By the time they stop for the night, the keep has long since disappeared behind them. All they can see in every direction now is plains, with the river cutting its way through them to the west.
They decide upon not lighting a fire so as not to alert anyone in the area where they are. Cold rations are the fare this evening, they still have some cooked meat strips from the previous nights to fill them up. James is still feeling the need for more than just meat, but will have to wait on that.
During Miko’s shift in the middle of the night, he hears horses racing past off in the distance. In the moonlight, he can make out a group of perhaps ten riders. He almost wakes the others but then doesn’t when he realizes they’re not coming their way.
When he wakes Jiron for his turn at watch, he tells him of the riders.
“It might have been that warrior priest,” suggests Jiron once he’s heard.
“Do you think so?” Miko asks, worried.
“Don’t be too worried, remember, we’re in the land of the Clans,” he tells him. “It could very well have just been a group of riders moving from one place to another. Nothing says it has to do anything with us.”
As Miko lies down to sleep, Jiron continues, “Just try to get some sleep, we’ll need our rest tomorrow.”
“Alright,” says Miko.
Soon, Jiron can hear the soft sound of his snores in the night. He spends much of his watch staring out across the moonlit plains, searching for riders. He’s much more worried about the riders Miko had told him of than he’d made out, just didn’t want Miko to fret about them.
In the morning when James awakens he tells him of what Miko saw last night. “I wish I had been awake,” he says to Jiron. “Then I might have felt if Abula-Mazki had been among the group.”
“If that was him,” Jiron says, “then he’s ahead of us.”
Nodding his head, James replies, “I know, that could make things difficult to say the least.”
“He’ll probably enlist the aid of the nearest garrison, as well as send for reinforcements,” Jiron guesses. “We haven’t any time to waste sitting around here.”
“I agree,” James says as he goes over and wakes up Miko.
They mount and quickly make their way toward the north, still following the river from a distance. The river continues almost due north as it flows to the south and James finds it odd that there are no villages along the riverbank.
“I would think there would be someone living along the river,” he states during their travel.
“Why?” Miko asks.
“It’s a good place to live,” he tells him. “You have access to fish and fresh water, plus transportation south as needed. It’s just odd is all.”
“Maybe the clansmen don’t allow anyone to live there?” Jiron guesses.
“Perhaps,” says James as he reflects upon it. “You may be right, this could be the border area between the Clans’ land and the Empire as agreed upon in that Treaty they’d mentioned. If that’s the case, then there most likely will be minimal people inhabiting this area.”
“Which could prove beneficial to us,” Jiron says with optimism.
An hour or two past noon, Jiron points to the west and then hollers out, “James!”
James looks over to the west and sees a band of riders on the other side of the river. One rider has broken from the others as he races to the north, the others pace them as they move north. He can see the riders casting glances their way.
“Damn!” James curses. “They’ve seen us.”
“And it looks like one is going for help,” adds Jiron.
James begins to angle his horse to the east and the others follow his lead. “Need to put some distance between us, fast.”
“It won’t take them long to find us now that they know about where we are,” Jiron says as he gallops along beside James.
“Let’s put off that meeting as long as we can,” James replies as they race through the tall grass. He’s worried that at their speed, one of their horses might put a hoof in a gopher hole or something that will break its leg. That would prove disastrous.
Glancing behind, he sees that the river and the riders are no longer visible. They turn to a more northerly course and push their horses as hard as they can.
A horn sounding to the southeast causes them to glance over their shoulders. There behind them are several dozen riders coming fast. They look to be clansmen, but which ones they can’t tell from this distance.
They continue racing north, maintaining their lead from the approaching riders. Hills begin to appear to the northwest. James begins to angle toward them, the hills would give them a better chance than open plains.
“But what about the riders we saw there earlier?” Miko shouts to James.
“There’re less of them than what’s behind us,” he replies. “Besides, we stand a better chance among the hills.”
They continue racing toward the hills, Miko keeps glancing behind them at the pursuing riders. Though they’re not closing the gap, they’re not falling behind either. Worried, he does his best to keep up with the others.
As they near the hills, they can once more see the river as it flows around the hills to the west. The riders who had been over on the other side are nowhere to be seen.
“James!” hollers Jiron. “The horses can’t keep this up, we’re going to have to do something about those riders behind us.”
“I know,” James tells him.
The first hill they come to rises thirty or more feet above the plains. James steers his horse toward it and begins to climb to the top, the others move to follow him.
At the top, he gets down from his horse and hands the reins to Miko. “Just don’t let him get away,” he tells him.
Miko nods his head as he takes the reins.
Jiron and Miko just stand there as they watch James. He faces the oncoming riders and suddenly brings his hands together and then after holding them closed for a moment quickly flings them open. A dozen small blobs appear to be thrown from his hands and land on the ground.
When they hit the ground, they begin rolling toward the riders. As they roll through the tall grass, the grass they touch begins to wilt and die, leaving a trail behind them as they continue on toward the riders.
“What’s he doing?” Miko asks Jiron.
“I don’t know,” he replies. “Just be glad he’s on our side.”
James breaks into a slight smile when he overhears that, but otherwise continues his concentration as the blobs roll ever onward.
The further they roll through the grass the greater in size they become. Where they had started out the size of golf balls, now they’re the size of a bowling ball. It almost seems that the larger they grow, the faster they grow as does the swath of withered grass they leave behind them.
When the first riders reach the blobs rolling toward them, the lead ball explodes, spraying a sticky goo which envelopes several riders and horses. The others immediately move to pass by their affected comrades, but other blobs explode as they come in close proximity to them.
One after another, the blobs explode, coating more of the riders in the goo, making it impossible for them or their horses to move. They fall to the ground and struggle to free themselves from sticky mass, but are unable to.
After the last blob explodes, all but one of the riders has been trapped. James turns back to the others and says, “Let’s go.” He gets on his horse and to the amazement of Jiron and Miko, turns toward the entrapped riders.
“What are you doing?” asks Jiron.
“We should leave!” yells Miko.
Paying them no head, he continues on to the entrapped riders. Having little choice, the other two fall in behind as he heads toward them.
The lone rider who’s free sees them coming and draws his sword. Turning his horse toward them, he charges, a war cry escaping him.
James takes a rock he had acquired some time earlier from his pouch and throws it. The rock sails toward the rider and strikes him through the chest, knocking him from his horse.