Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three (17 page)

“Oh Gods! They’re testing to see if Lusam is here with us,” Alexia whispered desperately, as she realised exactly what Renn was trying to tell her. Renn was about to reply when they both noticed three agents walk past the murder-hole. Renn could clearly see they were all undead-agents. They walked three-abreast up the path, creating a walking shield, behind which one living agent followed closely. Renn indicated silently to Alexia which one to shoot, but by the time she understood, it was too late and they had missed their opportunity. Quickly, they raced to another murder-hole further along the path and prepared to shoot. The Empire agent didn’t stand a chance. The arrow thudded into his collar bone, shattering it, and driving deep into his heart. Renn felt the death-pulse a moment later, but was already running with Alexia towards Coldmont when he did.

***

Zedd’s undead-agents had almost finished digging their way through the huge pile of rocks at the cave site when the tremor struck. Not only did it collapse the remaining rocks and debris around it—refilling the almost complete tunnel they had just dug out—it also buried two of his undead-agents under the rubble. Zedd cursed loudly, knowing that with each passing minute the boy-mage and his party could be getting further and further away from him. In frustration he almost ordered one of his men to levitate over the rock pile, just to see if he would be shot by the waiting girl or not, but decided against it. He realised he would probably have to kill the first man that he commanded to do it as punishment for refusing his orders, and he knew he could ill afford to lose another two of his men right now.

At least two hours had passed by the time the undead-agents had dug through the rocks for the second time. Zedd’s mood improved slightly when they managed to dig out the two buried undead-agents and found that they were at least still viable—all he had lost was more time. They travelled as swiftly as they could along the path, whilst checking for any signs of possible ambush. On several occasions nerves were frayed, when birds and small animals rustled nearby bushes and undergrowth as they passed by.

After following the path for a further two hours they reached a section very different from anything they had seen so far. It was far steeper, and enclosed on both sides, making it feel almost tunnel-like. There was an overhang that covered the entire width of the path, but daylight still entered between the right-hand wall and the overhang above, creating a type of long uninterrupted window to the outside world beyond. Zedd knew it wasn’t a natural rock formation, and seeing the moss-covered cobblestones underfoot only strengthened that assumption. Warily they followed the steep mossy path until it crested a small hill. Zedd called a halt, and they all stood staring at the remains of a huge stone archway at the end of the path. It wasn’t the stone arch that made Zedd pause, but the uncertainty of what lay beyond it. He could clearly see that the wall to their right—the one he guessed had been built to stop wagons slipping off the edge of the mountainside—disappeared at the other side of the stone arch. ‘
It would make a perfect ambush site
,’ he thought. Even a moderately powerful mage could easily push his enemies off the edge of the mountainside, and either watch them die on the rocks below, or send a missile at them whilst they concentrated on levitating.

Zedd wondered if this had been the boy-mage’s plan all along, to lure them to this place—whatever this place was—and send them all to their deaths far below. For all he knew, this could be Afaraon’s secret training facility that was rumoured to exist by many within the Empire. ‘
If it was, he need not even bother killing the boy-mage. The information alone would see him almost guaranteed a promotion, and then returned back home to the Empire
,’ Zedd thought to himself excitedly. Then, just as quickly, his excitement faded again. He realised that if this
was
Afaraon’s secret training facility, they would likely never make it back off this mountain alive. Afaraon would try to protect their secrets at all costs, and likely send every man they had after Zedd and his men.

‘
But something was wrong
,’ Zedd thought. ‘
The boy-mage and his party had had at least a two-hour head start over him and his men. If this was Afaraon’s secret training facility, surely they would have mounted an attack already.
’

He knew his options were limited, but first he needed to know if the boy-mage had indeed set an ambush for them beyond the stone arch.

“Send one of your minions through the arch and tell it to attack anyone it sees,” Zedd commanded the man who had reanimated the dead agents. The man obeyed, and they all watched as the undead-agent walked up the steep path and through the remains of the stone arch. A moment after the undead-agent disappeared from view, the man who had sent it spoke up,

“Sir—the minion just died.”

Zedd nodded to himself. Pleased with himself that he had outsmarted the boy-mage’s attempt to ambush his party, but also unsure of what to do next. He knew the girl wouldn’t have many arrows left, but even one was one too many if it had his name on it. Zedd knew he didn’t have enough men to take them by force either. The girl would simply shoot his few remaining men first, leaving the undead-agents to the paladin or boy-mage. That, of course, was if the boy-mage didn’t simply just blast them all over the edge of the mountainside to begin with. His only option was to try and tempt the girl into wasting her arrows, something he doubted she would do willingly, but he had to at least try.

“Send another minion. This time have it stop just the other side of the stone arch, and command it not to attack anyone,” Zedd said. The man once again obeyed, and the undead-agent took its place at the far side of the stone arch. Zedd expected the boy-mage to simply incinerate it, or at least blast it over the edge of the mountainside, but nothing happened. The undead-agent stood motionless in plain sight for almost ten minutes, and nothing happened to it.

“Maybe they’ve gone, sir,” Cole said quietly at Zedd’s side.

“Or maybe that’s what they want us to think,” Zedd replied, deep in thought.

“Command your three remaining minions to form a walking shield. And you,” Zedd said, pointing to another man, “you will walk behind the minions and go see if the boy-mage’s party is still there or not. Communicate what you see through your ring.” The man paled at Zedd’s command, but to his credit, obeyed nonetheless.

The three undead-agents walked side by side up the cobbled path, closely followed by one of Zedd’s remaining men. He only walked about thirty paces before Zedd and the others felt his death-pulse. At first Zedd was completely confused as to how his man had just died, but from where he stood he could just about see the shaft of an arrow protruding from the man’s shoulder. Looking up, he noticed for the first time, a series of evenly spaced shafts along the entire length of the path. They had been cleverly created at slight angles to make them almost invisible to anyone walking on the path below. In fact, the only evidence of their existence at all was a slightly lightened area within each of the long shafts, and even those could easily have been dismissed as reflected light.

“Recall those three minions,” Zedd said to the man controlling them.

“What about the one at the far end, sir?” the man asked. Zedd thought for a moment.

“No. Leave that one where it is, for now.” Zedd replied, still confused as to why the boy-mage hadn’t disposed of that minion yet. There were no advantages to the boy-mage—or his party—allowing the undead-agent to remain alive, and yet, there it remained, but why? Zedd tried to think of a reason why, but could only come to one possible conclusion: the boy-mage was no longer there, or maybe never was.

Zedd began to formulate a plan. One that would end this stalemate, once and for all. He knew he had to get to the other side of the ruined stone arch, or they may as well all turn back to Stelgad right now. Secretly, he communicated with Cole using his ring—something only higher ranking Empire agents could do—and told him to stay close to him, in case they had to jump over the edge of the mountainside when they emerged through the arch. Zedd had no feelings of loyalty towards Cole, but knew having his magical shield active while they levitated down the mountainside might mean the difference between making it down alive or not.

“Reform your minions into a walking shield again. This time, we all go,” Zedd commanded. Zedd started to cast a levitation spell on the freshly killed agent’s body. It was made far more difficult by the distance between himself and the corpse, but he managed to achieve his goal, and the corpse floated towards where he stood. Once the corpse was directly below the first of the openings in the ceiling, he levitated it up to block the shaft, pinning the corpse tightly over the hole. Then he signalled to move forward, towards the next opening. Once they arrived, he repositioned the corpse to block that hole instead. He repeated this process all the way along the path until they all safely reached the stone arch. Positioning himself at the back of his men—closest to the drop-off should he need to jump—and with Cole very nearby, he gave the command to move through the ruined stone arch.

Each man moved beyond the huge stone pillars of the ruined arch, crouching as best they could, behind the undead-agents they were using as a shield against the girl’s arrows. All were expecting to see the boy-mage’s party waiting for them, and feel the sting of death any moment, but all they saw instead were two people in the distance, running towards a huge ruined building. Zedd brought the fresh corpse back down to the ground at his feet.

“Reanimate it,” he said to the man who still controlled the other minions. The man nodded and did as instructed without question, while Zedd studied the immense building before him. The expanse of courtyard to the building was enormous, but offered little in the way of protection against the arrows of the girl. He could see two huge dragon statues, one each side of the massive staircase that led to the front of the building. ‘
They’ll provide excellent cover—if we can reach them without being killed first,’
he thought to himself.

“I want all the minions up front forming a shield around us while we cross this courtyard. If one of them falls in front of you, levitate that corpse to reform the shield. We will head for the dragon statue on the right of the stairs,” Zedd commanded—nobody argued.

***

Neala was going out of her mind with worry. She had fully expected Lusam to be unconscious for about forty minutes—like the last time he touched the book in Helveel—but it had now been at least two hours. At first, she had simply sat down and made herself comfortable for the expected wait. But after the first forty minutes had elapsed, she started to become more and more worried as each minute slowly passed. She tried to tell herself that maybe it had actually taken longer than forty minutes in Helveel, and that she had lost track of time, but after the first hour, she knew that wasn’t the case.

It wasn’t until she walked around the outside of the room and saw the dried blood that had trickled from Lusam’s ear earlier that real panic set in. That had made her feel extremely anxious for Lusam’s safety, but not as much as the fresh blood that was now dripping freely from his nose. Even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, she still called out to him, but there was nothing she could do to help him. Long before they had found Coldmont, they both knew the moment he touched that book, he would be on his own.

A few minutes later she thought she heard the start of another tremor. Unlike the large tremor they felt earlier, this one felt much more distant, and the floor didn’t shake underfoot. She could just about hear the occasional muffled impact of falling masonry, as it crashed onto the floor somewhere above her. Instinctively, she backed away from the rubble pile that blocked the doorway, half expecting it to suddenly slide into the room, but nothing moved. Neala was no expert when it came to tremors, but this one didn’t seem quite right to her. There were sounds, but no movement. Tentatively, she placed her ear to the wall—a trick she had learned as a young thief in Stelgad—to amplify the sounds and make them much easier to hear. What she heard turned her blood cold. It wasn’t a tremor at all. It was the sound of many distant explosions. Each one resonating through the very foundations of the building. Renn and Alexia must have been forced to retreat to Coldmont, and now they were under attack by the Empire agents. Neala desperately wanted to go and see if they were alright, but knew she couldn’t leave Lusam here alone in case there
was
another tremor. She also knew her weapons would be ineffective against the agents’ shields, and would do little to slow any undead-agents either. All she could do was wait, and pray that Lusam would awaken before it was too late.

***

Renn and Alexia braced themselves at either side of the huge crack in the wall. Outside, the Empire agents had taken shelter behind one of the massive dragon statues at the foot of the stone staircase, making it almost impossible for Alexia to shoot at them. Every time Alexia or Renn tried to look through the crack to see what the Empire agents were doing, they were met by a barrage of magical-missiles. Several of their missiles entered the building through the huge crack, impacting against the walls and ceilings inside Coldmont, and causing untold damage to the intricate artwork and masonry inside.