Fires of Prophecy_ Book Two of the Morcyth Saga - Brian Pratt [14]
Jiron mounts and says, “Tinok, you stay next to James and make sure he doesn’t fall off.” He turns his horse toward the southwest, “Let’s stay close together,” he advises, “and maybe we can survive this.” He glances over to the bubble; the sparks have grown until they now fill the entire bubble with a white light whose intensity is painful to look upon. The mage on the ground is no longer moving and appears dead.
Kicking his horse in the side, Jiron rides through the camp, the others close behind. Out of the darkness ahead of him, several men suddenly appear. Holding on tight, he rides straight through them, knocking them over. He looks back toward the bubble, and the light is now extremely bright, illuminating a large portion of the camp. He can see dozens of men running toward it, one of whom is wearing a cowled robe just like the other mage had. They race past the tents and reach the far side of the camp.
They pass numerous soldiers but none seem to notice them, all eyes are turned to the now brilliantly bright light. The guards at the fringe of the camp take notice of them approaching and command them to stop. A crossbow bolt flies past, nearly striking Tinok as they race through. They flee into the dark grasslands to the southwest of town, leaving the guards behind. They don’t get too far before…
Schtk!
They look back at the sound from the backs of their horses, everyone holds their breath in anticipation of what may happen. Then…
Booooooom!
A giant explosion, ten times the force of what they experienced when that building blew earlier. They feel the concussion wave as it washes over them, luckily they’re far enough away that it doesn’t hit them with enough force to knock them over, just causes their horses to miss a step. They stop and look back at the camp.
Reaching toward the sky is a tower of flame, the roar from which can be heard even though they’re now far away from it. The base of the fire extends throughout the camp in every direction, burning everything within.
They sit there in awe as the flame punches through the clouds and then slowly dissipates, appearing as if it’s sinking back down to the ground.
“Dear god!” Cassie exclaims.
They all glance at the unconscious James and then look to each other. Tinok asks, “Just what have we gotten ourselves into?”
“I don’t know,” Jiron replies, shaking his head as he glances again at James. “I don’t know.” Kicking his horse, he leads them out into the grasslands.
Chapter Three
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James awakens in the morning light. Sitting up suddenly, his head begins to spin and starts aching as if a hundred little hammers are pounding away on it. He holds his head until the pain has subsided to a more tolerable level and then looks around as he takes in his surroundings. The others are still asleep and five horses are picketed a little ways away from the camp, the saddles had been left on for a quick getaway.
A moment of panic sets in when he can’t locate his backpack, then he realizes he had been using it as a pillow. Opening it up, he reaches in and removes some food along with his water bottle.
Deciding not to wake the others, he sits there and eats while he contemplates the events of the day before. The Empire’s mage almost had me, he thinks to himself. I’m just a rookie compared to them, they’ve probably been doing this for a long time. My spells seemed to be rather ineffective against him, too. Going to have to work on better, more innovative spells, gotta surprise them next time or I’m toast. He remembers his last spell and smiles, I bet he never saw that coming!
Hearing one of the sleepers stirring, he looks over and sees Cassie as she leans up on one arm and looks over in his direction. He holds up some of his food, silently offering it to her, but she just shakes her head no. She grabs her pack and gets up, coming over to sit next to him.
She opens her backpack and