Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three (60 page)

“If you think I’m going to hide behind the city walls and do nothing, while you all risk your lives for Lusam, you’re crazy,” she said, moving towards the break in the barricade. “Let’s go!”

“I can’t let you go out there, Neala,” Renn said, stepping in front of her. Neala stopped mid-stride and took a deep steadying breath, before looking into his eyes.

“Renn, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but nothing you can say or do will stop me from going out there and doing my part to help Lusam. And if you think you’re capable of stopping me, I’d think again. I would hate it if you forced me to do something I’ll regret later,” Neala said in a calm voice.

Morgan whistled at her words. “She’s a feisty one,” he said smirking at Renn.

Neala gave him a threatening look: one that said she was about to show him just how feisty she was if he said another word.

“Enough!” Renn boomed out. “We’re not here to fight each other. The fight is out there,” he said lifting an arm towards the battlefield. “If you insist on coming with us, just make sure you stay close enough so we can protect you with our shields.”

“Fair enough,” Neala said, still looking at Morgan menacingly. Her look must have made him feel a little uncomfortable, because he was the first one to head off towards the battlefield without another word. They all broke into a jog, but Morgan seemed keener than the others to join the fight, as he was a good fifty paces in front by the time he reached the end of the wall.

“Don’t go running off Morgan,” Renn shouted after him. Morgan turned his head and gave Renn a mischievous grin as he disappeared around the corner of the wall. He had barely vanished from sight before he reappeared again, but this time he was flying backwards through the air, and landed hard on the ground with a loud thud. Renn and Neala sprinted towards him, but even before they reached his location the first undead appeared around the corner of the wall. Neala’s mouth fell open at the sight before them: thousands upon thousands of undead were moving towards them. Renn had already drawn his glowing sword and was cutting down the first group of undead to come within his range.

“Morgan, get up man!” Renn shouted desperately, but he didn’t stir. Renn even nudged him with his boot between sword swings, but he seemed to be out cold. Whatever had hit him, had hit him hard. Neala stepped in front of Renn and began killing the undead.

“Get him back to the barricade,” she shouted, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to lift him and run at the same time. Renn didn’t hesitate, he picked Morgan up and threw him over his shoulder, then started back towards the barricade. Neala’s first set of knives were saturated with magic almost immediately, and she narrowly avoided being injured by one of the undead. Switching to a second set of knives, she began to retreat towards the scant safety of the barricade, praying that her blessed knives would start glowing. She pleaded silently with Aysha to allow her to wield her weapons, but they remained unchanged.

Renn dropped Morgan at the gate and rushed back to aid Neala. She had almost made it back to the barricade by the time he reached her.

“Whatever happens we must hold them here! If they get past us, they’ll break through the gate and into the city,” Renn said desperately, as he swung his glowing sword in a large arc, cutting down more than a dozen undead in one swing. Neala stood by his side with her final set of enchanted knives, praying as hard as she could that they would start to glow like Renn’s sword. Neala knew if she failed to wield her blessed weapons, the undead would break through the city gates and it would all be over. The High Temple’s walls may well be protected against magical attacks, but its doors would soon be destroyed by the strength of the undead. Twice before she had witnessed how vulnerable Lusam was at the moment he was released by the Guardian book’s magic, and had no doubt he would be killed at that point if she failed now. She screamed in frustration as her final set of knives became saturated with magic. An image of Lusam flashed before her eyes, just as the undead-minion struck her across the face and sent her sprawling to the ground well inside the barricade.

“Neala!” Renn called out, but he was unable to come to her aid. He moved to his right to better block the barricade entrance, but not before two undead had got past his guard. There was no way he could leave his defensive position to help Neala now, or the undead would flood in behind the barricade.

“Neala, get up!” Renn yelled desperately.

Neala heard his voice, but it seemed so far away. She watched as two sets of feet slowly shuffled towards her, her mind unable to make any sense of it. Then she seemed to suddenly become aware of her surroundings again. Realisation of what was about to happen to her sharpened her reactions. She sprang to her feet as adrenaline flooded through her body, and watched helplessly as the two undead closed in on her. She was forced to back up further and further until her back was against the grisly barricade. She had nowhere else to go. Even if she climbed over the barricade, there would be thousands of undead waiting for her at the other side. Her time was up. This was where she would finally die, having failed the only person she had ever loved in her entire life. And that hurt far more than anything these two undead could ever do to her. She closed her eyes and prayed. Not for herself, but for Lusam, Renn and everyone else she was about to leave behind. For all the people who would die and suffer because she had failed to have enough faith to wield her blessed weapons.

As the cold hand of the first undead creature touched her, it felt like a veil being lifted from before her eyes. She suddenly knew with absolute certainty that Aysha would be there for her, and everyone else who fell that day. She smiled, knowing that everything would be alright now, and opened her eyes to see the world for the last time in this life. She felt a strange pulse, and the two undead-minions suddenly slumped to the ground in front of her. Tears of joy filled her eyes as she looked down on the two unmoving corpses and saw four glowing knives in her own belt. She had finally opened her heart to Aysha, and it felt like all her fears and doubts had been washed away. She noticed her other two knives on the ground where she had been knocked down, and went to retrieve them. As she picked them up, they too began to glow brightly in her hand. She had nothing to fear any more, she could feel Aysha within her, and she would take
her
into battle with her.

With a battle cry that would still the hearts of most men, she rejoined Renn. Her hands moved so fast they were barely visible. Whereas Renn had barely managed to hold back the tide of undead, Neala was cutting a path through them like a scythe through wheat. Within seconds she had created a pocket of space amongst them, and that space grew rapidly. Renn could see several groups of paladins desperately trying to fight their way back to help protect the gates, but there were simply too many undead between them and the gate. Neala must have also seen them struggling, as she started to carve her way through the undead army towards them. The undead tried to close in on her, but she was simply too fast. The slightest touch of her blessed blades was enough to end them, and end them she did, in unbelievable numbers. Renn had never seen anyone fight like that in his entire life, and knew with absolute conviction that Aysha was with her as she fought.

When Neala finally reached the groups of paladins, she simply reversed her course and carved them a path back towards the gates. By now she was covered in so much blood and gore that Renn wouldn’t have been surprised if the paladins had mistaken her for one of the undead, but they too seemed mesmerised by her deadly speed and grace on the battlefield.

Renn was suddenly startled by a movement behind him, and almost ran Morgan through with his sword, thinking he was one of the undead that had somehow managed to get over the barricade.

“Seven Gods!” Morgan swore, as he saw Neala cutting through the army of undead in front of him.

“Yeah, I bet you’re glad you didn’t upset her any more than you did earlier,” Renn said, chuckling at the look of astonishment on his face. He just nodded open-mouthed and continued to stab at any undead that came within range from behind his shield.

Neala had created another large pocket of space within the undead, and continued to destroy them at an incredible rate. Many of the paladins she had gone to help were now within hailing distance of Renn, but many of them were too busy watching Neala to even notice. Neala didn’t even slow down when the undead turned and started walking back the way they had come. She continued to destroy every undead that came within her range, and that range increased dramatically when she removed her other four knives and sent them flying through the air towards the retreating undead. Four more hit the floor never to move again.

“I know I took a big knock to the head, but did I just see thousands of undead run away from her?” Morgan asked. Renn didn’t really know if he was joking or not, but by the look on his face he would have guessed not.

“Well, wouldn’t you run away from her, having seen that?” Renn said grinning, and nodding towards the corpse littered battlefield.

“Seven Gods yes! But I doubt I’d get very far,” he said shaking his head and watching Neala retrieve her knives.

“I agree, so I’d be nice to her if I were you,” Renn replied, chuckling to himself. Morgan simply nodded as he watched her approach.

Around forty paladins watched silently in awe as Neala slowly walked back towards the barricade. Her knives had lost their glow just like everyone else’s weapon, but Renn had no doubt it would return the next time she was in battle. And he could tell by her new found confidence that she no longer had any doubts either.

When Neala reached the barricade she stopped directly in front of Morgan and met his eyes, then after watching him squirm for a moment she grinned at him.

“That’s going to be a nice shiner you have there,” she said, pointing to his rapidly blacking eye. Renn burst out laughing at the look on his face, then watched as Neala went to find something to clean off all the blood and gore with.

After a moment Renn noticed that the bombardment of the city’s wall had stopped. His heart sank as he realised the Empire magi must have already broken through the south wall, and that would also explain why the undead had been recalled by their masters. He sprinted towards the far end of the wall so he could see for himself, shouting for all his fellow paladins to follow him so they could help defend the breach.

When he reached the end of the wall, he breathed a sigh of relief. Although the city’s wall had been badly damaged, it thankfully remained intact enough to prevent the undead from entering the city. He had expected to see the remaining paladins near the wall attempting to protect it, but strangely they were nowhere near it. Even stranger was the sight of the undead army ignoring the wall altogether, and instead retreating towards the south cliffs where the Empire magi were massed.

Then he saw the reason why. Directly at the base of the cliffs were a group of paladins. The Empire magi had retreated well away from the edge of the cliffs for some reason, but one of them broke away from the rest and came slowly forward to peer over the edge. Renn watched curiously as the man quickly looked over the edge, then turned and ran as fast as he could. A bright blue flash streaked upwards from the base of the cliffs towards the fleeing man. He took no more than five strides before he fell to the ground, and his death-pulse washed over Renn and the others in the valley below.

It all began to make perfect sense to Renn. It seemed that Alexia had somehow achieved the impossible, and forced the Empire magi to retreat out of range of the city walls. The Empire’s response had been to recall their undead army to attack her and the paladins with her. But from what Renn could see, it looked like she had little more than a single group of paladins with her, and that would never be enough to defend against what was now heading her way. Renn knew they would never make it to her group in time, but they had to at least try.

Lusam collapsed to the floor in a crumpled heap as the Guardian book released him from its magical grip. His vision blurred with the incredible pain inside his head, made all the worse by the intense white light within the room. He felt, rather than saw the blue pulse-of-light wash over him as he lay next to the book pedestal, curled into a tight ball against the searing pain in his head. As the blue light washed over him, his pain eased considerably, and he was once again able to think more clearly. Remembering the severe damage that had been caused to the blood vessels inside his head when he read the Guardian book in Coldmont, he quickly began to search out any new life threatening injuries, but found none. He felt certain there had been many, but somehow knew he had just been healed by Aysha’s light. She had given Neala her word that she would look after him whilst he read the Guardian book, and it would seem she had kept that promise, much to Lusam’s relief.

Lusam felt like he could throw up at any moment, and it took him much longer than the previous times to recover his composure. When he did finally manage to stand up, he was pleased to see that the High Priest had done as he had asked, and brought him one of the Power Orbs. He attempted to bend over and pick it up, and immediately regretted it, as his head began to spin wildly once more. As he stood there, willing his world to stop spinning again, he checked to see how much the Guardian book had increased his capacity to hold magic. He was stunned by what he found. His magical capacity had grown so much, he doubted that any mage alive even came close to his level of power, including Lord Zelroth himself. The small amount of power he had left himself after charging the city’s shield earlier, was now barely even noticeable within his massive new magical reservoir.