Shades of the Past_ Book Six of the Morcyth Saga - Brian S. Pratt [11]
“Time to go,” Illan says after the slingers have sent their final volley toward the tree. Out of the four tries, Terrance had managed to strike the tree once.
“Alright!” Delia hollers to her slingers. “Time to go!”
It takes but a minute for everyone to return to the saddle and begin heading down the road. The rest of that day, with the sun shining overhead in a cloudless sky, they make good time and reach Pyrtlin before nightfall.
Finding a suitable spot outside of town, they set up camp. Once all is settled in for the night, James turns to Delia and says, “Take a couple of your slingers and see about buying some rations.”
“Not a problem,” she says. Raising her voice, she hollers, “Moyil, Jace and Caleb, bring your packs, we’re going into town.”
Devin comes to James and says, “Your tent is all set up.”
“Thanks Devin,” he replies.
Delia picks up her own pack as well as several others and with the boys in tow, heads into town. Being a trader, she is the logical choice for this particular duty.
As she heads into town, James walks over to his tent. “You lyin’ piece of horse dung!” Scar’s voice reaches him from where the fighters are bivouacked. He glances over to where his voice came from and sees him standing with hands on hips facing Uther. He pauses a moment to see what’s going on.
“I ain’t lyin’!” Uther insists. “We really were asked by the High Lord of Jearinan to go on a hunting trip with him. You see, it was after we had rescued his daughter from…”
James shakes his head and continues on to his tent. Will that ever end? He has no clue where Jearinan is or if there is even a high lord. Someday he’s going to investigate some of their outrageous claims, just to see if they are in fact true.
As he enters his tent, their bickering continues. At least it’s good natured, neither takes the insults and accusations of the other seriously. James assumes it’s just part of the fun. Inside he finds his cot already put together but not much else. The first night Devin was assigned as his helper, he had practically unpacked everything he brought with him. It took almost two hours before everything was repacked securely. From that point on, he told Devin to only put up the tent and cot, that if he wanted something more, he would get it himself.
Lying down on his cot, he passes the time until dinner has been prepared by thinking of what lies ahead. He seems to have ample time to do nothing but think lately. Since he’s the one in charge of this expedition, no one is letting him do anything. He supposes they would even delegate someone to wipe his butt if he let them. Well, perhaps not that but he’s been removed from cooking detail, sentry duty and all the other daily little chores which must be done. All he has to do is get on his horse in the morning and off at night.
He has a fair idea of how to convince the Empire to leave Madoc. With any luck it will actually work. First order of business is getting Pytherian and the Ruling Council of Madoc to agree to reconstruct the High Temple of Morcyth on the exact spot where it had resided before. That shouldn’t be too hard, if the agreement was to expel the Empire from the borders of Madoc.
The last time he was within the city of Lythylla, Councilman Rillian who was a member of the Ruling Council had worked with the Empire to open the gates for their army. Little love is lost between the councilman and James. He knows that should he still be a member, he will work to prevent any agreement against the Empire to come to fruition.
That is but one hurdle, the other is what the Empire may throw at him once he joins the fray. Aside from the mages and the priests of Dmon-Li which play a prominent part in their forces, there could be more of those creatures he faced in the pass on the way to Ironhold last fall. With any luck, there won’t be all that many of those available or even something worse.