Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

Delia looks at him and says, “That’s cheating.”

James shrugs and gives her a grin, and then he puts it away as they prepare to get underway.

At one point they come across where an old building had once stood, its wooden frame now lying broken and vacant. At a suggestion from Tinok, they stop and jury-rig a canopy for the water wagon from the building’s wooden remains. They find four boards that they manage to secure to the wagons frame and then tie a blanket atop it. Not exactly stylish but it helps. The two lads just smile and shake their heads at it all, they’re just fine riding in the sun on their wagons.

The rest of the day passes fairly uneventfully, just endless miles of dry hills with only the occasional traveler coming from the south. By the end of the day, they’ve already emptied one of the barrels of water and have begun to drain a second. They have had to stop every other hour to give each horse some to drink.

With the sun settling close to the horizon, they pull off the road to make camp. Once the horses are taken care of, they settle down around the campfire and have dinner while they swap tales and songs. Before the end of it, the two lads come over and join the fun. One of them, Hakim, even sang a song while his bother, Hakir, told a story that only Roland could understand. He did his best to translate and everyone enjoyed it.

As the fire begin to burn low, everyone starts turning in. James can’t seem to fall asleep, worry about Miko keeping him awake. So he just lies back and stares at the stars, still amazed at just how much clearer they are here than back home. Must be ‘cause there’s no smog here, he figures. Whatever the reason, they seem to work like counting sheep for before he even realizes it, he’s asleep.

He wakes in the middle of the night, noise from where the horses are picketed having disturbed him. The fire has long since burned out and the only light is that from the stars above. He sits up and looks around but doesn’t see anything out of the ordinary, everyone else is still asleep. Even Hakim and Hakir are snoring peacefully under their wagons.

Then one of the horses snorts again and he can hear several others begin to pace around. Suspecting trouble, he quietly crawls over to Jiron and wakes him with a gentle shake. “Trouble,” he whispers to him as he comes fully awake.

He sees him nod his head in the starlight as he sits up, looking around. “The horses are skittish for some reason,” James whispers to him. “Go check it out and I’ll wake Tinok.”

Again, Jiron nods his head as he gets up, silent as a cat and begins making his way over to the horses.

Just as James reaches Tinok’s side, he sits up, a knife in his hand as he strikes out. Stopping the blade just inches from James’ nose, he asks, “What the hell are you doing?”

“Quiet!” James whispers intently. “Something’s going on.”

Suddenly very alert, Tinok looks around.

“The horses,” James whispers to him, “something’s got them…”

Suddenly, a cry splits the night, coming from where Jiron had gone to check on the horses. Without even thinking, James casts a spell and his glowing orb appears over the camp, brightly illuminating the area. There they can see Jiron in battle with two men, armed with swords and others approaching out of the desert.

Everyone else comes awake, Cassie screams and James says to the rest, “Stay together!” as he and Tinok race over to where Jiron is being hard pressed by the bandits.

As he runs, James takes out one of his iron slugs and casts it at an oncoming bandit, taking him through the stomach. As the slug exits through his back, gore flies as he falls over dead.

As they reach Jiron, Tinok kicks out and knocks one of his opponents down and then begins to battle another, knives flashing in a blinding arc of speed.

Having Tinok distracting one of his attackers, Jiron is able to be more on the offense with deadly results as another of the attackers falls to the ground.

Two men appear out of the night, coming straight for James. One of them is the man who had offered them his services outside the merchant’s guild. “It appears you did need our services after all,” he says with a grin full of malice.

“Not necessarily,” James says as the power surges out of him. A wave of force throws them backward and he takes one out quickly with a slug. The other man, the one who approached them outside the merchant’s guild, gains his feet quickly and comes at James with sword in hand.

Just before the man closes with James, Jiron comes running and imposes himself between the man and James. The man strikes out with his sword and Jiron deflects it with one knife while following through with the other. Dancing backward, the man pauses a moment as he takes in the situation. He’s the only one left standing.

Turning, he begins to race away when a slug flies from the other side of camp and strikes him between the shoulder blades. A snap can be heard as the man’s spine is shattered. He falls to the ground and lies still, whimpering with pain, paralyzed.

“Good shot!” Tinok says to Delia who is putting away her sling.

Jiron moves to the man lying on the ground and can see the pain in his eyes. Bending over, he takes his knife and ends the man’s misery. Turning to James he asks, “Who were these guys?”

Pointing to the dead man at Jiron’s feet he says, “That one offered me the service of his band for guard duty, but I turned him down. Guess he figured we were easy prey.”

“Guess he thought wrong,” Tinok says, chuckling. Cassie runs over to Tinok, burying her head in his shoulder, crying.

Jiron and James check the horses and find them fine then return to the camp. A fire has already been started from the embers of their earlier one. “Everyone alright?” James asks as they return.

“We’re fine,” Delia replies. The two lads had come out as well, knives at the ready, but have sheathed them again now that the fight was over.

James can hear Tinok trying to calm Cassie by saying, “It’s okay, it’s over.”

Jiron begins the task of dragging the bodies out into the desert away from camp, while everyone else takes stock of the situation.

As James sits down by the fire, the two lads stare at him with eyes wide. “What?” he says to them.

They reply in their own language.

“I would appreciate it if you would never mention this to anyone?” he asks, an edge to his voice. He’s surprised when they both nod their heads in quick agreement. Maybe they can’t speak it, just understand it.

When Jiron returns, he says to James, “You’re getting better, less tired.”

“Been getting a lot of practice lately,” he says. “Too much if you ask me.”

“I’ll say,” Tinok agrees from where he stands nearby with Cassie, though he doesn’t seem too disappointed at being able to ‘practice’ with his knives.

After a while, when everyone has calmed down, they all try to go back to sleep, only this time taking turns at watch.

The next day they see scavengers over at the dead bodies, having a little morning breakfast. As quickly as possible, they hook up the horses and get on the road, none wish to remain a second longer near the dead bandits.

For the rest of the day, they make very good time, having only to stop to water and feed the horses. A little before sunset they come to a small cluster of buildings, hardly large enough to even call it a village.

“Looks to be just a way stop for travelers,” guesses James.

“Could be,” agrees Jiron. “Look,” he says as he points to a group of wagons already camped a short ways from the buildings, “you may be right.”

James says, “Looks like as good a place as any to stop for the night.”