The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [173]
Nodding, James tells him of seeing the columns of men they saw before leaving the river.
“Damn,” the officer exclaims, “we were hoping they hadn’t moved that far yet. What else?”
His men crowd around to hear what James has to say. “We ran into people fleeing the fall of a town called Pleasant Meadows,” he tells them, though leaving out the part he played in their escape. At the mention of Pleasant Meadows, several of the officer’s men curse and James can see anger and sadness appear on many faces.
“And then not too long ago we saw another army heading northeast,” he adds.
“Dire news indeed,” he says. “You may go on your way, though be careful. If Pleasant Meadows is taken then they are most likely continuing up the road to the City.” Pointing east the officer says, “They will be using the road due east of here, so if I were you I would make almost due north and hope to swing around them.”
“Thank you sir,” James says, and then looks over to Miko’s horse that’s lying on the ground, in great pain. “What about our horse?” he asks the officer.
The officer looks over at the horse and then gives a signal that’s followed by two crossbow bolts striking the horse, one in the head and the other in the chest, bringing an end to its pain. “Hate seeing a horse suffer so,” he says. Then to James he continues, “Can’t spare one for you, sorry. You’ll just have to make due with what you have.”
He signals his men and then mounts up. “Good luck,” he says to them before he and his men ride off toward the south at a gallop.
“Grab our stuff;” James tells Miko. “We’ll have to ride double, at least until we can acquire another horse.”
Miko collects the few bags he had on his horse and takes them over to James’ where he secures them behind the saddle. James mounts, then reaches down a hand and Miko swings up behind him. “Still better than walking, eh?” he says as they begin heading northward.
“A little bit,” Miko replies. “How far do you think the City is from here?”
“I’ve no clue,” says James. “Maybe a couple days, more if we have to detour around any of the Empire’s forces.”
They make good time, even riding double. The ground continues leveling off until it’s fairly flat, with tall grass swaying in the summer breeze. They continue their course for another two hours when they see an unusually large congregation of birds off to the east. Curious, James angles eastward to take a closer look.
There they find around fifty of the Empire’s forces, dead and bloating in the sun. The birds squawk and take to the air as they come near. The smell of rotting corpses is nauseating so they keep their distance.
“Looks like the Empire took a beating here,” says James.
“Good!” Miko exclaims. “Serves them right.”
They circle the field of battle for a ways but fail to find anyone other than the Empire’s men. “Either Madoc was really fortunate or they took their dead with them,” James reasons.
“Yeah,” Miko agrees, “the losers tend to stay where they fall unless their rotting corpses will bother someone.”
Not seeing anything of interest, James once more turns and makes speed northward.
During the ride, Miko eventually nods off, head lying against James’ back. He begins to dream of his life before James when he lived on the street and had no one to trust. In some ways he’s glad to be gone from there, but in others he misses his old life. No one was ever trying to kill him, at least not seriously.
Deep in a dream about he and a friend filching fruit from a merchant’s stand, he’s suddenly startled out of his reverie by the sudden motion of James jerking his arm forward. “What’s going on?” he asks sleepily.
James points off to the right where he had dropped a rabbit with one of his stones. “I figured it was time for dinner,” he explains. Then he breaks out in a smile as he adds, “Didn’t mean to wake you.”
“Wasn’t sleeping,” Miko exclaims defensively, “just thinking is all.”
James grins knowingly. “Let’s take a short break and cook us some dinner,” he says.
Miko nods and swings down, James following right after.