Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li - Brian Pratt [76]
“They plan to force us north and then get hammered between both armies,” guesses Jiron.
“Yeah, and with his magic to counter mine,” James says, “we’re dead.”
The image disappears as they stand up. Jiron looks around them, then up at the canyon walls.
“You aren’t serious,” asks Miko when he realizes what Jiron is thinking. “We can’t climb that far.” He looks up at the imposing sides of the canyon, in some places the surface is almost vertical.
“We have several hours before the southern force gets here,” Jiron says. “It’ll be a hard climb, but we seem to have little choice.” He walks over to his horse and takes his things.
James follows suit. When he sees Miko just standing there, he says, “Come on, we can do this. We have a better chance of scaling the walls of the canyon than surviving the battle that’s to come.”
Coming over to his horse, Miko gets his things. Then he looks dubiously at the canyon wall above them. “Couldn’t we just scare them like we did to that bunch earlier?” he asks.
“I thought about that,” James tells him. “If it were just the men, then sure, I’d try it. But not with that warrior priest with them. He’d for sure see through the illusion and most likely counter it.”
“Oh yeah,” he says, disappointed.
“We need to hurry if we’re to beat the failing light,” Jiron says. Then he moves away from the river and begins to ascend to the top of the canyon.
Miko starts to follow him but then pauses when James hasn’t moved. He glances back and sees him staring intently at the horses. Suddenly, the horses begin whinnying in fear and bolt along the river to the north.
James then turns to follow Miko and Jiron. When he sees Miko looking at him, he says, “Didn’t want them to find the horses and know where we’d started climbing up. It might give us more time.”
Miko just nods slightly as James joins him. He turns back and resumes following Jiron as he hunts for the way up.
At first, the way is fairly easy and not too steep. The sides of the canyon are composed mostly of shale and the ground is covered in loose rocks. This makes for an unstable surface which causes their feet to at times slip out from under them.
The canyon continues to darken as the sun sinks further to the horizon. The sun is still hitting the far side of the canyon and Miko keeps glancing over to it, dreading the time when it’s no longer there.
Jiron has gotten a ways ahead of them up the side of the canyon, James and Miko are staying fairly close together, helping each other. The way is beginning to get steeper and the loose shale is starting to cause them to slip more and more often. Once, Jiron starts a small landslide which pelts them with rubble and coats them with dirt.
“Watch it!” James hollers up to him.
“Sorry,” they hear from up above.
After climbing what seems a very long time, James looks down to the river, but is unable to see it. The bottom of the canyon is hidden in shadows with the setting of the sun. It no longer shines on the opposite wall of the canyon. Hope they’re not below us yet! He looks again but cannot make out anyone or anything down there in the dark.
Ahhhh!
Suddenly from up above them, they hear Jiron cry out. James looks up but other than some shale falling along the side of the canyon doesn’t see anything.
“Jiron!” James cries out. “Are you alright?” When no answer is forthcoming, he doubles his speed, sending a cascade of rocks down below him. Miko hurries along beside him.
When they near where they believe Jiron had been, they see a darker shadow ahead of them in the shadows. He quickly realizes that it’s a hole in the side of the canyon.
“Miko,” he says to him where he’s climbing, “stay there. It looks like he may have fallen into a hole.”
“Okay,” Miko replies as he comes to a halt, maintaining his balance on the unstable surface.
James moves to the edge of the hole and peers over the edge but all he can see is blackness. “Jiron!” he whispers down.
“James,” he hears him reply from down below.
“You okay?