Brian Pratt - Warrior priest of Dmon-Li

Jiron notices the brown robe and glances to James who says, “I see him too.”

“What do you plan?” Lord Pytherian asks.

“Another distraction?” asks Jiron.

“Distraction?” says Lord Pytherian, glancing at James.

“May not have much choice,” replies James. Sighing at the inevitable, he turns to Lord Pytherian and says, “You and Miko stay here while Jiron and I arrange for some of the guards to be drawn away.”

“What are you going to do?” he asks.

James looks him in the eye and says, “You’ll see.” Turning back to Jiron he asks, “Ready?”

Giving him a mischievous grin, he replies, “You bet.”

To Lord Pytherian, he says, “We’ll be back in a few minutes. No matter what you may see and hear, don’t move from this spot. Understand?”

Lord Pytherian nods his head.

“Let’s go,” he says to Jiron as they head out.

Lord Pytherian watches them go back down the alley away from the gate. He asks Miko, “What are they going to do?”

Shrugging, he replies, “I don’t really know. When I first met James, he could hardly do anything without going unconscious or having horrendous headaches. But the last few weeks he’s been able to do the most amazing things.”

James follows Jiron through the back alleys until they’ve put some distance between the east gate and themselves. “You know,” he says to Jiron, “when this all begins to let loose, they’ll know we’re not in the Keep.”

“True,” he replies, quickly making his way along a dark alley. “But hopefully that information will come too late to be of much use.”

James comes to a stop and says, “Let’s pause here a moment.” A couple seconds later, five small bubbles appear and begin to float away.

“Now let’s see if we can find a building that’s not being used right now,” he says as he indicates for Jiron to resume leading the way.

Nodding, Jiron sets out and a couple blocks down they find a warehouse. Looking inside, they see it stocked with bolts of fabric and other valuables, but otherwise unoccupied.

“This’ll work,” announces James. He pauses next to the side of the building and ever so briefly, a spot on the wall lights up and then disappears. They go all the way around the building, stopping at each side for a moment until the light flashes just as it had on the first side before continuing on.

Once they have paused on each of the four sides of the building, they then move back closer to the eastern gate. One street runs almost directly from the eastern gate to the warehouse they just visited. They make their way carefully down the street until coming to within five hundred feet of the eastern gate, far enough away so that the lights from the gate won’t reveal them.

James pauses at one point on the north side of the street for a moment then moves down fifty feet where he again pauses for a second. Then he makes sure no one is looking before darting across to the other side where he does the same thing on the other side of the street, directly across from the two places he’d stopped at on the north side.

Satisfied, he gives Jiron a nod and they begin to move back to where the others are waiting. James grabs his arm as he starts to cross the area between the points where he’d just stopped those four times. When he looks at him, James whispers, “Not a good idea.”

Nodding, he moves back and skirts that area. Ducking down a side alley to avoid a patrol, they finally make it back to where the others are waiting.

Lord Pytherian sees them coming and waves them over. When James comes next to him, he says, “Nothing happened.”

“Just wait,” James assures him.

Suddenly, they see a shimmering bubble making its way slowly down the street toward the soldiers at the gate. The translucent bubble is hard to see unless you know what you’re looking for. As it gets closer, the mage there suddenly turns his head toward the bubble, sensing its magic resonance.

The mage says something to a soldier next to him who barks an order and everyone there comes immediately to attention. The crossbowmen on the walls are staring intently into the darkness of the street but fail to find anyone.

The bubble abruptly turns around and goes back the other way. The mage, sensing the magic moving away from him moves to follow when from across the town…

Crumph!

…the warehouse erupts in a tremendous explosion throwing fire and stone into the air. The mage immediately begins moving toward the explosion, half the soldiers going with him.

James can detect several of the bubbles in the area, throwing off the senses of the mage as he tries to hunt down the source of the magic he’s sensing. He watches as the mage begins walking determinedly down the street, directly toward the place where he’d stopped those four times. When he reaches the center of it, four lights flare into being. The mage cries out as he falls to the ground and the soldiers with him try to run but are stopped by an invisible barrier that has sprung up between those four lights, boxing them in. Trapped, the soldiers begin crying out as they strike the barrier with their swords and fists but to no avail.

James takes some slugs out of the pouch at his hip and begins launching them up to the crossbowmen on the walls. One by one, they’re struck and begin falling off the walls, some landing within the courtyard, others falling outside the walls.

Pytherian glances to James with renewed respect as he continues launching slugs until the walls are cleared of crossbowmen.

With his knives drawn, Jiron says, “Milord, it’s our turn.”

Nodding, he pulls the sword from its scabbard as they move toward the soldiers guarding the gate.

As Miko turns to follow them, James grabs his arm and says, “We need to open the gate.”

Snapping back to himself, Miko nods and follows James to the gatehouse. On the way, James takes out two more guards before Jiron and Lord Pytherian begin to engage them.

Within the gatehouse are several levers and James begins pulling them at random. Miko stands at the door to the gatehouse, sword drawn and keeping a lookout. A loud clatter suddenly can be heard coming from the gates and then they begin to slowly swing open.

“Let’s go,” he says to Miko as they leave the gatehouse. A horn sounds from the top of the wall as a soldier there warns of the gate beginning to open. James looks to Jiron and Lord Pytherian who have already disposed of half the remaining guards and are standing back to back as they hold off the last four.

Down the street, past where the soldiers are trapped by the force fields, James can see a band of cavalry coming.

“My Lord!” a voice cries out.

Coming through the east gate are Miller and his band who’re moving to engage the soldiers battling Lord Pytherian and Jiron. They quickly overwhelm them and secure the immediate area.

“My Lord,” Miller cries out as he reaches his side. “We must leave!” Behind Miller is an extra horse for Lord Pytherian.

As he gets into the saddle, Lord Pytherian hollers, “James! Come on!” More crossbowmen are running along the wall as they rush to join the battle before the gate.

Jiron mounts up behind his friend as James and Miko run toward them. Bolts begin raining down as some of the crossbowmen on the walls near the gate.

James glances down the street and sees the cavalry already moving around the trapped men and racing toward them.

Crumph!

The ground under the leading horses erupts, throwing men and horses into the air and causing those behind them to come to a stop.

One of Miller’s band cries out as a crossbow bolt strikes him in the back, causing him to fall from his horse. James makes for the now riderless horse and quickly mounts. He reaches down and helps Miko up behind him as bolts continue falling among them.