Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [167]
“One gate is as good as the other,” replies James. “I would guess the north gate seeing as how that’s where Henri is planning to meet us. Most likely, the other guards stationed there are loyal.”
“Possible,” Jiron says.
Moving with a purpose, they make for the north gate. They do their best to avoid others who are out and about on the streets. When at last the gate is in sight, Jiron sees the same two men on guard there as had been there when he’d snuck through earlier.
“No guts, no glory,” James says as he walks purposefully toward the gate.
“But they’ll see us!” Fifer whispers.
“True,” replies James. “But I’m counting on them not worrying about those leaving nearly as much as those entering.”
“I hope you’re right,” Fifer says as they come closer.
When they’re close, the guards take notice of them but otherwise say nothing as they pass through the gate. James nods in greeting to them as they pass by, the guards return his greeting.
“We made it!” Fifer exclaims quietly.
“Figured we would,” Jiron says. “People always see what they expect to see. The guards back there expected us to be okay, and since we acted the part, that’s what they thought.”
As they move away from the gate, two shadows detach themselves from the darkness. James sees them coming toward them and stops abruptly.
“It’s okay,” Jiron assures him as he recognizes Jorry and Uther.
“You did it!” they say, amazed.
“Yeah, but we don’t have time to talk about it,” he replies.
“What do you mean?” Uther asks.
Fifer quickly fills them in on what’s been going on.
Jiron says, “You guys go and get the others stationed out at the other gates and meet us back at the inn.’
“You got it,” Jorry says.
As they head out into the night to round up the others, James says to Jiron, “Now, take us to Miller.”
Giving him a nod, Jiron moves out toward the inn.
James follows closely behind and after a minute, asks, “How’s Miko?”
“Doing okay, last I saw,” he replies.
“I’m getting worried about him,” James says.
“So am I,” agrees Jiron.
They don’t progress very far before they begin to smell smoke. Not wood smoke from someone’s chimney, but more like from a building that’s burning or has just burned down.
As they near the inn, a large crowd can be seen gathered around a burned out structure. “I believe that used to be the inn,” Jiron tells him.
Hurrying forward, they see the crews working to extinguish the last of the fires. “What happened?” he asks one onlooker.
“They think it started in the back,” the man tells him.
Another man steps forward and says, “Yeah, this bunch came in through the front, a rough bunch by the looks of them. They went through to the rooms in the back and then we heard sword fighting. Then all of a sudden, we smelled smoke coming from the back. By the time we all got out, the fire was spreading pretty fast. In no time, the whole place was on fire.
“Did anyone from the back make it out?” James asks anxiously.
Shaking his head, the first man says, “Not through the front, anyway. No one has said if anyone made it out the back. Seems dark deeds were done there this night.”
“Perhaps,” says James. “Thank you.”
The men nod and turn back to watch the crews as they finish putting out the fire.
They move away from the crowd and James asks, “You heard?”
Jiron nods, “Think he got out?”
“Under normal circumstances I’d say yes. But now, the way he’s been acting, I don’t know.”
“They said they heard sword fighting,” Jiron says. “That means Miko would have ‘woken up’, so to speak.”
“I know,” replies James, “that’s what has me worried.”
“Woken up?” Fifer asks.
“Never mind that now,” James says quickly. “Let’s move over to the rear of the inn and see if we can find out anything.”
“Okay,” Fifer says as he leads the way, scanning the faces of the crowd for any sign of Miller or Miko.
At the rear of the inn, the fire had gutted it pretty good. Only a few timbers and crossbeams remain. James begins to move in among the charred rubble before a guard blocks his way, saying, “It isn’t safe, you’ll have to stay back.”
James looks at the guard