Fires of Prophecy_ Book Two of the Morcyth Saga - Brian Pratt [18]
They wait for several minutes, allowing the riders to move further down the road before they exit the building. James peeks out and sees the riders have already ridden out of sight.
Seeing no one else on the road in either direction, he asks Delia, “Can we leave now?”
“I’m sorry for putting us in jeopardy,” she says a little guilty, “but I couldn’t leave without knowing.”
“We understand,” Jiron says, “but think before you act next time, our lives may depend on it. Okay?”
“Alright,” Delia says.
Once the horses have been brought back outside, they remount. Then with James in the lead, they head south out of town, making their way into the grasslands.
Several times during the afternoon, they have to make detours when riders appear in the distance. Each time they were sure they would be discovered, yet each time the riders continued on until they were again out of sight.
When the sun begins to dip toward the horizon, they are still out in the middle of the grasslands. They decide to make camp, forgoing a fire in favor of not alerting the countryside to their presence.
They quickly eat before the sun sets completely and picket the horses close by their camp, leaving the saddles on in case they need to leave quickly. Not good for the horses, but necessary.
“Do you think we’re catching them?” Cassie asks while they’re eating.
“Who?” James responds. “The slavers?”
Cassie nods her head and says, “Yes.”
“I would think so,” he answers, nodding his head. “They have lots of people walking while we’re riding, even though we are taking a more roundabout way we have to be gaining on them.”
They sit there in silence for the rest of their meal. When they’re done, they all settle down and get ready for sleep. James lies there and stares up at the sky as it continues to darken into full night.
“James?” he hears Delia say.
“Yeah?” he replies.
“Where’re you from?” she asks.
“A long ways from here and probably won’t be back for quite a while,” he replies. “Why?”
“Just curious is all,” she answers.
“Is everyone there mages?” Cassie asks.
“No, there are actually none there,” he says. “I may be the first.”
“You’re the first one I’ve ever met,” she says.
“Do I live up to your expectations?” he asks, amused.
“No,” she said, “you’re nice.”
James laughs then sobers up and asks, “Are all the mages here mean?”
Tinok says, “Most people believe them to be. All you ever hear about is how mages ruin things and hurt people. Seeing what you’ve already done, it’s not hard to understand why that is.”
“It’s all perspective,” James says, “plus most tales of how mages help won’t be believed and only the interesting ones are told again and again. Those tend to be the ones where they are not very nice.”
“Suppose you’re right,” he concludes.
“Maybe we should all be thinking about going to sleep,” Jiron’s voice cuts through the night. “We have lots of ground to cover and people to find.”
“You’re right,” James agrees. Turning over, he tries to find a comfortable spot on the ground. I hate sleeping on the ground! Eventually, he’s able to drift off to sleep.
The morning dawns beautifully and James wakes up stiff and aching due to another night spent on the hard ground. After getting up, he rummages through his backpack and comes up with some food for breakfast. While he eats he begins walking around the camp, trying to work the kinks out of his muscles.
It doesn’t take long before they’re all up, eaten, and ready to ride. Once everyone is mounted, they continue south, hoping to find where the slavers are heading. At one point during the morning, James takes out his compass and locates the general direction of where the slavers are. The needle points off to the southeast, more east than south. We’re gaining on them, he thinks to himself. Putting his