“No. No, we don’t have many since we focus on the ocean and we know all of our stock. The stable master was quite pleased with it, though, said it was a very healthy animal. I’ll have to ask about it more when I return. We were in a bit of a hurry to leave, as you may imagine.”
Gavin frowned, exchanging looks with the rest of them. It was another mystery, though in this case, it was one that had saved Aiden’s life. Still, he was becoming just a bit nervous about odd things going on.
They were interrupted by the stout form of Captain Stelios arriving at the doors of the suite they were staying in. The dark-skinned man spotted Dame Wilthorn and bowed politely, smiling as he came back up.
“Sorry to disturb you, your Excellency, but His Grace is asking for the company of Aiden, Chari, Ashrak and his son, if that is acceptable?
Dame Wilthorn narrowed her eyes but nodded. “Of course, Captain. Just be sure he doesn’t try to lop off my new son’s head or something.”
“Of course,” Stelios grinned. “I’ll be sure that he doesn’t have anything sharp at hand.”
Dame Wilthorn snorted but went back to her sewing as the four friends got up and followed the Captain. He led them through the large castle, then down through a nondescript doorway and stairs that descended into the bedrock under the castle. When they’d finally made the bottom they were at least four stories under the castle itself. As Aiden let one of his hands brush the walls, he could tell that they were composed of ancient glimmer steel, thrumming with age and a strange feeling of vastness intruded on his consciousness. There were no patches here, and the place didn’t feel stuffy despite how deep below the ground he guessed they were.
I’ve never been down here,” Gavin said, looking around as curiously as the rest of them. “I didn’t even know this place was here, though to be fair, the castle is rather huge.”
Stelios chuckled softly, turning his head and nodding. “Don’t worry, Gavin, few people do. This is where the duke likes to have his most private meetings amongst other secrets. And, here we are!” He grinned, standing in front of a solid, though unremarkable door. There was a strange panel next to the door that Stelios put his hand on, and to all of their surprise the door moved aside into the wall without Stelios having to touch it.
“It’s like one of the doors on the Skywitch, isn’t it?” Chari asked, letting her hand slide along the seam where the door had retreated. Aiden put his own handout, briefly touching the doorway and the feeling of age only increased.
Inside the room sat the duke and duchess, talking quietly. They both paused, smiling as the four friends and Stelios entered the room. The room itself was smallish, but there was a plain table in the middle ringed by several comfortable chairs. One of the seats was rather large, and looked like it was made for someone the size of Oya Dihya, but as of yet most of the seats were still empty. A strangely shaped flat box sat on the table next to the duke, reflecting blue light onto his face. Stelios walked in and sat, gesturing to any of the other seats for the friends to take, which they did.
“Thank you for coming, we have a lot to talk about,” The duke said, smiling kindly at them. “I wanted to wait a few days before doing this, to let you relax a bit and ease into your new life, Aiden. That being said, I think we need to get some things clear and in the open. Too much has happened in the past few weeks and I think I need to know what you do. Do you agree?”
Aiden nodded. He did, and they had already discussed the need to tell the duke everything even before realizing one of his lords was, in fact, one of the mythical Mourning Lords from the Cataclysm. He exchanged glanced with Chari, Gavin, and Ashrak who all nodded with him.
“Good,” the duke said, leaning back in his chair, and glancing at his wife before continuing. “However, before we begin, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask that you trust me Aiden. I…you are going to be shocked, and probably a bit upset in the next few minutes, but be patient. No one that will be in this room is wanting to harm you. There were reasons for what was done, and I’m afraid it’s best if you learn this lesson now, that things are not always as they seem. Can I ask that you trust me enough to hear what we have to say?”
The duke waited patiently, letting Aiden take his time before answering. He remembered the grim look on the duke’s face when he was about to read the verdict, and knew the man didn’t mean him harm. “Yes sir,” Aiden said, slowly nodding as he felt Chari reach over and taking his hand.
The duke grinned, his beard bristling slightly as he did so and pushed his finger against the screen to his right. Leaning over, he seemed to speak overly loudly into the air above it. “All right, come in. We’re ready for you.”
A door in the back of the room opened, sliding once again into the wall and in walked three people. The first was the friendly, familiar face of Professor Reivus who smiled and waved at them all as he stepped into the room. The old man almost tripped, trying to catch his balance but only avoiding falling when the huge hand of Oya Dihya reached out and stabilized him.
She had to actually duck down to pass through the doorway but otherwise, could stand straight in the high ceilings of the room they were in. She was wearing her armor, but no helmet today which exposed her serious, almost stern features.
It was the third figure that came gliding through the door that almost made Aiden run. Hidden behind Oya Dihya, the tall figure of Count Viridian stopped a few steps into the room and his cool, calculating eyes settled on Aiden’s widening ones.
He heard Chari and Ashrak gasp next to him, not knowing if he himself made a noise or just gapped in horrified disbelief. It was him, the Mourning Lord himself. Aiden stared at Valeran and Ahnarad who were both watching him with worry clear on their faces.
“Aiden?” The duke said carefully, “I know it looks bad, but he really was doing what he did for a reason. I can explain.”
Aiden began to shake, fear washing over him as he sat there and looked at the terrifying man. What was he to do? Before he knew it, he’d stood and said the words he knew were a mistake. “He’s a Mourning Lord! I’ve seen him before!”
Ashrak jumped up, his eyes wild as he moved to interpose himself between everyone else in the room and Count Viridian. “He is! I’ve seen him too! He sounds just like him. Run, everyone!”
Oya Dihya just stood passively. She had tensed slightly but otherwise refrained from doing anything as she watched everyone calmly. The duke and duchess sat with confused expressions on their faces.
“What do you mean, a Mourning Lord?” Valeran said, his brow furrowing. He isn’t, I’ve known him my whole life. What are you talking about?”
For his part, the count just stood silently and didn’t move. It was Professor Reivus that finally broke the chaotic stalemate, holding his bony hands up and waving them at everyone. “Stop, stop! The boy isn’t wrong. He’s not entirely right either! But let us explain. Aiden, we mean you no harm. You said you trusted the duke, but do you trust me? I promise you, on all that I am that we mean you no harm, eh? Calm down young Aiden. I promise we’ll explain.”
It took several minutes, but Aiden and his friends all finally calmed down enough to sit, though they didn’t take their eyes off of the count who continued to stand quietly near the door. The duke himself looked much less confident now, staring with concern at both Professor Reivus and Count Viridian. To Aiden, it was clear that he had known the man his entire life but obviously didn’t know everything about him either.
Aiden had to admit that he was even a bit concerned about Professor Reivus. The diminutive man clearly had his own secrets by virtue of simply being in the room, but he had defended the count. What could that mean? And what did Oya Dihya bring to the table? At the very least, Aiden thought as he watched everyone else warily, they were all still alive so where there was life, there was hope.
When they’d all settled, with Duke Terek having moved his chair out a bit in order to shield his wife, he spoke cautiously. “All right professor, we’re listening. What is this n
onsense about Corenthus? Or,” he said, his eyes rotating to Aiden and his friends. “How do you even know?” After a moment’s hesitation, he threw his hands into the air in exasperation, glancing at his wife. “And here I thought the most important thing I wanted to know was how you made my precious ship kill a trench serpent! Gah!”
Professor Revius’s eyes beetled, but he nodded and took a deep breath. “Very well, we can and should go first, though I am quite anxious to know how you would have even guessed about Count Viridian or know anything about the Mourning Lords? Hopefully, what I have to say will be enough to assuage all of your fears.”
The old man paused, then turned his moon-eyed gaze to the duke and duchess. “Your Grace, we have served you faithfully for many years. Actually, to say as long as you’ve been alive would be sorely underestimating what we’ve done. We are, in fact, the same type of beings that you call the Mourning Lords. Though to be correct it is the opposite that is more appropriate, they are but a small part of what we are. A race known as Glimmer Men.”
The man had to hold his hands up as everyone gasped, shock and surprise showing on the duke and duchess’s faces, and grim determination from Aiden and his friends. Aiden did notice that Oya Dihya did not react, and Glowby seemed to be strangely at ease as well. It was the only thing keeping Aiden from losing his composure completely at this point.
“Hear me out. Hear me, innocent and harmless Professor Reivus who wouldn’t hurt a fly. The reality was, that before the cataclysm there were many more beings like we were. Citizens and beings just like all of you though created out of glimmer steel itself. We helped and assisted in all aspects of life, but we did not cause the Cataclysm.”
“Unlike what you were taught,” Reivus continued, “the Cataclysm was caused by something else of which we do not have knowledge. It was not caused by the Mourning Lords. In fact, we believe whatever caused the Cataclysm also caused the Mourning Lords to do what they did. It stole the minds of my kind and made us rampage, destroying everything the ancients had created. When our minds were returned to us, all of us awoke to discover what had happened.”
“What do you mean, awoke?” Valeran said warily, his voice low and uncertain.
“Exactly what I said. We awoke. All of us as far as we can tell were controlled, making us puppets during that time with no control or awareness of our actions. The ones here on this planet realized how many millions of people they had killed, and the ones who did not kill themselves… Well, it would be a kindness to say they were insane.” The professor paused, his eyes lost in his memories. “The very few of us that were off planet at the time were the lucky ones. Our rampages just destroyed our ships or stations so we couldn’t return and wreak real havoc. It took hundreds of years for us to construct something that allowed us to return from our distant prisons. By the time we did so, the insane ones that survived here had organized and wrongly determined that the advanced technology had created the disaster. So now, they make sure no one advances past a certain point in technology. For thousands of years, that’s just what they’ve done with brutal efficiency”
Professor Reivus paused, letting his words sink in for a moment. The duke shook his head, almost growling out the words in his deep voice. “Wait a minute. Why haven’t we known of this before? And what do you mean ships and other planets? I don’t understand.”
Reivus shrugged but nodded. “That’s exactly what I mean, Valeran, dear lad. Just think of how your sailing ships match to your skimmers. How wondrous they are, and then put those in the place of your sailing ships. Such were the ships we had, that could sail above the sky and not only amongst planets but between stars. As for why you didn’t know about it? What could you do when the Mourning Lords would descend on your city and destroy it with beams like the one young Aiden had found on the Skywitch? Only a hundred times more powerful.”
The duke went quiet, his eyes showing how hard his brain was working to absorb it, but he began to nod slowly. Duchess Ahnarad spoke then, already accepting the unusual statement. “But why not ships of your own to fight them? Why not show us how to do it?”
The old man looked at her sadly. “For very simple reasons, dear lady. There were too few of us, and what took our minds also took much of our knowledge. For myself and Corenthus, as well as others, we were simply trying to get back to this planet while the insane ones here had hundreds of years to gather books and records, relearning some of what we’d all lost. When we landed in our barely cobbled together craft, only the lucky ones did so without being discovered. Too many of us reached out to the ones already here, and died for their trouble.”
Aiden was watching Count Viridian the whole time, the man not moving or making a sound. “But why does he sound just like the ones Ashrak and I saw? He sounds exactly like the one that was in Duke Feldar’s study.”
Count Viridian stepped forward, frowning at Aiden slightly as he finally spoke. “I find myself…terribly curious how you have heard one of my kind, but I can only tell you that it was not me. You mentioned Duke Feldar’s study, though I cannot fathom how you managed to find your way there, I can assure you I have had no contact with that creature. He is controlled by the Mourning Lords, an earthly agent that does their bidding, but not mine. Our kind was created, and when we were successful then it was not uncommon for us to be copied. I can only surmise that you heard one of those?”
“The Mourning Lord did mention that he didn’t have much influence in Terek, Aiden,” Ashrak said cautiously. Aiden opened his mouth to argue but stopped. That is what the thing had said, yet it was obvious that Count Viridian had been here for a long time. He found himself nodding, though it was still difficult to believe after Count Viridian had almost gotten the courts to kill him.
“Okay, then why did you try to get me arrested and almost killed?” Aiden said, frowning, “Why have any interest in me at all? And how can we possibly believe you? You’ve been lying to the duke for years. What is to say you are not lying now?”
The count nodded, accepting the issue. “It seems a matter of unfortunate circumstances that I was also the foil in our trial farce. I hate to say, but I am rather good at appearing menacing, and as such, the opposition lords come to me in droves which allow me to manipulate them in the duke’s favor. I have served as such for the duke for, well, as you can imagine for many of his families generations.”
It still didn’t answer the question of if he was lying, and Aiden was about to say that when Oya Dihya spoke, her deeply vibrating voice gentle yet still powerful in the small room. “He is telling the truth. Their kind did, indeed, have many copies of their look and personalities. My people found it a lazy approach, but much of what the ancients did was.”
The duke frowned at Oya Dihya, shaking his head. “Are you one of them too? Is anyone around me not one of them?” He looked at his wife, but she just narrowed her eyes and gave him a pinch, making him raise his hands in surrender. “Okay! Okay, forget I asked.”
Count Viridian listened and shook his head. “No, the Naiadens are not our like my people, your Grace. They have their own mysteries of which we are as curious as you are, but we have not ever tried to find out, valuing their privacy.”
He paused, finally feeling safe enough to come and sit at the table, settling into one of the chairs. “We knew all along that Dame Wilthorn was going to, and in fact had already adopted you. However, we needed to have your innocence proven in front of the world as publically as possible in a way that didn’t look like a cover up. If we had not, the Ducal Council would have caused issues.”
“I,” he continued, “as a known opponent of the duke who had caused him endless irritating, if contrived, problems, was the perfect one to try to get you killed. At least, to make it appear as if the best effort was made for that. I know it was harsh, but it was very necessary, Aiden. We didn’t want you hunted for your whole life.”
Aiden watched the duke and duchess both nod sadly. “We hated it, Aiden.” Ahnarad said, her voice catching, “
It was terrible to put you through that, but it was your best option. You were never in danger, but we had to make it appear that way, especially to you.”
Chari’s hand held his tightly, letting him know he was not alone but it was Glowby settling down on the duchess’s head that helped him the most. He was glowing a comforting lavender and he knew Glowby wouldn’t steer him wrongly. As he thought about it, he knew that they were right. It had not been easy. He’d thought he was dead and had pretty much given up on life due to what these people had done to him, but they did it out of a desire to protect him. It took him a few moments, but he finally nodded, accepting what they had done.
“Okay,” He said softly, “I can accept that. As terrified as I’ve been, I can even see that it was necessary. But please, in the future, try to avoid that if at all possible?”
Professor Reivus smiled, reaching across and patting Aiden’s hand. “You better believe we will, Aiden. Though now, if you do not have any further questions? Tell us all that you know. I am rather intensely curious”
The duke nodded vigorously. “Especially how you made my ship do that… thing. I cannot tell you how eagerly I’ve been wanting to go out and… test it.” He stopped, rubbing his hands together and grinning like a teenager. Duchess Ahnarad just rolled her eyes, patiently shaking her head but not saying anything.
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 32
