Tipping the Scales

29

"Where are you going, Lukas Musgrave?"

The only thing standing between Lukas and freedom was the man Anselet had employed to accompany the Solar Dawn.

"He hired you to follow me, didn't he?" Lukas whispered. He looked for an opening as he spoke, but the lanky frame of the man blocked the only escape.

"The General? Yes," the man's voice was raspy and he spoke in a slow, assured way that made Lukas feel hopeless in his desire to get away. "He knew you might try something like this - one can never truly trust a countryside bumpkin to follow orders. They have to be moulded, coaxed."

Lukas couldn't see any other option, he started to concentrate a ball of dark mana in his palm.

The lanky figure burst forward and grabbed Lukas by the collar, pushing him to the floor and pinning him down. He began to concentrate his own mana – a deep red glow emanated from the hand pinning Lukas' wrist down.

Lukas felt the mana travelling up his arm begin to stutter as another force sucked it from him. The man pinning him down was somehow pulling Lukas' mana directly out of him. He felt himself weaken and grow light-headed as if he were losing blood.

"You have such delicious mana," the man's hairless face was inches from Lukas, his teeth glistening in a wide grin. The orange aura around him was strengthening and spreading all over his body as Lukas' faded. Before long, the orange had enveloped his whole body, cresting as a brightly focused crown around his head. The crown of a Chosen.

"We better leave you with something for tomorrow," the man purred, "though I'm so SO tempted to suck you dry." He rose to his feet and wiped the dust from his robes, looking down at Lukas, who was starkly pale and had broken out into a cold sweat, struggling for breath.

"We can't have you lying out here catching a fever," the man picked Lukas up by his ankle and began to drag him around the tent. There was nothing Lukas could do but allow it to happen, he had lost all strength.

The man hauled Lukas back into his tent and left him beside the bed. He leant down and whispered close to his ear: "If you so much as attempt to escape again, I will single-handedly kill everyone in Rosehallow. That's a promise."

"Who- are- you," Lukas managed to utter.

The man straightened up again, looking down from a great height above Lukas. "The Leech," he croaked, before striding out the tent.

Lukas lay there feeling utterly crushed. All his confidence had been smashed to pieces and he was right back under the thumb of the Empire. Only this time, it was confirmed that he was being closely watched and he no longer had the luxury of his actions only affecting himself – the lives of the villagers back home were at stake.

Leo's face came into view in the darkness. He leant down and propped Lukas up, helping him climb into bed without saying a word.

Lukas looked back at him and felt his lip quiver, having to fight tears which stemmed from a mix of misery and gratitude. With all his strength sapped, Lukas felt overcome with emotions. Rather than sobbing and giving into despair, he gritted his teeth and silently vowed revenge on The Leech.

Lukas awoke feeling like he hadn't slept a wink.

The sun was streaming through the opening of the tent, signifying the start of the big day, and Lukas hadn't managed to make his escape. He wished there was a way to communicate with Ellis but giving The Leech the slip was sure to be impossible now.