When at last the light had faded from the opening at the top of the rubble blocking the corridor, he waits another hour until night has completely set in before waking the others. He almost doesn’t want to, Aleya using his lap for a pillow gives him a warm fuzzy inside.
Shaking her shoulder gently, he says, “Time to go.” When she fails to wake up, he shakes it a little more vigorously and repeats himself a little louder. “Let’s wake up!”
Coming awake, she sits up and at first begins to panic in the dark until James’ orb appears to dispel the dark. “You stay awake the whole time?” James asks him.
Nodding, he replies, “Yeah. You two seemed to need the sleep more than I.”
Aleya produces three strips of jerky and hands each of them one. “This is the last I have,” she tells them.
“Thanks,” they say in unison as they rip a piece off and begin to chew the hard, stale meat.
Leaving his orb with the others, James climbs to the opening at the top and gazes out. He can’t really make out anything outside in the dark of night. Some light filters down through the trees from the stars overhead, but it doesn’t do more than make indistinct shadows.
“I don’t think anyone’s out there,” he says. Finding a hand sized flat rock, he begins scraping away the debris, enlarging the hole.
“Just be careful,” Jiron tells him. “Don’t make too much noise, or someone may hear you.”
“I will,” he replies as he continues clearing away the dirt and rock. When he at last has a hole large enough for him to squeeze through, he sets his rock down and turns back to the others. “I’m going to cancel the orb so it won’t attract anyone’s attention,” he explains. After seeing Aleya’s nod, he plunges them back into darkness.
“Follow me,” he says as he begins moving through the opening.
Once he’s through, Aleya moves to follow next. She removes her bow and quiver from behind her back and holds them in front of her. At the opening, she whispers to James, “Here, take these.” When he’s taken them from her, she squirms through to the other side. Standing up, she reclaims her bow and arrows, slinging them once more behind her back.
Jiron worms his way through the opening next and soon they’re all standing together on the other side. In the faint light from above, they can make out walls that had at one time been a room, possibly underground before erosion or other forces had opened it up.
The entire area is overgrown with trees and vegetation. Someone just happening upon the area would’ve thought it was just another part of the ruins dotting the mountainside.
“Now where?” James whispers to the others.
“I don’t think it would be a good idea to try to work our way through to Kern from here,” Aleya says quietly. “Most likely, if they’re still searching for us, it’ll be between here and there.”
“She’s right,” agrees Jiron. “We should try to skirt around the forces and cross into Cardri west of Kern. Go around the Empire’s forces rather than through them.”
“I like that idea,” replies James. “Lead on.”
Keeping the downward slope of the mountain to their right, they move carefully southward, hoping to avoid the forces in the area. Where Jiron moves quietly through the woods, Aleya is positively silent. James makes more noise than the other two combined, much to his embarrassment.
They work their way further through the woods and eventually come upon the road leading down from the summit. Jiron pauses a moment as he asks, “Should we follow the road or keep to the woods?”
“If we follow the road, won’t we run the risk of coming across the Empire’s men?” asks Aleya.
“Probably,” states James. “Let’s stay to the woods on the other side of the road and follow it down until we run into someone.”
“Alright,” says Jiron. He then moves across the road and enters the trees lining the other side. The others follow right behind him.
The woods begin to thin out the further west they go. As they pace the road, they begin working their way down out of the mountain as well.
Jiron suddenly stops and holds up his hand, indicating the others to stop as well. In the faint light, they see him gesturing ahead of them and when James looks, can see the light from a campfire flickering through the trees.
A camp with an unknown number of enemy soldiers lies a hundred feet ahead of them. Taking it slow and quiet, Jiron heads off to the left and leads them around the camp, making sure to keep adequate distance between them so they won’t be discovered.
At one point, they come to a halt when raised voices can be heard coming from the camp. They hold still as they listen to two men begin shouting at each other. Then the sound of fighting can be heard as other voices start calling out, as if encouraging the fighters onto greater bouts of skill.
“Let’s move!” whispers James and they resume skirting around the camp. The brawl which had erupted for some unknown reason allows them to move faster than before. Any noise they’re likely to make now will be drowned out by the ruckus going on back there.
Once they reached the far side of the camp, they continue moving alongside the road and soon the sound behind them diminishes altogether. Moving far more slowly and cautiously now that every sound seems to resonate throughout the forest, they soon begin to see the lights from the main force encamped within the hills at the base of the mountain below them.
Judging by the number of campfires dotting the hills, the army there must be over a thousand strong. The camp itself seems to stretch almost a mile along the base of the mountain, and extends almost half a mile across.
James has them pause a moment and gather close around him. “Think we can make it around this?” he asks, indicating the large force ahead of them.
“Don’t really have much of a choice,” replies Jiron. “If we stay up here as we move around them, it may be possible.” To Aleya, he asks, “How much further is Kern?”
“I’m not really sure,” she explains. “I haven’t actually been here before. But I’d say maybe another five miles to the west.” Which is on the other side of the army encamped before them.
“Alright,” James says, coming to a decision. “We’ll work our way around as best we can. We need to make it around them before daylight. If we don’t, we’re going to be sitting awfully exposed up here.” The trees have been thinning out continuously as they’ve worked their way down the side of the mountain and would give them limited cover in the daylight.
“Then let’s move quickly,” states Jiron. He then begins moving through the trees as they start making their way around the enemy army below them.
The army looks as if it’s been there a while, the smell from the latrines would tell them that if nothing else. Soldiers move from place to place, many are seated around the fires, either having a meal or talking with their fellows.
Jiron stops suddenly and motions for James to come closer.
“What?” asks James when he comes near.
Pointing to a section of the enemy camp far to the right, he says, “Parvatis.”
Sure enough, when he looks, James sees the unmistakable tattoos of the Parvatis. “Think the Shynti should pay them a visit?” he asks. Shynti being the title accorded Jiron after defeating one of them in a blood duel. That designation has saved them on more than one occasion.
Shaking his head, he replies, “I don’t think that would be wise. For one thing, I’d have to make it through the bulk of their army just to reach them and I don’t think I’ll be able to manage that.”
Aleya just looks from one to the other, not understanding what they’re talking about.
“You’re probably right,” agrees James.
Jiron turns to resume their trek around the camp when out of the trees ahead of them, a soldier comes into view. The man gasps when he sees them and before anyone has a chance to do anything, an arrow flies past Jiron’s ear and hits the man in the chest, just below the neck.
The force of the arrow knocks him backward off his feet and into the tree behind him. His lifeless eyes stare at them as he slowly sags to the ground.
Jiron turns to Aleya where she’s standing with bow still in hand and says, “Quick shooting.”
She gives him a grin and replies, “Thanks.” Moving forward, she reclaims her arrow from the dead man. After
