James steps forward and says, “Our ship left without us.”
“Did it indeed?” he says. Resting his quill in the inkwell, he gets up and gestures for them to follow him through the back door.
Seven horses are saddled and ready for them. “Which one of you is James?” Ellias asks.
“I am,” James replies.
He pulls out a rolled letter and hands it to him.
Taking the letter, he says, “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome,” Ellias tells him. “These are yours and already paid for.” Turning around, he leaves them there and returns to within the office.
Having a wait before Jiron returns with the others, he unrolls the letter and moves over to take advantage of light coming through one of the office’s windows to read it.
James,
At first I was so mad at my father that he would hand you over. It wasn’t until we left the ship that he explained to me what was going to happen. I so much wanted to be with you, but understand why that cannot be right now.
I will return home with my father and hope one day to see you again. We will have other voyages to Cardri in the spring, this is to be the last one before the winter storms set in.
I wish you safe journeys and will always hold the memory of you precious. Thank you again for the figurine, it is special to me.
I love you,
Meliana
“I love you too,” he whispers to himself after reading the last word. He didn’t actually think he felt that way until he read this letter.
“Good news?” Miko asks him when he sees he’s finished.
Nodding, James rolls the letter back up and puts it inside his shirt for safe keeping.
Just then, they hear voices coming from the office and soon the back door opens as Jiron and the others join them.
“We got horses,” Miko tells Jiron.
“I see that,” he says.
Mounting, Illan says, “We better get out of here. When it’s discovered we’re gone, a search may develop.”
“I doubt it,” argues James as he gets in the saddle. “By the time the authorities here could be contacted and convinced a search should be implemented, we’ll be gone. They’ll know that. Plus I doubt if any of Kendrick’s crew is likely to go against him. He may not have publicly stated that he supported my release, but I’m sure they know. Woe to any of them who speaks out against me to his daughter.”
At that several of them laugh. Dave gives him a grin.
“What about you my Parvati friend?” Jiron asks Qyrll. “Are you going to return home?”
Shaking his head, he says, “I must stay with you until my debt is repaid.”
Moving away from the horse trader’s establishment, they head through town and take the road to the northwest along the coast.
“Where are we going?” Fifer asks from the rear.
“Home,” James said. “I presented myself as requested and the court did what it had to do. Now I just want to go home.”
Illan reaches into his tunic and pulls out the sealed letter Ellinwyrd had given him when he went to see him about helping James. Handing it over to James, he says, “In all the excitement, I forgot about this.”
Taking it, James sees the wax seal bearing Ellinwyrd’s symbol. “Where did you get this?”
Illan proceeds to relate to him the events leading up to his meeting with the Archive Custodian. “He said it had something to do with your last meeting,” he explains.
His orb suddenly blossoms to life as he breaks the seal and unrolls the letter.
“What does it say?” Dave asks as he pulls up next to him.
“It only has one word,” he says.
“What?” Illan asks.
“Ironhold,” he tells them.
“Ironhold?” Illan asks.
James glances to him and asks, “Ever heard of it?”
Shaking his head Illan turns back to the others and raises his voice, “Any of you heard of a place called Ironhold?” When he gets nothing but negative responses, he turns his attention again to James.
“I told Ellinwyrd of what happened in Saragon and of the cryptic message that I discovered there,” he explains. Holding the letter up, he adds, “This must in some way have to do with that. Just have to figure out what.”
Shortly after leaving town, they come to a crossroads. They can either continue along the coast or head due north, James chooses to go north. “The coast road would lead us back to Cardri, and after all that’s been done there, I think it wise to avoid the place for awhile.”
“Plus this road should lead more directly home too,” adds Miko.
An hour later, they come to a cluster of buildings, one being an inn and they decide to stop for the night. It being so late, the inn is all but deserted. Only two workers are cleaning up and getting the place ready for the morning customers.
James and Illan enter and get rooms for everyone. After stabling their horses around back, they head up to their rooms and go straight to sleep. Dave shares James’ room again.
“Why do we need to find this Ironhold anyway?” he asks as they get ready for bed.
“There are many questions that have arisen since I’ve come here,” he explains. “and I need to find the answers.”
“Why?” he asks.
James opens his mouth to reply when he suddenly realizes he doesn’t have a good answer for that. He doesn’t know why, he just feels he needs to. Turning to Dave, he says, “If I do what I’m here to do, maybe we can go home.”
“You haven’t really explained it all to me yet,” he says. “I’m your best friend and I think you should clue me in as to what is really going on.”
“You’re right Dave, you are my best friend,” he says. He then gives him a general rundown as to what’s going on and the visits by Igor. He makes no mention of the Fire or anything about his experiments. When he’s done, Dave is satisfied and they drift off to sleep.
Early the following morning, a commotion outside wakes them and Dave goes to the window overlooking the rear courtyard. A group of people are congregating near the rear of one of the other buildings. “Something’s going on,” he says.
“We better go check it out,” James says as they begin getting their clothes on.
Before they’re finished getting dressed, there’s a knock at their door.
James hollers, “Come in,” and the door opens. Illan walks in and says, “Some girl was murdered last night.”
“What?” asks Dave and James at the same time.
“It was the younger daughter of the innkeeper,” he says. “She was torn up pretty bad. At first they thought it was an animal attack, she looked like she had been chewed on. But then they found bloody tracks from some man’s boot walking away from the scene.”
“That’s terrible,” James says.
“We better get out of here before anyone starts asking questions,” he says.
Nodding, James gets his pack and stands up. “Yeah. Good idea.”
As they leave the room they begin to hear yelling coming from downstairs and they rush down to find Qyrll encircled by an angry crowd. His hood has fallen back allowing all to see his extensive tattoos.
“Monster!” one woman cries as she breaks down into tears.
“He is not to blame for the death of the young girl!” Jiron shouts to be heard above the noise of the
