When the rumbling finally stops, Jiron moves over to the new edge of the ridge and looks down to where the stairs used to be. Below them is a massive dust cloud, obscuring everything more than several hundred feet below the top. Where the stairs had been is now just virgin, jagged rock. All those soldiers who had been upon the stairs must now be lying down at the base, buried beneath hundreds of tons of stone.
Coming away from the ledge, he sees Aleya staring at them with fear in her eyes. “What are you two?” she asks him.
“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about pursuit from there for awhile,” he tells her as he goes back over to where James is lying. He’s unconscious, but otherwise appears fine.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she says with an edge to her voice.
Glancing over to her, he finds an arrow knocked and aimed right for him. Getting up, he turns toward her and says, “As for me, I’m just a pit fighter out of the City of Light. I hooked up with James here shortly after it fell to the Empire and we’ve been together ever since.”
“What about him?” she asks, indicating the comatose James with her bow.
“You can ask him when he wakes up,” he tells her. “Which won’t be for several hours I’m figuring. Watch him for me will you?” Completely ignoring the arrow aiming at him, he turns and begins moving down the trail to find where the horses had run off.
Lowering her bow, she asks, “Where are you going?”
“To get the horses,” he replies. “If you would have held onto them tighter, I wouldn’t have to. Be back in a bit.”
She lowers her bow completely as she watches him move away down the trail. Replacing her arrow back into her quiver, she slings her bow across her back and looks at her red, bleeding hands. When the horses had ripped out of her grip, the reins had taken some of the skin with them.
Walking over to the edge of the cliff, she looks down at the dust cloud below. It’s beginning to clear away and she can see the enormous pile of rubble at the bottom. It may be her imagination but it looks like there are still survivors down there trying to dig out their companions. The exact number is obscured by the enormous dust cloud filling the valley below.
Stepping back from the cliff, she sees James lying on the ground. The sight of him sends fear through her, she doesn’t know why. Earlier during their trip together, he’d been an amiable and likable fellow. But after what she had just seen him do, the mere sight of him terrifies her. She comes nearer to him and nudges him with her foot almost as if she needs to believe he’s real. A groan escapes him when she nudges him, causing her to jump backward a foot in fright.
From the trail she hears the sound of Jiron returning with a horse. She doesn’t know what to do, being in company with such people. One tears down a cliff and the other scales a sheer drop of a thousand feet and then takes out the entire force at the top.
Jiron secures the horse with the other two and then notices how she’s standing as if she’s about to flee. “Relax,” he tells her with a smile. “Help me gather some wood so we can have a fire.”
When she still doesn’t move, he comes over to her and says soothingly, “Truly, we won’t harm you. And while you are with us, we will not allow others to harm you either. Though we do seem to attract the attention of the worst sort of people.”
He leaves her to her thoughts as he begins combing the area for firewood. After depositing his second load near James, he sees her take her bow from off her shoulder and says to him, “I’ll get something for dinner.”
“That’s a good idea,” he replies as he returns to the area by the few trees up there for another load. The clouds above had begun to clear ever since the cliff fell. Soon, blue can be seen and off to the west, the sun is beginning to descend close to the horizon.
The area around them is sparsely dotted with trees, mainly just rock and the occasional bush. Off to the west, the ridge they’re on slopes down until it finally dwindles into hills. Nestled in the hills lies a large fortress. Must be Kern that she mentioned earlier. And beyond it lies Cardri!
Chapter Twenty Two
Jiron has the fire going by the time Aleya returns with but a single rabbit. “I think all the noise must have scared off everything else,” she explains.
Taking the rabbit from her, he says, “I’m sure this will do nicely.”
She glances over to James where he lies by the fire. Wrapped in a couple blankets to keep the chill away, he looks down right peaceful lying there. “How is he?”
“He’ll live,” replies Jiron as he begins getting the rabbit ready for the fire. “This actually happens quite often when he does what he calls, ‘over the top’ magic. He’ll sleep through the night and most likely wake up in the morning.”
Taking a seat next to him, she sits quietly while he skins and guts the rabbit. When he at last has it on a stick and roasting over the fire, she says, “After what I saw earlier, I can understand why they want you so bad.”
He gives her a grin. “That’s not the half of it,” he says to her, but doesn’t elaborate further.
“Do you think it’s wise for us to stay here?” she asks. When he glances at her she continues, “I mean, the archers that were up here must’ve come from somewhere. I understand there’s a large force of the Empire’s soldiers down by the fortress, they’ve been there ever since the invasion of Madoc.”
“If an army is on its way here,” he explains, “we would meet it all the sooner if we went down the mountain.” Gesturing over to James, he adds, “If we give him a chance to rest and regain some of his strength, then we stand a better chance of surviving the encounter.”
Nodding, she returns her gaze to the fire and watches it dance and pop as she thinks about what he just said. “What do you plan to do if you should make it back to Cardri?” she asks after a few minutes of silence.
“That all depends on James there,” he tells her. “I’ll be staying with him for awhile, strange things are afoot and he seems to be in the middle of it all. I don’t know what the gods may have in store for him, but it should prove interesting.” He takes the rabbit off the fire and inspects if briefly before returning it to the flames.
“You could come with us if you like,” he suggests to her. Before she has a chance to reply, he adds, “Since the way back to your home is currently unavailable, that is.”
“I may do that,” she replies after unconsciously glancing to where the stairs used to be.
They sit side by side, the proximity of each other lending them comfort. The clouds have completely disappeared by the time the rabbit is ready to eat. Saving out a large portion for James when he wakes up, Jiron divvies the rest of it between him and Aleya.
After they’ve finished eating, he suggests taking the first watch while she gets some sleep. “I’ll wake you sometime after midnight,” he tells her.
“Very well,” she says as she gets a blanket from one of the horses and lies down next to the fire.
Jiron moves out of the light to better preserve his night vision as he begins to slowly circle the camp. Every once in awhile he catches himself staring at her as she lies there sleeping, the light from the fire dancing across her face.
He moves through the trees further away from the camp and stares out over the valley to the west where the Fortress of Kern lies. Once James finally awakens, they’re going to have to make it there somehow. If what Aleya says is correct, they’ll have an army to get through somewhere between here and there.
Moving to the other side of the ridge where the stair used to be, he sees down amidst the rubble that once was the side of the ridge many lights. From their number he figures there still to be a sizeable force left. Too bad we didn’t get them all! It’s highly unlikely they’ll be any more of a threat for awhile. The cliff’s too high and vertical for the average soldier to scale and they have a long way to walk to get out of the mountains.
The morning dawns sunny, not a cloud in the sky. Jiron wakes to find Aleya already having killed their morning breakfast and can smell it from where it’s roasting on the fire.
“Good morning,” she says when she notices him sitting up.
“You too,” he replies. Nodding to James, he asks, “How’s he doing?”
“Still sleeping,” she tells him. “He hasn’t awoken yet. Is that normal?”
Shrugging, he says, “I really wouldn’t know. But there have been times when he didn’t wake for awhile. Once