The man cries out as he stumbles to the side, blood beginning to well from his mouth as his lung fills with blood from where the knife punctured it. Crashing to the floor, he coughs up blood in a vain attempt to clear his lungs and soon passes out.
Qyrll has already killed one of the thugs and is now facing off with another of the clubbers. His shortsword knocks the club to the side and he follows through with his longsword, connecting with the man’s neck and sending his head flying.
The torso stumbles around as blood fountains out of the severed neck. Crashing into the crate which had Qyrll’s candle resting upon it, it sends the candle flying into a heap of garbage which begins to smolder.
Fifer is having trouble with the man he’s facing and Qyrll comes up behind him and strikes him down. Glancing around, they find all the thugs dead. Smoke begins filling the room as the candle ignites the garbage and the flames start to spread rapidly.
“Move!” cries Jiron as he races for the door. A scream greets him as he enters the hallway. People congregating in the hallway to see what’s going on begin running away when they see him there with his knife dripping blood. Smoke from the fire behind him begins filling the hallway as well.
Moving in the direction they originally entered from the night before, he breaks into a run, the other two right behind. Those still in the hallway in the direction he’s running flee in a panicked run when they see him and his blood red knife coming at them.
Racing out into the alley, Jiron pauses only a moment to grab an old shirt off the ground to clean the blood from his knives before returning them to their scabbards. The smoke is beginning to billow through the doorway as the fire within consumes more of the old building.
Qyrll, hooded cloak once again hiding his features, is already moving down the alley away from the fire. Turning back to where Jiron and Fifer have paused to clean their weapons, he hollers, “Come on!”
Racing for the end of the alley, they collide with a squad of the city guard who were on their way to investigate the commotion. Screaming ‘fire’, Jiron points back the way they came to the guard captain as he and the others turn and race away down the street. Glancing behind them, he sees the guards moving into the alley to see about the fire. Soon, horns begin blowing as others come to help combat the spreading blaze.
Using the confusion the fire has created, they make their way to the nearest gate leading into the city and slip through at the same time that a fire team was coming out. Once inside, Jiron says to Qyrll, “Keep your hood close to your face. One look and anyone will know a Parvati is in the city.”
Nodding, he reaches up and holds the bottom of the hood secure under his chin. Now, only a very close examination will reveal what lies beneath.
Jiron leads them through the city to the gates leading past the inner wall. On the other side is the Silver Bells and hopefully where they’ll find James and the others.
As they near the gates, Jiron notices that the number of guards has been doubled. Probably due to the events of last night when the adjutant was killed. They move to a nearby alley and watch the gates for several minutes.
The guards are stopping everyone going in and out, asking them a few questions and then allowing them to continue along their way. Even the carts rolling through are given a cursory examination before they, too are allowed to pass.
“We’ll never get through there undetected,” he finally concludes.
“What are we to do?” Fifer asks.
“I’m not sure,” he says. “There’re not many places around here in which to adequately hide like there were outside the walls.”
As they stand there in the alley deliberating their next course of action, Jiron takes notice of a young boy staring at them. The boy couldn’t be more than fourteen and looks as if he’s one of the street kids they’ve seen roaming the streets. He’s sitting on a box further into the alley, eating some bread.
Hopping down off the box, the boy hesitantly makes his way over to them. By this time, both Fifer and Qyrll have noticed his approach and have turned their attention to him. “You guys in trouble?” he asks.
“Our business is none of yours,” Jiron tells the boy. “Run along.”
The boy just stands there staring at them as he takes another bite of the bread. “You’re the fighters they’re looking for aren’t you?” he asks. “The ones who killed that man last night.”
“No,” denies Fifer. “I’m sure you’ve gotten us mixed up with someone else.”
“Don’t think so,” the lad replies, sounding very sure of himself. “Was there. I saw how you took them out. Pretty good fight.”
Fifer glances to Jiron and sees him resting a hand on one of his knives. Giving him a shake of his head, Fifer turns back to the boy and asks, “What do you want?”
“Got someone who wants to meet you,” he says. “Was asked to keep an eye out in case I ran across you.”
“Who?” asks Jiron.
“A friend of mine,” he replies as he shoves the rest of the chunk of bread into his mouth.
“And why does he wish to meet us?” Fifer asks.
“Said he was a friend of yours,” answers the lad.
“This friend of ours have a name?” Jiron asks.
“Miko,” the boy says.
Fifer breathes an audible sigh of relief as Jiron asks, “Where is he?”
“Said at the Silver Bells,” replies the boy. “But don’t think you should try to get through the gate right now.”
“No, I wasn’t planning to,” states Jiron.
“You wait here and I’ll see if I can get him for you,” he suggests.
“Very well,” replies Fifer.
“Back in a few minutes,” the lad says as he strolls out of the alley and walks toward the gate. At the gate, he passes on through, the guards don’t even give him a second look.
“Who is this Miko?” Qyrll asks.
“A friend of ours,” replies Jiron. “Hopefully we can get ourselves out of this situation.”
“Well, well,” a voice says.
Cracking an eye open, James sees Lord Colerain and another individual standing next to him outside of his pen.
“Seems the circumstances of our meeting have greatly improved since our last encounter,” he continues. To his friend he says, “You have no idea how much satisfaction I have to see him here like this.”
“We’re getting some very good concessions from the Empire’s Ambassador for him,” his friend says. “Always pleasant when you can achieve two goals with but one action.”
James looks out through the drug induced fog, his mind barely able to even follow what the men are saying. Their voices sound as if they’re coming to him through water, probably a side effect of the drug they used on him.
Lord Colerain nods at his friend’s comment and then turns his attention back to where James is lying on his side on the bench. “The negotiations will be concluded by this evening and you’ll be happy to know that you’ll be able to leave these poor accommodations for others.”
His friend laughs and then says, “We must return. The negotiations will be starting again soon.”
“Very well,” Lord Colerain says. Taking one more satisfying look at James, he turns and follows his friend out of the cell area.
Through blurry eyes, he watches them go. When at last they’ve ascended the stairs out of sight, he slips back into unconsciousness again.
Miko and Illan are still sitting out in the common room when one of his street kids comes walking in the inn. Miss Gilena immediately moves to shoo him out but Miko sees him and says, “He’s here to see me.”
Eyeing the boy questioningly, she leaves him alone and returns to what she had been doing before he entered.