“I know, but there’s no one to teach me about this stuff,” he tells them. “I try to be, but magic isn’t exactly the easiest thing to work with.”
“Probably why there’re darn few mages in the world,” Roland adds.
Nodding his head, James replies, “Most likely.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ezra asks. When she gets an affirmative from him, she says, “Alright then, just don’t do it again.” Then she turns and with Tersa in tow, returns to the house.
“Let’s see what happened,” Jiron says as he moves toward the workshop.
The interior of the workshop is a shambles. His desk now has a large hole in it and the test table has completely disintegrated, shards and pieces of wood coat every surface of the workshop. The other crystals that had been lying on the workbench are gone, most likely are part of the crystal shards scattered all over. He checks the sack of crystals on the floor and finds them unscathed, much to his relief.
“Man, what a mess,” exclaims Roland as he enters the ruined workshop. Shaking his head, he picks up a broom in a corner and begins to sweep up the debris.
“Here,” Jiron says to James as he takes one end of the ruined workbench, “let’s take this out.”
Taking the other side, James lifts it up and they carry it out where they set it down along the side of the building. When they come back in, Roland pauses in his sweeping and says to James, “You go on in the house while I clean this up. You look like you could use a rest.”
Suddenly feeling how tired he really is, he replies, “Thanks, I think I’ll do just that.”
“We’ll get this place cleaned up and you can start again tomorrow,” Jiron assures him.
“Alright,” he says and then leaves them to finish cleaning up the mess. Returning to the house, he’s greeted by Ezra in the kitchen with a cup of ale. Taking it, he says, “Thank you.” He then moves on out to the front room where he sits in a chair by the window and stares out while he sips his ale.
The spells had taken more out of him than he realized, must’ve been concentrating too much on the effects of the spells and less on the effects they were having on him. He sits back and relaxes as he thinks of what went wrong.
When the second one began to leech from its surroundings, of course it would take magic from the other one. Then when the first began to drop in power, it started leeching from the second, and so forth.
The strain of working against each other must’ve been what caused them to begin vibrating and ultimately explode. Going to have to find a way around that.
He must’ve dozed off for a while, for when he comes awake, it’s near dusk and he sees Illan coming back with the hunters. They have several large game animals and Miko seems very happy with himself. Getting out of the chair, he opens the door and goes outside.
“James!” hollers Miko exuberantly when he sees him come out. Rushing over, he says, “I got the biggest one!”
Uther comes up behind him and claps him on the shoulder. “He sure did,” he affirms. “Put us all to shame.” Giving James a grin and a wink, he returns to the others who are taking the animals around back where they’ll begin getting them ready for the fire.
“You better go with them,” James tells Miko. “If you killed it, you better help butcher it.”
“You’re right!” he says as he turns and rushes to follow them.
James grins at the exuberance of his friend. He’s sure come along way since James first found him on the streets of Bearn. The changes the Fire had wrought doesn’t seem to bother him the way it does James. Guess most boys wish to grow up quickly.
He walks around the house to the workshop and again sees the ruined workbench sitting outside. When he goes inside, he’s amazed at just how well they have already cleaned up most of the mess. They even brought in another workbench for him, though not nearly as nice as the other one had been.
His sack of crystals rests on the floor beside the new desk. Going over to it, he reaches inside and pulls one out. Holding it up, he peers within it, not really looking for anything.
From the door, he hears Jiron says, “Haven’t you had enough for one day?”
Turning to him, James gives him a sheepish grin and shrugs. “I hadn’t planned on doing anything more tonight,” he replies. “Just came to see how the workshop turned out.” Glancing around, he continues, “You guys did a good job, thanks.”
“Not a problem,” he says. “Just try not to make it a habit.”
“I won’t,” assures James. “Promise.”
“Tersa said that dinner’s almost ready,” he tells him. The aroma from the house makes his stomach cramp and growl.
“Then let’s go. I’m starved.” Leading the way, they go into the kitchen and find that dinner is about ready to be served. The table is set and many of the dishes are already upon the table. They don’t take their seats, instead they move on into the front room to wait until all is ready. One of Ezra’s rules is no one sits down until everything is on the table. Miko had tried in the beginning and was thumped in the head with one of her spoons.
When the meal is finally ready, everyone comes to the table except Miko, Illan and Uther. They’re still out getting the animals ready for the smokehouse. One of the dishes on the table is boiled tubers, one of Ezra’s favorites. One of these days, James plans to suggest mashed tubers and gravy. He hasn’t seen anything like that since coming here, seems too simple an idea to not have been tried.
Midway through dinner, he clears his throat and once has everyone’s attention, makes a couple of announcements. “First of all, I’d like to let you all know that I finally got the letter of account from Thelonius in Cardri today. I went to Alexander’s and cashed it in so will be able to start paying you all.” He gets a round of applause at that.
“Now, before you all get excited, let me explain a few things. First of all, Roland will be in charge of the money seeing as he’ll be here when I’m gone and is going to be my administrator as well. If you should need extra money for equipment or supplies, see him. I’m going to sit down with him later to figure out exactly how much each will receive a week. After dinner, I’m going to give each of you two silvers and then we’ll go from there.” He sees several heads nodding agreement to what he’s saying.
“Now, another thing. Today, a man walked in here and disturbed me while I was in the middle of an experiment and it almost killed me. I want you all to keep alert for any strangers approaching the property and turn them away, gently and nicely if possible. If they seem to have a good reason to see me, and I mean it had better be a good reason, then take them to the house and have them wait while you get me.”
“What would constitute a good reason?” Jorry asks.
“Imminent death, perhaps,” suggest James. “I don’t know, just not for their own selfish reasons.” He then goes into the reason the man had come here seeking his help and what happened. When he’s done, he asks, “Do you understand now?”
Nodding, Jorry replies, “I think so.”
“Good,” he says. “I really don’t want a repeat of earlier today.” He takes another bite and then continues, “Also, I understand there are rumors circulating about me. Jiron is going to go into town after dinner and try to find out just what is being said and by whom. If any of you wish to go with him, I’m sure he wouldn’t mind.”
Jiron nods his head indicating he would welcome any and all who want to come with him.
“Be subtle, don’t ask any questions,” he explains to them. “Just sit back and enjoy the evening, but keep your ears open. Oh yes, and don’t get drunk or cause any problems, please.”
At that, several grin and one even chuckles.
“I mean it,” insists James. “I don’t want to go down tomorrow and pull your sorry butts out of jail.”
“Alright, James,” Yern says. “We’ll be on our best behavior.”
Once dinner is over, James goes into his room and returns with the promised silver pieces. He hands one sack of coins to Ezra saying it’s for the household expenses.
With money in hand, Jiron and the others going with him leave for town. Roland stays at the Ranch, as well as those assisting Illan and Miko with the carcasses.
By the time James goes to bed, Miko and Illan are still out there slicing and preparing the meat for smoking. He can smell the meat that has already been placed within the smokehouse.
The next morning when he wakes up, the sound of a wagon leaving can be heard. He quickly gets out of bed and looks out the window, only to find farmer Hunst heading back to the road with his load of milk jugs. A local farmer, he sells milk and butter to the various people living in the area.
