Tides of Faith: Travail of The Dark Mage Book Two (55 page)

With the sun nearing the
horizon, they needed to find it fast. Despite his shakiness and
fatigue, they kept a brisk pace in as direct a southwesterly
direction as possible. A few times they altered course to avoid
drawing the attention of the creatures inhabiting the
Waste
. Ones similar to
what took Jira were by far the most common; their antennaed heads
were easily recognizable even from far off.

A half hour saw them to the large
patch lacking the safe, dead center that James had seen
earlier.

“We wouldn’t have made it.”

“Nope,” James agreed. “I am about dead
on my feet now as it is.”

Roughly fifty feet by thirty, the
inner area did show signs of wilting though it was still a far cry
from what they would consider safe. Moving to the center, they sat
and rested.

“Can’t rest for long,” James said. He
glanced to the low-hanging sun. “As it is, we’ll be hard pressed to
make it to that patch where we can take off the suits and sleep
before dark.”

“Should we even try?”

“I don’t think we have a choice. We’re
going to need to eat and drink, not to mention answering the calls
of nature. Thank goodness for Brother Willim and his flowering
vines. Without them, I don’t know if we would have made
it.”

“Not with the shimmering in the sky
that reacts poorly to magic.”

James nodded. “Been thinking about
that.”

“Oh? In what respect?”

“You and I have talked before about
there being subtle differences in the magic that we do. Yours being
the priestly kind where mine is not.”

“Could there be a
correlation?”

“Possibly.”

Miko contemplated that for a moment.
“I still do not see why the shimmering would react differently for
me than for you. Magic is magic.”

“You would think so,” agreed James.
“Next time I see Igor I’ll ask him.”

“If
you do.”

James nodded. “There is that. Haven’t
seen him since the end of the war.” And to be honest, he hoped he
never would.

They remained within the vines just
long enough to quiet the shaking in James’ knees and recover a
modicum of energy. Then they were off.

As they traveled, James gathered a
handful of slug-sized stones. Before the sun hit the horizon he had
used two. Neither times had the shimmering appeared. He began to
believe it only appeared during prolonged uses of magic. Should the
opportunity present itself, he’d test that theory.

Shadows deepened once the sun’s last
rays no longer shone upon the land.

Another quick spell and yet another
creature met its end.

James quickened his pace.

“It shouldn’t be far.”

The unmistakable outline of flowering
vines appeared off to their right. “Think that’s it?”

Peering through the dusky dim, James
shrugged. “Hard to tell how big it is.” Two creatures wandered in
the vicinity of the patch. “Might be.” He scanned the rest of the
landscape and found it to be the only patch in sight.

They headed that way and first one
creature then the other noticed them. Stones easily took them
out.

Light continued to decline as stars
played peek-a-boo behind intermittent cloud cover. They soon
realized this was not the patch wherein they could spend the night.
It was even smaller than the one they had rested in a short time
before, having less than a thirty feet diameter.

“Use your mirror.”

“I don’t know…” The last time hadn’t
worked out very well.

“Do it quickly,” Miko said. “It should
not take long since we are close. All we need to know is which
direction to go.”

“Right.”

“Keep an eye out.”

“Always.”

Rather than use his mirror which in
the deepening gloom would prove less than effective, he took out
his knife and laid it on the ground. In his mind’s eye he pictured
the patch seen earlier in the mirror and when it was fixed in his
mind, summoned magic to have the knife point the way.

Seconds ticked by while the magic
sought the patch. His skin began to prickle.

“Hurry.”

Ignoring Miko, he concentrated on
finding the patch.

“Almost here.”

Pouring more magic into it, he felt
the searching tendrils as he thought of them quiver and then fuse
together to point in one direction. The knife moved. He rubbed his
forearm in a futile attempt to quell the prickling.

“Three…”

The blade stopped.

“Two…”

He canceled the magic just as Miko
said, “One.”

The knife pointed
south-southeast.

Above them the shimmering coursed
across the sky for several more heartbeats before fading away like
before.

“I would advise against using magic
for a little bit.”

“Yeah,” James agreed. “I don’t plan on
tempting fate a second time.”

The sky looked normal
though he knew it held a hidden trap should he try to use
magic.
How long would the effect last? Did
it dissipate over time like a foul odor or vanish like a
thought?

Picking up the knife, he headed off in
the direction it had indicated.

Jiron kept an eye on his daughter
while they readied their camp for the night. His gaze wandered her
way repeatedly and whenever she happened to return it, gave her
silent warnings not to repeat her nocturnal offerings to the earth
spirits.

Currently she sat with Kip hunched
over a Bones and Daggers game.

“Going to have your hands full with
that one.”

Tinok sounded slightly amused, which
wasn’t something that happened very often. His moods tended toward
the somber.

“Don’t all fathers?”

“Perhaps.”

Sitting next to his friend, Tinok
handed him a plate with tonight’s offering of tubers, dried beef
and dried apples.

“But most fathers don’t have daughters
who are already deadly with knives at five and like to play with
earth spirits.”

Jiron gnawed a strip of beef and
nodded.

“Except for the earth spirit thing,
she’s just like her father.”

“And that’s what worries me. Do I want
her to be like this when she grows up?”

“What? You mean, in on the
greatest adventures of our age? Rubbing elbows with people who
before,” he gestured toward James, “
he
showed up wouldn’t have given us
the time of day? Yep, I would hate for her to have such a terrible
life.”

“This is no life for a
lady.”

“Lady?” Tinok shook his head. “Look
who her parents are. Can you see her content in a knitting circle?
With a father who grew up in the Pits and mother who can hit a
hawk’s eye while in flight? Not to mention being weaned on tales of
adventure, magic, and honor? No, her destiny is not to sit at home
with a babe at the teat waiting for her man to return.” He paused a
moment. “The gods have other plans for her.”

“No! They shall not have
her.”

Tinok laid a hand on his friend’s
shoulder. “She may not be given a choice. Fate is never what we
wish it…” He trailed off and grew reflective.

“I know.”

Losing the love of his life so soon
after finding it had been a cruel joke of the gods, one from which
his friend had yet to fully recover. He feared Tinok never
would.

A little elated cry from Jira and a
groan from Kip said she had won another game. Jiron caught a wave
from her and he waved back.

“But she is so little.”

Tinok chuckled. “That she is…today.
But tomorrow? That’s another tale.” He patted his friend on the
shoulder again and stood. “Going to see if Scar has anything else
but this dried boot leather to eat.”

“Good luck on that.”

As Tinok walked away, his gaze
returned to Jira. She and Kip had begun another game. Was Tinok
right? Did the gods have plans for her? If so they better be good
ones or they’ll have him to answer to.

Intermittent starlight breaking
through cloud cover proved seriously insufficient in aiding their
efforts to find the safe patch of vines in which to camp. Dusk
faded into full-blown night and they had yet to find it.

“We could pass right by it and not
know.”

James nodded. He sniffed the air
through his mask and while he thought he detected the aroma of the
flowering vines, it didn’t tell where or how far. Nor did it even
mean it was the correct one. For all they knew if they followed
that aroma, it may lead them to a patch little more than ten feet
square which would do them little good.

“I dare not use my orb.”

“It has been some time since you last
used magic, and we have traveled a ways; might be okay.”

“True.”

“I shall assume the risk for light,”
Miko said. “As you said, it does not seem to react to me. You can
use your knife again to ascertain the patch’s direction. Being
closer and already having done it once should enable you to do it
quicker this time.”

“You have a point.”

Looking to the sky did little to ease
his worry. After all, it wasn’t as if the shimmering could be seen
until the process of manipulating magic commenced.

“Okay,” James said. “Let’s do it.”
Going down on one knee, he said, “Give me a second.”

“Tell me when.”

He first set the knife down and
pointed it in the general direction which he felt lay the patch of
vines. Then he set the image firmly in his mind. “Now.”

Morcyth’s glow pushed the darkness
back and James let the magic flow.

In no time he felt the magic find the
field of vines. The knife shifted slightly. “Got it.”

Darkness once again ruled the world as
both let the magic go. Worried glances cast first to the sky then
along the horizon failed to detect an approaching shimmering
field.

“Quick, it appears, works
well.”

“How far is it?”

James shrugged. “Could be less than a
mile or as much as two.”

“We are close then.”

“Closer than we were. It was good we
did this for we were heading slightly too far eastward. I believe
we would have walked right past it.”

About to reply, Miko heard something
moving out in the darkness. “Quiet,” he whispered. Taking hold of
James, he maneuvered his friend until they faced where the noise
came from. “Something is out there.”

“What?”

Then a large shadow detached itself
from the greater darkness and rushed straight for them.

“That!”

Sword in hand, Miko put himself
between James and the beast. He struck out and landed a blow square
upon the beast’s head. It roared and paused in its
attack.

A rock found its way into James’ hand.
Taking a step to the side, he launched it toward their attacker
with a quick burst of magic. It hit just behind the shoulder
blades.

Screaming a god-awful roar, the
creature stumbled to the ground. Miko rushed forward and delivered
a killing blow.

Off to their right they heard another
approaching.

James launched a second stone. First
came the sound of shattering bones and tearing flesh, then the
scream. Not having seen his target, his missile had failed to
deliver a fatal strike. The screaming and thrashing
continued.

“This is going to attract
more.”

“The field is that way,” James said,
pointing in the darkness.

Moving out, they raced across the
landscape.

Not twenty feet into their run, James
was certain they passed another of the creatures in the dark on its
way toward the one that could still be heard screaming and
thrashing.

The aroma of the field grew as they
put more distance behind them. At one point the cacophony of the
injured creature died off. Their eyes acclimated to the darkness
after their night vision was ruined by Morcyth’s glow. Deeper
shadows grew more distinguishable in the dark. Two such shadows
lurched out of the darkness directly in their path.

James was the first to see them and he
grabbed Miko, pulling him so as to pass around them. They had
nearly made it passed when one cried out and altered course toward
them.

“Damn.” Cursing, James put it into
high gear.

Alerted by the one, the second
creature followed the first in pursuit.

“The field better be close,” Miko
said. He had his sword out in the event the creatures gained upon
them. However, glancing back over one’s shoulder at night in full
radioactive gear was at best unwieldy. But at night? Running at
full speed? It was fairly pointless.

A hundred feet at full speed sapped
James’ endurance nearly to its limit. Already fatigued, his legs
burned and lungs could not seem to get enough air. The warm humid
air in the helmet was not conducive to heavy exertion. Slipping two
slugs from his belt, he came to a stop and spun around.