Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two (34 page)

“We’ll never make it out!” Potbelly
exclaims.

“Maybe,” says James, “if we’re fast
enough.”

“Secure them to the wall,” James tells Scar
and Potbelly who start taking Lord Cytok’s guards and placing them
in the chains that had once been theirs. “Gag them too,” he advises
them.

“Right,” Scar says as he picks up the most
dirty, disgusting rags available, taking great pleasure in stuffing
them in their mouths.

“Now, milord,” James says to Lord Cytok. “I
hate to ask but please lie down on the table here.”

“Never!” he says adamantly.

Once Scar and Potbelly have the guards
secured, they come over and force Lord Cytok onto the table,
securing his arms and legs to the restraints. “Use a cleaner rag
for his gag,” James tells them, “after all, he is a Lord.”

When he’s secured and gagged, James says,
“You guys go on up and see what’s going on while Roland and I help
Delia up the stairs.”

“I can walk,” she says as the others run
down the hallway and up the stairs. Roland puts one of her arms
across his shoulders to help support her. For despite her assertion
that she can walk, her legs are a little unsteady. With James in
the lead, they make their way to the stairs.

When they reach the top, they see Jiron
racing back toward them. “Nothing yet,” he tells them.

“Good,” says James as they continue down the
hallway, going back the way they had come. Moving past the room
where they saw the light earlier, James notices it’s empty now.
Most likely whoever had been in there is now back in the room with
Lord Cytok, chained to the wall.

A little further past the room, the hallway
opens up onto the foyer where they see Scar and Potbelly looking
out the front door. Scar turns at their approach and says “It looks
clear out there.”

“Then let’s move,” Jiron urges as they leave
the house and run toward the gate. The guard that had been there
earlier is absent, most likely sitting in the basement with his
fellows. Potbelly reaches the gate first and opens it. He moves
through to the other side and looks for anyone in the vicinity. Not
finding anyone, he motions for the others to pass through to the
street.

They begin running, making their way down
the road a short ways before they see a large group of armed men
running toward Lord Cytok’s estate.

They duck down a side alley and remain
motionless as they wait for them to race past. Several brown robes
could be seen among the running soldiers.

“Mages,” James says once they’re past. “How
are we going to get out of here now?”

“I don’t know,” Scar replies. “But we better
hurry before it’s too late.

Jiron looks out on the street and sees the
way the soldiers had come is clear for the moment. They step out of
the alley and race down the street away from Lord Cytok’s estate,
hoping to escape the city before it’s too late.

Chapter Nineteen

_________________________

The streets begin to fill as more soldiers
and guards race toward Lord Cytok’s estate. Having had to duck into
another alley to avoid detection, they wait for the squad of men to
pass. Then James spreads his hands wide as ten small floating
spheres appear before him. With a wave of his hand, they begin
floating away in different directions.

“What’re those going to do?” Jiron asks.
“Aren’t they going to attract any mages in the area?”

“That’s the idea,” replies James. “Hopefully
they’ll be so intent on tracking down what they think are rogue
mages, that we’ll be able to slip though, unnoticed.”

“Let’s hope so,” Jiron says. Once the
spheres have left the alley, he takes one more look up and down.
Not seeing anyone in the vicinity, he reenters the street with the
others right behind. He keeps them to one side of the street as
they quickly make their way to the gate leading out of the inner
walled area.

As they approach the gate to the outer area,
they see a squad of soldiers with a mage stationed there. The mage
is looking down the street they are approaching on but has yet to
detect them.

“Damn!” James exclaims when he sees them.
They duck down an alley where they stop to determine what they’re
going to do.

“Now what?” Delia asks.

“I’m thinking,” he replies as they pause for
a moment.

“Think faster,” Scar says as he points to
several squads of soldiers entering through the gates. The mage
there gives them directions as they move past and the squads split
up as each moves in a different direction.

A squad turns to head in their direction and
looks to be heading for the alley they’re hiding in. “Move!” Jiron
urges as he leads them further into the alley, away from the
approaching soldiers.

“The whole army is on the move to find us,”
Potbelly says from the rear.

“We invaded the home and humiliated a very
powerful and important leader,” Roland explains. “They’ll not let
us just walk away.”

The alley ends at another cross street. To
their right, the street approaches the wall before intersecting
with another street running perpendicular to it. A three story
building has been built right up against the wall. James takes a
closer look and realizes the top of it is only several feet from
the top of the wall.

Jiron glances up to where James is looking
and grins, “That’ll work.” Making sure the street is currently
clear of soldiers, they leave the alley and run down the street to
the building. It looks to be someone’s residence. He goes to the
door and tries to open it, but discovers it’s locked. No time for
niceties, he kicks it in and the door swings wide, slamming into
the wall.

Rushing inside, they quickly close the door
behind them. Potbelly moves to a window and looks out. “I don’t
think anyone saw us,” he tells the others.

Jiron finds the stairs going up and begins
to climb them when a man appears at the top with a drawn sword. The
man holds his sword menacingly as he descends three steps before
saying something that could only be ‘Get out of my home!’

“I don’t have time for this,” Jiron says as
he draws his knives and moves to the top of the stairs. In a quick
exchange, the man’s sword lies on the stairs and Jiron has a knife
threatening him. Turning the man around, he propels him back to the
top of the stairs.

A woman is standing further down the hallway
with three children held tightly to her. Her eyes widen in fear
when she sees her husband emerging from the stairs with a knife
held against him. She says something to him and he replies,
motioning for them to stay back.

“Tell them to get in that room,” Jiron says
to Roland, indicating one that’s near the woman.

Roland tells them and the woman slowly backs
her way into it, taking the children with her. One of the young
girls begins to cry and she does her best to quiet her. “Tell them
to be quiet and we won’t kill them,” Jiron says as he pushes the
man into the room with his family.

Grabbing his children, the man turns to
Roland and listens to what he’s being told and then nods his head
and replies.

Roland says, “They’ll be silent.”

Jiron nods his head as he shuts the door on
the family. They find another set of stairs leading up and they
race to the third floor. “Split up and find the access to the
roof,” Jiron tells everyone as he continues down the hallway from
the stairs. Doors begin to open as they all search the rooms for a
way to the roof, they know that time is against them.

“It’s in here!” they hear Scar yell from the
far end of the building. Set in the roof of a small room is a
trapdoor with a rope hanging down from it. Pulling on it, the
trapdoor swings open and a ladder extends down allowing access to
the roof. With Scar in the lead, they climb the ladder and once
everyone is on the roof, James severs the rope for the trap door
before pulling it closed behind them.

The inner town wall is just five feet above
the roof of the building. Jiron runs over to it and jumps, grabbing
hold of the top, and then pulls himself up onto the wall. He
reaches down a hand and helps Scar up just as a guard patrolling
the wall sees them and begins crying the alarm. Drawing his sword,
the guard rushes toward them.

Once Scar has reached the top, he draws his
sword and moves to engage the approaching guard while Jiron helps
the others up. In trepidation, he observes three more are on their
way behind the first guard. “Hurry up man, we’ve got company!” he
hollers to Jiron just before he parries a thrust by the guard.

Jiron helps Potbelly up who rushes to Scar’s
aid. Delia next, Roland and then James gain the top of the
wall.

Scar and Potbelly have disposed of the first
guard and are moving to intercept the three oncoming guards. Jiron
runs to help them as James tries to figure out where they need to
be going. On the other side of the wall, all the houses are at
least fifteen feet away.
Makes sense
, he reasons,
they
let people on the inside build close because they’re not worried
about people getting out so much as they are about them getting
in.
It’s a thirty foot drop to the ground so they won’t be
jumping down that way. The wall they’re on extends all the way to
the outer wall.

James looks over to where Jiron and the
others are fighting just as the last guard falls. He cries out,
“Toward the outer wall, hurry!”

Two more soldiers are running to intercept
them from the direction of the outer wall, and the fighters move to
engage. Roland and Delia move quickly to follow Jiron and the
others, with James right behind. Jiron takes the first one as
Potbelly blocks a downward thrust from the second and then follows
through with a thrust, taking him through the stomach, just below
the breastbone. He kicks the guard off his sword with his foot as
Jiron pushes the guard he was fighting over the wall, the man’s
scream can be heard all the way down until he hits the ground
below.

Behind them, eight guards are running down
the wall to catch them. One has a crossbow and lets a bolt fly but
it goes wide, narrowly missing Scar.

James turns and takes out a slug which he
throws, hitting the crossbowman square in the chest, causing him to
stagger and then fall off the wall.

“Here!” Roland hollers to them. They turn
and see him there with a bucket that’s tied to a long rope. “We can
climb down,” he explains.

James glances down the outward side of the
wall and doesn’t see anyone there, guess they figured on them not
being able to get down here. “Looks clear,” he tells them. He and
Roland hold the rope as Jiron shinnies down.

Scar and Potbelly have positioned themselves
to hold off the oncoming guards, giving the others a chance to get
down. As Jiron makes it to the ground, the guards reach Scar and
Potbelly, and the crash of swords can be heard as they engage.

Turning to Delia, James says, “You’re next.”
He and Roland hold the rope secure while she makes her way down.
Glancing over to the fighting, James sees one of the guards has
already fallen but that Scar and Potbelly have to give ground as
they’re being pushed backward by the remaining seven.

Roland tells James, “Go on!”

Shaking his head, he says, “You first.”

Not wanting to take the time to argue,
Roland takes the rope and swings over the side as James holds onto
it. He glances back to Scar and Potbelly and it doesn’t look good.
Even though another guard has hit the ground, there’s still too
many, it’s only a matter of time before one or the other falls.

The tension on the rope disappears and he
looks down, seeing that Roland has made it to the ground. “Come
on!” he hollers up to him.

Securing the end of the rope around a merlon
he hollers over to the fighters, “Let’s go!”

Scar replies, “We’ll never make it!” He
parries with one sword and then takes the guard through the stomach
with his other. “You go,” he tells him, “we’ll hold them off!”

Potbelly is holding his own, but there’s
just too many for them to last. As he watches them fighting, anger
and frustration build within him until it’s like a white hot
sun.

“Scar, Potbelly! Get down, NOW!” his voice
thunders behind them.

Almost reflexively, they drop to the ground
as an invisible wave passes over them and they watch as the guards
are lifted and thrown backward, some screaming as they fall to
their deaths to the ground below. Once it’s past, they get up and
hurry over to James where he’s staggering a little. Scar asks, “You
okay?” as they steady him.

Nodding his head, James just says, “Let’s
get off this damn wall.” He sees a couple of the guards are getting
back up from where they had been thrown backward along the top of
the wall.

They let James go first and then Scar with
Potbelly coming last. When James reaches the ground, he says to
Jiron, “What I did up there is going to be like a beacon for every
mage in the city. They’re going to know where we are.”

“Then let’s get the hell out of here!” Jiron
says as they start to race toward the main gates to the city. A
squad of five men turns into the street ahead of them, coming in
their direction. When they see James’ group running toward them,
they let out a cry and draw their swords as they rush to
attack.

A slug strikes one, felling him before they
even get close. Jiron takes the next one, knives flashing as they
parry and strike.

Potbelly and Scar face the remaining three;
Scar’s two swords quickly take out one while Potbelly holds his own
with the second but is unable to gain an opening to finish him.
Scar engages the remaining one and soon has him on the ground as
well. “You got him?” he asks, looking over to Potbelly as he
continues exchanging blows with the guard.