The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [169]
“Looks like if we stay on the river we’ll continue to follow the road for a while,” he observes.
“Good,” replies Miko. “I would just as soon not walk.”
“Me too,” agrees James. “Let’s get the boat back onto the water and continue further down to see if there’s a town where we can get a couple of fast horses.”
Putting their things back in the boat, they push it to the water’s edge where Miko hops in first. James pushes the boat the rest of the way out onto the water before jumping in. As the boat floats away from the shore, Miko takes the oars and brings them to the middle of the river. Adding his efforts to that of the current, he keeps a steady rhythm with the oars as they move along.
They hadn’t gone very far before a column of dust is seen rising up to the sky to the east. As they steadily move toward it, they are soon able to tell the dust plume is the result of hundreds of men marching eastward along the road with a wagon train trailing along behind.
When James realizes they will shortly be drifting past an army on the move, he takes the oars from Miko and brings them quickly to the north shore, beaching their boat. “Think that’s the Empire’s army?” he asks Miko after they get out.
“Could be,” he replies, staring at the men in the distance. “Hard to tell from here.”
“I think it would be wise to assume they are the Empire’s for now,” James suggests. “We better leave the river and head overland.”
Miko takes the bags from the boat as he says, “Yeah, let’s hurry and get out of here.” When the bags are situated about his person, he looks back at the soldiers and asks, “Wonder where they’re going?”
“Don’t know, but we better find some horses soon or we’ll never get ahead of them and beat them to the City of Light.” Picking up his backpack, he slings it across his shoulder and sets out to the northeast, angling slightly more north than east to begin putting distance between them and the soldiers.
As they walk James scans the ground and gathers several fair sized stones, placing them in his pocket.
Miko sees what he’s doing and asks, “Expecting trouble?”
“Never know,” he replies as he bends over to pick up another, “but it’s best to be prepared.”
“Wish I still had my crossbow,” Miko says, thinking of the crossbow left under the stairs with the rest of their things in the abandon keep.
Nodding, James hurries them along.
They travel for no more than half an hour when dozens of people appear on the horizon ahead of them. Some are running but all are making the best speed they can. Several have small children in tow, others are burdened with bundles either tied to their backs or carried in their arms.
“Must be refugees fleeing from another town the Empire has taken,” James guesses. “Or is about to.”
“What’ll we do?” asks Miko, obviously concerned seeing as how the refugees are heading their way.
Coming up behind the fleeing people and riding hard to overtake them are six riders wielding clubs. As the riders reach the stragglers, they strike them in the head with their clubs, felling them. Then they leave them where they lie as they race to the next fleeing refugee.
Behind the riders roll three wagons, each trailing a line of naked people, both men and women of varying age. Out in front of each wagon walk two people who, when they come to a felled refugee, start slapping or hitting them until they regain consciousness. Once they’ve regained consciousness, they are pulled to their feet, stripped of their clothes and then have their hands tied behind them. After that they are taken and added to the line of naked people behind the wagon.
“Slavers!” James says in disgust. He stands there watching them for a moment as a woman carrying a baby gets struck in the head. As the woman falls, the baby goes flying out of her arms and strikes the ground where it begins crying piteously. The mother