Brian Pratt - Fires of prophesy

“It’s beneath us,” he explains, pointing to the ground. “Under the surface.”

“How are we going to get it?” Tinok asks.

“Magic?” Delia guesses, looking questioningly toward James.

He nods his head, “Magic. Now what I plan to do is to search with magic beneath the ground and when I’ve found it, get it to come up to the surface.”

“Neat,” Cassie exclaims.

“Just stay here and watch for anyone coming,” he says to them. He then turns and walks away from their camp, looking for a depression or hole where the water would be able to pool once he managed to bring it up. It wouldn’t do to spend all that time and energy to bring it up only to have the water run off and be absorbed back into the ground.

He eventually comes across a place not thirty feet from camp that will suffice, and then sits down next to it. He begins concentrating and the magic flows out of him, down below the surface as he searches for water.

Surprisingly, he finds water not very far below the surface, only about twenty feet or so. He sends his senses further down and discovers that there’s a sizeable reservoir there. Coming back to himself, he gets up and walks back over to the group, informing them of what he’s found. His head is dizzy from the heat and the effort it took to find the water.

Incredibly hot and thirsty after the ordeal, he asks “Cassie, could I have the rest of your water?”

She nods and then hands him her water bottle which he drains completely. “Thanks,” he says as he hands it back to her.

“Now what?” Jiron asks.

“Give me just a few minutes to rest and I’ll attempt to bring it up.” He goes over and sits down on a wagon, taking advantage of the shade the newly acquired covering gives. Even though the sun is about to go down, it’s still fairly hot.

Once he’s rested and no longer feels dizzy, he gets down from the wagon and walks back to the area where he will attempt to bring up the water. Standing next to the depression he begins to summon the magic, sending it below the surface to where the water lies.

He takes his time, finding fissures and cracks, weak spots that can be loosened and widened, making a way for the water to reach the surface. Little by little, as he widens a crack here and breaks through stone there, he begins to sense the water being forced to the surface by the pressure below.

Once he’s created a fissure halfway to the surface the ground begins to shake, breaking his concentration and ending the spell. He stumbles as the shaking increases, cries of confusion come from the others who are watching him from over near the wagons.

Suddenly, the ground cracks open and water geysers out of the ground, shooting twenty feet in the air before falling back down into the depression. The area rapidly fills with water as it continues surging out of the ground.

Jiron reaches James’ side and claps him on the shoulder as he says, “You did it!”

The others come to his side, congratulating him. They watch as the water fills the depression to capacity and begins creating a small pond, thirty feet in diameter. Then the water starts spilling over the side and is quickly absorbed by the ground.

Tinok kneels down by the water and cups his hands, tasting it. He looks over to the others and shouts, “It’s good, and cool!”

They all come over and drink their fill from the pool of cool water. The horses smell the water and begin straining against their tethers in an attempt to reach it.

Jiron runs over and releases them, allowing them to come and drink their fill. Everyone fills their water bottles before returning to the wagons.

“We were lucky there was no one around,” James says as he lies there near the campfire, relaxing.

“Why?” Cassie asks.

“Don’t want anyone to know I can do magic,” he explains. “They may still be on the lookout for the rogue mage that caused the destruction back at the City. I really don’t want them to begin putting two and two together.”

“What does two and two have to do with anything?” asks Tinok.

“Sorry, that’s just an expression from where I come from,” he replies. “It just means they might connect me with the things I did at the City. If they knew I was a mage, that is.”

“Oh,” he says.

“Maybe the next town we come to, we should buy several water barrels to carry with us,” Jiron suggests.

“That may be a good idea,” agrees James. “We should have plenty of money left in the chest.”

“What is the next town?” Cassie asks.

“Haven’t a clue.” James admits. “I’ve never been here before.”

“How do you know that we’re even going in the right direction, then?” Jiron asks.

“I figure Korazan should be further south,” he replies. “A major slave market would hardly be on the edge of the Empire. They would want it accessible to a large number of their people, so it stands to reason that it would be further into the Empire. Thus, south.”

As they relax around the campfire, James absentmindedly reaches for his backpack, but then remembers that they left it back in Mountainside when they broke out of jail. Thinking of the things that are now lost to him, he gets sad and then mad. This place is just going from bad to worse, he thinks to himself. Now I’ve gone and lost my backpack.

“Oh my god!” he suddenly exclaims, sitting up abruptly.

“What?” Jiron asks.

“My backpack!”

“What about it?” Tinok inquires as he joins the conversation.

“It’s back at the jail.”

“So?” says Tinok. “We all lost some things when we left there. We were in a little bit of a hurry.”

“You don’t understand,” exclaims James “I had some papers in there, notes I had been keeping about magic and other important stuff.”

When he sees that he’s not getting through to them, he says, “My notes will make them realize that a mage was there. If they assume I’m the same mage as was at the City of Light, then they will know we’re heading south.”

“And the only reason we would be heading south,” continues Delia, “would be to rescue someone from the slavers that had been taken when the City fell.”

“That’s one reason,” James agrees. “And if they come to that conclusion, they’ll be waiting for us there.”

“What do we do?” Cassie asks.

James looks to Jiron and says, “Someone needs to go and retrieve it. Or at least destroy it and the papers it carries.”

He flashes James a dark look, “You mean go all the way back there, on the chance that no one has yet looked inside and seen them?” He shakes his head, “I don’t know.”

“You’re the only one who can do it,” James urges.

He sits and thinks for a few minutes, everyone else remains quiet, waiting for his response. “Alright, I’ll do it,” he finally says. Getting up, he goes over to his horse and begins putting the saddle and tack back on.

“Shouldn’t you wait till morning,” Cassie asks.

Shaking his head, he says, “No, I better get started now. The sooner I get there, the less likely someone will have read the papers.”

James comes over and gives him some coins. He looks at them and James tells him, “For traveling expenses.”

He takes the coins, putting them in a pocket. Once he has the horse ready for travel, he mounts and says, “Where shall I meet up with you?”

“Well continue down the road and stop at the next main town,” James explains. “We’ll stay there for a day, and if you don’t show up we’ll continue on to Korazan.”

“Alright,” he says. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Be careful,” Delia and Cassie say at the same time.

“I will,” he assures them. “See you in a couple days.” He then heads his horse back down the road to the north and kicks it into a gallop as he races for Mountainside.