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“Oh, one other thing I should mention,” Jiron adds.

“What?” asks James.

He glances to Roland who grins at him and then returns his attention to James. “They stumbled across your glowing crystals out in the forest,” he explains.

“And?” prompts James.

“And, they mentioned it to their families,” replies Jiron. He gives James an amused smile as he continues, “It seems your reputation is growing even faster because of it.”

“What are they saying about them?” he asks with trepidation.

“That you’ve captured evil spirits and imprisoned them,” he explains.

James’ jaw drops open and he exclaims, “That’s absurd!” he says.

“I know, but rumor has a life of its own,” he counters. “Especially when you’re not here to squash it.”

Sighing, James says, “I suppose so.”

Illan begins laughing.

“What’s so funny?” he asks him, annoyed.

“It’s just the way with all things that can’t be explained,” he says. “Everything must be explained, one way or another. If the truth is unavailable, then good old imagination will have to do.”

“Do you plan to explain it to them?” Jiron asks.

“No,” he says. “I don’t dare. Can’t have anyone knowing what I’m doing.”

Ezra pops in and announces dinner will be ready in several minutes.

Getting up, James says, “I’m going to go out and check on the crystals, then I’ll be back in for dinner.”

“Yes, sir,” she says before returning into the kitchen.

Jiron gets up and says, “I’ll come with you.”

They leave through the front door and walk around the side of the house. “One lad is stationed out at the road to announce anyone coming,” he explains. “He blows the horn and several riders who are waiting here spring into action and ride out to meet whoever is coming. Two notes indicate the sentry doesn’t feel it’s a threat, one note and everyone comes running. So far, we have had only one instance when a single note had been blown. Orry said that he blew two notes, but no one believes him. Yern made him practice blowing two notes for a whole hour.”

“So Yern is in charge of our irregulars?” James asks.

“He’s taken charge, yes,” he replies. “I didn’t want the job and he seems a natural at leading and organizing them. But now that Illan’s here, he’ll probably take over.”

“How many do we have?” he asks.

“Eight,” he answers. “They rotate in their jobs. One stays out at the lane, another three patrol the woods surrounding us. Each of those in the woods has a horn as well. Four stay by the house with horses ready to go to someone’s aid at a moment’s notice.”

“Seems you have it well under control,” he says.

“After the last two fights we’ve had here, it became evident we needed help,” he says.

Passing by the workshop, they enter the woods and James heads toward where he left the crystals. He first goes to the area with the two that had been simply sitting and were no longer leeching from their surroundings.

He finds them still resting on the ground though they look as if they may not be in the exact same location as he left them. “I think the kids have been touching them,” he tells Jiron. Glancing at him, he says, “You probably better tell them it may not be safe to do so.”

“Alright,” replies Jiron, “I’ll do that.”

He bends over and picks up the crystals, both still have a red glow within them. Both glows look to be the same intensity. One had a deeper glow than the other the last time he checked them. Perhaps the stored power dwindles to a certain point, and then stops. Interesting.

“What?” asks Jiron when he sees the perplexed look.

“Just that I thought one would have a darker glow than the other,” he explains. He puts them into his pocket and then makes his way to the area where he put the four crystals that were going to continuously maintain a full capacity by leeching micro amounts from their surroundings.

He almost doesn’t realize he’s reached them until Jiron points one out to him. Smiling in satisfaction, he goes over to it and sees a soft red glow forming within its center. A careful examination of the surrounding vegetation shows only