The Star of Morcyth_ Book Five of the Morcyth Saga - Brian S. Pratt [117]
The knives are extremely cold but not so as he can’t hold onto them. After seeing the reaction the creature had to the touch of the knife, he launches into an attack, his confidence once more restored in his ability to hold his own. Striking out at the creature, he connects with one knife and scores a long sizzling line across one of its forelegs.
Snarling in pain and anger, the creature advances upon him incredibly fast. Jiron concentrates on defense and counters every attack the creature makes. After several passes and scoring numerous hits upon it, he suddenly realizes that his knives are smaller than they had been. They’re melting! The heat of the creature is causing them to melt with every strike. He needs to finish this soon or he won’t have any weapon left with which to fight.
He backs a little to plan his attack and kicks up some of the hail still peppered across the ground. It does little to slow the creature. Suddenly the creature leaps at him and he swerves to the right but not before receiving a long scrape along one arm. Burning pain erupts from the red welts forming along the cut as the heat of the creature burns him.
Taking the fight to it, he launches into a series of blows which the creature deflects but not without receiving wounds from the knives. Finally seeing the opening he’s been waiting for, he closes the distance rapidly and plunges one of the knives into the chest of the creature.
Bellowing in pain, it staggers to the side and then he plunges the other knife though where the neck and the shoulders meet. Stepping back, he watches the creature thrash about upon the ground until it finally comes to rest. Then it erupts into a cloud of noxious black smoke just as the other had. When the smoke clears, the two ice knives are gone.
Breathing hard from the fight, he makes his way back to where James is lying. Sitting down next to him, he rests his head on his knees. Glancing to his friend he wonders just how long he’ll be out this time.
He closes his eyes for just a moment before a nearby noise brings him suddenly alert. Opening his eyes, he turns to find a man in robes approaching and a dozen soldiers of the Empire behind him. Three have crossbows leveled at him.
“That was quite impressive,” the Empire’s mage tells him as he continues to draw near. “Don’t know how you defeated the Guardian’s set against you.” Glancing to James lying comatose on the ground beside him, the mage turns to the soldiers and says, “Take them.”
Unable to do anything with the crossbowmen there, he does nothing as they tie his arms behind his back.
Chapter Twenty Two
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After they tie him securely, he’s put into the back of a nearby wagon along with the comatose James. The mage takes a seat in the front of the wagon with one of the soldiers next to him taking the reins. One soldier and crossbowman climb into the back of the wagon with their prisoners, the others mount awaiting horses. Then the soldier driving the wagon flicks the reins and the wagon begins rolling. Moving onto the road, they head down it toward the Madoc side.
Sitting in the back of the wagon as it rolls along, bumps making his position decidedly uncomfortable, Jiron keeps an eye on James. Other than the predicament they’re in, he seems okay. The soldiers and mage are silent as they roll along which suits him just fine. He tries to work the knot of his bonds loose but the soldier in the back with him notices and shakes his head. Seeing the implied threat in the man’s eyes, he stops.
They roll for another several hours before turning off the road. They follow a path which is little more than a game trail for another twenty minutes before arriving at a clearing where a camp has already been set