Brian Pratt: Fires of prophesy

“Now here’s the part I’ve never been able to really test before,” he explains. “What happens when the bubble is filled to capacity and reaches critical mass?”

“Critical mass?” Delia asks, confused. “What’s that?”

“Critical mass is when something is filled to capacity and ready to ‘pop’, for lack of a better term,” he explains. “In this instance, it could no longer hold the power, so it exploded. I would guess the size of the bubble and the amount of power it had absorbed would determine the intensity of the explosion.”

“You could wipe out an entire army with one of those!” Tinok exclaims.

Shaking his head, James says, “Not necessarily, after all it would only work if there was a mage present. Also, if everyone ran away before it exploded, it wouldn’t be doing too much harm.”

“I see your point,” he says, somewhat disappointed.

“Now,” Jiron interjects, “what are we going to do about rescuing my sister and your friend?”

“Well, first of all, where are we exactly? Which way did we go when we left the City?” he asks.

“We headed southwest,” Jiron answered.

“So it’s safe to assume that we are currently in enemy territory,” James concludes, “and will continue to be for a long time.”

“Yeah,” agrees Tinok.

“I propose we continue to head south and try to find out where the slavers intend to take them,” he suggests. “Once we know that, we’ll have a better idea of what we can do.”

“Let’s get going then,” Jiron says, anxious to get started.

“I agree,” James says, shouldering his backpack as he stands up. He goes over to one of the horses and swings up, head spinning from the exertion. When it calms down he scans the surrounding countryside and is relieved to find nothing moving across the grassland, except for the tall grass, waving in the breeze. The southerly breeze feels good as the summer sun begins to warm the day.

He notices that Delia needs Tinok’s help in climbing into the saddle and that she is favoring her left arm. He walks his horse over to her and asks, “Are you okay?”

“A stone hit me when the building exploded last night,” she explains. “It hurts, but I don’t think it’s broken, just bruised.”

Feeling guilty at being the cause of her pain, he says, “I’m sorry.”

She smiles at him and says, “Hey, don’t worry about it. We got out didn’t we? This is pretty minor compared to the fate I would’ve had if we hadn’t.” She pats him on the arm with her right hand and gives him a reassuring smile, then continues, “So don’t feel bad. I don’t, okay?”

He smiles back at her and says, “Alright, I won’t” Glancing around to see that everyone has already mounted and is ready to go, he turns his horse to the south and breaks into a canter. The others follow along behind.

He takes the lead with Jiron next to him, the girls in the middle, and Tinok eating their dust at the rear. After they’ve traveled a ways, he asks Jiron, “Just where did you and Tinok learn to fight so well?”

“The Pits,” he replies.

“Pits?” James asks.

“Yeah,” he says, as he continues riding. “They’re not altogether legal, but many of the wealthy pay to have people fight one another with weapons for their amusement. It pays pretty well, but you usually don’t survive long.”

“I always did the knives, so did Tinok. We both rose up through the ranks quickly, you see we both kind of have a knack for this sort of thing. We never were set against each other and were able to become friends. Friendship with another in the Pits is rare, because often you have to face them; many don’t even bother. But we got along well, even though we knew a day would come when we would be set against one another.”

“Finally, the day came when we were set to face off in the pit. You never know who you will be facing until your name is called. When our names were called, we both marched out into the pit and by this time, our friendship had grown very strong. We both could see that the other’s heart was not in this. When the order was given, Tinok opened himself up to me, didn’t even try to defend himself, he was willing to sacrifice himself rather than strike me. The crowd was not happy, they had come to see blood spilled. They began calling for me to kill him, but I couldn’t.”

“I came and stood next to him and cried to the gathered people, ‘We will not fight each other.’ You can imagine what happened next, they sent in the bruisers, the ones who deal with problems in the pits. Two came in, wielding clubs. We stood our ground and in no time at all, they were dead at our feet. We stood defiant before the crowd, side by side.”

“Next, they brought in two armored guards with swords, and to the shock of everyone there, they soon laid dead at our feet too. After that the crowd began to realize what they were seeing, and started applauding us. Two upstarts, who wouldn’t play their game, ended up playing their game.” He breaks out into a laugh. “So from then on, they paired us up. They would send two, three, sometimes four against us at a time, but none could match us.”

“Incredible,” James says.

“Yeah,” agrees Jiron, “it was.”

“What made you start in the first place?” James asks.

“My sister and I used to live on the streets,” he explains. “And one day, a man came to me and told me about the clubs and that he thought I might have some talent at it. He offered me a silver if I came and at least tried some sparring with him. I did and found I actually did have some talent for it. I’m pretty good with any weapon as it turns out, but with the knives, I’m very deadly.”

“The man trained me for six months and then I had my first fight. They put me against another knifer and I took him relatively fast and received coins for winning. After several fights, I was able to get a small place where my sister and I could live, a place she would be safe until she could hopefully find a good man. She never wanted me fighting, but you gotta do what it takes to survive.”

“I understand that,” he says.

From behind them, Cassie interrupts and asks, “Do you think they’re going to follow us?”

James turns into his saddle and says, “Most assuredly, it’s only a matter of time. I’m just hoping they won’t think that we’re escaping further into their territory. Most likely they’ll think we’ve already headed north or due west toward the Silver Mountains and Cardri. That’s where I would think to look if I was them. I doubt if anyone will remember which way, exactly, we were heading. They were a little preoccupied at the time.”

Next to him, Jiron breaks out into a laugh and nods his head.

They ride on for another hour before they begin to see a town appearing on the horizon. They keep an eye out for movement but the place appears to be abandoned. As they approach they can see why, buildings stand empty, gutted with flame and dead bodies are scattered around the area. A road passes through the center of town going from east to west, though there appears to be no one upon it.

“Do you think the Empire did this?” Cassie asks, as they stop well away from the town.

James says over his shoulder, “Most likely they did it on their way to the City.”

“Shall we go see if anyone is alive?” Delia asks.

“I think anyone who’s alive would’ve gotten away before now,” James replies. “Besides, we can’t take the chance that we will be discovered here.”

“But someone there could need our help!” she insists as she points toward the town.

“Sometimes,” he begins to explain, “you have to think of…”

She gives him a dirty look and kicks her horse, galloping toward the town before he even has a chance to finish.