by Dean Cadman
“And just how do you propose we reach the city gates, with all those undead down there?” Neala asked nervously. Renn looked at Lusam and raised his eyebrows, waiting for him to reply. Lusam thought about it for a while, knowing he would only get once chance to reach the gates undetected by the huge number of magi poised to attack. If they even thought it was him trying to enter the city, he had no doubt they would launch a massive assault on both him, and the city—one he knew neither he, nor the city would survive.
“Firstly, we leave the horses here and go on foot. We’ll need to blend in as much as possible down there. If those Empire magi even suspect we are anything other than another group of paladins, we are done for. We’ll need to stay very close together, so it’s not obvious to the watching magi that we are behind a shield. I can alter my shield so it will allow you to freely strike at the undead from inside. But you must be very careful, if any part of your body is outside my shield, and you’re grabbed by one of the undead, they could easily pull you out from behind my shield’s protection. We will need to keep moving forward too, because I suspect the more of those things we kill, the more scrutiny we will receive from those magi up there. So only kill the ones in front of us, and to the sides. I think if we make it half-way across the valley floor, we should be hidden from the magi by the city walls. I guess once we’re no longer visible to the magi, we can kill as many undead as we like,” Lusam replied thoughtfully.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that, lad,” Renn said. “Most of your plan seems pretty sound, but the magi who are controlling those undead, will also sense their destruction. If too many of them die too quickly, they will no doubt investigate further. They often use their undead minions as extensions to their own ears and eyes, sending them into dangerous situations where they themselves refuse to go. My advice would be to simply get to the gate as quickly as possible, lad, and ignore the ones who are not in our way. That way we don’t draw any unwanted attention to ourselves.” Lusam nodded at his words, knowing that Renn knew far more about the undead than he did.
“I have a question,” Alexia said, crouching down, and hugging Rebekah and Kayden close to her. “If we do make it to the gate in one piece, how do we get through that shield, and then inside the city?”
“Good point,” Neala said with a nervous laugh.
“Don’t worry about that, the shield will allow any paladin who is carrying a blessed weapon pass through it, along with anyone else they are in contact with. There is a small wicket gate next to the main one, so we can enter through that. Inside there’s an enclosed stone courtyard, and an inner gate. Once they see who we are, they will allow us entry into the city,” Renn replied.
“What about my knives?” Neala asked suddenly.
“What about them?” Lusam replied.
“Well, Renn has his blessed sword, and Alexia her blessed arrows, but my knives will soon be useless down there against all those undead. You would spend more time cleansing them than I would using them,” Neala said.
“Hmm, I hadn’t thought about that,” Lusam replied, trying to think of a way around the limitations of her knives. A few moments later he had an idea. “Take out one of your knives, and saturate its blade by touching it, please,” he said to Neala. She did as he asked, then held out the blade for him to take, but instead of taking her knife he placed his hand on her shoulder. He easily created a link to the blade through Neala’s body, and cleansed the blade of all its magic.
“It won’t be a problem, I can cleanse your knives constantly, by maintaining physical contact with you. I’ll have to keep my shield as small as possible anyway, to avoid detection, so staying close enough to each other shouldn’t be a problem either,” Lusam said confidently.
“So, while we are cutting down the hordes of undead, and you have a hold of Neala, who will be looking after Rebekah and Kayden?” Alexia asked, still hugging the two frightened children.
“Hey, Kayden,” Lusam said after a moment, “I bet you know how to back-ride really well, don’t you?” Kayden nodded, but kept his head down on Alexia’s shoulder. “There we go then. Kayden can ride on my back, and I’ll keep hold of Rebekah with my free hand, while you three carve us a path to that gate.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Neala laughed, looking down at the tens of thousands of undead moving around below them on the valley floor.
It took quite a while to convince Rebekah and Kayden that everything would be alright, and they would soon be safe inside the city walls, but eventually they agreed to the plan. They left the horses behind, and began the journey down into the valley on foot. Fortunately most of the road was hidden from view by thick trees, as it snaked downwards into the valley below, making it easy to conceal their approach. Renn’s sword and Alexia’s bow had both started to glow brightly long before they reached the valley floor. Renn was leading the group—as he was the only one familiar with the road they were on—and called a halt to the party, just as the road ahead veered to the left and vanished from view. He carefully climbed a small mound and peered over it to check what lay on the other side, then slid back down to tell the others. They all gathered around Renn to hear what he had to say, but also kept a nervous eye on the road up ahead for any signs of movement.
“Just around that next bend, we’ll arrive at the valley floor. From what I could see, most of the undead are facing Lamuria as you might expect. So if were lucky, we can probably get a fair distance before they even notice us coming. I know it will be hard, but I suggest we walk, not run. It’s far better that the undead see us a little earlier than have those magi notice a group of fast moving objects, and decide to investigate us further,” Renn whispered. Everyone nodded their agreement, but nobody spoke a word. “Alright, let’s get into our formation, and may Aysha watch over us all,” Renn whispered. Neala threw her arms around Lusam’s neck and gave him a tight hug, then gently kissed his lips.
“Be careful,” she whispered in his ear, whilst hugging him again. Lusam nodded and smiled at her.
“It should be me telling you to be careful. You’re the one who’ll have their hands outside the protection of my shield. Just make sure none of those things grab you and drag you outside of it,” Lusam whispered in her ear, and gave her a gentle kiss.
“The day I start to move slowly enough for one of those things to even get close to me, is the day I’ll hang up my knives for good,” she replied slightly too defensively. Lusam chuckled at the look on her face: one that said he should already know she was far better than that—and of course, he did.
“When you two lovebirds have done slobbering all over each other, we have a few undead to kill,” Alexia said grinning at them both. Neala narrowed her eyes and pouted at her best friend, but took it in good humour.
Soon they were formed up and ready to go, Kayden was riding on Lusam’s back, Rebekah holding his free hand, and Renn, Neala and Alexia in front of him. He created a magical shield around them all, and adjusted it so they could freely strike at the undead through it, then they were on their way.
As soon as they reached the bend in the road, the valley floor opened out in front of them. It was a sea of movement as far as they could see, all trying to force their way towards the defensive walls of Lamuria. Weapons at the ready, they moved slowly and silently forward, towards the incredible mass of undead.
Renn was the first to strike, jabbing at the mass of undead through Lusam’s shield. They fell like stones before his blessed blade, as he carved a narrow path through the undead army. Alexia jabbed at them with one of her blessed arrows, felling any that got in their way, and Neala followed her example with her enchanted knives, whilst Lusam constantly cleansed her blades of magic. Their progress was painfully slow, as they were forced to climb over the many bodies of the slain undead. Kayden had his face buried in Lusam’s back, eyes closed tight against the horrors of what was happening right in front of him. Lusam could feel Rebekah’s hand trembling in his own, and gave it several squeezes of encouragement t
o try and reassure her. At first, she had also kept her eyes closed, but several times she had almost tripped on the undead corpses as they clambered over them. Now she looked down at the ground, trying to ignore the grisly sights beneath her own feet, and far too afraid to look up.
Lusam kept a nervous eye on the huge number of magi at the opposite end of the valley. So far, their presence seemed to have gone undetected by them, but he knew that could change in an instant. If it did, he would need to be ready to channel far more power into his shield to survive a single hit. At the moment his shield was purposely very weak, trying to make it blend in with the natural auras and weapons of what should hopefully appear to be nothing more than a group of paladins on the battlefield. He could see three groups of paladins in the distance, not far from the city gates, and was relieved to see that they appeared to be killing the undead at a faster rate then they were. Hopefully that would be enough to stop the Empire magi investigating their party.
Once they had reached the halfway point, the city walls and buildings began to obscure their view of the Empire magi. Lusam breathed a sigh of relief. He knew they weren’t completely safe yet, but he also knew that not being in their direct line of sight, was one less chance of being discovered. It would also be a lot harder to target them accurately with any magical-missile, now they were no longer directly visible. On and on they pressed, killing dozens and dozens of undead as they carved their way through their mass towards the gates of Lamuria. As they approached the city walls, Lusam noticed one group of paladins to their left in serious trouble. Two of the four paladins had been injured and were on the ground, while the remaining two tried desperately to keep the undead hordes at bay. They were not being given the space, or opportunity to lift their fallen comrades from the floor, let alone retreat to the safety of Lamuria with them.
“Renn… wait a moment,” Lusam said, making sure he and the others had stopped moving before focusing his attention on the four paladins.
“Careful, lad, you don’t want to be announcing your presence just yet,” Renn warned.
“I know, I’ll be careful,” Lusam replied, creating a similar magical shield around the four paladins. It took the two men a few moments to realise that the undead were no longer able to reach them, and they started to look around for the cause of it. When they saw Lusam and his party a few hundred paces away, they raised a cautious hand in greeting. Renn waved back, then shouted his greeting. It was obvious that he recognised at least one of the men, by the use of his familiar tone.
“Friend of yours?” Alexia enquired.
“Yeah, we trained together many years ago, at The Sanctum of Light in Stelgad,” Renn replied.
“Should we start to carve them a path?” Neala asked, as she watched the two paladins pick up their fallen comrades and place them over their shoulders.
“Might be a good idea,” Renn replied, starting to hack his way towards his fellow paladins. It didn’t take them long to meet up with the group, and Lusam was then able to create a single magical shield to encase both parties.
“It’s good to see you again Renn,” one of the men said, holding out his hand in greeting.
“Likewise Carlos,” Renn replied shaking his hand.
“Seems we owe you a debt of gratitude for saving our hides back there,” Carlos said, grinning at Renn.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to thank Lusam for that one, not me,” Renn replied, nodding towards Lusam, “but let’s all get inside first before we start celebrating, shall we?” Carlos turned towards Lusam and nodded his thanks, then took his place alongside the others, hacking and jabbing their way towards the gate. Neither Carlos nor the other man seemed the slightest bit encumbered by having another man draped across their shoulders, and soon they were at the small wicket gate. Carlos opened the small gate and entered into the inner courtyard, closely followed by his comrade-in-arms. The undead were still desperately battering at Lusam’s shield, but the relief of reaching Lamuria’s gate undetected by the Empire magi far outweighed his concern over that. He handed Rebekah over to Alexia, then removed Kayden from his back and passed him over to her too. Once she had hold of their hands, she passed through the city’s shield and entered the safety of Lamuria. Renn went next, then held out his hand to Neala so she could cross the barrier, and finally it was Lusam’s turn.
Once inside Lusam extinguished his shield and closed the gate firmly behind himself, glad to see the back of the undead hordes outside. The entrance led into a small stone courtyard, surrounded by high stone walls. At the far end was a locked iron gate, guarded by several soldiers dressed in immaculate red and blue uniforms. Lusam guessed that they were part of the regular King’s guard, and didn’t belong to the paladins of Aysha. The two injured men had been carefully placed on the floor, and Carlos was trying to rouse one of them.
“Let me take a look at them,” Lusam offered, walking over to the two injured men. He placed his hand on the closest man’s chest and used his mage-sight to determine the extent of his injuries. He quickly discovered that the first man had two broken bones and a severe concussion. He didn’t think the man would regain consciousness anytime soon, but just in case, he blocked his ability to feel any pain whilst he reset the bones in his arm. With a loud cracking noise his arm bones realigned themselves—making several of the bystanders wince—then he fused the bones back together before moving on to the next man.
“He’ll be fine now. I fixed his arm bones, but he still has a concussion. He just needs a little rest to recover,” Lusam said, as he began assessing the second man. His injuries were more extensive, and would have been life threatening if Lusam hadn’t intervened. He swifty repaired the damage and informed the other paladins of his condition, then went to wait with the others.
“Is there a problem?” Lusam asked, noticing the iron gate still remained locked.
“No, lad, it’s standard procedure for any unknown arrivals during a time of war. Someone will have gone to fetch whoever’s in command so they can decided whether or not to let us into the city,” Renn replied chuckling.
“Oh, I see,” Lusam said, noticing for the first time the strange looks that Carlos and his fellow paladin were giving him now.
“How did you do that?” Carlos asked, pointing to the two men on the ground. “You didn’t speak any incantation, you just… did it.”
Renn burst out laughing, knowing exactly what must be going through both Carlos’ and his fellow paladin’s minds right now. “Don’t ask, lads, it’s far too complicated a story. I still don’t understand it myself, and I’ve been trying to get my head around it for months now,” he said, still chuckling at the amazed look on both their faces. Just then a familiar voice called out from behind them.
“Renn, is that you in there?” Hershel shouted from behind the locked gate. He was still wearing his full suit of chain mail, just like the last time they had seen him at The Sanctum of Light, but somehow, he seemed older now,—as if the recent events had taken a high toll on him.
“Aye, you old fox, it’s me—and I’ve brought some old friends along,” Renn replied grinning at his old mentor.
“OPEN THE GATES!” Hershel bellowed, and a guard swifty obeyed his command. Renn clasped his arm in greeting, then introduced Rebekah and Kayden to him. Once Lusam, Neala and Alexia had greeted Hershel, they all started walking slowly towards the High Temple building.
“How goes the battle?” Renn asked quietly, suspecting he already knew the answer to his own question.
“Not good I’m afraid, old boy. Best estimates give the city’s shield two days at most before its power is fully drained. We have every available mage trying to keep it topped up with their magic, but we simply don’t have enough magi available. If those Empire magi attacked right now, it would be over in a matter of minutes,” Hershel replied quietly.
“Maybe I can help with that,” Lusam suggested, overhearing their conversation.
“Any contribution would certainly help young man, but I doubt
even you can change the outcome of this war now,” Hershel replied, sounding a little deflated.
“I wouldn’t count on that if I were you, old friend,” Renn said grinning. He checked all around to make sure no one else was in earshot, then still grinning from ear to ear, he said, “Hershel, we found Coldmont.”
“You what!” Hershel gasped in disbelief.
“And there’s more, but we must speak of it in private, and only inside the High Temple,” Renn said cryptically. Hershel nodded, and they all picked up their pace as they headed towards the largest building in the city.
They entered the High Temple through the main paladins’ entrance, then veered off to the right, towards a small office. Renn suddenly remembered that Hershel knew nothing about the Guardian book in Helveel, or the fact Lusam had already read it long before meeting him. Renn himself had only learned of it during their trek through the fog-covered valley in The Elveen Mountains, and that was after they had seen Hershel in The Sanctum of Light. He trusted Hershel completely, but for some reason he felt an overwhelming desire to keep the exact location of Helveel’s Guardian book a secret from him, and as many other people as possible. Coldmont’s Guardian book was already known to Lord Zelroth, as was the one suspected to be somewhere inside the High Temple, but Helveel,… that must remain a secret, or the entire world would be in danger.
“So tell me all about Coldmont,” Hershel asked excitedly, as he closed the door of the office behind them.
“We discovered it high in the Elveen Mountains, it’s everything you would expect it to be, and much more, old friend. But that’s not what I needed to speak to you about. Hershel… we found a Guardian book there, and Lusam read it,” Renn said grinning at his old friend.
Hershel’s mouth fell open at the news Renn had just revealed to him, unable to comprehend the magnitude of it. If anyone else had told him such a thing, he would have dismissed it out of hand. But Aysha herself had spoken to him of Lusam’s unique abilities and his future potential for saving Afaraon, and he had already witnessed several of those unique abilities himself.
