Trail of the Gods: The Morcyth Saga Book Four Read Online Free Page B

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