The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (42 page)

“The Empire is but the finger of the true
enemy!” he cries to the crowd. “He shall rain fire down and all
will be consumed.” Gesticulating wildly, he begins rocking from one
foot to the other.

“James,” Miko says.

Suddenly coming back to himself, James
realizes he stopped in the middle of the street. “Sorry,” he says
as he resumes his way down the street.

“The ground will burn and dark shadows will
walk the night,” the man cries. “They will feast upon the living
until none survive!”

A chill runs down James’ back as the man
mentions shadows. A memory comes to him of another place where
shadows had walked in a fire blackened forest. Coming to a stop
again, he turns toward the crowd.

“We can’t stop here,” Fifer warns, glancing
down both directions. So far, no one seems to be paying their group
any attention.

Not heeding his words, James moves closer to
the wild man. Miko and Fifer glance to each other in concern and
move to follow.

“You’re a nut!” one lady exclaims to the
laughter of the others.

“Go away and tell your tales of doom
elsewhere,” another hollers to him.

James reaches the edge of the crowd and
begins making his way through to the front.

“We must fight him!” the wild man cries out.
“We must drive him back!” He suddenly stills his frantic motion and
his voice becomes all but inaudible as he says with quiet
intensity, “But it’s not by the sword that he will be turned
aside.”

The crowd guffaws at him and other insults
are cast at him as James reaches the leading edge of the crowd.
“What are we to do?” he asks the man.

Specks of foam form at the corners of his
mouth as the man’s eyes turn to him. “The temple must rise,” he
says, so quietly that James almost can’t make out the words.

“What temple?” he asks, heart pounding.

Then madness seems to take him as he cries
out, “The temple must fall! Else all will be lost!”

“James!” exclaims Miko as he grabs his
shoulder.

The crowd begins to scream as several armed
men approach with swords in hand. James turns to find Orlander,
along with six other men coming toward him. That’s when he realizes
his hood had fallen off while he was listening to the wild man.

“You’re dead!” Orlander screams as he and
the others race forward.

“Come on!” Miko cries as he turns James and
propels him away.

Racing away, he turns to glance one more
time to the wild man but the man is nowhere in sight.
Must have
been scared off by Orlander and his bunch.

“Which way?” Miko asks as they run down the
street.

The wild man forgotten, James is now more
concerned about losing their pursuers. “Renlon’s are off that way,”
he says indicating to the far side of town. “But I don’t want to
involve them.” Suddenly, a flash of light bursts into life far
above them for a brief moment before disappearing.

“What was that?” asks Fifer.

“Just letting Jiron and the others know we
need help,” he says as they turn around a corner and race down the
main thoroughfare of Illion.

People are on the street and they receive
many words of protest as they race through them, at times knocking
people over or items out of their hands. Behind them, the crowd
parts quickly when they see Orlander’s group hot on their tail.

“Blast them James,” Miko cries out.

“Too many innocents around,” he says. “I
dare not.”

Ahead of them is an intersection where
another main street crosses the one they’re on. To the left would
lead them to Renlon’s Iron so James turns to the right and moves
onto the new street.

Suddenly from out of the crowd on the
street, a porter carrying several boxes appears before him and he
crashes into the man. Boxes flying everywhere, James and the man go
crashing down to the street.

Miko and Fifer in their haste move past
before they even realize what’s happened. When they do, they come
to a stop and return to him just as Orlander and his bunch show
up.

James pulls out a rock from his pocket as he
and the others ready to meet the charge. Then from behind
Orlander’s group, several horses appear in the intersection they
had just left. Another starburst in the sky and the horsemen turn
to race their way.

“No tricks are going to save you this time,”
Orlander says as he readies his sword and advances upon him. He
takes three steps forward before he hears the thunder of the hooves
approaching from behind. Turning, he sees Jiron and the rest
bearing down fast. Lurching to the side, he moves out of their way
a split second before they would’ve run over him.

Jiron reaches down a hand to James who
swings up onto the horse behind him. Qyrll grabs Fifer and Uther
takes Miko. They fly down the street away from Orlander. Glancing
back, James sees him picking himself off the ground and staring at
him, hate in his eyes.

At the next intersection, he signals Jiron
to come to a stop. “I still need to talk to the Renlon’s.”

Nodding, he says to the others, “Go back and
get their horses, James and I are going back.”

“Are you mad?” Dave asks from his position
next to them. “They’ll kill you!”

“Not now Dave,” James tells him. To everyone
he says, “Meet us east of town in half an hour or less.”

“We’ll be there,” Fifer tells him.

As the others begin leaving, Dave hesitates.
“Go on Dave,” James tells him. “Stay with the others, I’ll be
alright.”

Not happy about the situation, Dave turns
his horse and gallops after the others.

“Let’s make this fast,” he tells Jiron.

Turning down a side street, they angle their
way quickly around town until the complex of Renlon’s Iron appears
before them. The whole place looks deserted for the evening save
for a single light coming from the window of the office building
where he met them the last time.

Coming to a stop before the door, James gets
down and says, “Don’t go anywhere.”

Chuckling, Jiron replies, “That’s a dumb
thing to say.”

James flashes him a grin and nods. Moving to
the door, he opens it and passes through to the other side.

The older Renlon is sitting at the desk as
he was the last time. Looking up, his eyes widen is surprise when
he sees him come in. “James!” he exclaims coming to his feet. “What
are you doing back here?”

Dispensing with the pleasantries, he asks,
“Ever heard of a place called Ironhold?”

“Ironhold?” he asks. “What makes you ask
about that?”

“I need to find it,” he explains. “Do you
know where it is?”

“Sure,” he says. “Just follow the north road
out of town and you’ll run right into it.”

“Thanks,” says James as he turns to
leave.

“Just a minute,” the senior Renlon says.

Pausing, James turns back and says, “I
haven’t much time.”

Nodding, he replies, “I heard about
Orlander’s tavern, bad business that. You do that?”

“Yeah,” he says. “Didn’t mean to, things
just sort of got out of hand.”

“Heard he wants you in a bad way.” Looking
at him with a worried expression he asks, “He didn’t follow you
here did he?”

Shaking his head, James says, “I don’t think
so.”

“Good, we don’t need that headache,” he
replies. Returning to his seat behind the desk he motions for James
to sit in the chair opposite him. “About Ironhold,” he begins.
“Just what takes you there?”

“Can’t really explain,” is all the answer
he’s willing to give.

He looks at him for a moment before saying,
“It’s the northern most town in Madoc, situated in the pass leading
to the northern kingdoms. Used to be a mining town, been there for
as long as I remember. They say it’s haunted.”

“Haunted?” James asks.

“That’s right,” he says, nodding. “Over the
last century or so there have been those who have tried to bring
those mines back in service. But every time something happens and
the project fails.”

“Like what?” he asks.

“Last time the miners claimed apparitions of
those who have died in the mines before appeared. Scared them bad
and they left. Other times ore carts are found broken apart, things
come up missing. I even heard one time several miners disappeared
for several days only to be found wandering around in the forest
days later.”

“The whole place is cursed,” he warns. “You
might wish to reconsider going there.”

James sits there a moment as he digests what
he just heard. Then he says, “Nevertheless, I have to go.”

Getting to his feet, the senior Renlon says,
“Then be careful.”

“I will,” replies James as he, too, gets to
his feet. “I appreciate the warning.”

The door opens and Jiron’s head pops in.
“James, we’ve got to go.”

“Be right there,” he says. Turning back he
holds his hand out as he says, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Renlon says, shaking his
hand.

Moving quickly to the door, he joins Jiron
outside and they mount. He turns to the sound of the door opening
and waves to the senior Renlon standing there as Jiron kicks the
horse into motion and they bolt away into the night.

As soon as they leave Renlon’s Iron, they
turn and ride around the edge of town until they meet up with the
others on the eastern side. “Any trouble?” asks Fifer.

Shaking his head, James replies, “No.” He
dismounts from behind Jiron and moves over to mount his own
steed.

“Did you find out what you wanted to know?”
Dave asks.

“Yes I did,” he says. “If we follow the
north road out of town, we’ll come right to it.”

“Excellent,” Uther states. “How far is
it?”

James’ enthusiasm dampens somewhat when he
replies, “I forgot to ask.”

“No matter,” interjects Jiron. “We know
where it lies.”

They get their horses in motion and
circumvent the town until they reach the north road then turn to
follow it. James doesn’t inform them about the strange occurrences
at the mines. He figures they have enough to worry about right now.
Besides, they could be the overactive imagination of miners left
too long alone. Somehow that idea doesn’t bring him any
consolation.

Riding through the night, they decide to put
many miles behind them before they stop and rest until morning. The
road moves through the foothills for the first couple of hours but
then finally leaves them behind as it moves into open plains. No
inns in sight, they pull off the road and make a camp some ways
from the road.

Bellies grumbling from lack of food, they
settle into their blankets. The stars are bright overhead which on
the one hand is good as there’ll be no rain. But bad on the other
as what warmth there is in the air will be gone by morning,
escaping back into space.

In the morning as the sun breaks over the
horizon, they awaken to find frost covering the grass and their
breath fogs in the cold air of a fall morning. Shivering, they
break camp and return to the road.

“I’m starving,” complains Dave as they make
the road and turn to follow it north.

“We all are,” assures James. “We’ll get
something to eat at the next town.”

“If there is a next town,” he hears his
friend grumble under his breath.

Sighing, James rolls his eyes and tries not
to worry about his friend. Frankly he has too much on his mind. He
worries whether or not Orlander will be coming after him, if the
Empire has more forces in the area, not to mention those
creatures.

Also on his mind is what that crazy guy back
in Illion had said.
The temple must rise
. Then he went and
contradicted himself by saying the temple had to fall. He would
completely dismiss it if it weren’t for the other things the man
had said about shadows and fire. He could’ve been just a crazy man
and his ramblings nonsense, but he doesn’t think so. And finally
ahead of them is a place he’s been told strange occurrences have
been happening for some time. Altogether too much to worry
about.

Dave rides next to him as does Miko, one on
either side. Two hours after leaving camp, a farmstead appears off
to their right, quite a ways off the road. People are seen working
the fields around it, probably bringing in the last of whatever
crop they had.

“Fifer,” he says coming to a stop. “Take
Miko and go over there to see if we can buy some food.” He pulls
out the pouch he acquired at Orlander’s and removes some coins
which he hands to Fifer.

“Sure,” he says, taking the coins. He and
Miko then leave the road and begin making their way to the
homestead.

James sits there with the others as they
watch them approach. When the farmers notice them approaching, they
hurry from the fields to the house. Fifer and Miko come to a stop
near the house and look to be talking with the locals. After a few
moments, one of them is seen going to the house and returning with
several sacks and gives them to Miko. Several more words are
exchanged before they turn about and return to the others.

As they approach, he sees Miko giving him a
big smile as he holds up one of the sacks the farmers gave him. “We
got food!” he exclaims once they’re close enough.

“Should be enough for a day or two,” Fifer
says.

“Good,” says Dave coming forward.

Miko begins handing out some bread, cheese
and dried beef to the others before they resume their northward
trek. Once everyone has their share, James is gratified to see that
the sacks still contain quite a bit of food.

They continue on for the rest of the day,
the sun doing little to warm them. A cold breeze feels like it’s
blowing down off the mountain. “Might be an early snow,” Uther
announces at one point.

“Let’s hope it holds off until we get back
over the mountains,” Jorry says.

“Amen to that,” James adds.

The proximity of the mountains probably has
a lot to do with the drop in temperature. Of course a cold northern
could be on its way down to make life a misery for the travelers.
Either way, they pull their jackets closer together and do their
best to keep warm.