Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two (13 page)

“Please, tell me, what I may do to aid Lusam on his journey, so I may serve you well in this task, ma'am,” Renn said, head still bowed in deference.

“Renn, my most faithful paladin, stand, and come forth to me.” Renn did so without pause, head still bowed and trembling in the presence of his God. “I have noticed your shield no longer contains my magic Renn. It was indeed a selfless act, sacrificing it as you did, knowing it was one of a kind. I am sure the Guardian who originally owned it would have been very proud to have known its fate. Please, give me your shield,” Aysha said, holding out her hand. Renn removed his shield and presented it to Aysha, who took it and examined the damage. She passed her hand over the surface of the shield, and all signs of damage vanished before their eyes, leaving a pristine surface that shone like a
new star.
Aysha held out the shield for Renn to take back.

“If you are to successfully protect Lusam, then you will need a suitable shield. Accept this gift from me, it will serve you well in the battles to come, my paladin,” Aysha said.

“I am honoured beyond words, ma'am. Thank you,” Renn replied. When he touched the shield, both it, and his sword glowed with a brilliant blue light, so bright it was impossible to look directly at them, before gradually returning back to their normal state.

“Although I am unable to offer you a similar gift of power Lusam, owing to my oath, I can at least return to you, the power you selflessly used to heal me earlier,” Aysha said, as a light of purest white spread out across the clearing. Lusam could feel the energy flooding back into him. He gasped at the euphoria he felt while he bathed in Aysha's light, and even when it ceased, he could never in his life remember feeling more energised, and alive.

“Thank you,” Lusam said, a little breathless from the experience.

“You are most welcome Lusam. And remember, always follow your heart, not all journeys will follow a straight path, sometimes you must stray a long way from an intended path to arrive at your true destination, your true destination is not always your intended one.....” Aysha said,
as she faded away, as if she had never been there.
Lusam and Renn remained looking at the exact spot where only moments earlier Aysha had stood, both still trying to comprehend the magnitude of what had just happened.

“Well that was... unexpected,” Lusam said, breaking the silence.

“Unexpected! Aysha herself chooses to come to you, and that’s all you can say? Do you not realise that we may be the only two people alive right now in the entire world, that have seen her with our own eyes, let alone spoken to her, or received a magnificent gift such as this shield,” Renn said, reverently appraising his new shield.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean any disrespect. I thought being a paladin of Aysha would mean you had spoken to her before, maybe like the priests do.”

Renn laughed so loud that it made Lusam jump. “No, you don't understand Lusam. As far as I know, Aysha has never shown herself to one of her paladins before, certainly not in recent history anyway. Her last recorded visit to a reigning high priest was over seven centuries ago, and even that visit was marred by scandal, many claiming it was a fraud, and it never actually happened.

“Generations of priests and paladins dedicate their entire lives to the worship of Aysha, but most will never see
her in this world, and most won't even feel the blessing of her light, but you have felt it twice now.
That alone makes you
very
special Lusam, but you have actually seen Aysha with your own eyes, and spoken to her. That makes you
unique
Lusam. Do not underestimate the importance of such an event,” Renn said with genuine feeling in his voice.

“I'm sorry, I had no idea. I presumed her priests, priestesses and paladins would communicate with her on a regular basis, but to be honest, I never gave it much thought in the past,”

Renn's laughter one again boomed out, as he slapped Lusam on the shoulder, knocking the wind out of him a little. “Come on lad, it will be getting dark in an hour, let's not waste the gift of energy Aysha has bestowed upon us. If whoever's following us wants to catch us, I intend to make it as hard as possible for them.” Lusam nodded his agreement and they started to run once again, both more energized than they could ever remember.

Chapter Fourteen

Neala woke with a huge headache and a sense of déjà vu, head down and tied to the saddle, watching the slow gait of her horse's stride, as the ground slowly passed her by. Her left leg ached badly where the numerous poison darts had been jabbed into her thigh, but not half as much as her ribs, which were being crushed by her own weight against the saddle with every step the horse took. She tried to lift her head and get a better look around her, but regretted it almost immediately, as a fresh wave of pain and nausea assaulted her for her efforts.

Neala tried to remain silent and not let Skelly know she was awake, but the pain was getting worse with every minute she travelled in this position. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious this time, but judging by the amount of pain she was in compared to the last time Skelly had poisoned her and tied her in this position, she felt it might be days, rather than hours.

“Stop... Please, stop,” she tried to shout, but it came out as little more than a croak from her parched throat. It must have been loud enough for Skelly to hear her though, because he almost immediately brought the horses to a stop at the side of the road. Neala heard him dismount his horse and slowly walk over to where she waited face down, relieved at the lack of motion, and the pain associated with it. Skelly stood directly in front of her without saying a word, she could only see his feet and lower legs from where she was tied, but even that was enough to know he wasn't happy. She waited for him to speak, but he didn't say a word.

“Any chance you could untie me, please,” Neala asked meekly. For a while Skelly remained silent, ignoring her request for freedom, then he took a step closer to her. Neala noticed a glint of sunlight from a knife concealed in Skelly's hand only a fraction of a heartbeat before he used it to cut free her bonds. She was unceremoniously dumped onto the ground below, knocking the wind completely out of her, and reigniting the agony in her ribs and head.

“Ow!” Neala said, holding her ribs with one hand, and her forehead with the other. “What did you do that for?” Skelly leapt on top of her, driving his knee into her ribs at the exact point where the pain was at its worst. Neala gasped, and almost blacked out with the sudden excruciating pain, not even noticing the blade now held against her
throat.
 

“You're lucky I don't kill you right here and now for what you did,” Skelly said, with true venom in his voice. Neala was about to deny any knowledge of what she had done, but before she could, Skelly pressed his knife harder against her throat to silence her. “Don't bother denying it girl, I've already found the evidence in the bottom of my waterskin. Looks like you weren't as thorough as you thought when you tried to wash away all signs of the poison. I have to say though, I underestimated you girl, you're smarter than you look, but it won't happen again, you can count on that. Now get up!” he said standing up himself, but not before giving her one last dose of pain in her ribs with his knee as he did so. Struggling to stand up, she was suddenly and violently dragged to her feet by her hair, and thrown towards her horse, pain once again exploding throughout her head and body. She mounted her horse without a word, and was roughly retied upright in her saddle, before he returned to his horse, and they resumed riding south towards Stelgad.

Neala knew asking Skelly any questions about their whereabouts, or how long she had been unconscious, would only result in more pain for her, or at best, be met with stony silence. She had only travelled this road once before on her way to Helveel, but she was sure the forest off to their right was
The
 
Forest of Dannar
, and if she was correct, that
would mean she had been unconscious for at least a full day, maybe more.
She remembered travelling alongside the forest for about three days during her tip to Helveel, so depending on how long from this point it took to pass it, she could then work out more accurately how long she had been unconscious.

She didn't have to wait that long however, because an hour later they entered a small village she recognised from her previous journey. Unfortunately it was further along the road than she had earlier estimated, putting the time she had been unconscious closer to two days, not one. Renn stopped the horses outside a small provisions store, and tied them securely to the post outside where they could drink freely from the water trough, then entered the store. A few of the locals gave her some strange looks, but none of them enquired as to why she had been tied to the horse, they simply ignored her and went about their daily business.

It wasn't long before Skelly emerged from the store carrying two new waterskins, and a packet of what Neala guessed would be travel rations. He filled both waterskins at the pump used for watering the horses, then he fastened one of them to his saddle, before approaching Neala's horse with the other. He untied her hands and gave her the waterskin, which she gladly took to quench her raging thirst.

“Thanks,” Neala said, genuinely grateful for the
water, and taking the longest drink she could ever remember in her life, almost draining the whole waterskin.
After she handed the waterskin back to Skelly, and he had retied her hands, she was relieved to see him refill it once more at the pump, before attaching it to her saddle.

As they left the small village behind, Neala couldn't help wondering if she had managed to give Lusam the extra time he would need to arrive at Stelgad in time to save her, or if she should have taken the much greater risk, and tried to kill Skelly outright with more poison in his water instead. She decided there was no point second guessing herself, she would find out soon enough what fate held in store for her.

***

Zedd awoke to the smell of meat cooking, and the sounds of wood cracking in an open fire. It took him a while to focus on his surroundings, but when he did, he could see he was inside some kind of cave, or cavern. The entrance was half blocked by a large boulder, and there was a small fire near the opening. He pushed himself fully upright into a sitting position, gritting his teeth against the searing pain behind his eyes, unable to fully look at the daylight flooding
the entrance of the cave.
Through half-closed eyes he noticed a shadow appear in the cave mouth, silhouetted against the bright sunlight beyond.

“Ah, you're awake at last, sire. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever wake up,” Cole said, dropping a pile of wood he had collected next to the fire.

“What happened to me, why are we in this cave?” Zedd asked, confused as to what was going on.

“I really don't know sire. One moment you were happily relaying the information to me, of what was happening during the battle between the boy and the
Vesdari
, and the next you screamed out-loud clutching your head, and then fell to the ground unconscious. I tried to wake you for a long time, but I couldn't. It was almost dark when I found this cave. I carried you inside, and sealed the entrance with that large boulder, just before the creatures emerged outside. I didn't think the creatures could reach the surface through the rock floor inside the cave, but just in case I was wrong, I drew a magic circle on the floor, just to be safe,” Cole said, pride evident in his voice.

Zedd slowly absorbed the information he had just been given, and tried to remember what had happened during the battle. He remembered the boy had been almost fully drained by the
Vesdari
, then the Paladin had shown up to save him, striking the creature with his sword, and
keeping it away from the boy.
He had even felt some pain himself as the sword struck the
Vesdari.
He remembered at the time thinking that it was strange, but put it down to the magical connection he shared with the creature. The last thing he could remember seeing, was the creature lunging at the boy for its final attack, only to be pinned to the ground by the paladin's sword. The paladin then jammed what looked like a shield between his sword and the creature, causing a huge power surge, followed by an incredible pain behind Zedd's own eyes, causing him to black out. The next thing he knew, he woke here, in this cave.

“Did you hear an explosion?” Zedd asked, almost sure he knew the answer already.

“Yes sire, I heard a huge explosion come from the south, shortly after you collapsed. I guessed it was the Vesdari reaching the limit of its magic absorption and exploding.”

“I think you're right, but I'm not sure it fully completed its mission,” Zedd replied.

“I doubt very much anyone could have survived that explosion, sire, not even the boy mage, or a paladin of Aysha,” Cole said confidently.

“I'm not so sure of that.... either way we will need proof. You did well finding us a safe-haven to recover Cole, it will be at least a day before I am able to resume our
mission, but we must know if the boy mage still lives or not in the meantime.
Tonight, just before sunset, when they are close to the surface, you will summon and take control of a Netherworld creature, then send it to the location of the battle to confirm whether the boy lives or not,” Zedd commanded. Cole instantly went from looking proud, to looking equally terrified at the prospect of summoning his own Netherworld creature, and having to control it.