Trail of the Gods_ The Morcyth Saga Book Four - Brian S. Pratt [15]
It being so hot, James has been trying to remember how his grandparents had made homemade ice cream, but hasn’t had any luck. He usually showed up about the time to crank the handle. Once he asked his grandparents why they didn’t just buy an electric one, they said it never turned out as good.
After lunch, he returns to where he left the crystals and Jiron decides to tag along. When they get there, they find both of the crystals have reached a deep crimson glow. Also, around each is an almost perfect circle of wilted vegetation.
“It’s just like back near those skull pyramids,” observes Jiron.
“Yes, it is,” agrees James. A quick look shows that the degree of withering is greater among the vegetation closest to the crystal. Both crystals seem to have a radius of about four feet. Outside that area, everything looks normal.
“What’re they doing?” asks Jiron.
“Rather not say, if you don’t mind,” counters James. Glancing at Jiron, he can see the confused look on his face. “It’s just that, what you don’t know can’t be tortured out of you.”
Nodding, he says, “I understand.” Then in a whisper he asks, “The Fire?”
“In a way, but that’s about as much as I’ll tell you,” he says. Each of the crystals has several dead bodies of insects upon and around them. Gonna have to slow down the rate of leeching so as not to alert anyone who may pass by that something is going on.
As James turns to go, Jiron asks, “Are you just going to leave them here?”
“I’ll check back on them in the morning,” he explains. “I want to see to what extent the wilting will increase in that time, if it does at all.”
“I see,” Jiron says as they work their way back to the main house.
Throughout the rest of the day, James stays in his workshop and fine tunes the spells he’s been using on the crystals. Over the course of the afternoon, he’s been able to reduce the rate of leeching to only a minimal amount.
During one such experiment, he wonders what would happen to the crystal should the spells be removed from it while it held power. Not willing to risk further damage to his workshop, he takes one of the crystals out into the forest, far from where he’d left the other two earlier.
Setting the crystal down on the ground, he backs away thirty feet and cancels the active spells. Nothing happened, and the glow remained constant. He leaves it where it is and plans on coming back to it sometime in the morning to see whether or not the glow will still be there. See if it loses power over time.
Ezra soon calls them in for dinner and afterward they settle into the front room. Most evenings they spend here, swapping stories, some true others highly suspect. Occasionally one will sing a song but for the most part, they just use it as a chance to wind down after the day and spend time together.
James is usually one of the first to bed, the efforts of the day’s experiments often leave him feeling drained and exhausted. The leeching of the crystals takes a lot out of him, at least he’s found a way to shut off the leeching so as to preserve his own reservoir of power.
He lies in bed listening to the others who’ve remained out in the front room. They quiet down for his sake but he’ll be glad when the other house is built and he can have his privacy. The last thing he hears before falling asleep is a story Uther is telling about how he and Jorry had taken a job to escort this princess and…
Bwaaak!
A noise from outside wakes him up. At first he doesn’t even realize he is awake until he hears the chicken squawk again. Damn those chickens! Turning over, he tries to go back asleep.
Bwaaak!
There it goes again. Must be some animal disturbing them again. Knowing he’s not going to be able to go back to sleep until he deals with this, he gets up from his bed and throws on some clothes.
Stepping carefully, he opens his door and almost collides with Roland. In a whisper, he asks,