Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (29 page)

When Tinok looks over to them, with an
expression bordering on fear, they all give him encouragement.
After a few minutes he begins to get the hang of it and begins to
flow with the music.

“Your turn dear brother,” Tersa says as she
drags him out there as well.

Delia sits and watches as Jiron and Tinok
both fumble and misstep as they dance. Shaking her head and
silently amused, she just sits back and enjoys herself.

Long after the sun has gone down, James
finally sees them returning. “Have a good time?” he asks them.

Cassie comes straight to him and says,
“Tinok and I are to be married!”

“What?” he exclaims, looking over to Tinok
who’s looking both happy and scared out of his mind.

“He proposed to me while we were dancing,”
she tells him.

“Congratulations,” he says to them both,
shaking Tinok’s hand. “When will you be getting married?”

“We want to wait until we’re back home or
maybe in Cardri,” Tinok says with his arm around her waist.

“That’s right,” adds Cassie. “We didn’t want
to be married in the Empire.”

“I’m happy for both of you,” he asserts
warmly.

Cassie gives Tinok a big hug as they settle
down around the fire and then leans her head on his shoulder. Tinok
just sits there with a happy and contented look on his face as he
holds her tight. Putting their heads together, they talk together
quietly.

James awakens the next morning to find Tinok
and Cassie sleeping together, wrapped up in each others arms. He
begins to get the horses in their traces as everyone wakes up.
Shortly, they’re on the road again, making the best time they
can.

He pushes them the entire day, anxious to
get to Miko before something happens to him, only allowing a few
short breaks before pressing on again. The miles quickly pass and
by nightfall they’ve made it to a town called Jihara.

A small town, barely more than a village
really but it has an inn where they can find some decent food.
James offers to spring for a room for the two love birds but Cassie
turns him down, saying it wouldn’t be right for them to have one
when no one else does. Much to the disappointment of her
betrothed.

So they spend another night together wrapped
up in a blanket on the ground. Everyone can see that the two of
them are deeply in love and belong together.

The following morning, they get an early
start. Before the sun has risen much above the horizon, they’re
already a mile down the road. A little before noon they begin to
enter rolling hills, which James can see stretches a long way ahead
of them. The road continues to follow the river as it winds its way
through the hills.

Ever since Jihara, the other traffic on the
road has dropped off to almost nothing, only the occasional rider
or caravan is encountered. At sunset when they set up camp, they
find an area adjacent to the river where they can have ready access
to water. James even wades out into the river and does his
fisherman routine and bags several large reddish orange fish.

“Neat trick,” Roland says when James brings
back his third fish.

“It comes in handy,” he replies.

Everyone enjoys the fish and after dinner,
they take turns telling stories or singing songs. Most of them seem
to be love songs or stories about those in love. Stig begins
recalling his first amorous encounter but Cassie begins to blush a
deep red, causing him to cut it short. Tinok gives him a stern look
before someone else breaks in and begins another song, this one a
fast paced silly song for Arkie.

“Better get to sleep,” James announces when
the song is finally over. “I’d like to get an early start
tomorrow.” Some grumble about having to turn in, but most take it
in stride. The only ones who don’t seem to mind are Cassie and
Tinok, who readily lay down together. Cassie lays her head on his
chest and quickly falls asleep.

James looks over and sees Tinok’s head up
and he’s looking around.

“What’s the matter?” James asks him.

He gestures to Cassie sleeping on his chest
and then whispers, “I gotta go pee!”

James tries to hide his amusement but fails
as he just shrugs his shoulders at Tinok’s predicament.

He starts to get up and Cassie wakes up.
“I’ll be right back,” he assures her.

She lays her head down on the ground and
says, “Hurry up.”

In no time at all, he’s back and she lays
her head down on his chest again.

James lies down and continues to chuckle as
he begins to fall asleep.

Ahhhh!

A cry in the night startles James awake just
in time to see Qynn fall into the fire with an arrow piercing his
chest. Without thought, he causes a great burst of light to explode
over the camp and in that brief instance, sees a dozen or more
attackers approaching from all directions.

Everyone comes awake when the light bursts
overhead.

“We’re under attack!” he yells as he gets
up, trying to find the bowman.

Everyone bursts into action, the girls
hiding under a wagon while the guys all grab their weapons and move
to engage the enemy. With light to see by, the surprise the
attackers held in the dark is now gone. The pit fighters rush to
engage the attackers, wreaking havoc with skills honed by years in
the pits.

James locates two bowmen who each get an
arrow off before James has a chance to take them out. An attacker
is rushing him and is almost upon him when a knife flies out from
the camp, imbedding itself through the man’s left eye. He turns and
sees Shorty standing atop a wagon as he lets fly another knife at
an approaching attacker.

Scar and Potbelly are standing back to back
as they hold off three attackers while Jiron and Tinok are busy
slicing and dicing ones of their own. He looks to see Stig engaged
with a large attacker wielding a longsword. Stig deflects the
thrust of the man’s sword with his shield and then follows through
with his mace, pulping the man’s face. Seeing Scar and Potbelly
engaged with three, he runs over to render aid.

Scar, with both swords weaving a pattern of
death, takes out one of the ones pressing him and Potbelly. Turning
to engage the other, he watches as a hole opens up in the man’s
chest, blood and gore spraying out his back. He looks behind him
and sees James there with another slug as he prepares to take out
another attacker. Between Potbelly and himself, they quickly take
out the last of the attackers near them before Stig has a chance to
join them.

Scar quickly looks around for another to
engage but all he sees are dead bandits lying everywhere. Shorty
jumps off the wagon and races over to where Qynn is burning in the
fire and pulls him out. The smell of burnt flesh and hair permeates
the entire area.

“Tinok!” he hears Delia’s anguished cry. He
looks over and sees her cradling Cassie’s head in her lap, blood
from where an arrow sticks out of her stomach rapidly spreading
across her dress.

“Cassie!” Tinok’s cry echoes across the
battlefield as he races over to her.

He drops to his knees, tears falling from
his eyes as he looks to Delia. She just shakes her head.

“Tinok,” Cassie says weakly when she sees
him there.

“Yes, my dearest,” he says, trying to hold
back the sobs.

“I can’t wait to be your wife,” she says,
distantly.

“You will be soon,” he says as he takes her
into his arms, brushing strands of her golden hair out of her
face.

“Don’t leave me!” he cries as he starts to
sob.

“Silly boy,” she says as she looks into his
eyes. “I’ll never leave you. I love you.”

“I love you too,” he says to her. A tear
falls from his face onto hers.

“Maybe tomorrow,” she says as her voice
begins to grow faint, “we can dance again.” And then she smiles as
he kisses her on the forehead. She closes her eyes as her body
relaxes in death.

“Cassie!” Tinok cries as he gently shakes
her as if she was just sleeping, “Oh my god, Cassie!” He then holds
her tight to his chest as sobs rack his body. He just sits there
holding her as he rocks back and forth.

His head snaps up as he looks to James with
red, tear filled eyes, “You can save her, can’t you?”

Shaking his head as his own tears fall, he
says sadly, “Some things I’m unable to do.”

“But…” and then he starts sobbing all over
again.

Everyone leaves Tinok alone in his time of
grief. Each in their own way cared for Cassie and her passing has
touched each of them deeply. While Tinok mourns the loss of his
beloved, the others go through the grisly process of removing the
dead from the camp. James and Jiron go through all the dead bodies
and collect what money they can.

“I think they were just bandits, out looking
to rob us,” Jiron says.

“It looks that way,” agrees James. Then he
gestures over to Tinok, “Think he’ll be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Jiron says, “he really cared
for her.”

By this time, Yorn and the others have
wrapped Qynn in a blanket. As they pick him up, he says to Jiron,
“We’re going to go bury him out in the desert.”

Nodding, he replies, “Just a second and I’ll
come with you.”

He was about to go over to Tinok when he all
of a sudden stands up, holding Cassie in his arms. Without a word,
he begins to carry her out to the desert. When he sees Jiron coming
toward him, he just shakes his head and then is soon lost in the
dark as he takes his beloved out into the desert to bury her.

“Alright,” he says to Yorn as he joins them,
“let’s go.”

James watches as they carry Qynn out to be
buried, taking a different direction than Tinok so as not to
intrude upon him.

James and the rest remain in the camp and
wait for the others to return. No one feels like talking, each is
lost in their own reflections.

In a little bit, Jiron and the others return
from burying Qynn. He looks around and asks, “Tinok hasn’t returned
yet?”

“No,” Delia replies.

He turns and looks out toward where he
disappeared into the night with Cassie, worried for his friend. An
hour later, Tinok comes back to camp. Eyes red and swollen from
crying, and covered in dirt from where he dug her grave, he looks a
pitiful sight. The necklace he had recently given her hangs around
his neck. His knives are caked with dirt, obviously what he used to
dig her grave. That above everything else gives Jiron cause to
worry for his friend. Nothing has ever before meant more to him
than his knives and for him to not have cleaned them cannot bode
well.

He sits near the fire and stares vacantly
into the flames. They try to engage him in conversation, telling
him of their sorrow for his loss, but he doesn’t respond.
Eventually he just goes over to his bedroll and falls asleep.

The others stay up for a little longer,
discussing their worries for Tinok and the loss of their friends.
But soon they all grow tired once again and one by one, drift off
to sleep.

In the morning, Tinok is gone.

_________________________

“What do you mean he’s gone?” Jiron exclaims
after James gives him the news of Tinok’s disappearance.

“He’s gone,” James tells him again.
“Sometime last night, he must’ve saddled a horse and taken
off.”

“And no one heard him?” he asks, looking
around at everyone.

They all shake their heads indicating they
hadn’t.

“We must go after him!” he says.

“No, we shouldn’t,” Delia tells him. She
grabs him by the arm and stares him straight in the eye as she
continues. “With the wagons we will never be able to catch up with
him. And if we abandon them, we lose the reason we’re in the
Empire.”

He looks at her in anguish and she says
softly, “Let him go, you have more immediate concerns.”

“Like what?” he cries.

Pointing to his sister she says, “Like
her.”

Defeated, he nods his head acknowledging
she’s right. “Let’s get the horses hitched up and get out of here,”
he says miserably. He climbs to the top of one of the nearby hills
and turns toward the desert, standing there as he looks out across
the rolling, desolate hills. “Tinok!” he yells as his eyes scan the
horizon. “Tinok!”

Nothing, dejected at the loss of his friend,
he climbs back down and helps the others with getting the caravan
ready for the road.

“He’ll be okay,” offers Yorn as he comes up
behind him, laying a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah,” adds Scar, “he’s a tough one, he
is.”

He turns and looks into the faces of his
friends and says, “Thanks.” Then he turns back and finishes
saddling his horse.

It’s a somber group that heads down the road
this morning. Each remembers the fallen in their own way.

“Remember when Qynn was going up against
that sailor who thought he was hot stuff?” Potbelly suddenly says,
breaking up the silence.

“Yeah,” Stig replies, chuckling, “the guy
thought that Qynn was going to be easy pickings.” Laughing, he
continues, “He sure made him respect the quarterstaff that
day.”

“I remember,” adds Scar, nodding. Then
breaking into a smile, he says, “Remember that tune he would always
hum as he was whacking someone to its beat?”

Laughing, Potbelly exclaims, “And how he
started doing that stupid dance, making the poor guy even more
humiliated!”

Everyone from the pits starts laughing at
that, James looks over and can see the beginnings of a grin appear
on Jiron’s face.

After several more stories of Qynn’s antics
in the pits, the mood is lifted somewhat. Apparently, he had been
quite the clown at times.

A little past noon they leave the foothills
and are once again in flat desert. The river curves to the south,
as does the road and after another two hours they begin approaching
another sizeable city. From a fellow traveler on the road they
learn its name is Morac.