Tides of Faith: Travail of The Dark Mage Book Two (70 page)

When Scar, Potbelly and the others
joined them, Potbelly asked, “Back the road a ways is an inn. Did
you have any trouble there?”

“No,” Jiron said, shaking his head.
“Should we have?” Then he saw the long line of horses behind Kip
and Shorty.

“Tell you later,” Tinok
said.

Jiron gazed at his friend thoughtfully
a moment, then asked, “Anyone going to come looking for
those?”

“Not anytime soon.”

“Good.” As Potbelly arrived with a
wearied Scar, he asked, “How’s he doing?”

“He’s
doing fine,” Scar replied a bit peeved. “If you would all stop
treating me like I have one foot in the grave, I’d be doing a lot
better.”

Jiron grinned. “Glad to hear it. Are
you up to riding to Zixtyn?”

“Of course.”

Potbelly reached over and pulled the
shoulder of his shirt to right him in the saddle after he had
tilted a bit too far to one side. “You could always ride with
Eddra?”

A quickly dodged backhanded blow said
how he felt about that idea.

The rest of the day passed quickly.
Scar gradually grew stronger and by nightfall everyone could tell
he was on the way to a full recovery. Eddra wavered in and out of
lucidity when she was conscious at all.

Travel the next day proved rather
easy. The lone patrol they encountered was easily dealt with. It’s
easy to bluff your way through when you escort an old woman in a
carriage. It’s hard to conceive that an invading or spying force
would bring such a person along. A simple tale of how they were
horse traders from the north and how they were taking Eddra to see
her elder sister who lived on the coast while they conducted their
business proved very convincing and they were passed
through.

James’ two apprentices kept quiet and
mainly to themselves. Kip made salutations to them but other than a
few short responses didn’t get much response. Everyone else left
them alone except Tinok, who always kept one eye on them
anticipating foul deeds.

Before nightfall, the walls of Hyrryth
came into view. While the main group skirted the city, they sent
Tinok, Father Vickor, Azhan and Kip in to resupply their rations.
Azhan wore his mage’s robe and they experienced little trouble.
After buying sufficient rations, cheese wheels, breads, etc. to
burden three horses, they rendezvoused with the others some miles
farther down the road.

After that it was a straight shot to
Zixtyn. There they hoped to rejoin with James and Miko who Father
Vickor insisted have had success and are on their way to meet
them.

“How do you know that?” Kip asked the
priest during their time at watch.

The one-time brawler turned priest
shrugged. “I just do. Once the power comes over you, sometimes you
simply know something with utter certainty. This is one of those
times.”

Kip nodded slowly. “Is Morcyth
speaking to you?”

“Some believe that is exactly what is
happening.” He grinned when he saw his Novice assume a look of awe.
“It’s not like you hear his voice or anything, it is simply a
certainty down deep in your soul that you know something is true.
Hard to explain until you’ve experienced it yourself.”

Kip nodded again.

“But that won’t happen until you can
summon the glow,” Father Vickor said with grin. “Now, back to it,
young Kip.”

Sighing wearily and wishing he could
return to his bedroll, Kip tried to calm his mind and sought the
connection with their god.

Waking with the dawn, James opened his
eyes, sat up and listened to his stomach growl. Their supply of
food had run out the day before and they were still in the Waste.
At least they had passed out of the radiation zone and the last
sighting of a stalker had been over twelve hours ago.

“We need to find food.”

“So I hear,” Miko replied with a
chuckle. When James glanced at him, Miko directed his gaze to
James’ middle.

“What I wouldn’t give for some of
Meliana’s tubers right about now.” he stood up and scanned the
barren countryside. “Or a pizza.”

“I figure we are at least a day away
from the road,” Miko said.

“Yeah.”

“Try your mirror and see if you can
find a farmhouse where we can get some food.”

“In this place? I doubt if anyone
lives anywhere near here.”

“Never know. A quick look should keep
the shimmering field from wreaking havoc with your
magic.”

James opened his pack and pulled out
the cloth-wrapped mirror. “Keep an eye out and I’ll see what I can
find.”

Miko nodded and turned northward to
watch for any shimmering disturbances.

Concentrating on finding a farmhouse
or any sort of nearby human abode, he gathered magic to him then
when the vision was set in his mind, let the magic go.

His reflection grew indistinct then
blurred altogether before an aerial image of their location came
into view. Magic pulled the image first one way and then another.
Finally it settled over a farmhouse that had seen better days. It
looked abandoned.

“It is approaching,” Miko announced.
“Better hurry.”

“Right.”

Pushing the image away, James sought
another, more promising location. But by the time Miko said,
“Almost here,” and the prickling of his skin commenced, he hadn’t
found anything better. He canceled the magic and the mirror
returned to normal.

“There’s a house that way,” James
said, pointing to the southeast, “though I don’t think it will
yield any food.”

“We can check. Could be some dried
beans or something left behind we can use.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Wrapping the mirror back in its cloth
and then returning it to his pack, James slung it over his shoulder
and they started toward the farmhouse.

It didn’t take long before it appeared
in the distance. Most of the roof was gone and a wall was seriously
bowed in.

“Still think we might find
something?”

Miko shrugged. “Never know. Worth a
look and it is not out of our way.”

A mostly intact corral in the back and
a few outlying buildings said the farmer had really tried to make a
go of it.

“Wonder what happened to
them?”

“Who knows?” James replied. “Hope it
wasn’t the stalkers that did them in.”

“Could be.”

The front door was off its hinges and
laid upon the ground before the doorway. Stepping over it, they
went inside.

A table and three chairs sat in the
middle of the room with a kitchen off to one side. An open doorway
led to what looked to be the bedroom.

“You check the cupboards,” James said,
“and I’ll see what’s in the other room.”

“Alright.”

A bed, a chair and a small bedside
table were all that he found. “There’s nothing,” he announced
before returning to the kitchen. Sitting in a chair, he watched
Miko open the last two cupboards only to find cobwebs and
dust.

“I guess you were right,” Miko said.
Coming to the table, he sat and sighed.

“Tired?”

Miko nodded. “A little. Would not mind
a horse right about now.”

“I know. Days of walking kind of takes
it out of you.”

His feet were a bit tired
and travel weary. A car with a full tank of gas wouldn’t be bad
either. Then his gaze traveled to the front doorway and the door
lying on the ground outside. His thoughts flashed back to when he
was first on this world and his initial foray into magic. He had
made a stick hover in mid-air.
Why
couldn’t he do it with a door?
And if a
spell will fire a slug with great velocity, why wouldn’t it also
push a door along at a decent pace? Combine the two and you have a
speedy mode of transport.

“I got an idea.”

“What?”

“Come with me.”

Getting up, he went outside and with
Miko’s help, moved the door away from the house. “I think I can
make this fly and carry us.”

“That would be convenient.”

“I know. Don’t know why I didn’t think
of this before.”

Once the door was placed safely from
any potentialobstacles, he sat just forward of the middle. He had
Miko sit just back of middle for balance.

“Now, this may take some magic, so I
will need you to shield my magic with yours.”

Morcyth’s glow sprang to life,
covering not only them but the wooden door as well.

“Ok, now give me a second.”

First, let’s get this
puppy off the ground.

Envisioning the door gently rising to
three feet from the ground, he let the magic flow. Immediately, the
door began to rise. It remained perfectly level. Once it reached
the three foot mark, it halted.

“Not bad,” Miko observed.

“That was the easy part.” Looking back
over his shoulder, James said, “You better hold on for this next
part.”

They both grasped the edges of the
door.

“Ready?”

From behind, James heard Miko reply,
“Ready.”

“Hold on tight.” Closing his eyes, he
pictured the door traveling through the air. Once he had it set in
his mind, he let the magic flow.

The door jerked forward suddenly.
James lost his grip, panicked as he slid back into Miko and lost
his concentration. Slamming into the ground, they hit hard and
rolled several feet before coming to a stop.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” James replied, sitting up.
Standing, he brushed himself off. “It took off a bit faster than I
anticipated.”

“Shall we try it again?”

Nodding, James grinned. “If you aren’t
afraid I’m going to kill us with this thing.”

“No, I do not think that.” Then he
assumed a wry expression and held up the Star. “Besides, anything
you break I can fix.”

“Okay, then. Let’s get back on. Wish
we had ropes or something better to hold onto.”

“Maybe next time.”

Getting back into position on the
door, Miko called for Morcyth’s glow and James soon had them
hovering again in the air.

“This time,” Miko said, “don’t lose
your grip.”

James could hear the
amusement in his voice.
Okay, a little
gentler on takeoff.
Envisioning a slow,
gradual acceleration, he let loose the magic. Instead of the jerky
start like before, this time the door moved out slowly.

“Not bad,” Miko said after they had
traveled fifty feet.

“I’m going to try for more
speed.”

“Just be careful.”

The door quickened its pace and they
were soon moving as fast as a galloping horse. It didn’t float
smoothly as it tried to maintain the requisite three feet distance
from the ground. As the ground changed elevation, even slightly, so
too did the door. When crossing a dried creek bed nearly knocked
them off, James brought the door to a halt.

Miko slapped him on the back. “That
was fun,” he said with a grin.

“It would have been more fun had the
ride been smoother.”

“Is that why we stopped?”

James nodded. “Give me a minute to
work it out and we’ll have fewer jolts.”

“That last one
was
pretty bad,” Miko
admitted.

“Almost lost my grip more than
once.”

Miko stood up and glanced around. “We
have come a fair distance.”

“If I can get this right, it’ll take
us all the way to Hyrryth.”

“I would love to sleep in a bed
tonight.”

James chuckled. “That might be pushing
it. But I’ll see what we can do.”

It took the better part of twenty
minutes before he was satisfied the spell would work the way he
wanted. He merely had to tweak the original spell a little here and
there. Once finished, they got back on and with Morcyth’s glow
surrounding them, James activated the spell. First rising gently
off the ground, the door then took off at a speed little better
than walking.

“Feels smoother,” Miko
observed.

“I agree.” Seeing that his magic
‘shock absorbers’ were working as planned, James had the door
quicken its speed.

Miko tapped him on the shoulder and
pointed ahead to where the ground dipped two feet in an old
run-off.

“I see it.”

This would really test his flying
door. He slowed to the speed of a trotting horse, then braced for
the crossing. There was a little shudder and the door did drop
marginally while it crossed, then popped back up when it reached
the other side; nothing they couldn’t handle.

“This is going to work,” James
hollered over his shoulder.

Miko grinned and gave him a thumb’s
up.

Altering course proved easy. A thought
and the door turned in the direction he desired. Once it was
traveling in a mostly southerly direction, he increased the speed
yet further.