Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three

by Dean Cadman

  As the cold hand of the first undead creature touched her, it felt like a veil being lifted from before her eyes. She suddenly knew with absolute certainty that Aysha would be there for her, and everyone else who fell that day. She smiled, knowing that everything would be alright now, and opened her eyes to see the world for the last time in this life. She felt a strange pulse, and the two undead-minions suddenly slumped to the ground in front of her. Tears of joy filled her eyes as she looked down on the two unmoving corpses and saw four glowing knives in her own belt. She had finally opened her heart to Aysha, and it felt like all her fears and doubts had been washed away. She noticed her other two knives on the ground where she had been knocked down, and went to retrieve them. As she picked them up, they too began to glow brightly in her hand. She had nothing to fear any more, she could feel Aysha within her, and she would take her into battle with her.

  With a battle cry that would still the hearts of most men, she rejoined Renn. Her hands moved so fast they were barely visible. Whereas Renn had barely managed to hold back the tide of undead, Neala was cutting a path through them like a scythe through wheat. Within seconds she had created a pocket of space amongst them, and that space grew rapidly. Renn could see several groups of paladins desperately trying to fight their way back to help protect the gates, but there were simply too many undead between them and the gate. Neala must have also seen them struggling, as she started to carve her way through the undead army towards them. The undead tried to close in on her, but she was simply too fast. The slightest touch of her blessed blades was enough to end them, and end them she did, in unbelievable numbers. Renn had never seen anyone fight like that in his entire life, and knew with absolute conviction that Aysha was with her as she fought.

  When Neala finally reached the groups of paladins, she simply reversed her course and carved them a path back towards the gates. By now she was covered in so much blood and gore that Renn wouldn’t have been surprised if the paladins had mistaken her for one of the undead, but they too seemed mesmerised by her deadly speed and grace on the battlefield.

  Renn was suddenly startled by a movement behind him, and almost ran Morgan through with his sword, thinking he was one of the undead that had somehow managed to get over the barricade.

  “Seven Gods!” Morgan swore, as he saw Neala cutting through the army of undead in front of him.

  “Yeah, I bet you’re glad you didn’t upset her any more than you did earlier,” Renn said, chuckling at the look of astonishment on his face. He just nodded open-mouthed and continued to stab at any undead that came within range from behind his shield.

  Neala had created another large pocket of space within the undead, and continued to destroy them at an incredible rate. Many of the paladins she had gone to help were now within hailing distance of Renn, but many of them were too busy watching Neala to even notice. Neala didn’t even slow down when the undead turned and started walking back the way they had come. She continued to destroy every undead that came within her range, and that range increased dramatically when she removed her other four knives and sent them flying through the air towards the retreating undead. Four more hit the floor never to move again.

  “I know I took a big knock to the head, but did I just see thousands of undead run away from her?” Morgan asked. Renn didn’t really know if he was joking or not, but by the look on his face he would have guessed not.

  “Well, wouldn’t you run away from her, having seen that?” Renn said grinning, and nodding towards the corpse littered battlefield.

  “Seven Gods yes! But I doubt I’d get very far,” he said shaking his head and watching Neala retrieve her knives.

  “I agree, so I’d be nice to her if I were you,” Renn replied, chuckling to himself. Morgan simply nodded as he watched her approach.

  Around forty paladins watched silently in awe as Neala slowly walked back towards the barricade. Her knives had lost their glow just like everyone else’s weapon, but Renn had no doubt it would return the next time she was in battle. And he could tell by her new found confidence that she no longer had any doubts either.

  When Neala reached the barricade she stopped directly in front of Morgan and met his eyes, then after watching him squirm for a moment she grinned at him.

  “That’s going to be a nice shiner you have there,” she said, pointing to his rapidly blacking eye. Renn burst out laughing at the look on his face, then watched as Neala went to find something to clean off all the blood and gore with.

  After a moment Renn noticed that the bombardment of the city’s wall had stopped. His heart sank as he realised the Empire magi must have already broken through the south wall, and that would also explain why the undead had been recalled by their masters. He sprinted towards the far end of the wall so he could see for himself, shouting for all his fellow paladins to follow him so they could help defend the breach.

  When he reached the end of the wall, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although the city’s wall had been badly damaged, it thankfully remained intact enough to prevent the undead from entering the city. He had expected to see the remaining paladins near the wall attempting to protect it, but strangely they were nowhere near it. Even stranger was the sight of the undead army ignoring the wall altogether, and instead retreating towards the south cliffs where the Empire magi were massed.

  Then he saw the reason why. Directly at the base of the cliffs were a group of paladins. The Empire magi had retreated well away from the edge of the cliffs for some reason, but one of them broke away from the rest and came slowly forward to peer over the edge. Renn watched curiously as the man quickly looked over the edge, then turned and ran as fast as he could. A bright blue flash streaked upwards from the base of the cliffs towards the fleeing man. He took no more than five strides before he fell to the ground, and his death-pulse washed over Renn and the others in the valley below.

  It all began to make perfect sense to Renn. It seemed that Alexia had somehow achieved the impossible, and forced the Empire magi to retreat out of range of the city walls. The Empire’s response had been to recall their undead army to attack her and the paladins with her. But from what Renn could see, it looked like she had little more than a single group of paladins with her, and that would never be enough to defend against what was now heading her way. Renn knew they would never make it to her group in time, but they had to at least try.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Lusam collapsed to the floor in a crumpled heap as the Guardian book released him from its magical grip. His vision blurred with the incredible pain inside his head, made all the worse by the intense white light within the room. He felt, rather than saw the blue pulse-of-light wash over him as he lay next to the book pedestal, curled into a tight ball against the searing pain in his head. As the blue light washed over him, his pain eased considerably, and he was once again able to think more clearly. Remembering the severe damage that had been caused to the blood vessels inside his head when he read the Guardian book in Coldmont, he quickly began to search out any new life threatening injuries, but found none. He felt certain there had been many, but somehow knew he had just been healed by Aysha’s light. She had given Neala her word that she would look after him whilst he read the Guardian book, and it would seem she had kept that promise, much to Lusam’s relief.

  Lusam felt like he could throw up at any moment, and it took him much longer than the previous times to recover his composure. When he did finally manage to stand up, he was pleased to see that the High Priest had done as he had asked, and brought him one of the Power Orbs. He attempted to bend over and pick it up, and immediately regretted it, as his head began to spin wildly once more. As he stood there, willing his world to stop spinning again, he checked to see how much the Guardian book had increased his capacity to hold magic. He was stunned by what he found. His magical capacity had grown so much, he doubted that any mage alive even came close to his level of power, including Lord Zelroth himself. The small amount of power he had left himself aft
er charging the city’s shield earlier, was now barely even noticeable within his massive new magical reservoir.

  Lusam placed his hand on the wall to steady himself before attempting to pick up the Power orb again. As he did so, he could feel distinct vibrations coming through the wall with his hand. His head was still trying to sort itself out from reading the Guardian book, as if the new information it had given him was fighting with itself to find a place within his mind to permanently reside. It was difficult to think clearly while it was going on, but as the fog in his mind began to clear he became aware of the distant sounds associated with the vibrations. He strained to hear the distant sounds, and as he did so, his hearing became far more sensitive to the world around him. He wasn’t sure if it was a new ability from this Guardian book, or one of the others, but it was a very strange sensation. He could hear people’s voices and their footfalls as they hurried around the High Temple above him. He could also hear the distant thuds that were causing the vibrations in the wall, but he couldn’t tell where they were coming from.

  As the new information from the Guardian book established itself within his mind, more and more of that information became clear to him. The Guardian book in Coldmont had increased his understanding of how all things were connected to each other magically, and he had used that information on several occasions since. But now, his understanding of it took on a whole new dimension. The information this Guardian book had bestowed on him far outweighed the one in Coldmont. It was as if each piece of information was a part of a much larger puzzle, and now that puzzle was complete. When he opened his mage-sight to the world, he could see lines-of-power everywhere he looked. Everything was connected to everything else, either by physical touch, or by lines-of-power running through them. He could even see for the first time the magic within the air he breathed. It entered his body with every breath he took, and at first he thought that must be how the magi regained their magical reserves, but when he saw the same magic released back into the world again as he exhaled, he knew that not to be the case.

  He reached out with his magical senses and searched for the true source of his power, and found it almost effortlessly. He could clearly see the magic that was being drawn towards his body and entering his upper torso, at the exact point where his heart was beating within his chest. It finally made perfect sense to him; the human heart was where a magi drew his or her power from, and that was also why a death-pulse was released whenever a mage died, as the heart released its stored power back to the world at large.

  He sent out his magical senses through his hand and into the wall he still touched, through the countless layers of stone and mortar, and reached for the city’s power source. He was shocked when he finally linked to it and found it completely drained of power. His mind entered the vast empty power crystal that once powered the whole city, and he felt a strange feeling of unimaginable loss and sadness. He couldn’t explain why he felt that way, but it felt like he had suddenly lost someone very close to him. Somehow he knew the crystal could be recharged again, but he also knew that something within the crystal was now lost to the world forever, and could never be regained. What that something was, he did not know, but he felt a keen sense of loss, the likes of which he had not felt since his grandmother had died several years before.

  From within the power crystal he sent out his magical senses once more, riding the lines-of-power which stretched out forever before him. It was a strange sensation seeing the world through its own magic. It was not like using his normal eyes, where he could see the shapes and colours of things, this was very different. All he could see was the magic of the world, and how it was all bound together. He could see the immense glow of the Empire magi on top of the southern cliffs, and the almost imperceivable amount of magic within the undead in the valley below. He could see the groups of paladins as they battled against the undead, and the bright magical-missiles as they arced towards the city. He could see the magic within several people caught in the bombardment all wink out of existence below, as they were struck and killed by various objects, and how the magic within them was also released back into the world around them.

  Lusam watched the world from his strange new perspective without care. He felt almost free of concern for what was unfolding before him. As if it no longer mattered what happened in the real world. Only this new world mattered now, because this was the real world, not the one he had been blindly living his life in for so long.

  He glanced down to his left and vaguely recognised a familiar glow of power. At first his mind couldn’t make the connection between the image and that of the old world, but then he realised what it was: it was Neala’s aura. He frowned to himself, knowing that she was somehow important to him, but he couldn’t quite remember why that was. Slowly, he sent out his consciousness along the lines-of-power towards her location, so he could see for himself who she was.

  He could see that she was stealing the magic from the ones who barely had any, and then they went completely dark to his new sight. As she took their magic, it seemed to become contained within her hands. No, not her hands, it was something else, in her hands. He watched as she moved quickly towards two brighter glows of power, then stopped to face the thousands with barely any power advancing on her position. He watched as she continued to steal the power from the… what were they? He knew he should know what they were, but he seemed to be having great difficulty focusing on anything. He watched impassively as the girl suddenly moved backwards, as if someone had suddenly picked her up and thrown her. He felt that he should be concerned, but he didn’t know why as he watched the scene unfold before him. Two of the weak ones moved slowly towards the girl… no her name was Neala, he remembered. Neala was moving now, but the weak ones were also following her. He knew they wanted to steal all of her power, and he knew that was bad. He found a strand of power which led to the one called Neala and followed it. He entered her being and found himself looking out from behind her eyes at the old world. He could sense her thoughts like a gentle whisper on the wind. A name, over and over in her mind. One that meant so much to her, and she felt she had let down so badly. The name was… Lusam.

  It was like a bolt of lightning to his mind. The mere mention of his name brought him back to himself. He pulled the countless threads of his being towards his own consciousness, trying desperately to remember who he was, and what he was. Neala… now he remembered who she was, she was part of him, an important part of him, and the weak ones were about to steal all of her power.

  Neala closed her eyes, but it didn’t stop Lusam from being able to see what was happening. One of the weak ones touched her shoulder ready to steal her power, but Lusam sent out his consciousness through the connection and stole its power first, then he jumped across another line of power and did the same to the other weak one. Four incredibly bright objects suddenly appeared in front of him and bathed him in their light. It was like a veil being lifted from his eyes, as a voice more beautiful than anything he had ever heard spoke to him within his mind.

  “Lusam, you must go back now. You are not ready for this step yet, my child. Follow my light.”

  He turned and followed the glowing light, back to what, he could no longer remember. He looked back again at the girl one last time, but her name was now gone from his mind. “Never mind,” he thought to himself, as he followed the beautiful bright light to wherever it led.

  Lusam woke gasping for air on the floor of the book room. His whole body shook uncontrollably as if he had massively overexerted himself physically, but he knew he had never left the room. Or at least his body hadn’t. As his mind began to clear, the memories of what had just happened began to reassert themselves.

  “Neala!” he gasped, remembering the thousands of undead about to swamp her position.

  “There is no need for you to be concerned for Neala’s safety, my child, all will be well. She has opened her heart to me, and now wields my power upon the battlefield, but she fights for the love of you, L
usam. My faithful paladins are always a potent foe when they hold to their faith in me, but in Neala, that faith has been amplified by her love for you. Never have I seen a warrior fight with such passion and single-mindedness upon the battlefield. Her deeds here today will be remembered for as long as anyone draws breath in this world,” Aysha said in his mind, her voice fading away with her final words. Relief flooded through Lusam at Aysha’s words, and he thanked her for both sharing the information with him, and her own power with Neala.

  Eventually, Lusam managed to get to his knees and reach out to grab the Power Orb. He could feel the pull of the Power Orb on his mind, but now he was much more able to resist it somehow. Once he had regained his feet again, he turned to face the book pedestal. It seemed that he had been correct in his earlier assumption, because now he could see the two green lines-of-power leading away from the book pedestal. It confirmed his theory that to use one pedestal to reach another pedestal, you must first have read the Guardian books at both of those locations. Now he could clearly see the words Freedom and Absolution carved into the upright of the book pedestal, each with a green line of power emanating from it.

  He reached his hand towards the green line of power coming from the side of the book pedestal marked Freedom, and a bright light flashed before his eyes. He felt the now familiar falling sensation, and a moment later found himself within the book room of Helveel. The room’s bright light was activated the instant it sensed his presence within, and the familiar Guardian book marked with Freedom sat on the pedestal where he expected it to be. He glanced down and breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw not one, but two names now on the book pedestal, Absolution for Coldmont, and Transcendence for Lamuria.