Shades of the Past_ Book Six of the Morcyth Saga - Brian S. Pratt [105]
“Two days to the southeast lies Ki,” he replies. “According to the intelligence Lord Pytherian’s agents gathered, there’s a large iron mine in the mountains close to it. It’s a relatively small town and doesn’t have much of a garrison.”
“Going to do the same thing there as you did at the island?” Jiron asks. He remembers how James had utterly destroyed the Iron Mines at Sorna when he caused a massive volcanic eruption to completely engulf the island. Intelligence gathered by Lord Pytherian said a whole chain of eruptions sprung into being and have since played merry hell with shipping in the area.
“Hardly,” he says. “Going to try to collapse it, make it unusable for quite a while. If they lose the iron from there, they will only have one other mine of any size in operation or so the reports said. The other one is too far south for us to reach and have any success in making it back to Madoc again.”
They ride for another hour or so before coming to where the road forks to the southeast. Skirting around the town that sits across the juncture, they move to follow the new road to the southeast.
Throughout the night, they continue to follow the road. Other than them, no one else is traveling so late in the evening. Two hours before sunup, they come across a small village straddling the road. Little more than huts with goat farms, there is at least an inn.
“We should stop here,” James says when the inn comes in sight.
“Are you sure?” Jared asks. “If we’re found out, it’s all over.”
“I doubt that will happen,” Jiron says, joining the discussion.
“All you have to do is go in and get us a room,” James tells Jared. “Tell them we’ll send someone down in the morning to let them know when we will want breakfast sent up.”
“Alright,” says Jared, a trifle skeptical.
The inn has a lone lit candle in the front room. They pull up to the rail outside where James and Jiron wait while Jared goes inside. He isn’t long in returning and indicates he’s obtained a room. They take their horses around back to the stables. Only one horse is all there is within the stables and they have their choice of stalls. They pick three close to the entrance. Once their horses are settled in, they take all their bags with them up to their room.
As they reach the door to their room, James’ orb appears. Opening the door, the light from the orb reveals a single bed. They both look at Jared. “Sorry,” he says apologetically. “It was all they had.”
“All they had?” responds Jiron in amazement. “The stables are nigh on empty and this place hardly seems a major stop along the road.”
“It’s okay,” assures James as he enters through the door. Once the door shuts behind them, they stack their bags against it as an alarm.
“You take the bed,” Jiron offers James.
James nods and takes a seat on the edge while the others make themselves comfortable on the floor. “It’s a couple hours until dawn,” he says. “When it’s light enough, someone may realize I am no longer with our main force. Things could get interesting when it does.”
“How will we know if they do?” Jared asks.
Jiron chuckles and says, “Believe me, we’ll know.”
Before getting comfortable James removes the two crystals he had in his pocket as well as another from the sack of crystals. The power stored within these three crystals will aid him to ward off detection in the event an attempt is made to locate him. Setting them on the bed next to him, he lays down.
“Good night,” Jiron says from his position by the door.
“You too,” replies James as the room plunges into darkness with the vanishing of the orb. Only the glow from the crystals remains.
Crack!
Jared comes awake at the noise and quickly looks around the room. The light from the rising sun is just beginning to shine through the room’s window. Jiron is sitting on the bed next to James who is surrounded by a faint glow.
“What