Trail of the Gods: The Morcyth Saga Book Four (39 page)

When the gap is over three feet wide, the
side of the gap away from them suddenly drops away, the ruins of
the watchtower toppling over as the ground disappears from beneath
it. A tremendous roar, even louder than before assaults their ears
as the cliff face comes away, taking a good portion of the ridge,
as well as the soldiers upon the stairs with it.

Jiron has all he can do to keep the two
horses he’s holding from bolting away. Aleya loses the battle with
hers and the reins are ripped out of her hands by the rearing of
the terrified horses. The two horses, now free, run away from the
noise. One ends up going the wrong way in its fear and plummets
over the cliff side while the other races down the trail leading
away from the top on the other side.

When the rumbling finally stops, Jiron moves
over to the new edge of the ridge and looks down to where the
stairs used to be. Below them is a massive dust cloud, obscuring
everything more than several hundred feet below the top. Where the
stairs had been is now just virgin, jagged rock. All those soldiers
who had been upon the stairs must now be lying down at the base,
buried beneath hundreds of tons of stone.

Coming away from the ledge, he sees Aleya
staring at them with fear in her eyes. “What are you two?” she asks
him.

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about
pursuit from there for awhile,” he tells her as he goes back over
to where James is lying. He’s unconscious, but otherwise appears
fine.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she says
with an edge to her voice.

Glancing over to her, he finds an arrow
knocked and aimed right for him. Getting up, he turns toward her
and says, “As for me, I’m just a pit fighter out of the City of
Light. I hooked up with James here shortly after it fell to the
Empire and we’ve been together ever since.”

“What about him?” she asks, indicating the
comatose James with her bow.

“You can ask him when he wakes up,” he tells
her. “Which won’t be for several hours I’m figuring. Watch him for
me will you?” Completely ignoring the arrow aiming at him, he turns
and begins moving down the trail to find where the horses had run
off.

Lowering her bow, she asks, “Where are you
going?”

“To get the horses,” he replies. “If you
would have held onto them tighter, I wouldn’t have to. Be back in a
bit.”

She lowers her bow completely as she watches
him move away down the trail. Replacing her arrow back into her
quiver, she slings her bow across her back and looks at her red,
bleeding hands. When the horses had ripped out of her grip, the
reins had taken some of the skin with them.

Walking over to the edge of the cliff, she
looks down at the dust cloud below. It’s beginning to clear away
and she can see the enormous pile of rubble at the bottom. It may
be her imagination but it looks like there are still survivors down
there trying to dig out their companions. The exact number is
obscured by the enormous dust cloud filling the valley below.

Stepping back from the cliff, she sees James
lying on the ground. The sight of him sends fear through her, she
doesn’t know why. Earlier during their trip together, he’d been an
amiable and likable fellow. But after what she had just seen him
do, the mere sight of him terrifies her. She comes nearer to him
and nudges him with her foot almost as if she needs to believe he’s
real. A groan escapes him when she nudges him, causing her to jump
backward a foot in fright.

From the trail she hears the sound of Jiron
returning with a horse. She doesn’t know what to do, being in
company with such people. One tears down a cliff and the other
scales a sheer drop of a thousand feet and then takes out the
entire force at the top.

Jiron secures the horse with the other two
and then notices how she’s standing as if she’s about to flee.
“Relax,” he tells her with a smile. “Help me gather some wood so we
can have a fire.”

When she still doesn’t move, he comes over
to her and says soothingly, “Truly, we won’t harm you. And while
you are with us, we will not allow others to harm you either.
Though we do seem to attract the attention of the worst sort of
people.”

He leaves her to her thoughts as he begins
combing the area for firewood. After depositing his second load
near James, he sees her take her bow from off her shoulder and says
to him, “I’ll get something for dinner.”

“That’s a good idea,” he replies as he
returns to the area by the few trees up there for another load. The
clouds above had begun to clear ever since the cliff fell. Soon,
blue can be seen and off to the west, the sun is beginning to
descend close to the horizon.

The area around them is sparsely dotted with
trees, mainly just rock and the occasional bush. Off to the west,
the ridge they’re on slopes down until it finally dwindles into
hills. Nestled in the hills lies a large fortress.
Must be Kern
that she mentioned earlier. And beyond it lies Cardri!

Jiron has the fire going by the time Aleya
returns with but a single rabbit. “I think all the noise must have
scared off everything else,” she explains.

Taking the rabbit from her, he says, “I’m
sure this will do nicely.”

She glances over to James where he lies by
the fire. Wrapped in a couple blankets to keep the chill away, he
looks down right peaceful lying there. “How is he?”

“He’ll live,” replies Jiron as he begins
getting the rabbit ready for the fire. “This actually happens quite
often when he does what he calls, ‘over the top’ magic. He’ll sleep
through the night and most likely wake up in the morning.”

Taking a seat next to him, she sits quietly
while he skins and guts the rabbit. When he at last has it on a
stick and roasting over the fire, she says, “After what I saw
earlier, I can understand why they want you so bad.”

He gives her a grin. “That’s not the half of
it,” he says to her, but doesn’t elaborate further.

“Do you think it’s wise for us to stay
here?” she asks. When he glances at her she continues, “I mean, the
archers that were up here must’ve come from somewhere. I understand
there’s a large force of the Empire’s soldiers down by the
fortress, they’ve been there ever since the invasion of Madoc.”

“If an army is on its way here,” he
explains, “we would meet it all the sooner if we went down the
mountain.” Gesturing over to James, he adds, “If we give him a
chance to rest and regain some of his strength, then we stand a
better chance of surviving the encounter.”

Nodding, she returns her gaze to the fire
and watches it dance and pop as she thinks about what he just said.
“What do you plan to do if you should make it back to Cardri?” she
asks after a few minutes of silence.

“That all depends on James there,” he tells
her. “I’ll be staying with him for awhile, strange things are afoot
and he seems to be in the middle of it all. I don’t know what the
gods may have in store for him, but it should prove interesting.”
He takes the rabbit off the fire and inspects if briefly before
returning it to the flames.

“You could come with us if you like,” he
suggests to her. Before she has a chance to reply, he adds, “Since
the way back to your home is currently unavailable, that is.”

“I may do that,” she replies after
unconsciously glancing to where the stairs used to be.

They sit side by side, the proximity of each
other lending them comfort. The clouds have completely disappeared
by the time the rabbit is ready to eat. Saving out a large portion
for James when he wakes up, Jiron divvies the rest of it between
him and Aleya.

After they’ve finished eating, he suggests
taking the first watch while she gets some sleep. “I’ll wake you
sometime after midnight,” he tells her.

“Very well,” she says as she gets a blanket
from one of the horses and lies down next to the fire.

Jiron moves out of the light to better
preserve his night vision as he begins to slowly circle the camp.
Every once in awhile he catches himself staring at her as she lies
there sleeping, the light from the fire dancing across her
face.

He moves through the trees further away from
the camp and stares out over the valley to the west where the
Fortress of Kern lies. Once James finally awakens, they’re going to
have to make it there somehow. If what Aleya says is correct,
they’ll have an army to get through somewhere between here and
there.

Moving to the other side of the ridge where
the stair used to be, he sees down amidst the rubble that once was
the side of the ridge many lights. From their number he figures
there still to be a sizeable force left.
Too bad we didn’t get
them all!
It’s highly unlikely they’ll be any more of a threat
for awhile. The cliff’s too high and vertical for the average
soldier to scale and they have a long way to walk to get out of the
mountains.

The morning dawns sunny, not a cloud in the
sky. Jiron wakes to find Aleya already having killed their morning
breakfast and can smell it from where it’s roasting on the
fire.

“Good morning,” she says when she notices
him sitting up.

“You too,” he replies. Nodding to James, he
asks, “How’s he doing?”

“Still sleeping,” she tells him. “He hasn’t
awoken yet. Is that normal?”

Shrugging, he says, “I really wouldn’t know.
But there have been times when he didn’t wake for awhile. Once he
took almost two days to come out of it.” Seeing her concern, he
adds, “But we’ll not wait that long. If he’s not up by noon, I plan
to wake him up. As you said last night, there could be more forces
on the way.”

“I was thinking about that last night,” she
says. “If they would’ve sent a rider to warn the forces by the
fortress back when we first entered the mountains, then it’s
possible they could’ve gotten to them in time to send the
crossbowmen up here to block off our escape route.”

Nodding, he replies, “That would make sense.
It did seem kind of odd that we weren’t pressed very hard in the
mountains. They knew where we were going, or at least had a good
idea, so they didn’t want us to move too quickly and reach here
before their forces could get into position to greet us.”

“So that would mean,” she says, “whatever
forces are near Kern, will be waiting for us.” After a moment,
adds, “If they’re not already on their way.”

Nodding, Jiron gets up and says to her, “I’m
going to check down the trail, just in case. Keep an eye on him,
okay?”

“Sure,” she replies. She takes out what was
left over from the rabbit last night and begins eating. She plans
on saving what’s cooking over the fire for James when he wakes up.
As she eats, she watches Jiron disappear down the trail into the
forest. She thinks about the turn her life has taken the last few
days. Glancing at James, she wonders what she’s gotten into and
where it may lead her.

Once she’s done eating, she begins hunting
through the woods for sticks just the right length. If one meets
her needs, she picks it up and continues in her search for more
until she has a dozen.

Returning back to camp, she takes her pack,
along with the sticks, and settles down on a fallen log close
enough to keep James in sight. Using her knife, she carefully
carves off all excess protrusions and evens the stick out. If one
is too long for her needs, she trims it with her knife until it’s
absolutely perfect.

Two of the sticks have to be discarded after
discovering flaws while she was trimming them. When the remaining
ten sticks are arrayed next to her, she reaches into her backpack
and pulls out a neatly rolled up envelope of leather. Unrolling it,
she examines the feathers she acquired days before James and Jiron
arrived. She already has them separated into sets of three, each
set of exact length, breadth, and width.

She takes one set from within the envelope
and sets them on the log next to her before picking up the first of
the ten sticks. Using her knife carefully, she cuts slits into the
wood at one end and slowly and meticulously inserts the feathers
into the slits. Once all three feathers are embedded securely
within the wood, she sets it down and picks up the next stick,
repeating the process. One after another, she continues until all
ten sticks are fledged.

Before rolling the envelope back up, she
checks the remaining feathers and sees she has enough for a little
over a dozen more arrows.
Going to have to hunt for more
soon.

Placing the rolled up envelope back in her
pack, she then pulls out a leather pouch with a drawstring securing
the top closed.

Opening the drawstring, she carefully upends
the pouch and pours arrowheads out onto the log. She has many
different types and styles, even some crossbow bolt heads which she
could use in a pinch, though they wouldn’t be greatly
effective.

Picking up one of the sticks which has been
fledged, she finds a matching head which will work and then secures
it onto the end. Once she’s made sure the head is secure and won’t
fly off when the arrow is released from her bow, she sets it down
and picks up the next one.

As she works on the arrows, getting them
ready for what she’s sure will be a deadly run to Kern, she wishes
she had acquired more of the heads when she had the chance. But how
was she to even have known she was to be in such a situation as she
finds herself in now.

Sighing, she just works on the arrows until
she has ten lying on the ground at her feet. Putting the unused
arrowheads back into the pouch, she closes the drawstring and
replaces it in her pack.

She gathers the ten arrows and carries them
over to her quiver where she places them with the ones already
within it. Twenty two arrows are now in her quiver. She’d like
more, but she made that mistake before. Grinning, she remembers a
hunt with her father.