Chapter 32

Stix and Stone didn’t have as rocky a start as Jagger did.

Eddie, the Captain of the ship and his crew, had soon worked out what it was the mages were doing. Gazza had said that ten klicks was preferable but not more than fifteen if they could help it. Since they were not sure what happened to the crystals once they sunk, they decided closer was better than further apart. Gazza had given them plenty of spelled crystals to do this job.

Eddie had acquired a Mad some weeks before, so Stone was able to transfer the mapping program to it. They decided to have the device ping every nine klicks so they could slow down for the drop. They had identified several tiny islands that would be in their path if they had to stick close to the shield. They planned to drop some bigger crystal pieces on the islands, as they would provide good anchors.

The next three weeks went remarkably smoothly. Near the end of the second week, they pulled into the larger of the islands that were off the coast. It was close to two-thirds of the way around the sea side of the shield. It was about eight klicks long and three at its widest. The shield crossed its length and two-thirds of the island was under it.

They placed crystals on each end of the island before they left. Stone and Stix decided to fly to the middle of the island and placed several crystals here too. They would provide a stronger anchor on this side. They had both felt the shield was very weak where it touched this island.

If ants were supposed to have dropped crystals on this side, they might not have gotten close enough for them to be very effective, because the mainland was several klicks from the shield. They both noticed wreckage on the eastern beach. They felt that it was quite probable that survivors of storm-wrecked ships had used floats or lifeboats to get to the mainland from the little island.

They arrived in Two Rivers a couple of days ahead of schedule. They were cool with this, as they did have to get across two mountain ranges so some spare days, was better than being behind schedule. When they contacted Jagger, he informed them that he too was ahead of schedule. He was coming down the north side of the range and he would start crossing the plains in the next day or so.

Once the trikes were unloaded from the yacht, the couple did a quick tour of the market that was beside the wharf to stock up on some fresh food items. Neither the cost nor the quality of many of the items impressed either of them, as it was obvious that the locals had jacked up the prices for visitors.

Stix, with Stone helping her, had been able to put the ‘Dimensional storage space’ spell on the trikes’ storage boxes. They had also added the ‘Keep clean’ and the ‘Repair’ spells, plus several extra crystals to boost their power storage capabilities. Adding the road smoothing spell was a must, as they knew they would be going over some rough country. After looking around Two Rivers, Stix added an anti-theft spell, too.

Stix was inspecting a fruit with soft flesh under a thin orange and green skin that she was not familiar with, when she felt a tug on her backpack and then heard a scream. She turned to see a ragged boy on the ground nursing his hand. Stone was shaking his head as he looked at the boy.

“Did you hit that child?” a roughly dressed man asked aggressively as he approached them.

“No, sir. However, pick-pockets should be a bit more careful whose pockets they try to pick,” Stone replied good-naturedly.

“That is a strong accusation to make against one of our citizens,” the man growled taking an aggressive stance. His actions attracting the attention of the people near them.

Stix looked the man over. With some disdain, she told him, “You need to teach your workers how to identify a mark better.”

“What! How dare you indicate that I am in leagues with this little thief? He is just a filthy street urchin,” the Burgis man bellowed.

“Well, you do acknowledge that he is a thief. Your words and yours and his body language also indicate that you two know each other. Please leave us alone or I will have to spell you to do so,” Stix told him with some menace in her voice.

The man drew himself up and sneered, “What, think you’re some sort of mage, do you?”

Stix pointed to the oval-shaped, orange-skinned fruit and levitated it off the fruit stand and over to the shocked man. “I don’t have to think about what I am,” she replied. “Now, if you don’t mind, we wish to conclude our shopping.”

The man had paled and as the fruit approached him, he back-peddled as if it would attack him. He tripped over the boy who was still on the ground and went sprawling. Quite a few of the onlookers laughed as he untangled himself from the boy who tried to roll away from him.

While the man was humiliated, he was not game enough to take it out on the mages. He grabbed the child, cuffed him instead and screamed at him that he was useless and he would beat him for his incompetence. His tirade was halted when the fruit spattered into his face with some force. Orange pulp and small, round and black, slimy seeds went everywhere.

“Please do not hit the child again. This is not the actions of a benefactor. I believe you do need some help with remembering how to treat people with kindness, I shall place a hex on you to assist you,” Stix informed him with a hard voice and she lifted her hand as if she was going to spell him.

“No, no,” the man whimpered as he scrambled to his feet and took flight before Stix could touch him.

Stix shook her head. “Boy, come here.” Reluctantly and with much fear, the boy got to his feet. He did not run, however. He stood tall as he faced Stix who towered over him. Stix looked down on him, “What is your name?”

“Stan, my Lady,” he replied with resolve to accept his punishment.

“If I give you coin for food, he will just find you and take it from you won’t he?” Stan nodded, as did several of the bystanders. “Are any of these food sellers honest?” she asked the boy.

“Burly Bob is,” he replied quietly and pointed to a man who was a little away from them. He was ladling a savoury smelling mix onto a circle of flatbread. Bob sprinkled the mix with cheese crumbs and shredded green leaves and then wrapped the flatbread around the mix and handed it to his customer.

“I bet his food is good too, isn’t it?” Stix asked Stan.

“The best,” Stan replied and nodded his head. Several people also agreed with the kid’s statement.

“Come with me then, Stan,” Stix said and directed the young teenager over to the man he had called Burly Bob.

“A fine morning to you traveller. Do you wish to fill your stomach before you continue on your journey? My savoury, camla mince wraps are very filling and they will keep you going until lunchtime,” Bob informed Stix and Stone as they approached his stand.

Stone chuckled as he observed the huge eyes on the teenager as he watched Burly Bob form a fresh wrap. Stix was also aware of Stan’s hunger. “Mr Bob, I believe we will need three of your wraps. I also wish to ask what it would cost for you to serve Stan one of your wraps each morning for the next week?”

Bob looked at Stan as his fingers worked. The boy was of his race and he knew the boy hung around the markets. He guessed he was into his teenage years and he would be more than capable of working if he got fed a bit more. “Well, if he promises to help me set up each morning, I will give him breakfast,” he offered in turn.

“I know when you get here Burly Bob, I’ll be happy to help you set up,” Stan said excitedly with lots of head nods.

“You will also stay here and eat it. You know what will happen if you leave with it?” Bob warned Stan as he handed a wrap to Stone.

Stan grimaced and said, “I’m not that silly, Bob. I’ll sit under your table just to make sure I do get to eat it.”

Stix chuckled at the exchange. It probably wasn’t a permanent solution for the boy but it might help him in the short term. She accepted her wrap and then all other thoughts escaped her as the flavours exploded in her mouth. She was soon demolishing her wrap as fast as Stone was.

Bob chuckled as he handed Stan his wrap. Stan was soon devouring his treat just as fast as the two travellers were. Bob made his next wrap for his next customer. He had little trouble emptying his two large kettles each morning as quite a few people loved to eat his wraps.

His food had attracted the fisherfolk and many of the other stall owners. He now set up earlier so that they got some breakfast before they started their workday. He’d then go home and make the next pots for the evening trade. It was getting so that he needed some help as his wraps were becoming quite popular. He looked at Stan and grinned.

Stix was more than happy to pay Bob for the wraps and held out some coins. Seeing the boy had finished his food, Bob told him, “Stan, take the ladies coin and make sure you give her the right change. I know you can count.”

Stan looked at him with wide eyes but he happily did as Bob asked. Not even for a moment did he think of stealing from Bob. He was not a stupid boy, just an orphan. Stan was soon taking the money from the next customer while Bob formed his next wrap.

Stix smiled at the odd couple, “Thank you, Bob.”

Bob nodded, “Thank you. I hope your travels are happy.”

Stix and Stone went back to the fruit seller and purchased the fruit they wanted. Stix also insisted on paying for the pawpaw that she has splatted over the obnoxious man. The fruit seller had noticed what Stix had done with the street urchin. She even felt ashamed that a stranger had helped the boy when no one else had tried to. She made sure to charge Stix the local rate for the produce.

The couple soon had their purchases put away in the storage boxes on the trikes and were ready for the next part of their adventure.

The ants headed west to find the shield.

The ‘Smooth the road’, spells that Bette had taught Stix to put on an Auto if they decided to purchase one, worked very well on the trikes. The path they got the spell to form was designed to be only a metre and a half wide if they rode single file. It became wider if they rode beside each other.

They did have to avoid big trees, gullies with steep sides and large boulders unless they cleared the path themselves. The trail would do as a walking track but in most places, they didn’t make it wide enough for an auto or a cart to use. This suited the couple just fine, as it wasn’t meant to become a permanent track.

When they reached the shield, they parked their trikes and then flew towards the sea. Stix noticed that the clear zone was still at least two metres wide on either side of the shield. The earth floor in the zone was still uniform along its length just like where she had first crossed the shield. It still undulated with the land but the shield didn’t cut through cracks and small gullies, because the magic had filled the holes in and smoothed the path.

They had little trouble reaching the sea using the zone as a roadway. Stix planted a large crystal in the first high point from the water. Click indicated that the last crystal they dropped into the sea from the boat was only five klicks from them. This crystal would mark their starting place for this section of the shield.

As they flew back to the trikes, Stix said, “Stone, do you think the shield feels different?”

Stone moved so he touched the shield briefly. He was surprised to find that this time it didn’t feel so stiff. It had felt like pushing into a blanket when he went through the first time even with Stix wrapped around him. He crossed over to the other side of the shield and then flew back. “Well, I can still feel it but it is like pushing through a curtain that was meant to part, rather than a blanket like last time.”

“Good, that must mean Gazza’s spells are working. We have done over half the shields circumference now,” Stix reminded him.

They stopped back at the trikes for a bit to eat and then set them onto the path the shield created and headed south. They learned, as they rode along, that the shield’s flattening effect had caused some interesting results on several rivers and hillsides after two thousand years.

While the shield seemed to have allowed for some erosion and the acts of rivers, it still tried to smooth out the banks of the rivers and the slopes of hills to reduce the sudden changes in the height of the land. It didn’t seem to like a variation of more than thirty degrees over a ten-metre length.