The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (35 page)

When they at last have all of them tied
behind the wagon, Gayle points to James and the others as she asks,
“What are we to do with them?”

“Can’t leave them to come after us,” Kerrin
says to her.

“You’re going to kill them?” she asks
aghast.

“You don’t worry about that,” he
replies.

James tries to move after hearing that but
whatever drug they used on him has almost completely immobilized
him. All he can manage are weak movements which don’t get him very
far and exhausts him in the process.

Out of the corner of his eye his gaze
settles on the crystals spilled on the ground next to him. Hope
springs to him as he sees the one wrapped in cloth lying not six
inches from his hand.

The last horse is secured in line and he
hears the older gentlemen say, “You and your wife take the wagon
and horses. We’ll meet up with you in a few minutes.” As the wagon
begins to roll away, the unmistakable sound of a sword leaving its
scabbard can be heard followed shortly by another.

James sees them moving toward them, intent
on ending their lives. He again focuses on the crystals lying next
to him and with a sheer force of will begins inching his hand
toward the crystal with the embedded spells. His finger finally
comes into contact with it just as they reach the unconscious men
lying on the ground. He watches in horror as the older gentleman
raises his sword to end the life of one of his comrades.

In a bare whisper, he says “Leech” and can
feel power being absorbed from him by the crystal. Then before the
sword can fall, he cries out in a gasp, “Incinerate!” More power is
sucked from him as a red flare flies from the crystal toward the
man.

The light from the flare causes him to pause
a moment in his swing and that’s all the time it needs. Striking
him, the flare erupts in a flaming ball. Screaming, the man begins
running around, a veritable human torch.

Startled, the younger man cries out,
“Father!” Running to his aid, he attempts to put out the fires to
no avail. Finally his father slumps to the ground, and lies still
as his screams of pain come to a stop.

With a cry of rage, the son stands up and
with a primal scream runs toward the nearest of the drugged men,
intent upon venting his anger.

“Shield radius twenty!” can barely be heard
as James gasps another command to the crystal. Springing up around
the men lying on the ground is an invisible barrier.

Aaaaaahhhh!

A cry of pain and agony rips through the
night, drawing James’ attention. The son had been caught by the
creation of the barrier and a portion of his face, chest and one
leg had been severed off by it. Falling backward away from the
barrier, he collapses to the ground where he writhes in agony until
finally dying.

James says one last command before
succumbing to unconsciousness, “Maintain.”

When he at last awakens again, morning has
come. The rain has stopped and the sun is just beginning to break
through the cloud cover. Sitting up, his head begins to spin and
realizes how weak he is. That’s when he feels the drawing of power
from him by the crystal while it maintains the barrier around
them.

“You okay?” he hears behind him.

Glancing back he finds Jiron walking toward
him. Nodding his head, he asks, “You?”

“Still a bit dizzy but otherwise fine,” he
replies. He sees James glancing at the others and says, “They’re
all still alive but unresponsive. I think they may have been
affected more than you and I.”

“Gayle must have put something in the stew,”
he says as he comes to his feet. “Any sign of her or Kerrin?”

Shaking his head, Jiron says, “I don’t think
so.” Then he motions over to one side of the camp and adds, “We
have one stiff over there that’s charred beyond recognition. At the
edge of the barrier next to it is what’s left of some guy your
barrier cut in two. May be them.”

“Cut in two?” James asks.

“Yeah,” he says. “Come here and I’ll show
you.” Reaching down a hand, he helps him to his feet. They make
their way over to where the man had been sliced by the
materialization of the barrier.

Turning away from the grisly sight, he says,
“It’s one of the men from the inn.”

Instant recognition comes to Jiron who
points over to the burnt corpse and before he can say anything,
James adds, “That’s the other one.”

“Then they were in it together from the
start?” he asks.

“It looks that way,” he says and then begins
making his way to the others where they lay on the ground, making
sure they’re alright. He finds them all asleep but unresponsive
just as Jiron had said.

“We got a bigger problem,” he tells him.

“What?” Jiron asks.

Turning to face him, he pulls down the
collar of his shirt and says, “They took the medallion.”

Jiron gasps in shock. This is the first time
he’s ever seen him without it. “What are you going to do?”

“Get it back,” he says.

“They’re going to be long gone by the time
the others are ready for travel,” he states.

“Be that as it may, I have to retrieve it,”
he asserts. No longer seeing the need to maintain the barrier, he
returns to where the crystal lies on the ground and picks it up.
Holding it in his hand he says “Cancel” and it disappears. He
rewraps it in the cloth and then gathers the other crystals,
putting them all in one of his pockets.

When the barrier goes down, Jiron moves and
collects the two horses which are still tied to a nearby tree. They
must have belonged to the two dead men. Bringing them closer he
secures them nearby and then starts a fire in the now cold fire
pit.

Over the course of the next several hours
the others begin to regain consciousness. When they find out what
happened they’re all set to go and extract their vengeance upon
them. The last one to come out of it is Miko, probably because he
had eaten the most of the drugged or poisoned stew than the
others.

During this time, it has been determined
that Kerrin and Gayle proceeded further into the pass rather than
return to Feld. The ruts created by the wagon are still visible in
the mud and they head further up the pass.

Once they have a light meal, James announces
that he and Jiron are going to take the two horses and follow
them.

“But what about the rest of us?” Dave
asks.

“You will have to follow as best you can on
foot,” he explains.

“But…” he begins to protest then falls
silent, giving in to the inevitable.

“Fifer,” he says, “I want you to be in
charge until our return.”

“You got it,” he says.

Coming close to him and whispering so only
he can hear he says, “Don’t let anyone kill Dave.”

Smiling, he gives him a nod.

He and Jiron mount the horses and then he
turns to the others. “With any luck, we’ll be back soon. If by the
time you’ve reached the next town and we haven’t returned, find an
inn and stay there until we do.”

“But we haven’t any coins,” Fifer says.
“They took all I have.” Glancing to the others, he gets answering
nods saying their coins are gone as well.

Moving to the horses, James rummages through
the packs still attached there. Not finding anything of value, he
goes to the two corpses. He finds two sacks of coins, one on each.
One of the sacks is burned badly from when the older man had been
torched by James’ spell so he transfers the coins from it to the
other.

“Hopefully this should be enough,” he says
as he hands it over to Fifer.

“But what about you?” he asks as he takes
the offered pouch.

“We’ll get by I’m sure,” he replies. Then
with a nod to Jiron they return to the horses and mount.

“Good luck,” Miko says as they turn to
follow the road up the mountain.

“You too,” he replies. As he kicks his horse
to move, he can hear Dave mumble, “I knew it was a bad idea to let
them come with us.” Ignoring the remark, he breaks into a gallop
and has soon left the others behind.

They don’t get far before they find the
wagon sitting abandoned in the middle of the road. “What happened?”
Jiron asks.

“Perhaps they heard or saw what happened
back at the camp and decided to beat a hasty retreat,” suggests
James.

“I was hoping they would still be on the
slow moving wagon,” says Jiron.

“Me too,” he replies. A cursory look shows
very little to have been left behind when the wagon was abandoned.
They get moving again and quickly leave the wagon behind. The
tracks of all their stolen horses leave a clear trail for them to
follow. As long as the sun stays out they should have no trouble in
following them.

After riding in silence for awhile, Jiron
asks, “Do you suppose the bandits we were warned about might still
be in the area?”

James chuckles at that and says, “Jiron, the
people who told us about the bandits, were the bandits.”

“Oh yeah, right,” he says a little
embarrassed.

“But in the mood I am right now, no bandit
better hope to cross our path,” he says in all seriousness.

Jiron gives him a nod and they continue to
ride on throughout the rest of the afternoon. Whether they are
catching them or not is hard to tell as neither of them are
experienced trackers. One thing’s for sure though, Kerrin and Gayle
have a good head start with lots of fresh horses to change off with
to better maintain their speed.

When night finally comes James decides to
stop and rest. They’re both still feeling the effects of the drug
used on them and are in need of some rest. Building a fire and
eating what little food they find on the horses, they make camp and
take turns standing watch throughout the night.

The following morning they’re up early and
on the road before the sun crests the mountaintops. Riding hard,
they continue to follow the road as it meanders through the
mountains until finally reaching the summit. It’s not a sharp
summit but a gradual one and they’re unable to look very far down
the other side.

An hour after cresting the summit they come
across what appears to be the camp Kerrin and Gayle used the
previous night. A fire pit and mounds of fresh horse manure show
that they were there. Off to the left of the road lies a lake which
is the source of the river they’ve been following.

“May not be very much further behind them,”
Jiron says.

“We have been riding hard,” agrees James.
“Let’s take a moment and find out.”

Dismounting, he goes over to a free standing
pool of water near the side of the road. Kneeling down, he
concentrates on Kerrin and an image appears of him and Gayle riding
fast trailing a line of horses behind them. The image shows them to
still be in the mountains, the road they’re on winding among the
hills and trees.

Expanding the image, it’s hard for him to
determine just where or how far away they are. “At least they’re
still on the run and haven’t met up with anyone,” announces
Jiron.

“That’s fortunate,” adds James as he cancels
the spell. Getting to his feet, he mounts and they continue down
the mountain. The wind here in the upper elevation bites with cold
as it whips at them. They huddle more into their jackets as they
race down the road.

James is feeling fortunate there hasn’t been
any snow falling yet here in the higher elevations. Though the
clouds above have thinned somewhat, they still exhibit the inherent
threat of more rain or snow. As cold as the air feels he wouldn’t
be surprised to see snow begin to fall. Of course the temperature
is worsened by their speed, the wind chill making it feel worse
than it probably is.

As they continue speeding down the mountain
they come to a rocky area where the trees start to thin. This
section of the pass looks to have been obliterated by a mammoth
rockslide some time in the recent past. A way through has been
cleared to enable traffic to continue across, large boulders dot
the area. The slide couldn’t have happened recently as bushes and
small trees have begun to grow among the rubble.

James’ horse becomes skittish as they enter
the boulder strewn section of the pass. “Easy boy,” he says,
patting its neck in an attempt to calm it down.

“What’s wrong?” Jiron asks.

“I don’t know,” he replies. “Something’s got
my horse spooked.”

Jiron signals to come to a halt as he scans
the area. His horse has begun to exhibit nervousness too.

“Think there’s a problem?” James asks.

“Maybe,” he replies as he continues scanning
the boulders. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary.” After
searching for another minute he adds, “Would be a good place for an
ambush though.”

“I was thinking that too,” says James. Up
ahead of them the road winds its way through large piles of
boulders which could very easily hide raiders of one kind or
another.

“Kerrin and Gayle made it through,” Jiron
finally says, “and I don’t see anything.” He glances to James and
continues, “Let’s take it slow and keep our eyes open.”

Nodding, James nudges his horse to move at a
slow walk. Keeping his eyes open, he reaches to his slug belt and
removes one, keeping it ready just in case.

Their horses continue to show signs of
skittishness and at one point Jiron’s stops and refuses to go
further. He kicks it a couple times in the sides and finally gets
it moving. Glancing to James he sees the worry he feels mirrored in
his face. Pulling a knife, he signals for James to wait while he
proceeds ahead.

Nodding, James waits.

Taking it slow, he works his way slowly
forward, eyes scanning the road and rocks ahead for any indication
of what has the horses so spooked. He moves twenty feet from James
when a black shadow lurches toward him from out of the cover of the
rocks ahead and to the right.