“We must hurry,” Miko says as he runs to the other door.
“Can’t be much further until we reach the outer wall of the keep,” Illan says as he enters the storage room.
Jiron beats him to the door and has it open for Miko to pass through. The light from the Star reveals another storage room that’s practically empty. A dark shape is moving across the floor and is almost at the far wall.
“There it is!” exclaims Miko.
With a shriek, the shadow races from the burning light of the Star. Passing through the wall, it seeks to escape.
The glow surrounding the priests of Asran suddenly intensifies tenfold. “Got it,” says Brother Willim.
Moving to a small narrow window in the wall, James and the others look out to see the shadow enveloped by a green glow hovering far above the ground. As the brothers work to send the shadow back to whatever hell it came from, it lets out with an ear shattering scream. Inch by inch the green glow surrounding the shadow shrinks until finally it winks out.
“Great,” breathes Illan in a less than happy tone.
“What?” asks James.
Indicating out the window to the ground below, he says, “That’s the Empire’s Ambassador’s camp.”
Everyone in the camp below is staring up at where the shadow had been held by the brothers. All of a sudden, a group of men break from the crowd and make for the gates to the keep.
“He’s coming,” comments Jiron.
Illan immediately moves from the window and says, “Ceadric, take them somewhere out of sight until the Ambassador returns to his camp.”
“Right,” he says.
“Why?” asks Shorty.
Gesturing to James he says, “James here is the most wanted man in their Empire. According to what our agents have discovered, they’ve issued a hundred thousand gold piece reward for your death. It appears they don’t even want you alive.”
Leaving the room, Illan begins to return the way they came while Ceadric takes the others the rest of the way. Coming to a stop Illan says to Brother Willim, “I’ll need to borrow your brothers.”
“Why?” he asks as everyone pauses in the hallway.
“The Ambassador knows something happened,” he replies. “He already knows these two have been here for awhile. If we put forth that they were the ones that destroyed the shadow, it might quell any further questions.”
Brother Willim nods to his two fellow priests who then move to stand with Illan.
“When he’s gone I’ll send word,” Illan tells them. “Until then, stay low and get what rest you can. I know you must be exhausted.”
“That’s an understatement,” jokes Shorty.
To Ceadric he says, “Meet me in the Hall when you have them stashed away.”
Nodding, Ceadric resumes leading them down the hallway. He hurries along until coming to another hallway branching off to the right. Moving into it, he leads them all the way to the far end where they come to a flight of stairs going up. The stairwell is dark so James creates his orb to light the way.
“You are putting us in the tower?” Scar asks.
“That’s right,” replies Ceadric. “At least until the Ambassador returns to his camp.”
Ascending the flight of stairs, they pass one level and leave the stairwell on the next. A short hallway extends from the stairwell with but one door on either side. Coming to a stop at the doors, he turns and faces the others. Indicating the two doors, he says, “These must have been designed for visiting dignitaries. Beyond each door is a suite of rooms with sufficient beds for all of you.”
“Thank you,” James tells him.
Nodding, Ceadric says, “I must return. It would be good if you could stay within your rooms until morning.”
“I don’t think that will be a problem,” he says with a yawn. “We’re all about dead on our feet.”
“Then I shall leave you to your rest.” And with that Ceadric moves to the stairs and begins making his way back down.
James, Miko, Brother Willim, Jiron and Aleya take one set of suites while the rest take the other. As it turns out, they are identical in the way they are laid out. A large room designed for entertaining guests lies beyond the door from the hallway. Three other doors lead to rooms containing beds, tables, and dressers. Two of the rooms have two beds each while the third is much larger. Most likely for the prominent member of the guests staying here, it has but a single bed larger than the others as well as the addition of a walk-in closet.
“Nice,” comments Miko after checking out the rooms.
“Have the others come in here for a moment,” James says to Jiron. While he waits for Jiron to go across the hall and bring in the others, he takes a seat on the long couch in the front visiting room.
“Better than any inn we’ve stayed in,” Miko says as he sits in one of the padded chairs next to him. Brother Willim sits at the other end of the couch from James.
James nods agreement then gazes at his friend. “When did you start being able to tell when people died?” he asks.
“Since the City of Light,” he replies. “I’ve only felt it three times before now. The first time took me by surprise, let me tell you. But there was no fear or apprehension involved. When the person died here tonight, it felt different and I knew it was no normal passing.”
“The benefits of having a High Priest travel with us are already coming into play,” James says.
To Miko, Brother Willim says, “It was the fear of the person who was killed this night that you felt. When a normal death occurs, there’s no fear, maybe just a little apprehension of the unknown fate that awaits them.”
Miko nods his head, “I think you’re right.” Then he gets a contemplative look as he and the others wait for Jiron’s return.
They haven’t long to wait until Jiron returns with the others. The fading light coming from outside doesn’t give sufficient light with which to see so James continues to leave his orb active.
Scar and Potbelly have to pull chairs from the adjoining room for everyone to be able to sit down. Once everyone is seated, James says, “This business of the shadow being here has me worried.”
“It didn’t seem as if it was after anything or anyone in particular,” Brother Willim states. “As far as we can tell its attacks were entirely random.”
“I know,” replies James. “Up until this point, every time we have encountered shadows there was a reason behind it. So there must be one now.”
“Stands to reason,” nods Jiron. “But what can it be?”
“I don’t know and that’s what is bothering me,” admits James.
“Other than keeping our eyes out for signs of others, there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it,” Stig says. “With Miko and the priests of Asran here, I can’t see how they can give us much trouble.”
“If we know they are there, that’s true,” agrees Brother Willim.
They sit there a moment and discuss the shadows, finally coming to the conclusion there’s not much that they can do about it.
“Are we leaving to find Tinok soon?” asks Jiron.
“We all need a rest,” replies James. “I thought we would leave tomorrow night after it gets dark. It wouldn’t do to have the Ambassador’s men see us leave.”
“True,” he agrees.
James takes out a strip of cloth and casts his seeking spell. The cloth rises in his hand and points straight toward the south. “Tinok’s there somewhere,” he explains, “we just have to find him.” Canceling his spell, he replaces the strip of cloth in his pocket. “Now, everyone get some rest, stay in your rooms, and we’ll leave as soon as the sun goes down tomorrow night.”
As the meeting breaks up and those who are staying in the room across the hall leave, James glances out the window at the crescent moon rising in the sky. Knowing time is slipping away, he makes his way to bed, cancels the orb and tries to go to sleep.
