Sitting down at his workbench, he pulls out a crystal from the sack sitting on the floor next to his workbench. Holding it absentmindedly, he rolls it through his fingers as he contemplates what happened in Cardri.
From what Illan told him, he was drugged by fumes coming from one of the torches which were burning in the dungeon. If they can render him powerless without so much as touching him, he’s got problems. Fortunately he has been considering just such an occurrence and was able to realize what was happening before he completely lost his abilities.
He made that little sphere which held three simple spells, all of which were voice activated by him. No power or even conscious thought was needed to activate the spells. Since long before he ever went to Cardri, he had been thinking of just such a thing. The question he had was, ‘If he was drugged how could he defend himself?’ The answer was the sphere, of course the spells which he had embedded within it had disastrous repercussions when used on board a boat.
As he sits there and goes over the events on the boat, he comes to the conclusion that maybe it would be beneficial to have an ongoing spell which monitors and if certain things happen, automatically counters hostile spells or actions. It can’t be too complicated or it might not work. Just some simple spells. First he’ll try an automated shield, that should be easy.
First he casts his leech spell upon the crystal in his hands and allows it to absorb power from him for a few minutes until it has a small glow. Then he cancels the leech spell and after working out the details embeds an automated spell which will detect anything flying toward it at a rapid rate and throw up a shield before the object comes close.
Once it’s done to his satisfaction, he takes the crystal across the room and sets it on a box sitting against the wall. Returning to his workbench, he activates the spell and removes one of his slugs from his belt. Just throwing it naturally without the added magic behind it, he watches as it arcs through the air toward where the crystal lies.
As it nears, he feels a spike in the tingling sensation and watches as the slug bounces off an invisible shield which springs up around the crystal. Once the slug was deflected, the tingling sensation subsides and the shield disappears.
He walks over to the crystal and slowly reaches his hand out toward it. Moving slowly, his hand is able to reach the crystal and take hold of it. The glow within is greatly diminished, but still perceptible.
It worked. However the tingling sensation still resonates through him and that isn’t good. Any mage in close proximity will recognize that another mage is in the area. This may not work as well as he hopes. He can’t afford to declare to any mage that he’s one, could have unfortunate results should the other mage be unfriendly. He may have to stay with the voice activated one.
In situations where his presence is already known, then this would be a viable protective device. He’ll have to think on it.
From outside, he hears Ezra calling in everyone for lunch. He didn’t realize he had spent that much time on this. Deactivating the shield spell, he sets the crystal down on his workbench. Leaving the workshop, he heads over to the house and is soon sitting down at the table.
Dave is not present. Miko sees him wondering about it and says, “He returned awhile ago and went back to bed. Said he wasn’t feeling good.”
James commences eating, his mind on his friend. What can be wrong with him? It’s not like him, maybe the time as a slave really messed him up. They’re not five minutes into eating before Arkie nails him in the side of the head with a piece of slightly mashed tuber.
“Arkie!” Roland scolds his son.
Not looking the least bit sorry, Arkie grins at him as James wipes off the residue of the impact from his head.
“I’m sorry James,” Roland says as he slaps his son’s hand. The grin from Arkie quickly vanishes as his father reprimands him.
“Seems he has it in for you,” Miko says from his place down the table. Giving James an amused grin, he holds up one of the boiled tubers in salute then commences eating it.
At first it was amusing now it’s getting downright annoying. An idea comes to mind and James excuses himself for a moment and leaves through the back door.
“Think he’s getting a helmet?” Uther jokes.
“Maybe full body armor,” retorts Jorry which causes everyone in the room to chuckle. As soon as the door opens again and James returns to the table, everyone quiets down.
“What did you do?” Miko asks with a smile.
“Just got something from the workshop,” he says. Taking his fork, he commences eating. All the while he keeps an eye on Arkie from the corner of his eye. Sure enough after he’s begun to eat, Arkie starts glancing in his direction. He sees Roland begin to say something to his son but James shakes his head, indicating for him to leave the boy alone.
Everyone in the room is watching the unfolding event to see what’s going to happen. They know Arkie is about to throw, but James appears unconcerned. Ezra is simply beside herself. She wants to stop him but had seen James’ indication to Roland to leave him alone. Hitting the master of the house with a mushy tuber simply is not to be encouraged.
Then all of a sudden, Arkie grabs a tuber from off his plate and with a squeal, launches it at James. Just before the tuber reaches him, he feels a tingling spike as the crystal in his pocket creates a shield around him.
Splat!
The tuber strikes the shield three inches from his head. Everyone looks to James in surprise and he returns their gaze with a satisfied smile. Then all of a sudden, the shield disappears and the tuber, now no longer upheld by the presence of the shield, falls. Striking his shirt, it leaves a trail all the way down to his lap.
He sees Arkie again pick up a tuber and this time he doesn’t interfere in Roland’s attempt to discipline his child.
“What happened?” Miko asks incredulously.
“Just something I was working on,” he replies. “I’ll not go into detail about it.”
“It stopped the tuber,” Illan says.
“And anything else speeding toward me,” replies James.
“Anything?” asks Miko.
“Anything,” confirms James.
Miko suddenly grabs a large tuber and launches it at James.
Surprised by the attack, he leans back in his chair as the shield suddenly springs to life and stops the flying tuber. The tuber disintegrates and plasters the shield with a large area of tuber pieces. Then, just as it had before, when there was no longer something coming at him, the shield disappears. James scoots back quickly but not fast enough to avoid being hit when the mashed tuber is no longer supported by the shield and falls.
“Miko!” cries out Ezra. Enough is enough.
He looks and sees the anger in her eyes. No one acts that way at her table. “Sorry,” he says in his most apologetic tone.
“It’s nice to see I’ll have some help cleaning the dishes after the meal today,” she says, never once taking her eyes off him.
James stands up, tuber coating him from chest to groin. The others on the table break into a laugh. Arkie looks around at everyone, thankful that the attention has been diverted from him, and joins in with a high pitched squeal of delight.
“Guess I’ll have to work on that,” he says. Taking one more piece of meat off his plate, he leaves the kitchen and heads to his room to get a change of clothes. He’s not about to bathe twice the same day, at least not unless it’s warmer outside.
While he changes his clothes, he thinks he may need to make it that once the shield is activated, it will need his vocal authorization to cancel itself. He remembers back to when he and Jiron were coming back from Saragon and that magical attack he fought off by the other warrior priest. There are definitely times when it would be bad for the shield to disappear, such as when a flesh eating goo is covering it. He can still recall what happened to that captain at Mountainside when the shield disappeared and the goo hit him. Wasn’t a pretty sight.
Before he’s done, Mi
ko appears at his door and says, “Sorry.”
James gives him a smile and says, “I’m not mad.”
“I didn’t think you would be, but Ezra told me to come and apologize,” he says with a grin.
“You don’t want to be on her bad side,” James tells him.
“Don’t I know it,” he says, rolling his eyes. “I have a whole afternoon of cleaning and other chores I’m sure.” Then his mischievous grin appears and says, “But it was worth it!”
James laughs, claps him on the shoulder and they both return to the kitchen. On the way, he stops by the door to the room Dave now calls his own. Not much more than a walk-in closet really but at least it’s private.
“Good luck,” Miko says as he continues on to the kitchen.
Opening the door, he finds Dave lying curled up on his bed. His eyes open at the sound of the door opening. When he sees James standing there, he says, “Come on in.”
James enters and closes the door. A very little amount of light enters through the cracks in the wall, giving them enough to see each other. He comes to sit on the edge of the bed as Dave sits up. “You okay?” he asks, concern in his voice.
Dave is silent for a moment and then replies, “I just want to go home.”
“I know,” replies James. “So do I.”
“Do you?” he asks. “Do you really?”
Taken aback by the question, James asks, “How can you even ask that? Of course I do.”
“Why?” he asks. “You were nothing there. Here you are a powerful mage, have a house and many friends. I remember you always used to say how great it would be if you had magical abilities. The things you would do. Can’t imagine that you would want to give all that up.”
James sits back a moment and thinks about what Dave said. Does he really want to go back home? Up till now, he thought the answer would be a resounding yes. But after what Dave just said, he now understands what he would be giving up if he went back.
“Thought not,” Dave says. “If you’ll excuse me now, I’m feeling kind of tired.” Lying down in bed, he turns his face to the wall.
James sits there a moment before getting up. “You get some rest, tomorrow we’re heading north.”
Dave doesn’t comment just lies there quietly.
Opening the door, James takes another glance at his lifelong friend and feels like a wall of some kind has grown between them. Saddened, he closes the door and leaves his friend to rest.
As he passes through the kitchen he finds Miko already clearing the dishes from the table. He pauses a moment intending to tell Ezra to go easy on him, but then decides against it. She can always use the help. Arkie has been removed from his chair and is now over in the corner on a pallet nestled with his teddy bear. He often takes a nap there right after lunch.
Leaving the kitchen he heads over to his workshop where he continues working to perfect his automated defensive device. Trying to put Dave out of his mind, he works on making it so the shield will remain active once it’s been activated even if nothing further is flying toward him.
When at last he has it just the way he wants it and has tested it several times, there still remains one small problem. He can sense it while it is active. Of course when it is deactivated, it doesn’t work. So the problem is, if he has it active to protect him, then any mage in the vicinity will pick up on it. The tingling is slight, but there none the less.
He then works on applying several other spells into it that may be useful in different circumstances. Not too many, the more complicated it becomes, the more chance of something going wrong. It takes awhile but he at last gets it pretty much the way he wants.
When he finally leaves the workshop for the night, he takes it with him and puts it into his pack. He intends to take it with him on the way to Ironhold in the morning. It may come in useful. Returning to the house, he finds Dave still in his room. He joins the others in the front room as they spend their evening time together.
The rigors of the day at last begin to catch up with him and he heads off to bed, again the first one. Once in his room, he’s quick to undress and slip under the covers. Worries of Dave and what may be found at Ironhold spin through his mind as he fades away to sleep.
Chapter Nineteen
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The following morning dawns bright and sunny. When James leaves his room there’s a slight chill in the air despite the sun having been up for an hour. On the way to the kitchen for his breakfast, he stops by Dave’s room and finds it empty. He worries about his friend until he arrives at the kitchen and finds him there eating breakfast with the others.
“I would like you to take Fifer and Qyrll with you as well,” Illan tells him after he’s taken his seat. “The Empire still wants you. Also, if you’re going to Madoc, there’s no telling what may happen.”
“Sure,” replies James. He glances over to Dave and when their eyes meet, gives him an encouraging smile. Dave’s face breaks into his familiar jovialness which greatly relieves him. Hopefully last night was simply a low ebb in his mood and he’s now out of it.
“Where’s Jiron?” he asks.
Roland nods his head toward the door and says, “Outside with Aleya. Seems they’ve been getting into it since your return.”
“Nothing serious I hope?” he says.
Shrugging, he replies, “Who knows? They’re both in love but too stubborn to admit it. At least Aleya won’t, Jiron wears his heart out on his sleeve for all to see.”
He shakes his head. Then it dawns on him that it’s still early yet and Illan isn’t doing the morning drills with the recruits. “No drills today?” he asks.
Illan shakes his head and says, “They need at least one day every other week away from drills. Keeps them fresh and better able to learn. Half have returned to their homes for a brief visit, the others will have their turn later this afternoon.”
“You’re not keeping yourself too low in the event of an attack are you?” he asks worried. Already they’ve had to fend off two attacks since the founding of The Ranch.
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” he assures him.
For the remainder of the meal, they talk about small things having to do with The Ranch. Tersa tells him that Delia is finding wide demand for her bears and that she can’t make enough.
“Just make what you can,” he says. “Don’t short the customer on quality and they’ll always be back.”
“I don’t,” she says. “It’s just that Delia always wants more than what I’ve done.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he tells her. “Just means the ones you do make will sell all the better.” Finishing up the last bite of eggs on his plate, he stands up and announces, “We’re leaving in ten minutes.”
The others quickly finish what’s left on their plates and proceed to the barn to get the horses ready for travel. James gestures for Dave to accompany him and they head out to the workshop.
“You doing better this morning?” he asks.
“Much,” he replies. “Don’t know what got into me last night.” They walk the rest of the way to the workshop in silence. When James opens the door and enters, Dave adds, “I’ve had bouts of depression ever since I got here.”
“Could be just a reaction from your time in the Empire,” James suggests.
“Probably,” he replies. “I have nightmares almost every night about what happened.” He takes James by the arm and says, “I’m sorry if I haven’t been much of a friend lately.”
Pausing, he turns back to his friend, “Don’t worry about it. If a friend can’t help another out when they’re going through a hard time, what good is he?”
He checks the receiver crystal and finds it still quiescent. It’s unlikely he’ll ever see it active, but you never know. Moving to his desk, he reaches down to the sack of crystals and takes out six and puts them into his belt pouch.
“What do you need those for?” Dave asks.
“Emergencies,” he explains. He also has the automatic
shield one as well. He takes a small swath of cloth and wraps it to keep it separate from the others.
By the time they leave the workshop and head over to the barn, the others have the horses saddled and are waiting. James and Dave come over and mount the two ready for them.
“Be back when I do,” he tells Roland. “Not sure when that will be, though I’m hoping before winter sets in.”
“We’ll keep things going here,” he says. “At least the house will be done when you return.”
“That will be nice.” Turning to the others who are coming with him, he says, “Let’s go. Jiron, take the lead.”
As they move out, Jiron moves to the fore with James right behind, Dave on one side and Miko on the other. Behind them ride Jorry and Uther, Fifer and Qyrll bringing up the rear.
Since Kraegan said Ironhold lies in the north of Madoc, they’re going to the more northern pass through the Silver Mountains. With any luck, the war over there hasn’t reached that far and they’ll avoid any and all Empire forces. Once on the other side, he’s hoping to be able to ask the locals for directions to Ironhold.
Keeping a brisk pace, they’re able to make it to the town of Wurt on the shores of Crystal Lake that first night. So far the trip has been uneventful and they stay at the same inn they stayed in that first night back when they were on their way to hide the Fire.
Dave remains cheerful all day, even managing to crack a joke now and then. To James, this is the old Dave, the Dave he remembers from back home. Seeing him act this way eases the worry he’s been feeling for his friend.
The following morning when he rises, he finds clouds moving in from the west. How he misses riding in cars. The radio, the speed and not to mention the fact that when it rains you don’t get wet. Sighing, he wakes up Dave and they head down to the common room for breakfast.
The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five Page 24