The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (48 page)

Shrugging, Qyrll replies, “I don’t know. It
fascinates me for some reason.”

“I can understand that,” says James. “Where
I come from there are all manner of people who hunt for ghosts and
such things. Why, there’re even tours you can take that will bring
you to the most haunted areas.”

“Really?” asks Qyrll, intrigued. “I’d like
to do that.”

“Most of them are just shams to get your
money,” he admits. “Though there are a few that are legitimate I
suppose. Never been on one myself.”

Returning to the others, they mount their
horses and make their way through town to the last section they
have yet to search. After a brief warning to be alert, they split
off into their pairs again. James gives Jorry and Uther a stern
gaze warning them not be up to any shenanigans today. They assure
him they’ll behave, probably the sight of the spirit the night
before had a sobering effect on them.

The morning goes by and still nothing is
discovered. James is beginning to become discouraged at the lack of
anything to do with Morcyth. Ellinwyrd had to have led him here for
a reason and one to do with what he learned at Saragon.

At noon when they return for the noon meal,
Fifer says, “I think I saw someone on a hill to the south watching
us.”

“Probably one of the soldiers,” Qyrll
says.

“I’m sure they’re keeping their eye on us,”
Jiron replies.

“I hope they don’t do anything,” wishes Miko
as he glances to the surrounding hills.

“Wouldn’t think it likely until whatever
they are waiting for arrives,” says Qyrll. “They seem content to
watch us from a distance and as long as we continue as we are, I
doubt if they will do anything.”

“Let’s hope not,” says James. “Tomorrow
we’ll begin checking the mines and then if nothing is found, we’ll
leave.”

From where Dave sits, he can hear him
mumble, “Should leave now.” He glances over to his friend and only
receives a glare in return. All day his mood has steadily
deteriorated and James isn’t sure why.

When they’re done with the noon meal, they
once again split into pairs as they search the few remaining
buildings. So far, the miner Miko encountered the day before has
yet to put in an appearance.

Miko and Jiron head off for a building which
looks to have once been a temple of some sort, though now the years
of disuse have turned it into a dilapidated building. Slightly
askew on its foundations, it sits cocked to one side. The windows
which at one time must have been beautiful lie shattered in the
street.

Coming to the entrance, they find a pair of
double doors. The one on the right sits closed, the one on the left
has fallen off its hinges and lies across the front steps. Stepping
carefully around the fallen door, they move inside.

It’s not a very large building, merely two
stories high. The interior actually has a couple plants growing
through the floorboards near one of the broken windows. Whatever
furnishings it once had, have long been removed, most likely when
the town was abandoned.

“Sad,” Miko says as they walk across the
floor.

“Sad?” questions Jiron. “What makes you say
that?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he replies. Glancing to
him, Miko says, “The place depresses me. Do you think this could
have been a church to James’ Morcyth?”

“Never know,” he says.

At the back of the temple they find two sets
of stairs, one going up to the second floor and another leading
down into darkness. Jiron glances to Miko and asks, “Up or
down?”

“I’ll take up,” he says.

Jiron nods and turns to descend into the
darkness.

On his way up the stairs, Miko is careful to
make sure the steps will support him. On several different
occasions over the last few days some of the buildings they’ve
searched have been rotted, termites or other such insects having
robbed the wood of its integrity.

He places his feet gingerly on each step
before moving to the next. One step cracks and he immediately
removes his foot. Stepping over the suspect step he continues up
until finally reaching the upper rooms.

This area is smaller than the one below as
most of the second floor is taken up by the upper reaches of the
service area below. There are only three rooms here and he makes
his way first into one and then another. The second room looks to
have been living quarters of the priests, four beds are spaced
evenly about the room. Two chests sit at either end of the room and
he moves forward toward the one closest to him.

In the back of his mind he hears James
telling him not to open chests as they may be booby trapped. He
remembers that one occurrence in the swamp when a trap sent him
flying across the room when it exploded in his face.

Disregarding James’ voice of caution, he
continues toward it.
I can’t imagine there would be anything
dangerous with a chest here.
Even though he feels that way,
when he reaches it he slows down and hesitates a moment before
reaching for the lid. Taking hold of it, he flings it open while at
the same time jumping backward. The lid flies up, hits the wall
behind it and then slams shut again.

Miko waits a moment and when nothing fatal
happens, goes back over and opens the lid slowly. The inside of the
chest is empty. He reaches in and feels around the sides and bottom
but fails to feel anything which might indicate something hidden.
Disappointed, he closes the lid and turns to walk over to the other
chest.

As he moves across the room to the other
chest, he looks at it closely. It looks just as the other had so
it’s unlikely anything will be wrong with it too.

Three feet from the chest, the floor
suddenly breaks open slightly and his foot crashes through.
“Aaaaaahhhh!” he cries. Pain erupts from where his foot is wedged
in between the broken boards.

“Jiron!” he screams. He tries to pull his
foot out but that only increases his pain, the jagged edges of the
broken planks are cutting into his skin. He starts to panic when he
sees drops of blood begin to well from where the wood is imbedded
into him. “Jiron!”

Down below in the basement, Jiron walks with
a makeshift torch. He found a chair and broke it apart. Using one
of its legs, he tied an old cloth around it and then used flint to
strike a spark to light it.

The basement is fairly empty, some old boxes
and crates. He rummages around for several minutes before he hears
Miko’s cry from upstairs. Pulling a knife, he races back up the
stairs to the ground floor then takes the steps leading to the
second floor.

His foot hits the one step which Miko had
bypassed before and it breaks in two beneath him. Losing his
balance, his foot sinks through the step and he falls upon the
stairs. The torch goes flying out of his hand as he stops himself
and comes to land a few steps above him.

“Jiron, help me!” he hears Miko cry out
again.

“Coming!” he hollers back. Pulling his foot
out of the hole, he finds only a few scrapes on his calf and then
gets to his feet. Stepping over the hole in the stairs, he picks up
his torch and races the rest of the way to the top.

“Where are you?” he hollers as he reaches
the top.

“In here!” Miko yells, a touch of fear in
his voice.

Running down the hall, he bolts through the
door to the room where Miko is stuck and comes to a stop as he sees
him there. “What happened?” he asks as he sheathes his knife.

“The floor gave way and my foot’s trapped,”
he explains. “Help me out of here will you?”

Grinning despite the gravity of the
situation Jiron comes over to him. Miko’s leg is sunk into the
floor to just below the knee and he takes note of the jagged edges
biting into him. He puts out his torch so it won’t catch the
building on fire and then kneels down next to him.

Blood is now flowing from a couple wounds.
He tries to pull his leg out but that only drives the wood in
deeper and elicits a cry of pain from Miko. “Don’t!” he cries.

Next he tries to push the boards away but
that hurts just as bad. Not sure just what to do, he looks at Miko
and says, “I need to get the others.”

A haunted look leaps to Miko’s face as he
realizes Jiron is suggesting leaving him here alone. “Don’t leave
me!” he exclaims.

“I don’t see that I have a choice,” he says.
“I could get you out but not sure how much pain and damage I would
cause in the process.” He gets to his feet, “I won’t be long.”

“Jiron,” Miko says pleadingly.

“I’ll be right back,” he says as he races
from the room.

Taking the steps two and three at a time, he
hits the bottom running and is soon out the front door, racing to
where James and the others are searching. “James!” he hollers as he
runs through the streets.

“James!” he cries again.

“What’s wrong?” Fifer asks as he and Qyrll
dash around a corner to see what he’s yelling about.

“Miko’s hurt,” he says.

Just then James and Dave enter the street
further down and run toward them. Uther and Jorry come running down
a side street. “Where’s Miko?” James asks.

Turning back the way he came, Jiron says,
“He’s hurt. His foot broke through the floor and it’s wedged in
there pretty bad.” Breaking into a run, he leads them back to the
old temple. “Need help to get him out.”

The others follow him as he races back down
the street. When the temple appears down the road ahead of them,
they see Miko being led out of the front by someone who looks just
like the miner he mentioned seeing days before.

“Miko!” James cries.

The miner stops dead in his tracks and
glances their way. He begins moaning and wailing as he reaches out
toward them with one hand.

Jiron takes in the scene, Miko having his
hands tied behind him and a gag in his mouth. “The miner is no
ghost!” he exclaims, drawing both knives as he bolts forward.

Miko lurches toward the miner and knocks him
down the stairs. Losing his balance, Miko falls as well and lands
upon the steps with a thud.

The miner rolls down to the bottom of the
stairs and quickly gets to his feet. One glance at Jiron
approaching and all pretense of being a ghost disappears. The man
turns and runs for his life down the street.

“Get the miner!” James yells to the others.
“I’ll take care of Miko.” As the others take off after the miner,
he approaches Miko and helps him to sit up.

With a groan, Miko gets to a sitting
position. His leg that had been entrapped in the floor has a blood
soaked cloth tied around it, with more blood still oozing through.
James removes the gag from his mouth and then uses it to tie around
the wound in an attempt to stop the blood loss.

“He came to me up there,” Miko says through
gritted teeth. “At first I thought he was a ghost but then he
gagged me and got me out of the floor.” Gasping, he stops talking
when James tightens the knot securing the rag in place. “Ripped my
leg some doing it.”

“I think that will do for now,” he says.
“When we get you back to the horses we’ll do a better job.”

“Thanks,” he says.

The sound of approaching feet heralds the
return of Jiron and the others. Marching in front of them and
looking the worse for wear is the miner. His face is reddening
slightly on one side and a trickle of blood can be seen from the
corner of his mouth.

“Good job,” says James.

“He almost lost us by ducking into a
building but Fifer was smart enough to run around to the other side
and tackled him as he left,” Jiron says. Shoving the miner forward
toward James he says, “Not much of a ghost.”

Shaking his head, James replies, “They
usually aren’t once you figure out what’s really going on.” He
glances to Dave with a grin and says, “A man in a mask.”

At first Dave doesn’t know what he’s talking
about but then cracks a brief grin as he nods. “I get you,” he
says, remembering Saturday morning cartoons.

“What should we do with him?” Uther
asks.

“I say we kill him right here,” Jorry
threatens.

“No!” the miner cries out. “Don’t kill me. I
wasn’t going to hurt anyone.”

“Oh yeah? Then what were you going to do
with our friend here?” he asks as he indicated Miko.

Defeated, the man says, “I just wanted to
scare you away. I would’ve let him go after awhile.”

“Were you the ghosts we saw last night?”
Qyrll suddenly asks.

Glancing at the tattooed visage of Qyrll,
the man nods. “Usually that’s all it takes before everyone leaves.
You guys wouldn’t go.”

“Have you been doing this long?” James asks
him.

“Years and years,” the man explains.

“Why?” Jiron asks.

When the man doesn’t reply, James says,
“There are only two reasons I can think of. One, you like your
privacy and I somehow doubt that would be the reason. Or two, you
discovered something up here you would rather not share with the
rest of the world.”

The miner’s eyes widen at the last one and
James nods. “Thought so. What did you find?” he asks. “Gold?
Gems?”

Staring back in silence, the miner refuses
to answer.

Taking a knife out, Jiron asks, “Want me to
persuade him to talk?” Holding the knife before the miner, he
threatens him menacingly.

“No and put that away,” James tells him. “We
don’t need to know that badly.” To the miner he says, “You keep
your secrets, I really don’t care.”

“What are you going to do with me?” he
asks.

“What should we do with you?” asks James in
return.

“I will cause you no more trouble,” the man
whines. “If you let me go, I’ll not bother you again. I swear.”

“Very well,” says James, seeing the
earnestness in his eyes. “I see no benefit in either your death or
keeping you with us. Get out of here.”

As the miner is about to leave, Dave pipes
up. “Ask him,” he says.