Trail of the Gods_ The Morcyth Saga Book Four - Brian S. Pratt [68]
The fireworks last another ten minutes before finally stopping completely. Everyone files out and leaves James once more alone. He makes sure the chest is sitting right next to his bed on the floor before turning in. Tomorrow, he’ll activate the spells.
The morning dawns brightly and they’re soon up and back on the road. Before he left his room, he’d activated the concealing spells and monitored everything for several minutes before he was sure that each crystal was functioning properly.
When they leave Wurt, much to the amazement of the others, he takes the road south. The others ask him about it and he gives them vague replies at best. Finally, Illan tells them to shut up and stop their bothersome questions.
Several miles further down the road, Uther suddenly exclaims, “James!”
Glancing over his shoulder, he asks, “What?”
“Behind you!” he replies pointing to the old blanket covering the box. A red glow can be seen coming from within. Afraid of what this might mean, he stops and gets off his horse. Removing the chest from his horse, he sets it on the ground before taking it out of the blanket. The crystals are all glowing.
Glancing up and down the road he sees no one around. “Into the forest, now!” he cries as he picks up the box and runs through the edge of the trees. Can’t let anyone who may pass by see what’s going on. Not even looking back to see if they’re obeying him, he hurries deeper within the forest. Once he’s well hidden from the road, he sets the box down and sits on the ground facing it.
As Illan and the others approach, he says to Illan, “They’re hunting for it.” The crystal supplying the power to the concealing ones is being drained rapidly.
“What are you going to do?” Illan asks.
“What’s going on?” asks Uther.
“Quiet!” commands Illan.
James ignores them as he calls forth his magic. He immediately can feel a malignant power trying to find the Fire, the sheer amount of magic being used is staggering. Channeling his own magic into the power crystal, he attempts to keep the concealing spells active.
The one searching for the Fire suddenly dramatically increases the amount of magic being used, causing James to gasp as more of his own power is being sucked out of him to maintain the spell.
Illan and the others watch on as the glow of the crystals begins to intensify. They see James begin to pant and beads of sweat form as they drip off his forehead as he tries to thwart the attempts of the seeker.
Suddenly, the trees around them begin withering, one actually cracking down the middle. “What’s happening?” exclaims Jorry.
“It’s James,” explains Jiron.
“What’s he doing?” cries out Uther.
“I don’t know,” he says, shaking his head. “But he’ll not be good for much when this is over.”
“Form a perimeter around him,” Illan barks out. “Jorry, you go out to the road and keep watch. Jiron, stay next to him and do what you can for him. Uther, keep the horses under control. We can’t afford to have them running off.”
As they hop to it, he glances at the box in wonder as the glow from the crystals continues to grow.
No longer able to use his own nearly depleted inner stores of power, James has had to tap other resources. Drawing the power from the trees and the other vegetation around him allows him to be able to maintain the spells.
The amount of power used is staggering! Never could he have imagined such an unrelenting torrent of power. Malignant evil can be felt emanating from the source of the power, itself almost as hard to counter and deal with as the seeking magic.
Just as he did back when he fought that evil presence when he first came to this world, so too now does he again create conduits from the vegetation to deliver power to the crystals.
Concentrating as hard as he is on maintaining the flow of power to the crystals, he fails to notice just what effect it’s having around him. Trees and plants are dying rapidly, some even give a ‘pop