Free Fires of Prophecy: The Morcyth Saga Book Two by Brian S. Pratt Page B

them out of their
cells, two with knives that are red with blood. He begins yelling
as he quickly turns and exits the hallway, returning back to the
front room. Even though James can’t understand what he’s saying, he
has a pretty good idea.
    “Jiron,” he says, “give Tinok your knife,
quick!”
    When Tinok has both knives, James says to
him as he points down the hallway, “They’re going to be coming
through that door. You’ve got to stop them for a minute or
two.”
    Tinok glances at Cassie, then with an evil
grin he says, “You got it.” He walks close to the end of the
hallway and awaits the first soldier to pass through the door.
    Grabbing Jiron’s arm, James says, “Come with
me.” He leads him to the rear cell where Tinok had been, whose
little window overlooks the same narrow alley that his had. The
girls follow them in there.
    “What are we doing?” he asks James.
    “Just wait,” he replies as he begins
concentrating.
    Jiron hears the clash of metal from the
hallway and sticks his head out to see how Tinok’s doing. One
soldier lies on the floor, bleeding to death, while his knives
dance with another. A third soldier has entered the hallway behind
the one battling Tinok, but the narrowness of the corridor allows
but one to come at him at a time.
    He turns back to the cell and watches as
James begins tracing the seams of the stones surrounding the barred
window. His finger follows the seam all the way around and when he
reaches his starting point, he stops and says, “Alright, give me a
hand.”
    Reaching up to the bars, he begins pulling
on them. Jiron steps up and lends his strength to the effort.
    “Give up,” they hear the officer exclaim
from down the hallway, “you’ve got nowhere to go!”
    “Bring ‘em on!” they hear Tinok’s reply.
More clashes can be heard as he parries and blocks, giving them
time to do what they need to.
    “What’s the count?” Jiron yells over his
shoulder to Tinok.
    “Four!” they hear him hollering back.
    James and Jiron pull with all their strength
on the bars and a section of the wall surrounding them suddenly
slides outward half an inch.
    “Five!”
    Delia joins them and together, they slowly
pull the bars and the adjoining stones away from the wall until the
whole thing crashes to the floor with a thud.
    James looks out the hole and doesn’t see
anyone around, while Jiron goes back to the dead guards in Cassie’s
cell and retrieves a sword.
    Coming to the hole, he tosses the sword
through and then follows it, climbing through the hole.
    “Six!”
    He takes the sword and comes back to the
hole. “Cassie,” he says, “come on!” Keeping an eye out for anyone
entering the ally, he offers his hand to help her through.
    James and Jiron help Cassie make it through
the hole, and then Delia. Once they’re safely on the other side,
James climbs through as well. “Tinok!” Jiron yells, “Time to
go!”
    “Seven!” they hear just before he runs
through the door. Upon seeing the hole in the wall, he yells,
“Stand back!” as he races toward it and dives through. He sails
through the opening, hits the ground on the other side, and then
rolls, coming to rest against the wall of the opposite
building.
    James sees guards rushing into the room
after him. When they see the hole in the wall, one yells something
back down the hallway as most of them turn and race back the way
they had come.
    “Let’s get out of here!” James says, as he
leads them down the alley. As they reach the end, he looks back the
way they had come and sees soldiers entering the alley, hell bent
on catching them. They turn and run down the lane, trying to make
the edge of town. A guard runs around a corner in front of them,
and before he even realizes they’re there, Jiron has cut him down
with the sword.
    “Good with a sword too?” asks James, panting
from the exertion.
    “Didn’t always use the knives,” he replies,
“I just prefer them.”
    When they come to the end