Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two

LUSAM II

THE DRAGON-MAGE WARS

Book Two

by

Dean Cadman

(c)2015

Chapter One

The three dark agents of Aamon approached the battle scene from various directions. Each had sensed the huge spike of magic used there by someone only minutes earlier, swiftly followed by the unmistakable pulse from the death of a powerful mage. Helveel had been suspected for many months as the possible location of a rogue mage: one who  had somehow slipped through the Empire's nets, and managed to evade its agents ever since. The agent who had been sent to Helveel to check the city had confirmed that a mage was in fact living in Helveel. He had reported witnessing the residual effects of magic on, and around a corpse several months ago in a back street in west Helveel. Unfortunately when his report had first been delivered to the Empire it had been accidentally overlooked, and then forgotten about for several months, until being rediscovered recently by a keen eyed young mage named Grice. In his report to the Empire he had claimed that a massive amount of magical force had been used to kill the man in question. However he had yet been unable to locate the mage
responsible for the act.
All living things contained magic, even some inanimate objects contained power to varying degrees. Anyone capable of even the smallest amounts of magic were able to see the magical potential in others by the strength of their aura. The intensity of a person's aura is a direct indication of their magical potential. Having a powerful aura however does not immediately make that person a powerful mage, that takes years of training and practice, and not all survive the process.

When the report of this rogue mage was first received by the Empire, it caused a huge amount of confusion and concern within its ranks. Confusion at how, when and where this young mage had been trained so quickly, and without the knowledge of the Empire. Then concern quickly grew as rumours began to circulate of potential hidden training facilities, ones that were unknown to the Empire, and also that Afaraon had  somehow discovered the Empire's secret plot to exterminate all magic from within its lands. Even worse for the Empire, it had been suggested that Afaraon had developed a means of somehow hiding the aura of a mage, and that must be the reason this rogue mage could not be found in the city of Helveel by one of their best agents.

The leader of the Thule Empire, Lord Zelroth had
killed dozens of his own followers in a sudden fit of rage after discovering the news of the misplaced report, and the possibility that his plans for Afaraon may now fail, even after over two centuries of preparation.
For more than two hundred years, Lord Zelroth's agents had been systematically killing all newborns in Afaraon who were capable of wielding any kind of magic. The time was fast approaching when he had planned for his forces to attack the High Temple of Aysha, and crush it completely. With no magi to defend its walls, it would fall quickly. As far as he knew only a few old priests remained inside its walls, and they were no match for him, or his army. Soon the temple and all the treasures within  would be his, and all of Afaraon would bow down to him, or die.

After learning the information contained within the report, Lord Zelroth sent dozens of his best agents to intercept the rogue mage in Helveel. Their task was to kill him, but first to learn the truth about how and where he had been trained, and then put an end to any resistance Afaraon may be attempting to muster, before it had a chance to swing the balance of power in their favour. All roads in and out of Helveel were to be constantly monitored in case the rogue mage tried to leave the city. Once the remaining agents were inside the city walls, they would comb the city from one side to the other in search of the rogue mage. There would be no escape for him this time.

The three agents of Aamon viewed the battle scene together. In the centre of the small cobbled street one man lay dead on the floor with a fatal chest wound. More disturbing however was the body of their colleague, smashed beyond recognition and slumped against the wall at the far end of the street. Only a few minutes earlier the agent had reported capturing a young boy capable of using magic, and now he lay dead before them. Viewing the scene using their mage-sight it became even more shocking. The amount of magical residue in the area was quite staggering. Never had any of them witnessed such power used in a single place before. Using so much power that fast could have killed any of the men standing there, and they all knew it.

All three men wore the long black robes of their order, and all three openly wore the sigil of Aamon distinguishing them as necromancers of their faith. Most followers of Aamon chose the path of necromancy over other forms of magic. It was the preferred dark art of their leader Lord Zelroth, and of their God Aamon. One of the three men wore a second chain made of silver which had a small skull pendant attached at the bottom, just visible below his sigil of Aamon. This symbol signified he was a higher ranked mage within their order, and therefore more powerful than the other two men now accompanying him. This agent's name was Zedd, and he recognised he was the highest rank
to have arrived at the scene, and set about trying to decipher exactly what had led to the death of his colleague.
“See if you can raise him, so he can tell us what happened here,” he said to one of the other two men, pointing to the dead agent. The man immediately obeyed and set about trying to re-animate his fallen colleague, while Zedd looked more closely at the scene before him.

“Sire,” said the necromancer attempting to re-animate his colleague, “I can't raise him. The damage is too great, or maybe the amount of magical residue is interfering with my spell, I can not tell which.”

Zedd nodded in reply and walked over to the body of the other man, who had obviously been stabbed in the chest. He started to chant a spell over and over, getting slightly louder with each recital, until he noticed a slight twitching of the dead man's fingers.

“STAND!” commanded Zedd, and the corpse obeyed. “Are you able to speak?” asked Zedd. It wasn't always possible for the dead to communicate after being re-animated, it depended how long they had been dead, and what injuries they had sustained to cause their death in the first place. This cadaver however looked quite fresh and in good condition, so he fully expected it to be able to communicate with him.

“Yes master...,” it replied instantly.

“Tell me how the man in the black robes died?” Zedd asked, pointing towards his fallen colleague.

“I do not know master,” it replied. Zedd knew it was impossible for it to lie to him, so he guessed this man must have died before his colleague had.

“Tell me what happened here before you died,” Zedd asked, annoyed at the fact he would more than likely never know the full story now.

“We were following a girl, my boss wanted us to capture and take her back to Stelgad. I stabbed her friend in the stomach and she killed me,” it said calmly. Zedd had already noticed another bloodstained dagger on the floor when he had first arrived, now the scene started to make a little more sense to him. He walked over and retrieved the dagger before returning  to the re-animated dead man.

“Is this the dagger you used to stab the friend of the girl?”

“Yes master,” it said looking at the dagger in Zedd's hand.

“Was it a boy that you stabbed with this dagger?” asked Zedd, almost certain he knew the answer to the question already.

“Yes master. I killed him with it,” replied the corpse.

“Apparently not,” he said, still inspecting the knife. He spoke a single word, and the body of the man collapsed into a heap on the floor and didn't move again. Zedd stood there thinking about what he had just learned and started putting all the pieces together in his mind. Either the boy was dead, or he had survived and was now trying to rescue the girl he had been with. He now knew they were heading for Stelgad, so if the boy had survived, and he tried to follow them he would be caught on the road for sure. Zedd mentally kicked himself for not asking the corpse how many men had been with him, he couldn't re-animate the corpse a second time, nobody could, it only worked the one time.

It didn't matter, one or one hundred, the outcome would be the same Zedd thought to himself. He didn't care about the girl or her captors, but he did need to know what had happened to the boy. Was he now slumped in a doorway or alley somewhere  bleeding out, or dead? Or did he have the ability to heal himself, and had he already left the area? Healing magic was difficult to learn, and took many years of training to achieve. Looking back at his fallen comrade, and knowing the approximate age of the boy from the recent report he had sent before his demise, it seemed impossible that he could have learned both offensive and healing magic in such a short time.

Zedd carefully touched the blood still on the blade,
and rubbing it between his fore-finger and thumb was pleased to see it was still fresh; it would be easier to track the owner of fresh blood, providing of course, he was still alive.
Zedd placed the dagger on the floor in front of him and took a step back. He started to chant another spell and the dagger began to turn slowly in circles. The dagger gained more and more speed, until it was no longer possible to see it was actually a dagger at all. Zedd released the final word of his spell, and the dagger stopped dead, pointing South. It only took Zedd a moment to realise the implications of where the dagger now pointed.

“The boy still lives. He is trying to reach Stelgad to rescue his friend, but he has chosen to go through the southern forest to save time. We must follow him so we don’t lose track of him again,” Zedd said loud enough for the other two men to hear. Both men visibly paled at the news. Neither would willingly enter so deep into the southern forest, knowing the stories of the creatures said to inhabit the place.

“Sire, if the boy entered the forest it's certain he won't return,” one of the men stated. If there was one thing Zedd hated more than anything it was a coward. The man had sealed his own fate speaking out like that.

Zedd turned to the man who had remained silent
and said, “You will gather our forces here in Helveel, inform them of the situation, and then have them head towards Stelgad with all possible speed.
If he does make it through the forest the Empire will be waiting for him. Let them know we are dealing with a powerful mage, and not to take any chances.”

“Yes sire,” replied the man looking somewhat relieved he didn't have to enter the forest.

“You're with me, let's go!” Zedd informed the pale looking necromancer still standing in front of him. Zedd recovered the dagger from the floor, and placed it safely in a leather pouch for later use. Then he turned and started running towards the southern forest, with a less than willing companion following close behind.

Chapter Two

After thirty minutes of constant running Lusam finally gained his second wind. He was very surprised at the fitness level of this older man, fully expecting him to lag behind long before now.  Lusam noticed how easily he set the fast pace, even wearing his heavy shield and sword; he never seemed to tire.

Lusam had been wondering for a while just how Renn knew where he was going. The forest was quite dense and looked the same no matter which direction they travelled. Feeling confident he could speak now while running he asked, “How do you know which way to go?”