Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three (41 page)

“That’s a very difficult question to answer, lad, but I will say this: killing is
never
easy. Nor should it ever become so. But it
is
sometimes necessary. Always remember, in war there are no such thing as innocent soldiers, they have either killed already, or
will
kill eventually, given the opportunity. That is true, of course, on both sides of any war. But, it is not the war that will eventually decide who is right or wrong, it is whoever is left standing at the end of that war. I have always put my faith in Aysha, that she will guide my hand to do what is
necessary
, and grant me the wisdom to see when it is not. I also truly believe that Aysha would not have granted you these powers if she did not intend for you to use them justly, in defence of our people and lands.

“I will also say this, Lusam: the day you stop feeling bad about killing is the day you are truly lost. Up until that day, you must choose your actions according to your own judgements, and pray that day never comes,” Renn replied stoically. Lusam nodded at Renn’s words of wisdom.

“Thank you, Renn. I think I understand better now,” Lusam replied, feeling a little better about it than he had a few minutes earlier.

It wasn’t long before Neala had finished her packing, and Alexia had returned from her own chores and joined the others again. Both Lusam and Renn had already packed their things away earlier that day, and all they were waiting for now, was to dock at Prystone.

When the small port came into view about ten minutes later, it didn’t take them long to realise that it had already suffered its fate at the hands of the Empire. Many of the buildings were completely, or partially burned to the ground. The dock had also suffered minor damage by the look of it, but it still appeared to be usable.

“What do you suppose happened?” Neala asked, knowing the answer was quite obvious looking at the damage strewn village.

“If I were to guess, I would say at least one of those Empire ships decided to dock here too,” Renn replied.

“I don’t see any people moving around,” Alexia said, scanning the streets and houses she could see.

“The Empire don’t tend to leave many people alive after they pass through a place. Many of the sea ports on our southern shores have been destroyed over the past few years. The only reported survivors were the ones that were either smart enough to run at the first sight of trouble, or the ones who were lucky enough to be out of the towns or villages when they were attacked in the first place. In each case, the Empire destroyed the village or town completely. They didn’t steal anything, they simply destroyed it: buildings, people, animals and crops alike,” Renn said.

“Maybe they got interrupted here,” Lusam suggested, nodding towards a few remaining buildings that were left standing.

“Possibly, but it’s more likely they were simply in a hurry when they passed through here. On their way to Lamuria, no doubt,” Renn replied. “Alexia, keep your bow handy, you might need it soon.”

“Oh?” Alexia enquired.

“Like I said, the Empire don’t tend to leave
much
behind them, but one thing they often
do
leave behind, are their reanimated minions. They use them to kill or dissuade any returnees of the villages or towns. I suspect it’s quite effective seeing a dead loved one, or neighbour walking around and trying to kill people,” Renn said sarcastically.

“I bet,” Neala agreed grimacing.

They were now only a short distance from the dockside, and as if on cue, both Renn’s sword and Alexia’s bow started to glow blue with the presence of the undead nearby. Renn simply tilted his head to the others, as if to say, ‘
I told you so.
’

“Okay, get ready. There may be an entire village here to deal with. You better stay close to one of us, Neala,” Renn suggested.

“No need. Lusam enchanted my knives so I can kill them now,” Neala replied grinning.

“Ah, so that’s what Lusam was doing with them the other day. I forgot to ask you about it with everything that has been going on. And yours too, Alexia, I take it?” Renn asked. Alexia nodded, performing a fancy twirl with a knife in each hand as she did so.

“You’d think she actually knew how to use those things, wouldn’t you,” Neala said, teasing her friend. Alexia inclined her head, smiled, and returned the two spinning blades back to their sheaths in one fluid motion, without even looking.

“Show off,” Neala said, rolling her eyes.

“You’re only jealous because when you try it, your knives usually end up in lover-boy’s foot,” Alexia replied, trying very hard not to laugh.

“Hey! I told you, that was an accident.
And
you promised not to tell anyone that I told you about that,” Neala said, scowling at her friend.

“Oops… sorry,” Alexia replied, finally laughing at her friends pouting face.

Renn looked inquisitively at Lusam, then at his foot. Lusam sighed, and said, “It’s a long story. I’ll tell you about it later.” Renn simply nodded, picked up his things, and headed to the starboard side of the ship, where they would soon be disembarking. Lusam followed his example, as did Neala and Alexia, but not without jostling each other all the way there first.

Renn wished he’d had enough time and foresight to warn the crew about the possible danger, but it was too late by the time the ship was approaching the dock. Men were shouting commands to each other, and things were generally noisy aboard the Pelorus. ‘
More than loud enough to attract some unwanted attention from within the village,
’ Renn thought to himself. And even before the ship made contact with the dock, the first of the undead villagers appeared at the far end of the street, quickly followed by several more.

“It’s okay, I’ve got these,” Alexia said, removing her bow and nocking an arrow in one fluid motion. Her aim was true, and each of her five remaining arrows found their targets with a dull thud, dropping the undead minions where they stood. Just before the ship made contact with the dock, two crewmen jumped across the narrow gap onto the wooden platform and began to fasten thick ropes to the dock moorings, both nervously looking towards the direction of the undead creatures. A moment later the ship made gentle contact with the dockside, and Renn, Alexia and Neala all jumped down onto the wooden platform of the dock. Fortunately the tide was low, and the wooden dock was only a couple of feet below the side of the ship.

Lusam was just about to jump down and join the others, when he was knocked off his feet by a huge explosion further along the dock. Broken timbers, ropes and sea water rained down on the ship as he struggled frantically to regain his feet. His immediate concern was for Neala and the others, but when he finally managed to stand up again, he noticed they were already further away from the dockside, engaging with the undead minions. Instinctively, he raised a shield around the Pelorus, then ran to the other side of the ship to see where the enemy was firing from. The Pelorus’ crew were all now aware of the enemy vessel closing in on their location, and the two men who had been securing the ship to the dockside had removed the ropes again, freeing the Pelorus from the restraints of the dock. There were many calls in Lusam’s direction, all trying to make sure that he was aware of the enemy ship, and that he was also prepared to defend them against it.

The Empire ship had appeared around the headland to the south, giving them little warning of its approach. It didn’t seem likely that they could have seen the Pelorus approaching Prystone, so either they were intending to dock here anyway, or more likely Lusam thought, they had been summoned by someone aboard the ship they had destroyed earlier. Lusam knew the Empire agents had the ability to communicate with each other using their Necromatic rings, and guessed that was the most likely reason for the sudden appearance of this second vessel.

Although Lusam had already erected a force-field to protect the side of the ship facing the enemy vessel, nothing had yet made contact with it. At first he thought the aim of the men aboard the Empire ship was bad, but then he suddenly realised with horror, they were not actually firing at the Pelorus, they were trying to hit Renn and the others on the shore instead. They had obviously mistaken Renn’s brighter aura for his own. There was no way Lusam could protect them from so far away, and the incoming missiles were too high above the ship, arcing through the air, and intentionally avoiding the Pelorus. Lusam watched as Renn intercepted two massive fireballs on his blessed shield, both winking out of existence as they made contact, but not before sending him crashing to the ground each time with the force of their impact. Neala and Alexia were busy fighting their own group of undead minions, but thankfully, Alexia spotted the danger to Renn, and took down two of them that were about to attack him while he was still flat on his back. Lusam thought he heard Alexia shout something to Renn, but he couldn’t make out what she said over the noise of the crew and the explosions coming from onshore.

Renn got back to his feet just in time to see three more huge fireballs heading directly for him. He didn’t even try to block any of them this time, instead he dived to the side out of their path, and they exploded at the precise spot where he had been only a heartbeat before, incinerating the two dead minions, and unfortunately both of Alexia’s precious blessed arrows. Lusam knew he had to quickly draw the fire of the enemy ship off Renn and the others, and onto himself. He lowered his mental shutter, revealing the true strength of his aura to the men aboard the Empire ship, then sent a powerful fireball of his own towards the bow of the enemy vessel. It struck the front of the ship, exploding a huge section of the forward deck, sending debris and bodies high into the air. It was hard to tell the exact number of men who died, but Lusam thought he had felt at least twenty death-pulses, maybe more.

There was a long pause in the Empire ship’s attack, as the men aboard gathered themselves once more for another assault. Lusam planned to swiftly end the ship and the crew the same way he had the first, and began searching the enemy vessel for the telltale signs of their leader’s brighter aura. It took him only a moment to realise that there was no obvious leader aboard their ship. Then he realised, any commander would most likely have been on the bow of their ship as it sailed towards its intended quarry, so he could see his enemy targets, and command his men to attack them accordingly. The men aboard the Empire ship had not been expecting any attack to come from the Pelorus, and had put all their efforts into the power of their attacks on Renn, instead of shielding themselves. Lusam’s missile had hit them whilst they were unprepared, and had killed their leader outright, as well as all the other men in the line of fire behind him. He knew he could no longer drain the remaining Empire agents using the same method as he had used with the first ship, because only higher ranking agents could draw magical power from their subordinates, therefore his previous tactic would now be useless against the regular agents who remained aboard.

It wasn’t long before the assault resumed from the Empire vessel. Lusam had expected the focus to shift to him and the Pelorus, but instead—possibly due to the lack of command aboard the Empire ship—they decided to split their efforts between the Pelorus and Renn. The Pelorus was now slowly moving away from the dockside, but not nearly fast enough for Lusam’s liking. His shield had already taken over forty direct hits, and he was beginning to feel the effects of every one. The faster the Pelorus turned towards the enemy vessel the better. That way he would only need to shield the front of the ship again, instead of its whole length. He needed a way to speed things up and swing the bow out towards the Empire ship much faster than it was moving right now. Lusam glanced back to shore to see how the others were doing, but could only see Renn. Many of the buildings near Renn were burning or completely destroyed, and the air was thick with smoke and debris. Lusam guessed by Renn’s actions that he was intentionally drawing fire to himself, and therefore splitting the attack of the Empire ship between himself and the Pelorus. Lusam was grateful for his help, but hoped that it wouldn’t end badly for Renn.

Lusam heard Captain Waylon’s voice before he saw him, shouting orders to his crew. After their last encounter, Captain Waylon also seemed to know that the best course of action was to steer the ship directly towards the enemy vessel, and gave those orders loud and clear. Lusam had an idea how to help the ship turn more swiftly towards that goal, and shouted to the Captain.

“Captain!” he yelled. The Captain turned towards Lusam’s call and raised his chin in query.

“Tell your crew to brace themselves, I’m about to give us a push off from the docks. I don’t want anyone falling overboard, or out of the rigging,” Lusam yelled to the Captain.

“Understood,” The Captain replied, and relayed the information to his crew. Once Lusam was sure the order had been received by his men, he formed another force-field between the Pelorus and the docks, then rapidly expanded it to force the bow of the ship towards the approaching Empire ship. As soon as the huge pressure was applied against the dock, it shattered and splintered loudly, as it tore free from its foundations, completely destroying that section of dock.

“Oops,” Lusam said to himself cringing, as the Captain raced to the ship’s rail to see if it was his ship that had just been torn apart, or only the dock. His relieved look suggested only the latter, much to Lusam’s own relief. He shifted his shield to the bow of the ship, and immediately felt the benefit of only having to shield a much smaller section of the ship, even though the frequency and ferocity of the attacks remained unchanged. Lusam had already contemplated destroying the enemy ship whilst they were still at the dockside, but that would have simply allowed many of the surviving men to swim to shore, and wreak havoc on anyone they came across later. He knew the destruction of the enemy vessel and its crew had to be absolute.

Captain Waylon had ordered full speed ahead, and they were now rapidly closing in on the Empire ship. More and more of the fire-power aboard the enemy ship became targeted against Lusam on the Pelorus, as the distance between the two ships rapidly reduced. Lusam’s magical reserves were beginning to run low, and he acutely felt the impact of every missile his shield now absorbed. He doubted he had enough reserves left to kill each man aboard the Empire ship individually, not while having to maintain the shield around the Pelorus at the same time. A shield which he would soon have to expand to cover the entire length of the ship again, as they approached the enemy ship on a parallel intercept course. As they drew side by side with the enemy vessel, both ships dropped their sails to avoid sailing past each other, leaving both ships only about fifty paces apart, and parallel to each other.