Soldiers of Avarice

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “Pacian,” Aiden whispered harshly, chafing at the delay. “Relax; it’s me, Aiden.”

  Pacian turned pale and steadied himself against the wall. “Aiden? No, it can’t be,” he breathed. “I saw you die. Wait, are you a ... ghost? Are you haunting me?”

  “No, I’m alive, just invisible,” Aiden assured him. “To keep a long story short, I found some magic back in Ferrumgaard.”

  “Invisible? How … right, magic,” he muttered, clearly not thinking straight. “Look, the others are being held in cells about thirty yards further down this passage.”

  Fear and exhaustion colored Pacian’s voice. “I’ve been sitting here trying to figure out how to get past and break everyone out, but there are too many of them. Sneaking past a couple of cave guards was one thing, but I think there’s fifteen or so down there.

  “The other men sent here with Duncan are down there as well, but they’re not moving.” His voice cracked and it sounded like he was at the end of his rope.

  “Don’t worry Pace, I’ve got this,” Aiden whispered with growing confidence. “Follow me carefully, and when you see my signal, attack.”

  “What signal?”

  “I suspect it’ll involve bright light, and possibly some fire,” Aiden explained absently, not entirely sure what his scepter would do.

  Another scream echoed along the tunnel, followed by what sounded like an axe cutting into flesh, prompting the boys into immediate action. Aiden took the lead, hoping that Pacian could figure out where he was and avoid accidentally stabbing him in the back.

  The passage opened out into a larger chamber, with half a dozen torches positioned around the walls and cells with barred metal gates set on either side. There were five warriors standing outside one of the cells, two of them heaving the body of someone wearing the garb of a militiaman through a barred door. The flickering torchlight lit up the bodies of many other people lying dormant inside the cages, and a cold anger surged through Aiden’s blood.

  Raising up the scepter, he aimed for the nearest warrior and spoke the command word. A brilliant beam of yellow light, as bright as the sun, sprang forth, striking the warrior’s back and cutting straight through to the other side. With the scepter’s light lighting him up like a bonfire, Aiden suddenly realized he was no longer invisible, but he had no further need of it anyway.

  The scorched and blackened body of the Akoran warrior dropped to the ground, and the rest of his comrades stood there gaping at the grisly sight. Aiden spoke again, this time moving his arm in an arc to the left, catching all of them with the beam.

  Their furs caught fire, and their howls could be heard echoing down the tunnel. One of them dropped to the ground, but the rest recovered from their momentary shock, drew their weapons, and charged at Aiden, who summoned his force shield and stood ready to meet their attack.

  He took the first warrior’s axe on his shield while the other two moved to either side, swinging their axes with all of their strength. A layer of protective spectral armor Aiden had conjured with one of the scrolls flashed with blue light, absorbing most of the force behind the impacts.

  Aiden brought the scepter down upon the exposed right arm of a warrior with a satisfying crack, and followed through by smashing him across the face with tremendous force, shattering the man’s cheekbone and dropping him to the ground. With the power of the strength incantation surging through his body, Aiden was as strong as three men.

  Along with Pacian’s help, the fight was very much one-sided. Aiden discarded finesse and simply bashed through the defenses of his outmatched opponents and within seconds, most of them were on the ground, bleeding from a series of fatal injuries, while Pacian stabbed and slashed as he darted about in a manic fury.

  Two of the men who had dropped bodies into a cell emerged, outraged that their comrades had been cut down so easily. Aiden held his ground as one of the brutes drew a sword — Colt’s massive sword — while his comrade hefted Sayana’s vythiric axe and moved to flank him.

  Aiden kept his scepter leveled at the big man before him, making sure he had the warrior’s full attention. Along with the presence of his glowing shield, the Akorans seemed rattled, afraid of the presence of powerful magic.

  When they were fully clear of the cell, Pacian crept up from behind and with one quick move, jumped on the larger warrior’s back and slit his throat. The giant staggered about, gasping for breath, while the other warrior turned and took a swing.

  Pacian was too quick for him, though, already on the move. It gave Aiden a chance to smash him on the back of his head and drop him to the ground, while his companion slowly choked to death on his own blood a few yards away.

  With the sounds of their battle echoing through the tunnels, it was inevitable others would come, and they arrived only moments after the big one stopped twitching. The newcomers had no idea what they were facing, and when six of them charged into the room, they were met with the blazing light of Aiden’s scepter, which almost cut them in half.

  With the situation under control for the moment, Pacian grabbed the cell keys from one of the fallen men and rushed to the cells to release their friends. “Oh my god,” Aiden breathed as he stepped into the largest of the cells and saw a pile of at least ten bodies, all men from Bracksford and Coldstream who had been captured before the arrival of Aiden and the others.

  His stomach tightened at the sight of several people he recognized lying dead, with their bodies showing signs of severe beatings.

  “Is that Gavin from town?” Pacian choked, holding his forearm across his mouth. The young man who had stepped up to help protect Bracksford had apparently volunteered for this dangerous assignment, and along with his companions had been captured, beaten and killed.

  Turning away from the grisly scene, Aiden saw Nellise in the same cell, chained to the bars and huddled in a corner with a look of horror on her face. Pacian dashed to her side and quickly unlocked the manacles holding her in place. Her body was wracked with sobs and after Pacian had freed her, he held her tightly.

  Her gaze appeared locked on the face of another fallen guard, Claudia from Bracksford, who, like Gavin, had shown such courage in joining up.

  “She was so brave and sweet,” Nellise said, barely able to speak as her body was wracked with turmoil. “How could they do this? How?” she asked, receiving no answer to her question.

  On the other side of the cell was the prone form of Sayana, and for a heart-stopping moment, Aiden thought she might have met the same fate as the others. Quickly, he checked her pulse to make sure she was still alive, and was relieved when she groaned and stirred at his touch. He took off his heavy winter cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  A “clang” against the bars drew his attention, and he saw Colt in the next cell, stripped to the waist and chained to a solid wooden chair which was now leaning against the bars, looking like he had been beaten within an inch of his life. Aiden set Sayana down against the wall and rushed to free the bloodied man from his imprisonment, grabbing the keys from Pacian on the way past while watching the entrance for sign of reinforcements.

  “I don’t know how you survived that blow, Aiden,” Colt struggled to say through his broken and bloodied lips, “but you’re the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen.”

  Aiden rattled the keys in the lock until it opened, then raised his scepter and brought it down hard on the rusty chains binding Colt to the chair, allowing the ranger to slump forward, wiping the blood from his face with the back of his hand.

  Shrugging off Aiden’s attempts to help him up, the big man managed to stand, then staggered outside and kicked one of the Akorans lying on the ground.

  Across the chamber where more bodies lay, Colt looked at two in particular. Both had been stripped and beaten during the course of their interrogation, and it wasn’t a pretty sight, but no one took it worse than Colt.

  “Duncan, you poor bastard,” he groaned, recognizing his fellow rangers. Duncan was almost as large as Colt, and
was lying next to a small woman with red hair. “And Sally — she deserved better than to go this way. She was too young to be on the front lines, the poor kid. None of these kids should have been here.”

  “What happened to Sayana?” Aiden quietly asked.

  “She tried to burn them when they brought her in,” Colt grunted, leaning up against the cell door as he wiped blood from his face. “Then they saw the tattoos all over her body, and knocked her out before she could do anything else. But Nellise, well, they shoved her in that cell and made her watch as they butchered our men, one by one.”

  In the cell, Pacian was holding Nellise in both arms as she cried, clutching at the tiny halo-ringed sword of Kylaris hanging around her neck for support. It was then that she looked up and noticed Aiden for the first time, and suddenly held her breath, thunderstruck at his apparent return from the dead.

  He wanted nothing more than to get them all out of here safely and never return, but there was only one way they were going to make it out alive.

  “We have to finish what we started, or their lives will have been lost for nothing,” Aiden stated quietly.

  “What are you going to do?” Pacian asked.

  “End this,” he replied coldly. He was certain the enchantments he had invoked had a limited duration, and time was rapidly running out. At that moment, he felt like he could take on an army.

  “I’m going to cut the head off this monster. Do you have any idea where Erag might be?” Aiden asked Pacian, who shook his head in reply.

  “I know where to go,” Sayana whispered. “I will take you there, so that I may strike down Erag myself.”

  “I too, will go,” said a deep voice from a nearby cell, across the way. Aiden turned and saw a heavyset figure standing there in the darkness, having watched the entire time. Aiden moved in for a closer look, unafraid of practically anything at the moment.

  “Are you Morik Far-Eagle, the deposed chief of this band of savages?” Aiden asked, the insult intentional.

  “I am, though I take no pride in their actions this day,” Morik replied sadly. “I wish to see Erag dead as much as you, though I doubt you believe me at this moment.” Aiden casually glanced behind him at the rest of his companions, conceding the point. “Erag is not the real problem, however,” Morik continued. “To free my people, you must eliminate our elder shaman, Tald Black-Tiger.”

  “We met him,” Colt grunted.

  “Then you understand his power,” Morik said. “He wields great influence amongst my people. His word is law in this land, and for reasons unknown to me, he changed his favor to Erag.

  “Perhaps he senses the vulnerability of your lands at this time, yes? If we work together, we can eliminate them both, and I will reclaim my place as Chief. I will then disperse the war band, and we will no longer be a threat to your people.”

  “Good enough for me,” Aiden agreed after only a moment’s hesitation, smashing open the lock with ease.

  Morik emerged from his cell. He wore only tattered rags, but from the way he moved, he was clearly an experienced warrior, and carried numerous scars on his body to prove it. He reached down and picked up a short battle spear from one of his fallen people, then looked at the pile of bodies around them with something akin to regret in his eyes.

  “Colt, if you’re able to fight, grab a weapon,” Aiden suggested. “Pace, help Nellise get moving. We can’t stay here any longer.”

  “I won’t leave her side,” Pacian agreed, speaking more to Nellise than anyone else as he held her steady with one arm around her shoulders, her hand still clasping the symbol of her faith.

  “Which way do we go?” Aiden asked Morik.

  “There are stairs down, beyond the next room,” Morik replied courteously. “But he has personal guards protecting him.”

  “Let me deal with them,” Aiden responded, his voice heavy with determination and purpose. With Morik and Colt right behind him, the group set out along the passageway.

  At the bottom of the stairwell was a large, open area, with several passages leading off. Morik pointed to the correct one and they moved in that direction, hearing the sounds of heavy, booted feet from up ahead after barely a minute of walking.

  Aiden could see as well as if it were daylight down there, but the others were stumbling along the corridor, struggling to see where they were going. The lights from up ahead helped, but unfortunately, they were being carried by a horde of their enemies.

  Once they reached the next large chamber, Aiden raised his arm to stop the others and unfurled an arcane scroll. The warriors turned at the sounds of their footsteps and quickly readied their weapons. They never had the chance to use them.

  Aiden began reading the scroll, raising his free arm to point at the group as he finished the incantation a heartbeat later. A massive ball of fire materialized in front of him and shot towards the assembled warriors, flying for nearly twenty feet before it detonated in the centre of their group, shaking the very foundations of the tunnels and blasting Aiden and his companions off their feet with a wave of fire. The effect upon the Akorans was far more pronounced, sending charred bodies crashing against the walls as the force of the blast shattered bones and ended lives.

  Aiden surveyed the effects of the ancient wizard’s incantation with cold disdain before moving onwards. Morik pointed in the direction they should travel and urged them to keep moving, carefully avoiding the blackened bodies of formerly-loyal warriors scattered around the stone floor.

  The passage they traveled opened out into a large chamber filled with an assortment of packages wrapped in deerskin. “What is all this?” Pacian asked.

  Morik didn’t even take a closer look before answering. “Dried rations, water skins, spare axes, bandages — everything a war band needs to keep fighting,” he said. “Erag must want to reclaim the lands of our ancestors, for there are enough supplies here to feed a thousand warriors.”

  “We should destroy all of this,” Pacian hissed. “We’ll see how well their invasion goes when their bellies are empty.”

  “This food was taken from the rest of my people. If we destroy it, the people will starve before the thaw,” Morik warned. “They may choose to attack out of starvation.”

  “We have our target,” Aiden decided, moving through the large piles of supplies. “Leave the food; it won’t matter once their leadership is dead.”

  Morik nodded his agreement and immediately pressed on through the chamber. Before Aiden could move to follow, the sounds of battle echoed from down the hallway Morik had taken. Cursing, Aiden and the others moved as quickly as they could to support their new ally, for if he perished, any plan to bring peace to this region would surely fail.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As Aiden rounded the corner, he saw Morik being attacked by three powerful adversaries armed with spears and axes. When Aiden moved in, he gained the attention of one, and stepped inside the reach of his great axe to engage him in close quarters.

  He shrugged aside the heavy axe and cracked his scepter right between the man’s eyes, crushing his skull in an instant. Morik ended the lives of the other two men with quick work from his spear, but he had taken a hit during the fight.

  “I will survive,” he grunted, noticing Aiden grimacing at the vicious cuts. “Erag will be ahead, and he will be ready for us, thanks to your loud entrance.”

  “The loud ones are the best,” Aiden remarked, feeling unstoppable. “Are there any other corridors that lead to his chambers from here?” Morik shook his head.

  “Sy, are you there?” Aiden called, and was about to say more when the hair on the back of his neck stood upright.

  “Take cover!” he shouted, crouching to leap aside as a stroke of lightning coursed through the charged air, hitting all four of them and knocking them to the floor. They didn’t have time to recover before the terrifying visage of a giant man, his head obscured by a fearsome visored helm, roared a battle cry and drove a six-foot battle spear towards Aiden’s chest.

/>   He barely had the clarity of thought to bring his shield across to block the attack, but he managed to do so just in time. The shield, however, was destroyed by the force of the impact, sending a shower of blue sparks into the air and leaving his spectral armor to absorb the rest of the strike.

  Aiden rolled away as the spear was drawn back by this new assailant, giving him a moment to regain his footing. During this time, Morik had risen from the floor, ignoring his wounds, and stabbed at their armored opponent with all of his might.

  Erag spat out a phrase in his native language, his helm rendering his voice hollow and cold. The only word Aiden recognized was Morik, who replied between stabs with his short spear.

  “Watch for Tald; he’s here somewhere,” Aiden warned the others as he moved in on Erag’s left flank. Together, he and Morik combined their efforts to take on the chieftain with a series of powerful blows.

  Aiden’s unnatural strength allowed him to slam the scepter into Erag with immense force, again and again, but each time it was parried harmlessly away, showing Aiden that more than brute force was needed to defeat such an experienced adversary. When he dodged one of Morik’s blows, Erag was exposed as a clear target, and Aiden seized the opportunity to invoke the scepter’s power, scorching the chief with a blast of light. Astonishingly, he seemed to ignore the searing burns across his body as he lunged at Aiden.

  The shaman, Tald Black-Tiger, had so far remained out of sight, but after witnessing Aiden’s crippling attack, he spoke for the first time, from darkness behind the fight.

  “You are wielding borrowed power, boy,” he rasped, slamming the butt of his rune-covered staff into the ground. “I shall strip it from you, piece by piece.” Aiden felt a wave of coldness wash over him, and his supernatural strength drained from his muscles.

  Somehow, Erag still had the strength to remain standing after the scepter blast. Looking at the big warrior, Aiden could see why. Even as he watched, Erag’s wounds were slowly healing over as a faint, misty green light danced around his body, a light that seemed to be emanating from Tald’s staff.