Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book One (10 page)

“How long will it take to open if it is a combination
lock?” Neala asked impatiently, looking at the wall, and dreaming of what could be behind it.
“That depends. If we're incredibly lucky, we could get the correct combination on the first attempt, or if we are equally unlucky, it could be the last attempt. Then there's the possibility that if the combination is entered incorrectly once, or several times, it may lock out further attempts for a set period of time, or even permanently. It could even trigger that supposed booby-trap. The truth is, it's simply impossible to know exactly how long it would take to open, and that’s even if it is a combination lock in the first place,” replied Lusam, sounding slightly defeated even before they had begun.

“Can't you just blast through it with your magic powers?”

Laughing at the imagined destruction, he replied, “I wouldn't know how to, and besides, even if I did know how, we couldn't destroy Mr Daffer's property like that anyway.”

“I know, I wasn't serious about blasting through. It's just so annoying being this close, and not being able to see what’s behind this damn door!”

“Yeah, I know what you mean,” he agreed. “I suppose we better start working out all the combinations if we're going to try this. That way, we don’t miss any.” He turned and started heading back towards the main chamber again.

“Could the star have any clues to the combination?” Neala suggested, as they began walking back.

Lusam thought about it a few moments. “Of course, the star! You're a genius Neala,” he said, jumping with excitement.

“What about the star?” Neala asked confused.

“A five pointed star, and five indentations. Look at how the star is created on the wall. It's been drawn in one continuous line, without beginning or end. All the points of the star are connected. Maybe all I need to do is magically connect the indentations with each other, just like the star, and not just press them,” Lusam said excitedly.

“It's worth a try,” Neala agreed.

Lusam cleared his mind, and concentrated on connecting the indentations magically in the same configuration the star had been created. He wasn't sure exactly how he could do it. He finally concentrated on the image of what he wanted, and let the power flow out of him. A green line of power burst into life, connecting each of the indentations with the next, and creating a perfect five pointed star to mirror the one on the wall. With a grinding sound, and a flurry of dust, the wall, very slowly, started to move on its own.

“You did it!” shouted Neala excitedly, hugging and kissing him on the cheek at the same time.

“Yeah, looks like it. You'll have to find me more
doors to open if you're going to do that every time,” he said, grinning at her.
She just smiled back at him, and they waited for the door to fully open, trying to be as patient as was humanly possible.

When the door had finally fully opened, and the dust settled, Neala said, “Maybe I should go in alone first.”

“Why?” he asked, confused at her request.

“Well, seeing as you're the only one who can open this door with magic, it makes sense for me to go inside first, just in case the door closes again and traps me inside. Then you could let me back out again. If we both go in together, who would let us both out?” she said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Lusam laughed. “That's a good point,” he agreed. “The only problem is, there may be other dangers in there that you can't see, but I might be able to with my mage-sight. I suggest you take a lantern and enter the room. If the door remains open, wait until I enter and check the room for hidden traps before you move any further inside, just to be on the safe side.”

“Hmm … I hadn't thought about that either, maybe you're right. Okay, I'll go see if the door stays open, but be ready to get me out of there if it closes fast,” Neala replied, looking a little less confident than she had a moment ago.

“Sure, no problem, but if it closes even twice as fast as it opened, we would still have enough time for a picnic
before we would be in any danger of getting locked inside,” he chuckled.
“True,” she agreed smiling back at him. She took her lantern and approached the darkened room. As she reached the entrance she held up the lantern and took a step forward into the room. As soon as her foot made contact with the floor, the whole room suddenly burst into light.

“Aargh! My eyes,” she said, now shielding her eyes from the daylight-strength light emanating from the walls all around her. Lusam came running towards the room and stopped just outside the doorway, then looked tentatively inside. The room was circular in shape, with the single pedestal in the centre. On the pedestal was a single item. As Neala's eyes became accustomed to the bright light, she also took in the almost empty room. Empty apart from a single item sitting on top of the pedestal.

“OH GREAT! Just what we need, another book!” Neala said exasperated.

Lusam burst out laughing at Neala's reaction. She was obviously expecting a room full of gold,silver and gemstones, and not a single book to be so well guarded behind the almost impenetrable wall. Lusam noticed another five indentations in the same configuration on the inside of the room, and felt confident he would be able to reopen the door from the inside, should it close automatically while they were still inside. He walked over to
where the large book was placed on top of the pedestal and looked at the title.
He didn't recognize the language the text was written in. He had never seen anything like it before.

“I can't read the language this is written in. I wonder what kind of book it is?” he said, looking at the ornately designed leather and metal bound cover of the book. “Maybe it's some kind of holy book that the monks used in the past,” he guessed.

“Could be I guess, but if nobody can read it anymore, I guess we'll never know,” replied Neala.

Lusam was curious as to what the book contained, so he took a step up onto the base of the pedestal, where he could better see the contents of the book. Reaching out he opened the book, ready to try and make sense of its contents, when a searing light stunned his whole body. He instantly turned rigid as a force-field of some kind completely surrounded his entire body. Neala noticed the sudden change and called out to him, but he was unable to respond, as he could no longer hear her calls.

“LUSAM!” she cried out. Neala reached out to grab him, and was violently thrown across the room by the force-field now surrounding him. Luckily she wasn't hurt badly and quickly got back to her feet, whilst rubbing the lump that was now forming on the back of her head. She didn't know what to do. She couldn't reach him because of the force-field, and he wasn't responding to her ever desperate
calls.
She also dare not leave him, in case the door closed again and trapped him inside all alone.

Panic pulsed through her with every breath she took. She hadn't known Lusam that long, but he was the best friend she had ever had. More than a friend she realised at that moment. Maybe she actually loved him, she wasn't sure. What she was sure about, was the fact she couldn't lose him. Not here. Not now. It was her stupid idea to try and open this room, and now it had resulted in this happening to Lusam.

Neala paced around and around the outside of the room, trying to think of a solution, but she could think of nothing. At one point, in sheer desperation she had sat down and cried for several minutes, before finally pulling herself together again, and once more attempting to come up with an answer, but to no avail. The passage of time was difficult to judge, but she guessed at least forty minutes had elapsed since Lusam had become trapped. She had come to the conclusion that she must risk leaving him, and get help somehow, from somewhere. She was about to leave the room when she heard, rather than saw the force-field vanish, and Lusam collapsed onto the floor clutching the now closed book to his chest.

“LUSAM!” she called to him, running over to where he'd fallen. As Lusam became more aware of his surroundings, he realised he was being hugged tightly by
Neala.
She was crying whilst calling his name, and apologizing over and over again.

Confused, but enjoying the attention from her, he hugged her back, and while stroking her hair asked, “What’s the matter? Why are you crying? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I'm fine now. Are you hurt?” she asked, still crying on his shoulder.

“No, I’m fine, I think. I … I just know things. Things about magic that I didn’t know before. Strange things. Strange, but incredible things. It's hard to explain, it's all spinning in my head at the moment.”

“I was so worried about you. I was going crazy in here looking at you just standing there, and I couldn't do anything to help you,” she sobbed into his shirt.

“I don't understand. I just opened the book, and then fell onto the floor. How can you have got so worried about me?” he asked confused.

“You opened that book and some kind of force-field froze you up there on that pedestal. I tried to get you out, but I couldn't. You were stuck in there for a long time, maybe forty minutes or more, then you just collapsed onto the floor just now.”

“I only remember opening the book, then I felt dizzy and fell over. It all happened in a blink of an eye for me,” he replied hugging her close, as she still clung to him tightly.

“Please can we get out of here? I've had enough of treasure hunting for one day,” she said.

“Sure. Come on. Let me help you up,” he replied, helping her to her feet. Neala was keen to get out of the room, and hastily headed for the exit, where she waited for Lusam to join her.

Lusam walked towards the door absent-mindedly, still carrying the book clutched tightly to his chest. As he reached the threshold of the door, another force-field suddenly came in to being, and catapulted him back inside the room. The book vanished from his hands and reappeared on the pedestal again, as he landed with a thud on the floor at the base of the pedestal.

“Ouch!” he said stunned, then slowly started to stand up again.

“Are you okay?” Neala asked desperately from the doorway, obviously afraid to test if the force-field was still active.

“Yeah, I'm fine thanks,” he replied, dusting off his clothes for the second time in as many minutes. Lusam walked back over to the door, and gingerly reached out towards where the force-field had just thrown him across the room. Hoping he wasn't now trapped in the room, he was very relieved to find that the force-field was now gone.

“Hmm … I guess whoever placed that book here didn't want it to leave this room. It seems I can walk out
without the book just fine, but not with it.” As he turned to take one last look at the strange book, the illuminated walls fell into darkness, and the stone door began its long slow closing process.

On their way back to the book room Lusam was trying to make sense of what was now in his head. He was sure he knew the entire contents of the book somehow, and yet he didn't fully understand it. As time passed, it became easier for him to pick out individual pieces of information that he had absorbed magically from the strange book. From simple spells, to extremely complex spells, he seemed to know them all in exquisite detail.

As they entered the book room, Neala asked, “What did you mean back there when you said you knew things?”

“I was just thinking about that myself. To be honest, it's very hard even for me to understand.” He stood still thinking for a few moments before continuing. “I was thinking maybe the book was some kind of special training tool. One that the monks used to teach themselves how to use magic. I'm not really sure why, but I get the feeling it's much more than that for some strange reason,” he said, taking a seat at the writing desk.

“I don’t suppose it taught you a fast way to clear this book mountain?” Neala said laughing, nodding towards
the huge stack of books that were still piled high in the corner of the room.
Searching his new found knowledge he replied, “Actually, maybe I could speed up things a little. I discovered how to levitate things. So I could levitate the piles of books from over in the corner, and save us having to carry them by hand. That would save us some time and effort.”

Lusam stood up from behind his writing desk and, without waiting for a reply from Neala, he recalled the spell for levitating objects. As began formulating the spell in his mind, a pile of around twenty large books levitated off the floor and started to float towards them. Neala jumped backwards, out of the path the books seemed to be taking, just as they started to wobble.

CRASH!

The books came tumbling down in a huge jumbled mess all over the floor.

“Oops … Sorry,” Lusam said, looking a little embarrassed.

Neala rolled her eyes at the mess, and replied, “Seems like you need to practise that a bit more.”

“Yeah, I guess so,” he agreed. He tried to think of an analogy to fit the way it felt to try and use the magic the book had forced into his brain. He thought for a couple of minutes, and then decided the best way he could describe how it felt was to say, “It's like believing you already know
how to ride a horse, but only because you've been told how to do it, or you've seen it done by others many times before, but without actual practice riding the horse itself, you're likely to fall off a lot.
If that makes any sense to you?”