Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two, page 16
“Then, let's discuss how I would reach this basement of yours, and don't even consider lying to me, I can tell with my magic if you do,” Lusam lied again. The man was more than happy to give Lusam a detailed explanation of the house layout, even suggesting the number of guards that may still be on duty at this late hour. Once Lusam was happy he had all the information he needed, he placed a finger on the man's shoulder and extended his awareness into the man's body, instantly finding his meagre reserves of magic. It took only a moment to drain all but a very small amount of his magic reserves, leaving him with the bare minimum to survive. The man dropped like a sack of coal to the ground unconscious at Lusam's feet.
Lusam was surprised at how well his plan had worked. It seemed a very effective way to incapacitate someone without really harming them physically. But he didn't envy the man when he eventually awoke to what would be a stinker of a headache, like one he remembered all too well.
Lusam hoped his magic hadn't been detected by the Empire agents, but he needed to know for sure before he continued. He crept to the edge of the roof and carefully peered over to the street below. Three stories below him stood the same two Empire agents he'd seen from the alleyway not ten minutes earlier, neither of whom seemed the least bit interested in the building he was now standing on top of. As if to confirm his assumption, they both started to move away down the street in the same direction he had seen all the others travel, obviously to wherever their next patrol point was in the city.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Lusam moved back away from the edge of the building and began looking for a way into the guild-house. It didn't take him long to discover a hatch, but found it to be firmly locked from the inside. He placed his ear to the hatch and listened for movement or voices, but all was silent from the other side. He gripped the iron ring that formed the handle of the hatch and pulled gently. The hatch seemed to be held in place at a single point, most probably by a simple throw bolt or something similar.
Lusam had never tried to manipulate his force-field through a solid object before, so he had no idea if it would work or not. His only other choices were to blast through the door, which would make far too much noise, and could alert the Empire agents either with the sound or the sudden release of magic, so that was out of the question. Or he could burn his way through the hatch—or even the lock for that matter—but the smell of burning would likely alert everyone inside the building sending them all in search of a potential fire. So he was left with his first choice: use his force-field to manipulate the lock—if he could.
He knelt next to the hatch and formed a small sphere shaped force-field in his hand. He concentrated on pushing the force-field through the wooden hatch, but it was like trying to push any other solid object through it: impossible. He tried again, but this time he concentrated on forming the sphere on the other side of the hatch, and it seemed to work. He wasn't sure how this would help him though as he couldn't see what he was trying to manipulate at the other side of the hatch.
Several minutes passed while he tried various solutions, none of which seemed to have the desired effect, so then he came up with another idea. This time he created a sphere that allowed things to move freely from the outside in, but not allow anything that was already inside to pass back out again. Manipulating the sphere backwards and forwards it was only a matter of time before it snagged on the throw bolt, opening it with a resounding click.
Chapter Twenty Three
Lusam froze and listened for any movement or sound coming from the other side of the hatch, but heard nothing, so he carefully opened the hatch, revealing a pitch black hole below. He created a small dimly lit orb within the hatch entrance and revealed a sturdy looking ladder that lead down to the floor below. He carefully climbed down the ladder closing the hatch behind him, and found himself at the end of a long narrow corridor. The floor was a series of black and white squares the entire length of the corridor, reminding him of a board game his grandmother had often tried to teach him to play when he was much younger.
Keeping his light dimmed, he crept forward towards the end of the corridor, but he didn’t get far before he triggered a trap on the floor, which sent several darts shooting out of the side wall at his legs. Fortunately his shield stopped them mid-flight, and they fell harmlessly to the ground at his side. Looking down at them he recognised them as the same type of darts that had rendered Neala unconscious in Helveel. No doubt these too were poisoned in a similar manner, he thought to himself.
By the time he reached the end of the corridor, he had triggered another three similar traps. All no doubt meant as a first line of defence against any unwelcome intruders, or potential assassins who managed to enter via the roof hatch—as he had done. At the end of the corridor he came to a flight of stairs leading down to the first floor of the building. In stark contrast with the upper floor, the first floor was well lit with evenly spaced oil lanterns on the walls, and a thick red carpet on the floor running the full length of the corridor. Numerous wooden doors lined the corridor, but only two rooms showed any signs of light coming from under their doors, indicating most of the rooms were either empty, or their occupants were asleep, which suited Lusam just fine either way.
He moved quietly down the long corridor, only creaking two floorboards as he went, but it was enough to stir one of the room's occupants to stick his head out of his door to see who was passing by at this time of night. The instant Lusam heard the door opening, he spun around to face the potential threat, enveloping the man in a soundproof force-field. Quietly, he walked back towards where the man was standing, and then manipulated his force-field to carry the man back inside his room and away from the corridor. Once he was well inside the room, Lusam touched his arm and drained him of all but a tiny amount of his magic reserves. The man collapsed instantly, and Lusam gently lowered him to the ground using his force-field, before cancelling it completely and returning to the corridor, making sure to quietly close the door behind himself.
When he reached the top of next set of stairs, he stopped in his tracks. Standing at the bottom of the stairs—next to what must be the main entrance—he could see two large men guarding the door. They were chatting between themselves mostly, but occasionally they seemed to be directing their conversation to someone else out of sight. Three, or even more people to deal with at the same time would be a big problem so close to the front of the building. The amount of magic he would need to use to project three or more force-fields at the same time—and at such a distance apart—would certainly be detected by the Empire agents standing only a few paces away at the other side of the door.
He moved back away from the stairs to think of a way around it. It seemed the main problem wasn't the men at the bottom of the stairs, but the Empire agents outside. If he could time his attack to coincide with their absence from directly outside the building, he would stand a much better chance of succeeding without being discovered.
He quickly found a room likely to have a window that overlooked the street at the front of the building, and quietly opened the door. The room was thankfully unoccupied, and looked like some kind of storage area. Empty boxes and crates were strewn all over the floor, but no windows of any kind were to be seen. He closed the door gently and moved on to the next. This time he wasn't so lucky. The room had not one, but two occupants in it. Fortunately, they were rather occupied together, not even noticing his entrance, and he was easily able to enclose them both within the same soundproof force-field before either of them reacted to his presence. He neutralised both of them quickly, as he had done the others, then he went to the window.
Carefully, he peered around the edge of the curtain to the main street below. He watched as two Empire agents casually chatted between themselves, completely oblivious to his actions above. Good, he thought to himself, realising that maybe not all of these Empire agents were as powerful as he had been led to believe—although he had no desire to test that theory any time soon.
Ten minutes later they departed, heading in the same direction as the others had done previously. He knew he had less than ten minutes until the next group arrived to replace them. He moved swiftly to the door and listened for any movement outside, but nothing stirred. He opened the door and headed straight back to the staircase, finding the two large men in exactly the same place he had last seen them. He was still unable to see anyone else from where he stood, but felt sure there was at least one other person just out of sight to him.
From the top of the stairs he encased both of the large men in force-fields and moved swiftly down the staircase to their position. He ignored the two men and instead turned the corner to confront whoever else was out of sight, but to his surprise there was nobody there. Returning to the two large men guarding the door, he quickly neutralised both, smiling to himself at the ridiculously small power reserves both men contained. He wasn't sure what to do with the two large men. If he moved them into a side room they may be missed because they were no longer guarding the door. But if they were left where they were, and someone spotted them there, the alarm would be raised for sure.
Lusam opened the closest door and found it to be an office of some kind. He was about to conceal the men inside the office, when he spotted a tray with three decanters half full of brandy on a desk at the far end of the room. He quickly retrieved two of the decanters, emptying most of their contents back into the third, then returned to the two unconscious men in the hallway. He poured a small amount of brandy into each of their mouths, then splashed a little onto their faces and clothes, before placing an almost empty decanter in each of their hands. If anyone passed by they would assume they were merely unconscious through drink, and hopefully not raise the alarm.
The man on the roof had described the door that would lead to the cells, and it seemed his description had been very accurate, as Lusam found it exactly where he was told it would be. He opened the door and entered the room, before quietly closing it once again behind himself. He found himself standing in a well-lit room, which was obviously used as some kind of weapons storage. Weapons of all types lined the walls, even some strange implements that he guessed could only be used to torture people hung from the walls. Suddenly, a familiar sight grabbed his attention. On the far wall hung Neala's knife belt, containing all but one of her knives; the one he still had. He retrieved the belt and replaced the missing knife, then made his way to the far end of the room, where the door should lead to the cells.
He somehow expected the door to be locked, but it wasn't. When he opened it he was met with pitch-blackness beyond, and a stone staircase leading down into a basement of some kind. He created one of his light orbs and entered the darkness, closing the door quietly behind himself. Descending the staircase he couldn't help noticing the stench down there; it smelt almost as bad as the river outside Stelgad. When he reached the bottom of the staircase—and could see the room contained no guards—he called out quietly, “Neala … are you down here?” He heard some quiet rustling coming from one of the cells at the far end of the room, so he called once out again. “Neala … is that you?”
“Lusam … is that you?” Neala called back from the darkness.
“Yes, it's me. I've come to get you out of here,” Lusam replied, as he approached the cell he heard her voice originate from. He reached out to test the strength of cell door, but was grabbed through the bars by a very excited Neala. She hugged him so tightly, that she seemed almost intent on pulling him through the small gaps between the bars and into the cell with her.
“Oh, Lusam. I didn't think you'd come for me. I … I thought something terrible had happened to you in Helveel,” Neala said through tears of joy.
“How could I leave the girl I love?” Lusam said playfully, then almost jumped out of his skin when another voice spoke from the side of him.
“So, this is your lover-boy you've been telling me all about is it?”
“Yes it is, and you'd better be nice to him, or I'll have him leave you to rot in that cell of yours Alexia,” replied Neala, still squeezing the breath out of Lusam through the bars of her cell.
“Friend of yours?” Lusam asked, nodding his head towards Alexia.
“Yes, she's a good friend from my old guild. It's a long story, but now probably isn't the best time to tell it.”
“I agree. Any minute now we may be surrounded by Shiva's men, or worse still, Empire agents. Let's get you out of that cage. Stand back while I blast the lock,” Lusam said.
“Hey, lover-boy,” Alexia said in a mocking tone. Lusam turned to see her smiling and pointing at something behind him, then she added, “the keys are over there.”
“Be nice Alexia,” said Neala, quietly laughing along with her friend. Lusam grabbed the keys and quickly opened both cell doors, then handed Neala her knife belt.
“Oh, thanks Lusam. I was wondering what Skelly had done with that,” she said, taking the belt back and fastening it around her waist.
“Who's Skelly?” Lusam asked confused.
“Skelly is the man who brought me back here. The one I fought in Helveel.”
“Oh, I see,” Lusam said. “Do you know if there's another way out of this building, other than the two main doors?”
“I'm sure there is. All thieves' guilds have secret entrances, but they're only known to the highest ranking members within the guild usually. I have no idea where to look for one here, sorry,” Neala replied.
“Okay, then we may have a problem. Do you remember that strange man in black robes that followed us in Helveel?” asked Lusam.
“Yes, I do … but I've seen a lot more of them since leaving Helveel. They also did something creepy inside our heads when we first left Helveel, but after that they left us alone. They were even at the northern gate when I arrived here tonight, and also outside this building,” Neala replied.
“Yes, I know, I saw them myself. They seem to be everywhere, and they are all looking for me—to kill me. They can also read your mind, so I can't tell you how we plan to escape the city in case they learn it from you when we leave here. I'm sorry, you'll just have to trust me,” he said looking at Neala apologetically.
“It's fine, I understand,” Neala replied.
“Thanks Neala. One other thing I must ask of you. When we leave this room, no matter what happens, you must stay very close to me, both of you. And under no circumstances attack anyone. I can protect you both within my magical shield, but the further away from me that you are, the more power I must use to maintain it, and that could quite easily lead to us being discovered by the men we just spoke of. Hopefully, we can escape without anyone noticing us leaving,” Lusam said. Both Neala and Alexia nodded their agreement, then all three headed for the stairs leading back up into the main building, Lusam leading the way, and the other two very close behind him.
When they reached the door at the top of the staircase, Lusam listened once again for any sounds coming from the other side of the door, but heard nothing. Opening the door quietly, he stepped out into the well lit room with Neala close on his heels, and came face to face with over two dozen well armed men, who seemed to have been patiently waiting for them to re-emerge from the basement.
One of the men stepped forward and away from the main group of men. Lusam noticed four large men armed with crossbows take up positions behind him, ready to defend him against any sudden attacks they might make. Lusam guessed he must be their leader, or at least a high ranking member of the guild.
“I really don't know which one of you to kill first: the one who thinks he can enter my property, attack my men at will and somehow casually walk away again, or the fool who thinks she can steal my property, and live to brag about it by simply moving cities,” the man said menacingly. Lusam glanced behind himself to make sure Neala and Alexia were both still close enough to be within his shield's protection, but to his surprise Alexia was nowhere to be seen. The man saw Lusam look behind himself and laughed out-loud.
“You have nowhere to run boy!”
“Never crossed my mind,” Lusam replied calmly. “I suggest you let us pass. Unless you want to suffer the same fate as your other men.” The man's face turned scarlet with rage.
“Well, it looks like you just volunteered to be first boy.”
“So, I guess you're Shiva, the murdering sack-of-bile that killed my friends,” Neala said vehemently, emerging from behind Lusam to stand at his side.
“Yes, I'm Shiva. And yes, I killed them all, like I’m about to kill you. Most of them screamed and begged for mercy as I slowly tortured them to death, but rest assured, your deaths will be far more unpleasant,” Shiva said through gritted teeth.
Neala noticed Skelly enter the room from the far doorway. He started pushing his way to the front of the crowd, and all the men made way for him without complaint.
“In that case, as the highest surviving member of the Crows' guild, I invoke my right to blood vengeance. I challenge you to single combat … to the death,” Neala said loud enough for all in the room to hear.
“What?” Lusam exclaimed, looking sharply at Neala. Shiva burst out laughing, closely followed by all his men, except Skelly, who stood silently watching the proceedings unfold.
“There are no living Crows' guild members left, girl. Which means there's no longer a Crows' guild for you to lead, so your claim for blood vengeance is meaningless. They're all dead apart from you, and I plan to rectify that small oversight right now,” Shiva said, bringing forth another round of laughter from his men behind him.
Chapter Twenty Four
“That's not true,” Alexia said loudly, emerging from the shadows within the basement doorway.
Shiva turned to one of his men and asked, “Why does she still draw breath? I told you to kill her.” The man visibly paled at the question, obviously aware of what his failure would mean to his future well-being. He seemed to be trying to form some kind of reply, but never had the chance to voice it before Alexia once again regained everyone’s attention.
