Brian Pratt: Trail of the Gods

James moves to the window in the wall and Alexander’s head appears just as he gets there. “Ah, James,” he says. “I take it you’ve heard back from my brother?”

Pulling the letter out, he hands it over to him.

Taking but a moment, Alexander opens the letter and reads the contents. “Seems you still have quite a sum here,” he says. “Do you wish to have the same type of account you had last time?”

“Yes, that would be fine,” he replies. “Could I have a hundred golds of that broken into smaller coinage?”

“Not a problem,” he says. “Just give me a moment and I’ll be right back.”

“Okay,” replies James as Alexander ducks back inside. He waits there only a couple minutes before he reappears at the window with two bulging sacks of coins.

He sets the sacks of coins down on the window’s counter along with several papers. “Here,” he says. “I just need your signature on these and we’re all set. After taking out what I’ve already loaned you and the hundred you’re taking with you, you still have three hundred and ten golds left.”

Nodding, James takes the offered quill and signs where he’s told to. Once done, Alexander takes the papers and says, “You’re all set. In the sacks there, I put 60 gold coins and 397 silver and 600 copper. That almost wiped me out of what smaller coins I had.”

“Sorry,” James says.

“Don’t worry about it,” he assures him. “I still have plenty.”

“Thank you,” he says to him as he bends down to pick up the heavy sacks. The guard takes one and escorts him back out to his horse. Alexander says, “Come again if I can help you with anything further.”

“I will,” he replies as he exits the shop. Securing the sacks behind his saddle takes some doing but with the guard’s help, he manages.

He tells the guard thanks for his help and then mounts. So as not to over tax his horse, he takes it slow all the way back, the sacks of coins jingling behind him.

Once back at The Ranch, he goes to the main house and removes the sacks from his horse and takes them into his bedroom where Hern’s old money chest sits. It’s barely large enough to accommodate the coins but he manages to get the lid closed and the lock secured. Hern had only had two silvers and a handful of coppers in it when he found it.

He’s going to have to have Delia acquire him some writing materials so he’ll be able to keep a ledger of his spending. It would also be nice to be able to keep notes about his experiments with the crystals.

Sighing, he knows he should go back out to his workshop and try to figure this out. As he passes through to the back door, he finds Ezra there in the kitchen baking bread for the evening meal. The aroma smells good.

Arkie is sitting in a highchair he bought for him. He’s got a piece of bread in one hand that he’s happily gnawing on. His cup is resting on its side on the floor, the milk within it spreading in a pool.

He gives Ezra a nod and pats Arkie on the head as he leaves through the back door. The sound of wood being chopped reaches him from over where Roland is splitting them into the proper size. He can see he’s already accumulated quite a pile since he left for town.

Tersa is out in the garden they planted when they first arrived. He can see many shoots coming up out of the ground. He was worried that planting so late in the season wouldn’t yield much, but he left it to their judgment. Ever since pulling the new shoots out of his aunt’s garden when he thought he was successfully weeding it, he’s known he has no clue about gardening.

Back in his workshop, he reaches into the sack of crystals and pulls out several, setting them in front of him on the workbench. C’mon guys, what am I doing wrong?

He thinks about the last time. What he’s been trying to do is create a spell in which the crystal will draw and store power from the world around it. Taking only minute quantities from each individual living thing within its radius at a time, they would store it within themselves. They would also use the stored power to keep the ‘leeching’ spell active, always maintaining the maximum amount. Sort of like a continuously recharging battery, a magic battery you could say.

But the problem he’s been encountering is that at some point, it explodes. That’s what he has to figure out, a way to keep it intact. There has to be a way to have it ‘charge’ to a certain point and then stop.

Perhaps along with a spell that leeches magic from its environment, there should be one that checks for internal integrity. One which ensures the crystal never reaches the point where it shatters by shutting down the other spell which is drawing in the power. Then allowing it to resume drawing in power once the amount of stored power has dropped below the maximum capacity.

Might work, he thinks as he carries the largest of the crystals over to the table where the previous experiments have been. Brushing aside the shattered remnants of earlier experiments, he sets the crystal down and then moves back to a safer distance.

After a moment’s contemplation to work out the spell needed, he concentrates on the crystal and slowly lets out the power. This time when he’s completed the spell, he holds his breath as once more, it begins to glow red with the power being drawn from him. When the crystal has begun to glow a deep crimson color, he senses a gradual diminution in the power being leeched from him until it all but disappears.

Using his magic, he examines the crystal down to the micro level. A smile breaks across his face as he realizes that it’s working. It’s still drawing power, but it’s such a slight amount that he can barely feel it.”

“Excuse me,” a voice says as a hand taps him on the shoulder.

Abruptly breaking his concentration, he inadvertently sends a wave of energy toward the crystal, causing it to shatter into a hundred tiny fragments. His head begins hurting and he feels almost as if he’s about ready to pass out.

Turning on the intruder, he comes to a stop when he sees it’s a stranger standing there. Something in his eyes must’ve given the man pause, for he takes three quick steps backward and backs out the door

“What!” James yells at the man as he follows him outside.

Jiron must’ve heard him all the way from the house and he sticks his head out of a window to see what’s going on. When he sees James standing there in anger in front of a stranger, he quickly rushes to his side.

“Uh,” the man stammers, his voice failing him. Clearing his throat, he glances backward as he hears Jiron coming and then turns his attention back to James. “Are you James, the wizard?”

“What?” James asks him again, not exactly understanding what he just said.

“You okay?” Jiron asks as he arrives, one hand on a knife hilt.

Indicating the man, he replies, “This idiot interrupted me, almost got me killed.”

Taking the man’s arm, Jiron says, “You better leave.”

Wrenching his arm out of Jiron’s grasp he says, “But I need your help! And I’m willing to pay!” He glances from one to the other and back again as they take in what he said.

To Jiron, James says, “Take him to the house, I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

The man says, “Thank you,” as Jiron leads him over to the house.

He returns back inside to the shattered crystal, angry that it was destroyed. But at least he’s on the right track, it didn’t explode until that idiot disturbed him. It had been working!

He finds Jiron and the stranger sitting in the front room, Ezra having already given the man a small bite to eat and something to drink.

“…only hope he can help me,” the man says. When he sees James enter the room he quickly comes to his feet, almost causing the cup holding his ale to tip over.