ready.”
Jiron nods his head. Then to Aleya he says, “Would you mind helping me?”
“Not at all,” she replies. Arm in arm they walk over and begin getting Jiron’s equipment ready for travel.
He, James and Jared assemble their equipment for travel and for the time being leave it inside James’ tent. They will wait for the protective cover of night before they transfer their things to their horses, in case anyone is watching. Once everything is ready, they get something to eat. Jiron and Aleya go off away from the others to have some privacy while they share their meal.
“Just when things between them are improving, they are thrust apart again,” comments Delia as she takes a seat on the ground near James.
“Parting is such sweet sorrow,” James says dramatically.
“What?” she asks.
He grins and looks at her. “The drama club at school put on a play and that was one of the lines that sort of stuck with me.”
“Oh,” she says in that slightly confused manner that they all have when he talks about things from his past. Never quite understanding just what he’s talking about. During the meal, he uses his mirror before it gets too dark to see if any hostile forces are on the way. Other than some patrols and scouts keeping an eye on them, there’s nothing out there of any size. Illan glances at him when he’s through and James gives him a shake of his head. Illan nods understanding and returns to his meal.
The sun finally sinks below the horizon before they finish their meal. Those from The Ranch gather together around the fire to have one last social time before James and the others take off. Jorry and Uther begin another of their tales. It must be the fact that James and Jiron will be heading into danger that keeps Scar and Potbelly from picking the story apart as they usually do.
When the story, which was a doozy about some underworld figure they ran afoul of and got the best of, finally ends, the stars begin to come out. “It’s time,” James announces as he gets to his feet.
Devin and Moyil move to help him transfer his equipment to his horse and Terrance helps Jiron. By the time they have changed into native attire and are ready, a similarly dressed Jared joins them with his horse all set for travel. James mounts and waits while Jiron says goodbye to Aleya.
A tight embrace, then a quick kiss before he swings into the saddle. “You come back to me,” she tells him.
“I will,” he assures her as he looks down into her eyes. “You just stay alive until I return.”
“Until we meet again,” Illan says as he comes forth. “Good luck.”
“You too,” James replies.
“Give ‘em hell!” Scar says from where he and Potbelly stand with the rest of those from The Ranch.
James gives Scar a quick nod and then pats his pocket wherein two glowing crystals lie. For what he’s about to do, he may need the added power. “You ready?” he asks Jiron and Jared.
Jared gives him a nod and Jiron says, “Yes.”
“Alright then.” Summoning the power, he casts a spell which should render him undetectable by magical means just as he had with the Fire. This was one reason that he decided to leave at night. In the event someone is keeping an eye on him, it may not be readily noticeable that he left the main force. But when they do, they will try to break through the spell shielding him, just as they had with the Fire.
He waits a moment to see if anything develops. When nothing does, he nudges his horse forward and turns to the south, Jiron and Jared follow.
“Good luck!” Delia hollers as they begin to move away from the camp.
Angling away from the walls to prevent their leaving from being noticed, they stay off the main southern road that runs along the large lake to the west. Tears of the Empress it’s called and the reflection of the moon overhead off its water gives them a guide in the dark.
Jiron moves ahead of James and Jared and keeps alert for any scouts or sentries that may be in the area. James keeps just within visual range of him and slows down when he sees him come to a stop.
“What’s going on?” asks Jared quietly.
“Shhh!” James says as he watches Jiron dismount from his horse. Moving further ahead, he disappears in the dark. Sitting there anxiously for several minutes, James begins to grow worried until he sees Jiron reappear in the moonlight. Mounting his horse again Jiron glances back at them, waves for them to follow, and then resumes moving ahead.
Jared glances questioningly at James but remains silent. When they reach the area just past where Jiron had stopped, they find a riderless horse standing by a motionless form on the ground. “He’s good,” Jared mumbles.
James nods silently in agreement as they continue to follow Jiron south. The incident with the scout isn’t repeated and after little over an hour, Jiron slows down and has the others join him. “I think we’re past whatever sentries and patrols were watching Korazan,” he says. “Now, just where are we heading?”
“Two days to the southeast lies Ki,” he replies. “According to the intelligence Lord Pytherian’s agents gathered, there’s a large iron mine in the mountains close to it. It’s a relatively small town and doesn’t have much of a garrison.”
“Going to do the same thing there as you did at the island?” Jiron asks. He remembers how James had utterly destroyed the Iron Mines at Sorna when he caused a massive volcanic eruption to completely engulf the island. Intelligence gathered by Lord Pytherian said a whole chain of eruptions sprung into being and have since played merry hell with shipping in the area.
“Hardly,” he says. “Going to try to collapse it, make it unusable for quite a while. If they lose the iron from there, they will only have one other mine of any size in operation or so the reports said. The other one is too far south for us to reach and have any success in making it back to Madoc again.”
They ride for another hour or so before coming to where the road forks to the southeast. Skirting around the town that sits across the juncture, they move to follow the new road to the southeast.
Throughout the night, they continue to follow the road. Other than them, no one else is traveling so late in the evening. Two hours before sunup, they come across a small village straddling the road. Little more than huts with goat farms, there is at least an inn.
“We should stop here,” James says when the inn comes in sight.
“Are you sure?” Jared asks. “If we’re found out, it’s all over.”
“I doubt that will happen,” Jiron says, joining the discussion.
“All you have to do is go in and get us a room,” James tells Jared. “Tell them we’ll send someone down in the morning to let them know when we will want breakfast sent up.”
“Alright,” says Jared, a trifle skeptical.
The inn has a lone lit candle in the front room. They pull up to the rail outside where James and Jiron wait while Jared goes inside. He isn’t long in returning and indicates he’s obtained a room. They take their horses around back to the stables. Only one horse is all there is within the stables and they have their choice of stalls. They pick three close to the entrance. Once their horses are settled in, they take all their bags with them up to their room.
As they reach the door to their room, James’ orb appears. Opening the door, the light from the orb reveals a single bed. They both look at Jared. “Sorry,” he says apologetically. “It was all they had.”
“All they had?” responds Jiron in amazement. “The stables are nigh on empty and this place hardly seems a major stop along the road.”
“It’s okay,” assures James as he enters through the door. Once the door shuts behind them, they stack their bags against it as an alarm.
“You take the bed,” Jiron offers James.
James nods and takes a seat on the edge while the others make themselves comfortable on the floor. “It’s a couple hours until dawn,” he says. “When it’s light enough, someone may realize I am no longer with our main force. Things could get interesting when it does.”
“How will we know if they do?” Jared asks.
Jiron chuckles and says, “Believe me, we’ll know.”
Before getting comfortable James removes the two crystals he had in his pocket as well as another from the sack of crystals. The power stored within these three crystals will aid him to ward off detection in the event an attempt is made to locate him. Setting them on the bed next to him, he lays down.
