“It may well be impossible to reach him,” he continues. “It may not be possible for us to even escape the Empire.”
“Maybe not,” agrees James, “but I’ve got to try.”
“Don’t worry about me abandoning you here,” Jiron assures him, “I won’t. I just wanted you to understand that things are getting more complicated.”
“I know,” he says. “I understand, we just need to be more alert and careful.”
Jiron turns his horse to the southwest and asks, “Ready to go?”
Nodding, he says, “Yes.”
As they ride, Jiron gets a notion and asks James, “Can your mirror locate enemies in the area? If we had that information, maybe we could avoid them and make better time.”
“Possibly,” he replies as he digs out his mirror. Handing his reins to Jiron, he concentrates as he stares into the mirror. The image blurs and then he sees a bird’s eye view of them riding along. Expanding the view, he widens the scope to be able to see more of the surrounding desert than just themselves.
He’s able to scroll the image for some distance in any direction. The further he scrolls the image away from their position, the greater the amount of magic needed to maintain the spell. He’s also always able to come back and center the view on them with just a thought. “Yeah,” he tells him, “I think I can manage that.”
“Good,” says Jiron. “Anyone in the vicinity?”
James scrolls the image and then shakes his head, saying, “No, there doesn’t appear to be anyone ahead. Off to the north is a sizeable force but they’re not coming our way.”
“How far are we away from the coast?” he asks.
James tries scrolling the image, but fails to pick up the coast before the power drain becomes too severe. “I don’t know,” he replies. “I’m not able to see that far.”
“Oh well, at least we know we’re okay for awhile,” he says, relieved. “Just check it often so we’ll know when to detour.”
“Alright,” agrees James. He checks the area one last time and when he finds no one ahead, replaces the mirror back into his shaving kit.
They ride for several hours, James checking periodically for hostiles with his mirror. The second time he checked, he found a dozen riders coming their way and they had to swing to the south to avoid detection. Continuing to detour around pockets of hostiles, they wind their way closer to the coast.
When night begins to fall, they stop for a short meal. All they have with them is what the riders had with them when Jiron appropriated their horses, which isn’t much. “Think we should continue through the night?” Jiron asks him.
“I think the horses will be okay,” he replies. “Besides, we’re less likely to be discovered in the dark of night.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he tells him as he finishes his meal and mounts. James mounts as well and they continue their way toward the ocean.
Once night has fallen, the mirror becomes useless as everything is black. Now they have to depend on their senses to detect anyone approaching. A half moon rises later in the evening, giving them some light to see by. Sometime around midnight, they cross the main road going north and south. A short time after that, they begin to see the moon being reflected off of a body of water in the distance. The smell of salt in the air tells them they’ve reached the ocean’s shore.
When they reach the shore, they pause a moment as Jiron asks, “Now where?”
Taking out his cloth, James again casts his directional spell and the cloth stiffens up and points out along the coast, almost due south. “Further south, it looks like,” he tells Jiron as he puts away his cloth.
“Guess we follow the shoreline,” he says to James.
Nodding in the dark, James replies, “That would seem to be the plan.”
They follow the shoreline for another hour or two before running across what looks to be an old abandoned shack set up along the beach. It looks the worse for wear but it could hide them while they get a little sleep, they’re both becoming quite tired. Jiron dismounts and goes up to the shack to look inside. He signals James to come on over when he finds it empty.
There’s barely enough room inside for them and the horses, but leaving them outside would tell anyone passing by that someone’s here. Bringing them in with them, they close the door and alternate between sleeping and keeping watch through the rest of the night.
The morning sun coming through the cracks of the shack awakens James. He sits up abruptly when he fails to see Jiron. His horse is here, but he’s not.
Going to the door, he looks out and sees him outside walking along the shore, head down looking at the sand. Coming out, he asks, “What are you doing?”
Jiron holds up a conch shell and says, “I found this over by the water, incredible isn’t it?”
Smiling, James replies, “Yeah, that’s something alright.”
With a last look around the sandy beach, Jiron joins James as he walks back to the shack. Once back inside, he puts the conch shell into one of his bags. “Going to give it to Tersa when we make it back,” he explains.
“I’m sure she’ll like it,” he says.
They bring the horses out and mount, James checks the mirror before they leave and finds no enemy soldiers in the immediate vicinity or further to the south. He keeps the mirror out so he can check it periodically as they make their way along the shoreline.
After traveling for over an hour, James asks, “You got any water?”
Jiron shakes his head and says, “No, I used up the last of it this morning.”
“We’re going to need to find some soon, or we’re not going to last long under this sun,” he tells him.
“I know, my horse really could use some too,” he says. “Can you find a source close by?”
“Maybe,” he replies as he again gets out his mirror. After concentrating on water, the mirror opens up on a great expanse of water, “Think I may have found something.” He expands the view and the edge of the water comes in and he sees two men on horseback riding along beside it. His excitement ends when he realizes that it’s Jiron and him that he’s seeing and that the body of water is the ocean.
Frustrated, he begins concentrating on ‘fresh’, drinking water. The image blurs and then focuses in on a small pool with several palm trees around the edge. “Got it!” he exclaims.
“Where?” asks Jiron.
Adjusting the view and scrolling the image, he determines it to be several miles off to the southeast.
“Anyone around?” he asks.
“Several people,” he replies, “but no soldiers. They look to be just travelers stopping to get water.”
Jiron nods his head, “We’ll have to chance it.” He turns his horse to the southeast and they soon cross the main road. One lone traveler sees them crossing but doesn’t seem to be paying much attention to them.
As they ride, Jiron says, “That’s a handy thing, your mirror.”
“Yeah,” replies James. “The more I use it, the easier it is to find what I want.”
“Can you use anything?” he asks. “I mean, like a pool of water or something?”
“I would think so,” replies James. “It would be the same principle, so yeah, I could.”
About that time they begin to see palm trees coming into view on the horizon. They slow their approach when they see a dozen or so people around the water. “Must be a caravan of some sort,” guesses James when he notices several wagons pulled up around the oasis. A road stretches in the distance on the other side of the oasis, going east to west.
“Looks like it,” Jiron agrees. “Let’s be careful, get in and out quickly.”
“I’m with you on that,” states James.
They approach the oasis, making a beeline straight for the water. When the others see them coming, they watch, but don’t say anything.
Upon smelling the water, their horses quicken their pace, eager to reach the pool. While their horses begin drinking, they get down and fill their water bottles. Glancing over to the others who share the oasis with them, they notice that they’ve huddled together and are talking amongst themselves, occasionally peering over to them.