Trail of the Gods: The Morcyth Saga Book Four (36 page)

“So, two wanderers,” she states.

“We are no friends of the Empire, you can
rest assured lady,” Jiron says to her. “In fact, we’re trying to
escape from them.” He gives her a serious look and then continues,
“We all need to be getting out of here. A large force has been
tailing us since yesterday and could be in the area at any
time.”

“I saw the force you mentioned earlier,” she
tells them. “It went past earlier as it made its way south.”

As James stands there with the arrow
pointing menacingly at him, he begins to once more feel the
tingling of magic being worked in the area. “Jiron,” he says
nervously. “I feel it again.”

“Where?” he asks looking around, the danger
from the woman now ignored.

“I’m not sure, but it’s getting stronger,”
he replies. “They may be heading back.”

Jiron moves to return to the horses when the
woman says, “Stay right there! I don’t know what kind of trick
you’re playing here, but it’s not going to work.”

“This isn’t a trick,” insists James, fear
growing in his voice. “A mage of some power is out there, and he is
drawing near.”

“You expect me to believe that?” she asks.
“I don’t think so.”

Further down the mountain, the sound of a
large number of individuals can be heard as they forge their way
through the brush. She glances down and her eyes widen when she
makes out the unmistakable sight of Empire soldiers heading their
way.

Seeing them too, James says, “Now do you
believe us?”

Nodding her head, she relaxes her bow and
quickly replaces her arrow in the quiver behind her shoulder. As
James and Jiron begin running toward the horses, she says, “Leave
them!” When they both look at her, she continues, “They’ll just
slow you down in the forest. Follow me.” She then slings her bow
behind her shoulder as she turns and begins running through the
trees.

Jiron looks to him and James only shrugs.
Breaking into a run, they follow her as she races through the
undergrowth. “Where are we going?” asks James when they finally
catch up to her.

“I know a trail that will take us through
the mountains,” she tells them. “It comes out near the fortress of
Kern on the Cardri-Empire border.”

“How long will it take?” Jiron asks.

“About three days perhaps longer,” she
replies. “Longer still if we can’t shake the pursuit.”

The sound of their pursuers gradually
diminishes as she takes them further up into the higher elevations.
They all remain quiet as they work to navigate the sometimes steep
and narrow way. Boulders and fallen trees have to be circumvented
and at times scaled in order to continue.

They come to a cliff face with a small
trickle of water running down its side. Turning to them, she says,
“We have to climb up to the top of this.” Indicating a section of
the wall, she adds, “Start here, it affords the best hand and
footholds than anywhere else.”

She reaches out and takes hold of a crack
and begins the ascent. When she’s gone about ten feet, Jiron looks
to James and asks, “You want to go next?”

“You better, I might end up falling and I
wouldn’t want to knock you down in the process.”

“It’s only about thirty feet,” states Jiron.
“You can make it.”

Looking dubious at the prospect, he steps to
the wall and begins following her with Jiron’s help. Once James has
gone far enough to allow him room, Jiron steps to the wall and
begins his ascent.

When James is halfway up, he hears her voice
from where she’s standing at the top of the cliff, “Hurry up.”

“Do you see anyone coming?” Jiron shouts up
to her.

She looks out for a moment then replies,
“No. All I can see is the tops of the trees. They could be just
right below and I wouldn’t know it.”

“Great!” he hears Jiron grunt below him.

As he reaches the top he sees her hand
reaching down to help him up the rest of the way. Taking it, he’s
soon up over the edge and lying on the top. Arms and legs shaking
from the ordeal, he just lies there a few moments until he sees
Jiron’s head crest over the top.

She reaches down to help him as well, but he
just shakes his head as he makes the rest of the way on his
own.

“We can have a short break here,” she tells
them as Jiron gains the top.

James sits up and reaches into his belt
pouch where he pulls out the pitiful remnants of what use to be
rations, oh so long ago. Grimacing, he takes a bite out of the
stale fare and looks up to see her grinning at him. “What’s so
funny?” he asks.

“Just your expression when you bit into
that,” she explains with a slight laugh. She pulls out some jerked
beef and hands him several strips. “Here, you can have some of
mine.” When she sees Jiron’s hungry looks, she gives him some as
well.

“So what are you doing out here?” Jiron asks
as he takes the offered food. He keeps a constant lookout for any
approaching soldiers, but it looks like for the moment they may
have lost them.

Her expression turns grim as she says,
“Surviving. I used to live in Mountainside before the soldiers
came. Fortunately I was out hunting in the mountains when they
showed up and was spared the ravages they inflicted on my family
and friends.”

“That’s too bad about your family,” James
says.

“Yes. I miss them dearly but we can’t live
in the past,” she says wistfully. “Now I stay up here where they
can’t find me. Been doing alright so far, though I hope they get
pushed back into the Empire so I can go home. If there’s even a
home to return to.”

“We were just through there and it looks
like most of it is still standing,” explains Jiron. “Some of the
buildings were burned down by the fire, but most of them appeared
in good condition.”

“Strange thing about that fire,” she says.
“It just started up out of nothing. I was in the forest that day
and there wasn’t any lightning or such to spark it. Though I heard
a whole lot of soldiers got burnt in it. That was good news.”

Jiron glances at James who just shakes his
head. He doesn’t want her to know more about them than is
absolutely necessary. “So you just stay in the woods?” he asks.
“How are you able to manage?”

Giving him an annoyed expression, she asks
in reply, “What? Do you think I’m some helpless little girl who
can’t take care of herself?”

“We’ll, no,” he replies. “It’s just
that…”

“It’s just that I’m a girl,” she finishes
for him. “If I were a man, would you even ask such a question?”

Face reddening, he looks to Jiron for help
but finds him smiling, enjoying the predicament he’s gotten himself
into. “No, it’s not that at all. Where I come from, women are
considered equal to men in all things. What I was getting at was
that the soldiers might’ve discovered you, or something.”

“I don’t let them ‘discover’ me,” she
informs him. She gets up and says, “I think it’s time to go.”
Without even waiting for a reply, she moves out through the woods
at a quick pace. James and Jiron have to scramble to catch up with
her.

James glances to Jiron who only gives him an
amused smile.

That night when they stop for the night,
James is about ready to die. The pace she kept the rest of the day
had been unrelenting. No stops and he had to practically run in
order to keep up with her. When she announced here is where they
would be spending the night, he just collapses.

Coming over to him, she asks, “Tired?”

Nodding, he says breathlessly, “Yeah. Not
used to so much climbing. Plus the air is thinner up here.”

“The sun’s going to be down soon and we
don’t have time to rest,” she tells him. “You need to collect
enough firewood to last through the night while I get dinner.”
While stringing her bow, she adds, “It gets very cold up here when
the sun’s down.” Once her bow is ready, she moves away from him and
disappears in the trees.

Jiron comes over and gives him a hand up. He
looks to where she disappeared in the trees and says, “I like
her.”

James gives him a grin and says, “You like
all the girls.”

Shaking his head, he says, “Not like that.
But we better get busy if we’ll have a fire going and enough wood
collected before she returns.”

Groaning, James gets his already stiffening
legs moving again as he begins gathering small branches and sticks.
When he has an armful, he returns and deposits it in camp where
Jiron goes about lighting a fire. Four more trips are required
before Jiron determines they have enough to last through the
night.

About that time, she returns with two small
animals and proceeds to clean and dress them for the fire.

While she’s doing that, James asks her, “You
never even told us your name.”

She looks up from the rabbits and says,
“Aleya.”

Jiron comes over to her and says, “I’m
Jiron.”

A quick nod and then she returns her
attention back to the animals.

Jiron just stands there not sure what to do,
a simple nod was not the reply he expected. There’s just something
about her that both annoys and attracts him. Finally realizing he’d
been standing there like an idiot, he goes over and sits near James
across the fire from her.

“How much further is this fortress?” James
asks her.

“Another two days,” she replies. She points
to an imposing ridge to the west and says, “We should reach that
ridge by tomorrow night. It’s all downhill from there on.”

A deep valley separates them and their
destination. The ridge is quite high and steep, higher in fact than
where they sit now. James looks at the prospect of trying to climb
it with trepidation.

She notices how his face has fallen as he
stares out across the valley. “Don’t worry,” she tells him with a
reassuring smile, “it’s not going to be that bad. There’s an old
stairway that was cut into the ridge a long time ago which leads
all the way to the top.”

“A stairway?” Jiron asks.

“A series of steps that wind their way up to
the top,” she explains. “From there you can see the Fortress of
Kern nestled in the hills below, which sits at Cardri’s southern
border. An old road leads down from the top of the ridge and comes
out somewhere near Kern. Never actually had the occasion to cross
the ridge before. From there you two can go on your way.”

“What about you?” Jiron asks.

“I’ll go back to where you found me,” she
replies. “Not much else for me now.” Having finished dressing the
animals, she impales them upon sticks and hands them to Jiron and
James. “You boys can do the cooking, if you don’t mind.”

“No, we don’t mind,” Jiron says as he takes
the sticks from her and hands one to James.

James takes the stick and tries to hide the
amused grin that’s threatening to spread across his face. Jiron
seemed just a little too eager to do as she requested, not to
mention the speed with which he’d gotten up from where he’d been
sitting once he knew she needed something. Even if that something
was taking the animals from her for roasting.

As the flames begin licking the carcasses
and the fat drips with a sizzle to their ravenous heat, she eyes
them speculatively. “Just what does the Empire want with you guys
anyway?” she asks.

“What do you mean?” James asks her with a
sidelong glance to Jiron.

“That was no mere patrol that chased us up
into the mountains,” she explains. “They had already gone past, but
then returned and entered the trees just where you happened to be.
How do you explain that?”

“Just a lucky guess?” stammers James.

The look she gives him says she doesn’t
believe it was ‘a lucky guess’. “They knew right where you were,”
she continues.

“They did, didn’t they?” says James suddenly
thinking.
If the warrior priest is using the same technique with
a mirror or other magical device to keep track of us, we’re in
serious trouble.
He glances to Jiron and can tell he’s having
the same thought.

“Now, come on,” she demands. “What’s going
on?”

James pauses as he considers what, if
anything, she deserves to know. “It’s true, the Empire wants us in
a bad way. We’ve recently spent some time deep within its borders
and caused some trouble.”

Jiron chuckles and adds, “You got that
right.”

“You see, a friend of ours had been captured
during the fall of the City of Light and we went to retrieve him,”
James explains. “Ended up killing a few soldiers and destroyed some
buildings. Now we have a mage or something behind us who’s trying
to prevent us from reaching Cardri.”

“I see,” she says.

They watch her for awhile to see what, if
any, her reaction may be to what he had just said. After sitting
quietly in contemplation for several minutes, she glances to Jiron
and says, “You better turn that, it’s starting to blacken.”

Realizing he’s been staring at her and not
paying any attention to the animal he’s roasting, he pulls it off
the fire and examines it. The charred sections aren’t too extensive
so he just turns the stick and begins roasting the other side. He
catches her looking at him and he blushes slightly.

Seeing his friend blush surprises James.
He’s never seen him flustered or embarrassed in the presence of a
woman before, always has been cool and collected.

Later that evening when they begin settling
down for sleep, James offers to take first watch. He notices that
she keeps a knife in her hand as she lies down to sleep. Most
likely in case either one of them try to force their attentions on
her during the night.

James can’t help but thinking about the army
behind them. He doesn’t believe they gave up on them, but there has
been no sign of them since they initially fled into the forest. He
would have thought they would have caught up to them by now. Not
even the faintest trace of the tingle which indicates magic in the
area has come to him.