Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Six Page 2

  “Let’s go,” he said, striding off towards the western edge of the camp. Lusam smiled and followed his lead.

  * * *

  Renn didn’t speak very much during their journey to the stream, but by the time they had arrived and filled the barrels with water, he seemed to have mellowed a little. Lusam eventually plucked up the courage to ask him about what had happened at The Rift after he and Neala had left for the Pearl Isles. He knew some of what had taken place, but he’d had very little opportunity to ask about any of the details since returning. Renn gave him a concise report about everything that had occurred while they’d been gone, but he found it understandably difficult to talk about the death of his old friend and mentor.

  They were only a few hundred yards away from their camp when they heard the explosion. Lusam was already running before the barrels of water touched the ground, and Renn wasn’t far behind him. They emerged through the trees and into the clearing a moment later. Somehow, Renn had managed to overtake Lusam, and skidded to a halt just in front of him, sword and shield at the ready. In a heartbeat, Lusam determined that the threat was not from The Rift, nor was there any sign of Netherworld creatures in the immediate vicinity. Renn’s blessed sword, along with all of the others around the perimeter of the camp remained dormant. A quick glance in Renn’s direction confirmed that he too was just as confused about what was going on. But a moment later, Lusam noticed a small plume of black smoke rising from within the confines of the temple foundations and a general commotion around the same area.

  A quick jog across the clearing revealed the situation for what it truly was: a magic-related accident. A very pale-faced mage was sitting on the ground holding out a rather blackened hand in front of him. His father was already tending to his wounds, but even from where he was, Lusam could tell that the man had lost at least a couple of his fingers.

  “What happened, lass?” Renn asked Neala as she approached.

  “I’m not sure, but I think Arlo was trying to teach them how to create one of those magical balls that he used to remove the black mist from around The Rift. I didn’t see it happen, I was speaking with Pippa at the time. All I heard was a loud explosion, then a moment later the man was screaming in pain. I ran over to see what had happened, but Arlo was already tending to him. There was blood everywhere. Not to mention several bits of his fingers on the ground.”

  Lusam winced and shook his head. “I told him that something like this would happen, but he wouldn’t listen. Those magi aren’t even trained yet. Seven Hells, they were all still fishermen, or fishermen’s wives little more than a month ago. How can he expect them to be able to do what he asks?”

  “It doesn’t seem too long ago that a certain street kid I know learned his magic,” Neala replied with a grin.

  “That’s different, and you know it!”

  “Besides,” Neala continued, ignoring his protests, “it wasn’t one of the coastal refugees that injured himself. It was one of the priests from the High Temple.” Lusam took a breath to argue that even they weren’t up to the task when he saw his father striding towards them muttering something to himself.

  “That damned fool!” Arlo spat as he arrived. “If he’d listened instead of trying to outdo the others, he’d still have all of his fingers. The man is intolerable! He thinks just because he’s received a modicum of training from the High Temple; he already knows everything. If I hadn’t been there watching him closely, he could have killed most of the men and women in the camp. Luckily, I was able to contain most of the explosion. I have a good mind to seal off his magic for good. At least then he wouldn’t be a danger to anyone else.”

  Lusam couldn’t help resist the opportunity to vent his frustration at what he had always perceived to be a pointless exercise anyway. “I said you were wasting your time. None of those priests are powerful enough to do what you’re asking of them, and the others have had very little magical training at all.”

  Arlo shook his head. “No, you’re wrong, Lusam. Several of those magi that you claim to be ‘untrained’ have already shown good potential, and they learn quickly. All but one can now summon a Power-sphere, and they’ve all mastered the spells to cure various poisons. In fact, one of them was a healer in his village and has actually taught me something. Their understanding of magic is… different from ours, but no less relevant. Most of the magic that they have learned has been self-taught, and sometimes may seem a little crude—but it works, nonetheless. More importantly, they listen to what I’m trying to teach them, which is more than I can say for that imbecile of a priest over there. He’s lucky that I didn’t have more time to think about my actions when I created the shield around his Power-sphere, or I might have decided to enclose him inside it and save everyone a lot of potential trouble in the future.”

  Renn chuckled loudly. “If you like, I can have a quiet word with Alexia about him later. I’m sure that she could come up with a suitable reason for him to have to visit The Sanctum of Light, or even return to Lamuria, for that matter.”

  Arlo nodded. “That might not be a bad idea. Thank you. I wouldn’t feel at all comfortable leaving that man here alone once we leave. He could be a bigger threat to you all than The Rift.”

  Renn chuckled again. “I’ll see what I can do. I take it the other priests are behaving themselves?”

  Arlo raised his eyebrows and sighed. “By comparison, yes. But Lusam was right about one thing. They’re all woefully weak magi considering their station—even if they seem to believe otherwise. Lusam informed me of Afaraon’s plight regarding the dwindling numbers of magic users, but I had no idea it was so bad. In my day, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see more magical ability in my local baker or tailor. Only the most powerful magi were ever considered to be trained as priests, and only the best of those were offered a position at the High Temple.”

  “Believe it or not, that’s still the case today,” Renn replied.

  Arlo shook his head. “Then I believe everyone in Afaraon owes you a debt of gratitude for recognising the potential of those coastal refugees. Because if those priests over there used to represent the best of what Afaraon had to offer… well, let’s just say that I’d be very concerned about the future of magic here.”

  “Actually, I’m surprised that you know about the refugees,” Renn replied, glancing over at Lusam.

  A wide grin spread across Arlo’s face. “Oh, Lusam and I have had a lot of time to discuss a great many things while he was under my tutelage. Did he ever tell you how long it took him to fix a simple floor?” Arlo teased.

  “No, I didn’t,” Lusam snapped. “And it wasn’t simple, either. Don’t think that I don’t know what you’re trying to do here.”

  “Oh… and what’s that?” Arlo asked innocently.

  Lusam took a deep breath to bite back but stopped himself. He’d had many conversations like this with his father in the hidden realm, but he refused to play his game this time. Instead, he calmly replied, “You’re suggesting that I should give them more time to learn, just as you did with me. But this is different. I was capable of completing the task in the first place.”

  Arlo smiled. “That, my boy, was only evident after you had achieved your task.”

  Lusam threw his hands up in the air and hissed in frustration—much to Arlo’s obvious amusement. “Just tell me this,” Lusam said through clenched teeth. “How long will it take?”

  Arlo shrugged and looked back over his shoulder towards the temple foundations. “Providing that we no longer have to worry about our problematic priest over there taking things into his own hands and killing everyone around him, I would suggest that enough of the others already know how to create a Power-sphere, as well as cure most poisons. All I have left to teach them is how to work together to collapse The Rift. It’s not a difficult spell to learn. I think even you managed to master it in a day,” he replied winking at Neala, who was obviously enjoying the conversation far more than she ought to have been.

  “One
day then,” Lusam replied, trying his best to keep the irritation out of his voice as he turned towards the temple foundations.

  “Two at the most,” Arlo called back over his shoulder. Lusam spun around to argue, but when he saw that both Neala and Renn had not moved to follow him, he paused.

  “Aren’t you coming?” he asked Neala irritably.

  “Actually, I thought I’d stay here and ask Arlo about that floor he mentioned. Plus, I’m sure he’ll have a few other interesting tales to share about your time together,” Neala replied with a grin.

  “Oh, I do,” Arlo said, wearing a mischievous grin. “Which reminds me, you must let me tell you about the time when I watched Lusam inhale a lightning bolt…”

  “You too?” Lusam asked Renn, cutting his father off mid-flow. Renn simply raised his eyebrows and shrugged, then watched as Lusam spun on his heels and stalked off towards the temple foundations while muttering something under his breath and flailing his arms around in the air.

  Chapter Three

  The following day the weather turned truly miserable. Icy rain fell continuously from the heavy leaden sky above, and the relentless gusts of freezing wind chilled them all to the bone. His father had spent the afternoon of the previous day, as well as most of that morning instructing the magi on how to work together to limit the growth of The Rift. No one was under any illusions that the magi could defeat Aamon’s attempts to expand the tear again if he chose to do so. But whatever efforts they could make to control its growth would ultimately force Aamon to use more of his limited power reserves to counteract them—and that could only be a good thing.

  The paladins had finished removing all of the undergrowth that had hidden most of the temple foundations. They had uncovered several remnants of once-grand mosaics, along with a prayer to Aysha that had been carved into one of the large foundation stones, but little more than that. If nothing else, at least it would now provide a much larger area in which to take refuge should the paladins find themselves overrun by Netherworld creatures again, Lusam thought. Another benefit of the extra space was that it provided the paladins with enough room to pitch their tents, which Lusam had no doubt they would be very grateful for in the coming days if the weather didn’t improve.

  Even though the temple foundations had now been cleared, Alexia didn’t allow her paladins any time to dwell on the past. Instead, she sent out an almost constant stream of patrols into the forest to hunt down any lingering Netherworld creatures. Lusam doubted that they would find many, especially considering that Ryuu had spent most of the previous day hunting them himself. But, of course, he knew that wasn’t the real reason why Alexia had sent them into the forest anyway.

  Lusam caught a sudden glint of light out of the corner of his eye, and when he turned to see what it was, he noticed Ryuu standing on the far side of the clearing. The icy rain ran freely over his dark iridescent scales, making them sparkle with any slight movement that he made. His slow and steady breathing rippled the light back and forth across his massive body in an almost hypnotic rhythm. Lusam looked on in complete awe at the majestic creature he had become. Ryuu had always been a sight to behold, but since emerging through the hidden realm’s portal and growing as he had, he was now truly magnificent in every sense of the word.

  Lusam watched curiously as Ryuu slowly lowered his massive head towards the ground, only to stop a few feet short. At first, he thought that Ryuu might have spotted something through the trees or even scented some prey, but when he continued to remain motionless for the next several minutes, Lusam couldn’t help wonder if there was something wrong. He had never seen Ryuu behave like that before. If he wasn’t soaring through the sky or lumbering ungainly through his father’s house destroying his pristine floors, he was usually curled up asleep somewhere like a giant, scaled cat. Lusam had never seen him simply stand around, and certainly not with his head hung low like that.

  A trickle of icy water suddenly broke free from Lusam’s drenched hair and ran down the back of his neck. He shivered and pulled the collar of his shirt a little tighter. It wasn’t the first time that morning that he had considered enclosing himself inside a magical barrier to keep himself warm and dry, but he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. All of the others, including his father, were enduring the conditions without complaint, so he would too. Besides, after everything that the paladins had been through recently, it just didn’t seem right for him to flaunt his magic that way.

  Lusam turned his gaze back towards Ryuu and found him in the same position as before, only now he appeared to have his eyes closed. As another icy tendril of water made its way down his back, Lusam suddenly realised that he had never seen Ryuu in the rain before, either. Maybe his strange posture was a way for him to shed the water from his scales faster, he mused to himself. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear his father’s approach.

  “I think they’re almost there,” Arlo said, startling him a little.

  Lusam turned towards the voice and saw his father striding towards him, wearing a broad smile. “What?” Lusam asked numbly.

  “The magi,” his father replied, nodding back over his shoulder. “I think they’re almost ready. Another hour or two and I think we’ll be done.”

  “Oh… That’s good,” Lusam replied absent-mindedly, still staring at Ryuu. After a moment, he asked, “What’s Ryuu doing?”

  Arlo studied Ryuu for a moment then shrugged. “I don’t know. It looks like he’s fallen asleep standing up,” he replied chuckling to himself.

  “Can’t you tell? I mean, can’t you ask him if he’s alright?”

  Arlo shook his head. “Not from here, I can’t. The temple foundations prevent us from communicating with one another, just as it prevents anyone outside from eavesdropping on our conversations within.”

  “Do you think he could be ill?” Lusam asked, sounding a little concerned.

  Arlo sighed heavily and slowly shook his head. “No. But neither is he the same Ryuu that we both knew little more than a day ago. The considerable number years that he’s taken on himself are not without their cost. Even during our flight here, I felt the fatigue gnawing at his bones, although he tried his best to hide it from me. He is old now, Lusam. Very old, indeed. Even amongst his own kind, he would have been considered an Elder, centuries ago. He needs time to adjust. We both do. I warned him yesterday when he insisted on hunting down more of the Netherworld creatures in the forest that he was not as young as he used to be, and that he would pay for his actions later. I won’t repeat what he said to that, but I’m sure you can guess,” Arlo said, grinning.

  “Yes, unfortunately, I think I can,” Lusam replied chuckling to himself. His mirth, however, was short-lived when he looked back towards Ryuu with fresh eyes. For the first time, he realised just how much they had both given up to come and help him close The Rift. Of course, he had thought about it when his father had first explained how it was possible, but then his only real concern had been that his father and Ryuu would survive the transition between the two realms. Now it shamed him greatly to realise that he never once stopped to think about the consequences it might have for them both if they did survive the transition. And now they were left to live with those consequences because of him—whatever they turned out to be.

  “I’m sorry,” Lusam whispered.

  “Sorry for what?”

  “For making you both sacrifice so much to come here.”

  His father stepped up behind him and placed a hand softly on his shoulder. “Son, you didn’t make us do anything. We chose freely to come here because it was our sacred duty. All you did was remind me of that, and I thank you for it. As I’m sure Ryuu would, too,” he said, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Besides, unless the overgrown lizard falls asleep while he’s flying, he’s still likely to outlive the both of us, anyway,” his father said, chuckling to himself. Before Lusam could reply, a call came for his father from the group of practising magi.

  “Ah, well
… back to it, I guess,” his father said, heading off towards the waiting magi.

  “Wait…” Lusam called out, suddenly remembering what his father had said when he’d first arrived. “What did you mean by, ‘you think they’re almost there’?”

  Arlo grinned broadly at him. “I mean, my boy, that tomorrow we fly north to find the dragons…”

  * * *

  Ryuu felt the wave of golden light wash over him as his God, Driden, suddenly appeared before him. Instinctively, he lowered his head towards the ground and averted his eyes from the glowing figure. Driden stood almost seven feet tall and was clad in a full suit of plate armour made up of tiny overlapping golden scales. The mighty sword strapped to his back glowed like the sun, and his piercing icy blue eyes were as deep as any ocean. The air all around positively hummed with the power of his presence.

  “Blood recognises blood,” Ryuu greeted him silently and respectfully.

  “Does it really, Ryuu?” Driden’s voice echoed loudly in his mind. “Then why did you attempt to hide your presence from me when you first returned to this world from wherever you have been hiding? It has been many centuries since I have felt your presence, Ryuu. How is it that you have managed to evade my sight for so long, I wonder?”

  Before Ryuu was able to answer, a soft blue light flared into existence and Aysha appeared within it. Her long silver hair cascaded down over her shoulders, fluttering in an ethereal breeze that did not reach the world beyond her light.

  “It is good to see you again, Brother. And you too, Ryuu,” Aysha said, smiling and inclining her head towards Driden. Ryuu kept his own head lowered towards the ground and remained silent.

  “Do not interfere in matters that do not concern you, Sister,” Driden said menacingly.

  “But it does concern me, Brother,” Aysha replied, moving slowly towards him. She stopped at the very edge of Driden’s golden light and squarely met his gaze. “We are at a crossroads in time, Brother. From this moment forward, I can only see two diverging paths. One of those paths leads to the successful closure of The Rift, but the other ends with the total destruction of this world and everything in it.”