Brian Pratt: Trail of the Gods

“Should be any day,” he replies. “She had to go all the way to Cardri to get your money from Thelonius.”

“I know,” he says. He gave her a letter from Alexander, the money lender here in Trendle, for his brother asking him to relinquish James’ money. Only way he could’ve done it without the letter was to go all the way there himself. And Delia was more than happy to do it, for a small fee of course.

Alexander had been more than happy to advance him some money to set up The Ranch and to begin construction. Which brings him to his next problem, he needs to somehow generate a steady flow of income for The Ranch. All these mouths to feed, not to mention any and all supplies he’s going to need, will cost many golds. Plus he understands there’s a property tax due to the town at the beginning of the year. How is he going to afford all this?

One thing at a time. He needs to get the crystals to hold magic. Where the Fire lies now is not going to be good enough forever and for what he has planned, he needs the crystals to secure the Fire forever.

Tasting the fried chicken, he turns to Ezra and says, “Perfect, as always.” She beams as the others at the table offer their appreciation as well. James has realized that she needs him to make some comment about every meal to her. It was during the second dinner she had fixed that he failed to say whether it was good or not. The next day, she was more subdued and he could see that she was troubled by something. He asked Roland what was wrong and he said that she felt he didn’t like her cooking. Of course, he immediately went to her and told her he did, which improved her mood immensely.

“It’s just that she’s insecure and wants to please,” Roland told him. “After a while, she’ll know you like it and it won’t matter if you say anything. Just try to make some comment during every meal, no matter how small, for the next week or so.”

He had no problem with that, she really was a great cook.

Outside, a rooster crows from the makeshift coop they threw together out back. Ezra now has dozens of hens and two roosters she has to keep separated or they’ll fight each other. Fresh eggs in the morning and fried chicken once a week is reward enough for putting up with them.

“What do you plan to do now?” Illan asks.

“I still have the crystal I originally found,” he replies. “I’ll probably just study it until Delia shows up with more, though I don’t want to risk it. There may be something about it that I’m not seeing, which makes it different than the others.”

“Could be,” he says. “By the way, I’m going to take the boys out and do some hunting in the forest. See if we can’t lay in some supplies.”

“Not a bad idea,” agrees James.

The sound of a rider approaching the house can be heard before they finish their meal. Illan gestures for Yern to go and see who it is.

From the front room, they hear him call out, “It’s Shorty.”

James gets up and heads for the front door. As he enters the front room he asks, “Is he by himself?”

Yern turns from the window and nods, “Just him.”

Opening the front door, he steps out just as Shorty pulls to a stop. “Anything wrong?” he asks him, worried.

Shaking his head, he pulls a sack filled almost to capacity off his horse and hands it to James. He can see Jiron and Tersa standing in the doorway behind him. “Everything’s fine,” he assures them. “We picked up a shipment back in Bearn that had to be in Wurt first thing in the morning, so she sent me here to drop off your stuff.”

James opens the sack and finds it stuffed with crystals, the common ones he’s been working with. Smiling, he says, “Tell her thank you.”

“Will do that,” he says as he pulls out a letter. “This is from Thelonius back in Cardri.”

Taking the letter, he asks, “Would you like to stay for lunch? We have plenty.”

“No, she told me to get back fast before they moved much further down the road,” he tells him. Pulling himself back up on his horse, he turns to leave.

“You tell her to stop by when she passes through next time,” he says to Shorty.

“I’ll do that,” he replies. “Goodbye, James.”

“Bye Shorty,” he says. “And thanks again.”

Giving him a brief wave, he kicks his horse into a gallop and races back down the road to rejoin the caravan.

As he turns back to the house, he sees Jiron and Tersa standing there. Holding up the sack, he says, “At least she dropped these off before she headed north.”

“She wouldn’t forget about you,” Jiron assures him.

“No,” adds Tersa. “She knows how important those are to you.”

Coming back to the dining room, he takes his seat and pulls out some of the crystals and sets them beside his plate. While he finishes his meal, he closely examines them. As far as he can tell, they’re exactly the same as the one he took from the underground complex. It has to be with how he’s doing it. It has to!

Once he’s through eating, he gets up from the table and takes his plate and cup into the kitchen where he sets them on the counter. He knows it annoys Ezra that he does it, the master should not have to clear his own dinnerware. But he just can’t leave it there, his mom and then his grandma had ingrained that in him too well.

He returns to the dining room and puts the crystals back in the sack. Illan and the others are beginning to leave for the hunt, “We’re going to take Miko with us.”

“Good idea,” agrees James. “He’s pretty good with that crossbow of his.”

“So he keeps telling us,” Illan replies with a grin.

Miko stands up, all six foot two. He’s quite the man physically, but inside, he’s still a boy. Giving James a grin, he goes to his room to retrieve his crossbow and bolts.

“Be back by dark,” Illan tells him as he leads the others out through the front room. Miko quickly joins them before they get too far away from the house. James watches him as he walks with the others. They’ve really taken a liking to him, sort of taken him under their wing so to speak. Their initial wariness back at Lythylla has long since worn off.

Ezra and Tersa are busy in the kitchen and dining room, getting everything cleared off and cleaned up. Roland grabs an axe and heads out to lay in some firewood. Though fall is still well over a month away, he needs to get busy so they’ll have plenty when it does arrive. James tells them that he’ll be going into town for a few hours to see Alexander.

Taking his sack of crystals out to his workshop, he sits them down by his workbench. Then he heads over to the old barn where his horse is currently stabled and prepares him for the ride into town.

A smile comes over him as he remembers that time with Corbin when he first mounted a horse. He’s come a long ways since then.

When his horse is ready, he leads him out of the barn and then mounts. Riding out to the so-called road that passes by the end of his lane, he passes where the workmen are hard at work on the new buildings. They wave to him as he rides by.

Townsmen from Trendle, they’re happy to have this work. Seems there are many who are barely able to make it around here and those that got this job are sure thankful. The buildings are going up fast, they should be done before fall gets here. At least that’s the general consensus.

As he rides into town, the people on the street pause as they call out a greeting or wave to him as he goes by. Ever since that situation at the estate in the forest, he’s become some sort of celebrity around here. He waves back cheerfully, taking it all in stride.

He pulls up in front of Alexander’s shop and ties his horse to the post outside. Going in, he finds the same guards as had been there the last time. One opens the door to the back and tells Alexander he’s here.