Fires of Prophecy_ Book Two of the Morcyth Saga - Brian Pratt [147]
Whatever happened, he doesn’t have time to just stand there and ponder the imponderable. Hurrying back to his horse, he mounts up and follows the wagon at a discreet distance. When they arrive at the town, he’s glad they’re entering a different area than the one where he stirred things up earlier. Securing his horse to a tree outside the wall, he again jumps up and pulls himself to the other side as the wagon passes through the nearby gate.
He follows them through town, staying within the shadows and alleys. When he comes to avenues that he must cross in order to follow, he just strides right out and blends in with the few people on the street. Looking like you belong has always been the best way for him to remain undetected. If you look like you’re about your business, most people fail to even notice you.
The wagon continues rolling through town until it comes to an estate with a wall more formidable than the outer town wall had been. Guards are posted at the gates and the robed man says a few words to them as the wagon passes through. Once the wagon is within the estate, the gate closes. The accompanying foot soldiers turn and march down the street away from the estate.
The wall surrounding the estate has nasty looking spikes along the top to deter anybody from going over. Jiron has scaled those types before, but never made it over unscathed. He’s anxious to get in for he doesn’t know how much time James will have before they begin the interrogation. Hopefully they’ll most likely wait at least until he regains consciousness. But with mages, you never know what they can do to revive someone. He’s got to get in there!
He does a quick survey of the wall encompassing the estate, which by the way is fairly large and discovers the spikes run its entire length. Sighing, he comes to the conclusion that he’s going to have to risk the spikes.
Going over to a neighboring house, he acquires several shirts which are lying in a heap at the back door. He wraps them around his arms. Though they’re not very good protection against the spikes, they’re still better than nothing.
Glancing around, he makes sure he’ll remain unobserved and then jumps up, grabbing the top of the wall. Using extreme care, he pulls himself up and braces himself as he crosses over the spikes. A sudden pain erupts from his left thigh as a spike pushes through his leggings and punctures his skin.
He pushes his leg off the spike with his left hand and then a pain erupts from his left arm as another spike scores through the layers of shirts. When he finally makes it down to the other side, he has several pinpoint punctures on his arms and legs. Fortunately, none are very deep or serious, just bleeding slightly. He knew people back in the City of Light who had attempted a similar feat and had muscles and tendons tore from the spikes. Removing the shirts from his arms, he leaves them on the ground by the wall.
Looking toward the estate, he watches from the shadows as the wagon stops in front of the main entrance. The brown robed man gets down as several waiting attendants remove James from the wagon. Following behind the mage, they carry him into the house and the door closes behind them.
Continuing to watch the house for a few minutes, he finally sees a light appear in a second story window, most likely where they’ve put James. Turning his attention back to the grounds surrounding the estate, he takes notice of two guards walking a set path around the estate. After watching them for several circuits around the house, he observes a gap between their paths that he may be able to take advantage of. When the first guard passes in front of the house, the second one is patrolling behind it, leaving a gap of several seconds before he makes his appearance again.
Jiron waits until the first guard