Jiron has a wound in his side oozing blood, other than that, its just minor sc.r.a.pes and cuts. Delia comes and helps him to bind it, while James goes over to where Tinok is holding a coughing Ca.s.sie and asks, "Is she going to be okay?"

"I think so," he replies. "She just needs to get the smoke out of her lungs."

"What happened?" he asks, referring to the dead men.

"They came out of the trees just after the bridge broke," he explains. "I think they were robbers, probably in the area and coming to see about the fire. When they saw us, they attacked without warning."

At mention of the fire, they all look across the chasm at the roaring inferno consuming the road they just left. Some embers are being carried across the canyon, but are failing to start any fires.

"Let's search them and see if they have anything we can use," James says.

He and Jiron go about the task of searching the bodies, but only come up with a pouch for each of them and a belt knife. They also find some coins, though not nearly replacing the amount that is still within his backpack back in town.

By this time Ca.s.sie is doing better, just coughing a little bit. "Ready to go?" James asks as he comes over to her.

She nods her head yes and then gets up with Delia's help. James and Jiron again take the lead as they continue to follow the narrow road through the forest. Behind them across the canyon, the fire still blazes with violent intensity. Even from this distance, they can feel the heat.

They follow the road as it twists and turns among the trees, continuing its way through the forest, leaving the canyon and the heat from the fire behind. They don't travel very far before the road opens up to a clearing. Within the clearing they find two wagons as well as two men sitting on the ground next to a fire. Twelve horses are secured in a picket near them.

At their approach, one of the men turns toward their way and begins to say, "Herec, what did you...?" He stops abruptly when he sees them entering the clearing. Grabbing a crossbow sitting on the ground next to him, he hollers to his friend who grabs one as well. Without even a word of warning, he lets loose a bolt, taking James through the right shoulder, knocking him backward to the ground.

Knives flash as Jiron and Tinok advance upon the men. Ca.s.sie and Delia come to render what aid they can for James.

The second man, seeing Jiron and Tinok coming toward him, lets fly with his bolt but it goes wide, missing Tinok by scant inches. Drawing their swords, the men prepare to defend themselves.

Tinok closes with the first man, while Jiron goes after the second. Knives dance as they parry the sword thrusts, but the men are no match for them and are soon lying on the ground, dead.

They come over to James where he's lying on the ground, blood welling out from where the bolt had struck him. Jiron rolls him over slightly to look at his back and sees that it hasn't gone all the way through. He looks in James' eyes and says, "It's got to come out."

James just nods his head in understanding and braces himself.

"Hold him tight, Tinok," Jiron says. Tinok comes and holds James firmly as Jiron grabs hold of the bolt. "Alright, on three, okay?" he asks James.

James nods his head again and braces for it.

"One...two..." and then he yanks it out, causing James to cry out in pain before pa.s.sing out. Turning to Delia he says, "Look through the wagons and see if there is anything we can use for bandages."

She rushes over to the wagons and then comes back with a couple of shirts that she quickly tears into strips. Jiron takes them from her and uses them to bind James' wound.

"We camp here for the night," he says. "Tinok, find some wood to keep the fire going until dawn. Ca.s.sie, search the wagons for any food and drink." Turning to Delia he says, "You stay here with James, I'm going to scout a little further down the trail to see what's there. I'll be back shortly."

Getting up he hollers over to Tinok who's gathering wood, "I'll be back shortly."

"Be careful," he hollers back.

Turning toward the east, he breaks into a quick jog which soon has him disappearing down the road.

When he returns, he finds James awake and having a meal of trail rations that Ca.s.sie had found in one of the wagons. "How do you feel?" he asks.

"Shoulder hurts bad," he says. "I can barely move my right arm."

"At least you're alive," Jiron says.

"There is that," he agrees.

"There's nothing down the road for a while but more trees," Jiron says as he sits on the ground next to him. Seeing a pile of papers on the ground near James he asks, "What's that?"

"Had Tinok search the wagons and he found bills of sales and contracts," he explains. "Seems we ran across some smugglers, at least I think they were. No honorable trader would've attacked us like that." He holds one up and says, "This one here is for a shipment of..., I'm not exactly sure what it is, to a man in Korazan."

"Korazan?" Jiron asks excitedly.

"Yeah," James replies, "seems we caught a break on that one." He holds up another paper and says, "This one is in a language that I can't read, but it has what looks to be an official seal here at the bottom. I'm hoping it's a letter allowing us to travel through the Empire, though we won't know until we put it to the test."

"If you're wrong, it could be bad," he says.

"Probably," he agrees, "but we don't have much choice."

"So we're going to pretend to be those guys there?" he asks, pointing to the two stiffs lying off in the woods.

"That's the plan," he replies. "Oh, we found a chest filled with gold and some gems. So things are looking better."

"We probably should stay here until tomorrow," James tells him, "give me a chance to heal and everyone could use the rest. Then we'll push on down the road and see just where it leads."

While they take their ease, Tinok comes over to him and asks, "You didn't get all weak and tired like you did the last time you did magic. Why not?"

"Last time I had used the power within me," he explains. "This time I had time to plan ahead for the battle, so was able to harness other sources of power."

"Other sources?" he asks. "What do you mean?"

"I set up spells that would slowly absorb power from the trees and other living things around them, storing it up until needed. Over the course of several hours, they had absorbed all the power they required for their spells. So when they went off, no power was drained from me. That's why a lot of the vegetation around them had begun to look wilted."

"Impressive," Tinok says.

"Thanks," he replies.

The rest of the day, they just sort of relax and take it easy, recovering from the ordeal of the last two days. Near sunset, some of them walk back toward the canyon to see how the fire's doing.

Smoke still fills the air and across the canyon the trees are all blackened where the fire had raged. Pockets of fire are still visible here and there, but for the most part, it has consumed the readily available fuel and moved on. They can see it as it continues to burn further up the mountain, the flames arcing up from the tops of the trees where it's still burning furiously.

They make it back to the camp just as the sun dips below the horizon and the light begins to fade. The rest allow James to sleep as they take turns standing watch.

Chapter Six.

When they wake in the morning and are ready to begin hooking the horses to the wagons, they come to the realization that no one knows how. Each wagon takes two horses, which ones were easy to figure out, as they were bigger and more muscular than the others. But the problem comes when they attempt to hook the traces to the horses.

The first time they thought they had it figured, the horses had walked right out of their harness when Tinok flicked the reins to get them moving. The girls laughed so hard at the expression on his face when the horses began racing down the road and the traces fell to the ground. He was almost pulled from the wagon but had let go of the reins in time.

"Nice," Delia says, her brown eyes dancing in amus.e.m.e.nt.

Trying to ignore the reaction of the girls, Jiron runs after the horses and quickly brings them back. Taking their time and lots of trial and error, Jiron and Tinok eventually figure it out, finally enlisting James' aid. Once they're sure the horses aren't going to leave their traces behind again, they board the wagons.

On one wagon rides Delia and James, with Delia attempting to drive the wagon but is finding it much more difficult than she had thought. Tinok is driving the second wagon behind them with Ca.s.sie sitting beside him. Jiron is on a horse in the lead, the rest are strung in a line tied behind Tinok's wagon.

Once the wagons start rolling, they begin to learn the finer points of controlling a team of horses. Delia at first has her wagon weaving from one side of the road to the other and once they abruptly stopped for no apparent reason. By the end of the day, however, both she and Tinok have begun to be able to control them with some skill.

The road they're following is barely wide enough to accommodate the wagons. At one point, Delia was afraid one of her wheels would slide off the narrow road and cause the wagon to slide down the mountainside. Near the end of the day they locate a good spot to make camp, an area little more than a widening of the road amidst the trees. From the campfire ring they find there, it would seem the smugglers have used this spot on more than one occasion.

James' shoulder hurts worse than the day before. When they're done with removing the horses from their traces and tethering them to a nearby tree, he has Delia take off the bandage and inspect it. The area around the wound is turning red and is warm to the touch.

"I think it's getting infected," she says to him, concern in her eyes.

"Great," he moans. "Is there any alcohol in the wagons?" he asks her.

"Why?" she replies.

"It may help to purify the wound," he explains. "Maybe even kill the infection."

"I'll see," she says as she goes over and begins rummaging around in the wagons. She returns shortly with a bottle. "This is all I could find," she explains, holding it out to him. "Not sure what's in it though."

"Just put it back," he tells her. "I'd rather not take the chance."

She returns the bottle to the wagon and then goes over to confer with Ca.s.sie, far enough away where he can't hear them. They talk briefly for a few minutes and then Ca.s.sie walks over and enters the forest. Tinok sees her leaving and runs after her.

Delia comes back over to him and says, "Ca.s.sie has had some training with herbs, she may be able to find something that will help."

James just nods as he lies there, beginning to feel worse. His face is starting to feel flushed and his body aches all over, a sure sign of a fever.

Ca.s.sie and Tinok come back after a few minutes with various leaves and petals. She takes a bowl from a wagon and proceeds to mash them all together within it. Once it has been combined, she tears a new set of bandages from a cloak found within one of the wagons and applies the mixture to it before bringing it over to James.

Taking off his old bandage, she tosses it into the fire before she applies the new one. When the mixture touches his skin, it brings a cool, soothing sensation. The pain noticeably diminishes and he is able to lie there more at ease.

"Thanks," he says appreciatively to her.

"You're welcome," she replies with a smile, happy to have eased his pain.

He then closes his eyes and shortly falls asleep.

Ca.s.sie says, "I don't like the look of his wound. The poultice I applied will ease the pain, but will do nothing to stop whatever is causing the redness and fever."

"What can we do?" Jiron asks.

"Wait," she says. "All we can do is wait."

"Can you find more of those herbs?" he asks her. "He may need them again later."

"I'll pick more," she says. She then walks over to the wagon and removes a basket she found inside before returning to the forest.

"I'll go with you," Tinok says as he gets up to accompany her. Seeing the look on Jiron's face he adds, "There may be wild animals out there, you never know." Then he hurries to catch her.

Jiron turns to Delia and says, "There may be something developing between those two."

She watches them go into the forest together and replies, "You may be right, but I doubt if they even realize it yet."

Ca.s.sie and Tinok return some time later with the basket full of herbs and roots. She places them in the wagon and then comes over to inspect James. He's hot with fever and is beginning to perspire. "This is bad," she says, concern in her voice.

"Bad?" asks Jiron.

"How bad?" asks Tinok at the same time.

"If he gets too hot then he'll die," she explains. "I've seen people who have died because their fevers became too high."

"What can we do?" Jiron asks, worried.

"As I said before, wait. Either it will go away on its own or it will kill him, only the G.o.ds know for sure." She takes a moist cloth and dabs his forehead with it as she tries to keep him cool, wiping away the sweat that is beginning to form.

They sit there and wait, afraid of what may happen.

The night explodes with light, startling them out of their sleep. They find James standing up and staring off into the woods. He raises his hands and cries out with words none can understand. Trees on the side of the road simply explode, shattering into millions of pieces.

"We're under attack!" Tinok yells as he comes to his feet, knives at the ready. A rain of wood splinters falls all around them from the blasted trees, the larger ones causing pain when they strike exposed skin.

"Where are they?" Jiron yells to James. He comes to stand with him, knives in hand and stares off into the dark forest in the direction he's facing.

Not paying them any attention, James sends a wave of energy into the forest, beyond the jagged stumps of the trees which had already been shattered. Dozens of trees bow and break, many snapping in two as they crash to the ground from the force of the power James is unleashing.

"I don't see anyone!" Tinok yells to Jiron.

"Protect the girls!" Jiron yells to Tinok as he runs closer to the devastated area, seeking their attackers.

James cries out again and the wind begins to blow with increased ferocity. The trees begin swaying first one way and then the other, limbs can be heard breaking off and falling to the ground.

Ca.s.sie yells to Tinok over the roar of the wind as he approaches, "There is no one!"

"What?" he yells back.

"There is no one," she cries and then she points to James. "Look at his eyes, he's not really seeing. It's the fever! He's having a hallucination!" She pulls her long yellow hair out of her face from where the wind continues whipping it.

As understanding dawns upon him, he sheaths his knives and then runs over to Jiron. Before he gets there, James cries out again and lightning flashes from the sky, striking trees near where Jiron stands, the force of which knocks him backward. He lands on his back, dazed, just as Tinok reaches him.

Tinok kneels down next to him and then looks up when James screams incoherently. As he begins running into the forest, Jiron tries to get back to his feet to follow. Tinok places a hand on him and says, "He's fighting dreams!"