The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (38 page)

Mounting the horse next to him he asks,
“Why?”

“Just do it,” he says.

“Alright but we don’t have much time to
waste,” Jiron tells him. Looking around, he can tell the battle is
going badly for the men from Madoc. The Empire’s mage has all but
wiped them out.

“Don’t need much,” he says.

As he takes the reins of James’ horse in
hand, a cry arises nearby and he looks to see one of the Empire’s
soldiers pointing in their direction and shouting. The mage turns
and sees them on the horses, then pain suddenly erupts in Jiron’s
middle and he almost falls off the horse. Bringing them close to
the tent he says through the pain, “We’re here.”

In a voice cracking, speech slightly
blurred, he says as loud as he can, “Spoilsport! Act Three!
Fifteen!” As he utters the last word he can feel power being drawn
from him by the crystal within the tent. Even Jiron notices as what
little power he has is being pulled into it as well. To Jiron he
says, “We haven’t much time.”

That’s all he needed to hear. Kicking his
horse in the sides, he races toward the edge of the clearing,
bowling over several soldiers in the process. The pain ripping
through his middle increases dramatically and it’s all he can do
simply to remain in the saddle and hold onto the reins to James’
horse.

Bolts start flying as crossbowmen begin
taking shot at the fleeing duo but miss as Jiron dodges their
horses this way and that to avoid the flying bolts. The Empire’s
mage turns from the remnants of the Madoc attack force and moves
quickly toward them, all the while maintaining the pain wracking
Jiron’s body.

When he nears the main tent wherein the
crystals lay, the effects of his spell on Jiron diminishes as his
power begins to be drained as well. That’s when he takes note of
what’s transpiring within the tent.

As the pain begins to ease up, Jiron looks
back as he leaves the clearing and sees the mage beginning to enter
the tent. From beside him, he can hear James counting,
“…thirteen…fourteen…fif…” Before he can finish the word, a massive
explosion rips through the tent and engulfs a good portion of the
clearing. The concussion from the blast rolls over them and the
horses stumble a moment. Jiron fears they may go down but they
manage to right themselves and race to leave the destruction behind
them.

“What was that?” Dave exclaims from where he
and the others are beginning to make camp for the night.

Off to the east thunder rolls as a fiery
blast is seen reaching to the sky many miles away. “That had to be
James,” Miko replies anxiously. “He must be in trouble.”

A clatter of wood comes from the side of the
camp where Fifer was bringing some back for the evening fire. “No
resting tonight,” he says as glances around at all the faces. “He
needs us.”

Not one person gainsays him. The plans to
make camp and continue in the morning are set aside as they begin
to hustle down the road in the fading light.

Jiron continues riding well into the night.
Even though that blast most likely took out the mage and most of
the others, he dares not stop. At one point James indicates he can
ride and after a short stop to untie him and help him into the
saddle, they continue down the road.

“You okay?” he asks him once they’ve resumed
riding.

“Not great,” he replies. “Head still spins
and doubt if I could do any magic for awhile, but other than that I
think I’ll live.”

“What did you do back at the camp?” Jiron
asks.

James glances at him and flashes him a grin.
“Set a time bomb.”

“A time bomb?” he asks, never having heard
the expression before.

“That’s right,” he replies. “Don’t ask me to
explain, there are certain things I would rather not introduce to
this world.”

“Why?” he asks in confusion.

“Let’s just say if the wrong people here
come to know all that I do, it could lead to some very unpleasant
things happening,” he explains. When Jiron turns to look at him, he
gives his friend a serious look which says there’s no point in
pursuing this any longer.

“As you wish,” he finally says. They ride on
in silence for awhile as Jiron’s mind mulls over what he just said.
He wonders what more James is capable of.

Another hour finds them coming to a river
which exits from a break in the mountain and joins the road as it
follows it down the side of the mountain to Madoc. James indicates
they should pull off the road and make camp.

Moving far enough through the trees so that
anyone passing by will unlikely be able to see them, they stop and
set about making camp. James is all but exhausted, still not having
recovered fully from the fight with the creatures and the effects
of whatever was in the vial. Jiron offers to watch while he sleeps
and he’s in no position to deny him. He no sooner lays his head on
his arm than he’s out.

Awakening in the morning, he finds Jiron has
managed to catch, clean and cook a small animal for their
breakfast. “Hungry?” he asks from where he sits at the fire. Next
to him is a pile of leaves with James’ portion lying upon it.

“Man you know it,” he says as he gets to his
feet and comes over. Shivering from the cold of the mountains, he
readily moves closer to the fire. Jiron hands him the leaves with
his food. “Thanks.”

“No problem,” Jiron replies. “Thought you
might need it.”

After taking a bite, he sits there a moment
chewing before he asks, “Do you think it wise to have a fire? Won’t
it attract anyone in the area?”

Shrugging, he says, “You need it. Besides,
that explosion had to have taken out most if not all the soldiers
back there. Anyone else it might attract would probably be from
Madoc.”

“Perhaps,” he replies. Then the memory of
those two creatures comes to mind and he’s not so sure. He sits
there and contemplates them, what they were and so forth. That’s
when he notices Jiron’s knife sheathes are empty. “They took your
knives?” he asks.

Nodding, Jiron says, “They took everything.
After I killed the last of those creatures they showed up and took
us to their camp. Thanks for those ice knives.”

James looks at him questioningly, “Ice
knives?”

“Yeah,” he says. “After you passed out and
the remaining creature crashed through the ice which had formed on
the barrier, I saw two knives lying there on the ground. Thought
you had made them.”

Thinking back, he vaguely remembers
something about that. “Don’t recall doing that, but maybe. My
memory is sort of hazy from then.”

“Understandable,” he says. “But
irregardless, those ice knives did the trick. Where mine were
ineffective, those worked perfectly.”

James sits there chewing as he attempts to
recall exactly what happened but the memories of that time are
still a bit foggy. Perhaps they’ll come back later. He does
remember what he realized about those creatures, that they were
creatures of fire. It stands to reason then that ice knives would
have more of an effect upon them.

“You said those creatures weren’t entirely
real,” Jiron says. “What did you mean by that?”

“One of the theories about the universe is
that there are many levels,” he explains. “According to that theory
the plane of existence we live upon is simply one among many. Some
hold to the belief that there are planes of existence where fire,
air, earth and water rule. This one we live on would be considered
a sort of centralized one where each of the four has an equal
footing. Each one has an opposite, the creatures of fire for
example are hurt most by forces made up of water or ice.”

Jiron nods as he begins to understand,
though is still having a hard time with the concepts.

“Gods and those associated with them live on
yet another plane, one more removed from that of the elements. I’ll
not even get into the theory of alternate reality and the fourth
dimension. Those even stymie many of the great thinkers of my
world.”
Great thinkers, right! More like a bunch of kids in some
backroom role playing.
He smiles at the thought. These were
just the sort of discussions he, Dave and the others used to have
on a regular basis.

“How many planes are there?” Jiron asks.

Shrugging, James says “Who knows? Now all
this still may be only conjecture and not fact. It’s just that
after seeing those two creatures earlier brought it to mind. We may
never learn one way or another.”
Of course Igor and Morcyth have
to come from somewhere don’t they?

James finishes the last of the roasted
animal and gets up to go over to a stream where he takes several
deep drinks. After that they put out the fire and remount to
continue heading down the mountain.

The next several hours find them coming to
the foothills at the base of the mountains and after cresting one
such hill can see the plains open up below them. Several miles
further ahead, smoke rises from a town nestled in among the hills.
The road they’re on continues toward it and then through it as it
disappears into the horizon to the east. Another road runs along
the base of the mountains moving north and south.

“Think Kerrin and Gayle are there?” Jiron
asks indicating the town ahead of them.

“They had to pass through in any event,”
replies James. “We’ll ask around when we get there and see if we
can discover anything.”

“Can you do that mirror thing?” he asks.

“Possibly,” he replies. “I’ll worry about
that when we get there, should we be unable to locate them.”

Nodding, Jiron kicks his horse and they
hurry along down the road.

The town they come to is fairly large, the
smell of smoke from many iron smelters permeates the air. “Looks
like they do a fair amount of iron smelting here,” comments Jiron
as they ride past several buildings doing just that.

“It would seem so,” agrees James. Past the
smelting complex they begin to enter the outskirts of the town
itself. Several beggars line the streets with their hands out
imploring the passersby to give them a coin. He feels sorry for
them but has no coins with which to give, Kerrin and Gayle took all
he and Jiron had. The horses they appropriated from the Empire’s
camp didn’t have any on them when they checked earlier.

“How are you going to find out if they’re
still here?” Jiron asks.

“I don’t know,” he replies as they continue
riding casually through town. Ahead of him he spies the mouth of an
alleyway and sitting against the corner of a building near the
entrance is an open barrel. He moves his horse toward it and
notices it is a barrel full of water, set there to catch the rain
as it runs off the roof.

Glancing around he doesn’t see anyone in the
immediate vicinity so brings his horse to a stop and dismounts. To
Jiron he says as he nods to the barrel of water, “I’ll use this.
Keep an eye out for anyone coming.”

“You got it,” he replies as he gets down and
stands watch.

Moving to the barrel, James releases the
magic as he concentrates on Kerrin and Gayle. The surface of the
water shimmers momentarily and then he sees them riding along a
road. The string of horses they had behind them earlier is nowhere
to be found. He expands the image but is unable to tell in which
direction they’re riding.

Letting the spell go, he then concentrates
on the medallion bearing the Star of Morcyth. He wants to see if
they got rid of it as well or if it still remains with them. The
image shifts and becomes dark.

“Someone’s coming,” Jiron says quietly.

Canceling the spell, James gradually moves
away from the barrel as the shopkeeper whose store they’re standing
next to comes toward them with an empty bucket.

“Here now,” he says when he sees them
loitering there. “What are you two up to?”

“Nothing, good sir,” James assures him.
“Simply getting a little bit of water from your barrel.”

“This isn’t for everyone,” the man says with
a grimace. “You two just move along now.” He stands there with a
stern expression on his face.

“Let’s go,” James tells Jiron and they take
their horses and begin walking away. He glances back after they’ve
moved along a ways and sees the merchant filling his bucket from
the barrel and then returns to his store.

“What did you find out?” Jiron asks
quietly.

“They’re no longer in town,” he replies.
“They no longer have our horses with them either.”

“Think they got rid of them here?” he
asks.

“Would think so,” replies James. “I don’t
think my medallion is with them either, though I couldn’t find out
exactly before that merchant came along.”

“If we find the horses, we may find your
medallion,” suggests Jiron.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” he
replies. Pausing a moment, he then mounts and Jiron follows suit.
They ride through town looking for the horses. He thought about
doing his bubble seeker spell again but discards the idea. If one
mage from the Empire was in the area, then another could be too.
The last thing he wants right now is to attract the attention of
the wrong sort of people. After all, he’s weakened magically
speaking and Jiron has no weapons.

Cruising through town, they come to the
market square where numerous hawkers are making their pitch.

“Last fruit of the season!” one merchant
hollers who’s standing out in front of a stand with the saddest lot
of fruit James has ever seen. He suddenly has a desire to taste one
of the peaches from home one more time. Sighing, he moves on.

“Come get the finest perfumes for your
lady,” another says. “One of these will bring you closer to her
heart.”

“Illion’s best knives here,” one lad says.
He stands on a box in front of a store, a long wicked looking knife
held in each hand. “Knives for every occasion! Whether for the lady
in the kitchen or the warrior on the battlefield, we have them
all!”