Lashing out with magic of his own, James blasts the fire off the barrier and gets back to his feet. Next to him lies the twitching burnt body of Jared. The flame of the fireball continues to burn him, his cries of pain echo across the desert. His eyes flash open and look pleadingly to James.
Swallowing hard, James acquiesces to his request and removes a slug from his belt. With the force of magic behind it, he throws it and ends Jared’s torment. Turning back to the mages, he finds three are still on horseback while the other is on the ground seeing to the fallen rider.
Another fireball is arcing toward him and he envelopes it with a barrier, dragging it to the ground. Unleashing magic of his own, the ground begins to shake. The rider’s horses begin to neigh and rear from fright. Two riders are bucked off while the third hangs on for dear life as his horse takes flight across the desert.
Suddenly, the ground beneath the remaining four mages opens up. Two immediately fall in, the others grab onto the edge and hang on. The shaking of the ground continues causing one of the remaining two to lose his grip on the edge and falls.
Magic springs to life from the four as they work to counter what he’s doing. But whatever they are trying is insufficient to stop him. With a clap, the two sides of the pit slam shut upon the lads inside. The one hanging onto the lip of the opening is caught as the shutting of the hole crushes his lower half. After a moment’s agony, he grows still.
Stopping the flow of magic, the ground begins to settle down. The rider whose horse bolted on him pauses several hundred yards away for only a moment then turns and races away in the desert.
Beginning to feel drained from the magical endeavors, James returns to where Jared and the horses lie dead upon the ground. Everything they had on the horses is now a charred mess. He feels bad for Jared, emotions almost getting the better of him. Putting the carnage behind him, he runs toward the town.
Before he even gets halfway there, Jiron races from between two buildings on the outskirts, the reins of two other horses held in his hands. Galloping fast, he sees James and angles toward him.
James starts to wave to him when he sees a dozen other riders emerge from between the same two buildings as had Jiron. Their angered cries reach him as they chase after Jiron.
James sighs and readies himself as Jiron and his pursuers approach.
Crumph! Crumph! Crumph!
Three explosions throw dirt and sand before the charging riders causing them to come to a brief halt.
Jiron reaches James as the dirt begins falling back to the ground. Grabbing the saddle of one, James quickly mounts.
He glances back to the scene of battle. “And where’s Jared?” he asks.
“Dead,” replies James.
Jiron’s pursuers have halted behind the blasted earth. James creates his orb and launches it toward them.
Seeing the glowing orb flying toward them after having the earth erupt and almost kill them is more than they can stand. Three horses aren’t worth tangling with a mage of such power. Turning back to town, they flee for their lives.
Once they are on their way back to town, James cancels the orb. Turning their horses westward, they quickly get to a gallop and race past the town. James fills Jiron in on what happened and how Jared came to die.
Chapter Twenty Two
“Damn!” curses James.
“What?” asks Jiron as he walks over to where James is kneeling over a small pool of water. While Jiron was watering the horses from the spring, James had dug a hole and filled it with water to use to scan for hostiles. Looking over his shoulder, he sees over fifty horsemen riding through the desert. “So?”
“Take a closer look,” James says as he moves aside to allow Jiron to take his place.
The riders whom he had first thought were soldiers turn out to be mages. He glances to James and asks, “How far away?”
“Can’t be more than an hour,” he figures. He lets the water’s surface return to normal as he says, “I don’t think I can handle that many. I took a closer look and several have gray hair.”
“Meaning we are about to be hit by mages with experience?” he asks.
Nodding, he adds “And with power I would imagine.”
“What should we do?” Jiron asks.
“I don’t know,” he replies. “To the north I saw some old ruins but nothing there that could even begin to protect us against them I’m afraid.”
Walking over to where the horses are drinking from the spring, they quickly get back in the saddle. Jiron gets a thoughtful look and asks, “Could you raise another sandstorm? Turned out to be quite effective the last time. We could ride north and take shelter in those ruins you saw.”
“Maybe,” he says. “It might work if the storm could be raging when they get to it. Else they may be able to stop it before it even gets started.”
“Then what are we waiting for?” he asks. Kicking his horse in the flanks he bolts away from the spring with James right on his tail.
They keep a hard pace, trading off on the spare horse to maintain the horses’ strength for as long as possible. Little over an hour later, the first sign of the ruins comes into view, a single broken wall jutting straight out of the sand.
“We’re getting close,” comments Jiron as they pass by the broken wall. Up ahead are still more jagged walls jutting out of the sand. Most rise vertically while others leave the ground at an angle.
“Strange,” breathes James as he glances at the walls around them. As they progress further into the ruins of what is beginning to appear to have once been a city, the number of walls steadily grows. Again, some of the walls are vertical while others are slanted in one direction or another.
As they pass through, they hunt for a structure that will afford them some protection against the storm James intends to summon. Several minutes after passing the first broken wall, a series of more sizeable structures appears ahead of them.
“Find us a place in which to shelter,” James tells him indicating the structures ahead. Dismounting, he hands his reins to Jiron and adds, “I need to begin this storm before they come any closer.”
“Right,” he says. Taking the reins, he leaves James to summon the storm and makes his way further into the ruins. He passes sections of walls that once had been buildings. Some are practically whole with but a single wall missing or a portion of the roof. The wind begins to pick up and he glances back at James who’s lost in concentration. Take your time, he thinks as he hurries to find shelter.
Working his way through the ruins, he comes across a stone dome rising several feet from the ground. At first thinking it was resting on the ground, he’s soon to realize that most of the dome is still beneath the ground with only the uppermost section visible. That gives him a better appreciation of the scale of the buildings that used to be here. He had thought the broken walls they’ve come across were from the first floor of the buildings. But taking into account the dome, these walls must be what remains of the upper stories. No telling just how far down the buildings actually extend.
Finally, he comes across a building with most of the walls and good portion of the ceiling still intact. Taking the horses through the hole in the wall, he walks them over to the far side. Leaving them behind, he returns to tell James what he’s found.
On his way back to James, the wind begins to pick up. Sand starts flying through the air as the wind whips it up off the ground. Pulling his shirt over his head to protect his face, he hurries through the ruins.
He finds James exactly where he left him. Eyes squinting tight to ward off the flying dust, he has a hand over his nose and mouth in an attempt to keep the sand out.
“They’re fighting me!” he shouts to be heard over the wind as Jiron comes to a stop before him.
“Can you hold it?” he asks.
“I doubt it,” replies James. “There are too many working against me.”