Coming to a stop, he glances at James for a second, a question on his lips. He hesitates a moment before asking, “Can you destroy the mine when we leave?”
“What?” James replies in shock, taken off guard by the request. “Why?”
“You saw how much iron ore they’ve been removing,” he says. “I was thinking that if they were no longer able to get iron from here it would seriously hurt their war machine.” He turns and looks at James square in the eyes, “It might be enough to force them to leave Madoc, or at least hurt their attempts to take more of it.”
“Possibly,” he says. “But what about all the slaves here? I might kill them all!”
“Right now they’re out and shouldn’t be affected by whatever happens to the mine,” he says.
“I’ll see what I can do,” he tells him. When he sees the look in Jiron’s eye, he adds, “I understand what you’re saying and the logic behind it. If I can, I will, okay? But not until we rescue Miko.”
He nods his head, “Thanks.”
“Now, what’s the best way to get inside?” James asks.
Jiron points to an overhanging limb that comes close to the wall. “I can climb up there and swing over to the wall,” he explains. “The only problem is the guards on watch up there.” He looks to James and says, “I need you to take them out.”
James gazes up at the wall and the guards walking there, considering the plan. He nods his head and says, “I think I can arrange that without alerting everyone to our presence.”
“Good. Ready?” he asks.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” replies James.
Jiron makes his way to the tree and begins to climb up to where the limb extends near the wall. As he climbs, he keeps as constant a watch on the guards as climbing will allow. Whenever they glance in his direction, he holds still until they once more turn away before continuing.
This section of the wall is not as long as the one by the gate so only has two guards. They’re standing next to each other a couple yards from the tree Jiron is climbing, talking to each other. Contemplating what he’s going to do, he watches Jiron as he climbs up to the limb that’s extending over the wall and sees him give him a signal that he’s ready.
James begins concentrating and then releases the magic. The two guards are suddenly pulled over the edge by an unseen force and plummet to the ground on the outside, just as if someone had grabbed them and pulled them off.
As they go over the edge, one of them cries out in startlement and then is silenced when he hits the ground. Running over to them, James finds that one has broken his neck and the other is unconscious. Tying and gagging the one still alive, he looks up to see Jiron lowering a rope down for him to climb the wall. “Hurry up!” can be heard as the rope reaches him.
He grabs the rope and tries to pull himself up but fails, his arms just not strong enough. In gym class, this is one of those things that kept causing him to almost fail every year. He was never able to get the hang of it. When Jiron realizes he’s not going to be able to climb the rope, he whispers down, “Make a loop at the end for your foot and I’ll pull you up!”
Waving back up to him, James bends down and ties the end in a loop. Putting his right foot in it, he gives two quick tugs on the rope and waves up to Jiron.
The tension in the rope suddenly increases and then the rope begins to rise. Gripping the rope tightly with both hands, he holds on until he’s up to the top of the wall. He reaches out and takes hold of the ledge and begins pulling himself the rest of the way. Jiron releases the rope and helps him the last few feet. “Thanks,” he says.
Jiron gives him a slight nod and says, “Just pretend you’re a guard so if they look up here, all is normal.”
“Alright,” James says.
“What about those two down there?” Jiron asks him.
“One’s dead,” he tells him. “Broke his neck when he hit the ground, the other is tied and gagged.”
Jiron shakes his head and says, “Should’ve just killed him.”
“I can’t do that,” asserts James.
Shrugging, Jiron points over to a building twenty feet from the wall and says, “From what you showed me in the mirror, that should be where your friend is.”
“How do we get down?” James asks.
Gesturing off to the right, he says, “There’s a ladder over there we can use. Once we do though, it’s only a matter of time before someone realizes there’s no one up here and will come to investigate.”
“We better hurry, then,” James states as he makes for the ladder, Jiron right behind him. Jiron has him wait while he descends the ladder first to be able to deal with any trouble should it arise.
Just as Jiron reaches the bottom, a guard rounds the corner of a nearby building and walks up to them as he begins talking. His words cut off suddenly when he realizes he’s not facing fellow guards but intruders. He turns to run as a cry begins to escape his lips just as Jiron tackles him. A quick strike with his knife and the guard is soon lying on the ground, choking as blood pours out of the wound in the side of his neck. In a moment, the guard is lying still and quiet.
A quick check to be sure no one heard the fight, they leave the dead guard behind and stay to the shadows as they work their way to the corner of the building. The side with the door to Miko’s room is illuminated by a line of torches that shed light on the interior of the compound and the mine entrance.
“Don’t think we can sneak in,” Jiron tells him when he’s assessed the situation. “But if we walk as if we belong here, we might make it before anyone realizes what’s going on.”
“Alright,” he says nervously, “let’s go.”
They look around the corner to make sure the immediate area is clear before Jiron steps out as if he owns the place with James right behind. Going past the first three doors, they stop in front of the fourth where Jiron grabs the handle and pulls it open. The stench that wafts out from within catches him unexpectedly and his stomach tries to spew forth its contents. Keeping it under control, he steps into the room and sees bodies lying all over the floor.
James rushes past him and stops next to a boy with a man’s head on his lap. “Miko,” James says as he kneels on the floor next to him.
Miko’s head comes up and as if he can’t believe what he’s seeing, asks, “James?”
James nods his head, tears coming to his eyes.
“I thought you had forgotten about me,” Miko says.
“Never,” he asserts. “We’ve come to get you out of here.”
“I can’t leave without Nate,” he says indicating the man whose head he’s cradling.
Closing the door, Jiron asks from where he stands just within the room, “What happened here?”
A look of anger overcomes Miko’s features as he says, “A fellow slave I call Black Tooth slipped poison in the wine and now everyone’s dead.” Tears come to his eyes as he looks around at the friends he lost. Slaves though they were, they had been a team. His team.
“Why aren’t you dead?” James asks.
Miko turns his red rimmed eyes to him and says, “I was too busy eating the meat and didn’t drink that much of the wine.” He motions to the man in his lap and says, “Nate here didn’t drink much either, but he did have more than me.”
Jiron comes over and checks Nate, finding him still alive but unconscious. “I don’t know if we can take him with us,” he says to James. “It’s going to be hard enough to do it with just the three of us.”
Miko gets a defiant look and says, “Then leave me here with him, I’d be dead by now without him. I can’t leave him, he’s my friend!”
Jiron glances to James who nods his head and says, “Then we take him with us.”
He comes over to James and whispers, “Aren’t we going to be a trifle conspicuous carrying an unconscious body around?”
“Be that as it may,” James replies, “Miko’s not leaving without him so he comes with us. Besides, if he has kept him alive all this time, then I owe him.”
“Alright,” he says, “but you’re going to need to carry him, I’ll be too busy fighting off the guards when they see us leave.”