Trail of the Gods Part 11

Ezra pops in and announces dinner will be ready in several minutes.

Getting up, James says, "I'm going to go out and check on the crystals, then I'll be back in for dinner."

"Yes, sir," she says before returning into the kitchen.

Jiron gets up and says, "I'll come with you."

They leave through the front door and walk around the side of the house. "One lad is stationed out at the road to announce anyone coming," he explains. "He blows the horn and several riders who are waiting here spring into action and ride out to meet whoever is coming. Two notes indicate the sentry doesn't feel it's a threat, one note and everyone comes running. So far, we have had only one instance when a single note had been blown. Orry said that he blew two notes, but no one believes him. Yern made him practice blowing two notes for a whole hour."

"So Yern is in charge of our irregulars?" James asks.

"He's taken charge, yes," he replies. "I didn't want the job and he seems a natural at leading and organizing them. But now that Illan's here, he'll probably take over."

"How many do we have?" he asks.

"Eight," he answers. "They rotate in their jobs. One stays out at the lane, another three patrol the woods surrounding us. Each of those in the woods has a horn as well. Four stay by the house with horses ready to go to someone's aid at a moment's notice."

"Seems you have it well under control," he says.

"After the last two fights we've had here, it became evident we needed help," he says.

Pa.s.sing by the workshop, they enter the woods and James heads toward where he left the crystals. He first goes to the area with the two that had been simply sitting and were no longer leeching from their surroundings.

He finds them still resting on the ground though they look as if they may not be in the exact same location as he left them. "I think the kids have been touching them," he tells Jiron. Glancing at him, he says, "You probably better tell them it may not be safe to do so."

"Alright," replies Jiron, "I'll do that."

He bends over and picks up the crystals, both still have a red glow within them. Both glows look to be the same intensity. One had a deeper glow than the other the last time he checked them. Perhaps the stored power dwindles to a certain point, and then stops. Perhaps the stored power dwindles to a certain point, and then stops. Interesting. Interesting.

"What?" asks Jiron when he sees the perplexed look.

"Just that I thought one would have a darker glow than the other," he explains. He puts them into his pocket and then makes his way to the area where he put the four crystals that were going to continuously maintain a full capacity by leeching micro amounts from their surroundings.

He almost doesn't realize he's reached them until Jiron points one out to him. Smiling in satisfaction, he goes over to it and sees a soft red glow forming within its center. A careful examination of the surrounding vegetation shows only the slightest signs of withering. He's actually not entirely sure if it's a natural occurrence, or was caused by the crystal's leeching.

Checking all four of them shows the same result. Each has absorbed magic from their surroundings in such small, micro amounts that they haven't significantly affected any living thing near them. Nowhere near capacity yet because of the slow process, James is confident that given enough time, they will be able to reach and sustain full power.

Standing up from where he had been examining the last of the crystals, he gives Jiron a wide grin. "Things going okay then?" Jiron asks him.

"Couldn't be better," he says. "Let's go have dinner."

On the way back, James asks, "If all the kids are working during the day, what do you do at night?"

"They take two hour s.h.i.+fts," he explains. "One night on , one night off. Two are patrolling at any given time during the night. Plus, Yern and I have been taking turns keeping an eye on them, at least until they've proven themselves."

"I see," James says.

They round the workshop just as Ezra opens the back door, "I was just about to holler for you two. Time to eat."

"Thank you," James tells her.

She opens the door wide for him as he enters. Going over to the washbasin, he cleans himself up and then takes his seat at the head of the table.

Dinner is good, as always. The kids are not eating. They inform him that Ezra sends meals out to them and they eat outside. "Too many in here if I allow them to eat with us," she explains.

With all the additional mouths to feed, he's glad he made provisions for a large kitchen area in the new estate house he's having built. She may have to prepare meals for an army before too much longer. Luckily she has Tersa to help her. He may have to get even more help if the number of people here continues to rise.

After dinner, they adjourn to the front room for ale and evening conversations. Jiron and Yern remain outside with their new charges, keeping an eye on them.

James finds it hard to keep from yawning after awhile and excuses himself, saying he needs to get some sleep. Once in bed, he has a hard time falling asleep even though he's very tired. His mind continues thinking about Lord Colerain, wondering if he'll stop his relentless attempts to capture him. And just what is it that he's supposed to have stolen? Will he ever know? Eventually though, exhaustion wins out and he slips away to sleep.

Chapter Eight.

"Steady now."

A voice from outside his window wakes him up. "Hold it steady," the voice says again. Getting out of bed, he goes over to the window and sees Illan there with the eight recruits. Each of the recruits is holding a sword in their right hand at exactly a forty five degree angle. To his surprise, one of them is a girl. As he watches for a moment, one of them lets their sword droop a fraction. Illan notices and gets right in their face.

"You will hold it steady until I tell you to stop!" he yells at the lad. The recruit grits his teeth as he strains to raise the sword to bring it back into line with the others. James can see the strain and struggle in all their faces as they attempt to keep it up and in the correct position. "You are going to learn to use your sword, and by G.o.d you'll learn to use it well. The first thing you must learn is endurance." Another allows their sword to droop a fraction and he's right on top of him until it rises back in line with the others.

The girl manages to maintain the correct angle of her sword throughout the drill. The determination clear upon her face.

"In combat," Illan continues, "the first one to lose strength, the first one who can no longer swing their sword, is the first one to die!"

"Lower them," he commands.

James watches as they bring their swords down, relief evident upon their faces. Then Illan says, "Switch hands!"

"What?" one of the boys asks. "I don't use my left hand?"

Illan comes over to him and says, "What if your right arm is wounded? Are you going to tell the man trying to kill you to stop attacking because you don't fight with your left hand?" Staring straight at the boy, he yells, "Left hand, now!"

Gulping, the lad pa.s.ses his sword to his left hand and joins his fellows in holding it up at a forty five degree angle.

Moving away from his window, James gets dressed and then goes out to the kitchen for breakfast. He finds Tersa and Jiron there finis.h.i.+ng up their meal. "I see Illan has them working hard this morning," he says.

Smiling, Jiron replies, "They've been at it for over an hour now."

"May have to construct a barracks of some kind if they're going to be here permanently," says James as he sits down at the table.

Tersa gets up and brings him over a plate with eggs and tubers.

Seeing the eggs, he asks, "So Ezra has the new chickens laying already?"

"Most of them never even stopped as she was afraid of," Tersa replies, sitting back down next to her brother "Good," James says as he takes a large bite of eggs.

"While the recruits are training, the rest of us are on patrol duty," Jiron informs him. "Illan says they must have at least three hours of practice a day, maybe more when all of us are here. They didn't really expect all this training when we first asked around for help, but it makes sense."

Nodding, James adds, "After what we've been through the last week, any and all training can only help." He eats a couple more bites in silence before continuing, "I saw a girl out there with the others."

"Oh, that's Errin," he says. "She's the daughter of some farmer on the far side of town. When her father heard we were asking for help, he brought her over to us. Said she was a h.e.l.lcat and would fit right in."

"He did, did he?" James asks.

"Yeah, he did," answers Jiron with a grin. "In fact, he seemed right glad to be rid of her. But she's caused no problems and she can shoot a bow better than any of the others. You probably didn't see her yesterday because we have her mainly patrolling the woods."

"Does she want to be here?" he asks, concerned about forcing someone to do something against their will. Especially something that could endanger their lives.

"She's taken to it with great determination," Jiron tells him. "Yern says that she was wasted back on the farm and that's where she would have most likely spent her days seeing as how the Cardri army doesn't allow women recruits."

They spend the remainder of breakfast catching up on small details that have cropped up since James was gone, thankfully nothing of any real importance. Just before he's done eating, Roland comes in from the front room.

"Oh, there you are," he says to James. "I need to talk to you."

Getting up, James says to Jiron and Tersa, "If you'll excuse me."

"Of course," Jiron says.

He follows Roland as he exits the kitchen and moves toward James' room. Once inside, he closes the door and comes over to the chest and lifts the lid. What had once been a chest filled to the brim, now contains only a few coins.

"What happened?" asked James, shocked.

"What happened?" echoes Roland. "We've got construction going on and that seems to be a constant drain on our coins. New recruits for security, not to mention arming them and feeding them, plus just the maintenance of this place, it all costs. We're fast running out of money."

"I'll go down to Alexander's and get some more," he tells him.

"Do that," he says. "Also, you need to tell him that you'll allow me to withdraw funds while you're gone so I can keep this place going. I tried to while they were hunting for you, but since you hadn't made that stipulation, he wouldn't release any to me."

"Sorry, I hadn't thought of that," apologizes James. "I'll take care of that today."

"That's not the worst of it," Roland says with a worried look.

"Oh?" asks James.

"The money you have with Alexander will last awhile, but at the rate we're spending, it probably won't last more than a few months, maybe less. We have to find a source of income, one that's consistent and which we can count on."

"Do you have any suggestions?" he asks.

Shaking his head, Roland says, "No. The only one I can even think of is for you to make similar objects like your shaving knife that Delia could sell for us."

"I really don't want to do that," he says.

"I know, we've discussed it before," Roland replies. "But try to come up with something, and don't take too long about it."

"Alright," James tells him. "Anything else?"

Giving him a smile, he says, "Just that we're all glad you're back."

"So am I," agrees James.

Roland leaves him there in his room alone, shutting the door behind him as he leaves. He moves over to his window and looks out at the recruits. Jorry and Uther are demonstrating sword techniques while Illan explains them, how to achieve them and their various merits.

Errin is watching the exhibition with keen attention and is unconsciously pantomiming with her hands the motions she sees.

He leaves his room and makes his way out to his workshop. On the way, Illan sees him and waves him over. As he approaches, Uther and Jorry come to a halt and lower the wooden swords they've been using for the demonstration.

To his recruits, Illan says, "For those of you who don't know him yet, this is James, the master of The Ranch."

Eight pairs of eyes stare at him as he comes to a stop in front of them. "James," Illan continues, "these young men and lady, have all agreed to help in keeping the security and to warn of any possible attack."

"You know Devin," he says. Devin gives him a smile and a nod.

"Yeah," James replies, returning the smile, "we've met once or twice."

"The other ones are, Orry, Caleb, Errin, Jace, Nerrin, Moyil, and Terrance." He points to them one by one as he makes his way through the group.

When he's done, James nods to them all and says, "Glad to have you aboard. I just have a couple things you need to know. First of all, I do magic." Pointing over to his workshop, he continues, "Over there is my workshop and when I'm inside, don't disturb me unless it's for an emergency. It could prove disastrous. Second, I may have experiments running out in the forest. Don't touch them! Walking by them will cause no harm, but there may be some where coming into contact can be fatal."

Some of the recruits' eyes widen and their faces pale. James smiles inwardly, these must've been the ones who had moved the crystals out in the forest while he was gone. "I would be most unhappy if I had to go and tell your family you're dead because you couldn't leave well enough alone. Understand?" He gets eight nods in response. "Good!"

"Finally, I would appreciate it if you all would stop spreading rumors about me. What goes on here, I want to stay here. Anyone caught talking about anything I do to someone outside of here, will be discharged." Pausing a moment to let that sink in, he asks, "Any questions?"

Eight hands fly into the air and he says, "In case you're going to ask me about whether or not I've captured evil spirits or not, I haven't." Seven hands lower and only one remains, Errin's. "Yes?" he asks her.

"Is it true that the Empire sent a mage and fighters here to kill you?" she asks.

Nodding, he says, "Yes, that's true. I have made some enemies and they may come here seeking revenge for wrongs they may feel I have done them. But I a.s.sure you, that I never sought them out, nor did I ever instigate anything with any party. My general philosophy is live and let live, be nice to all and to help those you can."

"Anything else?" he asks. When no questions are forthcoming, he says, "Then I'll let you resume your training."

"Thank you, sir," Illan says to him.

"You're welcome," he replies and then begins moving back toward his workshop. From behind him, he hears Illan say, "Alright now! Pair up and we'll practice the techniques you've just been shown."

Glancing over his shoulder, he sees the recruits picking up the wooden swords lying beside them on the ground. Then they get up and begin pairing off. He sees Devin has managed to be paired with the dark haired Errin.

Finally back in his workshop, he closes the door and takes his seat at the workbench. They all look so young, none can be over fourteen. He fervently hopes none come to harm while they're here.

Turning back to the matters at hand, he decided to go into town after lunch to take care of his business with Alexander. What is he going to do for funds? He's not going to be able to put that off indefinitely, not from what Roland said.

He hears a wagon rolling toward the house from down the lane so he gets up and looks out the window. Ezra is returning with Miko and Fifer from town. James sighs when he sees the amount of food stacked in the back of the wagon. Expensive.

These people go through food like a horde of locust. Returning to his seat at his workbench, he decides to shelve that worry for awhile. His main concern now is the 'Fire' and getting it hidden away. In a day or two, the box he's commissioned will be completed and he will need to have everything in readiness so he can move fast to hide it for good.