Run For The Talisman: Roger Twowinds, #1

By L. E. Doggett

Roger Twowinds, a young Native American mage, needs to find a very powerful talisman made centuries ago. The talisman is so old that most knowledge of it has been forgotten. It has recently been exposed which allows other mages to sense its powerful force. He needs to find its location before one of the other mages can find it first and to place it back in where it had been hidden. He has a series of journals and tales that have hints of where it is. 

 

Along the way he gathers team members and friends who are destined to help him. He will need all the assistance he can find for he will be in danger of half dragons, fierce storms, reezing weather, a wolf-man, strong mages, vampires and various other dangers. Roger will make mistakes, people will die but he will never give up until he finds it. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: L. E. Doggett
• Release date: Apr 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201153809

L. E. Doggett

I am an older writer and Indie publsiher. I write both short stories and novels, in various genre.  Soon to be four novels published.  I live in Central California where it is Hot during the summer and many times we have Fog: thick pea soup or Tule fog. 

Book preview

Forward

And acknowledgments too.

This novel was originally a weekly serial I wrote while a member of a specific writing group on Google + when it was open to the public. I forget how many weeks it went but it was at least 25. Later I went back over it and add things and deleted some flashbacks. Even later I revised it again adding some and deleting some. When I decided it was ready I had it edited and went back over it one more time to correct the edits. Again I added a few lines and deleted a couple of lines. Now it is ready for others to read. Some of the other members of the writing group liked what I had originally and a I had couple of fans who were non members. I wonder what they would think of this version but that was a few years ago and google+ is for businesses if it is still around. No way to contact those who liked it.

I believe that some—at least—of this book is my best writing so far. I have written ten books—five I have Indie published—and a few hundred short stories. A few have been published.

The book was edited by Ashley Olivier ashleyolivier at gmail dot come  She has done other editing too.

This novel’s cover was done by JM Steger or Fantasy and Coffee at jmsteger09 at gmail dot. com  He is on facebook—Johannus M. Steger and YouTube—Fantasy and Coffee. He has done previous covers for me and always does an excellent job. I call this one a fantasy-preindustrial steampunk set in an alternate Earth

Chapter One

The Launch, Wind Shear

I leaned against the hard, wood rail of the Screaming Seagull. The airship’s gasbag shaded me so I stayed there. Soon we would launch. Not much for me to do right now with the launch. A week or so from now just before we landed in Sweden for more weapons I would be needed. And later for this would be a long and dangerous journey.

Maybe I should scare a bear away. It had come by earlier by the strength of the smell of the spoor it left behind. It probably had been scared by the noises people make but it could come back after fish tonight. It would not take much aethery energy to create an illusion of fire just for it but I didn’t know where it was. I could scare other animals and humans. They might panic and leave the airship undone. I shrugged.

Captain Teil and his first mate Jaclyn yelled last moment orders to his men. I glanced at the almost bare ground his airship sat on. I saw a few weeds and flowers growing. I smiled at that. A forest, with pine, oak, red maple and even more trees grew on three sides of the landing field. The fourth side showed buildings, a small wharf, and the Atlantic ocean.

I could hear the waves when they hit the rocks and that wharf. Scents from the salt water, dead fish and more came my way too. I would be glad to be gone from the decay stinks. Every member of the crew would agree with that. I pitied the workers here but they might be used to it. Good thing I could also smell the pine trees, natural mulch that collected under the trees and more. I am glad the bear hadn’t come by earlier. We may have hunted it for supplies for our journey. Bear meat tastes awful. It is chewy and full of fat. Not a good meal unless you had nothing else to eat than it wasn’t bad. Still I preferred a fish stew even then.

The Screaming Seagull bobbed and lurched back and forth in the wind. Since the airship just hung by thick ropes and metal cables that was natural and nothing to be concerned about.

The airship, just like most of them, looked like a sea going vessel caught by some flying, many tentacle long form of blowfish. I did not know if the Seagull would float if we crashed into the ocean with the gasbag, but I thought it would. It had a pointed bow with a figurehead. This one looked like a sea bird with a female human head. That included long flowing hair carved to look like the wind of the Seagull’s passage blew it out all the way to the bird’s wings. It had been paint black though to match the rest of the ship.   My thin wizard’s robe, with brown, white, and purple swarths did little to block the wind we were ready to join. Good thing it covered my favorite outfit: buckskins, which did keep me warm.

The crew of the airship prepared for takeoff. They untied the strong hawsers which kept it bound to the ground, and double checked that everything on the deck was still tired down. They climbed up the yardarms to undo the steering flags and more.

My name is Roger Twowinds, which isn’t my birth name, but it fits me. I am full blooded Yemassee, the Gentile People. My tribe lives near the first waters of the Savannah River, many miles from the nation named the United States and many hundreds of miles from the Empire of New Hampshire. I have learned, though, how to be not so gentle, and I knew that I would have use those lessons again on this trip.

A stronger breeze started up. The rotten fish smell grew.

About thirty feet from where the airship sat, the land slopped downhill until it entered the ocean near that wharf I could see and another one blocked by the warehouse and fish cleaning building. I could make out a wide trail that fish traders could use; they typically used six different sites for buying fish and other sea foods. An occasional small whale or large shark also showed up in the village to be cut up.

Jacyln, the first mate, yelled her commands—she knew curse words in eight languages, which included her native tongue and she used them when someone did not do their job. She came from the Africa Continent. Captain Teil is an American, I am a Native to this land. The rest of the crew were from many lands. The mercenaries along on this trip were mostly from England but had a couple of Americans, Spanish and one or two Africans too. Captain Teil had been honest with them, so they knew I had little idea of where we were headed on this journey. They did not seem to be bothered by that fact. Neither were the mercenaries I had paid for. Our quest that would later turn into a running race would be a grand, dangerous, and needed adventure. We would need smarts, sneakiness, speed, luck, all of my power and prayer to get back home in one piece.

They did not know more because I did not know more. We needed to find that ancient talisman even though I had little idea where it lay hidden. I did not even know what the artifact could do, nor what it looked like, only that it had enough power to destroy whole counties, sink islands and a wizard with it could become emperor. It had to be hidden.

The Seagull danced in the air. The gas balloon wanted to fly. More shouts and six hawsers dropped from the side of the ship to land on the hard dirt that made up this airfield. There was a small stake in the ground for the front and three mooring spots on each side. The spots looked like thick metal hitching posts dug deep into the ground. At the same time, another six of the five-inch-thick ropes were drawn in and stored on huge spools.

The ground looked further away. We had started to raise even before the last one hit the ground, or even the last one stored on the ship had finished spooling.

Jaclyn yelled, Lift those hawsers. Snap to! We got a ship to lift. Tie that one line down!

The crew knew what needed to be done by long practice, and they worked hard. It seemed to be a tradition that she had shouted the same orders each time the Seagull was to take off.

The wind grew harder but not too strong. A ground crew made up of young boys gathered the ropes on the ground. They did so while running with joyous yells, as if in the middle of a contest to see who got the most ropes. After they each grabbed a rope, they took it to one of the three short, long buildings to one side. Many of the children had the same reddish color of skin as I did, for they were also natives to this land. Most of the remainders wore pale skin, while a couple had what I knew to be olive skin. These were second or third generation colonists from England, Spain, Ireland, Germany, and other countries.

Muser-Tesla-Franklin accelerators started to glow yellow. We did not need them yet but would very soon. The airship rose, the bottom of the hull hanging ten feet off the ground, twenty, twenty, thirty, thirty-five—My feet shifted, men yelled, steering sails flapped hard, and ropes creaked. I stumbled and saw water where I should have seen deck.

A strong force had slapped the gondola. My robes blew out behind me, I grabbed the railing, and shouts erupted. Gears slid by me. The ship’s hull lifted sideways.

I realized that a powerful gust of wind had hit the craft. It tried to blow my robe off, and I was glad I had my usual buckskins on under it. I nearly rolled over the deck from the powerful blasts, but I kept my footing. More startled exclamations from the sky sailors filled the air. The first mate and captain both shouted instructions; later I realized that they hadn’t contradicted each other, even if to my ears they sounded like it, at  the time. 

Like most vessels of the air, the ship part of the Screaming Seagull hung fifteen feet below the gasbag to give room for the poop deck, other superstructures, and stirring sails. The wind had shoved the gasbag sideways off course and worse, the ship’s hull started to tip more with the wind. Men yelled and slipped. One steering sail flew by my face. Captain Teil yelled more orders. The air stunk of the decaying fish in that nearby pit, which seemed to be a lot closer than it had been. I turned my head and stared at the sea for a moment. The waves looked choppy. A smaller boat rose and fell with the waves. I also saw a large ship plowed through them with little trouble, it most have one of the new steam engines.

Enough small drops of seawater plastered my face to almost drown me. The sight of the sea where it should not be disoriented my mind. My fingers slipped even as I tried to press them into the wood.

My very recent memory of fish stew changed to fish vomit. The picture in my mind almost made me throw up now. I had to concentrate on my power, my last thoughts combined with the quick movement of the hull worked together to break my wizardry.

My will tried to twist out of my command, to think on those mental pictures. I’d better do something fast or I could end up in the water-forty feet down at any second. I drew in power to block the wind. It was that or make a counter force stronger than the wind on the other side of the Seagull. If I took the time, I might have been able to find this wind’s source and rearrange the weather pattern that had produced it, but that would take more work and time than I wanted. 

The deck rocked and groaned. One man said, We’re going down. Another yelled in fear, while a third near me whispered a prayer. I saw they caught themselves on various parts of the deck. This wind could damage the ropes that held the ship to the gas bag too. Something needed to be done, and I needed to do it.

Despite where my mind wanted to go—images of vomit and panic, plus how my stomach felt—I managed to pull in some of the natural aethery energy that I use to reshape reality. It’s everywhere, so it’s no problem getting some. Deep inside me I store some, but I only use that if I have to. My stomach flipped, the wind shoved at me, my feet slipped. Splitters would have entered my skin, but the wood of the railing felt smooth. I’ve had experience working wizardry in extreme danger and in handling odd positions but this seemed worse. My feet slipped downward and may hands joined them on the smooth railing.

My fall would not be a smooth dive either but a fall with my limbs akimbo. But even a dive would be bad. I could see rocks down there, and some might be moving. It was hard to tell since the deck wouldn’t stop moving, and I didn’t want to risk it.

With a hard command, I pushed away those thoughts and concentrated on what wizardry I wanted to produce. My hand glowed, and I raised it so my palm would face the wind. The deck rocked back and forth and jerked in the air. More objects slid by me. Water flew into my face, dripping off instead of down my robes. I had it though, I would form a V-shaped block that would divert the wind to both sides of the Seagull.

However, even as I started to release my wizardry, the wind died on its own. I drew the energy back and let out the breath I was holding. The gondola swung back down at the sudden let up of the wind. The ship continued to swing up the other side a little then came back down where it settled down without any of teh back and forth movements they wind had cause. Large thumps indicated that some of the crew had dropped to the surface of the ship. Everything appeared calm. Captain Teil ordered the planks and the ropes to be checked. I kept the wizardry power, though, in case another hard wind came our way. Real seagulls cried and flew around us; they did not seem upset over the gusts in the air. Maybe it had not hit them hard.

It wouldn’t have taken much of my ability to produce the block, even though it took me longer than it should have to form it. Only a couple of heartbeats, but that can mean the difference between a win and a loss of life.

Over the years, calling or pulling in the natural energy I use has become second nature to me, but there are still hinderances that could slow me down at a crucial time

A shadow looked out of place. I turned and looked in the direction it came from. The tree line, mostly pine, which began over three hundred feet from what had been our tie down spot, seemed closer than it should. We had been over the water but now we floated halfway to the trees. I studied the ground that now lay between us and the sea. Nothing looked wet as if the ocean had been blown over the land. We must have been blown one way then another while I concentrated on my wizardry.

The direction of the wind changed; it blew across the right side of my face, straight on my nose and eyes, then around to the left side of my face. I didn’t like that, so I moved over to a stand on the wind-free side of a support pillar.

I studied the ship. Jacyln ordered a change in direction. Noises made me look down. The airfield had been built on one of the few flat areas in this section of the land. Three low huts and a larger two-story building sat at one end. Some of the children who gather the dropped hawsers were in the process of picking themselves up and running back to where they had been when knocked over. None limped, held their arms or otherwise showed that they were hurt bad.

That wind had been unusual. I sent out a tendril of energy to check the wind. When it came back it had no sense of the wind being made or affected by wizardry. The wind had come from somewhere even if everything looked clear here. I studied the horizon and noticed a bad storm in the distance. Powerful storms were not unusual here. We’d had them in my people’s land, however. This one appeared to be headed for land. I found it hard to say but it might land in either two or maybe three of the states that belong to the United States. That country had twenty, but only a few touched the ocean. I hoped it would turn further east and hit the Empire of New Hampshire. Any damage it could do to them would be a good action done by Providence.

I knew enough about hurricanes to know they can influence the weather hundreds of miles away from their source. In which case this may have been just an unusual arm of that storm. I shrugged. There was no evidence that it had been created or directed by wizardry. However, the timing of it gave me a bad feeling.

No one should know where I was headed or why. I hadn’t kept it a deep secret, but I made sure only Captain Teil knew why we were going on this hunt—which later turned into a race. Very few people knew I was going anywhere. The fact that I was going on a journey at all would not raise suspicions either. I have gone out on many trips across the oceans for visits, to explore old sites, to fight deadly supernatural creatures, to buy weapons. Maybe the unknown person’s had been influenced by the fact that I had not been the one who had hired the airship before.

One of the ground crew shouted up to us, Ahoy, Seagull. Is everything and everyone okay?

Captain Teil leaned over the railing and yelled, Everything is fine. No one’s hurt. We’re just making sure the Seagull is still in shape for the air. How is everyone on the ground?

Like you, no one was hurt.

They both said their farewells and went back to work. After a few more minutes, Captan Teil came over to me.

He said, Was that some type of attack?

Not as far as I can tell. It looks to be just some strange natural phenomenon.

Captain Neil nodded then said, I have seen wind do things like that. If we had still been down, it probably would have passed us overhead. It usually happens out over the water, but I saw an airship smack the water hard even though we were untouched. The captain claimed a powerful gust of wind had pushed them downward.

We talked more until his first mate shouted to say that everything checked out. He nodded at me then turned to give orders to take off again. I looked back out over the trees. I would miss the land while I was gone. I live not far from those trees. Fir trees, junipers, cedar, and yews to name only a few. Of course, my people usually called them something else, but I traveled with the white men so I used their names for things. 

My people’s land starts just over seventy miles from here. There I learned to hunt, fought in wars, and played games. My parents and cousins still lived there just like our family had for many generations into the past. When my ability to use the wizardry energy made itself known at the same time my body started the changes that would turn it into a man’s body, it was decided that I needed someone to teach me.

However, the shaman of my tribe could see that he could not help me for he knew I needed another tradition. He and other shamans advised me to join a wizard’s school fifty miles up the coast from here. It is the only one for hundreds of miles. They had set it up just inside the border of the United States.

I hear that another one was formed on the Canadian border at the far end of what they call Lake Superior. And yet another by where the Mississippi River flows into the ocean. I wondered if that one was still there, for the Azteca has moved into that area. Many Europeans had settled along there with many from Africa brought as slaves, but who were no longed owned my men. They built a small city there near where the mighty river exits into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 

The academy, operated by a joint venture between the United States and a wizardry school in Europe, taught many wizards. I was one of the very few natives, though. That wasn’t the teachers’ fault, however. Most life energy users that are native born learn from their tribe’s shaman. Very few people become wizards. Azteca have some but they become priests to their sun god. Some of the ones who have black skin and who settled around the Mississippi’s mouth brought a school of wizardry that originally came from Jamaica but which has adopted various teachings from many traditions. I have seen some of their gatherings where they call on their various gods. 

I am one of a kind. I know something about shamanism, a bunch from the European schools, a little of two of the African traditions, and some I have made up. Most wizards make up tricks with mixed results. I also studied some of the use of djinns and necromancers. The necromancers are the worst, as well as the alchemists who work with blood. Even reading on how they work their wizardry makes me feel unclean. Well, alchemists do something other than wizardry. They change reality by the use of potions and chanting.

That could be why I have had dreams about a very powerful artifact. This journey, had already begin with a huge problem. Despite what I told Captain Teil about the wind being natural, I suspected a malcontent behind its production. I told him that I had checked for any evidence of wizardry energy use and found nothing. I told him the truth there. The wind had no signs, no traces left by the person who had made it, if anyone did. I had managed to reach out and find some of the air that had touched the Seagull. It had tiny traces of the wards I had made for the airship. I could not get all of the air, so it’s possible that I missed the key sections. Or any wizard that sent the wind our way may have used a technique I did not know yet. Or they could have been disguised as unused energy even though that is very hard to do and few know how. Or it could have been natural, but if so, Providence may have a sense of humor or because of the timing, it had been a warning. 

A sigh formed again. The reason I had put together this hunt was to find an ancient artifact—a talisman. Possibly the first one every made, and maybe the most powerful one ever found.

One problem I have is that nowhere in my dreams, nor in the old journals I’ve read, is the artifact described, and there is only the barest hint of where it was hidden. That’s why I had to hire Captain Teil and his crew, along with fifteen mercenaries to help me find it. 

Captain Teil’s airship is small more like a schooner had been built to be quick and maneuverable. The shape of the ship itself and the size and design of the gasbag are much like a thin cigar with an arrowhead tip. The placement of the ship to the gasbag is different too. Even the location of the steering sails. The crew too all contributed to its speed and how fast it could turn, rise and sink. 

I looked over the crew and professional soldiers. We had some weapons, but we would get more at our first stop. I had ordered some specially made, as we may have to fight half-dragons and other supernatural creatures. Hopefully we would not run into any real dragons, for then we would be dead. They were very rare, though. They never were plentiful but over time wizards made sure there were even less of them to breed, by killing them. 

The Muser-Tesla-Franklin accelerators hummed and sparked with colors only I and the operator plus one or to others could see. The wind would push us at one point then would hinder us, but the accelerators could move an airship even against any wind and push the airship faster than even a strong tail wind would.

The Seagull can move very fast, as I said. Captain Teil used that speed in many circumstances. Sometimes to smuggle goods and other times he had run from pirates of the air, plus he had snuck into various cities and snuck out people in danger from kings and assassins, and more. He had a repetition for being honest and always getting the job done, and also for getting supplies delivered faster than most other freight haulers.

On this trip more than likely the Seagull and crew would have to fly and maneuver very quickly as a defense from aerial beasts and maybe other airships. I have yet to figure out if the screaming part of the name was to invoke thoughts of a seagull about to attack, a fear yell, or just an expression of frustration over the exploits of its thirty-man crew. It could be all three.

I am still not sure why I have done all of this, discarded my plans to put together this quest. have read many old journals, scrolls and even books that I have found while exploring old cites and other ruins, or could buy from others. A few months ago, while I read certain texts over again, a new desire formed. Over the next few weeks, it grew and lodged in my heart. I knew the artifact needed to be hidden where no one could find it.

Why me? I had no idea except that I knew of the talisman. It had been lost so many centuries ago that no one knew of it anymore. I had asked people I knew some subtle questions. Only two older mages had even an idea that it might exist. So, my knowledge may have left me the only one able to find it and secrete the thing again. Two months ago, I had my first dream about the talisman. Basically, someone told me to find the talisman that I had read about and to hide it again. That last puzzled me. Nowhere was there even a hint that it wasn’t hidden anymore. I have had two dreams since. They each had a shadowed figure tell me pretty much the same thing in each dream. In the second one I almost was able to make out who was talking to me.

I stared outward, at the sky. and considered my quest. My thoughts bordered on dark ones. We might search for years while being attacked by strange animals and possibly natives of whatever land we searched through. That is why I hired the fifteen soldiers. I had wanted more, but we didn’t have room nor money for that.

In the middle of my thoughts I suddenly stood on a cold plain. A wind buffeted me but not enough to blow me away. I looked around, saw a dust cloud in the distance which could be an army or a stampede headed my way. A cold wind made me shiver. My breath came out in small white clouds. When I looked around the plain had no living thing on it. No trees, not even in the distance, to hide behind or in the tops of.

My shields were up around me, but if that dust cloud showed a stampede or army on the march, the shields would not last long, when either hit me. I watched it get closer. After seconds I could see stringers form. They stretched out from the main body. A dozen heartbeats later I could make out separate forms under the cloud. So an army after all, running my way.

I did what I could to strengthen my shield even pulled it in a little on each side. That would leave me open on the right and left but if they got that far I would probably be almost dead anyway. I shook my head, for I knew some of those in that army.

Wait. How could I know any of them?

It didn’t matter I willed the earth to come up. With a sudden surge, an uneven wall rose up right in front of the mass of running warriors. The edges curled inward so it would drive those on the outer sections into those in the middle. Even if most stopped in time before they ran into others or the wall, it would halt the charge and cause confusion. I waved my hand and particles of aethery flew over the wall. I knew they would cause some to forget why they were there and others to perceive other warriors as their enemy.

I blinked. I did not know how to do that and if I did it would take more than a wave of my hand and a simple act of will. Was this a memory from someone else?

Shiny lights flew over the wall in three places. Heavy duty tricks. The mages most be using talismans to do sendings that powerful that easily.

Two fizzed out halfway to me. The third one came in quicker than I had realized. Within two heartbeats it reached me. I did not know what it was suppose to do but it would be hard. I could tell it packed a heavy amount of energy. It would hit harder than three canon balls and a lightening bolt at the same time. I was not worried though. When it hit energy poured over me. More than I had ever seen from one trick. Enough to get through my shields and turn me to ashes, or slam me hard enough to send me flying backwards a mile.

When it hit, the life energy poured over me like a wave of water. I smelled and tasted ozone, I felt no impact nor heat from it. I looked around, the ground tore—chunk went flying—what scrub bushes there were burnt away instantly, the air turned white from the energy.

I could not help self, I closed my eyes as tight as I could. But a few heartbeats later and I reopened them. I was okay. I blinked again. How could I survive those hits from who were very powerful mages? Not only still alive but untouched. I could sense the tricks they sent: Power, heat, transformation tricks, impact with the force of tones of mass and more.

Streaks of light went from my hand. They flew over the wall that had risen between me and the men. They landed on the other side with explosions and waves of force. I could see enough over the wall of earth to see that men in armor went flying. I saw one of the top mages on that side fly up then down hard. Half a dozen lesser mages lost limbs and heads. More tricks came my way. Some were blocked while others were sent back at the creators. I wondered how I did that.

The surviving top mages combined their energy into a ball of fire—I saw it was more than any fire that I knew. In one heartbeat they threw it my way. A force came up in front of me but the ball went through it and smacked into me. I felt its heat burn as I flew backwards. I think I screamed.

I hit hard and rolled across the dirt and rocks. My right arm became dislocated, my skin melted but somehow I lived and got right back up. I didn’t see how I could. My clothing smoldered and I realized that I wore furs and very rough robe over them. That garment had holes in it where that intense fire had burned the cloth.

My hair seemed to be still on fire but neither my hair nor my scalp burned. I looked at my right arm and muttered something I didn’t even catch, in an ancient language. A wave of pain and my shoulder slipped back into place. That is when I realized that it wasn’t my skin that melted but something over my skin. Some form of energy I did not know.

I sent back two aethery balls and a wave. The first two bashed through the wall I had risen sending chunks of rock into the faces of warriors and mages. The wave went over the ground just a nose height and where it dipped and touched tiny mounds and full size rocks a blue light grew. The light formed outlines of people. The light brightened then cleared. Warriors stood where the outlines had formed.

They yelled and charged the warriors on the other side, going around the wall that was still up. Holes had been blasted in it but not many so it still hindered the attackers.. I had never seen or even heard about fighting men being raised up like that before. I have read lots of books, and scrolls, some over a hundred years old, but none of them even hinted at this. 

Just when I sensed a surge of aethery energy a sudden movement in the dirt in front of me and the ground exploded upward. Behind me a huge rock, half the size of the Seagull, came out of the ground. The mages  among the attackers must have send a trick underground to try to surprise me, or whoever I had hooked a ride with.

I waved my hand and another three huge rocks launched out of the ground, like from a volcano, tore through the sky over the earth wall. One hit a shield of energy and shattered. Another fall on the other side of the wall and may have hit a mage, plus warriors. Another seem to disappear. A moment later it fell out of the sky and plunged into the ground.

This battle continued with more and more of the attackers—fighting men and mages—dying. I had started to sweat but didn’t seem tried. My tricks were just as strong and many as they had been at the beginning. I could tell that some of the other mages were tried but they kept up the attacks. I knew by no that they wanted something from me.

A huge aethery energy strike flew my way but a slight wave of my hand and it was deflected. It hit the ground quite a distance away with enough force to shake the ground. Four mounds of dirt and a hard looking spire rose out of the ground to different heights. A moment later a long section of the ground sunk, almost like a brand new riverbed.

I had heard of mages that had sunk islands and one or two that created new land masses above the sea. One was suppose to have added a section four leagues long and five wide to one country that bordered the Pacific Ocean. So these changes to the landscape did not surprise me. That they happened after this long of a mage battle did though.

More rocks came flying in and out. I felt a build up of aethery power and knew that some of the master mages had combined their energy for something big. It went into the ground and my shield became a ball around me. Something was coming up under me. I blasted out more fireballs and a whole segment of the ground. That impacted the ground right over the wall I had raised then the ground under me exploded in heat and force. I was launched into the sky and a river of hot fire surrounded me. Boulders hit my shield and bounced off. Even as I spun and flew upward I hardly felt the heat from what now realized was lava. Someone had released a damn volcano.

A river of melted rock poured out in every direction, like melted candle wax. I got control of the ball I was in and forced it back to the place I had been. A waved of coolness went out from me and spread over the lava. It all cooled in an instant even though it left a small crater with lava still down it. A cone of rock now sat where I had been. It wasn’t as tall as I expected nor as wide.

Some of that molten rock had ran toward the wall of dirt I had raised. It had gone through it and killed many of the warriors that were left and some of the mages. They had been too weak to protect themselves. 

Just then I realized something else I had no crystal or other way to store this energy. Yet, I had been using copious amounts of it. More than any ten wizards I knew could store in themselves.I sent out feelers of power and found a string that led elsewhere. I assumed it was wherever the source of this power was. I had never heard of that before. I must have hidden it away but still had a connection to it. Somehow I knew it knew me and would alway send what I asked of it.

I gasped and leaned against a wood mast. What? I blinked and looked around. I took a breath and saw that I stood back on the Seagull on its way to pick up weapons and further supplies before we headed on my quest. I shook my head and knew I had been in a waking dream.

How had that happened and why? Maybe I had needed to know something or whoever had been sending the dreams thought I was asleep. I sent out strings of power but they found nothing. No leftovers from whatever amount of energy had sent me into that dream. I believed it had happened and somehow I had hitched a ride with a real person. But for what reason? To show me how dangerous the Artifact is? To make me run faster to get to it before anyone else? Someone sent me a message but missed with part of it? If the last maybe I should start asking around to mages I know, to see if anyone has been having dreams where they were someone else?

Not good. 

I looked around. Then started on myself to see when all of this started. Hopefully I hadn’t taken a plunge toward a lost mind. Intense dreams and now waking visions could be a sign of that. Memories of my time at the mage school came to mind. As I said, it lay thirty miles from where we had launched, and I had gone to visit the teachers there twice while getting ready for this trip. I had searched their records, but I had found only one reference to the artifact. According to that account, if it was the same talisman, it could be held in one hand for a person who had held it did so with only a single hand. Which meant it was small. For a few seconds I had thought it might be too large to carry around which would be why this guy in my waking dream had not had physical contact with it.

I didn’t know if I had what it took to run this quest, nor what it took to order a crew and especially the mercs around. We would no doubt participate in battles against dangerous beasts and men, so Captain Teil had suggested, I hire a band of mercenaries who were used to hard work and the supernatural. I found a group of fifteen which included two sergeants and one officer. The airship was very crowded, but the holds were only half filled which gave the mercs room to sleep and to do some easy training. The soldiers were used to tight quarters, so they did not seem to mind. They were one of the reasons my gold had been mostly used up.

Teil shouted my name from the other side of the wheel, and gave me a thumbs up, when I looked. I assumed that he wanted to tell me that we were on our way now and we would succeed.

Roger isn’t my birth name, but I have used it for so long that it is comfortable. Twowinds is a shortened version of my given name. I use it because of familiarity besides there are aspects of wizardry that can use a person’s or object’s real name for mischief. 

A flapping noise caught my attention. A steering sail had caught the wind as the Seagull turned. I would be hearing a lot of that where my cabin was located, for the Seagull carried sails along each side railing, much like a fore topsail on seagoing schooners. The ship could turn or change directions if Captain Teil, or the first mate, decided to change how the wind would hit the gasbag or how aethery was fed to each part of the excells. That would cause the ship to increase speed of to lower it 

My center of gravity shifted when the Seagull’s nose lifted to gain altitude faster. Not by much, but still enough for me to notice. This wasn’t normal for balloon airships, which usually went more or less straight up, but it was another thing that made the Seagull different. 

That reminded me of what Captain Teil and his crew did to a pirate vessel during my first trip on the Seagull. It was my third experience with pirates; my first time in the air. I barely escaped my first involvement with pirates, but me and the group I was with tore through the second crew. The ship burned and sank with hardly any survivors among the pirates. They hadn’t expected us to fight back in such a way. This third time, I learned there was a big difference to fighting in the air instead of on the ground.

I SAT ON THE DECK AND relaxed with my back against the side of the main structure. I enjoyed the cool air up here compared to the heat that lay over the land at ground level this time of year. I had just met Captain Teil. He seemed like a good captain with an excellent crew and a good repetition for honesty and caring for his men. The fierce image of him in the red, purple, and black clothing he liked to wear was undone by his smile and the twinkle in his eyes. I thought I could like him.

The black gasbag hung above the ship like some storm cloud of doom that followed the Screaming Seagull everywhere. It looked like this sinister wall above us that kept attracting my attention. I thought I could get used to it even though I knew the ship was in very good hands The main reason I could relax was that I didn’t have anything to do; the crew knew how to operate the ship, after all.

Back when I first traveled with Captain Teil I had heard they were headed the same way I was, so I paid to be a passenger on the way back home to the land on the other side of the ocean. The food and lodging weren’t up to the standards of a great airship, but I didn’t need fancy food or someone to wait on me. This flight would cost only half as much and get me back home to my village in a bit less than three-fourths of the time if I flew on a regular passenger airship. Both were good things. It was noisier on the Seagull, with more wind and rope sounds, plus the first mate yelling her commands. Captain Teil would join in at times. I didn’t mind, though.

I had gotten my air legs and now even the whine of the balloon making a passage through the air didn’t disturb me. Some cool tea would hit the spot. I had learned to like tea in England while I was there for mage training and a job. They drink it hot, but I found someone who liked it cold on hot days. I have had coffee in the United States, but tea had a better taste. Its scent was more subtle than coffee’s, too. Getting some, however, meant getting up and going to where they keep it. Maybe a steward would come in handy after all. Once I had it I could take care of making it cold to any degree I wanted, but I wasn’t too big on transporting cups full of liquid to my hand. A quarter of the time I never received it—the cup went someplace else—twice I got the cup with no tea, and once I got the tea with no cup. That not only burnt my hand but my lap, too. I had to go through the rest of the evening with a big wet spot on the front of my pants. Soon after that, I taught myself how to separate liquid from cloth. Four times I got the tea and cup, but sometimes not at the same moment or in the right place.

A shout shut down those thoughts