Shades of the Past_ Book Six of the Morcyth Saga - Brian S. Pratt [8]
“Take them!” James orders from where he lies on the ground.
Seeing their leader lying dead across the threshold and the armed men charging, they lose heart and break into a retreat. Arrows and knives fly from the shadows, felling thug after thug. Jiron catches up with one and cuts him down from behind.
“Enough!” Illan’s voice rings out, stopping them from pursuing the fleeing men. To Jiron he says, “Secure the area.”
“Right,” Jiron replies. “Jorry, Uther you take that way,” he orders as he points up the street. “Scar, Potbelly down the other. The rest fan out and watch for any who may return.” Shorty appears and begins collecting his knives from the fallen thugs just as Aleya and Errin begin gathering what arrows weren’t damaged during the attack.
“Told you this was going to happen,” Illan says to James as he offers him a hand up.
Taking it, he replies, “I know. I had to try.”
”Oh I understand, just knew it wouldn’t work,” Illan says.
“We got company!” Scar hollers from his position down the street.
A squad of the city guard is coming down the road toward them. The last time he was here, James saw them with Orlander during his pursuit. He’s been fairly sure since then that they were in his pay. How they’ll react to his death is anyone’s guess.
As the guards approach, everyone moves a little closer together. Jiron and Miko stand before James as Shorty, Errin and Aleya position themselves behind him.
The officer in charge takes in the scene as they approach. A dozen people dead as well as Orlander’s corpse lying in the doorway. He motions for his men to stop as he comes forward the last couple feet. “What happened here?” he asks.
“Came to settle a few things with Orlander,” James replies. “Things sort of got out of hand.”
“Looks like murder if you ask me,” the officer says as he eyes James.
Before James can answer, two men approach out of the dark. “It wasn’t murder,” one says.
“That’s right,” the other affirms. “Heard Orlander order his men to kill him before the fighting started. Orlander started it.”
Around them a crowd of people has begun to form as the locals come to see what’s happened. Some, upon seeing Orlander’s dead body give a cheer.
“Good riddance,” one woman says.
“Streets will be safer without him around,” another states.
“So you see,” James says to the officer, “this was in self defense.”
The officer glances around from James to the others with him, as well as the crowd which seems to be for James. Turning his attention back to James he says, “Alright.” To his men he says, “Get a crew together and let’s clean this up.”
“Yes, sir,” one of his men says.
James bends over and retrieves the sack of gems and puts it into his shirt. The officer notices but says nothing. “Will there be anything more?” he asks.
The officer shakes his head. “No. Since you didn’t start it and witnesses say it was self defense, you can go.”
“Thank you,” he says and to Illan he nods for them to get moving. As James moves away from the building, one woman comes up to him and gives him a hug and kiss before hurrying away.
“Looks like everyone is quite happy Orlander is gone,” observes Jiron.
“I can understand why,” agrees James. They make their way back down the street the way they had come. Down a couple blocks they come across the men who are still surrounded by the shields, James cancels the spell. One of the men was leaning against the barrier when it disappeared and falls to the ground. Freed, they waste little time in getting as far away from James as possible.
Miko laughs at them as they race down the street.
On the other side of town, they meet up with Delia and the slingers who had stayed with the horses. Devin comes forward with James’ horse as they draw near.
“Everything go okay?” she asks.
“About as expected,” Jiron says.
“They won’t bother us any more,” Miko says as he makes a slashing motion across his throat indicating they’re all dead.
“Sorry it didn’t work out