Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three (44 page)

“No kidding,” Neala half-squealed, as Renn began to pry off the fingers clamping her wrist. Unbelievably, the pain actually increased after the creature’s hand was removed from her wrist. Her wrist throbbed violently with every beat of her heart, now that her circulation had been restored to the area.

“Neala!” Lusam called, as he skidded to a halt next to her, then fell to his knees beside her. “Are you hurt?” he asked frantically, noticing her pale complexion and sweaty face. She was so relieved to see him alive and unharmed that she grabbed his tunic and pulled him down on top of her, and into a tight one-armed embrace. Although her damaged wrist was well away from him, the jolt sent a fresh wave of pain through her. She gritted her teeth against it, and once it had settled back down again, she kissed Lusam so passionately that she forgot all about her pain, at least for a little while.

It was the quiet sobbing sounds that Neala barely heard emanating from the sewer grate which ended their joyous reunion, as Neala suddenly remembered the earlier screams of the little girl. Neala pushed Lusam away from her a little, so she could tell the others about the little girl, but as she did so, Lusam saw her wrist for the first time.

“Neala… your wrist!” he said, with a great deal of concern in his voice, and an equal amount of concern etched on his face. He didn’t even wait for a reply, he immediately placed his hand on hers and magically blocked her pain. Neala visibly relaxed as the pain suddenly ceased in her wrist, but felt a fresh wave of nausea, as she heard the bones snap back into place within her wrist. Less than a minute later, and Lusam had repaired her wrist completely, but not before his head had begun to throb again through his lack of magical power reserves.

“You know, I always suspected it, but now I
know
she will do anything to hold his hand,” Alexia said jokingly to Renn, whilst grinning at her friend still on the floor.

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Neala replied sarcastically, as she rotated her wrist, checking for any residual effects. “By the way, there’s a little girl hiding inside that grate over there,” Neala said, pointing at the grate cover halfway down the street. Two of the dead minions were slumped across the top of the grate, almost hiding its existence from the others, but Neala knew exactly where it was.

“How do you know?” Alexia asked, looking for a grate in the direction Neala was pointing.

“When I first entered the street, I heard her screams. At first, I thought they already had hold of her, but when I realised they didn’t, I rushed in to try and stop them. That’s why I took on so many of these things alone. They were all trying to get to her inside that grate. I was going to call you for some help, but I didn’t think you’d hear me from so far away, and I didn’t want to attract any more of these things,” Neala replied, nodding towards the numerous bodies scattered across the street.

“Well, I guess that explains why you were here, but what I don’t understand, is why you waited until that one was literally on top of you, before killing it with your knives,” Alexia asked a little confused, pointing to the body of the one that had broken her wrist.

“No, I couldn’t kill it with my knives. They had already stopped working, that’s why these four were able to corner me so easily. I don’t know how or why it worked, but I used one of your arrows to kill it. I pulled it from a corpse you’d shot, and stabbed it into its side. It didn’t do anything at first, and I thought I was going to die for sure, so I prayed to Aysha, and a moment later it glowed blue and the thing died,” Neala replied.

Renn chuckled. “Never underestimate the power of faith, Neala. It’s truly the mightiest ally we have in this life, and without faith, we are no more than grains of sand scattered to the four winds,” he said, smiling at her.

“I’m not sure I understand,” Neala replied.

“That’s the beauty of faith, lass—you don’t have to understand it, you just need to possess it. It seems likely to me that at the moment of your imminent demise, you fully opened your heart to Aysha and she rewarded you for it. More than that, I cannot explain why you were able to use her blessed weapon. I guess you’re just going to have to take it on faith,” Renn said, grinning at her confused expression. Neala nodded at Renn, unable to deny the logic of his explanation, but still not fully understanding it.

“Maybe we should go rescue that poor little girl, while these two stop slobbering over each other,” Alexia suggested jovially to Renn, as she watched Neala and Lusam resume their kissing and cuddling on the ground.

“Before you go, let me clean your knives of magic, please,” Lusam said, breaking off a particularly passionate kiss with Neala. “Yours too, Neala,” he added. ‘
It wouldn’t be a lot of magic, but it might go some way to stopping this throbbing headache,
’ he thought to himself. It only took a quick touch of each blade to drain it of its tiny amount of magical power, but it was such a small amount of magic, it did little to ease his head. ‘
At least the weapons would be effective again,
’ he consoled himself, then turned his attention back to his favourite activity—Neala.

Alexia rolled her eyes at them both, then nodded towards the grate where the little girl was supposed to be trapped. Renn chuckled quietly, and followed her lead, as the two lovebirds continued to kiss and cuddle where they had left them.

As they approached the grate, the sobbing grew louder and louder. ‘
Whoever was inside the grate was extremely upset by the sounds of it
,’ Alexia thought to herself. Renn quickly dragged the bodies off the top of the grate cover and was greeted by a fresh scream from inside the grate. The little girl had obviously mistaken the sudden movement of the corpses as them coming back to life again, and Alexia quickly tried to calm her down.

“It’s okay. You’re safe now. We’re here to help you,” Alexia said in a calming voice, trying to lift the grate cover off, but finding it was somehow locked into position. Guessing it must be locked from the inside, she gave up trying to remove it, and instead knelt down by the side of the grate. She noticed lots of small holes all the way around the lip of the grate, and tried to see if she could make out who was inside, but all she could see was the darkness beyond. She was certain that whoever was inside would be able to see her clearly, and so, she hoped by showing them her face, she could convince them that she was a friend.

“My name’s Alexia, what’s yours?” she said towards the grate. At first there was no reply from within the darkness, and Alexia thought whoever was inside had decided not to speak with her. Then she heard a series of weak rasping coughs from deeper inside the grate. She heard the little girl say something quietly, but couldn’t quite make out her words. Alexia was about to call Lusam, and see if he could break the lid off somehow magically, but a moment later the little girl spoke.

“Rebekah… my name’s Rebekah,” she said quietly from inside the grate.

“Hello, Rebekah, it’s nice to meet you. Can you open the grate from the inside?” Alexia asked in a calming voice.

“No… no… the monsters will get us,” Rebekah replied, sheer terror evident in her voice.

“No, they won’t. You’re safe now, I promise. We killed all the monsters outside, take a look for yourself,” Alexia reassured her.

“No… more will come. They always do. When they hear Kayden coughing, they always come,” she said crying and sobbing.

“Is Kayden your friend, Rebekah?” Alexia asked, trying to keep the little girl talking.

“No, he’s my little brother,” she replied between sobs.

“He doesn’t sound very well, Rebekah. If you open the grate we can help him get better, I promise,” Alexia said.

“Have you seen our mother and father? They were supposed to come and find us, but they didn’t come yet,” Rebekah asked, still sobbing.

“No, I’m afraid I haven’t seen them, Rebekah. But I tell you what, open the grate for me, and we can go look for them together, as soon as we sort out your little brother. How does that sound?” Alexia offered, knowing full well that her parents would most likely be amongst the victims of the Empire agents. Rebekah didn’t reply, and the silence stretched on for a long time before Alexia heard the unmistakable sound of a bolt being slid back, quickly followed by a second. Renn lifted the cover off the opening, and revealed a young blonde girl of about ten or eleven years old. She glanced around with wild eyes, then launched herself at Alexia, who was still on her knees beside the grate. She threw her arms around Alexia’s neck and buried her face into her shoulder, crying loudly next to her ear. Alexia rubbed her back, and fought back tears of her own, stunned at how much Rebekah reminded her of her own little sister Molly. The resemblance was uncanny, and it brought back a flood of both good and painful memories for Alexia.

Alexia had been born in a village called Dunlow, just south of Oakedge, and grew up there with her family. Her father had chosen various dubious career paths over the years, but her mother had worked on the local dairy farm each morning for many years, milking the cows and churning the butter. One day—not long after Alexia’s tenth birthday—a group of soldiers had arrived to arrest her father. They said he was wanted for crimes committed against a noble family in Oakedge, and that his trial would be carried out in Oakedge the following day. That was the last time she ever saw her father, and no matter how many times she had asked what had happened to him, her mother refused to even talk about it with her.

Her sister Molly had been two years younger than Alexia, and full of life. They had often played together in the fields around their house, or down by the stream while their mother worked her long hours at the dairy farm. But no matter how hard their mother worked, it never seemed to be enough to pay for everything. Soon they were forced to move out of their comfortable home and into a much smaller and dirtier house on the outskirts of the village. But gradually, even there, life had returned to normal, as they got used to their new humbler abode and surroundings. Even the sound of their mother’s laughter had returned on occasion, and things seemed to finally be getting back to normal for them all. That was until the following spring, when almost the whole village had been affected by a deadly fever. For a long time their remote location on the outskirts of the village had been a blessing, but their mother still had to work, and two weeks later the inevitable happened. It started as a small cough, but rapidly escalated into the deadly fever. She watched helplessly as first her mother, then her little sister succumbed to it. One day they were fine, the next they were gone. Her whole world collapsed around her, and she prayed the fever would take her too, but of course, it didn’t. Shortly afterwards she had gone to live on the streets of Oakedge as a street kid, then later joined a band of brigands in the nearby forest to the north.

“Alexia, are you alright?” she heard Neala ask, dragging her thoughts back to the present. Alexia hadn’t realised, but she too had been crying at the painful memories brought back to her by seeing Rebekah’s face. Alexia looked up at Neala, smiled and nodded, but didn’t let go of Rebekah.

“Could you go take a look at her little brother, he sounds very sick. Maybe Lusam can do something to help him,” Alexia said quietly over Rebekah’s shoulder. Alexia tried to stand up, but Rebekah wouldn’t relinquish her tight hold around her neck, so she found herself carrying Rebekah, with her legs wrapped tightly around her middle. As she glanced into the dark hole, she realised it wasn’t a sewer at all, but some kind of storage room, probably belonging to the stone building behind it. She made her way to the stone steps of the building, and sat down with Rebekah still clinging tightly to her.

Lusam climbed down into the dark hole, closely followed by Neala. There was a wooden platform near the entrance which made it much easier to get in and out of the room below. It seemed the room’s sole purpose was to dry firewood, as there was nothing else there apart from a few discarded vegetables, which he guessed the children had been eating to stay alive. The moment he thought about food, he realised just how hungry he actually was. It had been a long time since he had used as much of his magic reserves as he had today, and it seemed that reading the second Guardian book had made him no less dependent on food after doing so. As if to punctuate the thought, his stomach let out a huge growling sound, amplified by the stone room they were in.

“Don’t even say it. I know… I know,” Neala said, shaking her head. Lusam smiled to himself, and created a small light orb to illuminate the room without even turning to face her. In the corner, lying on a wooden platform, was a young boy of about five or six years old. He looked very pale and sweaty, and his lips were dry and cracked from lack of moisture. Lusam tried to rouse him, but he was unable to.

“Can you heal him?” Neala asked quietly by his side.

“Maybe, but he looks very weak. Healing his illness is one thing, but it looks like he’s been without food or water for quite a while. He will need time to regain his strength afterwards on his own, I think,” Lusam replied, placing his hand on the boy’s forehead. He could sense the boy’s body fighting against the infection, and gave it a helping hand using his magic. The boy’s main problem had been that his body hadn’t had the fuel to burn to heal itself, giving the infection the upper hand. Now that Lusam had transferred some energy into the parts of his body that were fighting the infection, it was now just a matter of time before his body’s defences began to win out over the infection. How long that would take, he didn’t know. But he did know that if they could manage to get him to eat and drink, that time period would be much less.

“He should be okay for now, but he needs food and water so his body can heal itself,” Lusam said, turning to face Neala.

“Water shouldn’t be a problem, there is a well at the end of this street, but food might be more difficult,” Neala replied.

“I doubt it. It doesn’t look like most of the villagers had much time to pack up and leave before the attack, so providing we can find some houses that haven’t been burned to the ground, I’m sure we’ll find something to eat there.”