God Mage - D.W. Jackson Page 0,43

There was too big a possibility that I would do more harm than good. Now that it has been a few days, there was little risk in what I did, so before you question me or my methods, I would suggest you learn more about what I’m doing in the first place.” As Lillian spoke, she marched toward the young warrior who continued to step back until the wall blocked his retreat.

Bren let out a long, solid laugh that ended in a coughing fit. “Would you two take your squabble elsewhere,” Faye said harshly, making both Cass and Lillian look troubled.

Just as she had promised, Lillian brought back a tonic for Bren that tasted like old boot leather mixed with mud from the bottom of a rancid lake, but within a day, he was back to feeling like himself. It was a good thing as well since local travelers started speaking of a large band of men encased in iron coming toward the town.

Once they left the small village, Hayao told them that there was only one more town between them and the Deadlands. Nagoya was a small village, and the one that all travelers from the villages went through on their way to deliver their cargo to the hidden valley.

It was a four-day ride, and it didn’t seem that it was going to be an easy one. The Brotherhood was closing in on them again and even sending in a few parties to attack, though most of them were lightly armored. Bren was guessing that the reduced numbers meant that he was not the only mage that had pushed himself a bit too far.

After two days, Bren picked up the group but only for a few hours out of fear of falling ill again. The worst of it was the lack of sleep. Ever since his fevered dream, Bren had been more than a little hesitant about sleeping. He knew that somewhere deep inside him, the other him waited, and he was in no mood to meet with the man again.

At night when they camped, Bren started using his magic to dig a trench around them and filling it up with spikes made of hardened earth. It was a basic trap, but one that worked well on dark nights and helped ensure that no one could easily sneak up on them. In the morning, he would quickly fill them in before they continued on.

Chapter 14

As they entered the small village of Nagoya, Bren felt more than a small amount of trepidation run through his mind. It was the last village until they reached what Hayao had been calling the Deadlands.

Tired from his extended use of magic over the past few days to keep ahead of the Brotherhood, Bren wanted nothing more than to enjoy a nice stay at anyplace resembling an inn, but as Cass pointed out, it would be far too dangerous to stay the night. Bren wanted to argue, but he knew that anything he said would sound hollow, even to his own ears. During the past fortnight, they had less than a handful of restful nights where the Brotherhood hadn’t tried their luck. To make matters worse, the Brotherhood never sent a large group just small ones spread out.

Bren had tried to use his own magic to increase their pace, giving them a few nights of peace, but he was not skilled in the art, and it had worn on him greatly. It was not just the mental stress; his whole body had been affected. To aggravate the situation, Bren now felt the calling of the magic even more—and he wanted it; he needed it—to keep himself from going insane.

Nagoya was like many of the other villages they had passed through. It was small and had buildings that were more art than house. He had seen so many of the buildings now that the small intricate details, which had been painstakingly put into each one, no longer caught his eye as they had before.

“How far ahead of the Brotherhood do you think we are?” Lillian asked in a drowsy tone.

“It is hard to say without sending someone back to check on them,” Cass said as he pushed forward through the town. “Given how well they were able to keep up with us before, I doubt that we are more than a day or two ahead of them.”

“We have to have gained more ground than that,” Brenda said snidely. “Bren has been pushing us forward for three