Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two (16 page)

They walked amongst the trees for the rest of the morning, and with each passing minute Lusam was sure the smell coming from the river got worse the closer they got to Stelgad.

It was just after midday when they crested a hill and Stelgad finally came into view. Lusam was just about to say something when Renn dragged him backwards into the brush, hiding them both from view.

“Well that could be a problem,” Renn said.

“What?” Lusam asked confused.

“That.” Renn replied, pointing to two figures dressed in black robes standing outside what was obviously the gate to Stelgad.

“Oh, I see what you mean,” Lusam said. A moment later two more figures appeared through the gate and joined the first two standing there, then Lusam noticed yet another two walking from further up river towards the now four men at the gate, making six in total.

“There are a total of three gates into Stelgad, and if the Empire have at least six agents guarding this gate, you can be sure the others are also as well guarded. You can bet they also have the roads in and out of Stelgad covered too. Well, it sure looks like Neala's rescue just got a whole lot harder lad.” Renn said, concern evident in his voice. Lusam's panic threatened to overtake him, but he fought it back, bitterly refusing to give up on Neala's rescue attempt. Calming himself he turned to Renn and asked,

“Which gate would Neala be entering through?”

“The north gate, but it too will be guarded by Empire agents for sure lad,” Renn replied.

“So, the gates are north,west and south?” Lusam asked.

“Actually no. There's this gate at the south, and then the other two are northern gates, one follows a road that curves to the south towards Lamuria, and the other one connects the road to Helveel. Why do you ask?”

“If we can't rescue Neala before she reaches Stelgad, then we will rescue her from inside the city,” Lusam said.

“But, we can't get through the gates lad. It would be suicide to try, there would be more than a dozen agents on us before we even reached the gate,” Renn said, desperation in his voice.

“I don't intend to go through a gate, we will go over the west wall into the city, find the Hawks' guild headquarters, and rescue Neala from there.”

“And how do you intend to outrun the guild members and the Empire agents after you rescue her?” Renn asked. Lusam thought about it for a moment before asking,

“Renn, do you have any gold on you?”

“Yes, some, but we will need it for the ship passage to Lamuria later.”

“Oh, don't worry about that, I've got much more gold than we could possibly need back in Helveel. That's one of the things I need to collect on our way through. Do you think you have enough gold to buy three horses?” Lusam asked.

“I think so. Why what do you have in mind lad?”

“Here's what we'll do. We'll both enter Stelgad over the top of the west wall, that should be the furthest point from any gate, and therefore hopefully avoid detection when I use my magic to levitate us over the the wall. Once inside we'll split up, I'll go rescue Neala from the Hawks' guild, and you'll go and buy us three horses. Once you have the horses leave the city by the north gate, the one that leads to Lamuria, then when you're out of sight return to the same spot where we entered the city, and wait for me to return with Neala. The Empire is looking for two people entering the city, so I doubt they would look twice at a man leaving the city alone.” Lusam said, sounding far more confident than he actually felt.

“I won't let you try and rescue Neala alone, it's too dangerous. The deal was we rescue Neala together, then we head to the High Temple. Too many things could go wrong if we separate, and you don't even know the city layout, so how would you find the Hawks' guild headquarters?”

“Renn I'm sorry to say this, but it would be far more dangerous if you were with me when I entered the Hawks' guild. They can't touch me with their weapons when I have my shield up, but they would cut you to bits in seconds if you were there. I've also seen first-hand how they like to use poison darts to subdue their enemies. If that happened to
you, and Neala was in bad shape when I rescued her, I would be faced with leaving one of you behind, and that I can't do.
Trust me on this Renn, having fresh horses ready so we can put some distance between us and the city will be far more useful to our cause in the long run.” Lusam said.

Renn remained silent for a long time, playing out various other options in his mind, but none of them seemed more likely to work than the plan Lusam had come up with. Reluctantly he had to agree with Lusam's plan, and they spent the next hour working out the finer details of what they would each do within the city. When they were ready to leave Renn drew a basic map of the city on the ground, showing Lusam the location of the Hawks' guild headquarters in relation to where they would enter the city. After Lusam was sure he had memorised the location, Renn insisted they knelt in prayer together, and ask Aysha to watch over them all in the coming hours.

Even though Lusam had actually seen Aysha in person, he never really expected any response to Renn's prayer, but he was wrong. As he knelt side by side with Renn, he felt the unmistakable touch of Aysha's light wash over him again, totally reinvigorating him. He wouldn't have considered himself tired in the slightest before that, but afterwards he positively buzzed with energy. He remained kneeling until Renn had finished his prayer of thanks to Aysha for her blessing, then began to stand back up. He was
almost knocked back to his knees when Renn slapped him hard on his shoulder.
“Now we're ready to rescue Neala lad,” Renn said joyfully, beaming a smile from ear to ear. His joy was certainly infectious, and Lusam couldn't help feeling equally elated at what had just happened to them both, again.

“Let's go do this,” Lusam agreed, heading back deeper into the trees, and starting to circle around to the west wall, all the time staying far enough within the trees to remain well out of sight.

***

The past few days had really dragged for Neala whilst travelling the road to Stelgad. Skelly had stubbornly refused to hold any kind of conversation with her, restricting his replies to single word answers, and even then only if it suited him. At first she had strongly denied all knowledge of his recent poisoning, even though he said he had found evidence of it inside their old waterskin. She sensed the small seed of doubt in his mind as to whether she had been involved or not, but later he had forced her to eat several pieces of the dried beef she'd earlier blamed for his illness,
only to discover she remained perfectly well after eating it.
She considered faking the illness, but with her hands still tied to the saddle she was unable to use her fingers to make herself vomit. So here she was, riding in silence towards her fate in Stelgad.

She knew they were getting close to Stelgad now by the familiar mountain range visible on the western horizon. She didn't expect Skelly to make camp again for the coming night, but instead thought he'd push on until they reached the city. For the whole day she had been desperately searching every shadow in the tree-line for signs of Lusam coming to rescue her, but with each passing hour her hopes began to fade more and more, until she convinced herself he would never come at all.

She had been certain Lusam would come for her, to rescue her from her captors, but the more she thought about it, the more she found reasons why he wouldn't. She began to understand he didn't really need her any more, and why would anyone risk their life to save someone they didn't need? He'd already accumulated a small fortune in gold, and could easily collect more any time he needed it, also Mr Daffer and Lucy had offered them a home for as long as they wanted it, so he wouldn't be homeless either.

The closer they got to Stelgad, the more certain she was that her fate was now sealed, and she would soon find her life ending on the end of Shiva's knife, or worse. Silently
she prayed to Aysha to give her strength to endure what would surely come, and to make her end as swift and painless as possible.
Not long after Neala had guessed Skelly wouldn't want to stop and make camp again that night, he actually confirmed her suspicions by increasing their speed significantly, alternating between short gallops and much longer periods of cantering. At the pace they were now setting Neala estimated they would reach Stelgad around midnight, or just after. The sun had already begun to set over the western mountain range, and the clear skies above promised a well-lit night to come by the presence of an almost full moon just rising from the east.

Chapter Eighteen

Lusam and Renn emerged from the tree-line to face the immense western city wall. It towered high above them, blocking the sight of all the buildings beyond it, except one. A spire of a building made of smooth white coloured stone stood slightly higher than the wall itself. Four large open arched windows, one each side exposing a large bell of some kind, and a further four smaller open windows above the bell that looked like they could be used as a look-out post. The question began to form on Lusam's lips regarding the use of such a magnificent building, but before he could voice it, Renn answered.

“It's The Sanctum of Light lad, an outpost of the High Temple. The original building was built here shortly after the great rift was closed. It was manned by the first paladins of Aysha, who were stationed here to track down and kill all remaining Netherworld creatures this side of the river, and to make sure no more crossed from The Black
Forest.
“The building you see before you now is the third built on the same foundations as the original one. Although they still officially guard against any Netherworld creatures that may find their way across the river, it's now primarily used as a training outpost for new paladin recruits. I myself spent over ten years there, learning swordsmanship and the finer arts of battle, before I was finally accepted by the High Temple to complete my training in Lamuria, and eventually becoming a paladin of Aysha,” Renn said, looking up at the spire that obviously held many mixed memories for him.

“We'll cross the wall and enter the city here then, the tower will provide us with the cover we need,” Lusam said, making his plans to levitate them both through one of the top windows of the tower.

“No! We can not enter the temple uninvited. It would be disrespectful, and also dangerous to do so,” Renn replied brusquely.

“But you're a paladin aren't you? How can it be disrespectful for a paladin to enter their own temple? And I'm sure whatever danger you're referring to my shield can protect us from it,” Lusam said confidently.

“Yes, I am a paladin, you however are not. To set foot inside the temple without permission would mean certain death for you.”

“You're forgetting my shield,” Lusam said smiling. Renn didn't look impressed by Lusam's words. He looked to the north and south, checking nobody could see them before he said,

“Shield yourself now.”

“Why?” Lusam asked, looking all around him for any danger he had missed.

“Just do it,” Renn replied. Lusam complied and erected his shield, just in time to see Renn remove his sword and casually swing the blade towards him. Lusam wasn't concerned at all as he saw Renn's sword coming towards his legs, not until the blade glowed bright blue and passed straight through his shield as if it wasn't there, striking him hard across his buttocks with the flat of his blade. Lusam howled in pain as he felt the full impact of Renn's sword. He hopped around holding his breath and his back-side, whilst at the same time turning a strange shade of purple and making strange muffled sounds. After a minute or two Lusam remembered to magically dull the pain and was able to regain his composure a little.

“What did you do that for?” he asked, still rubbing the impacted area. Even though he had blocked the pain from it, he knew it would leave a nasty bruise by morning, but he couldn't risk using his magic to repair it right now.

“Because you asked for it. Being over-confident will
get you killed lad.
You can be sure that the paladins inside the temple wouldn't afford you the same courtesy I just did, they would be using the sharp bit of their swords.”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Lusam said, “but, you told me that most paladins and priests never experience Aysha's light in their lifetime, I've felt it three times now, and spoken with Aysha herself, surely that counts for something towards making me worthy to enter one of her temples?”

Renn thought about Lusam's words carefully, and found it hard to disagree with his logic on his worthiness to enter one of Aysha's temples. After all, he had witnessed Aysha bless Lusam with her light three times, and she had appeared before him physically. To Renn's knowledge that had never happened before, and certainly not in the last few centuries since records had been meticulously kept regarding all such events. The moment he accepted Lusam's worthiness within his own mind, a subtle wave of euphoria washed over him, confirming to him beyond all doubt Aysha's acceptance of Lusam's plan to enter her temple.

“We will enter the temple lad, but you will remain behind me at all times. Is that clear?” Renn asked, but his tone left no room for debate, not that Lusam had any intentions of arguing after Renn's recent sword demonstration.

“No problem,” Lusam readily agreed.

“Okay, try get us up there without anyone seeing us, or more importantly sensing your magic,”