“Why not allow them to go on into Trademeet?” Miko asks.
“Those are the Captain’s orders and he didn’t explain himself to me,” the soldier replies.
“No problem,” James tells him. “We can camp a little further back down the road tonight and then continue on over in the morning.”
“Sorry,” he says, “but we got orders that no one is to be allowed down the east side of the Pass until further notice.”
“What?” James exclaims. “Why?”
Looking like he’s tired of explaining the same thing over and over, the soldier says, “Like I said before, that’s the Captains orders and he doesn’t explain them to me.” The soldier, having said all he intends to, turns around and heads back toward the camp that has been set up at the way stop.
“Now what are we going to do?” Miko asks.
James gives Miko an exasperated look and says, “Would you stop asking me that!”
“Alright, alright,” he replies.
“Let’s go back down a ways and find a campsite,” James says. “Maybe we can think of something.”
Going back down the road, they find a widening of the road with enough room for them to make their camp and not be on the road. James sends Miko to gather firewood before it gets dark while he stakes out the horses and gets them ready for the night.
Miko makes three scavenging trips before collecting a sufficient store of firewood to last throughout the night. James gets the fire going and has dinner started before the light completely fades. While sitting around the fire eating dinner, two men appear from the direction of the way stop and approach their campfire.
“Hello,” one of the men says.
“Good evening gentlemen,” James replies, then waits to see what they will do.
They approach a little closer to the fire and James can see that they are eyeing their food hungrily. He says to them, “Would you two care to share our fire this evening? We have enough to share.”
“Yes, we’d like that,” the other man says. “But we actually came to see if you could spare some for our families. You see we fled Saragon when it fell with nothing but the clothes on our backs.”
“Certainly,” James says, “if you don’t have too many,”
The taller of the two men almost breaks down and cries while the other says, “Thank you very much.” Turning to the taller man he says, “Silas, go and bring ‘em over.”
Silas nods and heads back toward the refugee camp. The man says, “My name is Bellon, I was a farmer before the Empire’s army sacked our city.”
“How did you get out?” Miko asks.
“When the Empire overran the walls, it was total chaos,” Bellon explains. “People were running in every direction trying to get out. My grandfather used to be a smuggler way back when he was a younger man and once showed me an old smuggler route into the city that he said no one, not even the Governor knew about. Silas and I found it and used it to get our families out past the walls. The tunnel came out in a pile of old stones a dozen yards from the river, almost two miles north of the city.”
“We were past the enemy lines and ran all night and all day, hiding whenever we heard someone approaching. We did that until we saw some of our soldiers coming from the City of Light. We waved them down and told them where we were from and what had happened. They told us to head here, saying we could find refuge and safety.”
“Remarkable story,” James says. About that time, Silas returns with the rest, two women, an older boy and two smaller children. All have the lost look of those who have had their lives torn asunder.
James stands when the ladies approach and says, “Welcome to our campfire. You are welcome to stay here the night if you wish. We don’t have a lot of food, but what we do have we will gladly share.” Turning to Miko, he says, “Get the rest of the food out of the bags and pass it out, they look as if they could use it.”
The two families situate themselves on the ground around the campfire and wait for Miko to distribute the food. As it happens, there is enough to go around, maybe not enough to stuffing their bellies, but sufficient to still their hunger.
“By the way, my name is James and this is my companion, Miko,” he says, indicating Miko.
“We sure thank you for this, James” Silas says. “The kids were getting awfully hungry and the food that the soldiers were distributing had run out by the time we made it to the front of the line.”
“I don’t think the soldiers had planned on this many making it here,” Bellon says. “They said a caravan was on its way from Trademeet but wouldn’t be here until later tomorrow or possibly the day after.”
“We passed a large caravan coming this way early in the morning,” Miko tells them. “It will most likely be up here sometime late tomorrow.”
“That’s good news,” Silas says.
“James and I plan on going on through the Pass to Madoc in the morning,” Miko tells them.
James gives him a look that says, ‘Don’t tell strangers our business’. Miko has the good sense enough to blush at his mistake.
Silas’ wife says, “You mustn’t go there!”
Holding his wife’s hand, Silas says, “I agree, it’s not a good place to be right now.”
“Well, we don’t plan on going anywhere near Saragon,” James says.
“Still, the Empire’s men are terrible foes,” Bellon states.
“Why are they so terrible?” Miko asks with apprehension.
Bellon looks at him and says, “They kill just for the pleasure of it. If they can capture you, you become their slave and they take you back to their Empire to sell you at auction. When Saragon fell and we were running through the streets to get to the smuggler’s route, we saw the slavers taking people, tying their hands behind their backs and stringing them in slave lines. If they were too old or an invalid, they just slit their throats, leaving them to lie in the street and bleed to death.”
Bellon’s wife puts a hand on his arm, and when she has his attention, shakes her head and indicates the children. “Oh, sorry, maybe this is not the time or place to be talking about such things,” he says.
“I think I get the idea,” James says, understanding. “But there is not much we can do, we have to go.”
“If you must go,” Silas says, “then stay as far to the north away from Saragon as you can. No one was sure if the Empire would stop at Saragon or push further north.”
“We will, I promise,” he assures them and then turns his attention to the vacant eyed younger children. “Now who would like to hear a silly song about a bunny?” he asks.
They kind of perk up at that, at least the younger two do. One of them says very timidly, “I do.”
So James begins to sing. “Little bunny Foo Foo hopping through the forest…” While he sings, he pantomimes the little bunny hopping along with the rest of the cast of characters.
For the remainder of the evening he sits and sings all the old silly songs he once sung as a child and even throws in a couple of poems. The children sit in rapt attention and after the first two songs, begin to smile a little and even clap along. The adults, seeing life returning to their children, begin to clap along as well with tears in their eyes.
Eventually, James’ voice begins to crack and he has to stop for a while. Miko, surprisingly, begins a song about a lord who can’t find his slippers. It’s a silly song, but obviously one that the children have heard before because they begin to sing along with him after the fist chorus.
The rest of the night is full of singing and silly tales. For a time at least, the memories of what happened and what their futures might hold are forgotten. All that mattered this night was that they had brought joy back to the children.
The following morning when the sky begins to lighten, even before the sun rises over the mountain peaks, James and Miko make ready to get through the Pass.