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James continues moving forward toward the wall. Beside him, Jiron keeps an eye on those following along behind them as they approach the wall. “They’re still following,” he says.

“I know,” replies James. Coming to the wall, James summons the magic and directs a blast toward it.

Bam!

The wall explodes outward and when the dust clears, they find a ten foot section of the wall gone. James turns back to the slavers and warns them again, “Follow me at your peril.”

Stepping forward, James and Jiron carefully make their way through the rubble. Once past, they continue in as straight a direction to the edge of town as they can. Before they’ve gone more than half a dozen yards from the hole in the wall, three slavers rush through after them.

Crumph!

The ground under them explodes upward and throws them into the air. When the men come back down and strike the ground, they fail to move. “Any more?” James asks.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Jiron replies.

“Good,” nods James. Resuming their progress, they continue away from the wall. As long as they have the wall in sight, no more slavers attempt to make it through.

Chapter Twenty Eight

_________________________

The coldness of the stone sucks the very warmth from his body. Not for the first time has he questioned the logic which made him leave his friends behind. At the time, all he could think of was vengeance. Those that took his love away from him had to be made to pay and he knew that as long as he continued to travel with James, that was unlikely to happen.

For a long time, every day was torment for him. Each morning a renewal of his loss and every evening a lonely time spent mourning what no longer could be. At first he sought out and executed ranking members of the Empire’s forces. His first victim was some officer in a small town not too far from where he left the others behind.

He had ridden into town, eyes red and swollen from his grief. When he saw the officer appear out of a doorway, his vision turned even redder. Not caring about who would see him he leaped from his horse and approached the man. The officer noticed his approach and turned to greet him, but instead was only greeted by the point of one of Tinok’s knives. A quick thrust and it was over, the officer never even had a chance to defend himself. It was murder, pure and simple.

He bent over and carved a heart with two dots upon the man’s forehead. To this day he still doesn’t know why he did that, but ever since, it became his calling card. Whenever he killed another of the Empire’s officers and nobles, a similar design was carved into their foreheads as well.

The first year he spent as a loner, moving from town to town, staying on the fringe of society. Not being able to speak the language was a definite handicap at first. But after awhile he began to pick up on it.

That’s when he began to hear rumors and stories of a great mage who was wreaking havoc among the Empire’s cities and citizens. Each time he heard the tale, the story would grow. A grin would come to him, for he knew that his friends were still alive. And better yet, hurting the Empire.

At the end of winter and before spring began, he started accumulating people of like mind. First one, then another learned of him and sought him out. Each wanting to work to hurt the Empire. Some were common thugs and murderers who saw him as a chance to strike back at the government that had hurt them so bad. Others were more along the lines of those who wanted a change. They were tired of the way the Emperor and his army controlled everything. How the average person had little chance to improve their lot and so forth.

So by the time summer came along, he had a band following him numbering two score. He had thought that by this time he would have been captured and killed. Only reason he can think of why they didn’t spend more resources in trying to capture him was that there was another they wanted more. James was playing merry hell with them and they wanted him bad. What forces were sent