The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [187]
“Apparently sometime last night the Empire’s forces were sighted nearing the City,” he explains, pausing a moment to see what effect his words are having.
“Go on,” James prompts him.
“And they’ve shut the gates, no one is allowed in or out,” he tells him. “We’re under siege!”
Nodding, James says, “I was afraid of that. When I’m done we’ll look around the City and see if we can figure our way out of here.” Eating the last of the bread and beginning to feel better, he goes over to the bags and begins to dump out everything.
Miko comes over and looks oddly at what he’s doing.
“We’re getting rid of everything but the most important stuff,” he explains. “One bag each.” So they begin to sort through what they have and finally narrow it down to just enough items to give each of them half a bag. James takes the money and divides it equally between them.
When he hands Miko his half he says, “Just in case we either get separated or one of the bags gets lost.”
Miko nods understanding and puts his money pouch within his bag.
“Now,” James says as he gets shakily to his feet, “let’s go see what’s happening outside.” He goes over to the door and looks out the small window next to it. Seeing no one close by he opens the door and they make their way quickly into the street. Smoke still rises from the charred remains of several buildings and about a third of the wharf area.
“Man what a mess,” James exclaims, shaking his head.
“At least we’re alive,” asserts Miko.
“True,” agrees James.
They walk down the street, away from the smoldering wreckage. They can hear the sound of horns on the fields outside of the walls along with the whisk of arrows being fired by the defenders atop the walls. All the townspeople are strangely absent, the streets vacant of the usual mass of people.
As they continue along a member of the city guard takes notice of them and says, “No one is allowed on the streets. You will have to return to your homes.”
“Alright,” James responds, “we didn’t realize.”
The guard stands there and watches as they turn around and head back the way they came. After going down a ways, they turn down a side street and James comes to a stop. “Damn!” he swears. “I hadn’t figured on there being a curfew.” He stands there thinking for a second before saying, “Makes sense though.”
“Should we go back to the warehouse where we were?” Miko asks.
Nodding his head slowly, James replies, “Probably would be the best thing to do. I doubt if they are going to breach the walls anytime soon,” he reasons. “So we’ll try again tonight when we are not so conspicuous.”
They return through the streets to the warehouse where they discover a stairway inside along one wall leading to the roof. Hoping to get a good view of what is happening in the city, they climb the stairs and pass through the trapdoor to the roof.
Atop the roof they have a fair view of the city, the walls still rising higher than the warehouse’s roof. Several thousand men line the walls, archers fire arrows down at the attackers. They see a crossbow bolt strike one of the archers on the wall and watch as he plummets off the wall and lands with a squishy thud on the street below.
The roofs of many buildings throughout the city have a number of people upon them as well, apparently having the same idea as they. Looking toward the remaining docks, James sees a ship disembarking soldiers and supplies. With the curfew in effect, there is no longer a mob at the docks, fighting to board the approaching ships. However there are several squads stationed in and around the dockside just in case of trouble.
“James, look!” Miko says as he points to five wagons making their way toward the dockside. They can see that the wagons are loaded with many boxes and crates. An old man sits on the lead wagon, “I guess Ollinearn finally got all his books packed. Glad he’s going to make it out of the city.”
“Maybe if we could get to him, he would take us with him?” Miko asks, looking hopeful.
James gazes out over the city at