The remaining horsemen abruptly come to a halt as they try to discover from whence this new attack is coming from. Jiron looks back at the horsemen and can see further behind them where James is standing by the broken wall of the farmhouse, as he cocks his arm back to unleash another of his deadly missiles.
Now with both knives in his hands, Jiron turns back and races to attack the mounted horsemen. The odds improve again as another soldier is knocked off his horse by the force of a slug blasting out of his chest.
The soldiers turn as one and race toward James, intent on seeking retribution for the death of their comrades. Their swords in hand and war cries on their lips, they ride to kill this lone man standing by the burnt out farmhouse.
Jiron races behind them, falling behind as he sees them rapidly closing the gap between them and James. Another soldier is taken out as a slug exits what used to be his skull, his companions don’t even stop. Hell bent on James’ death, they kick their horses into even greater speed.
Crumph!
The ground under them suddenly erupts, horses scream in terror as they’re thrown into the air. Bones snap and break as the horses fall back to the ground, smashing their riders beneath them.
Jiron reaches the scene, but the battle is over. The soldiers lying under the horses no longer move as the animals thrash and cry out. Taking up one of the soldier’s swords, he’s quick to put the injured horses out of their misery.
He looks up to see James approaching. “You okay?” James asks him.
Nodding, he replies, “I’m fine.” Looking around at the dead men, he continues, “Wonder what brought them into this orchard?”
“Who knows?” replies James. He goes over and takes the reins of one of the remaining horses and says, “At least we have horses now.”
“True,” agrees Jiron. Going over to another horse wandering around, he takes its reins and walks back over to where James is going through the pouch of one of the soldiers. “Looking for something?” he asks.
“Never know,” he says as he gets up and moves to another lifeless body where he opens its pouch as well. “Could be something that may tell us what they were doing here.”
Jiron walks over to another one and goes through its pouch, but all he finds are some coins which he adds to the ones he’s already carrying.
When James finally stands up from inspecting the last of the dead soldiers, he says, “Nothing.”
“Really didn’t think you’d find anything,” comments Jiron.
“Me either, actually,” he admits. “I just couldn’t leave without checking.”
“Right, you never know.”
The sun is almost to the horizon, so they decide to wait until it becomes darker before they head out through the orchard. Back at the farmhouse, they have a meal of apples and some cheese they found in a sack with other food items behind one of the saddles. Each now has two canteens and some rations, though neither has much.
As twilight settles in, they mount and begin riding through the orchard, once again on their way to Saragon. Traveling by horse allows them to put miles behind them much quicker than they had been able to on foot. James worries about the soldiers killed back at the farmhouse and what that may mean when their bodies are found. Hopefully, they won’t think to look further into Empire controlled areas for the killers, but rather search in the other direction.
Throughout the night, the stars shine bright, giving them some light with which to see. The moon rises several hours later, allowing them even better visibility.
To their right, the river turns to follow a more southerly direction than it had north of Pleasant Meadows. Though the road beside it remains empty, they dare not trust that it will remain so. Keeping a wide distance from the river, they ride parallel to it as they continue south.
Several times they encounter lights ahead of them, forcing them to circle around before continuing on. Camps of soldiers, none with more than ten, are scattered about the countryside. Makes no sense to James, but who knows why anyone does anything.
Near dawn, they come across another farm that had been abandoned when the Empire entered this area. The farmhouse is still in good condition so they bring the horses into the front room to keep them out of sight. In one of the rear rooms, they find beds to sleep on while awaiting the coming again of night.
Sitting around the table in the kitchen, they have a dinner of rations and apples. They did find a loaf of bread left behind when the farmers left. But the amount of green and grey on it kept them from eating it. “How do you plan for us to get into Saragon?” Jiron asks.
James looks to him and says, “Back when Miko and I first came through the Merchant’s Pass, there was a refugee camp at the way stop for the people of Madoc who fled the coming of the Empire. We met a couple men with their families there who shared our fire and food that night.”
“One of the things they told us was how they managed to escape from Saragon when it finally fell. One said, ‘ My grandfather used to be a smuggler way back when he was a younger man and had showed me an old smuggler route into the city that he said no one, not even the Governor knew about. Silas and I found it and used it to get our families out past the walls. The tunnel came out in a pile of old stones a dozen yards from the river, almost two miles north of the city. ’”
“Think it’s still hidden?” he asks.
“Hope so, can’t imagine why it wouldn’t be,” he tells Jiron. “The problem is going to be in finding it. A pile of old stones two miles north of the city could be hard to find. At least he said it was a dozen yards from the river, which should help in narrowing it down some.” He takes another bite and then adds, “We’ll probably have to hunt for it in the daylight, I doubt if we’ll find it in the dark.”
“Which means we’ll run the risk of being spotted,” Jiron states.
“True, but we’ll try to minimize that as best we can,” he assures him.
Jiron offers to take the first watch today for which James is grateful. The magic earlier in the day had tired him out some but not nearly as bad as it used to. He must be growing stronger in magic or his body is just getting used to it and its effects.
Lying down on the bed, he’s soon fast asleep. Sometime past noon, Jiron wakes him for his turn. And then later, when the sun dips below the horizon, James awakens him and they continue on their way as twilight deepens into the dark of night.
They ride quickly once the moon rises, giving them ample light to see their immediate surroundings. Early in the evening, lights from another town appear out of the darkness ahead of them. “Do you think that’s Saragon?” Jiron asks.
“Hard to tell,” James answers. “From what I’ve heard of Saragon, it is or rather was, an important town to southern Madoc. This one doesn’t look big enough.”
“You may be right,” Jiron says. They swing wide of the town and go around it.
Halfway around, James feels the tingling which always accompanies another doing magic. In the dark it’s difficult to determine who or where it’s coming from. The tingling only lasts a minute or two before stopping. Once they’ve passed the town and its lights have long since disappeared behind them, he tells Jiron about it.
“At least it wasn’t directed at us this time,” he says.
“True,” agrees James as they continue riding on into the night.
The terrain begins to turn gradually hilly, and they find they have to move between some of the hills in order to parallel the course of the road to their right without actually riding upon it.
The moon arcs overhead as they ride hard to the south in search of Saragon. Just what he expects to find there, he doesn’t know. But to the core of his being, he knows he has to go there.
During the final conclave of the Priests of Morcyth, the High Priest had fasted and prayed for a long time. At the end of which, the priests up and left, leaving no word about where they went and taking nothing with them. It all seems rather strange to James that they wouldn’t have taken something with them. With the followers of Dmon-Li eradicating them, he can understand about not telling the world their destination. That makes perfect sense.