The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (46 page)

When they reach the area, he calls out
“James!”

From an upper window of a nearby building,
they hear a “What?”

Looking up, they see James peering down at
them. “Miko saw something!”

“It was a miner!” he hollers. “I think he
was dead.”

“I’ll be right down,” he says and then ducks
back inside. A moment later, he and Dave leave the building and
join them in the street. Coming to Miko he asks, “What
happened?”

He relates to him his encounter with the
dead miner, as now he’s sure that’s what it was. “He was reaching
for me and I panicked,” he concludes. “I slammed the door closed as
I fled into the panty. When it opened again, Jiron was standing
there and the miner was gone.”

“And you’re sure it wasn’t them playing
another joke on you?” he asks.

When Miko shakes his head no, he says, “Take
me there.”

Together they hurry along back to the
building where the dead miner had been encountered. When they
approach, James says, “You all stay here, Miko you come with me.”
With Miko right beside him, he goes up to the open door leading
into the kitchen and stops before entering.

“Now,” he says as he turns to Miko, “just
where did this miner appear?”

Pointing to the spot, he replies, “Right
there.”

Entering through the door, James comes to
the spot and examines the floor carefully. If the miner had left
footprints they were obliterated by Jiron and Miko walking over
them when they left. He stands there a moment with his eyes closed
but fails to pick up anything such as coldness or a sense of
danger, things he heard always accompanies the supernatural.

Turning back to Miko he says, “Whatever it
was, there’s nothing here now.”

“I tell you I saw it,” insists Miko
defensively.

“I’m not saying you imagined it,” James
tells him. “I’m just saying there’s nothing here now.”

With a tremor of fear in his voice, he asks,
“What are we to do?”

“Let’s go have lunch while I think on it,”
he says. “After that we’ll see.”

“Alright.”

They leave the house and rejoin the others.
“There’s nothing there now,” he says when he draws near. “Let’s go
back to the horses and have lunch. I want to comb this area after
we eat.” The idea of searching a mine is forgotten after Miko’s
encounter with the miner.

Moving down the street toward where they
left the horses, Qyrll moves next to Miko and asks, “What did it
look like?”

Qyrll seems to have a rather keen interest
in this sort of thing and practically grills Miko about the subtle
details. By the time they’ve returned to the horses, he brings his
questioning to a close, for the moment satisfied he’s learned all
there is.

Jorry and Uther have returned in the
meantime and are filled in on what just happened.

They remove the food for their meal from
their horses and take it inside a nearby inn where they sit at a
table near a window. James sits there in silence while he eats, the
others talking quietly among themselves.

Suddenly from outside, they hear the horses
neighing and then see them racing away down the street. “The
ghost!” cries out Miko as they all race out of the inn into the
street. Weapons at the ready, they find the street deserted except
for their fleeing horses.

“Fifer, Miko, you two go after the horses,”
James says. As they race down the street after them, he says to the
others, “Fan out and see if you can find anything. Dave, you stay
with me.”

Qyrll returns his sword to its scabbard as
he moves out quickly, Jiron right behind him. Jorry and Uther go
down a side street. James motions for Dave to follow him as he goes
over to where the horses were tied to begin their search from
there.

Moving quickly, he races down side streets
and ducks into buildings only to end up finding nothing. By the
time Fifer and Miko return with the horses, they’ve all returned to
the inn.

“Nothing,” Jiron says to James when they
return. Jorry and Uther have likewise turned up nothing.

“What spooked them?” Fifer asks.

“Ghosts, that’s what,” replies Miko. Ever
since his encounter with the miner, he’s been constantly on the
lookout, head turning this way and that.

“I think we all need to be extra cautious
from this point,” James says. “We still need to find what we came
here to find.”

After securing the horses again, they return
to the inn and finish their meal. Once over, they head back to the
place where Miko saw the miner to start the afternoon’s search from
there. “If any of you see anything out of the ordinary, call for me
right away,” James tells them.

“You can count on that,” Miko assures him.
Jiron just grins at his enthusiasm at carrying out that
command.

“I still want us to meet back here every
hour until dusk,” he tells them and then they head out to continue
their searching.

Miko’s miner and the action of the horses
have them all spooked, including James. He wouldn’t let the others
know but he’s actually quite worried about the whole thing. Back in
his world, these things wouldn’t bother him nearly as much. But
here where gods are active and magic works, who knows what could
happen.

Throughout the rest of the afternoon,
several of them think they may have seen the miner out of the
corner of their eyes, moving across a window of a nearby building.
But each time after they called for James, a closer look revealed
nothing.

When the sun at last hits the top of the
western peaks, they call it a day and return to the same place they
made camp the night before. While the rest get the camp set up and
a fire going, James takes Dave and sees if he can’t bag something
for dinner. Their store of rations is dwindling and he doesn’t want
to run out before doing something about it.

Shortly after the camp disappears behind
them in the trees, movement from up ahead catches his eye. Moving
forward, they make their way through the trees until they see a
deer-like animal standing still ahead of them. Its head swivels
from side to side as if it’s trying to find something.

“He may have caught our scent,” Dave
suggests in a barely heard whisper.

“I think you may be right,” replies James
just as quietly. Removing a stone from his pocket he slowly gets
into position and then cocks his arm back. Taking a deep breath to
calm himself, he aims for the deer and releases the magic as he
throws the stone.

The deer must have noticed his movement, for
at the last second it jumps away. Its hindquarters are thrust to
the side when the stone catches it off center, ripping a chunk
out.

Dave jumps up and races after the deer,
knife in hand. It isn’t dead, only injured. James rushes after.

The deer, though faltering in its stride due
to its injury, still manages to lead them on a merry chase before
finally collapsing from loss of blood and exhaustion. Dave comes up
on it first having moved ahead of James during the chase. The deer
raises its head off the ground as he approaches, it tries to get to
its feet to run away but is too week and stumbles back to the
ground.

Reaching its side, Dave strikes out with his
knife across its throat and ends its misery. The strike sends a
splatter of blood droplets across his face. When James reaches him,
he looks a gruesome sight with his face covered in blood as well as
part of his clothing.

Dave turns at his approach and says, “Let’s
get this back to camp.”

“Right,” agrees James. “Then maybe you need
to wash up a little.”

Looking down at himself a moment, he then
glances to his friend with a grin and asks, “I am a mess aren’t
I?”

“Oh yeah,” affirms James. He takes the
hindquarters and Dave takes the fore, together they raise the
animal off the ground and that’s when James comes to the
realization that he doesn’t know which way camp is. In all the
excitement of chasing the deer, he got turned around. “Do you know
which way is the camp?” he asks.

Dave glances around a moment and then says,
“Uh, no.”

Trees in every direction as well as rolling
hills, every direction looks the same. The light is fading fast and
if they don’t find their way back soon they may not get back until
morning.

“Which way?” asks Dave.

“Let’s set this down and I’ll figure it
out,” he says. Setting the deer down, he picks up a small stick
from the ground and rests it on his palm. Concentrating on Miko, he
releases the magic and the stick swivels upon his palm until coming
to rest pointing off to his right.

Nodding in that direction, he says, “They’re
that way.” Releasing the magic, he drops the stick back to the
ground and then bends over to pick up the deer. Grunting from its
weight, he and Dave begin hauling it back to camp.

They slowly work their way through the trees
as the light continues to fade, winding their way between two
hills. It isn’t far before the smell of smoke from the campfire
reaches them and they breathe a sigh of relief. Following the
direction from which the smoke is originating, they continue around
the hill until the light from the campfire comes into view.

He’s about ready to call a greeting when he
stops in his tracks. Grabbing Dave, he pulls him down against the
side of the hill. “That’s not our camp,” he whispers to his
friend.

“Are you sure?” Dave asks.

“Yes. There are more people there than there
should be,” he explains.

Letting the deer lie on the ground, they
make their way to the top of the hill to overlook the camp. Upon
reaching the crest, they gaze down and find over a dozen men
sitting around a campfire. They’re too far away to hear what the
men are saying but who they are is apparent. The armor some of them
are wearing reveals them to be from the Empire.

He glances to Dave and can see that he’s
reached the same conclusion. They stay there a few minutes and
watch the activities of those in the camp below them. There are
fourteen men at arms and two dressed in civilian attire. The men
keep their armor on and the horses remain saddled.

The area in which the camp lies is a
depression between two hills which would hide them from anyone
passing through. Unless of course they stumbled upon them as James
and Dave did.

Having seen enough, he indicates with a nod
for them to return back down the hill. He and Dave slowly and
quietly make their way to the bottom.

“What are they doing here?” Dave
whispers.

“Only one thing would draw them this far
from the Empire,” James replies.

“You?” he asks.

“Can’t think of anything else,” he
states.

“But how would they know you’re here?”

“I don’t know,” he replies. “Magic
probably.”
This is getting irritating! Going to have to figure a
way for them to stop tracking me.
“We better hurry back and
tell the others.”

Leaving the deer where it lies, they move
away from the hill and then circumvent the camp with the Empire’s
soldiers before continuing to follow the general direction the
stick had indicated. About the time the light has completely faded,
they see their campfire ahead of them through the trees.

When they emerge from the trees, Jiron is
the first to notice them and comes to his feet in alarm. “What
happened?” he asks.

James at first isn’t sure what elicited that
reaction until he glances to Dave and sees that the deer’s blood
still covers him. “He’s fine, just splatter from an animal,” he
explains. “But we’ve got real problems.” He then tells them of the
men camped less than a mile away.

“How in the world could they have tracked us
here?” asks Fifer.

“Magic is the only explanation I can come up
with,” he says. “What I don’t understand is, if they know we’re
here, why haven’t they attacked yet?”

“They looked like they were settling in for
a wait,” adds Dave as he begins cleaning the blood off. He glances
at James then continues, “They kept their armor on and their horses
remained saddled as well.”

Jiron gets a thoughtful look and then shakes
his head. “It doesn’t make any sense,” he says. “They’ve never
hesitated before.”

“They could be waiting on something,”
suggests Qyrll. “Or somebody.”

“It’s possible,” James says.

“What if they were part of the force you
encountered by Illion,” offers Fifer. “They may have reinforcements
on the way.”

Remembering the creatures he fought, he
doesn’t like the sound of more possibly being on the way. “It
didn’t look like they were going to do anything tonight,” he tells
them. “Let’s get some rest and post a sentry, not only to keep
watch here but to keep an eye on the woods between here and
there.”

“Good idea,” Jiron says. “If they move, we
need warning.”

“Why don’t we just leave?” Dave asks. Every
eye turns to him. “Hostile forces camped less than a mile away and
you all want to just hang out until they attack. I don’t get you at
all.” He glares back at them in turn.

Turning to his friend, James says “What
would you have us do? If we leave we would pass right by them, and
you can be assured they’ll have the pass south watched. It’s either
here or go into Ironhold.”

“Why not attack?” offers Uther. “If they are
in fact waiting for reinforcements, then the odds will only get
worse the longer we wait.”

“You got that right,” adds Jorry.

“I don’t like attacking without cause,”
objects James.

“Without cause?” Jiron asks incredulously.
“They are the Empire’s soldiers and we have had hurt after hurt
because of them. I lost my city because of them. Many of those we
care for have died and been enslaved because of them. If that isn’t
cause enough for you I don’t know what is.”

“James,” Miko says. “If these are soldiers
of the Empire then we should take them out before they possibly
join up with others. Even if they aren’t planning on doing that,
their destruction is our duty anyway. They are our enemies.”