Fires of prophesy ms-2

by Brian S. Pratt

  “Then we better get going,” he says.

  James nods his head as they return to the cave to get their horses and leave. Once inside, Jiron asks him to use the mirror to see if the others made it safely on board the ship.

  So James takes out his mirror again and concentrates on Delia and her surroundings. The image in the mirror begins to swirl until Delia appears along with several of the others, including Jiron’s sister, Tersa. Widening the view, they’re relieved to see them on board a boat that’s at sea. From the expressions on everyone’s face, it would seem they are not in distress.

  “Looks like they made it,” James tells him.

  Sighing with relief, Jiron says, “I’m glad that Tersa is safe, that’s been worrying me ever since we left.”

  “Me too,” adds James. Putting his mirror back in his shaving kit, he places the kit in the saddlebag before mounting his horse.

  Jiron quickly gets into the saddle as well and then leads them out of the cave. Turning away from the water, they head through the hills, continuing to angle away from the water.

  “Why don’t we follow the shoreline?” asks James.

  “There’s a village up ahead along the coast I visited last night,” he replies. “They may be looking for someone who took some food. I did leave money, two silvers, but they still may be looking.”

  James nods his head, leaving it to Jiron’s judgment.

  As they continue to angle away from the shoreline, they come across the main road running north and south. A quick look reveals no one currently traveling upon the road so they quickly cross and enter the cover of the foothills on the other side. Staying within the hills, they’re able to run parallel with the road as they continue their way to the south.

  They don’t ride very long before they begin to hear the sound of marching feet coming from up ahead of them. Leaving the horses between two hills, they climb to the crest of the next hill and peer over the top.

  From their vantage point, they’re able to see the road and the army of marching men upon it coming their way. Easily a thousand strong, the army marches north and at their head are two brown robes upon horses, as well as two others who look to be civilians. A wagon train, most likely carrying supplies, stretches behind them for as far as the road is visible. Flanking them out in the hills are several riders, most likely scouts.

  “Uh, oh,” Jiron says as he indicates the riders in the hills on both sides of the road. “Scouts! We’ve got to get out of here, fast!”

  Glancing back to the brown robes, James says, “Yeah.”

  Rushing down the hill, they get to their horses and mount quickly. Turning their horses due east, they gallop away, hoping the scouts won’t catch sight of them. “Do you think they’re looking for us?” Jiron asks.

  “It’s likely,” he replies. “We did sort of upset them back in Al-Kur.”

  With a short laugh, Jiron adds, “I guess you could say that.”

  Suddenly a horn sounds behind them and they turn to see a scout upon a horse at the top of a hill. Kicking their horses into even greater speed, they fly through the hills. The scout follows, keeping them in sight and periodically sounding his horn to alert the host behind him as to their position.

  “Damn!” James hears Jiron exclaim as they race through the hills.

  “At least the majority of the soldiers back there were on foot,” James says.

  “True, but the mages weren’t,” states Jiron.

  They continue to ride hard and James glances behind them but doesn’t see any pursuit developing, other than that annoying scout who continues alerting everyone as to their whereabouts.

  “Hold up a minute,” James finally says as he brings his horse around and turns toward the scout. He sees the scout holding still, two hills back as he once more sounds his horn. Reaching into his pouch, James brings out one of his remaining slugs.

  “Can you hit him from here?” Jiron asks.

  “We’ll see,” he replies as he throws the slug and at the same time, lets the magic flow.

  Jiron watches as the slug flies through the air toward the scout on the distant hill. The scout must’ve seen the slug for he quickly moves down off the hill and out of James’ line of sight. The slug alters course slightly and then disappears behind the hill where the scout went. “Did you get him?”

  “Not sure. But let’s not wait around to find out.”

  They turn their horses around and once again race through the hills. After several more minutes of riding, they slow down. “Looks like you did get him,” Jiron says when the scout doesn’t show himself again.

  “Maybe now we can lose them in these hills,” James says with relief.

  The plan to escape in the hills dies as after a few brief minutes they clear the hills and are once again in the rocky desert with the scrub brush and stunted trees. Turning south, they follow the edge of the hills and only ride a short distance before they again hear the sound of the horn. Turning to glance behind them, Jiron exclaims, “Dear god!”

  James turns and sees at least a hundred horsemen charging toward them from the north. Kicking their horses to a gallop they ride fast, hoping to stay ahead of the approaching cavalry. Another horn sounds to their right as they see the soldiers from the road coming into view as they crest the hills. The brown robed mages are at the fore.

  Coming to the inevitable conclusion that magic will again become necessary, James takes the rope out of his saddlebag and again ties himself to the saddle. When he notices Jiron looking at him, he just shrugs and pulls the rope tighter.

  He begins to feel the tingle that always heralds another mage who is working magic. Glancing back toward the mages on the hill, he sees one has his arms raised. “Fly!” he yells to Jiron as he kicks his own horse into a gallop and rides to the southeast, angling away from the two armies.

  The tingles suddenly intensifies and he looks back to see a fireball flying toward them. He counters with a spell and it explodes harmlessly before it even reaches them.

  The cavalry has swung to intercept them but aren’t gaining very fast. James realizes he’s unlikely to destroy both armies without unleashing something cataclysmic. His only hope is to hide, disappear. Suddenly, a memory surfaces of a time he and his family had vacationed in Las Vegas during the summer when a Santa Ana had come through. They had been caught out on the back roads and the flying sand was so bad, his grandfather had to pull off the road and wait it out because he couldn’t see the pavement.

  He yells to Jiron, “Take a cloth and cover your face!”

  “What?” he yells back.

  James pulls out a cloth and yells again, “Cover your face!” He then takes the cloth and ties it around his face until only his eyes are showing. He sees Jiron getting the idea and beginning to do the same. James starts concentrating on air pressure and the winds begin to increase.

  They’ve left the armies on foot behind but the cavalry is still gaining ground. Jiron realizes that they’re not going to be able to outrun them. He looks over to James and sees him there with his eyes closed. He moves his horse closer to James and grabs his reins so they won’t become separated.

  As they continue to gallop, the wind begins to pick up. It’s almost as if the wind is slamming into the ground and drawing the dirt and sand up into the air. Before too much longer, the air is becoming hazy as more and more of the dirt and sand is being sucked up into the air.

  The intensity of the wind hurls the sand into them with sufficient force to sting where it strikes exposed flesh. Jiron looks back but the dust in the air has obscured everything and the cavalrymen are no longer visible through it.

  He begins to angle slightly more to the south, hoping to throw off their pursuers. The storm continues growing in intensity and he hollers to James, “That’s enough! You’re going to get us killed if you don’t back off!”

  James’ eyes fly open and he looks tiredly to Jiron as he nods understanding.

  When the storm doesn’t subside, he yells to J
ames, “Stop! You’re going to kill us!”

  Yelling back, James says, “I have! The storm has taken a life of its own. I can’t control it any more!”

  “Damn!” Jiron curses as they continue galloping to the south.

  The winds steadily keep increasing and soon larger stones have been picked up by the winds and begin to pelt them. One stones strikes James on the thigh causing him to cry out. “Stop!” he yells to Jiron.

  Coming to a stop, they both dismount. He has Jiron stay close to him as he attempts to create a barrier around them to keep the storm out. Suddenly, all is calm as the dome springs into being, the sand and wind continue pelting the outer side of the dome. The dome extends fifteen feet in diameter and ten feet high.

  “How long can you hold it?” Jiron asks, retaining tight hold of the frightened horses’ reins.

  Considering it, James replies, “It was the initial construction that used the most magic. It’s drawing what I call maintenance magic now, just enough to keep it stable. Probably for quite a while.”

  Jiron says, “Good.”

  The horses are restless, but appear they’ll be okay. Jiron looks out at the swirling mass of sand and stones in awe. “Just what did you do?” he asks as he turns back to James.

  “I thought I would make a dust storm to hide us in so we could escape,” he explains. “But when I cancelled the spell, it continued. It seems I inadvertently triggered something that was on the verge of happening anyway, though maybe not to this degree.” Indicating the storm outside, he says, “It’s probably situations like these that make people hate mages, or at least distrust them.”

  Jiron nods his head and is about to reply when they hear a scream and turn to look as a man, at least they think it is, hits the side of the invisible dome. Most of the skin has been flayed from his bones by the storm. A ghastly appearance, they can see its skeletal mouth opening and closing and then it’s picked up again by the wind and disappears.

  They look to each other, James feeling very bad about the whole thing. “I guess we’re not going to have to worry about pursuit when this is over,” Jiron states.

  Trying to fight back nausea, James replies, “You’re probably right.” He looks out to the storm again and then says, “Maybe you should try to get some sleep, I don’t know how long this will last.”

  “What about you?” he asks.

  “I dare not fall asleep,” he replies. “The barrier might end.”

  Jiron unconsciously looks out at the storm and nods his head. “Alright,” he says as he makes to lie down. “Though how I’m going to sleep in this is beyond me,” he states.

  James sits there as the storm rages outside the dome. He realizes after a while that Jiron has finally managed to fall asleep and hears soft snores coming from him. As the day progresses, the storm continues in its intensity and as night comes, the light begins to fade.

  Casting his glowing orb for light, he keeps it soft so as not to awaken Jiron. The horses finally settle down as they become use to the roar outside the dome. Sitting there with nothing to do as he maintains the domes integrity, he becomes bored and tired. He’s beginning to find it hard to stay awake. The events of the last few days and the continual draw of magic to keep the barrier up are starting to take its toll on him.

  Getting to his feet, he paces around to keep himself awake and begins to sing songs from home. Some he knows in their entirety and others he gets through the first couple of verses before losing it. All through the night he stays on his feet, refusing to give in to the tiredness that’s making his eyes droop and voice start to slur.

  Sometime near dawn, the storm finally begins to subside and quiet down. Jiron comes awake and sees James sitting there, head drooped down to his chest, asleep. Startled, he gets up and begins to go over and wake him up when he realizes the dome hadn’t collapsed with him falling asleep. It was covered completely with sand, light from the morning sun dimly filtering through.

  Calming down, he sits back down and allows James time to sleep, knowing he has to be extremely tired after all he’s done the last couple of days. He only has to wait a short time before James awakens. He begins to panic when he realizes that he fell asleep. “Relax,” Jiron tells him reassuringly, “you’re spell didn’t fail.”

  “Yes, it did,” he corrects him. “I no longer feel any drain used to maintain it.”

  Gesturing to the dome around them, he asks, “Then how?”

  Going over to the side of the dome, James examines it and says, “The storm has packed sand and dirt around us so tightly, that it held together when the dome failed.”

  “You mean we’re buried under the sand?” Jiron asks incredulously.

  “It would seem that way,” replies James.

  “Incredible!” Jiron exclaims as he moves over to the dirt packed in around them. He touches the side and a small portion of the dirt comes loose. Then suddenly more begins to cascade down until the integrity of the entire dome fails and collapses down upon them, burying them in a foot of dirt and sand.

  The horses panic as the dirt hits them and James cries out but quickly realizes that there’s really not that much dirt covering them.

  When the dust clears, they see the morning sun just cresting the horizon. Looking around, James doesn’t find any sign of the man who had crashed into the side of the dome the night before, nor anyone else for that matter. From horizon to horizon, the land is barren, most of the plants are gone as well as a few of the trees. Of the trees that do remain, most are bent and broken.

  Getting the horses out of the dirt and sand, they take stock of the situation. “I doubt if we’ll need to worry about encountering anyone for a while,” Jiron announces.

  “Let’s hope not,” James agrees. “I’m getting worn out and need to lay off the magic for a day or two if possible.”

  Jiron pats him on the back and smiles, “If we encounter anyone, we’ll ask them if we can fight tomorrow so you can rest, okay?”

  “Very funny,” replies James as he gives him an annoyed look before breaking into a smile himself.

  “We better get going,” Jiron says as he climbs into the saddle. “Even though the enemy we encountered yesterday may be scattered to the winds, there still could be others on their way, hunting for us.”

  Mounting, James says, “I agree.”

  “Should we go south for awhile?” suggests Jiron.

  “Probably,” he agrees. “I’ll try to find him tomorrow, let’s just put some distance behind us for now.” With that, he kicks his horse into a gallop and they head off toward the south.

  Chapter Twenty Four

  As they follow the road leading down into the pit, they pass several wagons on their way back up. Miko and the others have to press close to the inner wall in order for the wagons to be able to make it by. He looks into the wagons as they pass and sees they’re filled with rocks. Once the wagons have passed, they resume their march down into the pit.

  When they’ve descended to the point where they pass the point of direct sunlight, a sound of hammering comes to them from the depths. They continue down and begin passing by the mouths of other passages branching off into the rock from the road. At the third such branching Miko looks down and sees a group of slaves using pickaxes and hammers as they pound away at the rock.

  It’s a mine!

  The slaves then pick up and carry the rocks they remove from the wall over to a wagon standing nearby. Is this my fate? Am I to spend the rest of my life underground? Worse fates than this has coursed through his mind at various times since the fall of the City of Light.

  They pass by many other branching passages as they continue to make their way down, most have groups of slaves working at removing the rock from the walls as had the earlier one. When they finally reach the bottom, they enter a long, wide tunnel leading off into the distance.

  This tunnel looks more a continuation of the road than another offshoot, it’s wider than the others have been and has many tunnels branching off
like veins from an artery. Spaced periodically along the tunnel are lanterns hanging from pegs in the wall to light the way. Empty wagons are spaced throughout the tunnel waiting to take the place of ones currently being filled. The horses of the empty wagon are removed and then hitched to the full one which is taken out of the pit.

  They don’t progress far down before a man comes over and they’re brought to a halt. He begins talking to them while others divide them up into different groups. To Miko’s relief, Black Tooth is taken away by one of the guards and led back up to the top. Five others are grouped with Miko and once the man stops talking, are led deeper into the mine.

  “What are they mining?” he asks the guard in charge of them after passing a group of men working on the beginnings of another passage.

  The guard replies, “Iron ore, as you soon will be as well.”

  “You speak my language!” he exclaims.

  “Of course,” the guard says. “There are many here from the north.”

  As they continue deeper into the mines, the tunnel they’re in begins to narrow. The frequency of other branching tunnels diminishes the further they go. The guard begins talking again, alternating between the empire’s language and the north’s. “This is where you will spend the rest of your days. We have only three rules here but they are enforced strictly. First of all, if you try to escape, we will kill you.”

  “Second, you will work hard when and where we tell you. If you fail to, you shall be punished,” he says. Pausing momentarily in his speech, he has them move over to the side of the tunnel as several slaves carry others past them. The ones being carried are bloody and a few are even unconscious, maybe even dead. Miko asks, “What happened to them?”

  The guard looks at him and says, “Cave-in. It happens sometimes, that’s why we need new slaves occasionally.”

  Once they’re past, the guard gets them moving again and they walk in silence until Miko asks, “What’s the third rule?”

  “Don’t hurt or hinder other slaves,” he explains.

  “That’s nice of you,” Miko replies.