“I like that idea,” replies James. “Lead on.”
Keeping the downward slope of the mountain to their right, they move carefully southward, hoping to avoid the forces in the area. Where Jiron moves quietly through the woods, Aleya is positively silent. James makes more noise than the other two combined, much to his embarrassment.
They work their way further through the woods and eventually come upon the road leading down from the summit. Jiron pauses a moment as he asks, “Should we follow the road or keep to the woods?”
“If we follow the road, won’t we run the risk of coming across the Empire’s men?” asks Aleya.
“Probably,” states James. “Let’s stay to the woods on the other side of the road and follow it down until we run into someone.”
“Alright,” says Jiron. He then moves across the road and enters the trees lining the other side. The others follow right behind him.
The woods begin to thin out the further west they go. As they pace the road, they begin working their way down out of the mountain as well.
Jiron suddenly stops and holds up his hand, indicating the others to stop as well. In the faint light, they see him gesturing ahead of them and when James looks, can see the light from a campfire flickering through the trees.
A camp with an unknown number of enemy soldiers lies a hundred feet ahead of them. Taking it slow and quiet, Jiron heads off to the left and leads them around the camp, making sure to keep adequate distance between them so they won’t be discovered.
At one point, they come to a halt when raised voices can be heard coming from the camp. They hold still as they listen to two men begin shouting at each other. Then the sound of fighting can be heard as other voices start calling out, as if encouraging the fighters onto greater bouts of skill.
“Let’s move!” whispers James and they resume skirting around the camp. The brawl which had erupted for some unknown reason allows them to move faster than before. Any noise they’re likely to make now will be drowned out by the ruckus going on back there.
Once they reached the far side of the camp, they continue moving alongside the road and soon the sound behind them diminishes altogether. Moving far more slowly and cautiously now that every sound seems to resonate throughout the forest, they soon begin to see the lights from the main force encamped within the hills at the base of the mountain below them.
Judging by the number of campfires dotting the hills, the army there must be over a thousand strong. The camp itself seems to stretch almost a mile along the base of the mountain, and extends almost half a mile across.
James has them pause a moment and gather close around him. “Think we can make it around this?” he asks, indicating the large force ahead of them.
“Don’t really have much of a choice,” replies Jiron. “If we stay up here as we move around them, it may be possible.” To Aleya, he asks, “How much further is Kern?”
“I’m not really sure,” she explains. “I haven’t actually been here before. But I’d say maybe another five miles to the west.” Which is on the other side of the army encamped before them.
“Alright,” James says, coming to a decision. “We’ll work our way around as best we can. We need to make it around them before daylight. If we don’t, we’re going to be sitting awfully exposed up here.” The trees have been thinning out continuously as they’ve worked their way down the side of the mountain and would give them limited cover in the daylight.
“Then let’s move quickly,” states Jiron. He then begins moving through the trees as they start making their way around the enemy army below them.
The army looks as if it’s been there a while, the smell from the latrines would tell them that if nothing else. Soldiers move from place to place, many are seated around the fires, either having a meal or talking with their fellows.
Jiron stops suddenly and motions for James to come closer.
“What?” asks James when he comes near.
Pointing to a section of the enemy camp far to the right, he says, “Parvatis.”
Sure enough, when he looks, James sees the unmistakable tattoos of the Parvatis. “Think the Shynti should pay them a visit?” he asks. Shynti being the title accorded Jiron after defeating one of them in a blood duel. That designation has saved them on more than one occasion.
Shaking his head, he replies, “I don’t think that would be wise. For one thing, I’d have to make it through the bulk of their army just to reach them and I don’t think I’ll be able to manage that.”
Aleya just looks from one to the other, not understanding what they’re talking about.
“You’re probably right,” agrees James.
Jiron turns to resume their trek around the camp when out of the trees ahead of them, a soldier comes into view. The man gasps when he sees them and before anyone has a chance to do anything, an arrow flies past Jiron’s ear and hits the man in the chest, just below the neck.
The force of the arrow knocks him backward off his feet and into the tree behind him. His lifeless eyes stare at them as he slowly sags to the ground.
Jiron turns to Aleya where she’s standing with bow still in hand and says, “Quick shooting.”
She gives him a grin and replies, “Thanks.” Moving forward, she reclaims her arrow from the dead man. After wiping the gore off on the man’s shirt, she gives it a quick inspection then replaces it back in her quiver. When she notices the look on James’ face, she says, “I don’t have many left, may need it before too much longer.”
“Right,” he says.
“We better quicken our pace,” states Jiron. “Where there’s one, there’s likely to be more.” He then turns, and moving at a quicker pace than before, hurries through the trees.
As he follows Jiron, James worries about the dead man back there. If his fellows should discover him, the hunt will be on. Fortunately, dawn is still many hours away so maybe they’ll make it before anyone discovers him.
After making their way through the trees for another hour, they finally come to the base of the mountains. In the faint light coming from above, they see before them through the trees the unmistakable sight of a road running east and west. “I think this is the road leading to Bindles,” Jiron says.
“Yeah, I remember,” replies James. The last time they came through this area, they were posing as merchants on their way to rescue Jiron’s sister and Miko.
The road directly ahead of them is dark and looks deserted. Further to the west, it runs directly into the enemy camp and is well lit at a checkpoint guarded by a squad of men. Across the road from them to the south are more hills which gradually rise to become mountains.
As Jiron begins moving out of the trees and onto the road, Aleya grabs him by the arm and whispers, “Wait!” Pointing across the road, she directs their sight to a large boulder lying beside the road twenty feet away.
“What?” he whispers back after looking for a moment. “I don’t see anything.”
“Thought I saw something,” she tells them.
“Maybe you…” begins James when a shadow moves next to the boulder. “A sentry!” he says quietly.
“Why would they have one this far from the checkpoint?” she asks.
“They know we’re out here,” Jiron begins to explain to her, “and that if we come this way we’re most likely to give the lit checkpoint over there a wide berth. Which is exactly what we’re doing.”
“So,” adds James, “thinking to go around it, we run into a soldier hiding in the dark.”
“Exactly,” confirms Jiron. “Fairly sneaky and almost worked if he would’ve kept still.”
“What’re we to do now?” Aleya asks.
“Just how good are you with that?” he asks her as he indicates her bow.
“You mean, can I hit him from here?” she asks. When he nods, she says, “I think so. Be harder in the dark since I can’t see him clearly, but yes, I believe I could.”
“Good,” he replies. “If we take him out, we may be able to get by without undue attention.”