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“Hold up a minute,” James finally says as he brings his horse around and turns toward the scout. He sees the scout holding still, two hills back as he once more sounds his horn. Reaching into his pouch, James brings out one of his remaining slugs.

“Can you hit him from here?” Jiron asks.

“We’ll see,” he replies as he throws the slug and at the same time, lets the magic flow.

Jiron watches as the slug flies through the air toward the scout on the distant hill. The scout must’ve seen the slug for he quickly moves down off the hill and out of James’ line of sight. The slug alters course slightly and then disappears behind the hill where the scout went. “Did you get him?”

“Not sure. But let’s not wait around to find out.”

They turn their horses around and once again race through the hills. After several more minutes of riding, they slow down. “Looks like you did get him,” Jiron says when the scout doesn’t show himself again.

“Maybe now we can lose them in these hills,” James says with relief.

The plan to escape in the hills dies as after a few brief minutes they clear the hills and are once again in the rocky desert with the scrub brush and stunted trees. Turning south, they follow the edge of the hills and only ride a short distance before they again hear the sound of the horn. Turning to glance behind them, Jiron exclaims, “Dear god!”

James turns and sees at least a hundred horsemen charging toward them from the north. Kicking their horses to a gallop they ride fast, hoping to stay ahead of the approaching cavalry. Another horn sounds to their right as they see the soldiers from the road coming into view as they crest the hills. The brown robed mages are at the fore.

Coming to the inevitable conclusion that magic will again become necessary, James takes the rope out of his saddlebag and again ties himself to the saddle. When he notices Jiron looking at him, he just shrugs and pulls the rope tighter.

He begins to feel the tingle that always heralds another mage who is working magic. Glancing back toward the mages on the hill, he sees one has his arms raised. “Fly!” he yells to Jiron as he kicks his own horse into a gallop and rides to the southeast, angling away from the two armies.

The tingles suddenly intensifies and he looks back to see a fireball flying toward them. He counters with a spell and it explodes harmlessly before it even reaches them.

The cavalry has swung to intercept them but aren’t gaining very fast. James realizes he’s unlikely to destroy both armies without unleashing something cataclysmic. His only hope is to hide, disappear. Suddenly, a memory surfaces of a time he and his family had vacationed in Las Vegas during the summer when a Santa Ana had come through. They had been caught out on the back roads and the flying sand was so bad, his grandfather had to pull off the road and wait it out because he couldn’t see the pavement.

He yells to Jiron, “Take a cloth and cover your face!”

“What?” he yells back.

James pulls out a cloth and yells again, “Cover your face!” He then takes the cloth and ties it around his face until only his eyes are showing. He sees Jiron getting the idea and beginning to do the same. James starts concentrating on air pressure and the winds begin to increase.

They’ve left the armies on foot behind but the cavalry is still gaining ground. Jiron realizes that they’re not going to be able to outrun them. He looks over to James and sees him there with his eyes closed. He moves his horse closer to James and grabs his reins so they won’t become separated.

As they continue to gallop, the wind begins to pick up. It’s almost as if the wind is slamming into the ground and drawing the dirt and sand up into the air. Before too much longer, the air is becoming hazy as more and more of the dirt and sand is being sucked up into the air.

The intensity of the wind hurls the sand into them with sufficient force to sting where it strikes exposed flesh. Jiron looks back but the dust in the air has obscured everything and the cavalrymen are no