Trail of the Gods_ The Morcyth Saga Book Four - Brian S. Pratt [121]
“Who is calling the lightning?” Aleya yells, both anger and fear present in her voice. She looks from one to the other, “Just who are you two?”
Putting his arm under James’ for support, Jiron helps him as they begin climbing the rest of the way to the top. Aleya follows behind them, arrow knocked in her bow, more for comfort than actually thinking it will be useful in this wind.
She grabs Jiron’s shirt and asks, “What is going on?”
Over his shoulder, he yells to be heard over the wind, “We got a Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li after us!”
“What’s that?” she asks, never having heard of one.
“Tell you later,” he yells.
As they’re moving further up the steps, James has been trying to determine which way the polarity for the lightning is going. He finally believes he has it figured out when the tingling spikes yet again.
Concentrating on a point twenty yards to the side, he releases the magic and creates a severe polarity discrepancy.
Flash! Boom!
Again, the lightning flares from the sky. The bolt strikes the spot where James had increased the polarity to attract it. As the concussion knocks him down, a memory comes to him of a time back in school in Miss Anderson’s Weather and Climate class when Dave had complained about having to learn about polarities. He can still hear him moaning, ‘When am I ever going to need this stuff anyway?’
Picking themselves back up, James glances back to the mass of men swarming up the stairs. He knows the warrior priest is down there with them and hopes he doesn’t figure out how James is redirecting the lightning. You’re going to have to do better than that!
Jiron again lends a shoulder as they once more press for the top. The stairs here for the last hundred feet are ascending up an almost vertical slope. The sides are almost sheer, the drop below easily over a thousand feet.
Chink!
Something strikes the steps near James’ foot. “Above us!” he hears Aleya cry out.
At the top of the stairs, a line of crossbowmen stand arrayed, their crossbows aimed at them. Another crossbow bolt strikes the cliff face right next to Jiron. Fortunately the whipping of the wind is making it all but impossible for them to maintain any sort of accuracy.
Aleya raises her bow and fires, but the wind is blowing too hard for it to maintain a true path and her arrow is blown off course. The crossbowmen above them have the wind going their way, so even if they have limited accuracy, they at least have the added speed and distance.
As one, James watches them raise their crossbows to fire. Releasing the magic, he creates a barrier to ward off the bolts just as another spike in the tingling sensation occurs. Dividing his attention, he tries to maintain the barrier as they release their bolts while at the same time creating another disparity in the polarity to draw off the lightning.
Flash! Boom!
The lightning strikes the ridgeline further away than the last time, yet the concussion still manages to knock Aleya off her feet.
As the bolts fly toward them, James maintains the barrier. Aleya looks at the barrage of bolts coming their way, and even though the wind will reduce their accuracy, that many on the way can’t be anything but bad. Seeing her death coming toward her, she watches in shock as they seem to strike something and are deflected away.
Jiron looks at the crossbowmen above them who’re raining down bolts as fast as they can load them. Then he glances below him where the soldiers there have already reached the first rest stop and are closing the distance rapidly to the second.
He turns to James and yells over the roar of the wind, “Can you distract those on top for a moment or two?”
Aleya overhears him and asks, “How can he do that?”
Ignoring her, James says, “Maybe. It’s all I can do just to keep deflecting the lightning and maintain the barrier. What do you plan to do?”
Leaning close so he can hear, Jiron lays out his plan.
James looks at him and nods, “I think I can help with that, just give me a moment.”
“Okay,” says Jiron. Then looking