Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three (9 page)

“Sir, I can’t levitate,” Cole said nervously at his side. For the first time since meeting Cole, he was glad of his inability to do something. Cole’s magical shield would do nothing to protect Zedd, but Cole’s body between him and the cave would do just fine, Zedd thought to himself. Smiling inwardly, he positioned Cole to his left side, putting him in a direct line of sight to the cave entrance once they broke cover.

“Fire!” Zedd commanded, letting one of his men break cover before he did. Fortunately there was no sign of the young girl, and no arrows came their way as they all to a man jumped over the edge of the mountain path.

Alexia sprang from the cave, arrow nocked and ready to fire at the distant Empire agents. What she found instead was a single agent no more than fifty paces away in the open, and the remaining agents taking cover behind the freshly fallen boulders further down the mountain path. She let loose her arrow at the closest man, nocked a second arrow while she rolled to the side, and then released it at one of the exposed agents further down the path. She fully expected her arrows to bounce harmlessly off their magical shields, but instead she witnessed a bright blue flash come from each arrow as it passed cleanly through their shields, and a satisfying thud as both arrows buried themselves deep in the chests of the Empire agents.

Alexia was so shocked by what had just happened, she barely avoided being hit by several incoming missiles sent by the remaining agents. She desperately dived for the relative safety of the cave, and just about made it inside as the missiles struck the giant pile of rocks outside the cave entrance, covering her with dust and debris once more. Her mind seemed to move in slow motion. She had fully expected to be killed when she attacked the Empire agents. She had only ever intended attacking them as a last act of defiance. Never for one moment did she expect her arrows to be effective against their shields.

Alexia waited until the dust settled a little before carefully approaching the cave entrance. She had to confirm for herself, what she thought she had just witnessed outside. Creeping to the edge of the cave opening she gingerly looked out. She could clearly see the dead Empire agent lying on his back with her arrow protruding from his chest.

“How?” she whispered to herself, completely confused by her own success. She risked poking her head out a little further to see where the remaining agents were, and was relieved to see they were still hiding behind the various sized boulders, right where she had seen them last. She noticed that one of the agents had his arm exposed whilst trying to hide behind a boulder that was a little too small to fully conceal him. She nocked another arrow and took the shot. The arrow flew true until it came within inches of its target, then it seemed to whip around at an impossible angle and into the side of his chest, just under his right arm. It too flashed bright blue as it passed through the agent’s shield. She heard a howl of rage come from one of the agents still hiding behind the rocks, and it made her smile.

Alexia listened intently for any movement outside, but heard none. She was about to take another look outside when four more missiles struck the rocks outside the cave, showering her in even more rocks and dust. She heard movement outside in the distance and fully expected them to be storming her position, so she once again nocked an arrow and left the safety of the cave to meet the oncoming charge. She rolled to the side as she exited the cave, coming swiftly to her feet, ready to fire at the advancing agents. Instead of seeing agents charging towards her, what she saw instead was the last of them jumping off the edge of mountain path and disappearing from view below. She froze in position, scanning the large boulders further down the path for any signs of movement, but saw nothing.

Alexia remained within easy reach of the cave entrance for another ten minutes before she dared move any further away from its relative safety. She fully expected it to be a trap of some kind, and once she had committed herself too much, they would surely come out of hiding and kill her. She moved further towards the edge of the path, giving herself a fresh angle from which to view the large boulders, but she could see no sign of any Empire agents behind them. Taking a deep breath, she silently approached the area she had last see the agents. She was convinced they were somehow hiding behind the rocks, but when she reached the boulders, she discovered nothing but two bodies. Relief flooded through Alexia as she fell to her knees to thank Aysha for sparing her life and those of her friends.

Alexia searched the two dead agents for anything useful, but didn’t find anything at all. She noticed that both arrows had been removed from the dead agents’ chests and were nowhere to be found. It reminded her of how important her remaining arrows might be, and so she went to retrieve the arrow still embedded in the first agent’s chest that she had killed. When she stood up after removing the arrow, she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. In one fluid motion she whipped herself around towards the detected movement, and had an arrow nocked and ready to fire even before she faced her target. There, on the hillside above her, stood a mountain goat. It just stood there watching her, and she watched back, as if both of them were too scared to move an inch. Neither Alexia nor the others had eaten much that day, and even their water supply was beginning to run low. Alexia knew if it hadn’t been for the fact it had rained several times since they had entered the mountains, they would all have died from dehydration a long time ago.

Very slowly Alexia drew back the bow, almost scared to breathe in case she frightened off her prey. Normally she would have aimed for the head of her quarry, but she knew full well how hard the head of a mountain goat was, so instead she aimed for its chest. She hated to kill such a magnificent creature but knew if she didn’t, none of them would survive for much longer without more food. She let her arrow loose, and it flew straight and true, killing the creature cleanly. Once again she thanked Aysha for her bounty before retrieving her prize and returning to the cave.

Alexia checked on the others and found that they were all still unconscious. Neala seemed to have more colour in her face, but Renn seemed to look even worse than he had before. She left the cave again in search of some firewood, and although not many trees grew this high up in the mountains, a few did cling stubbornly to the hillside here and there. The recent rockslides seemed to have taken their toll on some of them, and Alexia managed to find enough small branches scattered around on the path to make a small fire possible. She knew the wood wouldn’t burn for long, so she decided to prepare the meat before lighting the fire.

It was hard work skinning a mountain goat, and in her current weakened state she found it even harder, but after two hours or so she had the animal skinned and butchered sufficiently to start the fire. Once she lit the fire and the meat had started to cook, she felt almost dizzy at the delicious smell that came from the fat-rich meat as it sizzled over the flames. It didn’t take too long to cook, but to Alexia it felt like a lifetime as she waited to taste the cooked meat.

Neala awoke to the delicious smell of cooking meat. Instinctively her hand fell to her chest where only hours before a stone shard had impaled her. She looked around, dazed and confused, but seeing Lusam unconscious by her side seemed to wake her up fully.

“Lusam!” she croaked as she tried to stand up in the low cave, only to hit her head on the ceiling above. Rubbing her head, she knelt down next to Lusam, not even noticing Alexia outside the cave entrance. Alexia heard Neala inside the cave and went in to speak with her.

“Don’t worry, lover-boy’s fine. He passed out after he finished healing you, but he’s still breathing,” Alexia said smiling.

“I don’t understand, why aren’t we all dead? What happened to the Empire agents?” Neala asked, confused.

“It’s a long story. I have some food cooking, so maybe you would prefer to hear it while we eat?” Alexia said, gesturing towards the food cooking over the fire. Neala almost passed out again at the thought of food, but managed to nod her agreement and make her way to the cave entrance.

“What about Renn?” Neala asked. “Has he regained consciousness? He looks in a bad way to me.”

“No, he hasn’t woken up since he arrived at the cave. I was hoping Lusam might be awake by now to at least stabilise him, even if he can’t fully heal him,” Alexia replied, looking at the still and pale form of Renn lying deeper within the cave.

“I’m not sure how long Lusam will be unconscious for. When he attempted something similar in Helveel, he was unconscious for almost five days,” Neala said.

“Oh Gods! I hope you’re wrong. I don’t think Renn has five days,” Alexia said with a worried look on her face.

“I agree, but we tried everything to wake him last time, and nothing worked. He simply woke up when his body was ready. We need to clean Renn’s wound, but we have no water or bandages. I did see some Calendula plants not far from here though.”

“Calen… what plants?” Alexia asked looking puzzled.

“Calendula plants. The flowers can be used to stop bleeding and infections. They also speed up the healing process, but in Renn’s case we only need to stop the infection and keep him alive until Lusam wakes up… if we can,” Neala replied.

“How do you know all that?” Alexia asked, amazed at her knowledge of plants. Neala laughed and pointed with her thumb over her shoulder.

“Lusam taught me all about the uses of various plants in the forest next to Helveel. We used to visit there every Seventh-day, and each time he showed me something new.”

“I’ll bet he did,” Alexia said winking at her friend.

“Hey!” Neala said blushing and swatting at Alexia’s arm. Alexia laughed loudly and dodged Neala’s half-hearted attempt at hitting her arm.

“What’s so funny?” croaked Lusam from the back of the cave.

“Lusam, you’re awake!” Neala said excitedly.

“Shhh… not so loud,” Lusam replied holding his throbbing head. “Is that food I can smell?” Neala rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Oh, how silly of me. It seems I was mistaken, Alexia,” Neala said apologetically. “We didn’t try
everything
to wake him last time in Helveel. It seems all we needed was the smell of cooking food to wake him up.” Alexia burst out laughing at her friend’s joke, but Lusam obviously didn’t appreciate the volume of her humour. Holding his head he slowly made his way towards the cave entrance, then suddenly stopped half way.

“Where are the Empire agents?” he asked cautiously, trying to glance past the two girls sitting near the cave entrance.

“Dead, mostly,” Alexia replied. “I was just about to explain to Neala what happened before you woke up.” Alexia handed them both a chunk of cooked meat and took one for herself. Nobody seemed in any rush for an explanation whilst they were eating their fill, and Alexia was happy to remain silent while she ate hers. They each devoured several chunks of the delicious meat before Neala prompted Alexia once more to continue with her story.

It didn’t take Alexia long to describe what had happened, and both Lusam and Neala were amazed by what she told them. Lusam couldn’t imagine why his enchantment would allow the arrows to pass through their magical shields, nor could he offer any other explanation. At that moment it didn’t really matter. The Empire agents were no longer an immediate threat. Their numbers were now diminished even further by the three Alexia had just managed to kill, as well as the five she had killed earlier, and the one who had plunged to his death whilst trying to levitate up the mountainside. Lusam didn’t know how many Empire agents remained, but he did know it was far fewer than it had been the previous day.

“I need to take a look at Renn,” Lusam said, feeling a little guilty he had spent time eating and talking before helping his friend. In truth he knew that without the food he would have been too weak to do much anyway, and he probably still was.

“Can you take any more magic from us before you try to help him?” Neala asked, worried that he was still far too weak to attempt any magic.

“I’m not sure how much magic you could have recovered since last night without any food or sleep, but I suppose we could take a look,” Lusam said sceptically. Neala nodded and offered him her hand. Lusam easily located Neala’s small reserve of magic, but as he expected, little of it had regenerated during the short time since he had last taken it from her. He gathered a small amount from her, then he did the same with Alexia. He felt a little better, but knew healing Renn’s wounds would take much more magic than he currently had. ‘
I’ll have to do the best I can until I regain more of my strength
,’ he thought to himself, as he knelt by Renn’s side and began to heal what he could of his injuries.