The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4

by Spencer Pierson

  “Meh,” Ashrak shrugged, continuing to happily eat his stew. “Like I said, Aiden. You can’t stop him. They’re trained to push through anything to complete their mission. I have no idea why they chose him to be Gavin’s protector if he can’t stomach being on a ship. Terek is a naval power, after all.”

  “I don’t either. Well, it’s not like we’ve ever been on the right foot with each other. I think he just thinks of me as a huge threat to Gavin.”

  Ashrak laughed, smirking at him. “Oh? And what do you think he thinks of me? A boot salesman? I’m the son of a crazy, murderous Duke who has on more than many occasions caused headaches for Terek. I assure you, he’ll stab me before he stabs you.”

  Aiden grimaced as he watched Markam raise his thumb from across the room, clearly overhearing the tall noblemen but otherwise not responding. “Maybe. Maybe I’m an idiot but for some reason, I still want to help him. I wish I could make his sea sickness go away. I bet Professor Reivus could help.”

  Again Ashrak shrugged, nodding as he started to sop his bowl with a piece of bread. “True. Too bad the old coot is sleeping or whatever he is doing. What do you think is going on with the old man?”

  “No idea about that either.” Aiden signed, finally taking a spoon full of his own stew. “So much weirdness is going on and I wish I had some answers. I don’t think it’s bad, but it sure is inconvenient. I bet he would have some other ideas for things I could make to protect us. I know he doesn’t remember much, but I don’t really need to know how it all works to get an effect.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Ashrak paused, eyeing Aiden questioningly.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well,” Ashrak started slowly. “I don’t think you need to know all the nuts and bolts, but I think you need to understand in some way how whatever it is you're doing works, right? Do you think you could have made your skimmer if you hadn’t been up in one before? Or this armor? I think your brain has to experience something first before you can make it.”

  Aiden paused in thought, nodding slowly as he listened to Ashrak and trying to think back on everything he had made to date. He wasn’t entirely sure, but in a weird way, Ashrak was right. “Do you think I could make something that would keep him from getting sick? I mean, I know what feeling healthy is like, right?”

  Ashrak paused, stopping to think about that for a moment, “…hmmm. That may be, but I think this is exactly the type of question for the Professor or even Carol Reid. If even half of the things they hinted at were true, they would probably know how to do it. The Naiadens have kept themselves alive and healthy for thousands of years. You might screw it up and make everyone be just like you. One of you is enough.”

  Aiden frowned but something Ashrak had said was interesting. One of me is enough? But is it? Maybe there would be some way to pass on his ability so instead of only making some small bits here and there, there could be more people that do what he did? He shook his head. It felt dangerous what he was thinking, and just then he noticed Glowby had stopped and had flitted close to him, glowing a dull red. He didn’t like the idea much either so Aiden decided to listen to his friend. He’d talk to Professor Reivus about it later, if he ever woke up.

  Aiden hadn’t finished his stew but decided to take it with him as he and Ashrak stood and made their way back to his room. And the smell of unwashed laundry. He had forgotten about that. Joy. His stew sat uneaten for hours.

  Chapter 14

  Just at dusk, Aiden and his friends were standing at the aft of the ship while Duke Valeran and the Captain were watching their pursuers slowly disappear into the darkness. Just as the last light began to dip below the horizon, the Captain snapped his spyglass closed and shook his head.

  “Well, that does it. They aren’t slowing at all,” he said, slipping his spyglass into its carrying case and turning to his first officer. “What do you make of it, Lieutenant Commander?”

  “If they keep on course, Sir, they’ll reach us about three hours after sunset.”

  Captain Grell turned to the Duke and nodded. “I concur. Three hours. The men are as rested as they’ll get and your young lord,“ he said, giving Aiden a quick nod, “managed to do his part so we’ll have quite the set of surprises for their devilish souls. By the circle, they will regret trying to take on the Terek Navy. Now, Your Grace,” the Captain set himself as if preparing for a fight. “I would ask you and your young charges retreat below decks and let us be about our business.”

  The Duke did, indeed, look like he was about to argue, but instead, he just wrinkled up his mouth in disappointment and nodded. “Very well, Captain. I’ll leave you to fight your ship.”

  Aiden heaved a huge sigh of relief as the Duke led them all to the great cabin at the back of the ship. He hadn’t really thought it might happen, but he had been secretly fearful the Duke would stay up on deck and keep them all with him, charging around as some sort of hugely inappropriate fighting force while Gavin dragged Markam around by his collar as he heaved weakly into a bucket.

  Instead, they all got to sit inside and wait. And wait.

  None of them could sleep except for the unconscious Professor. Markam had stationed himself by the door on a chair. He had his head between his knees and over the mouth of the ill-smelling bucket. The back windows had been boarded up with thick planks, but Aiden suspected once the Captain kicked things off with the first of their surprises, they’d be able to see through the cracks and crevices.

  He’d managed to make a light out of one of the ship’s hurricane lanterns with the addition of a dial on the side of it. He hadn’t known exactly how to make it adjustable until Gavin reminded him of the dials in some of the rooms in Terek castle. That had done the job nicely, and instead of making the light directional, they resorted to the tried-and-true method of shutters the lamps used already. Earlier that day, they’d clustered down in the hold that held spare sail cloth and tried it out. It had worked, and they hadn’t even turned it up all the way because of the light in such close confines, even facing away from them, was too bright. It had taken at least fifteen minutes to blink the spots out of all of their eyes and the Captain seemed to think this would do the trick.

  Still. The waiting was terrible. He had thought the fighting on Reid had been bad, but at least it had come upon them quickly. He still had nightmares about the screaming and what little he had seen of the bodies in the flickering firelight, but he was quickly coming to the opinion that waiting for fighting was almost worse. And then it was time.

  He watched as Glowby paused in his casual circuit around the room and drift toward the window. The ship had been kept quiet, with most of the crew ready and armed below decks just in case they could be seen. They couldn’t guess what magic or ancient artifact the enemy had to help them see at night, and Aiden had held out a hope that maybe the first night had been an oddity, but that which he hoped for was not to be.

  A brilliant light flashed through the rear windows. They all started at the brightness of it despite the heavy covers, and shortly thereafter they heard the first officer calling for the crew to be up and about. The enemy was within sight and range.

  Duke Valeran grunted and nodded. “Yes, they must have something to see us at night. I hope that light blinded the lot of them.” The Duke laughed grimly and listened to more commands being given. They could hear steps thundering on the deck above them and outside, and shortly thereafter there was a heavy twang as the first ballista fired. Once. Twice. Then a harder kerthunk as the catapult came into play.

  “They must be twenty minutes behind us and right in our range.” The Duke said, standing and beginning to pace. “Gods, I wish I was up there. Sometimes being Duke is just not worth it.” He continued to pace, clenching and unclenching his fists as he kept glaring at the door. All of them could hear the men on deck, most of the activity currently was above them on the poop deck and forward, but occasionally they could hear the men cheer at something.

  It was ten minutes la
ter they began to hear bows and crossbows being drawn and loosed, as well as the return clatter against their hull. It was almost surreal to hear the light thunks as some of the arrows struck and stayed, and once a much heavier sound. Aiden looked around, startled but saw no one else seemed overly worried about it.

  Of all of them, Chari and Ashrak looked the most eager, which surprised him. He’d seen Ashrak fight and knew he wasn’t exactly the most peace-loving person in the world, but Chari seemed to almost match the Duke in wanting to get out onto the deck and do something, rather than sit here not knowing what was going on. Gavin just looked resolute, listening attentively with his mouth in a tight line. Markam just looked ill.

  To Aiden, with the bows starting up, it was clear the enemy ships were creeping closer. He could just picture faces leering over the sides of the dark ships, greedy for blood as they waited to jump the rails and sweep like a tide over the Gerevat. Strangely, all of the faces were the same, leering face of Pienteen, the pirate who had been on the ship which had taken them so many months ago. He knew that couldn’t be because he’d died at the hands of Stitch, the mercenary who had helped free them, but he couldn’t shake that hungry, bared-teeth grin the man had worn so easily.

  And then the ship shuddered. The Gerevat was a large ship, and didn’t move nearly as much as he imagined, but it still shocked Aiden. Knowing two huge wood beasts had met on the open ocean was sobering, and the roar of the crew was answered by an equally vicious cry from the pirates. Valeran casually drew his sword and withdrew to the middle of the room. Markam, sick as a dog but determined, also pulled his and so did his three friends.

  Aiden, for all the fact he’d made all of their weapons, slowly realized yet again, he’d forgotten to make one for himself. A slow blush spread up his face as Chari looked back at him, nodding to reassure him for a moment before realizing the same thing which made her wrinkle up her nose and shake her head. He could only shrug as she turned back to face the door.

  But instead of the fierce fighting and screams of dying men flooding the deck of the ship, they heard only a momentary clash, followed by high-pitched screams of pain and surprise. Then, a pause, as if both sides had stepped back in surprise. For long moments, nothing happened. Just a strange, eerie quiet. Even Markam looked up at that, curiosity for once taking over his drawn, pale face.

  Then Captain Stelios voice rose in jubilant, bloodthirsty glee. “Have at them! Twenty gold for the most kills!”

  Aiden didn’t have a clue what a battle was supposed to sound like, but he was almost sure this wasn’t it. There was a fierce cry as men, he assumed Stelios’s guardsmen, charged forward and an equally loud, fearful cry from what he assumed was the pirate ship. Bows continued to thrum from above them, but for the most part, the fighting sounded like it had turned into a rout. One that ended all-too-quickly with shouts of surrender and the cries of wounded and dying.

  Aiden was glad he hadn’t been on deck to see. He knew what his swords could do to inanimate objects, he could only imagine what it could do to people. Pirates though they were, they were still men and women and he didn’t want to see them butchered like meat.

  Ten minutes later, Lieutenant Kel came into the room, grinning happily.

  “Father! They’re running. And we’ve captured one of their ships too. The one that tried to close with us. The rest are limping off!”

  Duke Valeran laughed and clapped his son on the shoulder. “Great news! Is it safe to come out on deck yet? Dammit boy, do you have any idea what it’s like to be locked up while someone else wins a fight?”

  “The Captain said to give us a bit more time. Just in case one of them pops up with a bow. It would be just the worst luck if you took an arrow right when we’ve won, but it won’t be long. They surrendered fairly quickly once they saw how our swords were treating them.” Kel turned to Aiden, shaking his head in wonderment. “Aiden, those swords… I’ve never seen the like. There’s no fighting them. They didn’t even make it onto our ship.”

  Aiden went a little green at that. How many people had died tonight? He knew he couldn’t have done anything else, but it was his tools that did it. For some reason, while everyone else was smiling and celebrating, he just didn’t feel thankful.

  Gavin came over and clapped him on the shoulder, sitting down next to him on the foot of the captain’s bed. Aiden tried to smile at him, but Gavin only shook his head. “It’s okay, Aiden, I think I understand what you’re feeling. It’s something I’ve been working on which is to understand that everyone matters, and now that I have, I am having trouble celebrating their deaths. For all they were evil men and would have killed us without a second thought, they still were at one time children with mothers and fathers. It’s a waste and it’s okay to not feel so fine with it.”

  Aiden just nodded as he listened. Glowby came over and drifted close to them both, gently flickering through soft shades of blues and purples. He knew killing happened in this world. You had to defend yourself, but it could become its own thing too. How easy it could be to kill when you started seeing people as faceless things? With his power, what could he end up making that may kill too well?

  “What are you thinking of Aiden?” Gavin asked finally.

  Aiden sighed before looking sadly at his friend. “I’m just thinking about what I might make in the future that will kill people. What is too far? What is too much?”

  “That’s why you surround yourself with people who will tell you no,” he nodded his head toward Chari who was peeking out the door with the Duke and Ashrak. “That’s what Chari has done for me. Tell me I’m an idiot and slap me on the back of the head if I do something stupid, like making an orphan challenge Oya Dihya to a fight. I think Ashrak is beginning to see that, too. He grew up in a far more bloodthirsty environment than any of us did, but he saw first hand what someone who isn’t willing to listen to others can do.”

  Aiden nodded softly and blew a breath out. “Promise me you’ll do the same for me?”

  “You can count on it, Aiden,” Gavin grinned before standing. “And I can assure you Chari will. I don’t think she can help herself to tell someone they are wrong.”

  ***

  It wasn’t long before they had made their way out on the deck. Thankfully, most of the bleeding had been done on the pirate ship, a shorter schooner that had apparently been the most desperate to claim a prize. It was an odd sight because Aiden couldn’t see directly down onto the deck unless he purposefully went right up to the railing, which he was not about to do.

  What he could see was one of the masts completely gone, sheared through, and the whole bit was hanging loose and off to the side away from the Gerevat. Several scroungy men were being led up onto Gerevat with their hands tied. Most of the crewmen he could see on the Gerevat looked to be grinning and happy to be alive, and he didn’t see many bandages or fallen men.

  Despite being pointed away and towards the other fleeing pirate ships, the light beam was startlingly bright and provided enough visibility to make their way across the deck. Aiden could see two ships heading away on their own, and two others who were trying to stay together and limping off as well. It looked like all but one was missing a mast from what he could see, but as long as they were headed away he was happy. They would no longer be able to catch up to the Gerevat if they even wanted to.

  A hand came down and grasped his shoulder. Spinning about in surprise, he saw the pleased face of the old Captain looking down at him.

  “Lord Wilthorn, you have my deepest thanks,” the Captain said, grasping his hand and shaking it slowly.

  Aiden blinked, not recognizing his own name for a few moments. He still wasn’t used to being called a lord, much less a Wilthorn, but before the moment became too uncomfortable he remembered and nodded.

  “Oh! Yes, of course, Captain. I am more than glad not to have been up here during it all, but it sounded like it went okay.”

  “More than okay, lad,” the Captain said, taking a deep breath. “You sav
ed all of our lives with your magic. That light was particularly useful. Blinded them completely. Even when they got in close, they couldn’t see us but we could see them quite easily. That battle should have been far more bloody than it was. For our side at least. Can’t say the same for them.”

  “No, Sir,” Aiden said. “I’m glad it helped. It sounded terrifying enough from below.”

  As they talked, Aiden watched Gavin's brother come up the plank to the pirate ship and make his way toward the Captain. He was carrying an odd device with him along with several rolled up map cases.

  “Sir,” Kel said, snapping to attention. “I found something odd, sir. It looks like a spyglass but…not. It was on the floor on their wheel deck. Also, one of their men was sitting nearby holding his eyes, sir. Doesn’t seem to be able to see, so quite peculiar.”

  The Captain reached out for the strange device and looked it over. It was an odd, roughly cube-shaped device but it had several lenses of glass on two sides. Even from here, Aiden could tell it was made from glimmer steel.