“You’re crazy!” Tinok exclaims. “You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“Perhaps,” James says, “but I’ll not leave him to his fate. He wouldn’t be in this situation if it wasn’t for me.”

“What do you mean?” Delia asks.

“I came to the City of Light to find out all I could about Morcyth, a god that used to be popular around here a long time ago.” He looks at them and asks, “You wouldn’t by chance have ever heard of him, have you?”

They all four shake their heads no.

“Anyway,” he continues, “Miko tagged along despite my attempts to warn him of the dangers. I had found out some info from Ollinearn, the Keeper of the Great Library here in the City. We were on our way out when the Empire’s forces showed up and then things just went from bad to worse.”

“The last thing I told him was, ‘Find a place to hide, I’ll find you.’” James finishes his bread and cheese then cups his hands together as he drinks water out of the bucket. Sitting back against the wall once more, he glances at the four faces staring at him.

“I’ll go with you,” Jiron states.

“What?” Tinok exclaims in disbelief. “You can’t be serious.”

“You’ll be killed!” Cassie cries.

“How can I leave her in the hands of slavers?” Jiron replies. “I’m all she has left in this world and I’ll not rest until either she’s free, or I’m dead!” Turning to James he says, “So, when do we leave?”

James considers the request, and nods his head, “Alright, we’ll go tonight.” He turns his attention to Jiron and asks, “Can we get out of the City unobserved?”

“I don’t know,” he admits, “there are hundreds of troops stationed within the walls and thousands more on the outside. It looks like they plan to defend and hold the City against attacks from our soldiers. Both inside and out, there are many patrols and they’ve been doing routine sweeps of the houses, looking for anyone else still hiding.”