Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three by Brian S. Pratt Page A

a necklace of bones, one of
which looks to contain a human ear as well as the bones. They hold
very still as the natives come closer.
    As they near the trees where James and Miko
are hiding, one of them pauses and begins sniffing the air. The
bug repellent! James suddenly realizes. He smells the bug
repellent. The warrior cocks his head to the side as if
attempting to determine from which direction the smell is
coming.
    James watches as the others suddenly take
notice of the smell. After a brief exchange of words, the warriors
begin working their way closer to the trees they’re hiding in.
They’re almost upon them when a rhino-lizard bursts out of the
dense foliage and grabs one of the warriors, dragging him screaming
off the trail and back into the swamp. The other three warriors
immediately turn, and screaming war cries, give pursuit as they try
to rescue him.
    “Come on!” James says as he comes out from
behind the trees and hurries down the trail as fast as his injured
leg will allow. As they rush down the path, screams and roars can
be heard coming from where the warriors are fighting the
rhino-lizard.
    “This is crazy,” Miko announces after
they’ve put some distance between them and the battle behind them,
“we don’t even know if we’re going in the right direction.”
    Pointing off through the marshy wetlands,
James says, “Would you rather try to cut cross country?”
    Thinking of the little fishes that inhabit
the water, he shakes his head no.
    “Then we have to stick to the path as best
we can and hope that we run across him,” he explains.
    The pain in James’ leg continues to throb
with every step he takes, perspiration courses down his face. He
has to lean heavily upon the stick in order to even remain
upright.
    Out of the swamp ahead of them, the sound of
beating drums begins to be heard. Sure that they’ve found where
Jiron has been taken, James hastens along. They soon come to where
the trail diverges and he hesitates only a moment as he ponders the
best way to go. The one leading left goes more in the direction of
where the sound of the drums is coming from and looks well
traveled, so he turns that way and follows it.
    From up ahead, the beating of the drums
become louder the further they progress along the trail. The trees
begin to thin and they’re able to make out a village of crude huts
sitting upon an island surrounded by stagnant bodies of water. The
trail they’re on leads straight to it and he can see several other
trails leading away from the island going in different
directions.
    “Miko, look!” James whispers as he points to
a cage sitting on one side of the island. Jiron is lying within the
cage, shirt soaked with blood and not looking too good. At first he
appears dead, but then he moves and James breathes a sigh of
relief.
    Looking over to the island, Miko watches as
dozens of warriors do a dance with their spears to the beat of the
drums. Surrounding them are the women and children of the tribe,
all standing and swaying to the rhythm. In the middle of the
dancers stands a man dressed in ceremonial attire holding a staff
atop which sits the skull of some unknown animal. He looks to James
like some sort of witch doctor.
    “How are we going to get him out of there?”
Miko asks, not liking the odds.
    “I don’t know,” replies James. “It doesn’t
look as if they’ll be doing anything for a while, though.”
Motioning to Miko, they make their way to the edge of the water
where several trees grow that will afford them some protection
while they observe what’s going on.
    Just as they settle into their hiding place,
two warriors approach the village from where James and Miko had
just come from. They’re carrying two others who have obviously been
chewed upon by a rhino-lizard, neither of which look alive. These
must be the ones who’d almost discovered them earlier.
    When the warriors get to the island, some of
the women begin wailing as they see their men folk being