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“James!” Brother Willim calls to him. Waving him forward, he says, “They’re holding their own for now.”

“Anyone hurt?” he asks coming to a stop next to the pair.

Shaking his head, Brother Willim says, “Not so bad as to be life threatening. I think a couple of them have sustained injuries.”

“How are you doing?” he asks Perrilin.

“Better,” he croaks. His hand rubs the spot where Korgan’s knife had cut him. “I don’t think the knife touched my vocal cords.”

James can understand why that would be a concern for him, being a bard and all. His voice is his life. Just then Aleya rushes past with bow in hand and moves to the end of the corridor. She puts arrow to string and they hear the thrum of the string as she lets it fly.

“You better get out there,” Perrilin tells him. “We need to be gone before more reinforcements arrive.”

Nodding, James says, “Good idea.” Turning toward the fighting, he leaves them behind and rushes to the meeting room. Even before he arrives, he can see the dead bodies of Empire soldiers that litter the room. Tables are either lying on their edge or shattered. All in all the entire room is like a scene right out of a horror movie.

As he reaches the end of the corridor where it opens onto the meeting room, Aleya lets loose with another arrow and immediately reaches for a third. Placing it to the bowstring, she glances to James and says, “It’s almost over.”

She takes aim again as he enters the room. Three enemy soldiers are still standing. Jiron, Scar and Stig are faced off with them. Over to their left he sees Potbelly working to dislodge his sword that had been caught between the ribs of a fallen foe. Reilin stands near Miko as he bends over Shorty, the glow from the Star enveloping both of them. Coming over to them, he looks questioningly at Reilin.

“He took a slice along the side,” Reilin tells him. “Miko didn’t think it was all that serious.”

He nods. Then his attention is drawn back to where the battle still rages as the man facing Jiron cries out. He looks back just as Jiron yanks his knife out from the man’s armpit and shoves him away. Scar’s two swords dance in a weaving pattern before one of them suddenly darts forward and takes his opponent through the chest. His opponent stumbles into the soldier facing Stig and disrupts the man’s defense allowing Stig’s mace to connect with the side of his helm.

Dazed, the man is unable to defend against Scar who moves in and strikes his head from his shoulders. A calm settles over the room as the last opponent falls dead to the floor.

James quickly takes in the room. Over a score of soldiers lie strewn about the room, all but a few are dead. Those that are still alive won’t be for much longer, their wounds are too grievous and James doesn’t plan to wait around for Miko to heal them.

“Miko,” he hollers. “We have to go.”

The glow surrounding him and Shorty winks out and he turns his head to gaze to his friend. “All done,” he says.

“Good.” Then to Reilin he says, “You help Brother Willim with Perrilin. Stig, you help Shorty along.”

Shorty gets to his feet and announces, “I don’t need any help. The wound wasn’t that bad.”

“Okay then,” James says with a nod. He turns to Jiron and says, “Get us out of here.”

“You got it.” Moving out, he takes the lead with Scar and Potbelly bringing up the rear. He follows the most direct path to the gate leading out of the Keep. The halls of the Keep are eerily deserted and he comments on that fact to the others.

“It’s the fire,” Perrilin explains. “Word came when it first started for every able bodied man and woman to go fight it.” He grins as he adds, “Korgan was a bit put out that the Lord of Hyrryth ordered all his men away. He argued that the fire was a ruse friends of mine had made so they could rescue me. But no one believed him.”

“I believe the guards you killed back there in the other room were all that was left here in the Keep,” he says.

“There were two civilians that fled when the fighting broke out,” Miko tells him. “They were