Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two (12 page)

“Even stranger is the fact that it was a
Vesdari
that attacked you. Even if they still freely roamed our world, which they don't, it should have attacked me not you. They feed solely on magic, and my shield was by far the largest source of magic around, it should have been attracted to me like a magnet, but it attacked you instead. Were you using any magic when it attacked you, maybe a magical shield?”

“No, nothing. I did think about using my shield constantly after being attacked in Helveel, to avoid any further surprise attacks, but it uses up energy just like any
other activity, so running all day while maintaining a shield isn't really feasible, or I would be completely exhausted before the end of each day,” Lusam replied.
“That's what I thought, so there was no reason why it should have attacked you first like it did.
Vesdari
can not survive long in our world, they feed voraciously on magic, and even if it's not available in large amounts, they would still feed on the small amounts of magic within the trees and animals, even the soil under our feet contains life, and therefore magic. If somehow that
Vesdari
had been a remnant of the great war, it would have consumed enough magic to reach its capacity and exploded centuries ago.

“I've been thinking about this all morning, and there's only one explanation that makes any kind of sense whatsoever,” Renn said.

“What's that?” Lusam asked, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer to his question.

“It was summoned from the Netherworld, and instructed to find and kill you,” Renn stated.

“Summoned?...how?...by whom?..” Lusam stammered.

“By whom, I don't know, but what I do know is this; he or she is very powerful, and within this forest, possibly very near to us as we speak. It takes a powerful dark-mage to summon any creature from the Netherworld, but to summon
and control a
Vesdari
, and in daylight hours, well, let's just say we don't want to be bumping into him, or her any time soon.”
“What makes you think whoever summoned it might be nearby?” Lusam asked, dreading the answer.

“The weakest point between our world and the Netherworld is the place where the rift was formed during the great war. It makes sense that whoever summoned that creature would only attempt doing so, if he, or she were close enough to the rift to make it as easy as possible. Anyone trying to force a creature from the Netherworld to enter our world in daylight, and then control it, would need to be at the weakest point between our worlds, to even stand a chance of succeeding. Although I've never been to the exact location of where the rift was formed, I do know it's not far from our current location, maybe a day behind us, if that.”

“If that's true, and we've just wasted half a day here while I was still unconscious, whoever is chasing us could be less than a day behind us right now.” Lusam said with concern in his voice. Renn nodded his head slowly, still deep in thought.

“Then we should leave right now,” Lusam said standing up too quickly, and finding himself back on the floor before he could stop himself from collapsing.

“Agreed,” said Renn, “but I doubt very much you'll be capable of running any time soon by the looks of you lad,” he said offering Lusam a hand up.

“Maybe you're right, but I'm sure I could manage to walk for a while, at least it might stop whoever is chasing us closing the gap too much.” Lusam said, still a little shaky on his feet.

“Hmm, you're probably right, we should keep moving if you're able to, but don't over-tax yourself, we need you back to full strength as soon as possible if we're to stay ahead of whoever is following us,” Renn replied.

“OK,” Lusam agreed.

Renn collected some of the fruit and nuts that were left over, then picked up his sword and other belongings ready to leave the camp. He had fully intended to leave his broken shield where is was, but at the last second he realised he couldn't leave it behind, so he strapped it onto his back where it had lived for as long as he could remember, and with a sigh, he started walking once again in a southerly direction, this time with Lusam clearly in plain sight.

Chapter Thirteen

For the rest of the afternoon progress was painfully slow through the dense forest, but at least they were moving in the right direction Lusam thought to himself, and not just resting back at their camp, wasting time. He desperately wanted to use his magic on Neala's knife again, to see how much further along the road she had travelled since the last time he had checked, but just thinking about using magic made him feel nauseous right now.

An hour later they emerged into a small clearing. It was beautifully bathed in the late afternoon sunlight, as it streamed in through the opening in the tree canopy above, but it wasn't the sunlight that immediately grabbed their attention. Lying almost in the centre of the clearing was a huge grey dire wolf, and it appeared to be badly injured. One of its front legs was obviously broken, and it had several large open wounds, easily visible from where they stood, some still bleeding freely. When the dire wolf saw them
enter the clearing it snarled menacingly in their direction, attempting, but failing to stand up.
It continued to expose its huge sharp canines and snarl at them threateningly as they stood there looking at the stricken animal.

“We can't cross that clearing safely, we'll have to go around it,” Renn said.

“What?...We can't just leave it here to die!” Lusam said. “It will be dark in little more than an hour, if we leave it here, it will be killed for sure.”

“There's nothing we can do, it's dead anyway with all those injuries, at least it won't suffer long after sunset,” Renn replied, maintaining eye contact with the dire wolf.

“Maybe I can help it. I probably can't fully heal it right now, but at least I could try to fix its leg, and stop the bleeding, possibly give it a fighting chance to survive the night.”

“Don't be a fool lad, it would tear you to pieces if you go anywhere near it, not to mention you can barely walk, let alone run away from it if you needed to.”

Lusam turned to face Renn, and with a tone of finality in his voice calmly said, “I'm not leaving it here to be killed by those creatures.” He turned back to face the dire wolf and used his magic to try and pacify it, offering it a sense of safety and comfort, while cautiously approaching it.

“Don't do it lad, it'll kill you,” Renn said desperately, removing his sword and getting ready to attack the wolf. Lusam raised his hand, indicating for Renn to stay where he was, and continued to slowly approach the wolf. It had stopped its aggressive behaviour towards them both, and now lay very still, watching Lusam as he approached it. Lusam was still weakened from the previous night, and he wasn't sure he had made the right decision to try and help the dire wolf, but deep down inside himself, he knew not trying, was also the wrong thing to do.

He carefully knelt at the dire wolf's side, and placed his hand flat on its back. He first blocked the pain the dire wolf was feeling, noticing it visibly relax as he did so, then he focused on its broken leg. He gingerly reached out towards the dire wolf's leg, suddenly hoping he hadn't misjudged his own abilities at pacifying such a magnificent, and dangerous beast. He carefully re-set the bone straight in its leg, then began to fuse the bones back together magically. Once he had fixed the dire wolf's leg he turned his attention to its other injuries, and the extent of what he found shocked him. Instantly he knew he couldn't complete his task with his depleted magic reserves, because the damage was far too extensive. If he tried, he would most certainly blackout during the healing process before it was completed, and once he was unconscious, the dire wolf would no longer be calmed by his magic, likely making him its next easy
meal.
Lusam badly wanted to help the dire wolf, but not at the cost of letting their pursuers close the gap between them. If he over exerted himself using his magic again, and needed more time to recover, it could cost them their lives, and ultimately Neala's too. No matter how much he wanted to save the dire wolf's life, he wanted to save Neala's more. He decided he wouldn't risk it, he would do as much as he could safely, then use some of the wolf's own magical energy to heal it. Whatever wasn't fully healed after that, the dire wolf would have to heal naturally.

He started to heal the worst of the dire wolf's life threatening internal injuries, then moved on to the most severe external ones. It wasn't long before he felt the inevitable feelings associated with the over-use of his magic, so he immediately stopped using his own power, and started to tap into the dire wolf's own reserves. It only took him moments to locate the barrier that contained the dire wolf's magic reserves, but strangely he found himself unable to penetrate the barrier like he had done before with Lucy. Initially he thought the problem was being caused by his own lack of power, but soon he realised that something was actively blocking his attempts to access it. He probed with his mind for a weakness in the barrier, and when he found one, he broke through to the magic beyond. He only remained behind the barrier for less than a heartbeat, before
he was mentally ejected by an immense force, which sent him sprawling across the ground.
In the fraction of a second he had been in direct contact with the dire wolf's magic reserves, he had been completely overwhelmed by the sheer immensity of it. Never before had he ever imagined such power could even exist, and yet he had just seen it within a dire wolf of all things. The next few moments unfolded before him in what seemed like slow motion. The dire wolf swiftly regained its feet, and started to approach him. He realised at that moment he was no longer using his magic to pacify it, so he quickly tried to reassure the dire wolf again, but it just kept coming, seemingly unaffected.

Renn had seen the events unfolding from his vantage point at the edge of the clearing, and started to run at the dire wolf with his sword held high, intending to end the threat to Lusam's life. As he got within striking distance, the dire wolf turned its huge head to look at Renn, then it seemed to rear up on its hind legs, making it taller than any man. Renn began to bring his sword down to strike the dire wolf dead, but before he made contact, there was a blinding flash.

Where the dire wolf had been just a moment earlier, now stood a beautiful woman with long silver hair that flowed over her shoulders, and down her back. Hair that
seemed to blow freely in a breeze that did not exist.
The woman had caught Renn's sword with her bare hand, as it cleaved through the air towards her head, stopping it dead, without so much as a scratch to show for it. Renn tried to pull his sword free from her grip, but the sword didn't even move. The woman smiled approvingly at Renn, then released her grip of his sword.

“You have nothing to fear Renn, I am no threat to Lusam,” she said, in the most beautiful voice Lusam had ever heard in his life.

“Who are you? How do you know our names?” Renn asked, positioning himself between the woman and Lusam.

“You already know who I am Renn, search your heart for the truth, my faithful paladin,” she replied in her beautiful voice. Sudden realization hit Renn, he gasped out-loud, immediately falling to his knees, and bowing his head before his God.

“Aysha!.. Please, I beg your forgiveness for striking you like that, I.....”

“There is nothing to forgive Renn, you were merely doing your duty, trying to protect Lusam from any harm, and for that I am very grateful to you,” Aysha replied, turning to Lusam and smiling at him.

“Lusam, I am sorry I had to deceive you like that, but I had to know for sure the extent of your powers before
revealing myself to you.
You have a very special and powerful gift Lusam, but, it is also a very dangerous one, especially if your secret is discovered too soon, and by the wrong people. Your destiny was written long ago in the stars Lusam, but by no means is it certain that you will achieve it.”

Lusam was completely stunned by what was happening right in front of him, and by the incredible revelation Aysha had just revealed to him. How could he possibly be important enough for Aysha to take notice of him?

“What destiny?” Lusam managed to ask, his mind still reeling.

“That, I'm afraid I can not tell you. I am bound by a very old oath not to interfere with certain human affairs, and thus, I can no longer divulge information of that nature, or physically help you in any way during your long journey,” Aysha said with sadness evident in her voice.

“But....haven't you already helped by saving us from the Netherworld creatures? Renn told me about a large grey dire wolf that visited our camp, and led away a large number of the creatures. I'm guessing that was you, or am I wrong?” Lusam asked, hoping he hadn't overstepped his boundaries.

Aysha smiled down on him, and after a moment she replied, “You are correct Lusam, I did visit the camp you were in, but I came only in answer to my faithful paladin’s
prayers.
I have more.... leverage, when it comes to my paladins and priests welfare.”

Renn remained on his knees, head bowed before Aysha, completely overawed by her presence, here, before him. As far as he knew, Aysha had only ever appeared before her own high priest, or priestess in the High Temple, and even then only on very rare occasions. He had never heard of any account when a paladin had seen Aysha with their own eyes, and he felt so humbled and grateful to be chosen as the first, he could hardly think clearly.