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Once past the last building, Jiron gets them up to a quick canter where they stay for an hour and then pull off the road for a brief rest stop until morning.

Chapter Seventeen

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As the sun makes its way above the horizon, they break camp and make ready to ride. Jiron takes the lead with Reilin close behind in case they are approached along the road. The day goes by rather uneventfully. They pass through many small towns and when the sun begins its descent back to the horizon, the town of Jihara appears in the distance ahead of them.

“Should we stop there for the night?” asks Reilin.

Jiron gazes at the position of the sun and shakes his head. “There are still a couple hours of daylight left,” he says.

Pushing on, they reach the walls of Jihara and work their way through its streets. Once on the south side, they resume their quick pace and leave it behind. Jiron keeps the pace quick until well after the sun has set and the stars have come out. When the horses begin to droop from the steady pace he’s kept, he leads them off the road and they make camp. In the morning, they are again on the road before the sun even rises.

During the hour after they leave camp, James has Reilin ask a fellow traveler on the road how much further they have until they reach Morac. The traveler tells them they should reach it before late afternoon which greatly boosts Jiron’s moral. The sooner he gets to the bottom of what happened to Tinok, the quicker he’ll be able to track him down.

Anticipating that they will reach Morac before the end of the day, Jiron keeps them at their speedy pace. Hour after hour the miles fly by until two hours after noon when a city appears out of the horizon ahead of them. “That has to be it,” asserts Jiron.

As they draw closer to the walls, James all of a sudden starts chuckling to himself.

“What’s so funny?” asks Miko.

James glances at him and then over to Jiron. He can see Jiron’s ears burning slightly with the memory of their last visit to Morac. “Should I tell him or do you want to?” he asks.

“You can,” he replies. “This is the one story you love to tell.”

“I do don’t I,” he states with a grin. “On our way to rescue you from the mines, we passed through here. This was just after Cassie died and Jiron’s friend Tinok left. Yes,” he says, “the same one we’re searching for. Anyway, Scar, Potbelly and several others took Jiron into town to get the recent events off his mind. To make a long story short, Roland and I had to go and find them when they didn’t return. Seems they ran afoul of a woman and her old mother who somehow managed to get them into the basement of their house and tied them up.”

He pauses a moment and then looks to Jiron. “You never actually told me how you got down there,” he says.

“Frankly James,” he says, “I don’t remember.” The blush that comes to his cheeks tells him that he probably does.

“Right,” replies James with a little sarcastic tone to his voice.

Miko grins and Reilin actually breaks out into laughter at Jiron’s and the other’s expense. Jiron casts him a dirty look and he brings his amusement under control.

By this time they’ve come close to the gates of the city. The traffic moving in and out is quite heavy for this time of the day. They make their way closer to the gate and take their place in line. Somewhere behind the walls is a man named Azku and Jiron intends to find this man before the sun rises the following morning.

The line entering the city continues to move forward until they are but a few people away from the gate. When it’s their turn to pass through, a squad of guards exits from within the city. All of a sudden they are surrounded by guards and James is about ready to panic. Then Jiron shakes his head telling him not to worry. The guards are merely there to relieve the ones who were on duty. Paying those in line little attention, the new arrivals take position while the ones being relieved form up to march back inside. James and the others pass through the gate quickly and into the