Tides of Faith: Travail of The Dark Mage Book Two (87 page)

“Here you go,” Igor said,
bringing plate with the four sizzling brats to the
table.

James took one, put it in
his bun.

“Just ketchup?”

James nodded as he took a
big bite. “I prefer to taste the meat, not the extras.”

Igor shrugged. “Suit
yourself.”

He on the other hand piled
his brat with so many condiments and extras that the brat was all
but buried.

James chewed slowly as he
eyed the creature across from him. He had yet to figure out just
what he was, and his angle. True, he had been instrumental in his
coming to this world and becoming perhaps the most powerful mage of
the age. But his motives behind doing so had always been puzzling.
Was he a good guy, bad guy, or just had a vendetta out against
Dmon’Li? On the surface he leaned toward Igor being good, but there
was no way of knowing for sure. Frankly, James didn’t care, he
merely wanted nothing more to do with him. Life got complicated
whenever he was around.

“Beautiful place, isn’t
it?”

“Very peaceful,” James
agreed.

“Been abandoned for some
years, sorry to say.”

“Oh? Were you here in its
heyday?”

Igor shook his head. “No.
But I do know that the people here were good, hardworking folks who
took their faith seriously and strived to live according to their
principles.”

“What happened to
them?”

“Sometime around the turn
of the twentieth century, their crops suffered a blight and most
were forced to move to greener pastures. The community never
recovered.”

James finished his first
brat then started in on his second. “Why am I here?”

“Can’t two friends share a
meal without there being a reason?”

The look James shot him
said he knew this meeting was anything but social. “Are we
friends?”

“Well, we certainly are
not enemies.”

James kept quiet while he
slowly ate his second brat. There were thousands of questions
demanding answers, but knew from past dealings that Igor would tell
him only what he wanted him to know, and nothing more. Another
reason he wanted to be shed of this creature. Rather than waste his
breath, he waited for what would follow.

Seeming to understand his
thoughts, Igor chuckled.

“You grew up in a church,
didn’t you?”

“Yes,” James replied. “My
family has a long history with the church.”

“But you’ve never been
that serious about it?”

“Is that a question or a
fact?”

Igor shrugged. “A little
of both, perhaps.”

“I can tell you I’ve been
a little less serious about it since coming here,” James said
matter-of-factly. “Gods here tend to be…” he paused a moment before
saying, “meddlesome.”

Laughing, Igor said, “True
enough. It’s a young world, and as such humans are more easily
swayed. Some to the good, others to evil.”

“Which is
better?”

“That, my friend, is a
matter of perspective. I’m sure those following an evil god would
say that to do evil is better, while those serving good would argue
the point.”

James used a chip to scoop
up some potato salad, chewed it thoughtfully, then asked, “What
does this have to do with me?”

“How would you like to
start a temple?”

Eyes widening, James
chuckled. “Me? Miko would be better suited.”

“I didn’t say you had to
run it,” Igor clarified. “A temple to Morcyth would be
fine.”

“And is it to be a
grandiose cathedral? Something to last the ages and inspire awe and
reverence?”

“Hardly.”

“Then what?”

Igor paused a moment then
said, “Think of it more as akin to Brother Love’s Traveling
Salvation Show.”

James chuckled. “I always
loved that song.”

Igor nodded. “I
know.”

“So, what? Set up a
Chautauqua
tent outside some town?”

“If you like.”

“Why?”

Igor shot him a stern
gaze. “Because it needs doing,”

“But there are more
important concerns right now than setting up some useless temple.
An army is invading, the world seems to be coming unglued, my
family is off on a ship and I don’t know whether or not they will
be safe, and you want me to cool my heels and become a
preacher?”

“Again, I didn’t say it
had to be you,” Igor replied, patience wearing thin, “just that you
need to be involved. And your family is safe. They will make it to
Cardri without incident, so do not worry.”

“What happens if I
don’t?”

“Do it or not,” Igor said
irritated. “As always, you humans set the course of your own
destiny.”

He waved his hand and the
world faded away.

“James?”

Miko’s face filled his view as his
eyes opened.

“What happened?” he asked in
confusion. It took a moment to realize that he was no longer in
that other place.

“You were knocked unconscious when
your spells exploded,” Kip said.

Sitting up, he looked around at the
ship still glowing with the power of Morcyth. He saw that he laid
on a pallet next to Eddra, then noticed the missing main mast and
how the ship listed to port.

“The hole…!”

Miko laid a calming hand upon his
shoulder. “Azhan has it under control.” Then to Father Vickor he
said, “Get Jiron.”

“Where are we?”

“Still far from land,” Miko
replied.

“And dead in the water,” Jiron said as
he approached.

James glanced up at the sky and saw no
sign of the shimmering fields.

“They disappeared after your spells
exploded.”

“Yeah,” he said. “That makes
sense.”

Jiron knelt on one knee next to
him.

“How are you feeling?”

“Tired and a dull headache,” he said
as he ran his fingers gingerly over his scalp. “Other than that,
fine.”

“We need your help,” Jiron
explained.

James arched an eyebrow questioningly
at his friend. “What now?”

“Well first off, Azhan is doing his
best but the ship sustained far too much damage when your spells
went off for him to fix it. We’re taking on water.”

“We have Captain Anyn and his crew
bailing,” Scar explained as he joined them. “They’ve been at it for
half a day and are on the verge of exhaustion.”

“With Azhan plugging the holes, he’s
not able to call the winds,” Jiron said. “Even if he did, we don’t
have any masts left standing and the endeavor would be
pointless.”

James nodded. “So you need me to get
the ship moving?”

“If you think you can,” Scar replied.
“Otherwise we will have no choice but to abandon ship.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Taking Jiron’s hand, he pulled himself
to his feet. A bit unsteady, but they felt like they would support
him. “How far away is the land?”

“Captain Anyn seemed to think over an
hour.”

“I doubt I can sustain the magical
requirements to push this entire ship through the water like I did
with Anyn’s dinghy.”

“Any ideas?”

“Give me a moment.”

He walked the ship and considered the
problem. At the hatch leading to the hold, a line of sailors
transferring buckets of water from one to the next sent a steady
stream overboard one bucket at a time.

Only ways to propel a ship is either
with sail, which was no longer an option, or an engine which they
did not have nor the propellers to go with it. He thought he could
maybe throw one together magically, but that felt a bit complicated
and to maintain the concentration for that for over an hour didn’t
seem possible. It needed to be something simple with few moving
parts. Then it came to him.

“How about a paddlewheel?”

“What’s that?” Jiron asked.

“Think of a waterwheel but with
paddles instead of buckets.”

“Will it work?” Scar asked.

He thought a moment, then nodded. “I
think so.”

Moving to the stern, he passed by the
bucket brigade as they continued bailing the water from the hold.
The looks they shot him were anything but pleasant. The fact that
Tinok and Shorty stood nearby with the former using a knife to idly
digging dirt from beneath his fingernails might have had something
to do with it.

Once at the back of the ship, James
closed his eyes and imagined an old Mississippi paddlewheel. He
first fashioned a spell to bring into being two long support arms
that stretched from the rear of the ship out and down a ways. Next
came the paddlewheel; a central spoke around which he created a
dozen long, thin shields to act as paddles. A final spell to start
the thing in motion and it began to propel the ship across the
water.

“Fascinating.”

He turned to Jiron and nodded. “Ships
using these were quite popular where I come from many years
ago.”

Miko extended his glow to encompass
the paddlewheel so as to avoid attracting the shimmering
field.

A cheer sprang up from those on the
bucket line once they realized the ship was moving.

Azhan and Hikai were staring at the
wheel with rapt attention. He could almost hear the whirring of
their thoughts as they sought to figure out how he did that. In no
small part he was worried about having them around. With every
spell they witnessed, possibilities of what can be opened up for
them. He dreaded what he might unleash on this world through
them.

The vision of Igor remained
strong, not dissipating as had happened so many times
before.
A temple?
He still found it hard to figure out the logic of that
request.
Didn’t this world already have
more than enough?
Sighing, he knew he would
do it. Igor had yet to steer him wrong and to the depths of his
being, knew that this had to be of paramount importance for the
god-like being to approach him.

He worried about what might be going
on that he had yet to learn that prompted Igor to make such a
request. Did it have something to do with the shimmering field? The
invaders? Or is something else on the horizon that was even worse?
He tried not to contemplate that.

He noticed Jiron gazing longingly off
toward the northwest.

“Missing them?”

“We’ll be back together by
nightfall.”

“What?”

Jiron turned to James. “That was the
last thing I said to them, ‘We’ll be back together by
nightfall.’”

James laid a hand on his shoulder.
“They are safe and will make it to Cardri without
incident.”

“How do you know this?”

“A mutual friend of ours told
me.”

Momentary confusion was quickly
replaced with understanding.

“And that’s not all.”

Miko joined them and he related what
Igor had told him. It took nearly two hours for them to make
landfall and during that time, they argued about the logic of
acquiescing to his request. Jiron wanted to head immediately for
Cardri to reunite with his wife and daughter, and damn anyone or
anything that got in his way.

“No!” Jiron finally said. “I will not
do it.”

“Look,” James said, “Igor has never
steered us wrong. If not for bringing me here, you would have no
wife and daughter. If not for training you and introducing you to
The Pits, you would not be the person you are today, respected and
a leader among your peers.

“Time and again he has done things
that at first made no sense but in the end worked for our
betterment.”

James laid a hand on his friend’s
shoulder. “It’s a matter of do we trust him?”

“I don’t.”

“Would you trust Kehlan?” he
asked.

Kehlan of course had been the guise
Igor had used when he had found Jiron as a boy and trained him for
The Pits. He had been a mentor and friend to Jiron, had taken him
off the streets and made him more than he could ever have been on
his own.

Jiron remained stubborn.

“I can’t do this on my own,” James
said. “We need you.”

Silence hung between them. “Are you
positive they will be safe?”

“So Igor said and I believe
him.”

“As do I,” agreed Miko.

James could see the stony fortress of
his resistance crumble away.

“Where do we do this?”

“I don’t know.”

“For how long are we to
continue?”

James shrugged, “That remains to be
seen.”

The ship lurched to a halt as the keel
ran aground on the shoreline. A shout of thanksgiving sprang from
those on the bucket line.