by Cadman, Dean
“Now I understand why Aysha favours you so much, and why the Empire have sent so many to end your life. Your power must already be far beyond that of any normal mage, and with the proper training at the High Temple, it will become far more potent still. Lusam, you have no idea how important you are lad.” Renn looked shocked to his core, and couldn't even take his eyes off Lusam for a long while. Alexia didn't really seem too interested in his story. She already knew he could use magic, the amount and how powerful he was compared to any other mage didn't seem to matter too much to her, which Lusam was thankful for right then.
“Neala, can I borrow one of your enchanted knives please?” Lusam asked. Neala removed one of her knives and handed it to Lusam.
“Enchanted?” asked Alexia.
“It's a long story, I'll tell you another time,” Neala replied.
Lusam knew that the enchanted knife would amplify his divination spell when he attempted to locate the book. He had no idea how he knew that, he guessed it was part of the knowledge he had obtained from the book itself, but he couldn't know for certain. He formed an image of the book in his mind, and sent that image towards the enchanted blade. The knife began to rock back and forth through one hundred and eighty degrees, just like it had done when he searched for Neala. The range of movement gradually slowing until it stopped, dead still, pointing in the direction of the book, and Helveel.
“Wow! Neat trick, how did you do that?” Alexia asked.
“Thanks. I use one magical object to find another. I did it once before to track where Neala was on the road to Stelgad,” Lusam replied.
“But Neala isn't magical, is she?” Alexia asked, looking strangely at her friend.
“No, she's not, but her knives are. I used one of her knives to find the others, this time I used it to find the book,” Lusam replied. “Come, we'd better get moving. Every time I use magic the Empire agents may be able to sense it. We may well be using the book as a navigation tool, but they may be using us for the same thing.”
They set off in the direction the knife pointed and rechecked their course every hour, each time correcting their course accordingly. Without the use of magic they would certainly have remained lost within the valley. For the final two hours before full darkness they travelled without the aid of magic, deciding being off course a little was far better than advertising the spot where they intended to rest for the night.
The next morning they ate the last of their food and water before orientating themselves with the knife once again. Although Lusam was a little worried that their supplies had now run out, he felt sure the men following them had not had time to collect any kind of food or water whatsoever, and if they became hungry and thirsty, it was a fair bet the Empire agents would be feeling a whole lot worse. Onwards they went for another full day, every hour checking their course and correcting it if necessary, and once again refraining from using magic for that last two hours before full dark.
They all woke the next morning hungry and thirsty, but no one spoke of it. By mid-afternoon they were fortunate enough to come across a large rock formation with a trickle of water running down the face of it. Lusam collected some of it in a small force-field, boiled it, then cooled it quickly before carefully releasing it into two waterskins. He really didn't want to tip off their enemies to the water source, but drinking contaminated water wouldn't do any of them any good either, so they swiftly moved on and rechecked their direction ten minutes later. Hopefully if the Empire agents had detected his magic they would now bypass the water source completely, but he would never know.
For another three days they travelled through the valley, every hour taking a reading, and every night taking turns to watch for trouble. On the forth day they were all starting to get very hungry, and the waterskins were almost empty again, but the sky seemed to start getting a little brighter. At first nobody mentioned it, but after another couple of hours there was no denying the fact that it was getting brighter the further they travelled.
It was about mid-day when they finally emerged from the mist into a gloriously sunny day. They came almost immediately to a narrow stream and quenched their thirst in the crystal clear running water. Lusam spotted several small fish under the surface and quickly extracted them from the water, cooking them inside his force-field and handing them out before anyone could even ask what he was doing. Renn and Neala took it in their stride, but Alexia just stood there slack-jawed holding her fish and looking at Lusam.
“If you don't want it, I'll eat it,” Lusam said teasing her.
“No way,” Alexia said, tucking into the freshly cooked fish.
Further ahead they could see a small wood, beyond which they could just about see a mountain range in the distance.
“We need to get to those trees for cover, just in case they're still on our tail,” Lusam said, pointing over the stream at the woods. The stream wasn't deep or that wide, so they simply waded through it to the other side then ran towards the cover of the trees. When they reached the trees Lusam looked back to see if anyone else had emerged from within the mist, but he couldn't see anyone.
They all continued in the direction they had been travelling when Renn said, “Wait. Something is wrong.”
“What do you mean?” asked Lusam confused.
“Look at the moss on the trees here. We know Helveel should be north east of here, but we're currently travelling west. Wherever your knife is pointing, it's not Helveel,” Renn said. “That can't be right. Maybe we got turned around a bit back there, let me recheck our direction again,” Lusam said removing the knife and casting the spell on it once again. The knife pointed directly at the mountain range in front of them, indicating a westerly direction.
“That has to be wrong, unless...” Lusam started to say, but was cut short by Renn.
“There's another Guardian book!” Renn exclaimed. “Lusam, do you remember Aysha's parting words to you lad?”
“I think so,” Lusam replied, trying to remember her exact words.
“Let me refresh your memory, she said: “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.” Until now I have been trying to understand what she meant by those words, but I think you'll agree it just became perfectly clear.” Renn said falling to his knees in prayer.
***
Zedd had noticed the sky brighten as he continually homed in on the boy's blatant use of magic. The last time he felt the magic he knew it was much closer, so he called out to his fellow agents to converge on his position. Soon the boy would be dead, and he would return home a hero.
****
Aknowledgements
Thank you for reading Lusam - The Dragon-Mage Wars Book Two. I hope you enjoyed Lusam and Neala`s latest adventures, and will join them again in the next book in the series as they continue their quest.
I would love to hear your thoughts about this series of books, because you, the reader, are the most important person to any authour, and without you, there simply would be no point in us writing anything at all.
It is my intention to run a competition on my website during early 2016 to choose a name for a character that will be featured in the final book as one of the main characters. If you would like to contribute by submitting your choice of name please check my website for details soon. The winner will receive a signed special limited first edition paperback copy of the first book in the series, and their name will be printed in the aknowledgements page of the final book.
Once again, thank you for your support.
www.deancadman.com
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