Light in the Barren Lands: Travail of The Dark Mage Book One Read Online Free PDF

numerous sewers he and James had encountered.
    One large pipe brought in fresh water from the stream, which was then divided into two smaller ones upon entering the house. One went to a large holding tank from which water was drawn for cooking and bathing. The other flowed continuously through the two indoor outhouses carrying bodily waste back to the stream and out to sea.
    That part bothered James, and on one of Jiron’s previous visits, he had tried to fix it only to come to the conclusion that what little he and his family put out was not worth the time and trouble to worry about, especially seeing as how their drinking water was in no way connected with the outflow from the house.
    Thoughts of the innovative ideas James had come up with occupied his mind during the walk out to the workshop area. When the path began its upward slope toward cresting a hill, he knew he was getting close. Almost to the summit of the small hill, a cloud of mist seemed to materialize in the air before him. Wondering what new thing James had added, he came to a stop.
    The cloud quickly formed into a short, stubby creature. It was shaped like a man but with a slightly greenish aspect and had pointy ears. Round oval eyes stared out at Jiron, and if he had met such a thing anywhere but there, he would have been nervous.
    “The Master is busy and cannot be disturbed,” the creature said. Seeming to float six inches above the ground, the creature fixed Jiron with its oval eyes and waited.
    “Tell the Master that Jiron is here to see him.”
    The creature reacted not at all to his words. Unfazed and unmoving, it continued to bar his way.
    Jiron moved to walk around the creature only to have it match his movements and remain in his way. About to try again, the creature said, “The Master is ready for you.” Then it passed from solid to gaseous in the blink of an eye before being blown apart by the breeze.
    “Interesting,” he said to himself and continued down the path.
    As he crested the hill, the roof of James’ workshop came into view through the trees and he hurried down the other side. After following the path over another, smaller hill, Jiron emerged from out of the trees and into the clearing.
    The workshop stood not far away. It was but a single room wherein James kept all the items useful to his experiments and where he could work out of the rain during inclement weather. Three glass globes were attached to the workshop right above the door; one red, one green, and the other yellow. The yellow globe was currently glowing. From past visits he knew that the yellow globe signified a ship had docked; in this case, The Water Sprite .
    The red would alert him that one of his roving sentries had encountered an intruder and was waiting for further instructions. Should that happen, he would move into the workshop to a mirrored tabletop where he would find the intruder and then determine what, if any, action would be called for. The only time a sentry would act autonomously was if it was attacked either by magic or physical force.
    The green alerted James that his presence was required back at the house. Most times it simply meant that a meal was about to be served and he had better hightail it back before it grew cold. Meliana used to hold meals for him, but after the second occasion of waiting until the food was cold, told him that if he didn’t come on time it was his own fault. He had less than a half-hour to make it back to the house before the meal would start without him.
    There was a new addition to the clearing that Jiron had never seen before. Not far from the workshop sat a round platform made of wood with half a dozen crystals evenly spaced around the outer edge of the surface. James was bent over the platform and had a flat-head screwdriver in hand as he worked on the setting of one of the crystals.
    Jiron kept quiet as he came closer. He knew that James was aware of his presence and didn’t want to disturb him should he be in