Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book One Read Online Free Page B

to deliver to a Mr T. Zachery from the owner of The Old Inkwell. We were instructed to bring it here to the apothecary in west Helveel, and to take any reply back to him,” Lusam replied in the most official voice he could muster.
    “In that case you're in luck, I am Thomas Zachery, the owner of this establishment,” he replied, gesturing towards the shop behind him. “Please, hand me the letter, and I’ll see about that reply young man.”
    “Thank you sir,” Lusam said, handing him the sealed brown letter.
    The man opened the letter and started to read the contents. After a short time he looked up at Lusam and said, “Please inform Mr Daffer that I will have the items he has requested delivered to his premises in the morning by ten o'clock, and thank him for his patronage. If there is nothing else, I would bid you both good evening, and I’ll be on my way home now. My wife will surely be waiting for me to arrive for the evening meal, and she gets more than a little upset if I keep her waiting.” Mr Zachery nodded his goodbye, then he turned and started walking away from them in the opposite direction.
    “Must be nice to have a meal waiting for you at home,” Neala said quietly in a wistful voice.
    “Must be nice to have a home,” Lusam replied in a similar manner.
    “Yeah, that too,” she agreed.
    “Come on, let’s go back and get paid, then maybe we can go eat something too. I’m starving,” suggested Lusam.
    “Sounds good to me. But, can we go back a different way from the way we came? By now it's a good bet the town guard will have been called, and it's probably best to avoid them if possible, just in case anyone saw us there and gave them a description of us,” Neala said, looking a little worried.
    “I'd love to avoid that area, but unfortunately, if we try to go back through the northern quarter at this time of day we'd be arrested by the town guard for sure. Anyone who's not from the higher classes found in the northern quarter after dark is immediately suspected of criminal behaviour, and as we only have a verbal reply from Mr Zachery, we wouldn’t have any proof of why, and where we were heading. As much as I hate to admit it, it's still our safest way back to the town square, and then onto the east quarter,” Lusam replied, with an apologetic look on his face.
    “Sounds like we better avoid going through the northern quarter then,” Neala agreed. “But, if we intend going back the way we came, we had better get going, before the place is crawling with guards.”
    They turned and started to retrace their path back towards the town square, through the dark cobbled back streets of west Helveel. Just before they rounded the corner of the area where the earlier attack had occurred, they stopped dead in their tracks, and listened intently. In the distance they could clearly hear the approaching sound of marching boots on the hard cobbles. A unit of the town guard was approaching their location, and they seemed to be coming up the cobbled streets behind them; the sounds echoing off the houses of the built up narrow street.
    “Quick, let’s get moving!” whispered Neala, as she quickened her pace towards the bend in the road, with Lusam trying to keep up with her. Acting on instinct, she glanced around the corner before making herself visible to anyone that might be waiting there. She saw a small group of guards already at the grisly scene inspecting the bodies. Neala grabbed Lusam by his shirt and quickly pulled him out of sight against the wall.
    “What’s the matter?” he asked quietly.
    “Guards. Lots of Guards. We’re trapped between them,” she replied in a hushed voice. As they stood there trying to decide what they should do, out of the corner of her eye Neala noticed the a patrol appearing from the direction they had just come. Without a second thought she grabbed Lusam around his neck, pulled him close to her, and started kissing him. “At least try to look like you're