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“Thank you,” he replies.

The young man moves ahead of them to the door they originally entered the building through and throws the bolt open. Then he swings the door open for them and stands there holding it as they pass through. Once they are out and on the street, the young man closes the door and plunges them into darkness.

Perrilin stops and turns to them. “It would be best if we parted ways here,” he says. “Never know who may be out and about.”

James nods and extends his hand. “Thank you for your help,” he again says.

Taking the hand, Perrilin grins. “Until we meet again,” he says. Then he turns and quickly walks down the street.

“Now let’s go find this guy,” Jiron says.

“Not yet,” James tells him. “Let’s find the others first and then we’ll pay Mr. Baku a visit.”

Jiron nods and then heads down the street in the general direction toward where they left the others. As they go, James wonders if Buka will even remember Tinok, not to mention what happened to him. He’s not sure what Jiron plans to do in that event, but he would hate to be in Buka’s place should that be the case.

Chapter Twenty Six

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They work their way through the city until the outskirts come into view. Moving quickly, they reach the last of the outlying buildings before the road once more enters the desert.

James brings them to a halt and then after scanning the area for a second, leads them to a spot near the building’s edge where light is spilling from a window. Moving near the light, he pulls forth his mirror and brings Miko’s moon illuminated image into view. Expanding it slightly he finds the others still together, most of them are sleeping.

“Good,” he says as he puts his mirror back into his pouch, “they’re alright.” Then he removes the strip of cloth he uses to search with and soon is on his way into the night. Following the direction indicated by the cloth, they hurry across the moonlit landscape.

When Cyst is five minutes behind them, a shadow moves to intercept them which turns out to be Scar and Potbelly materializes out of the night a moment later. James’ orb springs to life on his palm. “Everybody up,” he says as he enters the camp.

“We know where this Buka is,” Jiron says as he bends over to give Miko a shake to bring him back to consciousness. “If things go bad, we may need to get out of here in a hurry.”

“What?” asks a bleary eyed Miko as he sits up and looks around.

“Where is he?” Brother Willim asks.

“In the slaver compound,” Reilin says. He moves over to where the horses are tethered and begins to put the saddle on his.

“You’re going to storm the place I take it?” Aleya asks.

“Not exactly, no,” Jiron assures her. “Just slip over the wall and have a little conversation with him.”

“Just like that?” She eyes him disapprovingly.

“No other way I’m afraid,” he explains. “From what we learned this night, he isn’t going to be too helpful as it is.”

She lays a hand on his shoulder. “Didn’t you tell me that you gave your word not to harm him? That you would leave him as you found him?”

“Yes, I did,” he acknowledges.

Raising her voice she exclaims, “Then how are you going to convince him to tell you what he knows?”

“We’ll figure a way,” James says as he comes up behind them.

She looks from one to the other and shakes her head.

“Not much night left,” Stig says as he joins them. “An hour, maybe two.”

“Then we best be on our way,” replies Jiron. With a last look to Aleya, he walks past her and over to where his horse waits for him. Taking the saddle from the ground, he begins readying his horse.

Several minutes pass before they are all in the saddle and ready to ride. James extinguishes his orb and Jiron takes the lead. Heading back toward Cyst, he angles toward the wall encompassing the slaver compound. Many buildings have sprouted around its walls, and Jiron brings them to a halt before they draw too close to them.

Turning to the others, he says, “The rest of you wait out here while James and I go in and talk to