Chapter Three

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They find the blacksmith overseeing an apprentice who’s working on some nails, his hammer ringing with every blow. His other apprentice greets them as they ride up and asks them to wait a few moments while he tells his master that they’re here.

When the apprentice has finished the nails, the blacksmith comes over to where they’re waiting. “What can I help you gentlemen with?” he asks.

“My name’s James and I wish to have a small iron box built to specific dimensions,” he says as he holds out his hand.

Taking the hand, the blacksmith gives it a shake then replies, “Kraegan, nice to meet you. What sort of box did you have in mind?”

Using his hands to show the dimensions, James gives him a rough idea what he wants. “Also, I need the inside to be padded to prevent the contents from coming to harm,” he explains. “On each of the four sides, as well as the top, I need to have a crystal embedded within it.”

“Hmmm,” he says as he considers the request. “The box and inner lining I can do with no problem. The crystals now, that’s another matter. I know someone who can do it and can get with him to do that part once I’m done with the box.”

“That would be fine,” James assures him.

“For what you’re asking, I’d have to charge seventy five golds for everything,” Kraegan says.

Sighing, he knew it would come to this. He begins the haggling process and eventually works him down to fifty three. “I have forty golds on me,” he tells the blacksmith. “I can give you the rest upon delivery of the box.”

“Agreed,” the smith says as he leads him over to a table where they count out the coins. Once the count is agreed upon, he asks, “Do you have the crystals with you?”

James removes the five crystals from his pouch. “Now, there can be no flaw in the crystals,” he insists. “And they must be centered in each of the sides as well as the top.”

“I understand,” the smith tells him. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it for you.”

“Thank you,” he replies. “If you can get it done by the end of the week, I’ll throw in another ten golds.”

“Doubt it,” says the smith, “but we’ll see what we can do.” The smith takes the golds and the crystals into the building adjacent to the forge area.

“Back home?” asks Jiron.

“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of work to do before the chest is done,” he tells him.

As they’re riding back and after they’ve left town, Jiron asks, “Is it for the Fire?”

Nodding, James replies, “Yes, and I’d appreciate you not saying anything about this to anyone.”

“No problem there,” he assures him.

They see four people standing at the end of the lane to The Ranch, three women and a man. Uther, Illan and Jorry are standing there barring their way.

“He’s not here,” they can hear Illan’s voice telling the people.

At the sound of his approach, they all turn toward him. He can see relief evident upon Illan’s face at seeing him returning.

“Is that him?” a lady with a red hat asks the man she’s with.

“I think so,” the man replies.

The other two ladies both back up a step, their eyes never leaving him.

“What’s going on?” James asks as he comes to the group.

Everyone starts talking at once, finally Illan’s voice roars over everyone else’s. “Enough!” he shouts and everyone stops talking. Turning to James, he says, “They’ve come to see you, but they wouldn’t say why.”

The lady with the red hat steps forward though she’s obviously nervous about approaching him. He sees her and asks, “Yes?”

“We were told you could help us,” she replies.

“Who told you that?” he asks incredulously.

“I don’t rightly remember his name,” she tells him. “You see, I need a charm for my daughter here,” she says as she brings forward a comely looking girl of about fourteen. “You see, she’s infatuated with the butcher’s son but he has his eye on another.”

“Despite what someone may have told you,” he says to her, “I don’t do charms or anything else like that.” When he sees the disappointment on her face, he softens his voice and says, “I’m sorry.”

The girl seems almost on the verge of tears, he dismounts and comes to her. “You shouldn’t need a charm to ensnare a man’s heart, your beauty should be able to get you anyone you desire,” he says. “Where I come from, the girls don’t rely on magic, but on their own charms and abilities. There’s a saying where I come from, ‘The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach’. Maybe you should try to impress him with your charm and cooking abilities. Find out what he likes to do and tell him how well he does it, how impressive he is, that sort of thing. You’d be surprised how much you can turn his head with the simplest things.”

“Do you think so?” she asks, hope springing to her eyes.

“Never know until you try,” he tells her. “Besides, if this boy is blind enough to not want one such as you, then he’s probably not worth your time anyway.”

She gives him a shy smile and says, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” he replies and then gets back up on his horse. To the mother, he says, “A good day to you ma’am.”

As he goes by Illan, he leans over and whispers, “Keep them out.”

Illan gives him a brief nod.

Turning to Jiron he says, “Let’s get back. Still lots to do.”

“You got that right,” he tells him.

He glances back to the end of the lane after riding a dozen yards and he sees that Illan has moved them along. The man and the ladies are walking back toward town. This could get irritating. No wonder all the stories of mages and wizards always have them living in far away and inhospitable places. Probably move there just to get away from this sort of thing.

Before reaching the house, Sean the master builder comes over from the construction site and waves him down. Slowing down, he says to Jiron, “You go on ahead and I’ll be up shortly.”

“Alright,” he says as he continues on while James stops and talks with the builder.

“Sir, if you have a moment?” Sean asks. He’s the one who’s overseeing the entire construction project.

“Sure,” he says as he gets down from his horse. Holding the reins in his hand, he follows him over to where the house is being constructed.

“The cistern you wanted us to put in on the second floor is going to need more support than we had originally anticipated,” he says.

James ties his horse to a wagon parked nearby loaded with lumber and other building supplies while he follows Sean within the skeletal construction.

He shows him where the additional support beams are going to need to be placed. “I’m afraid it will shorten your reception area by a foot, but I don’t think we have a choice,” he says.

“Very well,” he tells him. “If we need to sacrifice a foot, so be it.”

“It won’t be completely wasted, however,” he explains. Bringing him closer, he shows where the pipes are being set to allow the water to flow from the cistern above to a smaller tank below. “We can reroute the pipes to run within the new support area, so will save some room there.”

“Good thinking,” James says, agreeing to the idea.

“Never seen anyone do this before,” he tells him.

“Well, the idea is to have water in the house without having to go outside to fetch it,” James says. He had to explain this several times before Sean was able to understand the rationale behind it when he first started the construction project. He wanted at least partially running water, and a way to heat it for baths in the winter time.

“Other than that, we’re running right on schedule,” he says. “We should be able to finish the main house by fall and the rest before Solstice.”

“Excellent,” comments James. “You’re doing a great job.”

“Thank you sir,” Sean replies.

James leaves him to his work as he goes back and retrieves his horse. The barn not being too far, he decides to just walk him over to it. Jiron has already taken care of his horse and has gone to the house by the time James enters the barn. His is the first stall, being master of the house definitely has its perks. Of course in the winter time, he may want the last stall to be as far from the cold as possible.

The sound of Roland splitting more firewood can be heard while he removes the saddle and tack. A quick brushing and his horse is set. Leaving the barn, he checks in with Ezra and finds lunch still an hour away so he heads over to his workshop.

The ruined workbench has been removed, probably chopped into kindling. Not good for much else now anyway. Inside he takes out another of the crystals and sets it on the workbench before him. The spell he applied last time had worked beautifully, as long as there isn’t another crystal in close proximity.

Maybe I could incorporate a ‘signature’ of some kind within each of the crystals that would prohibit another from leeching from it. If so, that would solve the problem.

He finally comes up with an idea. When the crystal feels a drain on it, it will send a signal to the source. Each crystal will be set up to recognize that signal and when they receive that signal from a source of power they’re attempting to leech from, they’ll stop.

When he has it set in his head exactly what he wants to do, he releases the magic. The crystal on the workbench before him begins to leech from him. He again sees the now familiar red glow that will eventually deepen into a crimson color.

Allowing the crystal to leech power from him for a minute, he then sends the signature signal to tell it that it shouldn’t leech from him. And sure enough, he feels the leeching abruptly stop. The glow within the crystal stops growing and remains constant. Without the primary source from him, there’s not very much else close at hand to draw from.

One of the many flies in the area lands on the crystal and James watches in wonder as it seems to shrink in on itself and then stops moving. Reaching his fingers to it, he discovers it has died. All its magic has been sucked from it.

Maybe magic isn’t just magic, but the world’s life force? And when a living thing loses all of it, he dies? May have to keep that in mind.

He reaches down and pulls out another of the crystals out of the sack. Flicking the dead fly off the one sitting on the workbench, he picks it up and then heads outside. Moving away from the buildings, he enters the forest and walks further into it another dozen yards or so before stopping.

For his next experiment, he doesn’t want to be too close to anyone or anything. He sets the crystal that’s already glowing on a stump and then walks over to a fallen log several feet away and sets down the other crystal.

Backing away to a safe distance, he casts the same set of spells on the new crystal as he had on the previous one. When he’s done with the spells, he watches as the second crystal begins to glow. At the first feeling of it leeching from him, he sends the signal telling it not to leech from him and in a moment, it stops.

He watches the two crystals for several minutes, until neither seem to be behaving erratically as the two earlier had just before they exploded. It worked! Grinning to himself, he turns to leave the forest. He’ll come back tomorrow to see what’s happened, he needs to find out the effects of leaving them active for a prolonged time.

Back at the house he finds lunch almost ready so he washes up and goes into the front room to relax until it’s ready.

Illan comes in through the front door and sees him sitting in his favorite spot by the window. “I’ve left Uther and Jorry out by the road,” he tells him. “We may have to have a permanent presence there to keep people away.”

“More showed up?” he asks him.

“You could say that,” he says. “A bunch of kids who heard you were here wanted to come and ‘see’ the mage. Like it or not, you’re attracting a lot of people.”

“Maybe we could sell souvenirs,” he says, jokingly.

“Souvenirs?” he asks.

“It’s something people can buy to remember coming here,” he explains. “Maybe we could make a shirt that says, ‘I came to see the mage but only got this lousy shirt’.” He starts laughing at the picture of a farmer wearing it as he leads a team of plow horses.

“Maybe,” he says, actually sounding interested.

“No!” James blurts out. “I was just kidding. We start doing something like that and they will flock here from all over. No, we will turn them away nicely, if we can.”

“Okay, you’re the boss,” he says with a smile.

About that time, Ezra calls them in to the dining room for lunch. “Where’s Miko?” he asks as they get up to go eat.

“I have him monitoring the smokehouse,” Illan replies. “Have to make sure the fire stays constant so the meat smokes evenly and cooks just right.”

“I bet he loves that,” comments James.

“Actually, he’s been very interested in the whole process,” Illan tells him.

They sit down to a quick meal of cheese, bread and some meat off the carcasses they’ve been smoking. James savors the smoky quality to it.

James slices off two pieces of bread and makes himself a sandwich. Everyone else has begun to copy him ever since the first time they saw him do it. They like the idea they can make it anyway they choose from the selections Ezra has prepared.

It being so hot, James has been trying to remember how his grandparents had made homemade ice cream, but hasn’t had any luck. He usually showed up about the time to crank the handle. Once he asked his grandparents why they didn’t just buy an electric one, they said it never turned out as good.

After lunch, he returns to where he left the crystals and Jiron decides to tag along. When they get there, they find both of the crystals have reached a deep crimson glow. Also, around each is an almost perfect circle of wilted vegetation.

“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.

Once they’re close, Jiron and Illan move to attack. They maintain a defensive posture as they wait for their friends to join the battle from behind. As yet, their attackers are still unaware that they’re even there.

From the coop, James can feel the pulsating of the crystals as each continues to draw power from the others. The enemy mage is quickly having his power sucked from him and has fallen to the ground, all but unconscious. He can see him there in the pulsating glow of the crystals, attempting to crawl away.

When Fifer and the others join the battle, they take out three men quickly before they realize they’re among them. Now evenly matched, each attacker faces off with one defender.

With only one man now to contend with, Jiron is able to go on the attack. The enemy before him is no ordinary fighter, he quickly realizes. Every attack he tries, the man blocks and with being heavily armored, he’s finding it hard to get an opening for his knife.

The back door suddenly swings open again as Miko rushes out in just his underclothes, sword in hand. He moves to aid Illan with his opponent.

“Miko!” James cries when he sees him rushing to the fight.

Fifer’s enemy falls to the ground, his sword stuck between the man’s ribs. He reaches down and takes the other man’s sword and moves to help Yern who’s having a harder time with his.

The crystals are beginning to emit the high pitched tone, similar to the one which had been emitted by the others earlier in the day before they exploded. The mage now lies unmoving, one of the crystals less than a foot from his outstretched hand. In the light of the crystals, it looks as if his skin has been pulled in tight around his skull. His eyes look shrunken and his hands almost skeletal.

“Down!” James yells at the top of his lungs. “Everybody, DOWN!”

Those still engaged with enemies abruptly break off and fling themselves away and to the ground.

Ka-Boom!

A tremendous explosion erupts as the three crystals explode. The shockwave rolls over them and knocks down the remaining enemies who hit the ground, dazed. Those closest to them quickly move to dispatch them before they’re able to regain their senses.

Looking to where the chicken coop once had stood, James sees a small crater where the explosion had created a hole over a foot deep and six across. There’s no sign of the mage that had been there, several dead chickens can be found lying here and there.

Everyone gets back up, James searches for Miko who’s helping Illan up. “Are you okay?” he asks him.

Miko turns and says, “I’m fine.”

James looks into his eyes and sees that he is fine. He was afraid that battle might have triggered latent effects from the Fire, but he’s glad he had been mistaken.

“Everyone okay?” Illan hollers out as he gets up.

Only a few minor cuts and one on Yern’s left arm that’ll require stitching. Otherwise, they came off well.

“Is it over?” Roland asks from the doorway to the kitchen.

“Yeah,” replies Uther. “Ask Tersa to come and help Yern, he’s got a bad cut needing to be sewed.”

He turns back to those waiting in the kitchen a moment and then hollers back to Uther, “Bring him inside.”

Uther walks with Yern into the house as the others survey the scene.

“Gather the dead,” Illan tells Jorry and Fifer. Miko pitches in as well. Walking with James to the hole where the chicken coop once stood, he asks, “Is this where you hid the Fire?”

“Seemed like a good idea at the time,” he replies. “I was hoping for the chickens to let us know if someone disturbed them. It worked.” They see one of their shovels lying near the hole, the entire top half of the handle gone. Picking it up, he continues, “Guess we’ll need a new shovel.”

“Not only sightseers, now we have to worry about possible attacks by the Empire,” says Illan.

“I figured they would come, eventually,” admits James. “I just didn’t expect it this soon.”

“Are you close to having it ready to be secured away forever?” he asks.

“Getting there,” he answers. “Still a couple things I need to work on.”

Fifer comes up and asks, “What are we going to do with the bodies?”

“We’ll dig a hole out in the forest and dump them in,” Illan replies.

“I’m going to go see the mayor tomorrow and let him know what happened,” James announces. “I think he has a right to know, maybe he can get word to Ceryn who could keep an eye out as well.”

”Good idea,” Illan says. To the rest he raises his voice, “Everyone grab a shovel and pick, we’ve got a hole to dig.”

When James starts to head to the barn to grab a shovel to help, Illan stops him and says, “You leave this to us.” Then he moves along with the others to get this deed done.

Uther comes out of the house with a lantern and joins them.

James walks back into the kitchen and sees Yern sitting at the table, Tersa finishing securing the bandage on his arm. “You okay?” he asks.

Yern gives him a smile and replies, “Been better, but with this lovely angel’s help, I’ll survive.”

Tersa blushes slightly as she begins clearing away the blood and the soiled rags.

“Who were they?” Roland asks.

“One was a mage, the others soldiers of the Empire,” he tells them.

Ezra gets a scared look in her eye and clutches Arkie tighter. “What were they doing here?” she asks.

“The Empire has little love for me, I’m sure,” he says.

Roland chuckles a little as he adds, “After what you’ve said you did, I don’t think we can assume they’ll just leave you alone. Besides, you’re a rouge mage, not under their control and they will most likely see you as their greatest threat.”

“Oh I doubt that,” James says. “But we should be cautious from this point on.” Turning to Ezra he continues, “Tomorrow I’m planning on going into town to talk to the mayor. I’ll also see about getting more chickens, the ones we had are dead.”

“You leave it to me to get the chickens,” she tells him. “I know someone who was saying at the market just the other day how she has too many now that her boys are gone.”

“Very well, tell Roland how much you think you’ll need,” he says. Getting up, he moves over to the window and looks out. He can see the light from the lantern off in the forest where they’re digging the grave. Suddenly tired, he says, “I’m going to bed.”

“Good night James,” Ezra says to him.

“Good night to you all,” he replies and then leaves the kitchen.

Getting into bed, he lies there for awhile as he thinks about the attack. I’ve got to get the Fire out of here, it’s putting innocents in jeopardy. Next time we may not be so fortunate. How long till next time?

Finally sleep wins out over worry.