Shades of the Past_ Book Six of the Morcyth Saga - Brian S. Pratt [111]
“But that didn’t do it?” Jiron asks.
“No.” Then he chuckles as he says, “But when I told him you were on your way to give Dmon-Li a sacrifice, that was all he needed to hear.”
“You know,” begins Jiron. “I’ve been thinking.”
“About what?” inquires James.
Turning to Jared, he says, “When you were talking to that rider, I began wondering what if things went bad. If it had, before you could tell us to do anything, he might have had the chance to escape and warn others.”
“What are you getting at?” James asks, not sure where he’s going with this.
“There may come a time when action is called for at a moment’s notice,” he explains. “I think it would be a good idea to come up with subtle gestures Jared could use to indicate how it is going.”
“You mean like if he crosses his arm, you take out whoever it is he’s talking to?” suggests James.
“Something like that, but not crossing his arms,” Jiron states.
“Why?” Jared asks.
Jiron turns to him and says, “Because you cross your arms all the time, it’s a habit.”
Jared looks surprised, he had no idea he did it that much.
“Something else. Like say scratching your ear with your right hand.”
Nodding, James says, “That would work. Maybe there would be gestures on how I should react as well. I mean, when you are talking, a stern gaze or an amused smile could give the illusion that I am understanding what’s going on.”
“How about my right hand for you James, left for Jiron,” Jared suggests.
“Alright, but let’s keep it simple.” Over the next hour or so before they turn in, they work out some simple gestures Jared will use. For Jiron it’s fairly simple, if he scratches behind his left ear with his left hand, he attacks and takes out who he’s talking to.
For James it’s a bit more complicated. A touch of the ear and he gets indignant. Running his fingers through his hair means to act amused, etc. All of these are with the right hand of course.
They practice the gestures until they turn in. Jared has the gestures down and the other two now know how to react depending on what he does.
Jiron takes the first watch with James following after for the mid watch. When he awakens James for his turn at watch, he again asks about the red flashes and the caravans.
Bringing him away from where Jared is blissfully snoring, he puts some distance between them before stopping. He casts a quick glance over to their sleeping comrade and then in a whisper says, “Back when I first began planning for this campaign, I wanted to really hurt the Empire’s infrastructure. At first, I thought about taking all those from The Ranch and destroying factories, bridges, etc. But then I realized that wouldn’t be feasible. There was no way the Empire would sit still and allow us to do that.”
“I figured what we would be able to accomplish would be limited in nature and not do the sort of damage that I wanted. Then I started thinking about Delia and her caravan, about how they go all over. That’s when I got the idea to plant seeds of destruction in the wagons of various caravans.”
“What is that suppose to accomplish?” he asks. “Destroying more caravans isn’t going to hurt them all that much.”
“Not just the caravans, no,” agrees James. “But what if those seeds of destruction would wait until they encountered certain things?”
“Like what?” Jiron questions.
“I have it so that what I planted in the wagons will continue to draw minute quantities of power from their environment and store it,” he explains. “Now don’t worry, the draw is so small that I seriously doubt if any passing mage would detect it. The seed will continue to grow in power until it encounters one of three things, then explode.”
“The first thing is a bridge,” he says, “When it detects that it’s over flowing water it blows, hopefully taking out the bridge. And, when a bridge is destroyed, that avenue over the river will be gone. All caravans will have to find an alternate way