Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [181]
“It’s one of those things I am trying to find out about,” he explains.
They come closer, looking at it and he asks them, “Has anyone seen or heard of anything like this before?”
Every one of them shakes their heads no. Once they’ve had a good look, he returns it to within his shirt. “How long has it been since Jiron was taken to the castle?”
“Fifer returned back ten minutes ago,” replies Illan. “So it hasn’t been long.”
“We have the horse situation taken care of,” Uther tells him. “We now have enough for all of us.”
“How did you do that?” he asks.
Gesturing to Miko, he says, “After he came in here, we started talking and the conversation got around to horses. He said that there might be two where he and Jiron had left them. When he and I went to look, sure enough, they were still there.”
“Great,” James says approvingly. “Now we just need Jiron back and we’ll be able to get out of here.” Moving over to one of the beds, the others scoot over, making room for him to sit down.
Miko glances over to him with a questioning look on his face and he says, “Go ahead and continue.”
“The torso fell to the floor and looked like it just melted away…”
Over the next hour they swap tales and James learns more of these people who’ve decided to tie their fates to his. Of course, Miko’s tales of his exploits made him feel uncomfortable. He did a somewhat accurate job in relating the details, only once or twice embellishing the story for effect.
By the time Miko had launched into the tale of them working their way through the mine after rescuing Lord Pytherian, they hear a knock on the door to James’ room. Everyone becomes instantly silent as they glance from one to the other. They hadn’t forgotten Lord Pytherian’s warning that Councilman Rillian may try something.
James gets up and motions for them to be quiet, several of them grab their swords as he makes his way over to the door. He hears the knocking again as he slowly opens the door a crack to look out into the hallway.
“Jiron!” he cries when he finally sees who it is. The page from the castle had brought him to the inn. Throwing open the door, he comes out into the hallway.
Turning in his direction, Jiron says “I thought we’d missed you.”
Shaking his head, James says, “No, just in here with the others while we waited for your return.” Waving him over, he says, “Come on in, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
“Thank you,” he says to the page who then turns and heads back to the castle.
Once they are back in the room and the door is shut, James asks, “Okay, what happened.”
“When I got to the gate, I held aloft the necklace,” Jiron begins. Smiling, he continues, “You should’ve seen the look on that Parvati’s face when he saw what I was holding. Shock would be too mild a word.”
“Coming to a stop, I could hear ‘Shynti’ being said several times. He asked me how I’d gotten it and while we were there talking, the other forces behind them were screaming at them to let them by. But they just ignored them, it almost seemed like we were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for a long time. It was a weird moment out there by the gate.”
“When I realized the gates were shutting behind us, I told the Parvati leader that I had to go back inside. He asked if I would come back to his camp. I was assured of safe passage back and having dealt with them before, I knew they would keep their word. So I told Jorry and Uther to return within the walls before the gates closed.”
“When they took me back to their camp, the other enemy forces at first thought I was a prisoner. They became quite agitated when they learned that not only was I not a prisoner, but that I was going to be honored and returned unharmed. The others almost fell on the Parvati’s right then and there. One poor bastard actually called them traitors, his head fell to the ground before he took another breath. After that, there was no more talk of them being traitors.”
“We had a feast together, and I told them of our time in their homeland. Many of them haven’t been back for quite a long time. When it was over, they walked