their horses into even greater speed, they fly through the hills. The scout follows, keeping them in sight and periodically sounding his horn to alert the host behind him as to their position.
“Damn!” James hears Jiron exclaim as they race through the hills.
“At least the majority of the soldiers back there were on foot,” James says.
“True, but the mages weren’t,” states Jiron.
They continue to ride hard and James glances behind them but doesn’t see any pursuit developing, other than that annoying scout who continues alerting everyone as to their whereabouts.
“Hold up a minute,” James finally says as he brings his horse around and turns toward the scout. He sees the scout holding still, two hills back as he once more sounds his horn. Reaching into his pouch, James brings out one of his remaining slugs.
“Can you hit him from here?” Jiron asks.
“We’ll see,” he replies as he throws the slug and at the same time, lets the magic flow.
Jiron watches as the slug flies through the air toward the scout on the distant hill. The scout must’ve seen the slug for he quickly moves down off the hill and out of James’ line of sight. The slug alters course slightly and then disappears behind the hill where the scout went. “Did you get him?”
“Not sure. But let’s not wait around to find out.”
They turn their horses around and once again race through the hills. After several more minutes of riding, they slow down. “Looks like you did get him,” Jiron says when the scout doesn’t show himself again.
“Maybe now we can lose them in these hills,” James says with relief.
The plan to escape in the hills dies as after a few brief minutes they clear the hills and are once again in the rocky desert with the scrub brush and stunted trees. Turning south, they follow the edge of the hills and only ride a short distance before they again hear the sound of the horn. Turning to glance behind them, Jiron exclaims, “Dear god!”
James turns and sees at least a hundred horsemen charging toward them from the north. Kicking their horses to a gallop they ride fast, hoping to stay ahead of the approaching cavalry. Another horn sounds to their right as they see the soldiers from the road coming into view as they crest the hills. The brown robed mages are at the fore.
Coming to the inevitable conclusion that magic will again become necessary, James takes the rope out of his saddlebag and again ties himself to the saddle. When he notices Jiron looking at him, he just shrugs and pulls the rope tighter.
He begins to feel the tingle that always heralds another mage who is working magic. Glancing back toward the mages on the hill, he sees one has his arms raised. “Fly!” he yells to Jiron as he kicks his own horse into a gallop and rides to the southeast, angling away from the two armies.
The tingles suddenly intensifies and he looks back to see a fireball flying toward them. He counters with a spell and it explodes harmlessly before it even reaches them.
The cavalry has swung to intercept them but aren’t gaining very fast. James realizes he’s unlikely to destroy both armies without unleashing something cataclysmic. His only hope is to hide, disappear. Suddenly, a memory surfaces of a time he and his family had vacationed in Las Vegas during the summer when a Santa Ana had come through. They had been caught out on the back roads and the flying sand was so bad, his grandfather had to pull off the road and wait it out because he couldn’t see the pavement.
He yells to Jiron, “Take a cloth and cover your face!”
“What?” he yells back.
James pulls out a cloth and yells again, “Cover your face!” He then takes the cloth and ties it around his face until only his eyes are showing. He sees Jiron getting the idea and beginning to do the same. James starts concentrating on air pressure and the winds begin to increase.
They’ve left the armies on foot behind but the cavalry is still gaining ground. Jiron realizes that they’re not going to be able to outrun them. He looks over to James and sees him there with his eyes closed. He moves his horse closer to James and grabs his reins so they won’t become separated.
As they continue to gallop, the wind begins to pick up. It’s almost as if the wind is slamming into the ground and drawing the dirt and sand up into the air. Before too much longer, the air is becoming hazy as more and more of the dirt and sand is being sucked up into the air.
The intensity of the wind hurls the sand into them with sufficient force to sting where it strikes exposed flesh. Jiron looks back but the dust in the air has obscured everything and the cavalrymen are no longer visible through it.
He begins to angle slightly more to the south, hoping to throw off their pursuers. The storm continues growing in intensity and he hollers to James, “That’s enough! You’re going to get us killed if you don’t back off!”
James’ eyes fly open and he looks tiredly to Jiron as he nods understanding.
When the storm doesn’t subside, he yells to James, “Stop! You’re going to kill us!”
Yelling back, James says, “I have! The storm has taken a life of its own. I can’t control it any more!”
“Damn!” Jiron curses as they continue galloping to the south.
The winds steadily keep increasing and soon larger stones have been picked up by the winds and begin to pelt them. One stones strikes James on the thigh causing him to cry out. “Stop!” he yells to Jiron.
Coming to a stop, they both dismount. He has Jiron stay close to him as he attempts to create a barrier around them to keep the storm out. Suddenly, all is calm as the dome springs into being, the sand and wind continue pelting the outer side of the dome. The dome extends fifteen feet in diameter and ten feet high.
“How long can you hold it?” Jiron asks, retaining tight hold of the frightened horses’ reins.
Considering it, James replies, “It was the initial construction that used the most magic. It’s drawing what I call maintenance magic now, just enough to keep it stable. Probably for quite a while.”
Jiron says, “Good.”
The horses are restless, but appear they’ll be okay. Jiron looks out at the swirling mass of sand and stones in awe. “Just what did you do?” he asks as he turns back to James.
“I thought I would make a dust storm to hide us in so we could escape,” he explains. “But when I cancelled the spell, it continued. It seems I inadvertently triggered something that was on the verge of happening anyway, though maybe not to this degree.” Indicating the storm outside, he says, “It’s probably situations like these that make people hate mages, or at least distrust them.”
Jiron nods his head and is about to reply when they hear a scream and turn to look as a man, at least they think it is, hits the side of the invisible dome. Most of the skin has been flayed from his bones by the storm. A ghastly appearance, they can see its skeletal mouth opening and closing and then it’s picked up again by the wind and disappears.
They look to each other, James feeling very bad about the whole thing. “I guess we’re not going to have to worry about pursuit when this is over,” Jiron states.
Trying to fight back nausea, James replies, “You’re probably right.” He looks out to the storm again and then says, “Maybe you should try to get some sleep, I don’t know how long this will last.”
“What about you?” he asks.
“I dare not fall asleep,” he replies. “The barrier might end.”
Jiron unconsciously looks out at the storm and nods his head. “Alright,” he says as he makes to lie down. “Though how I’m going to sleep in this is beyond me,” he states.
James sits there as the storm rages outside the dome. He realizes after a while that Jiron has finally managed to fall asleep and hears soft snores coming from him. As the day progresses, the storm continues in its intensity and as night comes, the light begins to fade.
Casting his glowing orb for light, he keeps it soft so as not to awaken Jiron. The horses finally settle down as they become use to the roar outside the dome. Sitting there with nothing to do as he maintains the domes integrity, he becomes bored and tired. He’s beginning to find it hard to stay awake. The events of the last few days and the continual draw of magic to keep the barrier up are starting to take its toll on him.
Getting to his feet, he paces around to keep himself awake and begins to sing songs from home. Some he knows in their entirety and others he gets through the first couple of verses before losing it. All through the night he stays on his feet, refusing to give in to the tiredness that’s making his eyes droop and voice start to slur.
Sometime near dawn, the storm finally begins to subside and quiet down. Jiron comes awake and sees James
