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“They had to pass through in any event,” replies James. “We’ll ask around when we get there and see if we can discover anything.”

“Can you do that mirror thing?” he asks.

“Possibly,” he replies. “I’ll worry about that when we get there, should we be unable to locate them.”

Nodding, Jiron kicks his horse and they hurry along down the road.

Chapter Twenty Three

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The town they come to is fairly large, the smell of smoke from many iron smelters permeates the air. “Looks like they do a fair amount of iron smelting here,” comments Jiron as they ride past several buildings doing just that.

“It would seem so,” agrees James. Past the smelting complex they begin to enter the outskirts of the town itself. Several beggars line the streets with their hands out imploring the passersby to give them a coin. He feels sorry for them but has no coins with which to give, Kerrin and Gayle took all he and Jiron had. The horses they appropriated from the Empire’s camp didn’t have any on them when they checked earlier.

“How are you going to find out if they’re still here?” Jiron asks.

“I don’t know,” he replies as they continue riding casually through town. Ahead of him he spies the mouth of an alleyway and sitting against the corner of a building near the entrance is an open barrel. He moves his horse toward it and notices it is a barrel full of water, set there to catch the rain as it runs off the roof.

Glancing around he doesn’t see anyone in the immediate vicinity so brings his horse to a stop and dismounts. To Jiron he says as he nods to the barrel of water, “I’ll use this. Keep an eye out for anyone coming.”

“You got it,” he replies as he gets down and stands watch.

Moving to the barrel, James releases the magic as he concentrates on Kerrin and Gayle. The surface of the water shimmers momentarily and then he sees them riding along a road. The string of horses they had behind them earlier is nowhere to be found. He expands the image but is unable to tell in which direction they’re riding.

Letting the spell go, he then concentrates on the medallion bearing the Star of Morcyth. He wants to see if they got rid of it as well or if it still remains with them. The image shifts and becomes dark.

“Someone’s coming,” Jiron says quietly.

Canceling the spell, James gradually moves away from the barrel as the shopkeeper whose store they’re standing next to comes toward them with an empty bucket.

“Here now,” he says when he sees them loitering there. “What are you two up to?”

“Nothing, good sir,” James assures him. “Simply getting a little bit of water from your barrel.”

“This isn’t for everyone,” the man says with a grimace. “You two just move along now.” He stands there with a stern expression on his face.

“Let’s go,” James tells Jiron and they take their horses and begin walking away. He glances back after they’ve moved along a ways and sees the merchant filling his bucket from the barrel and then returns to his store.

“What did you find out?” Jiron asks quietly.

“They’re no longer in town,” he replies. “They no longer have our horses with them either.”

“Think they got rid of them here?” he asks.

“Would think so,” replies James. “I don’t think my medallion is with them either, though I couldn’t find out exactly before that merchant came along.”

“If we find the horses, we may find your medallion,” suggests Jiron.

“That’s what I was thinking too,” he replies. Pausing a moment, he then mounts and Jiron follows suit. They ride through town looking for the horses. He thought about doing his bubble seeker spell again but discards the idea. If one mage from the Empire was in the area, then another could be too. The last thing he wants right now is to attract the attention of the wrong sort of people. After all, he’s weakened magically speaking and Jiron has no weapons.

Cruising through town, they come to the market square where numerous hawkers are making their pitch.

“Last fruit of the season!” one merchant hollers who’s