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Chapter Nine: Home Is Where The Muck Is.

After James, Alex and Donna left for their homes; Paul and Sam sat down in Paul’s den and over a glass of brandy the two men began to have a discussion about their new favorite person.

“Paul, we have to protect him. He’s turning out invention after invention that’s restoring this Kingdom’s former standing and wealth. Without him we would still be literally trapped here, with our Naval and merchant ships being sunk at the convenience of the Empire. Those bastards attacked our ports, shipyards and coastal cities virtually at will and thanks to James and Princess Ellen that’s a thing of the past.”

“I know that Sam. Who would have ever believed that the Empire had so many spies amongst us and that we had so many traitors? Hell we didn’t even realize that Republic of Pyrus, and the Kingdoms of Shangren and Fata were behind many of our misfortunes, though we should have suspected it. We should have known that not even the Empire could have afforded the massive fleet that was required to effectively blockade us for so many years. Instead they had a smaller fleet and some auxiliaries from their secret allies, along with inside knowledge of the locations and deployments of almost all of our Naval and merchant vessels.

They had their spy mages tag all of our ships with those little runes which, according to the Guild, acted more like wards in that they used only a tiny bit of energy. Those runes allowed the Empire to somehow track, follow and attack our ships when it was at the most advantageous time for them. Their spies could also communicate magically and let them know of any ship movements or ships under construction. We still haven’t figured out how that communication trick works or at least our mages haven’t. But if it wasn’t for Princess Ellen and what she discovered during the war we wouldn’t even know that much.”

“Well at least we’ve figured out that tag system and can block it for now. But thanks to Lord Thomas or I should say the Traitor Thomas the whole world knows about James Drake. I’ve been worrying about our enemies getting their own kraken tubes for months now but James comes along and almost resolves all of my worries in a single day.”

“Too bad we just can’t leave the shields on all of the time. Sam.”

“I can perfectly understand how that would be impossible. If the shields are active they use energy and if the shields are stopping incoming projectiles or magical attacks then they are using even more energy. But they are far better than what we had and our new weapons will out range our enemies’ tubes, catapults, ballista, archers and even their spell casters. For defenses, I can foresee the shield runes being activated separately so if a craft only needs shields on the starboard side then the port side shields will be inactive and thus conserving magical energy for later use.”

“That will probably work. I know that the runes used on the Fifth Regiment’s shields saved many lives when they faced off against the Imperial mages even if those shields had to be frequently refreshed by James. I suggest we consult with Countess Green about Drake’s safety, internal security is supposed to be her bailiwick now.”

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I was having dinner at Alex’s and Donna’s home. It was a little over two weeks since the shield and kraken weapon tests at Duke Paul Howard’s estate. Ellen was dining with us; this is the fourth time in two weeks that I’ve shared a meal with her. Twice she’s come by my suite for breakfast, just like we used to do when we were fighting the Eastern Empire. By nature we are both early risers, and we fell into the habit of eating together in the morning, during the war. Personally I think she always did it, because it gave her the best opportunity to place a request with me for this or that magical potion or enchantment.

Donna paused in her meal to look at me. “James, your potions are unbelievably effective but why do you and so many of us still have scars? I have never understood that.”

“That will take a few minutes to explain. A health potion does simply that it keeps a body healthy. It boost’s a body’s immune system and a body’s recovery rate to illness and injury. As a side effect, through keeping a body healthy and in essence giving an adult the recovery rate of a young child or better, it can extend the life span of a person if taken regularly. The potions will diminish the rate a person acquires blemishes and helps wounds heal with less scarring. It’s exactly like how a young child may sometimes heal scar free from an injury but while saying that, even a little child can frequently acquire a scar or two that never fades away.

As for fever potions, they work against diseases and many of them have to be customized for a particular disease.

Healing potions heal the body but they cannot regenerate destroyed limbs or organs and they only work on relatively recent wounds or injuries; more importantly they cannot realign broken bones. So someone must stabilize and adjust any broken bones in an injured person before or shortly after a healing potion is administered. Healing concoctions cannot heal old skin blemishes or scars that have already naturally healed, thus a healing potion will not work on old skin imperfections to improve their appearance.

Regeneration Potions are like a super healing potion and they will regenerate limbs and missing organs. They will even repair painful scars or injuries that have not healed properly in the past. They will even partially or completely fix misaligned bones if they are a source of pain. But they will not heal superficial imperfections which don’t represent a true defect in the body or cause pain. I’ve lost many of the deeper scars that the Witch gave me because of the regenerative potions that I’ve drank during the past few years. Those scars were painful and I’m glad that they are gone now but my body still has many pain free scars which don’t inconvenience me in the slightest.

As for healing superficial skin imperfections, that can be done in one of two ways. The first is painful, using a potion to strip off the layers of scarred skin and even pieces of deformed flesh away and then using a healing or regeneration concoction to repair the now newly damaged area. The second method that my books have hinted at is to use a magical skin cream. The cream works slowly and must be applied over varying lengths of time which is dependent upon the scar. The time span is measured in months and can even be years. A person stops using the cream when they are satisfied with the appearance of the scar or blemish.”

Ellen perked up and made a request. “James I hate to ask you this but my face has weathered and been scarred during my years of combat. Appearance does count when you are the Royal Heir. Do you think you might produce a magical skin cream for me? I will of course pay you for it.”

“Perhaps after my trip home this summer. I’ll need some different ingredients and I will also need to look at my books.”

“I would appreciate it James and it might be quite the money maker for you too, if you decide to market it. Many people are extremely vain.” Ellen was not that concerned about her own appearance but she knew that James always tested his own concoctions on himself first. She wanted to see him with a young man’s face and not one belonging to a combat soldier in his thirties. She exchanged a secret look with Donna, the two women had conspired together to trick their friend into regaining his youthful appearance. Neither woman liked how he was so frequently misjudged because of his weathered and scarred body.

It was wonderful to be moving away from that Navy ship, in my own boat, back into the swamp, and master of my own fate once again. Too many people had been telling me what to do or putting their expectations onto me and I was tired of it. I was cautious about entering the swamp, because I had never been in this section of it before but I was going home.

My new boat was half again as big as my old one. I planned on stopping frequently to gather potion components while on the journey to my keep. I even had, with the aid of Dean Marks, put together a portable set of potion making tools and equipment in a small watertight trunk; that was in case I wanted to make something before getting home.

I was worried at first that I had lost my knack for living in the swamp but it only took a short while and I fell right back into the groove. My first taste of fire broiled snake was heavenly.

It took me almost three weeks before I made it back into the area by Ester’s village. My concocting skills, technique and efficiency had improved dramatically thanks to Dean Marks, so during my journey I had mixed the fever potions that I knew that the village needed. The Dean had supplied me with over a hundred fancy glass bottles like the University used for its potion classes. I pulled up to the dock slowly and I saw Diane Phelps hurrying to greet me.

“Hello Diane, how are you today?”

“James, it’s so good to see you. Dad was getting worried since we hadn’t received any fever potions yet and we hadn’t heard from you.”

“I’ve got fifty of them right here. But we’ll have to conduct the transactions in my boat while it’s off shore. My shop island is probably overrun by nasty creatures since I haven’t been around to renew the wards on it and I expect the shop itself to be in sad shape as well. I have a special ruling from the Minister of Justice that says that I can once again conduct business if it is done within Drake’s Swamp. That’s because I was selling magical merchandise here before the Kingdom claimed the area, and the Crown has now agreed to let me resume selling my magical wares here. Both the King and the Mage Guild have approved of the Minister’s ruling, so I’m reopening my island store.”

“That’s wonderful, Dad was feeling guilty because you were providing all of those potions and wards to us for free but he did as you said to and he sold your magical creations at big discounts to our local residents. He made sure that everybody got their fair share too and that no one was hoarding or trying to turn a profit by reselling them.”

“That’s good, I was worried about that.”

“I’ll go get Dad.”

Mack showed up and I sold my potions. He had a ton of wards for me to refresh but I had some wards of my own to repair first. I stopped by my shop and it didn’t look too bad but there were spiders, crocs and snakes all over the island. I set up some new wards on the building and I left to give them time to work. Then I returned to my keep and I found that my island too, had been completely overrun with beasties, including a swamp dragon. Mix a dragon with a frog, give it wings and that’s a swamp dragon. They’re not very smart and they can’t really fly that well but they can take very long hops with the aid of their wings. I’ve seen them leap as far as four hundred steps. I had a shoulder fired kraken tube but the spear head wasn’t poisoned. I hung the dragon ward around my neck and I slowly walked towards my home. The swamp dragon shifted around a bit, the ward was making it uncomfortable and suddenly it made a giant leap away from me and my island.

The keep was in terrible shape, the place was festooned with spider webs and there was a huge nest of very large green spiders. If I didn’t need their poison; I would have preferred to use a ward to just chase them all away.

It took my two days, when I had only been intending to stop at my home for only a few hours to set up my first course of wards and then immediately return to Ester’s village. But I did get a lot of spider venom and I was only bitten twice which was damn good for there being so many spiders. The greens are particularly aggressive arachnid and they tend to chase out all of the other spiders. I would never tell this to anybody because it would probably gross them out but their large legs boiled and served with oil are mighty tasty.

I finally had my first course of wards set up, and I had dropped off my belongings and most of the ingredients that I had gathered on my journey home, through the swamp. I then headed back to my shop. When I got there I first repainted the outside and inside with my potions. After which I returned to Ester’s to pick up a load of depleted ward signs that needed to be refreshed. There were a lot of signs. It took me a week to renew them all but during that time; I also made two trips back to my keep to emplace the second and third lines of wards.

When I finally returned to my keep, Diane was with me. I had hired her to be my servant for the next month. I would be getting back to the University a little late this fall; I had already arranged that with the Dean. The plan was for me to be a month late but I was going to be bad and I would probably push back my return date. I already had my books for the next school year and I was expected to study on my own; which I did, along with gathering ingredients and making potions. After a month I returned Diane home, I also dropped off some concoctions and wards; but then instead of picking up my next hire I headed for Drake’s Landing, I knew that they needed potions too. I found Major Nancy Carter in command there. I delivered the potions and I spent a week with them renewing their wards. I did warn her that in the future I might start charging for my work; she said that she would pass that information along to Governor General Annette Williams who had taken over for the new Royal Heir Princess Ellen.

I still couldn’t believe that Ellen was now the heir. It had come as quite a shock to me when I had first heard the rumor back at school. Sometimes I hadn’t been too nice to the Princess and I had argued a lot with her as well, she might secretly be holding a grudge against me because of all my backtalk. And now she was going to be the Queen, maybe I should stay in the swamp?

I went back to Ester’s and picked up Margaret Adams who was going to work again for me. Her daughter who was two years older than me would be next. Margaret once more spoiled me with snacks, which was very nice. I was going to have to tell my people back in Sweet Port to work harder at keeping me fed. Their meals were great but they didn’t bring me enough between meal snacks. I get to working, I forget about eating and my energy just plummets.

I had to have Margaret help me with my tests of the magical beauty creams that I had created. I had gathered different ingredients and mixed together various concoctions, but while I could reach the scars on my face and torso with no difficulty, I could not reach the ones on my back. So Margaret had to apply the creams on different areas on my back and help me evaluate the results. That woman is entirely too tender hearted, she would cry so frequently and that it turn would upset me. I hope her daughter is made of tougher stuff because there is still a lot more testing to do.

When I returned Margaret back to the village I got a big hug again and for some reason she kissed my cheek, she’s a strange woman. I went off to talk to Mack.

“Hey, Mack”

“Hello James, how are you doing?”

“I’m working on a new kind of health potion. It will primarily be for those people over thirty. I’m taking it now and I’m confident that it will not adversely affect someone’s health but I need some people to test it on. I’ve already given it to Margaret Adams and I’ve given her three more doses for her husband and parents. If you know of ten or twenty elderly people that will be willing to meet with me, I’ll give them the potions for free.

I plan on getting a room at the inn for next two days, so if you know of anyone please send them over.”

Mack promptly volunteered himself and the mother of his deceased wife. I explained to him how the potion came in four parts and each fraction needed to be consumed seven to eleven days apart with eight through ten days being the optimum schedule.

Instead of twenty volunteers I got over thirty and I had to refuse some people because I ran out of the concoction. I’ll bring some more on my next visit to the village.

Margaret Adam’s daughter Linda was almost as bad as her mother, she would cry at odd times. I wasn’t that scary was I? But she fed me almost as good as her mom and she hugged me too, when I dropped her off.

I had the fall potions ready for Mack and some more of my special health potions. I now had almost ninety people in the test group. The first group and Margaret’s family seemed to be responding extremely well to the concoction when I examined them. Margaret’s husband and her parents were really odd ducks, the way they would stare at me and treat me so politely.

I might sell the villagers a weaker version next year, but if the current potion works as well as think it is going to, they will never get the full strength version again because while it does work as a health potion, it is actually a longevity concoction of my own design. Some of the ingredients are extremely rare and it is a lot of hard work to make the potion. The weaker version will probably only be about half as good but it uses only a single rare ingredient and it isn’t nearly as difficult to manufacture. I’ll test the weaker version when I’m back in Sweet Port.

While in the village I offered my old customers a deal. I would refresh their wards for only half a silver piece each, using a new process that should make the wards last for eight months or more. Wards don’t physically stop things they just scare them away so they use a lot less power than a regular rune does. My new process was actually an ink that I had developed for the new runes that I had showed to Paul and Sam, but this ink didn’t work as well as I needed it to, so I had relegated it to my commercial use and not a military secret, though I was planning on keeping the weaker ink a secret just between Dean Marks and me. I had to keep an economic edge over the competition somehow.

My keep and shop had both gotten wards made with my premium military ink and I had no idea how long they would last, I was hoping for a year or more. It had been a pain chasing all of those nasty creatures away from both my home and my store.

After taking care of the village I returned to Drake’s Landing and I dropped off their potions and refreshed their wards. I asked Major Williams if she could get word to the Navy that I would be leaving the swamp in about three weeks. I would be taking a new route out of the swamp since I wanted to do some more gathering.

A little over three weeks later I left the swamp and I didn’t find a single Navy ship waiting for me, I found three. Why did I suspect that I was in trouble?

Upon arriving at the largest vessel, I was immediately confronted by a stern faced woman in a captain’s uniform. I almost stood at attention. Weakly I said, “Hello” and wiggled my fingers at her. Maybe I should turn around?

“You are late Mister Drake! If you hadn’t sent word through Major Williams I would have been forced to send sailors into that swamp to look for you, per my orders.”

“Then those were awfully dumb orders, Captain. Going into that swamp unprepared and not knowing your way around is a death sentence. If I don’t come out of that place just assume that I’m dead because the weak and injured don’t last long there and by long, I mean no more than a single hour or two.”

I got an angry glare and a grunt in return; then I was shown to a cabin after my boat was hoisted aboard. The ship seemed to be moving pretty slowly because of the wind or the lack thereof, I could have made better time in my pirogue. I wish I could put a rune of movement on this Naval vessel but it was simply too big and my magic didn’t have enough juice to power it. Maybe one day I would think of a solution, but I doubted it.

I took to wandering the ship since the voyage was taking so long. I had asked the captain to lower my boat so I could just go on ahead but she had given me a look that scared me more than a kraken. I heard some of the crew talking about a magical tag system that the Empire had used to mark and track Kingdom vessels. It sounded interesting; I would need to check into it. I tried talking to the ship’s mage but he would have nothing to do with me.

It was night and I was enjoying a star filled sky, when suddenly a fireball exploded on the rear starboard quarter of our vessel. I jumped startled by the light and the explosion; I saw two similar fireballs exploding on the two ships that were accompanying us. It had to be an attack by enemy mages, it could be nothing else. The night was lit up by the fires. The two other ships, which were smaller than the one I was on, were obviously in much worse shape but we weren’t much better off. I had only been attracted to spell casting as a tool to make things and I hadn’t really been interested in battle magic even though I had spent three years in a war zone. I thought that spell casting was inefficient and you got far greater rewards from potions, runes and wards. I was paying for that mistake now, though I was returning to Sweet Port with three old spell books that I had found and kept hidden in my keep. The books had looked interesting and the spells they contained seemed to be far more sophisticated than the spells taught at school.

However, I did know a few fire spells and one of them could extinguish fires but it was meant for cooking fires and the like and not for anything like what I was facing right now. But the spell was fast and easy to cast so I threw more power into it and I started putting out fires. Another fire ball was coming in and seeing no other choice I jumped on top of the ship’s railing, grabbing a rope to steady myself and I stood in the path of the incoming fireball. Men were screaming and I think I heard the Captain yelling at me to get down.

In one of my frequent trips to Ester’s Village I had arranged for some clothes to be made for me. They were a fantastic bargain and many of them were made out of the hides from the swamp pigs that I had killed and butchered. Wanting to always have replacements in case any of my clothes ever got wrecked again; I had several vests, jackets, shirts, pants and pairs of boots created and I saved a bundle having them made in that little village too, when compared to Sweet Port. Let me tell you, I don’t care what anyone else says, leather or furs made from a swamp pig is premium stuff. Most of my clothes but most especially my outerwear like the jacket I was currently wearing was festooned with several very large buttons. They were on the cuffs, shoulders and the back hem of the jacket. They were made to look functional, by holding down leather straps on the jacket, but the big buttons were there.

I had gotten tired of being a target for people and while I was home I had decided to do something about it. I had finally finished my designs of a new type of shield rune. The rune would work with other runes of a similar type that were keyed the same way, together they produced a magical shield that was greater than the sum of their parts, that is if they were provided with enough magical energy from a strong enough mage. A mage who knew what they were doing could shape and control the shield for maximum strength and versatility. The runes on the buttons were of course disguised with my new potion-paint.

The fireball came in and was stopped about ten feet from the ship where it exploded with none of the flames reaching our vessel or me. Using normal vision I could not see where the fireball had come from but looking with my witch sight, I clearly saw a small ship between us and one of the other ships in our tiny fleet. The enemy vessel was much smaller than any of ours.

Not having a weapon, I could only call out and report the invisible ship’s existence and point to its position. Then I resumed putting out the fires that I saw still burning on our ship while intermittently shouting and pointing at our foe. A remarkably short time later, I saw objects streak out from our vessel and hit around the general area where I was pointing at, two of those objects finally hit the enemy ship. The two obviously kraken spears instead of penetrating the vessel burst into flames instead. That was an idea of Princess Ellen’s from during the war. To take my twin flame potion and mount the bottles at the head of a kraken spear. It had taken a little bit of experimentation but once we got it working it had proved a good and reliable weapon. My flame bottles seemed to have far more persistence and release more heat than a traditional magical fireball launched through spell casting. I was working on an improved flame bottle potion but it was proving to be annoyingly difficult.

The enemy ship became visible with those initial hits. I became aware of people screaming at me.

“Get down you damn fool before you get yourself killed.” Seeing the enemy ship taking more and more kraken spears and feeling that our ship’s rune shields were now on, I decided to retract my own shields so that they covered only my own body and I jumped down, facing a very angry ship’s officer.

“I don’t know what fool stunt you thought you were doing but if this ship’s shields hadn’t come on in time then you would have been dead. Now we got at least one more of those invisible ships out there and we need you to point it out to us before they sink one of our other vessels.” I didn’t know who this officer was but she seemed like such a sweet and pleasant young lady, just like her Captain. But she didn’t seem to know that it was my shields that had stopped those fireballs and not the ship’s magical defenses. This vessel’s shields were activated just a minute or two too late. But I didn’t plan on telling them what really happened, I wanted to keep my secrets.

I said, “Yes Ma’am,” and I started running around the ship’s sides looking for our other foes. I began my search by looking towards the port rear quarter because that’s where I expected to see the enemy and I did. I shouted. “There it is,” and pointed. I am such a brilliant and witty conversationalist. A few minutes later, kraken spears were launched towards the enemy boat which quickly took flame. This was another small ship and it was speedily destroyed. I ran around the ship’s railing looking for any other hidden foes but I didn’t locate any.

One of our escorting ships was at least maintaining their own against the fire on board their craft, but the other vessel was in dire straits. Captain Nelson was trying to maneuver us close to the stricken ship, and I saw a large gang operated water pump being uncovered on our ship’s deck. I imagine it was used to fight fires and when the ship sprung a leak. We got within one hundred feet of the burning vessel and I started casting my little extinguish fire spell. A single spell didn’t do much but I cast a lot of them. It was like a continuous chain of large buckets of water being poured on the fires. When our ship’s water pump got into action the fires were quickly extinguished. We then went to help the other vessel which was still fighting their fires. On the way over I ran to check on any injured crew members. I found three severely injured sailors, one with a terribly burned face and another with a charred ruin of a hand. I poured a healing potion on the destroyed face and I gave the other two sailors, doses of the same healing concoction. Some of the agony that they were feeling seemed to diminish.

“My name is James Drake. I’m a potion maker. I promise that I’ll see the three of you fully healed.” I gave a sailor a measured dose of potion and asked her to slowly feed it to the one with the burned face. I then started handing out healing potions to the crew of our ship so they could use them on the wounded sailors aboard the two stricken vessels. I was back to using little jugs again. I found them tougher than the fancy glass flasks that the University and the Mage Guild liked so much.

In the morning, we tallied up the butcher’s bill. There were five dead and fifteen injured. I needed the injured to heal for at least a week before I could start the ones that needed it on a course of regeneration potions. All of the injured might need that potion because of severe scarring but we would have to see. On the other hand I might just give some of them that new beauty cream, it will take longer to be fully successful but it should work just as well and it would save those regeneration concoctions, and their extremely rare ingredients, for the people that truly needed them.

In regards to our enemy, our counterattack had been so fierce that there were no survivors and their ships were charred ruins which had quickly sunk.

All of the injured had been transferred to Captain Nelson’s ship; the larger Gulf’s Pride. I was assisting the ship’s healer in taking care of the wounded. At the same time I was thinking about how we had been surprised. If only I had been looking over the side instead of straight up, then I might have been able to give some warning before the attack and five sailors might not be dead now. I had been cursing myself more than a little over my negligence. The healer had given the injured something for their pain because my healing potions would in many instances increase the pain for a short while. I was angry at myself and muttering. A burned hand reached out and patted mine.

A weak voice said, “The stars were beautiful last night, I was looking up too.” I hadn’t realized that I had been talking loud enough to be heard. I was immediately embarrassed. I could only do one thing, I said, “thank you,” and the hand withdrew. I hoped that the person in the terribly burned body before me went to sleep but it was hard to tell.

I started thinking about a warning system that ships could use to alert them to approaching foes. Maybe something like a reverse ward that would alert the crew if something got to close? But most wards only could reach out for around a hundred steps. A magical warning system would have to have much greater range than that. I was called in to see the Captain later that day.

“Mister Drake, at first I thought you were a pain in the ass mage with delusions of grandeur, despite all of the talk and rumor about you. But you helped save my ship and the other two vessels under my command last night. We paid a terrible price but the enemy paid even more, whoever they may have been. Do you have any idea why they attacked us?”

“No Captain, no idea at all. I don’t know if invisibility is commonly used for sea battles or not. I haven’t run into it before. If it’s not a common tactic then maybe someone was trying out something new. I’ve got an idea for an early warning system but the range is extremely short and I have to figure out some way to extend it. Then too I could plainly see their vessels with my witch sight. If I could figure out how to give you and your crew witch sight then it would be much harder for any foe to use that same trick on this ship again.”

“Whatever you can come up with will be most appreciated Mister Drake.”

If I just knew how they had made their vessels invisible that would help a lot. Was it a rune? Was it a spell? Was it a ward, no it couldn’t be a ward, could it? Perhaps a ward telling our eyes to ignore what they were seeing? That would take very little power; however it would only work at extremely short ranges. But that’s not what our enemy did, I knew that much.