Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two (23 page)

“Tell me Shiva, how did you ever become leader of the Hawks' guild? It certainly can't be because of your prowess with a blade, I've seen more skill with a blade from circus performers,” she said grinning at him. Once again he launched himself at her, but this time she didn't simply block his attacks, she struck back. Every time his guard opened even slightly, she scored a hit. Time and again she opened up small cuts on his  arms and hands, and even one time on his cheek when he over extended his attack.

It was clear to everyone in the room by now that Neala wasn't simply beating him, she was humiliating him in front of everyone there. Blood soaked his arms and torso where she had scored her countless hits, but he hadn't managed to score a single hit on Neala.

“I'm confused Shiva. How can you possibly still be the leader of the Hawks' guild after all this time, when
others in this very room are much better with a blade than you?
The man you sent to capture me for example. I fought Skelly in Helveel, and I can assure you that he's much better than you. Please, tell everyone here what your secret is, or I will,” Neala said, easily blocking his attacks, and now striking back at will.

“Ah, I see the cat has your tongue Shiva. Well, I'll tell you how he managed to defeat all of his enemies over the years and remain in control. He had them all poisoned so the fights were never fair,” Neala said. There was a ripple of conversation that flowed through the men, interrupted by Shiva shouting,

“She lies. Kill her, kill them all, that's an order!” Nobody moved.

“So, I lie do I? Then explain what all the poison darts are doing on the floor over there,” Neala said, pointing at the small pile of darts with her knife. He didn't reply, but instead launched into a renewed frenzied attack, bellowing like a banshee as he lunged at Neala, trying to take advantage of her while her guard was down as she pointed towards the darts. Lusam gasped, expecting Shiva to score a deadly hit on her, but instead she simply sidestepped his attack, spun full circle and the fight was suddenly over. Shiva stood perfectly still in the centre of the room with his throat cut and a dagger protruding from his chest, and a
strange look of denial on his face.
Neala slowly walked over to where he now stood bleeding out, watching him try to voice some last unintelligible statement, and said, “You don't deserve to lead this guild Shiva, in fact you no longer even deserve to breathe.” She took hold of her knife still lodged in his chest and yanked it out, sending him crashing to the floor, where he twitched a couple of times, before never moving again.

The room was stunned into complete silence. Nobody knew what the outcome of this would be. Their laws allowed the victor from rite of
blood vengeance
to become leader of the vanquished leader's guild unchallenged. Neala stepped forward to address the men.

“The rite of
blood vengeance
has been satisfied, I hereby forgo any further right to
blood vengeance
in the future against any member of the Hawks' guild. I have no wish to take control of your guild as leader, therefore leadership should pass to the strongest amongst you as our laws dictate, and I believe that to be Skelly, unless of course anyone wishes to challenge him for the right of leadership,” Neala said, looking directly at Skelly, who nodded his head and even looked like he might have a smile hidden just under the surface of his ice cold exterior.

Skelly slowly walked towards where Neala, Lusam and Alexia were now standing, Lusam only just managing to
cancel his magical barrier before Skelly walked straight into it, and narrowly avoiding having to explain his magical abilities in front of so many people.
Skelly paused in front of Neala, as if he were about to say something, but instead he turned to address the men in the room.

“I hereby claim leadership of the Hawks' guild as highest ranking member. If any man here wishes to challenge my authority, step forward now,” Skelly half shouted at the men in front of him. Unsurprisingly no one stepped forward. “Anyone not wishing to serve me as guild leader is free to leave this building, and the city by nightfall without reprisals. All who remain do so of their own free will, and as such fealty to me will be assumed with all consequences for breaking that oath fully upheld as our laws dictate.” There was a brief silence, followed by a chant of,

“Skelly... Skelly... Skelly.” All the other men soon joined in, creating a cacophony of sound within the room. Skelly held up his hands to silence his men and they quickly obeyed. He turned to Neala, but was speaking to his men as he did so.

“My first declaration as leader is as follows: all surviving members of the Crows' guild are free to join the Hawks' guild upon pledging their allegiance to us, if they wish to do so. If they do not wish to join us, then so be it, but they will not be harmed unless they attack any of us first,”
Skelly said, still looking at Neala.
“Thanks Skelly, but I think you're looking at what's left of the Crows' guild right here in this room,” Neala said sadly, glancing over her shoulder at Alexia.

“Actually, according to a report I read when we first got back here, we know the whereabouts of another seven members, possibly eight. Shiva had planned to round them up after you were imprisoned here. Then he planned to torture and kill them one by one in front of you, while he forced you to watch as punishment for stealing his property,” Skelly said. “But, I give you my word they won't be harmed Neala.”

Neala couldn't believe that another seven or eight of her friends might still be alive in Stelgad. She desperately wanted to know who they were, but she knew she couldn't linger here any longer than necessary with Lusam's life in such danger. It also occurred to her that even if she did know their names, it wouldn't change how she felt about Lusam, and her plans to remain with him. Neala nodded her thanks to Skelly.

“Okay, show's over here people. Get back to whatever you lazy dogs were doing before all this started. The sun will be up soon enough, and we have a big day ahead of us,” Skelly bellowed at his men, most of whom were more than happy to return to their beds for what little
remained of the night.
Skelly waited until the room was empty before turning back to Neala and saying,

“You're far better with that blade than I gave you credit for. You should join us. I could always use a member with your skills, and I doubt having seen your display just now that anyone would resent you a high ranking position here. Well, not for long anyway,” he said with a grin.

“Thanks for the offer, but I have plans of my own just now,” Neala said smiling at Lusam.

“I see. Well, if you need anything just let me know, I hate owing debts to anyone,”

“Actually, there are two things you can do for me,” Neala said hopefully.

“I don't remember owing you two debts,” Skelly replied with raised eyebrows. After a moment he asked, “What two things?”

“We had an employee of the Crows' guild that sold out some of our men to Shiva. The innkeeper of the
Plucked Pheasant
. He was installed there by our guild many years ago, and paid well for his work. His job was to inform us of any wealthy travellers or expensive cargo that flowed through the city, but he decided to sell out his own men once it became more profitable for him,” Neala replied. Skelly shook his head, obviously just as incensed at the innkeepers betrayal as Neala had been.

“No matter how much you do for some people, or however much they are paid, their loyalty is never guaranteed. I think it's about time the
Plucked Pheasant
had a change of ownership,” Skelly said menacingly.

“I agree, but don't make his
departure
too swift, if you understand my meaning,” said Neala.

“Oh, I won't, you can count on that,” replied Skelly grinning. “What was the second thing you needed?” he asked.

“We need to leave this building unseen. There are a lot of men outside looking for my friend here, and they all want to kill him. I hope to avoid that if we can,” Neala said winking at Lusam.

“We have enough men here to take care of them for you, consider it a parting gift,” Skelly said.

“No, you don't,” Lusam said, emerging from behind Neala. “They're not your regular thugs, your weapons would be useless against them, and your men would be cut down far too easily,”

“Listen to him Skelly, he speaks the truth. Do you remember the men in black robes we've been seeing all the way from Helveel?” Neala said.

“Yes, what about them?”

“Well, they are all trying to find and kill Lusam,
every one of them,” Neala replied.
“Okay, but they are still only men, they will bleed like any other man,” Skelly said confidently. Lusam stepped forward to stand face to face with Skelly and said,

“See if you can make
me
bleed,”

“What?” Skelly replied, shocked at Lusam's request.

“Make me bleed,” Lusam repeated. Skelly's hand moved so fast Lusam would never have been able to avoid being struck by his blow, but instead his knife bounced harmlessly off his magical shield. His eyes went wide as he tried time and again to score a non-lethal hit anywhere on Lusam's body. “Now do you see? There may be dozens of men out there, each able to shield themselves like I can. Many of them may also be far more powerful than me, but regardless, your men wouldn't stand a chance,” Lusam said.

“So, that's how you got past my men so easily?” said Skelly thoughtfully.

“Yes. Your men will be fine after they have plenty of rest. They will probably wake with headaches the likes of which they have never known, but they will recover in time,” Lusam replied, not envying his men when they did finally wake.

“I have a question for you. How did you know I was here? I tried to cover my tracks pretty well I thought,”
Lusam asked.
Skelly laughed out-loud then replied,

“Yes, you did. But only a few minutes earlier I had been speaking with the two men guarding our main entrance. When I returned from the kitchen I found them both unconscious on the floor, each holding a decanter of my favourite brandy. I know neither of them can handle their drink that well, but even they couldn't drink themselves unconscious in less than three minutes.”

Lusam smiled and replied, “I thought they had been speaking with someone else out of sight, but when I reached the bottom of the stairs, I only found those two.”

“So, can you help us get out of here unseen Skelly?” Neala interrupted, “I know you must have access to one or more secret escape routes out of this building in case of emergencies. I also know keeping their existence a secret is paramount, but I did just turn down the job of guild leader, and I also give you my word that your secret will remain just that.”

Skelly remained silent long enough for Neala to start doubting that he would reveal their secret escape routes to them at all. She knew Skelly was considering the implications of sharing such important information with an outsider. Letting the wrong person know the location of his secret escape route in effect completely negated its usefulness, and possibly compromised his life if he should
ever find himself in need of using it.
“I understand your reluctance to reveal your escape routes Skelly, I really do. I already gave you my word that I wouldn't seek any further retribution over my dead guild-mates, as well as never to reveal your secrets, but if my word is not good enough for you, then think of it this way instead; if we wanted you dead, Lusam here could kill you with a single thought, or collapse the entire building with everyone inside from a hundred paces away, we certainly wouldn't need knowledge of a secret escape route to kill you,” Neala said, hoping he didn't take it as a threat instead of a statement of fact.

Skelly remained silent for a while longer, studying Lusam as he did so, then he turned back to Neala and said, “I suppose you have a good point there. Are you sure I can't convince you all to join the Hawks' guild?” he replied, suddenly more interested in Lusam than he had been at any time since meeting him.

“Quite sure, thank you,” Neala replied.

“That's a shame, with his talents we could all make a fortune,” Skelly said, nodding in Lusam's direction. “Come, follow me, I'll get you all out of here unseen.”

Chapter Twenty Five

Skelly led them towards the back of the building and opened a door that led to another basement. When they descended the stone stairs they found themselves inside what looked like a disused wine cellar. Row after row of mostly empty wine racks lined the walls. At the far end of the room were three huge wooden barrels, two on their sides, and one standing upright in the centre. Lusam guessed they were once used for fermenting wine, or some other alcoholic beverage, but they looked like they hadn't been used in a very long time.

Skelly walked over to the huge barrel on the left and removed a knife from his belt. He reached around the side of the huge barrel and put the tip of his knife into a groove in one of the steel hoops that held the barrel together. There was a loud click and the entire lid of the barrel swung inwards creating a huge round doorway. Hanging inside the barrel were three lanterns, one of which Skelly picked up
and was about to light when Lusam spoke.
“We won't need that,” he said nodding at the lantern in Skelly's hand. Skelly was about to disagree with him, but was cut short by the sudden appearance of Lusam's light orb hovering inside the giant barrel. To Neala's surprise Skelly didn't even ask any questions about it, instead he simply hung the lantern back on its hook and continued as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. When Lusam, Neala and Alexia stepped inside the giant barrel, Skelly closed the door behind them, effectively sealing them all inside the wooden barrel. Skelly once again inserted the tip of his knife into two more slots, this caused a second door to spring open at the back of the barrel, revealing a long dark tunnel cut into the earth beyond.