Brian Pratt - Trail of the Gods

“It’s just like back near those skull pyramids,” observes Jiron.

“Yes, it is,” agrees James. A quick look shows that the degree of withering is greater among the vegetation closest to the crystal. Both crystals seem to have a radius of about four feet. Outside that area, everything looks normal.

“What’re they doing?” asks Jiron.

“Rather not say, if you don’t mind,” counters James. Glancing at Jiron, he can see the confused look on his face. “It’s just that, what you don’t know can’t be tortured out of you.”

Nodding, he says, “I understand.” Then in a whisper he asks, “The Fire?”

“In a way, but that’s about as much as I’ll tell you,” he says. Each of the crystals has several dead bodies of insects upon and around them. Gonna have to slow down the rate of leeching so as not to alert anyone who may pass by that something is going on.

As James turns to go, Jiron asks, “Are you just going to leave them here?”

“I’ll check back on them in the morning,” he explains. “I want to see to what extent the wilting will increase in that time, if it does at all.”

“I see,” Jiron says as they work their way back to the main house.

Throughout the rest of the day, James stays in his workshop and fine tunes the spells he’s been using on the crystals. Over the course of the afternoon, he’s been able to reduce the rate of leeching to only a minimal amount.

During one such experiment, he wonders what would happen to the crystal should the spells be removed from it while it held power. Not willing to risk further damage to his workshop, he takes one of the crystals out into the forest, far from where he’d left the other two earlier.

Setting the crystal down on the ground, he backs away thirty feet and cancels the active spells. Nothing happened, and the glow remained constant. He leaves it where it is and plans on coming back to it sometime in the morning to see whether or not the glow will still be there. See if it loses power over time.

Ezra soon calls them in for dinner and afterward they settle into the front room. Most evenings they spend here, swapping stories, some true others highly suspect. Occasionally one will sing a song but for the most part, they just use it as a chance to wind down after the day and spend time together.

James is usually one of the first to bed, the efforts of the day’s experiments often leave him feeling drained and exhausted. The leeching of the crystals takes a lot out of him, at least he’s found a way to shut off the leeching so as to preserve his own reservoir of power.

He lies in bed listening to the others who’ve remained out in the front room. They quiet down for his sake but he’ll be glad when the other house is built and he can have his privacy. The last thing he hears before falling asleep is a story Uther is telling about how he and Jorry had taken a job to escort this princess and…

Bwaaak!

A noise from outside wakes him up. At first he doesn’t even realize he is awake until he hears the chicken squawk again. Damn those chickens! Turning over, he tries to go back asleep.

Bwaaak!

There it goes again. Must be some animal disturbing them again. Knowing he’s not going to be able to go back to sleep until he deals with this, he gets up from his bed and throws on some clothes.

Stepping carefully, he opens his door and almost collides with Roland. In a whisper, he asks, “Chickens?”

Roland nods his head, “Yeah. Ezra heard them and woke me up to take care of it. Sorry you were disturbed.”

“That’s okay,” he says. “Let’s get this over with.”

Moving through the house, they make their way to the back door in the kitchen. Suddenly, James feels the familiar prickling sensation that always coincides with someone doing magic. Grabbing Roland’s arm, he quickly stops him. In a barely heard whisper, he says, “Magic is near!”

In the darkness he can hear Roland’s intake of breath before he asks, “Are you sure?”

“Very. I’m going to go check it out,” he whispers. “Wake up Illan and let him know what’s going on and that whoever it is, is probably out back. Whatever you do, don’t wake up Miko! Then take Tersa and your family into your room and lock the door. Understand?”

“Yeah,” he replies as he goes back the way they’d come.

James moves to the door and looks out the window. Several shadows can be seen moving around out there, primarily near the chicken coop. The fact that someone’s doing magic and they’re out back by the chicken coop can only mean one thing. They’re here for the Fire! For that’s where he’d hidden it, figuring the chickens would give him some alarm should someone come looking for them, which they did.

A touch on his shoulder causes him to jump. “Sorry,” he hears Illan whisper behind him. “What’s going on?”

“The Empire’s men are out there,” he tells them.

“Are they looking for the you-know-what?” he asks.

“I can’t imagine they’d be here for any other reason,” James replies. “There’s a mage with them, I can feel it.”

“That could make things interesting,” he says. Just then, Jorry, Uther and the rest show up and Illan quickly fills them in on what’s going on. When Jiron shows up, he has Uther and Jorry go around one side of the house and Yern and Fifer the other.

Before they leave, James tells them, “We can’t afford to let any leave here alive. If possible, take one alive. If not, take ‘em out. But don’t do anything until you hear the signal.”

“What’ll that be?” asks Uther.

“You’ll know it when you see it,” replies James.

“Oh yeah, right,” he says.

They keep looking out back at the shadows moving around. James knows it’s only a matter of time before they realize exactly where it is and dig it up. To Jiron he whispers, “I could use some of those crystals out in my workshop.”

“Don’t think I could get them without being seen,” he tells him. “Too many out there.”

“Hold on a second,” Illan says as he moves back into the house. Returning shortly, he hands James three crystals. “Will these do?” he asks.

“Where did you get these?” he asks as he takes them.

“I was curious about why you were interested in them,” he explains somewhat guiltily. “So while you were gone today, I grabbed a couple to take a closer look. I was going to put them back in the morning before you got up.”

“It’s okay,” James assures him. “We’ll give the others another minute to get into position and then we’ll go.”

Illan takes out his sword and stands ready.

A minute passes and James says, “Alright, let’s go.” He quickly casts the magic gathering spell, upon the crystals and slowly opens the door. The draw of the three crystals on him at once is almost overpowering, but he needs them to be charged at least a little for what he has planned.

When it’s clear between him and the coop, he throws the crystals toward those standing around the coop. A cry goes up as one of the enemy spots the three glowing crystals flying toward them. James suddenly feels a surge of the prickly sensation as the enemy mage prepares a spell.

When it’s cast, the magic of the enemy mage’s spell is immediately absorbed by the crystals, all which begin to fluctuate as they leech magic from one another as well as the mage. This time, he did not incorporate the spell to prevent them from drawing on each other. In fact, he’s counting on it.

His orb bursts to light overhead, illuminating the entire area. Along with the mage, are another dozen men in black armor who spring to attack.

Jiron and Illan move in front of James as the men rush to attack. A slug flies between them as James takes out one. From behind the charging men, they can see their four friends rushing fast to close with them from behind.