The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [90]
“Found some ale by the looks of it,” Miko says as he returns. He holds out a bottle and James takes it, hesitantly sniffs it and then drinks some. It is ale, if a bit stale and it does help to further ease the headache.
“Thanks, that helped,” he says. “You do that?” he asks Miko, nodding toward the man on the floor.
“Yeah,” Miko replies, smiling with pride.
“Good work,” James congratulates him. “We need to get out of here, but not before we take care of some things.” He gets up and moves toward the men he killed with the sharpened boards. Removing the board from the closest dead man’s chest, he says, “I don’t want anyone to know I can do magic. Collect the other two and put them in a sack with the trowel, we’re taking them with us.”
“Why bother?” Miko asks as he grabs a sack. He takes the one blood stained board from James, then begins removing the boards from the other dead men and placing them in with the one already in the sack.
James goes over and picks up the sword that belonged to the gutted man, and stabs one of the other three through the place where the stick had impaled him. “I want anyone who sees this to think that we were rescued, that we didn’t get out by ourselves. That way in the future we may have an edge in a similar situation.” Going over to the other two he stabs them in a similar matter. “I doubt if forensic science has evolved very far around here for someone to be able to tell that they were not killed by a sword.”
“Forensic science?” asks a confused Miko. He stands there watching James, the sack with the sticks and trowel in hand.
“It means the study of a crime to tell what actually happened,” he replies.
“Oh,” responds Miko. “Why would that be important?”
James walks over and then places the sword back into the hand of the man on the ground. Seeing the orb on the ground he cancels the spell, causing it to disappear.
“Knowledge is power,” he says as he proceeds to each of the four men, searching their pockets. Some coins and two small gems and his pouch they had taken from him are in the pocket of one man at the table. Around the neck of another he finds the medallion the little creature had given him. His other amulet he finds in the man’s pouch with several coins.
He puts the medallion around his neck and tucks it inside his shirt. His other amulet, coins and the other valuables go into his pouch. Turning to Miko he says, “What people know will determine what they will do. The better your information, the more effective your course of action will be. And if your information is wrong, it could lead you into actions which may be a waste of time or even cause you problems. Understand?”
“I think so,” he replies, not sounding very convinced.
“Regardless, let’s get out of here before someone comes by.” James moves to the door leading outside and opens it slowly, peering out. It’s still very dark, the street outside is illuminated mainly by the light spilling past him through the door. The street appears deserted so he steps out into the night, quickly closing the door after Miko exits. Once again the street is plunged into darkness.
After proceeding down the street a little ways, they come across a refuse pile heaped against the wall of a building. Making sure no one is watching, they pry up a portion of the pile and place the sack with the sticks within before covering it back up again. Satisfied that the evidence is well hidden, at least for the time being, they continue on down the street.
A shadow watches from the darkness as they make their way from the refuse pile. Once they move off a suitable distance, the shadow disengages itself from the dark and crosses over to the refuse pile where it digs until it finds the sack with the bloody boards. The shadow then removes the sack and takes it with it as it hurries down the road after James and Miko.
They don’t travel long before James realizes that they are on the outside of the outer wall, in the poor sector. Moving down the road at a quick pace, they are soon approaching the gate leading back into the city. The smaller gate