Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

“A little bit,” he replies from where he’s sitting at the cave entrance.

Tearing off a strip of meat with his teeth, he chews it for a bit then takes a bite of one of the veggies.

“Able to ride today?” Jiron asks.

“Yes,” he replies through a mouthful of food, “I think so. My head is not hurting as bad as it was yesterday and I don’t feel nearly as wobbly.”

“Good,” he says, “we need to get moving before we’re discovered here.”

“Let me see if I can find out where he is first,” James says as he gets up and goes over to his horse to retrieve the mirror from his shaving kit. Stuffing the rest of the dried meat in his mouth, he pulls the mirror out and takes it over to the cave entrance where he sits next to Jiron. Cupping the mirror between his hands, he concentrates. The image begins to waver and suddenly they see Miko sitting with other people, someplace dark. He expands the picture and after watching it for a few minutes, states, “I think he’s on a boat.”

“You sure?” Jiron asks.

“Pretty sure,” he replies. “He’s somewhere dark and if you watch, it seems like the view is slowly rocking back and forth. It reminds me of being on a ship at sea.”

“He could be going anywhere then,” Jiron says.

“Yeah, I know,” agrees James. “It’ll be harder to follow him if we’re going to need a boat.”

“Let’s worry about one thing at a time,” he tells him. “Where is he?”

James thinks for a moment and then removes a short piece of cloth from his bags. He takes it outside and walks down near the water. Jiron gets up and follows him down to where the waves are crashing upon the beach.

Standing still at the water’s edge, he holds the cloth by one end and extends his arm outward as he concentrates on Miko, willing the cloth to point the way. If it worked with a piece of wood, it should also work with the cloth. The cloth in his hand begins to move, not with the breeze coming in off the water, but on its own. Maintaining his concentration, he opens his eyes to see the cloth pointing south along the beach. He turns to Jiron as he terminates the spell and says, “He’s to the south and I get the feeling quite a ways away.”

“Then we better get going,” he says.

James nods his head as they return to the cave to get their horses and leave. Once inside, Jiron asks him to use the mirror to see if the others made it safely on board the ship.

So James takes out his mirror again and concentrates on Delia and her surroundings. The image in the mirror begins to swirl until Delia appears along with several of the others, including Jiron’s sister, Tersa. Widening the view, they’re relieved to see them on board a boat that’s at sea. From the expressions on everyone’s face, it would seem they are not in distress.

“Looks like they made it,” James tells him.

Sighing with relief, Jiron says, “I’m glad that Tersa is safe, that’s been worrying me ever since we left.”

“Me too,” adds James. Putting his mirror back in his shaving kit, he places the kit in the saddlebag before mounting his horse.

Jiron quickly gets into the saddle as well and then leads them out of the cave. Turning away from the water, they head through the hills, continuing to angle away from the water.

“Why don’t we follow the shoreline?” asks James.

“There’s a village up ahead along the coast I visited last night,” he replies. “They may be looking for someone who took some food. I did leave money, two silvers, but they still may be looking.”

James nods his head, leaving it to Jiron’s judgment.

As they continue to angle away from the shoreline, they come across the main road running north and south. A quick look reveals no one currently traveling upon the road so they quickly cross and enter the cover of the foothills on the other side. Staying within the hills, they’re able to run parallel with the road as they continue their way to the south.

They don’t ride very long before they begin to hear the sound of marching feet coming from up ahead of them. Leaving the horses between two hills, they climb to the crest of the next hill and peer over the top.

From their vantage point, they’re able to see the road and the army of marching men upon it coming their way. Easily a thousand strong, the army marches north and at their head are two brown robes upon horses, as well as two others who look to be civilians. A wagon train, most likely carrying supplies, stretches behind them for as far as the road is visible. Flanking them out in the hills are several riders, most likely scouts.

“Uh, oh,” Jiron says as he indicates the riders in the hills on both sides of the road. “Scouts! We’ve got to get out of here, fast!”

Glancing back to the brown robes, James says, “Yeah.”

Rushing down the hill, they get to their horses and mount quickly. Turning their horses due east, they gallop away, hoping the scouts won’t catch sight of them. “Do you think they’re looking for us?” Jiron asks.

“It’s likely,” he replies. “We did sort of upset them back in Al-Kur.”

With a short laugh, Jiron adds, “I guess you could say that.”

Suddenly a horn sounds behind them and they turn to see a scout upon a horse at the top of a hill. Kicking their horses into even greater speed, they fly through the hills. The scout follows, keeping them in sight and periodically sounding his horn to alert the host behind him as to their position.

“Damn!” James hears Jiron exclaim as they race through the hills.

“At least the majority of the soldiers back there were on foot,” James says.

“True, but the mages weren’t,” states Jiron.

They continue to ride hard and James glances behind them but doesn’t see any pursuit developing, other than that annoying scout who continues alerting everyone as to their whereabouts.

“Hold up a minute,” James finally says as he brings his horse around and turns toward the scout. He sees the scout holding still, two hills back as he once more sounds his horn. Reaching into his pouch, James brings out one of his remaining slugs.

“Can you hit him from here?” Jiron asks.

“We’ll see,” he replies as he throws the slug and at the same time, lets the magic flow.

Jiron watches as the slug flies through the air toward the scout on the distant hill. The scout must’ve seen the slug for he quickly moves down off the hill and out of James’ line of sight. The slug alters course slightly and then disappears behind the hill where the scout went. “Did you get him?”

“Not sure. But let’s not wait around to find out.”

They turn their horses around and once again race through the hills. After several more minutes of riding, they slow down. “Looks like you did get him,” Jiron says when the scout doesn’t show himself again.

“Maybe now we can lose them in these hills,” James says with relief.

The plan to escape in the hills dies as after a few brief minutes they clear the hills and are once again in the rocky desert with the scrub brush and stunted trees. Turning south, they follow the edge of the hills and only ride a short distance before they again hear the sound of the horn. Turning to glance behind them, Jiron exclaims, “Dear god!”

James turns and sees at least a hundred horsemen charging toward them from the north. Kicking their horses to a gallop they ride fast, hoping to stay ahead of the approaching cavalry. Another horn sounds to their right as they see the soldiers from the road coming into view as they crest the hills. The brown robed mages are at the fore.

Coming to the inevitable conclusion that magic will again become necessary, James takes the rope out of his saddlebag and again ties himself to the saddle. When he notices Jiron looking at him, he just shrugs and pulls the rope tighter.