“Exactly,” Jiron agrees.
“Need me to go with you?” asks Miko in the hopes of escaping the warehouse.
Shaking his head, Fifer says, “No, I better go alone. It’d be quicker that way.”
“Okay,” says Miko, disappointed.
Fifer gets up as he says, “I’ll meet you back here in a couple hours, whether I’ve found someone or not.”
“We’ll be here,” replies Jiron.
Fifer turns and walks over to the door and leaves the warehouse, closing it behind him.
“Now what?” asks Miko, sighing.
“Now, we wait,” replies Jiron who almost can’t stop himself from smiling at the despondent sigh Miko lets out.
An hour later the door to the warehouse bursts open and three members of the city watch come in.
The sound of the door slamming open startles James awake and he sits up groggily as they enter the warehouse.
“What?” he asks, still not completely awake.
Jiron moves over to meet them as the first guard asks in a surly tone of voice, “What are you doing here?”
“We couldn’t find any inn with space for us,” replies Jiron. “We had to stay somewhere and since this was empty, we came in here.”
“Damn refugees,” one of them says.
“Well, you can’t stay here,” the first watchman tells him.
“But we’re waiting for the return of a friend,” Miko blurts out. “If we leave, he’ll never find us!”
“Be that as it may,” the watchman says, “this is a private building and it ain’t yours. So you’ll have to go.”
Now completely awake, James gets up and comes over to join the conversation. “Surely there must be some way that we can stay here?” he asks as he digs in and pulls out three silvers. “Maybe you could find the owner and give him this for us. Three should be enough for a days rent, wouldn’t you say?”
The watchman gazes at the coins in James’ hand a moment before reaching out and taking them. “Alright, I’ll get these to the owner. I’m sure he won’t mind if you stay here a few more hours to wait for your friend.” He quickly puts the coins in the pouch at his waist.
“Thank you,” James says. “We do appreciate it.”
“But don’t be thinking you can stay here forever,” the watchman tells them. “You better be out by sundown at the latest.”
“We will,” James assures him. “Rest assured, we will.”
“Okay then,” he grunts at them. Turning to the others of the watch, he says, “Let’s go.” They move toward the exit and are soon through it, the door shutting with a bang behind them.
“He’s not going to give that money to any owner,” Miko states.
“I know,” James replies. “I just wanted to stay here a little longer. I assume the friend we’re waiting for is Fifer?”
Jiron glances at him and says, “Yeah, it is. He went looking for someone from his unit that might help get us past the gate.”
Nodding, James says, “Good idea. Though should he come back without finding anyone, we’ll try the gate again. There’ll probably be a different set of guards there and we might get lucky.”
“Might,” agrees Jiron.
They wait for over an hour before the door opens up and Fifer walks in. The smile on his face says he’s got good news.
“You found someone?” asks Jiron hopefully.
“Ran into Shyn, he was with us when we found you that first time in the hills,” he explains. “He said the rest of the group is out on patrol and that he’d taken an injury and is recuperating.”
“Did he say if he could help us?” James asks him.
Fifer nods before replying, “He said to meet him at the gate in an hour and he could be there to vouch for us.”
“Fantastic!” exclaims James. Then he turns to Jiron and says, “There’s something I want you and Miko to do while I go to the castle.”
“What?” Jiron asks.
“The last time I was in a city on the verge of attack,” he explains, “things went bad fast and we couldn’t get out.” He glances to Miko who nods his head. “I would like you two to first get an idea where all the gates are, then see if there may be another way out in the event of an emergency.”
“Think they’re going to attack?” Miko asks.
“They’re not sitting over there just to get a tan,” replies James. “At some point, this city will be attacked. It’s not a question of if, but when, and I want us to be prepared.”
“I understand,” Jiron tells him. He glances over to Miko and says, “Up for a ride?”
Miko nods his head and says, “Anything to get us out of here!”
James laughs at his enthusiasm. “What time is it anyway?” he asks.
“The sun’s been up for several hours,” replies Fifer. “Jiron thought it best if you slept as much as you could.”
“Thanks, it really helped,” he tells them. The headache and fatigue are still there, just not so bad.
“Where should we meet you?” asks Jiron.
“Let’s say back here, a couple hours before sundown?” he suggests.
Jiron gets up and motions for Miko to join him, “Then we’ll see you in several hours.” They grab their horses and lead them over to the door.
“Good luck,” wishes James.
“You too,” replies Miko. They lead their horses through the door and once on the other side, mount up before heading down the street.
“Shall we go to the gate and wait there for your friend?” James asks.
“No point in staying here any longer than necessary,” agrees Fifer.
Leaving their horses in the warehouse, they step out onto the street and make their way to the gate. For a city about to be attacked, there sure are a lot of people here. Maybe if there’re enemy patrols out and about, they may not have much choice. With that army sitting on their front doorstep, the ones in charge probably don’t want to provide soldiers to escort civilians. They’ll be needed on the walls.
As they approach the gate, Fifer says, “Shyn’s already here.” He points to a man, vaguely familiar to James. Standing about five foot ten with red hair, Shyn waves a greeting at their approach.
He steps up to them and says, “Sorry about last night, lots of strange things been going on around here.” He turns to the guards and says, “It’s alright, these are the ones I told you about.”
The guards just nod as they pass on through, Shyn in the lead.
“So you’ll take us to see Lord Pytherian?” James asks him.
Shaking his head, Shyn says, “I don’t have that kind of access.”
“Then how did you arrange for us to get past the guards?” asks Fifer.
“It wasn’t easy, let me tell you,” he explains. “I tried unsuccessfully to convince the captain of the watch and he all but had me thrown out. Practically accused me of being party to the failed assassination attempt by that other man posing as you.”
“I finally got an audience with one of the members of the council. You see, I have a cousin who is one of his assistants and ran into him as I was leaving the watch captain’s office. He agreed to take me to the councilman where I convinced him of who you were and from that point on it was a whole lot easier.”
“We appreciate your help,” James tells him.
“Glad to do it,” he replies. “Besides, Lord Pytherian wants to see you, the people around him must make sure it’s the right you. You understand, I hope?”
“Oh yeah,” agrees James. “I can see the need even if I don’t like it.”
“I’m glad you feel that way,” he says.
They come to a large courtyard, at the end of which is the gates to the castle itself. Shyn doesn’t lead them there as James at first expected. Instead, he takes them to the right of the castle where a large four story building borders the courtyard.
Before coming to the door, he pauses and says, “This is the offices of the councilman I was referring to. He said that you should wait in here until the meeting is over. Then he’d either bring Lord Pytherian here, or have you taken to him, depending on the wishes of his lordship.”
“Very well,” James says as they enter the building. Shyn leads them up to the second floor and down the hallway where he stops before a set of double doors on the right. He opens them and they walk into a room with several tables laid out with food. Plush chairs and a couple couches are situated around the room.