Shades Of The Past Part 28

Ki, as it turns out, isn't really much of anything. On one side of town lies a complex with many smelters belching black smoke into the air. The rest is just a smattering of homes and a lone two story building sitting at the edge of town with a sign outside depicting an iron ingot.

"Is this the inn?" James asks indicating the two story structure.

No other building in town even looks close to being an inn. They have Jared go inside to see about a room while the other two wait outside. He isn't inside long before he returns with a smile on his lips. "Got the biggest room they have," he brags. "It's actually two rooms joined together and there are four beds."

"Excellent," praises James.

They make their way around back to the stables and soon have their horses settled in. A stableboy is there and produces a bucket of grain and another full of water for each. James flips him a copper as they turn to head for the inn. Their room lies on the second floor at the end of the hall.

Just as Jared said, the room is actually two. The first room off the hall contains two small beds, a table and two chairs, as well as a dresser. To one side is another door leading into a much larger room.

With two large beds, a larger table, wardrobe and dresser, it's about half again the size of the first room. The feature of the second room that perks James up is the bathtub setting near one wall.

"Alright!" he exclaims when he sees it. Suddenly his whole body begins to feel dirty and the itchiness of his scalp magnifies tenfold. "Jiron you stay in here with me," he announces. "Jared, you get the outer room all to yourself."

"Fine by me," he says, pleased.

"Go down and see about arranging for dinner to be brought up and a bath afterwards," he tells Jared as he sets his bag of crystals on the floor by his bed.

"Yes, sir," he says and leaves the room.

Laying down, James sinks into luxurious comfort. "Wonder how much this is costing us?" he muses.

"Don't know," replies Jiron as he sits on the other bed. When he feels the softness, he lies down too and adds, "But it's worth it."

"Ain't it though," sighs James.

"I'm rather surprised to find a room such as this here in a town like Ki," Jiron says. "An outer room for servants and a bath here in the main room just seems odd."

Shrugging, James replies, "I don't care why, just glad it's here." They lay there for a few more minutes until Jared returns.

"They'll have it up in a few minutes," he tells them. "The proprietor said to let them know when you want the bath."

"Thanks," says James. "When the food arrives, have them bring it in here and we'll eat together. It's the only table large enough for the three of us."

"Very well," replies Jared as he returns to the outer room and leaves them alone.

Ten minutes later James is snapped awake when Jared and the servers from the inn come in with their dinner. Roast beef, tubers and two loaves of bread make a mouthwatering aroma. Getting up, he makes his way over to the table where dinner is being laid out.

As soon as the servers have everything on the table they make a hasty retreat and shut the door behind them. Jiron notices their quick exit and asks Jared, "What did you tell them?"

Gesturing to James he grins and says, "That his lordship there is a servant of Dmon-Li."

"Lordship?" asks James.

"Added that," he admits. "People act differently when they think they're dealing with royalty or someone of importance."

"Indeed," adds Jiron as he gives himself a heaping portion of the roast beef.

They eat in silence as each savors the succulent meat and the fresh baked bread. Once they are done, Jared is sent down for servers to come and retrieve the dirty dishes. He also arranges for the bath to be filled at the same time.

"You should stay here while Jared and I take a look around," suggests Jiron.

"But what if someone comes or one of the servers asks me something," he counters. "What am I to do then?"

"Don't worry," a.s.sures Jared. "I'll make sure they leave you alone."

A knock comes to them from the outer door and Jared leaves the room to answer it. Several lads are there with buckets of steaming hot water. After dumping them in the bathtub, they each take some of the dirty dishes with them as they leave. Another two lads enter after the others have left and begin doing the same, one of whom brings in a cake of soap and a couple towels.

Once they have the bath sufficiently filled, James removes his clothes and gingerly enters the steaming water. In no time at all, he's lounging back with all but his head submerged under the water. He closes his eyes and begins to feel the tension and stress melt away.

"We'll be back," whispers Jiron to him as he grabs Jared and leaves the room.

On their way down the stairs to the common room, they come across one of the servers on his way up with a bucket of water. Jared lays a hand on his arm and tells him something. The lad gives him a nod, turns around and hurries back down the stairs.

When they leave the inn, Jiron asks, "What did you say to him?"

Jared flashes him an amused grin and says, "Only that his lordship is relaxing and it would be unwise to disturb him. Also that the last one who did was invited to 'attend' a service at the temple. I doubt if anyone will so much as go near the door while we're gone."

Laughing, Jiron claps him on the back and they head down the street.

With the mountains to the west, the streets of Ki grow dark quickly. They wander from one end of town to another, finally finding a road that will take them up into the mountains. Deciding this is the most likely place for the mine to be, they follow it.

As they leave the town behind, the ground begins to rise as the road makes its way up the side of the mountain. About the time the lights from Ki disappear around a bend, the sound of a wagon is heard coming toward them from up ahead.

Moving off the road a ways, they wait in the shadows as it draws near. It's actually two wagons full of ore coming from the mine, which tells them they are on the right road. They wait until the wagons pa.s.s and are further down the mountain before returning to the road.

The road continues on and finally works its way into a box canyon. They slow when lights appear coming from up ahead. A tall wooden wall, similar in nature to what James and Jiron found surrounding the mine on the island, blocks off the canyon from one side to the other. The road continues straight toward it and pa.s.ses through a gate.

The wall itself is easily twenty foot high and guards carrying crossbows can be seen walking along the top. Jiron pulls Jared to the side where they crouch and watch for several minutes.

"How are we going to get in there?" Jared asks.

"We're not," he explains. "We'll stay here a little while longer then return to let James know what we found."

They settle in and wait for over half an hour. When nothing develops, Jiron indicates it's time for them to return.

Chapter Nineteen.

Back at the inn they find James asleep in the bathtub. A single candle is all but burnt down to nothing on a nearby table. "Go ahead and get some sleep," Jiron tells Jared. "I'll take care of this."

Grinning, Jared nods his head and backs out of the room, closing the door behind him.

Coming over to James, he can't help but allow a chuckle to escape. At first he was going to startle him awake but changed his mind at the last moment. He places his hand upon James' shoulder and gives it a gentle shake. "Wake up," he says softly.

Startled out of sleep, James sits up abruptly in the tub, splashing some of the now cold water onto the floor. Looking behind him he sees Jiron standing there. "You're back!" he exclaims.

"Here," Jiron says as he hands him the towel that was sitting next to the tub.

"Thanks." Taking the towel, he gets out of the tub and proceeds to dry himself off. "So what did you find out?"

"The mines are a couple hours from town," Jiron explains. "It's situated at the end of a box canyon."

"A canyon?" he asks.

"Yeah. A wooden fence, similar to the one back on the island where we rescued Miko and Nate, blocks the entrance. There's but a single gate and guards patrol the top."

Nodding, James continues getting ready for bed. "Did you get a look inside?"

"No," he replies shaking his head. "No chance for that. We waited and watched for awhile but nothing happened, then we came back."

Finished getting ready for bed, he lies back on top of the covers and mulls over what Jiron just told him. "Tomorrow afternoon I'd like to go up there and have a look around if you think we can avoid being noticed?" he finally asks.

"The road winds through some barren hills before it reaches the box canyon," Jiron explains. "Not much in the way of concealing cover but we'll see what we can do." Going over to the burning candle he snuffs it out and then crawls into his own bed. He plans on getting a good night's sleep this night. After tomorrow things are likely to be a little lively.

Back in his tower, Kerith-Ayxt stares out at the moon rising in the distance. Exhausted from the two days of preparation, he pauses here by the window for a few minutes as he looks out over the Great Hall.

All the safeguards have been set and the way is prepared. The only thing left is the actual summoning of Aekion. When he told the a.s.sembly of Masters his plan to summon Aekion, few knew what he was talking about. But those who did spoke out against it for they understood the risks involved with such a hazardous undertaking.

He allowed them to speak their minds then said they were to undertake this for the good of the Empire. At that they grew silent, none would speak against an action the High Lord Magus p.r.o.nounced as good for the Empire. Things often happened to those who did.

During the sealing of the Great Hall, fifty slaves were drained of their life force to power the holding spells needed to contain Aekion. Once he is summoned, those holding spells will be all that will contain him until the spells of binding are put into effect.

Another hundred slaves were used in preparing the way for Aekion to pa.s.s from his plane to here. With but two of the three stages accomplished, they have less than half of their slaves remaining. He had no idea when he started that he would already have used so many already. With the most dangerous and magic consuming part before him, he prays he has enough. But once started, you can't simply stop something like this.

Moving his gaze from the Great Hall, he looks out to the north where the army that took Korazan lies. Slowly but surely it's moving inexorably toward Madoc. His mages have kept a constant eye on its progress and have reported that as they reach each town along the road, they free the town's slaves and kill the slavers. At first they thought that odd until realization set in that they were arming them with arms taken from dead Empire soldiers they defeat in battle. Now they have twice the numbers they had when they left Korazan, although most are ill equipped and lack adequate training.

Armies are currently on the move from the south to deal with them, but whether they will arrive in time to prevent them from reaching Madoc is anyone's guess. The best guess is, maybe. Not only that, but as they move they destroy every bridge they come to, no matter how small.

Still further to the north, Lord Pytherian with the help of the Alliance is beginning to push their remaining forces back toward the Empire. Some reports even state that Cardri forces have been sighted among the Alliance, though those reports have yet to be substantiated. Even if they were, the Empire is no longer in a position to do anything about it.

A month ago the Empire stood on the verge of taking the rest of Madoc. Now it's in retreat back to its border. The army at Lythylla which had contained the bulk of its northern strength has been all but destroyed, an army roams at will in its northern provinces, and a mage is loose that no one seems to be able to find.

Sighing, he turns from the window and crosses the room to his bed. Tomorrow night at midnight they will summon forth Aekion and he will require all his strength for the ordeal. Lying down, the last thing that crosses his mind is the question of where the mage is and what he's up to.

Sleeping in late, James and the others don't leave the inn until well past noon. As they make their way through the inn, James puts on a grim expression like he's mulling over some unpleasant thought. One worker doesn't see them coming until they're almost upon him. When he turns and realizes how close he is to 'his lordship', his face turns pale and makes a hasty withdrawal out of their way.

Leaving the inn, Jiron leads them through town toward the road that leads up into the mountains and to the mine. Word must have spread about his being in town for as they make their way through town, those who take notice of their party quickly put distance between them.

Before they turn onto the road that leads up to the mine, Jiron notices from the corner of his eye an officious looking man exit a building on the far side of the street. When the man moves to cross to their side and looks to be heading directly for them, Jiron quickly turns into an alley between two buildings.

"What are we doing in here?" Jared asks.

Jiron gestures with his head to the man coming up behind them. Stopping, they turn to face him.

As the man nears, Jared moves in front of the others and waits for the man to speak first.

Ignoring Jared, the man looks directly at James and says a brief sentence. From the tone of his voice it sounded like a question.

Jared attempts to respond but the man barks a command and holds up his hand. Face growing grim, he glances to Jiron and raises his left hand to scratch behind his ear.

Seeing the signal, Jiron lashes out with his fist and connects with the side of the man's head knocking him unconscious. As the man begins to fall, Jiron grabs him and quickly pulls him to the side of the alley.

James scans the alley for anyone who may have witnessed it and finds the alley empty. He then looks to Jared for an explanation.

Taking his eyes from the unconscious man on the ground, he looks at James and says, "He asked what business you had here in Ki and why he wasn't told of your coming. When I tried to respond, he stopped me. He wanted to hear it from you."

"You did the right thing," states Jiron. "Now, what are we to do with him?" He glances to James and asks, "Kill him?"

"Must we?" responds James. "After tonight they'll know where I am anyway."

"If he's discovered it's what he may do before tonight that I'm worried about," argues Jiron.

"He's right," adds Jared. "He's the enemy and I think is of some importance."

Jiron begins going through his pockets and pulls out a rolled letter secured with a piece of string. Removing the string he opens it up and after a brief glance hands it to James.

James takes the letter. Unable to decipher the writing, he scans to the bottom and to the symbol inscribed there, three dots forming a pyramid with lines running between them yet not touching them.

Sighing, he hands the letter to Jared and asks, "Can you read this?"

Taking the letter, Jared looks at it and shakes his head. "No, I can only speak the language," he replies. Then his eyes widen when he see the symbol at the bottom. Looking up at James he says, "This..."

"Is the symbol of the warrior priest," he finishes. Pointing to the man on the ground he adds, "Whoever that is either is one, or works for one."

"Most likely an agent," guesses Jiron. "Never would have taken an actual warrior priest out so easily." Pulling a knife, he looks to James. He can see the warring emotions play across his face at the thought of killing the defenseless man.

James turns his back on Jiron and begins walking down the alley away from them. He takes four steps before hearing the man grunt as Jiron's knife sinks into his chest, puncturing his heart.

Jared helps Jiron to hide the body in a trash heap further into the alley. With any luck the body won't be discovered until they have done what they came here for and are long gone. When they are satisfied it's hidden as well as they can make it, they hurry to catch up with James.

As they reach him, Jiron pats him on the shoulder. He knows how hard it is for him when something like that has to happen, even though he understands the necessity. "Let's get to the mine and have a look around," he says. James gives him a nod and then they reach the end of the alleyway. Turning onto the street, they walk a short distance before reaching the road that will take them up into the mountains.

The road is deserted. Just as Jiron had said, there isn't much more than scrub brush and small trees, nothing in which to conceal themselves should someone approach.

"It's only about two miles or so," Jared tells him. They follow the road as it winds its way through the hills until the wall of the mine complex comes into view.

On either side of the mine, the mountains rise sheer and tall. Unlikely that anyone, especially James, would be able to scale them to enter. Off to one side lies a pile of stone from where the mountain had given away at some point in the past. James points over to it and says, "Those rocks would give us some cover while we're here." Moving over to them, they settle in behind.