Tides of Faith: Travail of The Dark Mage Book Two (54 page)

They stood still as it reached the end
of the vines and began moving off to the northeast. Then a gust of
wind came from the southwest and carried their scent toward it.
“Damn,” James cursed when the creature halted.

It raised its head and the stalks upon
it moved to and fro. Gradually it turned in their direction and
moved toward them.

Miko drew his sword and James readied
two slugs.

“It does not move fast.”

“No it doesn’t,” James
agreed.

It shambled along as if it hadn’t a
care in the world. The creature paused several feet from the fringe
of the vines. Moving first right, it walked the perimeter for
twenty feet, then stopped. Its stalks shivered for a moment before
turning about and walking back along the perimeter, back to where
it had begun, then continued in the other direction.

James and Miko watched and waited
while it moved along the outer edge of the vines, always keeping at
least three feet away. This time it did not stop. Instead it
continued all the way around the perimeter until reaching where it
had begun its trek. Without pausing, it set off on a second trip
around the vines.

“Can it not sense us?” Miko
asked.

“I think it can,” James replied. “For
some reason it is hesitant about entering the vines.”

“Afraid of them do you
think?”

“Possibly,” he shrugged.

He gripped his slug and arched his arm
back to throw. “Either way, we need to get out of here.”

As he had so many times before, he
summoned magic and threw. Straight and true, the iron slug struck
the creature in the side of the head and exploded out the other
side. Stumbling, the creature fell to the ground.

“Nice to know they die like any
animal.”

Miko nodded. “Let us depart this place
before more come.”

James already had suit in hand and one
leg inserted when Morcyth’s aura enveloped him.

“Going to check you.” First he did
James, then himself. “No change.”

“Excellent.” Both legs now in, he
secured the bindings and worked on his boots.

While they suited, they kept an eye on
the surrounding desert for other creatures. When none made an
appearance, they departed once they insured the integrity of their
suits.

An hour later they came across a
second creature and James put it down with another slug. During the
following two hours he dropped a third as well as a malformed
surface desert turtle of gigantic proportions and hideous
appearance. Far afield along the horizon, other creatures were seen
moving yet they managed to avoid attracting their
attention.

Near sunset another field of vines of
sufficient size had yet to be encountered and James grew worried.
He pulled out his mirror and concentrated on the surrounding
countryside.

“Watch for the shimmering in the
sky.”

“I shall do that,” replied
Miko.

He had hoped to avoid this but
circumstances had forced his hand.

The image in the mirror shifted and he
saw himself looking into the mirror. Then the image pulled back and
he saw him and Miko as small dots in the surrounding
countryside.

Other dark dots moved
about, these had to be the creatures inhabiting the
Waste
. Scrolling the
image southwest, he sought a patch of vines along their intended
path. Several were found not far away; unfortunately all were too
small to suit their needs. Moving it yet further, he scrolled a
ways until coming to a swath of vines over twice the size of the
one in which they had taken refuge in earlier.

“Found one.”

“How far?”

“Not sure,” he said. “Give me a
minute.”

Drawing more power, he worked to
figure an approximate distance.

“Better hurry,” Miko said.

Glancing from the mirror, he followed
where Miko pointed off to the south. The shimmering was making
straight for them.

“Damn.”

“You have a few minutes before it
arrives.”

“Wish I knew what that
was.”

“Stop talking,” Miko chided, “and
finish.”

Magic poured from him and
he started to sweat. Memories from Tapu interfered with what he
sought to do.
Was that shimmering magic?
Was it attracted to magic?
And most
importantly,
Was there intelligence behind
its appearance?

Prickling of his skin became
noticeable and increased rapidly.

“Almost here.”

He glanced up and saw that it was
nearly upon them. The mirror went blank as he released the magic.
His skin felt as if he were covered in army ants, each nipping at
his flesh. Prickling turned painful as the shimmering field came
full upon them. It passed overhead and as the trailing edge reached
them, the shimmering field dissipated.

“Well if that doesn’t settle the
matter.”

Miko turned to him. “What
does?”

He gestured to the sky. “I did magic,
it appeared. I stopped doing magic, it disappeared.” James held out
his hand.

“What are you going to do?”

“See if it does it again?”

“That may not be…”

James’ orb flashed into being upon his
palm. As if on cue, the sky erupted in shimmering and his skin
crawled.

“Cancel it!”

Panic grew on his face as his efforts
to shut off the orb failed to do so.

“I can’t!” he cried.

Like Tapu, his spell warped and
changed. Instead of a soft yellow the orb flared a deep red and
seemed to sink through the protective glove of his suit.

James screamed. Pain like the flesh
was being ripped from his bones sent him to his knees. “My
hand!”

Morcyth’s glow blazed forth and the
pain subsided but did not vanish.

Miko took his hand in both of his as
his priestly glow intensified.

“You’ve got to cancel it!” Miko
shouted. He felt the warped orb at work, could sense it eating away
at the flesh within the protective glove. Even using everything he
had, he could not halt its effects; only slow it down.
“Concentrate!”

Focusing was difficult, yet years of
practice overcame the pain. He saw the spell, saw the lines of new
power that had changed it, just as in Tapu. The minor conduits of
power that structured the orb spell had ruptured. Shoots of altered
magic had spread throughout, which had changed the benign orb into
something malignant.

He focused on the spell,
fully aware that what he was doing may just as easily become
corrupted. Using as little power as he could, he quickly traced the
altered flows to where they originated. Finding a primary flow of
magic coming from a ruptured conduit, he hoped it would be the one
to interrupt. Interrupt the wrong one and it could all go
kerblooie
. He felt like a
member of the bomb squad.
Should he cut
the blue wire or the red?

Sending forth a focused beam at where
the greatest concentration of magic emerged from the conduit, he
felt the power fluctuate. Though the fluctuation lasted less than a
heartbeat, he managed to shut down the spell. Immediately, the pain
in his hand eased.

“Okay,” Miko said. “Give me a second
to fix you.”

Like a soothing balm, Miko sent the
power of Morcyth into James’ hand to repair the damage.

While he worked, James watched the
shimmering in the sky vanish. “It’s gone.”

“Yes, it should begin to feel
better.”

The glow stopped and James desperately
wanted to take off the glove and inspect his hand but fear of the
radiation kept the glove on.

“No, I mean the
shimmering.”

Miko looked up. “You are
right.”

“Why did it come after me but not
you?”

Eyes widening, the priest realized he
might have only exacerbated the situation by using magic to heal
James’ hand. He shook his head. “I… I do not know.” Glancing to the
sky, he thought a moment. “Morcyth protected me?”

James looked skeptical. “Perhaps, but
that doesn’t sound right.” Motion off to the east drew his
attention. One of the creatures rambled quickly their way. James
readied a slug but then thought better of it. Prior to manifesting
the orb, the shimmering had gone away. Yet it returned the instant
he utilized magic and the orb came into being. If he launched the
slug with magic, would the use of magic make it reappear yet again
to wreak havoc? He kept the slug in hand as they raced off toward
the field of vines.

“How far away is it?”

“Miles,” he replied. “I doubt we could
reach it before being overtaken.”

The creature had increased its speed
when it saw them take off. Its shuffling gait proved quicker than
their running.

“But there is one semi-large patch up
ahead,” James explained. “It doesn’t have a safe center, but since
the other one did not cross into the vines to get us, this one may
not as well.”

“It better be close.”

James hoped it would be
too.

“Will Uncle James be okay?”

Jiron gave his daughter a reassuring
nod. “Your uncle is very capable.”

Scar rode on the other side
of her. “That is correct, Little Jira. If anyone can make it
through the
Waste
unscathed, it would be your uncles.”

“I hope so.”

“Did we ever tell you about the time
your father and uncle were being chased by a monstrous fire
demon?”

Eyes widening, she shook her
head.

“Well, let me tell you, it was pretty
scary for a time. They…”

Jiron caught a wink from Scar and gave
a brief nod in gratitude. He wished that Brother Willim had decided
to travel with them, but the priest had begged off saying how he
still had work to do in the area.

The fate of James and Miko
worried him nearly as much as it did Jira. If they can make it to
the Star, he felt confident that all would work out fine. Speaking
with Brother Willim after they had departed for the Star definitely
hadn’t allayed his fears. Especially how the deeper they penetrated
the
Waste
, the
more numerous the creatures became.

By James’ side was where he belonged.
It didn’t feel right in not being there. They had been through so
much together. He was just a tad bit irritated that only two suits
had been brought from Earth. Of course, at the time, he had assumed
that the second one was going to be for him. Otherwise he would
have pushed for a third.

He listened to Scar’s retelling of
that harrowing flight that ended in the Illuminator’s Guild’s
storage room. A grin came to him. James never did anything in small
measure.

Pushing on, he meant to see them in
Zixtyn on the night of the third day.

The longer the shadows grew, the more
fatigued they became.

“It’s persistent.”

Miko glanced back to where the
creature continued its pursuit. “Yes it is.”

Still over eighty feet away, it had
gradually closed the distance. In the last half hour the gap had
shrunk much faster.

James’ boots felt like there was a
gallon of water in each; a pool of sweat produced through a product
of physical exertion and lack of ventilating/ drying
air.

“I don’t think I can last much
longer,” he wheezed.

“It may be safe to once again use a
slug.”

Painful memory of his previous attempt
with the orb had kept him from attempting any sort of magic. The
unexpected side effects should the shimmering field appear had up
to this point stayed his hand. Now, however, with legs aching and
feeling as if they were about to give way, he had no
choice.

“It is quick after all,” Miko
said.

“True.”

Coming to stop, he spun about and
readied a slug. Breathe in… breathe out. First to relax his mind
and body, then cast the spell. When he felt ready, he arched his
arm back.

“Watch for the shimmering
field.”

“I shall.”

Swallowing, James threw the slug. A
split-second of magic and it took the slug unerringly toward the
creature; slammed into its side and dropped it. He turned to Miko
who shook his head.

“Not a shimmer.”

“I don’t understand what’s going
on.”

“Me either,” Miko said.

James scanned the sky from horizon to
horizon. “Nothing out of the ordinary?”

“Not a thing,” Miko replied. “Whatever
happened last time was not repeated here.”

“Let’s not worry about it now,” he
said. “We still have to make it to the vines before we can
rest.”