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Chapter Twenty Three

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Waking up, James finds his head much clearer. He tries to summon his orb and succeeds then cancels it. He’s much relieved now that the effect of the drug he was exposed to in the Eye’s Court has worn off.

Rays of light enter through cracks in the boards covering the windows. In the dim light he sees Jiron standing at the window gazing through to the street outside. Other than Jiron and himself, no one else is awake.

As he gets up, his feet make a scuffing noise across the floor. Jiron glances over at the sound and sees him rising. Giving him a nod and a slight grin, Jiron returns his gaze back to the street outside.

James carefully makes his way through the sleeping forms and comes to his side. “What’s going on out there?” he whispers.

“Seems most of the town has come by at one time or another to see what happened,” he explains. “At first there were but a few guards and soldiers out there sifting through the rubble. Then about an hour ago, a force of over a hundred showed up, cordoned off the whole area and made a sweep of the surrounding buildings.”

Seeing the worried look in his eyes, Jiron says, “One soldier came by and looked in through the window but moved on his way. Can’t believe he didn’t see you guys there on the floor sleeping.”

“Luck must be with us,” James observes.

“Must be,” he says. “I’m not sure exactly what is going on, but the commander in charge of the men divided them up in squads of ten and sent them through the town. It won’t be long before they figure out what happened and who was here.”

“If they haven’t already,” adds James. He thinks for a moment then asks, “How far away is the inn from here do you think?”

“It isn’t close, that’s for sure,” Jiron replies. “You’re not thinking about going back and retrieving the horses are you?”

“You got a better idea?” he asks. “Without them, we won’t get far.”

“I agree,” he acknowledges. “But there’s no reason we have to have ours, any will do.” He then turns back to the window and points through two of the boards to a building across the street. Four soldiers stand guard by the entrance. “They put their horses in there. There are over a score.”

James takes in the building, the guards, and the fact that it’s across an open street. “Pretty ambitious aren’t you?” he asks. “They’ll see us.”

“Just a thought,” he says. “Always like to know our options.”

“What’s out the back?” James asks him.

“Not much,” replies Reilin. Having heard them talking, he decided to get up and see what’s going on. “The back door opens onto an alley that runs for a ways. Last night while on guard duty I checked it out.”

“Could we make our way out through the alley and return to the inn to get our horses?” James asks.

Shrugging, Reilin says, “I don’t know. I didn’t explore that far.”

Turning to James, Jiron says, “You keep an eye on what’s going on out there and I’ll find out.”

“Be careful,” James says as Jiron begins moving toward the back door. As soon as Jiron disappears into the back, James returns his attention to the goings on outside. Not much is happening other than people working through the rubble in the hopes of finding survivors.

One by one the others wake up. Miko is the last to awaken and sits up just as Jiron returns.

“Well?” James asks as Jiron comes from the back.

Giving him a grin, he says, “The alley out back runs along the backside of a courtyard of another inn. And guess how many horses are in the stable?”

“Enough for all of us?” James asks.

Nodding, Jiron says, “That’s right.”

“We should leave now,” Scar suggests, “while everyone’s busy out there sifting through the rubble.”

“My thought exactly,” agrees Jiron.

“The gates out of the city are going to be watched,” warns Reilin. “They’ll not let us simply leave.”

“I doubt if that will change even if we were to wait for a week,” states James. “We go now.” To Jiron he says, “Take Stig and Shorty with you and get the horses ready.”

“Right,” he says and