There was a last bit of fun for my people that last day. Gerrex and I spent the day mapping the town with my Varanian survey gear, as neither of us wanted to be around a lot of people. I explained everything involved in the surveying process to Gerrex, who just grunted in response to what I said, but he did actually seem interested in what I was doing. At least he understood how an accurate map could be useful. Charles and Helena stayed in camp, Charles whirling his longsword until he fell to the ground in exhaustion, and Helena meditating intensely upon the first level mandala I had given her. She seemed determined to meet my deadline, at least for now. She seemed to be an emotional sort, who knew if her passion for magic would last long enough for her to make something of herself as a mage. I suspected that if Brey made overtures toward her, she would drop the magic like a hot rock despite his liaison with that local girl.
When night was upon us, Syzmon and some of his people joined us for dinner and we passed a pleasant evening and when the morning came, we said our farewells and we started out our separate ways. By mid-morning we were rambling along an almost obliterated Varanian trackway that was little more than a shallow depression in the tall grass that grew straight and green all around on these plains. Above us, the sky was blue and clear and the morning warm, although Karl swore by his bad knee that more rain was coming. As we got closer to the mountains, the grass would change from a long grass prairie to a short grass prairie and our going would be easier. We constantly flushed rabbits, grouse, and dozen other birds and in the distance we could see herds of antelopes dotting the plains and once we saw a bear. We were on the north side of the little river now and moving away from it. The few watercourses we crossed were shallow and easily forded. I insisted that we refill all of water containers at every one of them to make sure we were not caught these almost featureless, and often times very dry plains without adequate water. I remember going thirsty for several days and losing a good horse to the lack of water on an adventure, and I was not about to allow that to happen again. Sometimes it seemed that being a good leader meant knowing what problems could occur and making sure you had the solutions before you got to the problem, at least that is how I did it.
In due course, I found myself riding besides the small wagon with Amenaruu and Helena. The big wagon rumbled and creaked ahead of us and my people were moving along the sides of the wagons with Gerrex scouting out ahead. Charles followed in the rear, constantly moving from side to side swinging his longsword at grasshoppers and butterflies that flew past him.
"I have been working on learning my magic," Helena said to me as I came near.
"So I have seen," I replied with a nod, but not really looking directly at her. "What else have you learned?"
"What do you mean? "She asked puzzled at the question.
"You are studying to be a mage," I replied, this time looking at her. "You have little to no power, and even if you master some First Level magic in the next few weeks and even with that ring I charged with spells for you, you will still be the weakest member of this party. I can tell you did not like me saying that, but I am not condemning you personally, this is the case for all wizards, not just you. We are all weak in the beginning of our careers. It takes time to accumulate magical power. One of the things that you can do to compensate for a lack of spell casting is to know things. The more knowledge, the more skills you have, the more problems you can solve. Fighting and adventuring are just different sorts of problems that need to be solved."
"But what can I learn out here in the middle of nowhere?" She demanded of me. "We have no books, no tutors out here."
"You are," I pointed out to her, "sitting next to a most learned man who comes from one of the oldest civilizations in the world. How much of the Stygian language can you speak now after traveling next to him for several weeks? Who is the current Pharaoh of Kemt? What are the major geographical features of his homeland?
"You are condemning me," she replied, with a pout. "You are angry at me for wasting my time."
"Helena, when or if you become my apprentice, that is when I will worry about how you are spending your time. Until then, what you do is your business and only you can know if you have been wasting your time."
We rode on in silence as Amenaruu looked over at us surreptitiously from time to time, but said he nothing and neither did I.
"If you were my master," Helena asked me after several minutes of silence, "what is it that you would have me learn when I was not meditating on my magic."
I could see by the smile on Amenaruu's face that he was pleased she had asked such a wise question. I got the impression that he was secretly cheering her on and hoping she would do well.
"The first thing you need to know is that magic is power," I answered her. "Once you start to wield it, events will start to happen around you. The more power you have, the more you will become the focus of attention and, if you follow the normal course of things, the more you want that attention as it will make you think you are important. But the problem with being important is that not all of the attention you get will be beneficial to you. That applies to a lot of different things, especially in combat where spellcasters are the first to be targeted. That is why I never dress like a wizard as I want to make it as hard as possible for someone to recognize my status in a group. I have avoided several crossbow bolts fired from ambuscade that way."
"How much power do you wield?" Helena asked me. "The really powerful mages live in castles."
The question was impertinent, but thanks to my medallion I knew it was meant as an honest question, so I did not take offense and I answered, "Enough to make my way in the world as my own man without having to lick the boots of another, but not so much that I can refuse all of the attention directed at me."
"You are talking about how you were made to go on this trip." Helena observed.
I did not answer her directly but I said to her, "You would do well to start looking at the world differently. Collect knowledge and skills like they are precious gems. Be curious and use your time now to prepare for the next problem to come along. You can generally get an idea of what is likely to happen by paying attention to what is going on around you, but more importantly, why it is happening. Soon, you will build up a series of solutions to the more common problems you will encounter. A good exercise is to take different objects, spells, even people, and try to figure out different ways of doing things with them. This will expand your capacity to solve problems."
We were just coming up on another fording, although the stream was only three long steps for a man, when Dimitri called out to me, "Gerrex is coming back and he is riding fast."
I looked up and saw our Orc scout riding as fast as he could toward us as behind him I could grass and debris being kicked up.
"Why is he running from dust devils? Godfrey asked as he saw the three truncated upside down cones dancing in the tall grass.
"The ground is too wet for dust devils and there is no wind," I replied loudly so that all could hear me. "Those are Air Elementals!"
Our Venetti mercenaries dropped off their horses and grabbed their pavise shields from where they hung on the side of the wagon and tied their horses to the same hooks. One of the elementals, who had been traveling in a line, more or less, broke away and jumped into the stream bed. Gerrex came thundering in at the same time a stone, thrown by the whirling mass of air, bounced off the side of our wagon like a stone thrown by a sling. If that damn elemental was not very accurate, it made up for its lack of accuracy with sheer volume as stones flew in with a whizzing sound like a swarm of hornets.
"Protect the horses," I cried out to my people as I slid out of my saddle. I looked over and found Amenaruu and Helena off their wagon and hiding behind it as the priest reached for his shield. Helena was just cowering, her eyes wide in fear.
"Stand in front of the horses and protect them! I ordered her.
"Have you gone mad?" She demanded of me as rock grazed the top of one of the side rails and sent broken splinters flying.
"You are wearing a magic amulet that protects you as long as you face the threat!" I said back to her. "Keep your back to the horses and you will be okay."
At least I hoped she would be okay, the spell was not foolproof against normal missiles, but the horses were a much larger target and already two of them were rearing in pain from being struck by rocks. Helena, her face pale and her eyes wide with fear stepped out from the wagon and stood in front of the horses.
"Use your Magic Missile spell on the closest one!" I ordered her before turning to see Dimitri jump into a head first roll to avoid being hit and come to his feet behind me, using me and my spell as a shield. This was not a cowardly act, but one of necessity as he had no protection from the incoming missiles and we could now easily communicate.
I cast my own shield spell first and with that in place, I stood up and walked to the outside of our makeshift perimeter and began my next spell. Rocks flew and deflected off of my spell, which allowed me time to cast. Amenaruu was still hiding, but he chanted out a song to bring down a blessing upon us all and that would help us fight these things in a general way. Chai's staff was spinning faster than my eyes could follow it as he deflected incoming fusillade with it. Brey ducked the best he could, but I saw him grimace and heard him cry out as stone the size of a large man's fist bounced of his mailed shoulder as he reached for a pavise shield to help the Venetti set up a defense.
My next spell was ready and I spoke the arcane words and shimmering wall of ice a foot thick (30.5 centimeters) and seventy feet long (21 meters) long suddenly appeared between us and the elementals. The elemental who had been spinning ceased its attacked and moved toward us, but another took up the barrage, but this time we had more protection thanks to my wall, although sparkling chunks of ice flew out into the sunshine as the rocks hammered on it and I knew it would not last long.
Two of the elementals moved to go around the wall as the third and closest to us continued to spin and throw rocks. Luckily, all of this did not break Helena's concentration and the wall was transparent enough for her to see her target, the spinning elemental, and she launched her Magic Missile attack. The six bolts of pure white energy went up over the wall and back down, following her will to strike the elemental fairly and it screamed out a loud reedy, high-pitched scream of pain or anger. It ceased spinning and threw itself angrily against the ice wall.
By now, crossbow bolts from the Venetti were flying out. They were the black bolts from the Death Knights, and they flashed out like black pieces of lightning as the dark life stealing energy surrounding them came into visible existence. Several of the crossbow bolts went astray from the winds that elementals were generating, despite the magical blessing of our priest and the magic in the bolts, but one struck home with a sizzling burst of black energy and we heard another high-pitched wail.
I cast my haste spell on my comrades, which increased our physical speed, but unfortunately, it did not increase the number of spells I could cast. Magic followed its own rules. I heard the sound of ice cracking and I turned to look. My ice wall was holding despite being battered and chipped and I thought it would hold a little while longer. I grabbed Helena by the hand and led her to stand in the gap between two of the wicker pavise shields to provide more protection for the horses.
"Lightning bolt," I said to her and pointed at one of the elementals. Still overwhelmed by the fury of combat, she just nodded. Charles, his long sword drawn and in a guard position came to stand by his sister. More crossbow bolts flew out, two of them hitting one of the elementals, while two flew off track, buffeted by the winds the elementals were generating. Now that the party has a Haste spell upon them, there would be more bolts flying out than before.
Most of my people had moved to face the two elementals coming toward or left flank, I turned and ran to take on the elemental coming around the right hand flank that Helena had wounded with her magic missile spell. It had apparently decided the wall was too much trouble to deal with. Luckily for us, they were easy to track in the long grass and I could move quicker than normal. As it came around the edge of the wall, I shouted out the command word and a lightning bolt flew out of my fingers in a white-blue flash that made the super-heated air crack with a miniature thunder clap. My spell overcame the innate magical resistance of the monster and lightning played over the elemental. Once it again it screamed, but it came after me with a vengeful purpose.