“Are they dead?” Delia asks when the boys catch up.
“Most of them, the rest fled back to town,” Jiron replies.
With relief evident in her voice Cassie asks, “Then we’re safe?”
“Until morning at least,” James assures her. “But you can bet they’ll be coming after us at first light.”
“And they’ll probably bring everyone,” adds Tinok.
“Quite likely,” agrees James. “We’ve killed over a dozen soldiers and embarrassed their leader. So yeah, they’ll be coming.”
“What are we going to do?” Cassie asks, scared.
“Let’s get higher in the mountains and at first light, try to find a place to make a stand,” James says.
“Good idea,” agrees Tinok. Anger still burns in him over the attempted attack on Cassie.
They proceed further up into the mountains, the dark of night making the way difficult at best. When they come across a somewhat level area, they make camp. Tired, hungry and a little scared over what the next day will bring, they lie down and do their best to get some sleep, the boys taking turns at watch.
James takes the first watch and sits there as he hears his companions, one by one, fall asleep. He knows that tomorrow’s outcome will depend heavily upon him and what he can do with magic. Going over in his mind different strategies and solutions that he came up with in similar situations back home, during their role playing campaigns, he tries to find one which would work the best giving their situation. Thank god he at least has a couple of good fighters to hold them off while he does his thing. After coming up with several nasty ideas, he finishes his turn at watch and then wakes Tinok for his turn. Lying down, he does his best to fall asleep.
Morning dawns overcast, the sky beginning to lighten even though the sun is still behind the mountains. Jiron returns to camp just after dawn from reconnoitering down the mountain for signs of the enemy to find no sign of James. Worried, he wakes up everyone else and is about to begin searching for him when he sees him walking back toward the camp, a couple of rabbits in hand.
“Here,” he says as he hands the rabbits to Cassie, “take these further on up the mountain and cook ‘em.”
“But a fire will lead them straight to us,” objects Jiron.
“Exactly,” James says. “We want them to think we’re just a bunch of stupid kids who think they’ve gotten away from them. That we are lulled into a sense of security and are careless enough to light the way for them.”
“There’s a spot another hundred feet up that would be prefect to set up camp,” he tells them.
“What will you be doing?” he asks.
“While the girls are up there alerting them as to which way to come,” he explains, “we’ll be down here setting up several nasty surprises for them.”
“Surprises?” Delia asks.
“Yeah,” he replies, “surprises.” He points down the way they came last night and says, “We inadvertently followed a game trail up the mountain and I’m betting they’ll follow it too. Especially when they see the smoke from the fire.”
“What should we do?” Cassie asks.
“You and Delia go up the mountain and begin cooking the rabbits,” he says. He then points to Jiron, “You stay with me.” To Tinok he says, “You need to stay with the girls in case anyone gets past us.”
Tinok nods his head in agreement though he’s dismayed about missing the fun.
“Save some for me and James,” Jiron says, indicating the rabbits.
“We’ll see,” Tinok says, a grin playing across his face.
As Tinok and the girls begin to head up the mountain, James and Jiron start setting up the surprises. “Just what do you have in mind?” Jiron asks him.
“Well, you see…” he then explains what he plans to do as they make their way down the trail.
“Here they come,” Jiron says from where they hide behind a fallen log. The first man can be seen coming up the trail below them. “They’re following the trail just as you figured.”
“I wasn’t sure they would,” admits James. “Though I’m glad I was right.”
“Looks like they brought the whole garrison,” Jiron observes as more and more men come into view.
“Hope so,” James says, “can’t afford to miss even one.”
“You’re a bloodthirsty one, aren’t you?” Jiron asks.
James turns to him and says, “I don’t like killing, to me it’s just a waste. But if I have to, then I want to make it so they’ll never trouble me again.”
“See your point,” he says.
They watch as the men proceed further up the trail. “You ready?” James asks him.
“Yeah,” he replies with a grin, “let’s do it.”
They stand up from behind the log as James throws two stones in quick succession, killing two of the forward soldiers.
Then they yell as if scared, “Run!” and turn to race back up the trail, the soldiers immediately follow in hot pursuit.
They don’t run too far before they come to an area where the trees and plants all look like they’re wilting, dying. They continue on until they are back into the healthier part of the forest, then abruptly stop and turn to face the oncoming soldiers.
Their pursuers are following the trail for the most part, though some have fanned out into the forest alongside the trail. “We’re not going to get all of them,” Jiron says.
“Perhaps,” James agrees, “but hopefully we’ve planned well enough for that.”
They watch as the soldiers begin to enter the wilted area as they race to reach James and Jiron. When the men in the front nears the end of the wilted area James shouts, “Walls!”
Six foot high walls of force spring up around the men in the wilted area, boxing them in. The men in front run full force into the forward wall of force, coming to an abrupt halt as if they’d run into a brick wall. The men are confused at first and then panic sets in. James can see the officer who locked them up near the back of the men trapped within the invisible walls. He’s trying to keep his men under control but the fear of being entrapped by invisible walls overrides whatever discipline he’s trying to establish.
Jiron watches the men trapped inside, hitting on the invisible walls with their hands and weapons in an attempt to break free. He can hear their screams of terror.
“Shut!” James shouts and the walls slam together, pulping the men inside, abruptly silencing their cries. He can hear Jiron next to him exclaim, “Good god!”
“We haven’t gotten all of them,” James says, indicating over a dozen men, standing stunned over the fate of their comrades on the trail.
James takes out another stone and begins to head back down the trail toward the soldiers, Jiron beside him.
When the remaining soldiers see them coming forward, the men lose heart and turn to flee back down the mountain. Letting fly his stone, James takes out another one. Again and again, he lets fly with stones, striking one after another.
When the remaining men reach a certain tree with a cloth that he tied to it earlier, he says, “Fire!”
Fire erupts from the ground in a circle over a hundred feet across. The fleeing men scream as it burns and consumes them. The trees in the area burst into flame as the dry leaves and needles crackle as they catch fire. The wind coming up the mountain begins to blow sparks from tree to tree, spreading the fire rapidly.
“Crap!” James exclaims, as he sees the fire beginning to burn out of control.
“What?” Jiron asks.
“The fire!” he says, pointing to the blaze. “The wind is going to push it this way! We’ve got to get out of here!”
As they turn to race up the mountain, Jiron asks, “Do you think we got everyone?”
“I think so,” James says, “no way to be sure now. At least the fire will hide the evidence of what we did here.” Smoke is beginning to thicken as more and more of the forest becomes ablaze.
“Let’s get the others and find a way around the fire!” James yells.
They hurry up the mountain and before they reach the camp, they see Tinok and the girls coming down to meet them.
“What’s happening?” Tinok says, as he gazes down the now thickening smoke.
“James set the forest afire,” Jiron tells him.
“What?” Tinok exclaims. “Why did you do that?”
“Didn’t mean to,” admits James, “it just sort of happened. Anyway, we have to get out of here before we’re cooked alive.”
James heads them southeast since the wind is blowing from the east. Running as fast as the forest will allow, they move laterally along the mountainside, trying desperately to gain the far side of the fire before it cuts them off.
Smoke is thick and he can hear the others begin to cough as the smoke in the air thickens. In her haste, Cassie snags an exposed root with her foot and stumbles, falling to the ground. Her screams bring the others to a halt as she rolls down the mountainside, closer to the approaching fire. She comes to a stop amidst a tangle of undergrowth and fallen branches.
“Help me!” she cries out when she realizes she’s stuck within the tangled mess and the fire is quickly approaching her.
Tinok bolts down the mountainside after her and quickly reaches her side. “I’m here,” he assures her as he begins pulling back the brush which has her trapped. The fire is burning closer and a tree no more than ten feet away suddenly bursts into flame.
“Hurry!” she urges, her eyes on the tree being engulfed by the fire. At last he manages to free her and helps her to her feet. He has her lean on him as they make it back up to where the others are waiting for them. Behind them, more trees burst into flame as the wind spreads the fire rapidly.
Looking at the treetops, James notices how the fire hopping from one tree to the next, reminiscent of a documentary of the Yellowstone fire he saw years earlier. As Tinok and Cassie join them, they once more begin moving as fast as possible away from the quickly approaching inferno.
Suddenly, they break from the confines of the forest and stumble upon a small road running due east. Ruts line the road, showing that wagons have moved through here. Turning onto it, they’re able to make better time.
The fire behind them is gaining rapidly, they begin to feel the heat of the raging inferno drawing ever closer. James looks up again and sees that the treetops above them are already beginning to catch. There’s no way we’re going to outrun this!
Continuing on as best they can with the smoke thickening rapidly, their lungs burn from the heated smoke they’re breathing. Cassie falls to her knees, coughing, overcome by the smoke and unable to continue. In desperation, Tinok picks her up and carries her onward. James looks in dread as the trees along the road ahead of them begin to catch fire, the wind pushing the blaze ever forward.
“We’re not going to make it!” Delia cries out to him over the roar of the fire.
The forest before them suddenly opens up to a wide canyon, five hundred feet across. A rope suspension bridge, barely wide enough to accommodate a wagon, spans it.
Thank goodness! James thinks to himself when it comes into view. Just then, a branch being consumed by flame falls upon the bridge, twenty feet from the edge. James stares in disbelief as the fire which is consuming the branch begins licking the ropes holding the bridge in place.
“Move!” he yells, allowing Jiron and Delia to cross first and then Tinok with Cassie right behind. Once everyone is on and crossing to the other side, he steps upon the bridge and begins to cross.
Delia comes to the point where the burning branch has fallen upon the bridge, but it’s burning so hot, she has to pass by as far to the side as she can. The wooden planks she’s walking upon are beginning to burn as well as the supporting ropes.
When James gets to the fire on the bridge, he can see that the ropes have already almost completely burned through, only a few strands keep it from snapping in two. “Hurry!” he shouts as they quickly make their way to the other side.
Jiron reaches the other side first, just ahead of Delia. Then Tinok reaches the other side and carries Cassie away from the edge of the canyon before he lays her on the ground. James is almost to the end when one the remaining strands of the support rope snaps, causing the bridge to skew suddenly, throwing him to his knees.
“James!” Delia cries out when she sees the bridge lurch to the side and James almost plummeting to his death on the rocks far below.
Jiron comes to the edge and reaches out to help him the last of the way. Seeing the hand before him, James stretches his arm out, trying to grab hold of it. Before he’s able to take Jiron’s hand, the remaining rope suddenly snaps, causing the bridge to break in two and each half falling against their side of the canyon.
James loses his grip and falls. Reaching out in panic, he tries to grab hold of one of the wooden planks of the bridge. He finally manages to stop his plummet ten feet further down as he catches hold of one of the planks that’s still attached securely to the rope. He holds on tight as the bridge slams into the side of the mountain and prays he doesn’t fall. Once the section of bridge he’s clinging to settles down, he looks up and sees Jiron looking down at him from the top, twenty feet away.
“Come on!” he yells. “Climb up, you can make it.”
James makes the mistake of looking down at the river far below. Panic overcomes him for a few seconds, causing him to hug the board in a death grip. The panic slowly subsides when he realizes he’s not going to immediately plummet to his death. After taking a couple deep breaths, he reaches up to grab the board above him and starts climbing up.
One by one, he climbs the boards on his way toward the top. Suddenly he hears one of the girls scream and looks up, but Jiron is no longer there. He continues climbing and when he is less than five feet from the top, a body flies over the edge and falls, narrowly missing him.
What the hell?
Climbing as fast as he can, he reaches the top only to find Jiron and Tinok standing shoulder to shoulder as they face three men with swords. Six men already lie dead on the ground. As James climbs over the top, another of the men falls to the ground as he holds his stomach where Jiron had sliced him open. Then in a flurry of motion, Jiron and Tinok each take out one of the remaining two.
Coming over to them, he asks, “Everyone okay?”
Jiron has a wound in his side oozing blood, other than that, its just minor scrapes and cuts. Delia comes and helps him to bind it, while James goes over to where Tinok is holding a coughing Cassie and asks, “Is she going to be okay?”
“I think so,” he replies. “She just needs to get the smoke out of her lungs.”
“What happened?” he asks, referring to the dead men.
“They came out of the trees just after the bridge broke,” he explains. “I think they were robbers, probably in the area and coming to see about the fire. When they saw us, they attacked without warning.”
At mention of the fire, they all look across the chasm at the roaring inferno consuming the road they just left. Some embers are being carried across the canyon, but are failing to start any fires.
“Let’s search them and see if they have anything we can use,” James says.
He and Jiron go about the task of searching the bodies, but only come up with a pouch for each of them and a belt knife. They also find some coins, though not nearly replacing the amount that is still within his backpack back in town.
By this time Cassie is doing better, just coughing a little bit. “Ready to go?” James asks as he comes over to her.
She nods her head yes and then gets up with Delia’s help. James and Jiron again take the lead as they continue to follow the narrow road through the forest. Behind them across the canyon, the fire still blazes with violent intensity. Even from this distance, they can feel the heat.
They follow the road as it twists and turns among the trees, continuing its way through the forest, leaving the canyon and the heat from the fire behind. They don’t travel very far before the road opens up to a clearing. Within the clearing they find two wagons as well as two men sitting on the ground next to a fire. Twelve horses are secured in a picket near them.
At their approach, one of the men turns toward their way and begins to say, “Herec, what did you…?” He stops abruptly when he sees them entering the clearing. Grabbing a crossbow sitting on the ground next to him, he hollers to his friend who grabs one as well. Without even a word of warning, he lets loose a bolt, taking James through the right shoulder, knocking him backward to the ground.
Knives flash as Jiron and Tinok advance upon the men. Cassie and Delia come to render what aid they can for James.
The second man, seeing Jiron and Tinok coming toward him, lets fly with his bolt but it goes wide, missing Tinok by scant inches. Drawing their swords, the men prepare to defend themselves.
Tinok closes with the first man, while Jiron goes after the second. Knives dance as they parry the sword thrusts, but the men are no match for them and are soon lying on the ground, dead.
They come over to James where he’s lying on the ground, blood welling out from where the bolt had struck him. Jiron rolls him over slightly to look at his back and sees that it hasn’t gone all the way through. He looks in James’ eyes and says, “It’s got to come out.”
James just nods his head in understanding and braces himself.
“Hold him tight, Tinok,” Jiron says. Tinok comes and holds James firmly as Jiron grabs hold of the bolt. “Alright, on three, okay?” he asks James.
James nods his head again and braces for it.
“One…two…” and then he yanks it out, causing James to cry out in pain before passing out. Turning to Delia he says, “Look through the wagons and see if there is anything we can use for bandages.”
She rushes over to the wagons and then comes back with a couple of shirts that she quickly tears into strips. Jiron takes them from her and uses them to bind James’ wound.
“We camp here for the night,” he says. “Tinok, find some wood to keep the fire going until dawn. Cassie, search the wagons for any food and drink.” Turning to Delia he says, “You stay here with James, I’m going to scout a little further down the trail to see what’s there. I’ll be back shortly.”
Getting up he hollers over to Tinok who’s gathering wood, “I’ll be back shortly.”
“Be careful,” he hollers back.
Turning toward the east, he breaks into a quick jog which soon has him disappearing down the road.
When he returns, he finds James awake and having a meal of trail rations that Cassie had found in one of the wagons. “How do you feel?” he asks.
“Shoulder hurts bad,” he says. “I can barely move my right arm.”
“At least you’re alive,” Jiron says.
“There is that,” he agrees.
“There’s nothing down the road for a while but more trees,” Jiron says as he sits on the ground next to him. Seeing a pile of papers on the ground near James he asks, “What’s that?”
“Had Tinok search the wagons and he found bills of sales and contracts,” he explains. “Seems we ran across some smugglers, at least I think they were. No honorable trader would’ve attacked us like that.” He holds one up and says, “This one here is for a shipment of…, I’m not exactly sure what it is, to a man in Korazan.”
“Korazan?” Jiron asks excitedly.
“Yeah,” James replies, “seems we caught a break on that one.” He holds up another paper and says, “This one is in a language that I can’t read, but it has what looks to be an official seal here at the bottom. I’m hoping it’s a letter allowing us to travel through the Empire, though we won’t know until we put it to the test.”
“If you’re wrong, it could be bad,” he says.
“Probably,” he agrees, “but we don’t have much choice.”
“So we’re going to pretend to be those guys there?” he asks, pointing to the two stiffs lying off in the woods.
“That’s the plan,” he replies. “Oh, we found a chest filled with gold and some gems. So things are looking better.”
“We probably should stay here until tomorrow,” James tells him, “give me a chance to heal and everyone could use the rest. Then we’ll push on down the road and see just where it leads.”
While they take their ease, Tinok comes over to him and asks, “You didn’t get all weak and tired like you did the last time you did magic. Why not?”
“Last time I had used the power within me,” he explains. “This time I had time to plan ahead for the battle, so was able to harness other sources of power.”
“Other sources?” he asks. “What do you mean?”
“I set up spells that would slowly absorb power from the trees and other living things around them, storing it up until needed. Over the course of several hours, they had absorbed all the power they required for their spells. So when they went off, no power was drained from me. That’s why a lot of the vegetation around them had begun to look wilted.”
“Impressive,” Tinok says.
“Thanks,” he replies.
The rest of the day, they just sort of relax and take it easy, recovering from the ordeal of the last two days. Near sunset, some of them walk back toward the canyon to see how the fire’s doing.
Smoke still fills the air and across the canyon the trees are all blackened where the fire had raged. Pockets of fire are still visible here and there, but for the most part, it has consumed the readily available fuel and moved on. They can see it as it continues to burn further up the mountain, the flames arcing up from the tops of the trees where it’s still burning furiously.
They make it back to the camp just as the sun dips below the horizon and the light begins to fade. The rest allow James to sleep as they take turns standing watch.