The Mists of Sorrow: The Morcyth Saga Book Seven (17 page)

“Good,” he says as James closes his eyes yet
again.

Sending his senses back to the point of
impact, he sees that the pulses are once again passing through the
area.
So it’s only ‘paralyzed’ for a few moments.
But a few
moments may be all that will be required.

Now, he sends his senses to where the void
lies. Picking a spot as dead center to it as possible, he begins
increasing the polarity to attract a bolt of lightning.

Flash! Boom!

Lightning strikes the void dead center.
However, unlike the earlier strike, this one has less of an effect.
It did ‘stun’ the creature for a very brief moment and the void
began to close. But then it recovered and pushed the void back to
its original size. If he’s going to do this it’s going to take a
lot more power.

Coming back to himself, he sits down on the
bottom of the barrier and takes several deep breaths to settle
himself. The air is beginning to grow stale, but not lethally so as
yet. He sees Jiron gazing at him with concern. “I need a breather
for a second,” he says. “This is going to take more than I
anticipated.”

“Take your time,” he says. “We aren’t going
anywhere.”

James chuckles and gives him a grin. Closing
his eyes, he again reaches his senses out to the storm clouds
above. Using his magic, he tries to hold back the lightning from
striking while at the same time causing the opposite polarity to
increase at the void.

As the polarity increases, James can feel
the static charge in the clouds fighting to form and strike.
Finally unable to hold it off any longer, he lets it go.

Flash! Boom!

A mammoth explosion knocks Jiron and Brother
Willim off their feet as the lightning strikes the void.

Sending his senses to the void, he sees that
it has shrunk to half its original size while the pulses were
nullified. Then, just as before, the pulses resume and it is again
pushed back to its former size.

“Almost had it that time,” he says. Opening
his eyes, he glances to where Jiron is returning to his feet. “You
better stay down there,” he tells them. “The next time could be a
little rocky.”

Seeing the warning in his eyes, Jiron nods
and takes a seat next to Brother Willim. “Rocky he says,” Jiron
mumbles to Brother Willim.

Ignoring them, James again closes his eyes
and sends his senses up to the clouds. Working the same as before,
he holds back the lightning for as long as he can then lets it
go.

Flash! Boom!

Again the ground rolls from the impact. Not
waiting to see what happens, he again begins to form the polarity
to attract the lightning.

Flash! Boom!

Then again.

Flash! Boom!

Then one more time.

Flash! Boom!

Though deafened by the blasts, he sends his
senses to the void and finds it all but closed. Then, the pulses
once again begin to come and start pushing the void back.
What
is it going to take?

Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom! Flash! Boom!
Flash! Boom!

Four more times he causes the lightning to
strike the void in an attempt to keep the pulses from
rematerializing and pushing the void wider. On the fourth strike, a
spasming ripple runs through the grayness as the void finally
closes.

Zyrn stands there in awe as the crack of
thunder rolls over them from the massive bolt of lightning. There
had been two lesser strikes before that one but neither had come
close to the power of that last one.

“Such power,” says Bokka. Several of the
other villagers with him nod in agreement.

They hold their breath for a moment longer
before another two bolts flash from the clouds and strike the
ground with massive cracks of thunder. Then a few seconds later,
three more bolts arc from the clouds to strike the ground. The
grayness begins to rapidly draw back toward the area where the
lightning is striking, already it’s past the lines of swords Zyrn
had set in the ground over the last few days.

“What’s it doing?” asks one of the
villagers.

Shaking his head, Zyrn says, “I don’t
know.”

Then four bolts strike from the clouds. This
time, a spasming ripple courses from one side of the grayness to
the other then back again. “That hurt it,” one villager says in
satisfaction.

“Yes, but it isn’t gone yet,” observes
Zyrn.

“It’s still there,” Jiron says.

“I can see that,” replies James a bit
testily. He was sure that when the void closed, the grayness would
die. But it still covers the barrier and he can detect minor pulses
running through it. There is no longer a set point from which the
pulses are now originating, rather they come from all over.

“It must be like a giant amoeba,” states
James. When he sees the question about to be asked, he continues.
“An amoeba is a single celled organism. As such, it could split off
from its host and still survive.”

“Right,” nods Jiron still totally lost.

James sighs and shakes his head. What he
wouldn’t give for someone to understand him. Most of the time when
he tries to explain things all he gets is that lost look that says
they have no idea what he’s talking about. Trying to make it so
they can at least understand it a little he says, “In the broadest
sense, consider it a worm.”

“Ah!” says Brother Willim. “I understand.
Cut off from the main body, it still survives.”

“Something like that,” nods James. Moving to
the edge of the barrier, he peers closely at the grayness. “Come
here and look at it more closely,” he says, waving them over.

When Brother Willim and Jiron come over,
Jiron says, “It seems to have the texture of sand.”

“Yes, it does,” agrees James. “When it came
through, the first thing it must have come into contact with was
the gray sand that remained after the explosion. And for whatever
reason it took on that aspect.” He sees them not entirely
following. “Ever heard of a chameleon? It’s a lizard that is able
to change its color to match that of whatever environment it’s
in.”

“Not by that name,” replies Brother Willim.
“But there is this bug over in Cardri that they say does the same
thing though I’ve never actually seen it.”

“Maybe this creature,” he says as he taps
the side of the barrier, “lives on another plane, between the
planes, whatever and when it moves to another takes on the aspects
of that plane to better blend in and survive.”

Brother Willim nods, “I follow you.”

“That’s all well and good,” states Jiron,
“but we are still faced with the problem of what to do with this
‘amoeba’ I think you called it.”

“You’re right of course,” he says as he
moves back away from the barrier. He allows the winds and clouds to
begin moving on their own, the strain of holding them was beginning
to be too much to maintain.

Lightning is out. Though it did affect it,
it didn’t do so to any great degree. Fire? Possibly but he’ll need
a nearby source from which to draw upon and a tremendous amount of
power.

“Wish Miko was here with us,” he abruptly
states.

“What?” asks Brother Willim.

“Oh, just thinking the power of the Star
would come in handy right about now,” he explains.

“You have an idea?” Jiron asks.

Nodding, he says, “Yes I do.” Pulling out
his mirror, he glances to them and says, “First though, I need to
send a message.”

Miko and the others have been keeping a
constant eye on the grayness ever since the lightning bolts stopped
and the cloud cover began to dissipate. They expected the grayness
to die, go away, or something. But it remaining unchanged seemed to
not bode well for James and the others.

“Could it have beaten them?” asks Scar.

“Would you shut up!” roars Stig. “It did not
beat them.” He moves over to where Aleya is off by herself. “I’m
sure they’re all right,” he tells them.

Looking up at him with a tear in her eye,
she says, “I hope so. After losing everyone when the Empire took my
home, I was afraid to latch onto someone else. I feared going
through that again.”

He puts his arm comfortingly around her
shoulders. She gives him a short laugh and says, “And look who I
decided to latch onto. A man who always seems to be in the middle
of whatever is going on, most of it life threatening. I must be out
of my mind.”

“Jiron’s a good man,” assures Stig. “I know
he cares for you. Besides, your heart will love who your heart will
love. There’s not much you can do about it.”

“I suppose not,” she agrees.

“He and James have been in worse situations
before and always managed to get out of them,” he says. “So relax.
They’re probably just taking a moment to consider their
options.”

“I hope so,” she says. She sits there with
Stig for a minute before her eye catches sight of a dust devil
swirling atop the ground not ten feet from where they sit. “Isn’t
that odd,” she suddenly says.

“What?” Stig asks.

Pointing to the swirling dust devil she
says, “It sits in one spot. I’ve never known one to do that
before.”

“Either have I,” he replies. As they
continue watching it, the feeling that something is odd about it
grows stronger by the second. It’s not moving, not growing smaller
or larger, it just continues to twirl.

Just then Miko comes to stand beside them,
his attention too is fixed upon the dust devil. “Strangest thing
I’ve ever seen,” he says.

All of a sudden, it moves in an erratic
pattern then dissipates. Miko’s eyes widen when he sees upon the
ground where the dust devil had just been, a design roughly similar
to the Star of Morcyth.

Grabbing a stick off the ground, he moves
over to it and writes ‘James?’ in the dirt. Then as if an invisible
finger is writing in the dirt, letters form. B…u…i…l…d.”

“They’re alive!” Aleya exclaims.

“Hey!” Miko calls to the others. “You better
get over here.”

Scar, Potbelly and the others come over
quickly and watch as the letters continue to form.

Zyrn and those he’s with see the commotion
and come over as well to find out what’s going on.

Letter by letter, the message appears in the
dirt:

Build fire, then get far, far away!

“What do you suppose that means?” Reilin
asks.

“Just what it says,” Miko replies. To the
others he says, “Gather what material you can. We’re going to make
a fire.” Then he bends over and uses his stick to write once more
in the sand.

When James sees Miko write, ‘Ok’ in the
sand, he relaxes. Getting what rest he can, he continues to watch
Miko and the others in the mirror. They scramble about gathering
what combustible items as can be found. Dead bushes, roots and a
few sticks are all that’s readily available.

He watches as they pile those items together
and then Scar kneels down beside it. Taking out his flint stone, he
begins striking sparks then bends close to where a spark has fallen
on a dried leaf and starts blowing softly across the red spark.
After a moment a little bit of smoke appears, then a flame.

Once the fire has caught and doesn’t look as
if it’s about to go out anytime soon, those who have horses mount
while the others who are on foot begin moving away as fast as they
can. James waits for them to put some distance between themselves
and the fire before he begins.

Putting away his mirror, he looks to
Jiron.

“Over the top magic again?” he says with a
grin.

Returning the grin, he says “Something like
that.” Brother Willim looks from one to the other wondering what
they are talking about.

This time, he lies down on the ground before
beginning. “Hope this works,” he says then closes his eyes. Sending
out his senses, he first checks where the void had been and is
happy to discover no evidence of it. Next he sends his senses over
to the fire Scar had made to make sure it won’t go out anytime
soon. Satisfied that it will last a sufficient amount of time, he
begins.

Using the magic, he forms a second barrier
that completely encompasses the creature. Not nearly as strong as
the one he created to protect them from the grayness, just strong
enough to keep the air within from passing to the outside. Never
has he created something so massive. The creature must cover over
six square miles radiating out in every direction. Just creating
the barrier took longer than he anticipated. The hardest thing was
checking the perimeter to make sure the barrier extended several
inches past the creature so that not even the slightest part of it
was outside the barrier.

Next, he works to remove everything from the
air within the barrier but the oxygen molecules. A hard enough job
to do when you aren’t trying to maintain two barriers at the same
time, but with what he’s already doing, it’s incredibly difficult.
Slowly, the concentration of oxygen within the barrier increases.
At one point he allows additional air to seep in to augment the
supply of oxygen.

Keeping an eye on the fire Scar built, he
continues to intensify the concentration of oxygen. When the fire
is on the verge of going out, he determines that he’s done all he’s
going to be able to do with increasing the oxygen content within
the barrier. He’s not entirely sure but the air within the large
barrier has to be pretty close to almost pure oxygen.

In a voice tight with strain, he says, “Get
ready.” Sweat is now beading down his face and his teeth are grit
together in response to the great strain he’s under.

“For what,” Brother Willim asks.

Unable to respond, James puts as much magic
as he can into the protective barrier surrounding them to
strengthen it. Then, while maintaining both barriers, he extends
the larger one to encompass the fire. And when the fire hits the
almost pure oxygen within…