the shoulder?”
Jiron gives him a look that says, ‘That’s a dumb question’, and replies, “Hurts. But I’m not going to pull this thing out until we’re out of here.”
“Good idea,” says James. “I suppose the entire area is up in arms over this?”
Shaking his head, Jiron says, “Actually, other than the men in the hallway, it looks like no one else even knows what’s going on.”
“Really?” James asks as he turns his attention over to Councilman Rillian.
“My men can handle the likes of you,” he says confidently to James.
“I wonder,” he says as he moves over to the window.
“What do you plan to do?” asks Jiron.
From his position on the couch, he replies, “Maybe I’ll just let everyone know that we’re here.” Pausing a moment, he says, “What do you say to that, milord?”
“What do I care what a bunch of thugs do?” he states. “When they learn how you came in here and tried to force me to help you open the gates for the Empire, you’ll get what’s coming to you.”
“Oh, by the way,” Jiron says, “Miko said to tell you that ‘One Eye’ is in the city. Said you’d understand.”
“He’s here?” he asks incredulously. Turning on the councilman, he asks, “Is that why that army is sitting out there waiting? For Korgan to open the gates like he did back at the City of Light?”
“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he replies nonchalantly.
“If he’s here, we’ve got to get to Lord Pytherian now,” James states matter-of-factly.
