Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

“I’m just happy they didn’t see us,” says Jiron.

“Me too,” James says.

They climb back down to where their horses are awaiting them. Once they’re mounted again, they make their way through the hills toward the northeast.

An hour of riding brings them to where the hills end. To the north is nothing but open plains. To their left is the river where it turns to the north. They can still see the keep far to the west and are relieved when they fail to see anyone around.

“We’ll be pretty conspicuous out there,” Jiron says, indicating the open plains.

“Don’t have much choice unless we want to just sit here forever,” reasons James.

“Maybe we should stick close to the river?” Miko suggests.

Shaking his head, James replies, “Might not be a good idea. If there’ll be anyone around, most likely they’ll be by the river.”

“Oh,” he says.

“Let’s stick to the plains, but keep the river in view,” suggest Jiron.

“Alright,” agrees James. “As good a plan as any.”

Miko gives him an annoyed look.

“What?” James asks him.

“You never take my suggestions but are always taking his,” he accuses.

“Take it easy,” James tells him. “I don’t always take his suggestions. We, meaning all three of us, try to come up with the best course of action. Whichever one sounds the best, we do. Don’t take things so personally.”

Miko doesn’t look very satisfied with his response.

“Shall we?” Jiron asks, looking from one to the other.

“Let’s,” replies James. Miko gives a nod as well.

Jiron moves out, the others follow as he angles east, away from the river. They proceed until it’s just in view behind them before turning more directly to the north. As they travel, they keep a constant watch for anyone out upon the plains, but it looks as if they’re the only ones about.

By the time they stop for the night, the keep has long since disappeared behind them. All they can see in every direction now is plains, with the river cutting its way through them to the west.

They decide upon not lighting a fire so as not to alert anyone in the area where they are. Cold rations are the fare this evening, they still have some cooked meat strips from the previous nights to fill them up. James is still feeling the need for more than just meat, but will have to wait on that.

During Miko’s shift in the middle of the night, he hears horses racing past off in the distance. In the moonlight, he can make out a group of perhaps ten riders. He almost wakes the others but then doesn’t when he realizes they’re not coming their way.

When he wakes Jiron for his turn at watch, he tells him of the riders.

“It might have been that warrior priest,” suggests Jiron once he’s heard.

“Do you think so?” Miko asks, worried.

“Don’t be too worried, remember, we’re in the land of the Clans,” he tells him. “It could very well have just been a group of riders moving from one place to another. Nothing says it has to do anything with us.”

As Miko lies down to sleep, Jiron continues, “Just try to get some sleep, we’ll need our rest tomorrow.”

“Alright,” says Miko.

Soon, Jiron can hear the soft sound of his snores in the night. He spends much of his watch staring out across the moonlit plains, searching for riders. He’s much more worried about the riders Miko had told him of than he’d made out, just didn’t want Miko to fret about them.

In the morning when James awakens he tells him of what Miko saw last night. “I wish I had been awake,” he says to Jiron. “Then I might have felt if Abula-Mazki had been among the group.”

“If that was him,” Jiron says, “then he’s ahead of us.”

Nodding his head, James replies, “I know, that could make things difficult to say the least.”

“He’ll probably enlist the aid of the nearest garrison, as well as send for reinforcements,” Jiron guesses. “We haven’t any time to waste sitting around here.”

“I agree,” James says as he goes over and wakes up Miko.

They mount and quickly make their way toward the north, still following the river from a distance. The river continues almost due north as it flows to the south and James finds it odd that there are no villages along the riverbank.

“I would think there would be someone living along the river,” he states during their travel.

“Why?” Miko asks.

“It’s a good place to live,” he tells him. “You have access to fish and fresh water, plus transportation south as needed. It’s just odd is all.”

“Maybe the clansmen don’t allow anyone to live there?” Jiron guesses.

“Perhaps,” says James as he reflects upon it. “You may be right, this could be the border area between the Clans’ land and the Empire as agreed upon in that Treaty they’d mentioned. If that’s the case, then there most likely will be minimal people inhabiting this area.”

“Which could prove beneficial to us,” Jiron says with optimism.

An hour or two past noon, Jiron points to the west and then hollers out, “James!”

James looks over to the west and sees a band of riders on the other side of the river. One rider has broken from the others as he races to the north, the others pace them as they move north. He can see the riders casting glances their way.

“Damn!” James curses. “They’ve seen us.”

“And it looks like one is going for help,” adds Jiron.

James begins to angle his horse to the east and the others follow his lead. “Need to put some distance between us, fast.”

“It won’t take them long to find us now that they know about where we are,” Jiron says as he gallops along beside James.

“Let’s put off that meeting as long as we can,” James replies as they race through the tall grass. He’s worried that at their speed, one of their horses might put a hoof in a gopher hole or something that will break its leg. That would prove disastrous.

Glancing behind, he sees that the river and the riders are no longer visible. They turn to a more northerly course and push their horses as hard as they can.

A horn sounding to the southeast causes them to glance over their shoulders. There behind them are several dozen riders coming fast. They look to be clansmen, but which ones they can’t tell from this distance.

They continue racing north, maintaining their lead from the approaching riders. Hills begin to appear to the northwest. James begins to angle toward them, the hills would give them a better chance than open plains.

“But what about the riders we saw there earlier?” Miko shouts to James.

“There’re less of them than what’s behind us,” he replies. “Besides, we stand a better chance among the hills.”

They continue racing toward the hills, Miko keeps glancing behind them at the pursuing riders. Though they’re not closing the gap, they’re not falling behind either. Worried, he does his best to keep up with the others.

As they near the hills, they can once more see the river as it flows around the hills to the west. The riders who had been over on the other side are nowhere to be seen.

“James!” hollers Jiron. “The horses can’t keep this up, we’re going to have to do something about those riders behind us.”

“I know,” James tells him.

The first hill they come to rises thirty or more feet above the plains. James steers his horse toward it and begins to climb to the top, the others move to follow him.

At the top, he gets down from his horse and hands the reins to Miko. “Just don’t let him get away,” he tells him.

Miko nods his head as he takes the reins.

Jiron and Miko just stand there as they watch James. He faces the oncoming riders and suddenly brings his hands together and then after holding them closed for a moment quickly flings them open. A dozen small blobs appear to be thrown from his hands and land on the ground.