Brian Pratt: Fires of prophesy

“Damn!” Jiron exclaims as he races after her.

The rest hurry after, attempting to catch up with Jiron and Delia.

“Are you crazy?” Jiron yells at Delia when he catches up with her.

Getting down from her horse, she goes over to one of the bodies lying on the ground to see if they’re still alive. Not paying Jiron any attention, she moves on to the next.

He dismounts and goes over to her, grabbing her by the arm and turns her to face him. “We cannot stay here! The Empire will use this road and it’s only a matter of time before they get here.”

Staring him in the eye, she says, “Let go of my arm!” and continues staring him down until he does. When he lets go, she says, “Then help me, but I’m not leaving until I know there is no one here to help.” She turns her back on him and continues on to the next person.

James rides up and says, “We gotta get out of here.”

Jiron looks at him and says, “She won’t leave until she’s sure there’s no one to help.”

“Damn!” James curses, and then looks up and down the road, making sure no one is approaching. “Alright, everyone fan out and search for survivors. Cassie,” he says to her, “you keep a lookout and if anyone comes from either direction, you let us know, fast.”

She nods her head and then finds a position where she can keep both directions of the road in view. It’s not too hard as this is a rather small town with only a dozen or so buildings.

The others move from body to body but are only finding dead ones. Jiron goes through the buildings, but again, no one alive is found.

“Someone’s coming!” Cassie yells as she hurries back toward them.

“Where?” yells Jiron and James simultaneously.

She points off toward the west and says, “There.”

James looks and asks, “Did you see how many?”

“More than one,” she replies. “But I didn’t count, I felt you needed to know as soon as possible.”

“Delia!” James hollers over to her. When he has her attention, he points to the west and says, “We’ve got company!”

She looks west and sees the rider coming and runs over to where the others are. Tinok has already gathered the horses and they all enter one of the larger buildings, bringing the horses inside. James and Jiron take position by the window and watch. The others hold the horses, trying to keep them as quiet as possible.

It’s not long before they hear the approaching riders. James watches as perhaps a score of riders make their way through the center of town, passing right in front of where they’re hiding.

“…the dead? Seems wrong,” they hear one of them say. The man speaks with the accent of one from the Empire.

“We don’t have time to take care of it now,” another one replies with the same accent.

As the riders pass by where they’re hiding, one of them glances over at the window they’re looking out. Ducking to the sides of the window, James and Jiron quickly move out of view. The man must not have seen them for he turns back and continues riding through town. Twenty riders in all pass by on their way through the town.

They wait for several minutes, allowing the riders to move further down the road before they exit the building. James peeks out and sees the riders have already ridden out of sight.

Seeing no one else on the road in either direction, he asks Delia, “Can we leave now?”

“I’m sorry for putting us in jeopardy,” she says a little guilty, “but I couldn’t leave without knowing.”

“We understand,” Jiron says, “but think before you act next time, our lives may depend on it. Okay?”

“Alright,” Delia says.

Once the horses have been brought back outside, they remount. Then with James in the lead, they head south out of town, making their way into the grasslands.

Several times during the afternoon, they have to make detours when riders appear in the distance. Each time they were sure they would be discovered, yet each time the riders continued on until they were again out of sight.

When the sun begins to dip toward the horizon, they are still out in the middle of the grasslands. They decide to make camp, forgoing a fire in favor of not alerting the countryside to their presence.

They quickly eat before the sun sets completely and picket the horses close by their camp, leaving the saddles on in case they need to leave quickly. Not good for the horses, but necessary.

“Do you think we’re catching them?” Cassie asks while they’re eating.

“Who?” James responds. “The slavers?”

Cassie nods her head and says, “Yes.”

“I would think so,” he answers, nodding his head. “They have lots of people walking while we’re riding, even though we are taking a more roundabout way we have to be gaining on them.”

They sit there in silence for the rest of their meal. When they’re done, they all settle down and get ready for sleep. James lies there and stares up at the sky as it continues to darken into full night.

“James?” he hears Delia say.

“Yeah?” he replies.

“Where’re you from?” she asks.

“A long ways from here and probably won’t be back for quite a while,” he replies. “Why?”

“Just curious is all,” she answers.

“Is everyone there mages?” Cassie asks.

“No, there are actually none there,” he says. “I may be the first.”

“You’re the first one I’ve ever met,” she says.

“Do I live up to your expectations?” he asks, amused.

“No,” she said, “you’re nice.”

James laughs then sobers up and asks, “Are all the mages here mean?”

Tinok says, “Most people believe them to be. All you ever hear about is how mages ruin things and hurt people. Seeing what you’ve already done, it’s not hard to understand why that is.”

“It’s all perspective,” James says, “plus most tales of how mages help won’t be believed and only the interesting ones are told again and again. Those tend to be the ones where they are not very nice.”

“Suppose you’re right,” he concludes.

“Maybe we should all be thinking about going to sleep,” Jiron’s voice cuts through the night. “We have lots of ground to cover and people to find.”

“You’re right,” James agrees. Turning over, he tries to find a comfortable spot on the ground. I hate sleeping on the ground! Eventually, he’s able to drift off to sleep.

The morning dawns beautifully and James wakes up stiff and aching due to another night spent on the hard ground. After getting up, he rummages through his backpack and comes up with some food for breakfast. While he eats he begins walking around the camp, trying to work the kinks out of his muscles.

It doesn’t take long before they’re all up, eaten, and ready to ride. Once everyone is mounted, they continue south, hoping to find where the slavers are heading. At one point during the morning, James takes out his compass and locates the general direction of where the slavers are. The needle points off to the southeast, more east than south. We’re gaining on them, he thinks to himself. Putting his compass away, he continues on, beginning to feel much better about the possibility of a rescue. Just hang on Miko.

They don’t travel much further before a running man appears from the east. Behind him, two fast moving riders are in hot pursuit, racing to intercept the man.

“We must help him,” Delia cries.

Jiron and Tinok glance at one another and with a cry, they kick their horses to a gallop as they ride to aid the fleeing man. James and the girls follow behind at a safer pace, keeping an eye to the east for any other pursuers.

One of the riders aims a crossbow at the fleeing man, and James sees the man’s pace falter as he’s struck by the crossbow bolt. Stumbling, he loses his balance and hits the ground.