Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

James just looks at him and says, “After the last time? I don’t think so.”

“We’ll be careful,” Stig says.

“No,” James tells him, “not here. Down the road maybe, but not here. Too dangerous.”

“James’s right,” Jiron says.

Disappointed, he goes back to his fellows and breaks the news to them. Jiron and James can hear groans coming from them as he tells them his reply. Here the seat of the enemy’s power? He would have to be mad to allow it.

Three hours later when the daylight begins to fade, Delia has yet to return. James has been pacing around the last hour, dread growing with every passing minute. “Something’s wrong,” he tells Jiron when he comes to a stop next to him.

“Not necessarily,” he says. “She’s been gone longer than this before.”

“If she waits much longer she may run the risk of having the gates close on her,” James says.

“Do the gates close here at night?” Jiron asks.

“I don’t know, but there’s always the chance,” he replies.

“What should we do?” he asks.

“Let’s go and find her,” James suggests.

“Good, I’m tired of just sitting here,” he says.

“What about the rest of us?” Tersa asks nervously.

“Just stay here with them,” James says indicating Stig and the others, “and we’ll be back as soon as we find them.” He then goes over and explains to them what he and Jiron are about to do and then they begin walking toward the gates to the city.

“We don’t even speak the language,” Jiron says.

“Hopefully that won’t be a problem,” James tells him. “I’ve seen many northerners here so hopefully we won’t stick out too much.”

“Where are we going to start looking?” Jiron asks before they reach the gate.

“Not sure,” he replies.

At the gate, they’re looked at by the guards, but other than that cursory examination, are allowed to pass through into the city.

“Going to do that bubble thing again?” Jiron asks.

“Maybe,” he says. “Let’s look around first through the merchant’s district and see if we can’t locate them that way.” He feels a tingling sensation and looks around. Sure enough, he sees a mage walking through the crowd on the street. He points him out to Jiron as he pulls him close and whispers, “He’s doing magic of some sort. I can feel it.”

Considering that fact for a second, he whispers back to James, “Will they be able to sense you if you do magic?”

James nods, “I would think so.”

“Then maybe we shouldn’t do the bubble thing,” he says.

“Only if we have to,” James replies.

They walk through the streets, looking for any sign of Delia and the others. They pass many merchant’s establishments but fail to find any clue as to their whereabouts. By this time it’s becoming fairly dark and they see two people with long poles, each with a flame at the end, begin walking the streets. They go from streetlamp to streetlamp, lighting the lamps hanging there to give the people on the street light to see by.

“This is hopeless!” Jiron exclaims, “They could be anywhere.”

“I agree, we’ll never find them this way. The city is just too large,” he says.

James leads Jiron into an empty side alley where he takes out his mirror that he brought along and begins concentrating on Delia. They both gaze into the mirror as her features begin to form. James hears Jiron gasp when they see her sitting on the floor in a small room. The others are there with her and the looks on their faces tells them they’re not happy.

“They’re in trouble!” says Jiron.

“It would appear so,” James replies. “I told her to be careful!”

He expands the view, hoping to see where they are being kept until finally managing to get a bird’s eye view of the estate wherein she is being held. He tries to expand it even further when Jiron touches his arm and whispers, “Mage!”

James looks out of the alley to the street where he sees a brown robe walking toward the alley entrance. He stops the spell and immediately the brown robe pauses, turning his head first one way and then the other. It seems almost like he’s searching, trying to rediscover the source of the magic. James and Jiron hold their breath and remain pressed against the side of the alley as they watch the mage there in the street, until he finally turns and walks down the street to their right.

“He knew you were doing magic,” Jiron whispers.

“Apparently so,” James replies as he sticks his head out the alley to watch the brown robe continuing down the street away from them.

“Let’s go,” he says. “I got a pretty good look at where they’re being kept. It’s a large estate with plenty of grounds surrounding it.”

“Sounds like someone important,” Jiron reasons, “or rich.”

Stepping out of the alley, they follow the street as it moves closer to the river and the castle. Estates of that size are most likely to be located in that area, hopefully.

They proceed for a few more blocks before coming to the inner wall. A single gate stands open with two guards watching as people pass through.

“Doesn’t look as if they’re stopping anyone,” James says hopefully.

“Maybe it’s because they already know them?” Jiron suggests.

Shrugging, James says, “Only one way to know for sure.” He steps out, followed closely by Jiron and begins to walk toward the gate, heart beating rapidly in anticipation of a confrontation. The guards see them approach but don’t stop or question them as they pass through.

Once through to the other side, James breathes a sigh of relief. They continue down the street, now in a much more affluent section of town. Not too far past the gate, they come to where the street splits. One section continues on toward the keep and the other moves away from the keep. The street moving away from the keep looks to head toward an area with estates.

James glances to Jiron and indicates the area away from the keep. When he sees Jiron nod in agreement, he turns to follow that street.

“Which one is it?” Jiron asks after they’ve traveled down that street and have begun to enter the estate area.

“I’m not sure,” he replies as they continue down the street. Then, on a hill off to their left he sees the estate that was in the mirror. “That’s it!” he exclaims as he points it out to Jiron.

“You sure?” he asks.

“Absolutely,” James replies.

The estate has a stone wall going all the way around it’s perimeter with but a single gate for an entrance. The gate has a well lit guardhouse with a guard keeping watch. The area between the wall and the house is fairly clear except for a small area containing plants and bushes, probably for the lady of the house.

“Let’s go around back and see if there’s a better spot to try to get in,” Jiron advises.

James nods his head as he follows him around the outside of the wall.

“It doesn’t seem to be guarded,” says Jiron suspiciously.

“We’re in the heart of the empire, who would be dumb enough to break into a noble’s estate here?” James reasons.

“You may be right,” Jiron agrees. He gets close to the wall and jumps up, grabbing the top as he pulls himself up and then quickly scans the area on the other side of the wall for guards.

“See anything?” James asks.

“No, it looks clear,” he tells him from the top. Reaching down, he says, “Give me your hand and I’ll help you up.”

James takes his hand and Jiron pulls him to the top of the wall. They quickly drop down to the other side and squat for a few seconds in the shadows to observe what’s going on. The area between the wall and the manor house is dark and they don’t see anything moving. With Jiron in the lead, they make their way across the open lawn to the side of the house near a darkened window.