by Dean Cadman
She followed the spy from a safe distance, moving from rooftop to rooftop, and shadow to shadow as she went. She felt confident that he would be returning to the barracks to report his findings, and if that was the case, it would be a perfect opportunity for her to discover how many of them there were.
A few minutes later her suspicions were proved right, as she hunkered down in the shadow of a large chimney directly opposite the barracks. She watched as the man purposely avoided even touching the roof of their barracks, and instead, took a much longer route across several other buildings to reach the far side of the street. Obviously he didn’t intend to give away his presence by being heard on the roof of the barracks by anyone inside.
The man eventually came to a stop on a flat roofed building directly across the street from the barracks, and was swiftly greeted by another man waiting in the shadows there. Neala couldn’t believe they could make such a basic fundamental mistake in choosing their vantage point. If she had been feeling kind, at best she would have described it as amateurish, but many other, more appropriate words sprung to mind. They may have had a perfect view of anyone entering or leaving via the front door, but more than half of the building was hidden to them. Anyone could enter or leave the barracks through one of the many rear or side windows without even being seen.
Neala watched the two men for the best part of an hour, before she decided no one else was likely to join them. She wondered if they really were so stupid as to leave the rear and one side of the building unwatched, and decided now was as good a time as any to check. Staying in the heaviest shadows, she made her way slowly around the back of the barracks, checking each and every rooftop as she went for any signs of life, but she found none. She smiled to herself, realising just how easy they had made it for her to study both them, and their movements.
Neala was fairly certain there would be a daytime changeover for the two men she had seen. Tomorrow she would start her observations of them. She would discover what time they changed shifts, where they went afterwards, where they lived, and most importantly, what they did before arriving there. She knew that all people were creatures of habit, and if she could find one of theirs, she could maybe exploit it to her own advantage. For now though, she would visit the town fountain and wash her hands and face clean of the ash, then return in full view of them to the barracks and inform Lusam of what she had found.
Chapter Eleven
Neala casually approached the barracks in plain sight of the King’s spies. She was tired from her evening’s exploits and looked forward to the simple comforts of her bed. She hadn’t realised just how out of shape she had become lately, with her new soft and comfortable lifestyle in Lamuria. She had found climbing onto and over the roofs much more taxing than she could ever have imagined she would. Her muscles would be sore in the morning, but regardless, she still looked forward to employing her skills as a thief once again tomorrow. It had been far too long for her liking.
As Neala got closer to the barracks, she began to hear noises coming from inside the building. It sounded like muffled voices at first, but it grew even louder as she approached the front door. She recognised the voice as Lusam’s, but couldn’t tell what he was saying, or who he was speaking to. It sounded too loud and aggressive to be a normal friendly conversation with someone he knew. She desperately wanted to turn around and see if the King’s spies were still on the flat roof behind her, but if she did, they would know she had already discovered them.
Initially she wasn’t too worried about Lusam’s safety, knowing that he could easily look after himself using his magic, but when she heard him cry out, and then something thud onto the wooden floor, all that changed in an instant. She flung the front door wide open, whilst retrieving two of her throwing knives from her belt, then sprinted the length of the hallway to their bedroom. Just before she reached the bedroom door, another blood-curdling scream of pain turned her blood to ice. She burst through the door, knives at the ready for anyone inside, then stopped dead in her tracks at what she saw.
Apart from Lusam, the room was empty.
Lusam was lying on the bed, thrashing his arms and legs around as if trying to fight off some unseen enemy. He whimpered, then cried out in pain, before stringing several unintelligible words together, as people often do during vivid dreams. Instantly, Neala recognised what was happening: Lusam was having another one of his dragon nightmares. They had both hoped that he had been cured of his affliction, but now that seemed like a fanciful hope, as she watched him wildly thrash around on the bed.
Sweat streaked down his contorted face, wetting the pillow beneath his head. His bare—sweat-bathed—chest rose and fell rapidly with every breath he took. His arms and legs either twitched, or struck out against an unseen enemy. And all Neala could do, was watch.
She couldn’t understand why the dragon nightmares had returned. Lusam had slept for almost two days straight without having an episode, and now he was back in the grip of the dragon once more.
At first, Neala wondered if it had been a side effect of the Nodding Silk-weed, then she discounted that as very unlikely. Not only had Lusam removed the toxins from his own body, the effects of the drug had already begun to wear off even before he’d fallen asleep. If, as Lusam described it, the dragon had been actively searching for him within his dreams, surely it would have found him within those two days of solid sleep. ‘No, it must be something else,’ she thought to herself, racking her brain for an answer. ‘Something must have been different during the time he’d slept soundly, but what?’
The answer struck her like a bolt of lightning: Lusam’s amulet!
It had all started after he had inadvertently made contact with his mother using that amulet. And when she had gone into his bedroom two days before, expecting him to be in the midst of another nightmare, she had found his amulet on the floor beside his bed. He had been sleeping peacefully when she found him, and he continued to sleep that way for almost another two days. It seemed so obvious to her now. ‘Why didn’t I see it before?’ she scolded herself.
Neala ran to Lusam’s side, reached down, and grabbed the amulet. One quick tug, and it was free of his neck. Lusam’s eyes snapped open, as he sat bolt upright on the bed gasping for breath.
“It’s okay… it’s okay,” Neala reassured him, bending down to hug him tightly. She could feel him trembling in her arms, as he struggled to catch his breath.
His mind whirled as he tried to make sense of what had just happened to him. One moment he was being tormented by the dragon, and the next he was awake in Neala’s arms. He could still hear the roar of frustration and anger that the dragon had given, as he somehow slipped away from its iron grip to resurface in the real world. He knew it had not finished torturing him, yet he had somehow managed to escape its grasp.
“How?” he gasped between ragged breaths, not expecting Neala to understand what he really meant. But she answered him all the same.
“I woke you from your nightmare,” she replied hugging him tightly. Lusam’s mind reeled at her words. He knew she had never been able to wake him before, no matter what she had tried. But before he could ask her how, she broke their embrace and spoke again. “I know what causes your nightmares now, Lusam,” she said, looking into his eyes. He almost feared to ask what, just in case it was something he could never fix. She lifted a closed hand towards him, then opened it to reveal his mother’s amulet.
“This,” she said, offering him the amulet.
Lusam stared at the amulet, terrified to reach out for it, just in case the dragon somehow managed to take hold of him again.
“But, how did you know?” Lusam asked, still staring at the amulet.
“When I came home tonight and saw that you were having another one of your nightmares, I tried to think of what had been different the last time you slept soundly. Then I realised, you weren’t wearing your amulet before. I remembered finding it on the floor next to your bed, and putting it on the bedside table. So when I was
trying to work out what was different tonight, and I saw it around your neck, it all began to make perfect sense to me. Think about it, your nightmares only started after you contacted your mother using the amulet. I don’t know why we never thought of it before. All I did was remove the amulet, and you woke up instantly,” Neala replied.
As Neala’s words began to sink in, Lusam felt a wave of relief wash over him. If she was correct, he would no longer have to endure the nightmares. He looked at the innocuous looking amulet in her hand, and couldn’t believe it had been responsible for what he had gone through over the previous few weeks. He reached out gingerly to take it from her, and flinched as his fingers made contact with it. But nothing happened.
“I think you’re perfectly safe, as long as you remember to take it off before you go to sleep,” Neala said, grinning at his reaction. Lusam laughed mirthlessly.
“You can count on that! To be honest, I’m not even sure I want to put it back on at all,” he said, putting the amulet down on his bedside table. Neala nodded, understanding his reluctance to wear the amulet again—even during the daytime—now that he knew it was the cause of his nightmares. A cool draft suddenly brushed against her legs, reminding her that she had left the front door wide open.
“So, how did it go out there?” Lusam asked. Neala placed a single finger to her lips, indicating that he should say no more, then went to close the front door. She didn’t really expect to find anyone inside the building, but she checked the other rooms just to be on the safe side, before returning to Lusam.
“Problem?” Lusam asked, sounding a little concerned.
Neala shook her head. “No, not really. I just thought we could use a little privacy,” she said, looking up towards the roof and emphasising the last word of her sentence. Lusam knew exactly what she meant, and immediately raised a magical soundproof barrier around them, so they could speak freely without being overheard by anyone else.
“I take it you found someone out there then?” Lusam asked.
“Yeah, I did. But before I tell you what happened, can you use your mage-sight to check the roof of this building?” Neala asked.
Lusam nodded. “I’ve already been doing that for a while, but I haven’t seen anyone up there.”
“No, I don’t suppose you have,” Neala replied thoughtfully. She knew that Lusam could see through solid objects, like walls and stone pillars, because of his demonstration back in Helveel. His improved mage-sight had allowed him to see through several solid stone walls in Mr Daffer’s basement, but she wondered just how much further he could see now, since reading the Guardian book in Lamuria.
Neala orientated herself towards the building outside where she had last seen the two spies. She pointed towards it, and said, “There’s a building on the opposite side of the street in that direction. If your mage-sight stretches that far, you might see two men on its flat roof.”
Lusam slipped into his mage-sight and looked in the direction Neala was pointing. It wasn’t difficult at all for him to see through the wall of their room, or the exterior wall of the barracks. It was a strange way of seeing things though. It was almost like having two slightly dirty pieces of glass in the way of what he was looking at. He saw the auras of the two men almost instantly on the flat roof opposite, but actually seeing the men was far more difficult. His eyes were adjusted for the light within the room, but the men where hidden in the deep shadows of night outside.
“Yeah, I can see two men on the roof,” Lusam confirmed. “But I can’t see their faces, it’s too dark out there.”
“As long as you can see if they are there, or not, that’s the important thing,” Neala said, smiling at the massive advantage they now held over the two men outside.
The next morning they both visited the mess hall for breakfast as they had done each day since arriving at the barracks. They had discussed Neala’s spy observations well into the previous night, and formulated a plan between themselves for the coming days. They would continue to visit the mess hall each morning for breakfast. This would allow the King’s spies to confirm their location each morning, and give a sense of normality to their movements. After they had eaten, they would both return to the barracks, where Lusam would confirm the location of the two spies with his mage-sight, as well as check for any others in the area. Once he had confirmed their location, he would leave for the High Temple under the guise of searching for a cure to his nightmares. Neala would then sneak out through one of the rear windows, and start her own observations of the spies outside.
Although Neala had voiced her regret at not being able to visit Mr Daffer and Lucy with him, Lusam knew she was more than happy to remain behind and employ her old skills once again. She had taken a few of their remaining gold coins to buy a new outfit to disguise herself. Hopefully it would allow her to get much closer to the two spies if she needed to. She would watch for any patterns in their behaviour, especially ones that she could exploit when the time came to leave Lamuria. In the meantime, Lusam would use the pedestal inside the Guardian book room to travel to Helveel each day, and collect gold from the river there.
One problem which Lusam would face, was what he would tell Mr Daffer and Lucy when he arrived at the book shop. He hated the thought of having to lie to them, but neither could he tell them the truth. They would, of course, assume that he had travelled there by road. But he would need a cover story for what he was doing in Helveel, and why he was there without Neala.
There were eleven days left before his statue unveiling ceremony at the High Temple, and he needed to use each and every one of those days to collect gold for the Nauroe. He knew that Mr Daffer and Lucy would never allow him to stay anywhere else in Helveel, other than with them. He just hoped he could convince them to allow him to stay in their basement again, instead of insisting that he used one of their guest rooms upstairs. He would, of course, be returning to Lamuria each night and not staying in Helveel at all, but that would be far easier with free access to the Guardian book room in the basement.
They soon finished their breakfast and headed back towards the barracks. It was very tempting to glance in the direction of the spies, but neither of them did. Instead, they discussed irrelevances between themselves, such as the weather, and what they intended to wear to the unveiling ceremony.
As soon as they closed the door behind them, they began to set their plans in motion. Lusam quickly confirmed the location of the two spies outside with his mage-sight, and checked for any others around the barracks. When he was confident that there were only the two spies watching the barracks, he gave Neala a kiss goodbye, and set off towards the High Temple. Neala stood at the front door in plain sight and waved him off, knowing the spies would not dare move until she left. When Lusam disappeared from sight, she went back inside and locked the door behind her. She then raced through the barracks to one of the rear windows, where she quickly exited the building, and began her own spying mission.
When Lusam arrived at the High Temple, he noticed a large group of men inside the main chamber. They seemed to be setting up some kind of elaborate pulley system to move one of the statues. He watched them work with a genuine interest in what they were doing. It was incredible to think that anyone could move such an immensely heavy object without magic. He wondered if the people who had originally constructed the High Temple had employed similar techniques, or if it had solely been done by the use of magic.
At first he thought the men were trying to remove the statue entirely, which made him instantly feel guilty. The last thing he would ever have wanted, was for a statue of himself, to replace that of someone else. But as he watched the men work, he realised what they were doing: they were moving the statues to create more space. No doubt for his own to occupy. The movement was painfully slow, as one man greased an area of the floor, and the other men tugged on the ropes of the pulleys. Each strenuous pull of the ropes, moved the immense statue no more than the width of a blade of grass.
As Lusam watched them work,
he began to realise that they couldn’t simply move one of the statues, they had to move all of them along that particular wall. If they didn’t, not only would they fail to gain the space which they required, but the gaps between the statues would no longer be equal. The amount of work involved shocked Lusam. At the speed which they were able to move them, it was quite possible that they would not be able to finish in time for the unveiling ceremony. And the last thing Lusam needed, was even more delays.
During one of their brief rest periods, whilst they caught their breath again, one of the men noticed Lusam watching them work. He made eye contact with Lusam and bobbed his head, no doubt recognising who he was. It was difficult for Lusam to go anywhere in Lamuria and not be recognised now. Lusam didn’t want to seem unfriendly, so he nodded back and smiled at the man. He didn’t want to interfere with their work, but was curious about a few things, so he approached the group of men. The man who had acknowledged him gained the attention of another man, and pointed out Lusam’s approach to him. Judging by the look on his face, he too recognised Lusam.
By the time Lusam had reached the men—apart from a teenage boy, who was still greasing the floor next to the statue—they had all focussed their attention on him.
“Hello,” Lusam said in a friendly voice. Only one man replied, the rest simply nodded their heads in greeting, and wore expressions on their faces ranging from wariness, to outright fear. The man who had spoken was older than the others, and Lusam guessed that he might be the one in charge.
“Looks like you have a big job on your hands here,” Lusam said to the older man.
“Aye, that we do, sir,” he replied warily.
Lusam smiled at him, trying to make him feel a little more relaxed. He hated how people always seemed to fear him in Lamuria, especially when all he had ever done is try to help them. He had found it very hard to accept at first, but when he’d thought about it, he understood the reasons why. Very few people had actually seen the battle. Most of the people who lived or worked closest to the fighting had been relocated further inside the city, and the majority of the ones who remained had perished in the initial onslaught. The only thing the average person in Lamuria really knew, was that he had single handedly defeated the Empire’s entire army of magi. So it was no wonder they feared him.