I am tired of editing once again. So I’m releasing this now, sorry.

If you spot any stupid annoying mistakes please leave a comment so I can fix them, thanks.

I hope you enjoy this chapter; I might have put too much into and rushed things a little. If you think that’s the case leave a comment. I might do something about it, maybe.

I’ve made frequent references to giant spiders in this chapter. For a size comparison, look up things like the Japanese spider crab, Alaskan king crab and the like.

# # # # # # # # # # # # # #

Chapter 10: A Pleasant Duck Dinner.

When our three scorched vessels sailed into Sweet Port ten days later they caused quite a commotion. I told Admiral Taylor, Dean Marks and High Mage Wright about the invisible ships and what I had seen. It was Dean Marks’s and Mage Wright’s opinion that it was either a rune or a spell and they tended to think it was a spell. The Dean was angry with me for being a month later than planned, but I had been doing a lot of self study and I should be alright except for my composition class, spell casting class and the practical hands on instruction that I had missed. I guess I really did screw up.

I returned to the University and I gave Professor King some plant samples, seeds, bulbs and seedlings that I had harvested in the swamps. She was ecstatic with them and well over half of those plants she had never seen before. She vowed to work me to the bone getting me caught back up to the rest of the class, oh joy.

My biology teacher was annoyed that I didn’t bring him anything. When I asked him if he wanted a snake, spider or crocodile the next time I returned from the swamp, he said yes. He is one sick individual. I don’t want to talk about my composition teacher. My spell casting teacher made me learn and practice a wide area fire extinguishing spell, she is not amused by my lack of interest in spell casting. I talked to her about the invisible ships and she promised to think about how it might have been done.

I had two new assistants for my laboratory. They were Marine Sergeant Roy Russell and Army Sergeant Richard Sanders. Both men were formerly with the Fifth Regiment. Roy had grown up on the coast and wanted to join the Navy but at the time our navy was practically nonexistent. So he had joined the Army instead and after our victory he had tried to transfer to the Navy but upon hearing of his past experience they had asked him to join the Marines instead. Both men had helped me with my potions and other things while I had been with the Fifth. But many soldiers with the Fifth had done the same. It seems though that both Sergeants have gotten to use being under arms and I still don’t know how they got permission from their commanders but both men are heavily armed whenever we leave the University. And even in the University they keep their weapons close to hand. On the street they carry enchanted shields, short swords and small shoulder launched four barreled kraken tubes on slings, kind of like a crossbow without the bow and they launch arrows and not bolts. The two men are so paranoid that when we go out they also put on chainmail shirts and steel kettle hats. I keep the runes on their equipment fully charged since they are with me most of the time. But I think both men need some emotional help. There is just no logical reason for them to be so heavily armed. Their superiors must be a little batty for letting them get away with it.

Princess Ellen stopped by to have breakfast with me the third day I was back. I gave her the beauty cream that I had developed and I told her about my reservations concerning my two new helpers but she just urged me to be tolerant of the two men.

My new assistants helped me to test a new creation of mine that was a rune but sort of like a ward. I had needed a large round wooden disk for my experiment and I dug up an old wooden table, in an abandoned storage room, that was ideal for my purposes. The legs made it even more convenient for me to work on it. Roy gave me some advice on what would be a good feature for my new creation.

I went to dinner over at Donna’s and Alex’s home. Princess Ellen was there as well. We were having duck, I love duck.

I gave Donna and Alex a supply of the beauty cream and then I brought out two sets of my two latest potions.

“Last school year I spent hours in the University Library looking at their old and new potion books. I’ve also practically memorized the books that are in my keep. The Swamp Witch was fanatical about seeking out ways for extending her own life. About the only time she would go ingredient gathering, far from her island, was when she was looking for some mythical item that would give her a few more years of life. As a result I am quite familiar with what ingredients many longevity potions need and through watching the Witch with my witch sight; I know their effects of many of them on the human body. Lauren wasn’t the best potion concocter; in fact she was barely adequate when I knew her. Donna because you seemed a little interested when I mentioned to you how a health potion can extend a person’s life.”

She interrupted me. “James, it did interest me but I didn’t mean for you to do anything.”

“Well no matter, I already did.” I held up a set of four jugs marked with blue paint and labeled one through four. “These potions are sort of like my regeneration concoction. If you take them in their numbered order, eight to ten days apart, every year or two, then they should quadruple whatever time you have left on this planet. Meaning that the earlier in life that you start taking them the longer you will potentially live. It is made with some extremely rare ingredients. I’ve never been able to find very much of the needed the components. Some of the ingredients used are the same ones I use in my regeneration potions. By the way, I have a number of those concoctions ready to send off to the Kingdom’s wounded veterans.

Some people will need to take this longevity potion every year to have the desired affect and some can go two years between doses. I’ve got four full regimens for each of you. You can do with them what you like. But they will lose their potency in about six months.”

James’s small audience was stunned at what he had revealed and what he had gifted them with. Princess Ellen began talking.

“James you must keep this a secret. I know little of longevity potions but I do know that they are a hit or miss affair. Frequently expensive potions are sold that do little or nothing but then an almost guaranteed concoction appears on the market, promising five or more years of life, and it will sell for thousands of gold pieces. I am certain that the Mage Guild and the potion mixers keep the best for themselves.”

“That is why I am only telling you three. I am not going to tell even Dean Marks. I’ll keep you supplied with the potions and you can do with them what you will. You can tell those you give them to, that they are an extra special health potion. But I also have another potion to tell you about.” I pointed to a set of little jugs, labeled one through four in red paint.

“This potion taken the same way, will double the remaining years that someone has. But it only requires a single rare ingredient. The other components are quite common in Drake’s Swamp and many of them can be found in the University’s conservatory. The concoction is also doubles as a health potion the same as the first one. I do have to admit that this one isn’t fully tested yet, but I have full confidence in it. It hasn’t poisoned me and I’ve given it to some of the crew on the Gulf’s Pride (I was bored), my servants and my two new paranoid laboratory assistants. I’ll know more in a month or two. Oh there is a slight age regeneration effect with both potions which varies from person to person. The effect is twice as strong for the first one when compared to the second. But some of my test subjects reported feeling and did seemingly look ten to fifteen years younger. A few said twenty years but I think that they were just exaggerating. But almost half of those who tried my first potion only reported feeling between five and ten years younger which is the same thing that all, of my test subjects, for concoction two reported. I’m not sure what will happen when my human volunteers take their second doses in a year. I don’t think we will see further age regeneration at that time but I’m not completely sure.”

Princess Ellen dropped her head into her hands. Donna was gasping like a fish. Alex began to carefully speak. “James; for now please keep this second potion a secret too. Ellen, Donna and I will explore what might happen to the Kingdom if you announce the creation of such potions. By the time you have completed your tests we’ll have had time to formulate a strategy for you. You said that it has only one rare ingredient. Can your swamp make enough of that one ingredient for everyone in the Kingdom or for that matter the world?”

“I think that there is no way that there would be enough of the component for everyone in the world but there might be enough for everyone in the Kingdom, especially if I can cultivate or farm it. I also gave a sample of the necessary plant and some of its seeds to Professor Julia King. She said that she had never seen it before. So it’s possible that she’ll be able to grow it in one of the University’s greenhouses.”

My announcement seems to have put them off their appetites. Good, that left more duck for me.

It took me three weeks to construct a version, of my new magical device, that I thought that the Navy might be interested in. It was a lot of work just understanding what I had made.

We set sail with my creation on the Gulf’s Pride with Admiral Taylor and General Howard aboard. It also gave me a chance to check on the test subjects that I had given my red longevity potion to. Captain Nelson had allowed me to set up and calibrate the enchanted table with the help of my sergeants. She had even allowed me to keep it a secret so I would be able to hopefully surprise her, Paul and Sam at the same time. I hoped it was a pleasant surprise.

“Hello Admiral, Hello General, I hope that what I show you today, will prove beneficial for you and worth your valuable time in meeting with me.”

“It had better be James, we are both busy and at least last time we had some idea of what you had for us.” Sam gave me a slightly chastising look, oops.

“When the Gulf’s Pride was attacked, I was quite furious with myself that I had failed to give the crew any warning. I was too busy looking up at the stars rather than at sea level. I’ve wanted to make up for that failure of mine. I’m still working on the problem of invisible ships but I think I’ve got a partial answer. If you’ll look carefully at this old table you will see an outline of the Gulf’s Pride in the center. Radiating out from the center are circles labeled with their distances from the ship. Those circles are divided into segments. You will notice that there are a great many segments in each circle. Right now, beyond those modifications that I just pointed out to you, the table looks like an ordinary table. Now watch as those ships coming into port approach us. You will notice that the segments that correspond to those ships’ locations lights up with a yellow glow. Within that glow you should see some blue dots. As the ships get closer to us a different segment will light up and the old one will grow dark. The blue dots signify that there are humans on those ships. This table will show any objects within six hundred and ninety steps of it except for water. Marine Sergeant Russell pointed out to me that if it showed water then rain, waves, or even fog might jam up this device. He also recommended to me that I make a depth gauge using similar principles. The depth gauge I created ignores most living things in addition to the water, but for the heck of it, I made it so that it will still detect humans. Each table has to be calibrated for the ship it is installed on and it must remain in a permanent location within the ship. It cannot be hung on a wall and it must be roughly horizontal. Severe wave action can throw off the results simply because of the table being tilted but it should still provide some useable information.”

It surprised me but General Howard asked the first question. “Will this work on land?”

“This table can’t because just the land itself it would light up the table. You’ll see that when we sail closer in to shore. But if you want one that only detects living things then I can make a table like that for you. Would that really have any value for the Army?”

“Yes, it would be of great use to the Army. It will be wonderful tool for forts or any other defensive locations. I don’t need the yellow glow. I need one that shows only humans, horses, mules, and oxen. Can you to that?”

“Yeah I think so; it’ll just take me a little time. I’m not sure how much though. It could be a couple of weeks or it could be several months.”

Captain Nelson was next. “This is now my table along with the smaller depth gauge; is that correct?”

“Sure, if you and the Admiral and want it.”

Sam spoke up, “we want it James and you did not waste my time in the slightest. I’m sorry if I sounded a little rude to you earlier. That depth gauge would have been more than enough reason for me to come out here. Is there anything I can do for you in return?”

“Yes there is Admiral. I heard something about a tag system that the enemy has been using but no one will tell me anything about it. Actually the conversation I overheard about tag system, along with my own thoughts concerning wards that effect humans, led me to have the inspiration for this table.

Can you get me any information regarding the Empire’s tag system; it has really piqued my curiosity. Oh, a word of warning about this table it will ignore all forms of water including ice so you can still run into an iceberg if you are relying on this device alone. If you must have a warning system for them, I can probably make you something that will show icebergs but it will show you all water too even fog.”

“James, I’ll do my best to get you that information regarding the tag system within a week. Thank you once more for your service to the Kingdom.”

“This table uses relatively little power and it should last for at least six months before needing to be refreshed, even with constant activation. Right now the runes are hidden; they’re really more like wards though. You need to make a decision if you want to keep the runes disguised. A masked rune is much harder to recharge. Normally anything that is in very close proximity to a rune, especially something covering it or partially covering it changes the nature of a rune or ward and thus the magic. That’s the reason why you can’t cover them up and expect them to work if you do but these new coatings are special and don’t change the nature of a rune or ward. So what I’m saying, is don’t use this table as a table and put stuff on top of it, if you want it to work or work right that is.”

--------------------------------------

After James and his sergeants had taken the Captain’s gig back to the pier; Captain Nelson, Admiral Taylor and General Howard continued to play with and learn about their new toy.

“Admiral Taylor, were the vessels that attacked my small flotilla, out to sink my ships or were they after James?”

“We’re not sure Barbara. That’s why both the Army and the Navy assigned those two sergeants to him as bodyguards though he doesn’t know it. Both men worked with him when they were part of the Fifth Regiment, so they already had a good relationship with James. Officially they’ve been assigned to help him with testing and to coordinate things for him with the military but they are in fact his bodyguards.”

‘I still can’t understand why he jumped up on my ship’s railing and right in the path of that fireball. If my ship’s shield hadn’t come on in time he would have been cooked most likely. I’ve heard that he’s not much of a spell caster.”

General Howard remarked. “I’m certain that James had his reasons. He designed the shield runes on your ship perhaps he felt them activating and wanted a better vantage point from which to look for the enemy vessel.”

They then resumed their discussion about the new table that James had made for them.

-----------------------------

It would shock my professors but I was actually studying spell casting a little. The style that the Gulf Kingdom’s Mage Guild practices is from what I can tell for the most part uses trained magical responses to various situations. Very much like a martial artist might do, like Sergeant Sanders. Why does that man insist that I spar with him every evening! Imperial Wizards practice a different style of magic, more like a skilled craftsman than martial artist. If a Kingdom mage meets an Imperial wizard. The mage will say, “I’m going to turn you into ash in two minutes.” The wizard will respond, “Just give me some time, it could be twenty minutes or it might be three hours. But when I’m ready I’m going to kill you and that small army you brought with you.” Of course both magic users might have shields which changes things but that’s basically how they operate. But there are exceptions and many mages can “craft” some advanced magical spells it just takes them much longer than an Imperial wizard.

My own style of magic is more as a crafter than martial artist. The old spells books I brought back from my keep seem to be old books from the Kingdom of Fata. People from there, founded the Eastern Empire. In addition I acquired some Eastern Empire spell books and there is a selection of some of them in the University Library. Too many of the books deal with nasty ways to acquire power but I ignore that crap. If I look beyond their madness I can see the fundamental building blocks of their magic system that they started with. My own older books hint of spells which if used in conjunction with fully powered runes can do some truly amazing things. I’m not trying to make my own system of magic, what I’m trying to do, I think, is to discover a very old approach. Or at least one not practiced here or in the Empire, and probably not in Fata as well.

What the Navy and Guild sent me, a week later, was only half of the puzzle in regards to the tag system. They sent me some small runes that the Imperial spies would apply to the side of our ships. Normally this was done by a mage using a spell. I felt my hands clench a little in anger, if there is one group of people that I truly hate, it’s the Imperial Wizards. They are even more cruel and evil than the Swamp Witch in what they would do to obtain magical power and the way in which they would use it once they had it. What they would do to both animals and humans alike should see all of them fed to a swamp dragon while still alive.

The other piece information that I received, were the records of our ship movements that the Empire had kept and we had gotten copies of, when Princess Ellen had captured the City of Sven for the first time. But how did the Imperial Wizards know where are ships were over such long distances using those tiny runes and how did they communicate the information back to their ships at sea, so they could then attack our vessels? I had been thinking about how I would do it back when I had first overheard that conversation. At the time, I had envisioned a magical map that would show the location of any runes linked to the map. When I had tried to come up with a way to prevent sneak attacks on our vessels, I had blended that idea of the magical map and my wards to come up with the enchanted table.

I refreshed the small magical tag rune and watched it with my witch sight. It did nothing.

I reversed a general purpose ward and instead of scaring away things that approached it, the ward instead reacted to things approaching it and with the aid of a table painted with some special potions the reversed ward made a certain area glow which corresponded to the rough location of the approaching object. Now what if the approaching object was very loud in some magical way and the table was designed to detect these loud things. While puzzling over that problem I worked on the new model table for the General. His table would have segments that glowed white whenever something entered the corresponding real word location. In the white area would be blue dots for humans, brown dots for horses, black dots for mules, green dots for oxen and red dots for dragons. I figured everyone wants to know if a dragon is close by, I sure as hell would. Thinking about it, I should probably change the Navy’s tables to show the known types of sea monsters, especially krakens. It might not be a bad idea for the General’s table to show crocodiles, bears and wolves too. A man riding a horse will generate a purple dot on the Army’s table. I tested this with my sergeants. I arranged for the General to come by for a quick demonstration. I think he was disappointed that I didn’t set up a more elaborate test like I did with the Navy but he did seem pleased. I gave him the rune designs and he would use Guild Mages to produce the tables, just like the Admiral was doing for his ships. It was boring to make them and I had better things to do.

I was in trouble at school since I had been skipping classes to work on the tables, the tag system, a communication system, and trying to figure out how to give normal people witch sight. Dean Marks yelled at me for spending too much time working on those projects but they were so interesting. Not like composition, the law, ethics, or Kingdom style spell casting, yawn.

Alex and Donna showed up at school to take me out to dinner. I couldn’t refuse but they had a young lady with them and I had let my grooming slip. My servants shaved and bathed me in less than half an hour; it was almost like they had a hot bath waiting for me. The young woman was Shirley Gonzalez, she was a year younger than me and she too was a student at the University. Though I couldn’t remember seeing her at school, maybe I should start going back to class for everything but composition. I was tongue tied and uncomfortable all evening long. I’m not a smooth talker and she’s of noble birth from a lesser house. If I offered her broiled snake or a boiled spider leg, she would probably barf.

I was so close with the communication system in fact, I had it working but it was very inelegant and cumbersome. However, I did have a magic detection system that could be added to future tables.

--------------------

Crown Princess Ellen Rivers was meeting with Countess Green, Sergeant Russell and Sergeant Sanders. She began speaking. “Sergeant Russell and Sergeant Sanders can you give me your impressions regarding James Drake?”

Both men looked at one another and Richard Sanders began. “Your Highness as you know, he is a brilliant and hard working young man. I personally think he’s too hard working and that he needs to take a break and have some fun.”

Roy Russell added his opinion. “I don’t think James likes being away from his swamp and that’s why he’s working so hard. He’s just trying to get done what he thinks needs doing so he can go back home. I don’t think he likes it here very much. His first impression of the University and this city wasn’t good one. He does seem to enjoy figuring things out and creating new things, so maybe that’s a form of relaxation for him.”

Countess Green concurred with both men’s observations. “My sources report the same thing to me that he is unhappy here and wants to go home to Drake’s Swamp as soon as he graduates from school in less than a year.”

“I was afraid of that, when I’ve dined with him he’s frequently made reference to returning home,” said Crown Princess Ellen. “We have a problem then. “James has put us equal to and even a bit beyond the Imperial Wizards but we can expect them to develop new spells. Beyond that we have other competition in the world and some of it extremely unfriendly. For example the Kingdom of Fata and their mages, may I remind you all that the Empire was actually founded by disgruntled nobles and mages from Fata, over two hundred years ago, and that their styles of magic are extremely similar. Also we have to worry about Shangren, prior to James they were our equals in the magical arts. So we are going to need Mister Drake and his magical innovations for a long time to come. Has there been any sign of his creativity failing him as of yet?”

“None at all your Highness, in fact he’s got a dozen new ideas he’s working on right now,” answered Sanders. “But I don’t think using the term he dislikes it here is strong enough. I think he hates being away from his swamp and as a result he hates it here too. There are far too many people here, too many people that still treat him with contempt and James thinks that living here is making him soft and that it will then be even harder for him to adapt when he goes back to living in his real home which is the swamp.”

“Damn and blast,” the Princess cursed. “That’s my sense of things too and I’m not seeing him enough now as it is. Gentlemen; whatever you can do to improve his mood has my blessings. The Countess and I have to talk more about this matter if you could leave us?”

Both sergeants stood, saluted and departed.

“Brenda, I have no idea on what to do here but I only know that we desperately need that young man. I also know that I screwed up more than once in my own dealings with him, which is probably not helping the situation. My father has given me a free hand in this matter and an open coin purse. Do you have any ideas on how we can improve things for young Drake?”

“I was afraid you were going to ask me that. My only thought is to resort to the one thing that works on so many young men and that is a young woman. Somehow we steer young women both of noble and common birth into his path and hope that one or more of them give him a reason to stick around. His swamp is obviously far too dangerous and isolated from us, for a man as necessary as he is to our security. I think we might have much better luck with a girl of common birth rather than a noble. They would have more in common and James would feel more comfortable with her. I also think a fellow mage or a craft person of some type would be the best option. I don’t think a noble girl would be able to relate to James very well and I’m not saying that is something that is his fault but the failing of our class. Many of us are quite pampered.”

“Okay Brenda, find someone you can trust as a secret matchmaker and turn him or her loose. I guess that’s all we can do at this time.” Ellen sighed because she didn’t see a decent solution for this problem. The Countess left and Ellen started berating herself for being such a liar.

Oh it was true enough that the Kingdom needed James Drake but in Ellen’s opinion he had done more than his share and there was no real prize or reward that they could use to entice him to do anything more, though he was still producing marvelous things. No, Ellen had other reasons for wanting to keep James Drake close by. The first reason being that she honestly liked the young man and considered him to be one of her few friends. A friend that was honest with her and she could relax with. And the second reason was that she hated Drake’s Swamp! A more terrifying and cursed place she could not imagine in her worst nightmares. All through the war she had hid her fears of that place. The first time she had seen a giant spider in that foul place she had nearly screamed in panic and soiled herself, but it got only worse. The wards kept most of them away but as they traveled through the swamp spiders would scurry above the boats using either their webs or tree branches. She had nearly fainted the first time the boat she was on pushed its way through a giant web. Then there had been the slightly lesser fearsome creatures such as snakes, crocodiles, swamp cat, strangler vines, swamp dragons and krakens. She had been so terrified that she had nearly taken her own life the first night she had slept there. But instead she had to keep calm and show a controlled facade to those she was leading.

Ellen thought of poor three year old James raised by a bloodsucking witch on a small island filled with spiders, snakes and crocodiles. There was no way she was going to let him go back to such an awful place, on a permanent basis. She thought of her own advisors who were all so amazed that anyone could call that swamp home. Those imbeciles actually thought that James being able to live and thrive among such horrors was a good thing! She needed to do something about all the frustration, anxiety and old fears that were resurfacing. Ellen picked up her old practice sword and went off in search of something to whack.

----------------------------

General Paul Howard and Admiral Samuel Taylor had taken time out from their busy schedules to see Drake’s latest creation. Both men were eagerly looking forward to seeing what James had made this time. They were being guided to his new workshop by Sergeant Russell.

“Sirs, it’s a bit messy in here because while these rooms used to be the old servant’s wing for the University it has for the past several years only been used for storage. James appropriated this wing primarily because as he said if he blew it up no one would care and his secondary reason is that there is still a lot of good junk stored here that he can be repurposed for his own uses.”

Both men followed the Sergeant into a large stone lined work area. It looked like a wall had either been removed deliberately or by accident. The char marks supported the idea that it had been by accident. The word “Oops” written in the black char lent further credence to the idea.

“General Howard, Admiral Taylor, welcome to my shop. I’d like to introduce to you to my Composition Teacher and greatest nemesis, Professor Lee and my Math Teacher Professor Montgomery Tanner. Both of them helped me with our new communication boards. Professor Tanner provided additional help with my magical detector.”

Professor Lee grimaced at being labeled as her worst student’s nemesis in front of such important people. She made a note to ask James for a ten page paper next week in revenge for her embarrassment.

The two professors exchanged pleasantries with the two officers.

James brought out two wide boards. One was blue and the other was red. “These gentlemen are our new communication boards. The blue board sends messages and the red board receives them. You will notice six lines of runes with ten runes per line. Per the recommendation of Professor Tanner I went with ten runes per line. Per Professor Lee’s recommendation I went with six lines but she would have liked more for both efficiency and clarity. The problem with that is that the larger runes simply work better. So doing more than six lines might be difficult. When a rune is activated on the send board the corresponding rune will light up on the receive board. According to Professor Tanner by using ten runes we have 1024 possible combinations to communicate different meanings. You can have some combinations represent the alphabet, words or entire phrases. Professors Lee and Tanner should be able to help you at devising the best communication codes to use with your boards. You can have different kinds of boards too. For example the Navy could have a board that will send messages to every Naval receive board that they have. Or they could have keyed boards that will only send and receive to certain boards. That way Admiral, you may communicate with an individual ship or flotilla. I strongly suspect that this is basically the same idea that the Empire is using for their long distance communications. I have tested this size board over a distance of ten leagues and it has worked perfectly. I strongly suspect that it will work for at least one hundred leagues and I wouldn’t be surprised at all if they will work even further apart than that.

I have been talking a lot with my two Professors about the best utilization of these boards and they’ve had some excellent ideas seeing as how both language and mathematical communications are their expertise and not mine. I can just make runes light up; they can tell you how best to use these devices.”

The two officers were stunned, their prayers had been answered and right away they could see the utility of the device. But now they were worried that the Empire and their other enemies did indeed possess such a tool. No wonder the Imperial Navy had been so successful. James continued talking.

“There is a problem with sending messages and with invoking any magic even with a rune. The sender can be detected; I know that because once I cleared some cobwebs from my brain I built a magical detector. I have a new design for the lookout tables that incorporates the detector. The problem is that just like a lookout table, it is range limited. With Professor Tanner’s help I designed a second detector that uses triangulation to determine the location and distance to the magical source of any emissions. Triangulation works by.”

General Howard interrupted. “James; Sam and I are both familiar with the concept of triangulation. It is used for surveying, map making, construction and navigation.”

“Sorry, my new device can only detect an active magical source, such as an activated rune or spell casting. The device is limited by how powerful the magic emitter is and how close it is. Now for something scary, we fire our kraken tubes in a straight line because to do anything else would cause us to miss our targets. I am pretty sure that I could make a kraken spear home in on a detected magic source. Doing that you could fire your kraken tubes in a high arc so that the spears could travel further. A secondary movement rune would guide the spear to the enemy target. Someone else might figure out how to do this. While activating a movement rune would probably be too brief for someone to target, lengthy exchanges of messages could certainly be risky. But to the good only sending generates magic that can be detected.

Also since magic send runes can be detected it is theoretically possible for our enemies to listen in our new communication boards. So you should keep your codes as secret as is possible. When I have time I’ll work on tapping into their communications but it will probably take me a great deal of time and it sounds boring.”

The two senior officers were astonished at the idea of self guiding kraken spears. They weren’t sure that it would work but James had delivered on everything else so they knew better than to doubt him. But they rejected the idea that someone else, besides James Drake, could build such a weapon, so they refused to worry about it.

“I am working on letting a non-mage use witch sight and I’ve had some success but it’s not ready to show you yet. It breaks far too easily but my new window will also let the user see at night once I get it working.

As for invisibility, which nearly got me killed, I haven’t been able to reproduce what our enemies did but I’ve got something else. I have an invisibility ward. A person wearing this ward is invisible to most people within about fifty steps. The ward works on the eyes of anyone close by, and basically it encourages them to think that they didn’t see anything or too look elsewhere. It needs a lot field testing to figure out how to use it best, but it uses very little power and it’s relatively easy to make. It will even work on people who have witch sight, which is most disconcerting to me. If you will look around this room, please try and find Sergeants Russell and Sanders. I assure you that they’re in here somewhere.”

Both the military officers and the professors tried to find the men but they couldn’t locate them. James thought he found them but he wasn’t sure. He had developed a trick but it wasn’t foolproof.

Admiral Taylor spoke. “James this could be disastrous, if any assassins or thieves ever got a hold of that rune. We have to keep it a secret. Someone could slip inside the palace and kill the King.”

General Howard immediately agreed.

“What one person may dream up so can someone else, I’m the only one who can make that rune at this time. Anyone who tries to remove the masking paint will destroy the rune before they can examine it. I thought it best to give samples to you so you could work on a defense for it. It really was simple for me to develop; I’ve just been too busy with other projects. As far as defenses go, it only works on the eyes. So don’t put all your faith in your vision. A short range magical detector will work, and so will someone with excellent hearing or even a sharp sense of a smell. You could even cover a floor with flour and watch for footsteps in it. I think I might be able to come up with a window which cancels the effect of that rune but I’m still working on that idea. The rune obviously works on witch sight because that also uses your eyes. Sergeants if you will please cover the runes that you are wearing.”

The officers and teachers were shocked to see how close to them the sergeants had been standing. James was irritated because he had only gotten Sergeant Russell’s location correct.

The officers left with the professors for the palace. They had the samples that James had produced as well his designs, excluding the invisibility rune that one scared them. The King, the Princess and Countess Green needed to be notified immediately about Drake’s latest inventions. They might have been more worried if they knew why James had added such enormous buttons to all of his clothes and what those buttons could do. He was still keeping the secret of his new shield rune; attempts on his life had made him wary and little more secretive.