Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two (21 page)

After one last look to check that no-one was watching him, he began to levitate himself up to the roof. He was fortunate that the man on the roof was actually looking in the opposite direction, and he also seemed to be watching the surrounding rooftops, not the streets below. Once he landed on the roof he closed the gap between them quickly, and as quietly as he could, but the man heard his approach anyway and quickly removed two nasty looking knives from his belt. Lusam didn't slow his pace at all, and if it were not for his shield he would have impaled himself on the man's knives as he crashed into him.

As soon as Lusam was close enough to the man he erected a second force-field around him and adjusted it to make it soundproof, just as he had in the forest with Renn on their way to Stelgad. He knew he could have done it easily from the edge of the roof, but it would have taken more power to project it that far, and he wanted to use as little as possible so close to Empire agents.

The man stood only inches from Lusam, wide eyed and stabbing at him furiously with his daggers, but to no effect, they simply bounced off his shield. Seeing that his weapons were useless against Lusam he tried to back away, but was stopped in his tracks by the invisible force-field that enclosed him. Next he tried calling for help, but that too was useless. Eventually he seemed to understand he was
trapped, and completely at the mercy of Lusam.
“What do you want with me?” he asked uneasily. Lusam tried to be as intimidating as he could, tilting his head slightly and grinning at him before he answered, but he couldn't help thinking he probably just looked a little dim-witted instead.

“I want to know where you would be holding my friend prisoner within your guild headquarters, she was brought in earlier tonight,” Lusam replied.

“And why should I tell you that?” the man said regaining some of his composure.

“Because if you don't, I'll increase the temperature inside that force-field you're standing in and cook you alive until you talk,” Lusam said calmly, hoping his threat would be believed. The man searched Lusam's eyes, as if the answer to whether he was bluffing or not could be found there, but remained silent. “Okay, your choice,” Lusam said, slowing increasing the temperature inside the force-field containing the man. He had no intention of killing the man, only scaring him into talking. Even if he had wanted to carry out his threat it would have used too much magic, and the Empire agents would certainly sense his presence. The man began to sweat profusely as the temperature rose inside the force-field, but still he remained silent.

“You know, I once did this to thief in Helveel that
attempted to steal my coin pouch, “ Lusam lied, “it wasn't pretty when he exploded inside the force-field.
I remember thinking what remained didn't really resemble a man at all, but who knows maybe you won't explode the same way as he did.”

“Okay! Okay! Stop! I'll tell you what you want to know,” he pleaded with Lusam.

“I'm listening,” Lusam replied, feeling rather pleased that his ruse had worked.

“There are three cells in the basement, your friend should be in one of those. That's where they keep any prisoners that they bring here, but I don't know anything about your friend, I swear.”

“Then, let's discuss how I would reach this basement of yours, and don't even consider lying to me, I can tell with my magic if you do,” Lusam lied again. The man was more than happy to give Lusam a detailed explanation of the house layout, even suggesting the number of guards that may still be on duty at this late hour. Once Lusam was happy he had all the information he needed, he placed a finger on the man's shoulder and extended his awareness into the man's body, instantly finding his meagre reserves of magic. It took only a moment to drain all but a very small amount of his magic reserves, leaving him with the bare minimum to survive. The man dropped like a sack of coal to
the ground unconscious at Lusam's feet.
Lusam was surprised at how well his plan worked, it seemed a very affective way to incapacitate someone without really harming them physically. But he didn't envy the man when he eventually awoke to what would be a stinker of a headache, one he remembered all too well.

He hoped his magic hadn't been detected by the Empire agents, but he needed to know for sure before he continued. He crept to the edge of the roof and carefully peered over to the street below. Three stories below him stood the same two Empire agents he had seen from the alleyway not ten minutes earlier, neither of whom seemed the least bit interested in the building he was now standing on top of. As if to confirm his assumption, they both started to move away down the street in the same direction he had seen all the others travel, obviously to wherever their next patrol point was in the city.

Breathing a sigh of relief he moved back away from the edge of the building and began looking for a way into the guild house. It didn't take him long to discover a hatch, but found it to be firmly locked from the inside. He placed his ear to the hatch and listened for movement or voices, but all was silent from the other side. He gripped the iron ring that formed the handle of the hatch and pulled gently. The hatch seemed to be held in place at a single point, most probably
by a simple throw bolt or something similar.
He had never tried to manipulate his force-field through a solid object before, so he had no idea if it would work or not. His other choices were: to blast through the door, which would make far too much noise, and could alert the Empire agents either with the sound or the sudden release of magic, so that was out of the question; he could burn his way through the hatch, or even the lock for that matter, but the smell of burning would likely alert everyone inside the building sending them all in search of a potential fire. So he was left with his first choice of using his force-field to manipulate the lock, if he could.

He knelt next to the hatch and formed a small sphere shaped force-field in his hand. He concentrated on pushing the force-field through the wooden hatch, but it was like trying to push any other solid object through it: impossible. He tried again, but this time he concentrated on forming the sphere on the other side of the hatch, and it seemed to work. He wasn't sure how this would help him though as he couldn't see what he was trying to manipulate at the other side of the hatch.

Several minutes passed while he tried various solutions, none of which seemed to have the desired effect, so then he came up with another idea. This time he created a sphere that allowed things to move freely from the outside
in, but not allow anything that was already inside to pass back out again.
Manipulating the sphere backwards and forwards it was only a matter of time before it snagged on the throw bolt, opening it with a resounding click.

Chapter Twenty Three

He froze and listened for any movement or sound coming from the other side of the hatch, but heard nothing, so he carefully opened the hatch revealing a pitch black hole below. He created a small dimly lit orb within the hatch entrance and  revealed a sturdy looking ladder that lead down to the floor below. He carefully climbed down the ladder closing the hatch behind him, and found himself at the end of a long narrow corridor. The floor was a series of black and white squares the entire length of the corridor, reminding him of a board game his grandmother had often tried to teach him to play when he was much younger.

Keeping his light dimmed he moved forward towards the end of the corridor, but he didn’t get far before he triggered a trap on the floor, which sent several darts shooting out of the side wall at his legs. Fortunately his shield stopped them mid-flight and they fell harmlessly to the ground at his side. Looking down at them he recognised
them as the same type of darts that had rendered Neala unconscious in Helveel, no doubt these too were poisoned in a similar manner.
By the time he reached the end of the corridor he had triggered another three similar traps. All no doubt meant as a first line of defence against any unwelcome intruders, or potential assassins who managed to enter via the roof hatch as he had done. At the end of the corridor he came to a flight of stairs leading down to the first floor of the building. In stark contrast with the upper floor, the first floor was well lit with evenly spaced oil lanterns on the walls, and a thick red carpet on the floor running the full length of the corridor. Numerous wooden doors lined the corridor, but only two rooms showed any signs of light coming from under their doors, indicating most of the rooms were either empty or their occupants were asleep, which suited Lusam just fine either way.

He moved quietly down the long corridor, only creaking two floorboards as he went, but it was enough to stir one of the room's occupants to stick his head out of his door to see who was passing by at this time of night. The second Lusam heard the door open he spun around to face the danger, enveloping the man in a soundproof force-field. Quietly he walked back towards where the man was standing, and then manipulated his force-field to carry him back inside his room and away from the corridor. Once he
was well inside the room, Lusam touched his arm and drained him of all but a tiny amount of his magic reserves.
The man collapsed instantly and Lusam gently lowered him to the ground using his force-field, before cancelling it completely and returning to the corridor, making sure to quietly close the door behind himself.

When he reached the top of next set of stairs he stopped in his tracks. Standing at the bottom of the stairs, next to what must be the main entrance he could see two large men guarding the door. They were chatting between themselves mostly, but occasionally they seemed to be directing their conversation to someone else out of sight. Three, or even more people to deal with at the same time would be a big problem so close to the front of the building. The amount of magic he would need to use to project three or more force-fields at the same time, and at such distance apart, would certainly be detected by the Empire agents standing only a few paces away at the other side of the door.

He moved back away from the stairs to think of a way around it. It seemed the main problem wasn't the men at the bottom of the stairs, but the Empire agents outside. If he could time his attack to coincide with their absence from directly outside the building, he would stand a much better chance of succeeding without being discovered.

He quickly found a room likely to have a window
that overlooked the street at the front of the building, and quietly opened the door.
The room was thankfully unoccupied, and looked like some kind of storage area. Empty boxes and crates were strewn all over the floor, but no windows of any kind were to be seen. He closed the door gently and moved on to the next. This time he wasn't so lucky, the room had not one, but two occupants in it. Fortunately they were rather occupied together, not even noticing his entrance, and he was easily able to enclose them both within the same soundproof force-field before either of them reacted to his presence. He neutralised both of them quickly, as he had done the others, then he went to the window.

Carefully he peered around the edge of the curtain to the main street below. He watched as two Empire agents casually chatted between themselves, completely oblivious to his actions above. `
Good
.` He thought to himself, realising that maybe not all of these Empire agents were as powerful as he had been led to believe, although he had no desire to test that theory any time soon.

Ten minutes later they departed, heading in the same direction as the rest had done, and he knew he had less than ten minutes until the next group arrived to replace them. He moved swiftly to the door and listened for any movement outside, but nothing stirred. He opened the door and headed straight back to the staircase, finding the two
large men in exactly the same place he had last seen them.
He was still unable to see anyone else from where he stood, but felt sure there was at least one other person just out of sight to him.

From the top of the stairs he encased both of the large men in force-fields and moved swiftly down the staircase to their position. He ignored the two men and instead turned the corner to confront whoever else was out of sight, but to his surprise there was no one there. Returning to the two large men guarding the door, he quickly neutralised both, smiling to himself at the ridiculously small power reserves both men contained. He wasn't sure what to do with the two large men, if he moved them into a side room they may be missed because they were no longer guarding the door. But if they were left where they were, and someone spotted them there, the alarm would be raised for sure.

Lusam opened the closest door and found it to be an office of some kind. He was about to conceal the men inside the office, when he spotted a tray with three decanters half full of brandy on a desk at the far end of the room. He quickly retrieved two of the decanters, emptying most of their contents back into the third, then returned to the two unconscious men in the hallway. He poured a small amount of brandy into each of their mouths, and splashed a little onto their faces and clothes, then placed an almost empty
decanter in each of their hands.
If anyone passed by they would assume they were merely unconscious through drink, and hopefully not raise the alarm.

The man on the roof had described the door that would lead to the cells, and it seemed his description had been very accurate, as he found it exactly where he was told it would be. He opened the door and entered the room, before quietly closing it once again behind himself. He found himself standing in a well-lit room, which was obviously used as some kind of weapons storage. Weapons of all types lined the walls, even some strange implements that he guessed could only be used to torture people hung from the walls. Suddenly a familiar sight grabbed his attention. On the far wall hung Neala's knife belt, containing all but one of her knives; the one he still had. He retrieved the belt and replaced the missing knife, then he made his way to the far end of the room, where the door should lead to the cells.