The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (23 page)

“You know why we’re here,” Jiron states as
he draws one of his knives.

The two guards step aside. As Illan moves to
open the door, the other guard says, “You better rough us up. Gotta
make this look convincing.”

Jiron nods understanding before lashing out,
catching one in the stomach. As the man doubles over, he cracks him
in the head with the butt of his knife, dropping him to the
floor.

Miko turns to the other guard who says, “You
better cut me.” Pulling out his knife, the other guard exposes his
side for Miko as he strikes out. A red line forms in the sailor’s
side from where Miko’s knife opens a four inch long wound. Then
Jiron strikes him in the back of the head and he falls to the
deck.

By this time Illan has the door open and
James walks out. Upon seeing the guards lying on the deck, his
expression darkens.

“We had to,” Jiron assures him. “We didn’t
want anyone to believe Meliana’s father allowed you to be taken off
his ship. This way, it looks like we came and rescued you.”

“He still may get into trouble,” Illan tells
him, “but hopefully not nearly as bad.”

James looks down at the guard who isn’t
unconscious and sees him nod agreement to what Jiron had just
said.

“Alright,” he says. “Let’s get out of
here.”

They move off the ship and cross through the
docks. “Just where are we?” he asks.

“A port city called Westerlyn,” Illan
explains. “It’s somewhere south of the city of Cardri, but still
north of the Empire.”

As they make their way along the avenue
through the warehouses bordering the docks, a shadow disengages
itself from the darkness. James comes to a stop before he realizes
it’s Mr. Bessin.

“Hope you didn’t kill the men standing
guard,” he says.

Shaking his head, James replies, “Only
roughed them up a little. Had to make it look convincing.”

“Indeed,” he says. He pulls a small sack out
of his shirt and hands it to James.

“What’s this?” he asks as he takes the
money.

“Something from a friend to help on your
journey,” he explains. “Also, this friend said for you to find the
horse trader, Ellias. That you should tell him ‘your ship left
without you’.”

“Tell this friend we appreciate all he’s
done for us,” says James.

Nodding, Mr. Bessin abruptly moves into the
avenue and walks back to the ship.

James lightly shakes the sack and hears the
coins within clinking together. “That was nice,” he says to
Illan.

“Probably doesn’t want us captured anywhere
near where he is,” Jiron says.

“Probably,” he agrees.

To Jiron, Illan says, “Go find Fifer and
Dave and meet us at this horse trader Ellias’ place.”

“Will do,” he says. Moving away down the
street, he is soon out of sight in the darkness.

They move further into town and after asking
directions, find themselves at the eastern edge of town. Ellias’
place is one of the largest horse trading establishments James has
yet encountered. Dozens of horses stand in the open corral outside
the office building. A light shines from within and they enter
through the front door.

A short man is there and looks up from where
he’s jotting down notations on a piece of parchment. “Yes?” he
asks.

James steps forward and says, “Our ship left
without us.”

“Did it indeed?” he says. Resting his quill
in the inkwell, he gets up and gestures for them to follow him
through the back door.

Seven horses are saddled and ready for them.
“Which one of you is James?” Ellias asks.

“I am,” James replies.

He pulls out a rolled letter and hands it to
him.

Taking the letter, he says, “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome,” Ellias tells him. “These
are yours and already paid for.” Turning around, he leaves them
there and returns to within the office.

Having a wait before Jiron returns with the
others, he unrolls the letter and moves over to take advantage of
light coming through one of the office’s windows to read it.

James,

At first I was so mad at my father that he
would hand you over. It wasn’t until we left the ship that he
explained to me what was going to happen. I so much wanted to be
with you, but understand why that cannot be right now.

I will return home with my father and hope
one day to see you again. We will have other voyages to Cardri in
the spring, this is to be the last one before the winter storms set
in.

I wish you safe journeys and will always
hold the memory of you precious. Thank you again for the figurine,
it is special to me.

I love you,

Meliana

“I love you too,” he whispers to himself
after reading the last word. He didn’t actually think he felt that
way until he read this letter.

“Good news?” Miko asks him when he sees he’s
finished.

Nodding, James rolls the letter back up and
puts it inside his shirt for safe keeping.

Just then, they hear voices coming from the
office and soon the back door opens as Jiron and the others join
them.

“We got horses,” Miko tells Jiron.

“I see that,” he says.

Mounting, Illan says, “We better get out of
here. When it’s discovered we’re gone, a search may develop.”

“I doubt it,” argues James as he gets in the
saddle. “By the time the authorities here could be contacted and
convinced a search should be implemented, we’ll be gone. They’ll
know that. Plus I doubt if any of Kendrick’s crew is likely to go
against him. He may not have publicly stated that he supported my
release, but I’m sure they know. Woe to any of them who speaks out
against me to his daughter.”

At that several of them laugh. Dave gives
him a grin.

“What about you my Parvati friend?” Jiron
asks Qyrll. “Are you going to return home?”

Shaking his head, he says, “I must stay with
you until my debt is repaid.”

Moving away from the horse trader’s
establishment, they head through town and take the road to the
northwest along the coast.

“Where are we going?” Fifer asks from the
rear.

“Home,” James said. “I presented myself as
requested and the court did what it had to do. Now I just want to
go home.”

Illan reaches into his tunic and pulls out
the sealed letter Ellinwyrd had given him when he went to see him
about helping James. Handing it over to James, he says, “In all the
excitement, I forgot about this.”

Taking it, James sees the wax seal bearing
Ellinwyrd’s symbol. “Where did you get this?”

Illan proceeds to relate to him the events
leading up to his meeting with the Archive Custodian. “He said it
had something to do with your last meeting,” he explains.

His orb suddenly blossoms to life as he
breaks the seal and unrolls the letter.

“What does it say?” Dave asks as he pulls up
next to him.

“It only has one word,” he says.

“What?” Illan asks.

“Ironhold,” he tells them.

“Ironhold?” Illan asks.

James glances to him and asks, “Ever heard
of it?”

Shaking his head Illan turns back to the
others and raises his voice, “Any of you heard of a place called
Ironhold?” When he gets nothing but negative responses, he turns
his attention again to James.

“I told Ellinwyrd of what happened in
Saragon and of the cryptic message that I discovered there,” he
explains. Holding the letter up, he adds, “This must in some way
have to do with that. Just have to figure out what.”

Shortly after leaving town, they come to a
crossroads. They can either continue along the coast or head due
north, James chooses to go north. “The coast road would lead us
back to Cardri, and after all that’s been done there, I think it
wise to avoid the place for awhile.”

“Plus this road should lead more directly
home too,” adds Miko.

An hour later, they come to a cluster of
buildings, one being an inn and they decide to stop for the night.
It being so late, the inn is all but deserted. Only two workers are
cleaning up and getting the place ready for the morning
customers.

James and Illan enter and get rooms for
everyone. After stabling their horses around back, they head up to
their rooms and go straight to sleep. Dave shares James’ room
again.

“Why do we need to find this Ironhold
anyway?” he asks as they get ready for bed.

“There are many questions that have arisen
since I’ve come here,” he explains. “and I need to find the
answers.”

“Why?” he asks.

James opens his mouth to reply when he
suddenly realizes he doesn’t have a good answer for that. He
doesn’t know why, he just feels he needs to. Turning to Dave, he
says, “If I do what I’m here to do, maybe we can go home.”

“You haven’t really explained it all to me
yet,” he says. “I’m your best friend and I think you should clue me
in as to what is really going on.”

“You’re right Dave, you are my best friend,”
he says. He then gives him a general rundown as to what’s going on
and the visits by Igor. He makes no mention of the Fire or anything
about his experiments. When he’s done, Dave is satisfied and they
drift off to sleep.

Early the following morning, a commotion outside wakes them and
Dave goes to the window overlooking the rear courtyard. A group of
people are congregating near the rear of one of the other
buildings. “Something’s going on,” he says.

“We better go check it out,” James says as
they begin getting their clothes on.

Before they’re finished getting dressed,
there’s a knock at their door.

James hollers, “Come in,” and the door
opens. Illan walks in and says, “Some girl was murdered last
night.”

“What?” asks Dave and James at the same
time.

“It was the younger daughter of the
innkeeper,” he says. “She was torn up pretty bad. At first they
thought it was an animal attack, she looked like she had been
chewed on. But then they found bloody tracks from some man’s boot
walking away from the scene.”

“That’s terrible,” James says.

“We better get out of here before anyone
starts asking questions,” he says.

Nodding, James gets his pack and stands up.
“Yeah. Good idea.”

As they leave the room they begin to hear
yelling coming from downstairs and they rush down to find Qyrll
encircled by an angry crowd. His hood has fallen back allowing all
to see his extensive tattoos.

“Monster!” one woman cries as she breaks
down into tears.

“He is not to blame for the death of the
young girl!” Jiron shouts to be heard above the noise of the
crowd.

He and Qyrll have their backs to the wall as
they face the angry people. They haven’t yet pulled their weapons
out, but James can see he’s about ready to if they get much
closer.

One man draws his sword and says, “He killed
my little Elenda!”

“He was with me all night,” responds
Jiron.

James can see the situation beginning to
blossom out of control. If he doesn’t do something, it’s going to
escalate into a flat out riot and all these people are going to get
hurt. Jiron and Qyrll could wade through them like a hot knife
through butter.

Summoning a little bit of magic to magnify
his voice, he yells, “Enough!”

His voice rolls over the crowd and Jiron
looks to him in relief. As one, the onlookers turn to face him.
Their anger is plain on their faces and he hasn’t long to diffuse
this situation.

“This man is not to blame for the death of
your daughter,” he says to the innkeeper as he makes his way
through the crowd to stand before them. “I have known him to be
only a gentle man. Let not his visage frighten you. From where he
comes from, these markings are a sign of manhood. His people are
not bloodthirsty killers.”
Well, they are but not in this
way.

“Before you kill an innocent man, make sure
of the facts!” he hollers to them. “You say that whoever killed
your daughter walked away through blood?”

Several heads in the audience nod in
agreement.

Turning to Qyrll, he says, “Remove your
boots.”

While he’s removing his boots James turns
his attention to the crowd and says, “If he did in fact walk
through blood, then there should be some indication on his boots
that he did.” He’s thankful to see a couple people nod their heads
at his logic.

“Here,” Qyrll says as he hands him his
boots.

James examines them and with profound relief
finds them completely devoid of any blood. He didn’t know what he
would do if there had been any on them. Holding the boots toward
the crowd, he says, “See. There is no blood!” He moves them first
one way and then another as everyone in the crowd presses forward
to see.

Unconvinced, the innkeeper says, “He
could’ve cleaned them off!” Several, people grunt their
agreement.

Despite the fact that some of the crowd are
unconvinced, he begins to notice the overall mood has changed from
one of mob violence to restless curiosity. He has to keep this
going or that innkeeper will stir them up again.

Pulling an idea from a crime drama on
television, he says, “Let’s go and compare this boot with the one
which walked away from the scene, to see if he could even have made
the tracks.”

“Alright,” the innkeeper says. “But if
they’re the same, he dies.”

James isn’t too worried about that, this
Parvati is larger than most and it’s unlikely his boot is going to
match that of the killer’s. Unless of course he really is the
killer. There is a kernel of doubt in his mind, he remembers the
deaths back in Cardri that seemed to have occurred around the time
they were all there. He knew Parvati’s were not murderers. Killers,
yes, but not murderers.

Leading the crowd out to the scene of the
crime, he carries the boots. Qyrll and Jiron follow along behind
him.