Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Three (39 page)

“Are you alright?” Neala asked, as she came to sit beside him.

“Yes, I’m fine, thanks. I was just thinking about the crew, and how they’ll be completely defenceless once we’ve left the ship for their journey home,” he replied as she snuggled up close to him.

Neala thought for a while, obviously not wanting to belittle his concerns, then replied, “I know they mainly chose to do it for the money, but if they actually knew who you were, or what you could do to help Afaraon, I’m sure they would have chosen to help willingly.”

“Maybe, but they were never given that choice. And what do
we
gain by risking all
their
lives?… making it to Lamuria a few days sooner,” he replied glumly.

“That’s right, lad,” Renn said, startling them both as he sat down by the side of them, “if we can make it to Lamuria a few days sooner, you may very well be able to save countless lives there, not to mention the whole continent of Afaraon. There’s nothing to say the Pelorus won’t make it home completely unscathed once we leave, anyway. There again, she could be attacked and sunk with all hands as soon as she sets sail for home. We are at war, lad, and in war there are always casualties, on both sides. If you want to blame someone, blame the Empire, not yourself. Those men understood the risk to themselves and their ship, and each one chose to take on that risk. They believe they are doing it for the coin and a possible future, and that is enough for them. When we arrive, maybe we should enlighten them as to the real reason they risked their lives. That way, if they do happen to meet their end during their trip home, they can at least die knowing they have dealt a massive blow to the Empire by delivering you swiftly to Lamuria.” Lusam knew he was right, but it still felt wrong somehow, so he simply nodded and left it at that.

Alexia awoke not long after, and propped herself up against the ship’s rail. She certainly looked better than she had during the voyage, but she was still very pale.

“How are you feeling?” Neala asked.

“I’ve been better,” Alexia replied, stretching out her back. “Where are we?”

“Captain Waylon found us a nice sheltered cove to spend the night in,” Lusam replied.

“Thank Aysha for that,” Alexia half-whispered to herself, rubbing her eyes and attempting to stand. She almost ended up back on the floor in a heap, but managed to steady herself in time. “It feels like the damn ship is still moving around under my feet, even though it’s not.”

Renn laughed. “Yes, your mind gets used to the movement of the ship, and when it stops, it takes a while to adjust again. You’ll notice it even when we’re on solid ground I’m afraid.”

“Oh Gods. I never want to travel by ship ever again,” Alexia stated flatly, making the others chuckle at her words.

“I know you probably don’t feel like it, but you really should eat something, Alexia,” Renn said. Alexia responded by putting her hand over her mouth and shaking her head, whilst turning a lighter shade of grey. Neala handed her a waterskin so she could at least have a drink of water, then went back to their supply bag to find the rest of them some food. She soon discovered that all they had left was a small piece of dried travel bread, and some smoked sausage—nowhere near enough for the four of them to share as a meal.

“Hmm, I think we have a small problem,” Neala said over her shoulder.

“What’s that?” Lusam replied.

“We don’t seem to have enough food left for our trip,” she said, holding out the two remaining morsels of food for the others to see.

“That’s not good, I’m starving,” Lusam said, standing up rubbing his stomach.

“You’re always starving, so there’s nothing new there,” Neala replied rolling her eyes at him.

“I’m sorry, I should have remembered to get us some more supplies when we reached The Serpent Isles. With everything that was happening aboard ship I completely forgot,” Renn said.

“It’s not your fault, Renn. We all knew we had only five days’ worth of food when we left Fairport, so we all should have remembered to restock,” Neala replied.

“We’ll be fine, I can catch us some fish,” Lusam offered.

“How are you going to attract the fish without any bait?” Neala asked, curious if he could attract the fish like he had the other animals in the forest near Helveel.

“Oh, that’s easy,” Lusam replied grinning, “we just give Alexia that bread and sausage to eat, and I’m sure we’ll have plenty of bait a few seconds later.”

Alexia tried to respond, but couldn’t because of her dry retching.

“Oh! You’re really going to pay for that one later,” Neala said, stifling a laugh of her own.

The entire crew were up well before first light preparing the Pelorus for her onward journey, and by the time the sun began to rise, they were already underway. Lusam had managed to catch several good sized fish the previous evening and cook them using his magic—and, without any of the crew even noticing. After eating nothing but travel rations for most of the previous week, the freshly cooked fish had tasted truly delicious. And after recovering her appetite, even Alexia had asked for a second helping. Lusam was, however, far less enthusiastic about the prospect of having to eat it for breakfast the following day, and did little more than pick at it. Alexia refused it altogether, most likely knowing she would be seeing it again very soon if she did eat any. Fortunately, the sea was much calmer than it had been the previous day, and the wind had also eased somewhat. The sun felt warmer on their skin today, and they dozed away the early part of the morning together on the aft deck.

Lusam and the others were rudely awoken by loud shouts coming from the rigging high above, and what sounded like a large wave breaking over a rock close to the ship. Renn was the first up to see what all the commotion was about, closely followed by Neala. He expected to see the ship had strayed too close to the rocks, but what he saw instead, was far worse. In the distance, directly off the port side, was an Empire ship. The noise they had heard wasn’t waves breaking over rocks, but instead, huge fireballs missing their intended target, and hitting the sea close to their ship.

“Lusam! Get up, lad!” Renn shouted, removing his shield and trying to intercept one of the magical-missiles, but failing. It exploded through the upper deck close to where they were now standing, and out through the side of the ship, ending its flight in the sea with a loud splash and hissing sound. The ship rocked violently, and shards of wood showered the upper and lower decks. Lusam immediately erected a force-field around the side of the ship facing the enemy vessel, but not before another fireball found its target, thankfully only damaging the forward starboard rail. Men soon appeared with buckets of water to dowse the flames caused by the two impacts and assess the damage.

Captain Waylon had appeared on deck as soon as the first calls went up, ordering his men to set more sails and increase their speed to maximum. The Empire ship was coming at them directly from the east, trapping the Pelorus between it, and the cliffs to their west. The only direction his ship could turn was to the east—away from the cliffs—but that would put them on a direct intercept course with the Empire vessel. His only option was to try and outrun them south, and he knew that was never going to happen. This time he had gambled with his, and his crew’s lives—and lost again.

“Renn, we need to get the captain to turn the ship towards them. There’s no point me wasting my energy shielding the whole length of the ship, when I can protect us just as effectively by shielding only the front. And, it will give them a much smaller target to hit once they’re within range to hit us with any kind of accuracy,” Lusam said, watching the enemy ship as it came ever closer. So far the Empire ship had been sending magical-missiles their way without any real accuracy, most landing harmlessly in the sea around their ship, But Lusam knew it wouldn’t take them long to come within range for a much more focused attack. All the Captain was doing right now, was delaying the inevitable by trying to outrun them.

“I suggest we both go speak with him, lad. He’s not likely to listen to me, especially if you’re not there to
convince
him otherwise,” Renn replied. Lusam nodded, and within seconds they were on the main deck approaching the Captain.

“Captain,” Renn shouted. The Captain glanced his way, but ignored his call, continuing to issue orders to his men.

“Captain Waylon,” Renn repeated.

“I’m a little busy right now. If you haven’t noticed we’re under attack!” Captain Waylon said angrily.

“You need to turn the ship towards them,” Renn said, ignoring his tone.

“Are you crazy? This isn’t a war ship, you know! We don’t even have any weapons onboard to fight with. Not that we would get close enough to use them, even if we did,” Captain Waylon spat at Renn.

“Actually, yes, we do have a weapon onboard. And it’s quite possibly the most powerful weapon in Afaraon, Captain,” Renn replied with a smug grin.

The Captain laughed mirthlessly. “I’ve heard about your blessed weapons before paladin, but what use is a sword going to be against a ship full of magi?”

“I wasn’t referring to
my
weapon, Captain,” Renn replied, putting his hand on Lusam’s shoulder. “This is
our
weapon, right here. And the very reason we are travelling to Lamuria in the first place. He may very well turn the tide of this war for us, Captain.”

“A boy! What can he possibly do against that?” Captain Waylon said pointing towards the Empire ship. Lusam raised his right hand in front of himself, and created a fireball in the palm of his hand the size of a man’s head. The Captain’s eyes went wide at the sight, and he took an involuntary step back in shock.

“Turn the ship Captain, and I’ll show you what I can do about that,” Lusam said nodding towards the enemy ship, which had now started to turn towards a parallel course, so it could fire more accurately at the Pelorus. The Captain seemed to be too shocked to move, and it wasn’t until Lusam had extinguished his fireball that he seemed to fully come back to himself.

He looked at Lusam for a moment, before shouting his new orders to his crew. “Helmsman, hard to port. Set an intercept course,” he bellowed.

“Captain?” came back a questioning call from his helmsman.

“Just do it. That’s an order!” Captain Waylon yelled.

“Aye, Captain. Hard to port,” came the helmsman’s reply.

“I hope you’re right,” Captain Waylon said to Renn, but remained staring at Lusam. Renn just smiled at the captain and nodded.

Lusam quickly made his way to the bow of the ship, with Neala, Alexia and Renn following close behind. The two ships were still about a mile apart, and the Pelorus was now heading straight for the Empire ship. Lusam slipped into his mage-sight and was shocked by what he saw. There were at least a hundred magi aboard the enemy vessel. Their collective aura burned like a crimson flame across the full width of the enemy vessel’s deck. He could easily pick out the most powerful mage aboard, and from what Renn had already told him about Empire hierarchy, deduced that he would most likely be their leader. He could clearly see the enemy lined up on the deck ready to fire at the Pelorus, waiting until they thought they could swifty destroy it.

“Renn, there must be at least a hundred men on board that ship,” Lusam said quietly.

Renn whistled. “That’s a lot of fire-power, lad, are you sure you can handle it?” he asked, noticing the number of auras himself, and sounding slightly concerned. Then the assault began. Lusam raised his shield to protect the Pelorus, but didn’t return fire. Lusam staggered slightly as over a thirty missiles impacted on his shield.

“Why don’t you fire back?” Neala asked, also sounding a little worried.

“There’s over a hundred men on board that ship,” Lusam repeated, as if that was an answer to any of their questions. He knew he could easily destroy the ship. But it wasn’t
just
a ship, it was a ship with over a hundred men aboard, and he didn’t know if he could kill all those men and live with his conscience afterwards. There was a slight pause in the assault after their initial volley. No doubt the Empire magi were trying to figure out why their missiles had been blocked, when there was apparently no mage aboard to stop them. That gave Lusam an idea. Maybe he could convince them to leave by revealing his true strength to them.

Lusam sent a single missile directly at the man he judged to be their leader. He didn’t intend for it to kill the man, only to shock him by its strength. He had judged how much power to put into the missile by the strength of the man’s aura—he hoped he hadn’t overestimated the man’s magical ability. At the same time Lusam loosed his missile, another volley erupted from the enemy vessel, this time all heading directly towards him. They had obviously seen him create his own missile, and now knew exactly who was responsible for shielding the ship. It actually made it easier for Lusam to defend against, as he could reduce the overall size of his shield due to the concentrated fire. Lusam took the impacts again, staggering at the increased power the magi had put behind them this time.