Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Four

by Dean Cadman

  Neala cursed under her breath. “What about Alexia and Hershel? How could they have possibly survived against an army of these things? Let alone creatures even stronger than this one.”

  “I don’t know, lass. But Hershel is a very capable leader. If anyone could have survived at The Rift for this long, he could. And if he managed to hang on with his recruits until the reinforcements arrived, they would stand a reasonable chance of surviving with so many trained paladins there,” Renn said.

  “I hope you’re right,” Neala replied.

  “Aye, lass, so do I.”

  Twice more within the hour they were attack by Netherworld creatures, and Renn barely recognised either of them. Both had armour much thicker than they should, and both were far more difficult to kill than Renn had expected. One of them Lusam had been forced to deal with, even though Renn had insisted that they should learn what they could about them while they were able to. Neala found that she could penetrate their armour with her knives if she threw them hard enough, which seemed to calm her nerves somewhat after thinking she would be defenceless against the creatures. Renn did discover a few weak points in their armour by inspecting the corpses, but most were hard to reach at best.

  They had barely moved forward before they were attacked by yet another creature, and this time Renn received a large gash to his left arm when he swung his sword at the creature’s head.

  “This just isn’t working,” Lusam said, as he magically healed Renn’s arm. “I doubt that we would have reached The Rift before nightfall anyway, but at this rate we’ll be lucky to reach it before nightfall tomorrow night.”

  “I agree, lad. But what choice do we have?” Renn said, grimacing as he watched the deep gash in his arm knit back together again. Lusam thought about what choices they had, and realised they were very limited. Either they continued as they were, risking their lives to discover potential weaknesses in the creatures, and end up having to spend the night in the forest exposed to the Netherworld creatures. Or they had to change their tactics entirely.

  “I have an idea, but I know at least one of you isn’t going to like it,” Lusam said looking at Neala, and trying his best not to smile. She narrowed her eyes at him in warning, and he was forced to turn away so she didn’t see his amusement.

  “What do you have in mind, lad?” Renn asked warily.

  “Well, I presume there are no flying Netherworld creatures, so why don’t we levitate above the trees? I can vastly increase our speed, avoid the Netherworld creatures on the ground, and we’ll arrive at The Rift long before dark,” Lusam said, watching the colour drain from Neala’s cheeks.

  “Actually some Netherworld creatures did fly during The Dragon-Mage Wars, but they were easy targets for the Guardian’s dragons. Having said that, I doubt that even Aamon could create a creature with armour as thick as the ones we’ve just seen, and still retain its ability to leave the ground. But you’re right, lad, we need to reach The Rift as fast as possible so we can help the others. I just wish I’d thought about levitating there earlier,” Renn said.

  “I don’t,” Neala said, looking decidedly pale at the prospect of leaving the ground again. Renn chuckled, and Lusam fought the urge to do the same.

  “Don’t worry, I won’t drop you,” he said grinning at her, then quickly added, “Besides, the faster we get there, the sooner we can help Alexia and the others.” His ploy seemed to work, as her threatening look was immediately replaced by one of thoughtfulness mixed with fear. Lusam checked the tree canopy above for a break, and walked over to stand underneath one. He beckoned the others over, and they were soon levitating towards the treetops. Neala squealed as her feet left the ground, and she gripped Lusam’s arm as if her life depended on it.

  It was strange looking at the forest from above. From the ground all seemed still and quiet, but from above the rippling of the leaves in the gentle breeze made it appear almost like an ocean of green liquid below them.

  “Which way?” Lusam asked Renn.

  “The Rift it directly south of here. If you head directly towards that mountain on the horizon we shouldn’t go far wrong, lad,” Renn replied pointing towards a distant peak.

  “Okay, hold on tight,” he said grinning at Neala, and propelled them forward with a sudden lurch. Neala squealed loudly in his ear, and gripped his arm so tightly that he could feel the bruises forming under her fingers. He built up their speed gradually, and soon they were skimming across the treetops as fast as a soaring eagle. Lusam found it as exhilarating as Neala did terrifying, and was soon forced to erect a barrier in front of them to block both the wind and insects from battering at their faces.

  Although it didn’t use a great deal of magic to maintain his levitation spell, the power drain was still noticeable to Lusam. And if his recent encounter with Lord Zelroth had taught him anything, it was that running out of power was never a good position to be in. He decided to try and replenish his magic whilst he travelled, and attempted several different methods before settling on the most effective one. He created dozens of lines-of-power and trailed them all out behind him, so that they brushed against the treetops as he passed by. As he levitated past each tree, he tapped into its power reserves and siphoned off a little of its magic and added it to his own.

  He was very careful not to take too much and kill the tree, and he knew whatever he took the tree would naturally regenerate over the next day or two anyway. His method proved so effective that he knew without doubt that he could maintain his flight indefinitely over such terrain. He promised himself that he would travel more often this way in the future, then realised that convincing Neala to do the same might prove to be more problematic than it was worth.

  Renn slightly adjusted their course several times over the next two hours, and soon after he pointed out a clearing in the forest canopy which he believed to be the location of The Rift.

  “Slow us down a bit, lad. We don’t want to blunder straight into a something we know nothing about. Let’s take a moment to assess the situation before we act,” Renn said. They could hear the commotion as they approached the clearing, and as the scene came into view, their collective gasp was audible.

  “Seven Hells!” Renn cursed, taking in the chaotic scene below. The paladins had formed a standard circular perimeter with their blessed weapons, but it was no longer a circle. Hundreds of Netherworld creatures battered against Aysha’s light, but it was what was outside the barrier which caught Renn’s attention the most. Dozens of blessed swords were earth-bound, but none of them glowed with Aysha’s light. They had all been completely drained of their power.

  Most of the Netherworld creatures Renn didn’t recognise, but it was the ones that he did which gave him the greatest cause for concern. He cursed under his breath, as he counted at least four Vesdari mixed in with the other creatures below. There was no doubt in his mind that they were the ones responsible for the depleted blessed weapons which now littered the ground. With The Rift now open there was no limit to the amount of power they could absorb, and it was all being channelled directly back into the Netherworld for Aamon’s benefit.

  As Renn absorbed more and more of the scene below, he realised what was happening. The Vesdari were draining the blessed weapons of their power, and forcing the paladins to retreat towards the centre of their circle. He heard the distant command of Hershel to earth-bind a new defensive line, just as the original perimeter failed. The Netherworld creatures rushed into the newly formed void, and began draining the newly earth-bound weapons. Not only were the paladins losing blessed weapons at an alarming rate, they were being forced to retreat into an ever tightening circle. Renn could see the small pile of spare blessed weapons in the centre of their circle, and knew without doubt that they wouldn’t survive much longer without their help.

  The paladins were slashing at the strange Netherworld creatures, but their efforts yielded little reward. The thick armour of the creatures made them all but immune to their strikes. What Renn couldn’t understa
nd, however, was how the Vesdari were draining the blessed weapons. They were nowhere near the paladins’ perimeter, but somehow they were still managing to drain them.

  “Aren’t they…” Lusam began, but was cut short by Renn.

  “Vesdari. Aye, lad, they are. And we need to stop them right now, or those paladins are all dead. What I don’t understand though, is how they are draining the weapons from right back there.”

  Lusam slipped into his mage-sight and surveyed the scene below. What he saw didn’t make any sense to him at first. He could see hundreds of individual lines-of-power, but it simply looked like a chaotic mess. But when he carefully traced a few of them, he realised that each creature in front of the Vesdari was being used as a conduit to reach the blessed weapons. Apparently, the Vesdari had the ability to use the much heavier armoured creatures as an extension of its own body, and use them to drain the blessed weapons from a safe distance. Now that he knew what to look for, he could clearly see the power flowing from the blessed weapons, through the heavily armoured creatures, and into the Vesdari. But it was the much denser line-of-power which the Vesdari were feeding back into the Netherworld that was most troubling. He counted four in total, and the amount of power they were sending back was truly incredible.

  Lusam quickly explained what he had seen to the others, then began to formulate a plan in his mind. He would have liked nothing better than to incinerate them all with a huge fireball, but if he did that he would likely kill the paladins too.

  “Whatever you’re planning lad, don’t forget you can’t touch those Vesdari, or they’ll drain your power too,” Renn said.

  “Yeah, don’t worry. I remember that just fine, thanks,” Lusam assured him, recalling his previous encounter with a Vesdari.

  Renn chuckled. “Aye lad, I bet you do.”

  Lusam reached out with his mind and attempted to encase one of the heavily armoured creatures inside a barrier, but the moment he formed the barrier, the Vesdari started to drain his power from it. He dispelled it immediately, then cursed under his breath. He knew that he needed to get the creatures away from the blessed weapons, but he couldn’t afford to have his power drained by the Vesdari.

  “Oh, thank Aysha!” Neala blurted out.

  “What’s up, lass?”

  “Alexia is still alive,” Neala replied, pointing towards the large group of paladins.

  “That’s great news, but unless we do something quickly, none of them will be alive for much longer,” Renn replied gravely, as he watched another line of blessed weapons suddenly go dark.

  “Renn, if I send a missile down there to kill some of those creatures, would it disrupt the paladin’s defensive perimeter?” Lusam asked, preparing to do just that.

  Renn thought about it for a moment before answering, obviously not wanting to risk any of his friends’ lives below. “Yes, it’s possible, lad. Any living Netherworld creature that hit Aysha’s light would simply bounce off. But if a dead creature happened to be flung towards the circle, it could possibly dislodge one or more of their blessed weapons. If that happened it would breach their defences, and the Netherworld creatures would quickly overrun them.”

  Lusam cursed again. “Okay, I’m going to take us down there into the circle,” Lusam said, starting their descent without even waiting for a reply. He formed a massive build up of power, and angled it towards the front line of Netherworld creatures. He held it until his attack angle would send the creatures away from the paladins circle, then released it without warning. The massive magical force struck the first line of creatures like an invisible tsunami, sending them hurtling backwards several hundred paces. Dozens of them impacted heavily on tree trunks, causing them to howl in pain.

  The paladins were stunned by the sudden movement of the creatures, and it took them a moment to realise that Lusam was there. One shouted his name, pointing up at him as he levitated himself and the others towards the ground. The cheer that went up was deafening, and the relief palpable at his timely arrival. He quickly formed several large fireballs, and released them in quick succession towards the largest groups of Netherworld creatures. He had picked out two Vesdari as targets, but the fireballs were intercepted by the heavily armoured creatures. He watched in disbelief as the heavily armoured creatures threw themselves in front of his fireballs, sacrificing themselves to save the Vesdari. Only they didn’t sacrifice themselves. Instead they got back to their feet, with their skin smouldering, and hissed loudly towards Lusam in a show of defiance.

  Lusam increased the size and strength of his missile, and launched it towards another Vesdari. Again, one of the heavily armoured creatures threw itself in front of the missile before it reached the Vesdari, but this time it was incinerated on contact. The Vesdari howled its anger at him, but it remained well guarded by its brethren. For the briefest of moments, Lusam thought he might be able to slowly reduce their numbers.

  But then he saw it.

  From what was obviously The Rift, came first a head, then the body of another creature like the one he had just killed. It dropped to the ground, and joined the others protecting the Vesdari. Lusam reached out towards The Rift, and started the process to try and close it again. He could feel the power flowing into The Rift from the Netherworld creatures all around him, and that made the process of closing it impossible. He could sense Aamon using that power to force open The Rift from within the Netherworld, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t counteract it. He knew in that instant that he would have to kill the Vesdari to even stand a chance of succeeding. But how he would do that, he had no idea.

  The Netherworld creatures began to reorganise themselves quickly, and were soon heading back towards the defensive line of blessed weapons. Lusam attempted to draw power from one of the creatures before the Vesdari could re-establish its connection to it, but it thwarted all of his attempts. It was like nothing he had ever encountered before, and he soon realised that it wasn’t actually thwarting his attempts at stealing its power at all, it simply didn’t have any to steal. Or at least not in the usual sense, anyway. Whatever was inside the creature, was not any kind of magic that he recognised, and certainly nothing that he could use himself.

  Lusam had no idea how many Netherworld creatures he was dealing with, but it was certainly in the hundreds. He knew he didn’t have enough power to incinerate every one of them individually, not with the amount of power he needed to use for his fireballs to be effective. Nor could he replenish his power reserves from the creatures themselves. And as he watched yet another creature emerge through The Rift, he realised that he couldn’t even periodically leave the area and recharge his reserves from the surrounding forest, without coming back to find even more waiting for him.

  As the first creatures made it back to the paladins’ defensive line, Lusam sent out small blasts of power to scatter them again, keeping them away from the blessed weapons as best he could. A heavy hand clapped him on the shoulder, startling him from his thoughts.

  “Lusam, you’ve no idea how glad we are to see you,” a familiar voice said. Lusam turned to see Hershel standing beside him with a broad smile on his face. It was then that Lusam first noticed the injured paladins lying on the ground behind him.

  “It’s good to see you too, Hershel. I’m sorry it took us so long to get here,” he said, looking between Hershel and the injured men. Three were obviously dead. One looked seriously injured, and the other two less so, with deep gashes to their arms. No doubt the creature’s claws were responsible for that, Lusam thought.

  He turned back towards the advancing creatures, and launched another barrage of magic towards them, blasting them back towards the treeline again. Without hesitating he turned towards the injured men, and began tending to their injuries. He recognised the worst injured man as Morgan, and knelt down beside him.

  “Please, help him, Lusam,” a female voice pleaded.

  Lusam looked up, and realised that the person holding vigil over him was in fact Alexia. Her face was cov
ered in blood and grime, apart from two single tracks which had been washed clean by her tears. The look of sheer desperation on her face told Lusam all he needed to know about her feelings for Morgan. She clung to his hand as if her own life depended on it, and sobbed openly over him. Lusam nodded to her, and placed a hand on Morgan’s chest. He sent out his mage-sight to see what injuries he had sustained, and was amazed to find the extent of them. He had no idea how the man even clung to life. He immediately set about repairing the worst of his injuries, then moved on to the less life threatening ones. Finally, he closed up the wound in his chest, then double checked for anything else that he might have missed. Once he was certain that he’d healed all of Morgan’s injuries, he turned back towards Alexia.

  “He’ll be fine now…” Lusam began to say, but was almost bowled off his feet by Alexia as she threw her arms around him.

  “Oh, Gods. Thank you Lusam,” she said through tears of relief and joy. Two loud coughs interrupted their embrace, and when Lusam looked, he found Neala standing by his side with her hands on her hips, and an inquiring look on her face. He opened his mouth to explain, but Alexia released him and threw her arms around Neala instead, enveloping her best friend in a tight hug, as she began to explain what had happened at The Rift before they’d arrived. Lusam breathed a sigh of relief, and turned his attention back to the Netherworld creatures. After sending a fresh wave of magical blasts towards them, he quickly turned his attention to the other two injured men.

  The look of complete astonishment on the paladins’ faces as their wounds closed before their eyes, made Lusam smile inwardly. So much so, that it was hard for him to accept their thanks with a straight face.