Soldiers of Ruin

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “No… my old friend,” the old knight whispered as he knelt by Godfrey’s side. Aiden too felt crestfallen at the sight of the elder statesman brought low in this terrible place. Nellise put a consoling arm on the knight’s shoulder while Ronan went through the Sir Godfrey’s belongings.

  “He didn’t have much on him, just a small pendant around his neck, and a book.”

  “Let me see that,” Aiden asked, taking the book from Ronan’s offered hand. “It looks like he was wise enough to keep a journal.” He leafed through the pages, noting the dates and the general musings of the man as he went about his daily affairs. The last entries were sure to be of great importance, so Aiden flipped ahead to see what was written there.

  “‘It is becoming plain that there is a spy in the Royal Court,’ he writes. ‘I fear the person behind the assassination attempt at the senate, this Number One character, may still be lurking about, although the king’s spymaster has not been able to confirm this. It is more urgent than ever that we recover the Sceptre of Oblivion and I believe the men and women we have sent in are not enough. Time is of the essence, so I must expedite the matter. I will go to the Isle of the Dead in search of this relic, though I dare not tell the duke of my mission, for I cannot rule out the possibility he is connected to the conspiracy against the Crown.’”

  “He suspected the Duke?” Nellise asked, looking up at Aiden incredulously.

  “Apparently so,” he replied grimly, unsettled by this information. “Godfrey continues. ‘If His Grace has been compromised, or he is he being coerced somehow, I dare not take the chance of letting those nefarious forces know of my plans. I shall leave a note for the castellan to find in due course, so that my fate will eventually be known. Should I fail to return, and if this journal is recovered, may those who uncover it complete my mission. I go now to do my duty to God, the king, and for Aielund.’”

  “We have been betrayed,” Valennia growled. “The man responsible for sending us here and to the other places we visited may be working with the enemies we defeated weeks ago, but failed to destroy. We have been sent here to die, while their plans for revenge unfold.” Everyone was quiet as this statement sank in.

  “I have always thought of Duke Charles an honourable man,” Sir William remarked, “but if Sir Godfrey had reason to suspect him of treason, there may well be cause for concern, difficult though it may be to believe.”

  “Was there anything else?” Pacian asked of Aiden in a quiet voice.

  “The final entry is short,” Aiden replied. “‘Having secured the services of a local fisherman, I have arrived at the Isle. The way forward is clear, though the men with me are beset with superstitious fears of this place. I must go on alone, and pray for my deliverance.’ That’s the end of it,” Aiden finished sombrely.

  “This pendant is blessed,” Nellise observed, holding it in her hand. “Doubtless this is why the evils of this place have left his body alone all this time.”

  “They shall not get a chance to defile his remains,” Sir William said through gritted teeth. “I shall personally see to it that whatever dark powers of corruption and decay reside here are burned from the earth, and the land sanctified in the name of God. And if it is indeed Aeldrith behind all of this, he will rue the day he became immortal, for I shall make him beg for death, for the unspeakable crimes he has committed.”

  “Then we will return to Fairloch to wring the truth of this matter from the duke,” Valennia added with grim intent. The old knight closed the visor on Sir Godfrey’s helm and led them into hell.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The vastness of the cave at the bottom of the stairs could be heard more than seen, as their sight was limited by the range of their meagre lights. A breeze gusted past, carrying with it the stench of things long dead and for this reason, Aiden was glad he couldn’t see more than a dozen yards in any direction. A narrow path of paved flagstones led away from the stairs and into the darkness beyond.

  What had seemed to be some sort of bridge across the cavern, turned out to be the remnants of a proper floor, its edges crumbling away into the vast emptiness below, leaving only a web of interconnected pieces of the old floor supported by ancient columns.

  Sir William led the way with Solas Aingeal held before him, the blessed sword glowing with light in the unnatural conditions. Revenge for his fallen comrade was spurring the knight onward, and it was all they could do to keep up with him on the uneven surface.

  The spectres that had assailed them near the black pits returned, swirling in a cloud just on the edge of their vision. Although their lights did not penetrate the darkness for more than a dozen yards, just beyond they could see movement below.

  “There’s something climbing up the columns,” Aiden breathed, his voice trembling. Pacian shed light on the problem by shooting a glowing crossbow bolt into the writhing mass just beyond their sight, revealing the true nature of what was coming. Dozens of rotting skeletons, animated by fel magic, were climbing up the columns. Some of them were clad in rusting armour, others were bare, but all of them stared up at Aiden with hollow eye sockets as they closed in.

  At that same moment, the spectres around them started to dart into the light, lashing at Aiden and the others as they made their way across the unsheltered path. The light from Nellise’s crystal bathed them in divine radiance, yet this wasn’t enough to stop the onslaught.

  Their progress halted as the skeletal warriors ascended to the bridge. Sir William fearlessly charged into their ranks and began cutting them to pieces. Valennia and Aiden struck out at the spectres as they came past, but there were simply too many of them. More than once Aiden was struck by the unnatural cold of their ephemeral claws and felt weaker with each passing moment. For the first time, he saw genuine fear in Valennia’s eyes.

  “I don’t think I can hold them off forever,” Nellise breathed, maintaining her calm as she channelled the might of Kylaris.

  “Behind us!” Sayana cried as more skeletons rose up to block the path back. This did not present a problem for the sorceress however, as she unleashed a ball of fire that struck the pavement and blasted them into the abyss. They were soon replaced by more warriors and Aiden wondered just how many were down here. The path before them was filled with the skeletal warriors as far as their light travelled, and Sir William was fighting a pointless battle.

  “Will, step to the left!” Aiden ordered as he levelled his wand at the oncoming darkness. The knight held position on the left side of the broken floor and Aiden conjured a bolt of lightning that crackled through the ranks of the undead, blasting them apart and clearing the way.

  Without delay, Sir William pushed forward with the rest of his allies following close behind. The skeletal warriors were continuing to rise, however, and when they were walking over the section of floor supported by the column, filthy hands clawed at their feet. Pacian screamed and fired a bolt at each skeleton that poked its head above the floor line, and it wasn’t until he missed that he noticed something terrible.

  “There’s thousands of them down below!” he shrieked in rising panic. Aiden glanced over his shoulder and saw, by the light of Pacian’s bolts, a sea of the risen dead clambering over each other in an effort to reach them on the raised platform.

  For now, only their mobility and Nellise’s unceasing prayers kept them from being overwhelmed by the army of the dead. This changed when the broken floor came to an abrupt end a short distance away, as Aiden had feared.

  “We cannot go on,” Sir William called, looking about in dismay at this turn of events.

  “Down there,” Ronan pointed out, having spotted something at the limit of their sight. Aiden looked carefully and saw a section of the path had dropped away, having come to rest over twenty feet below them. Any thoughts of climbing down fled as Aiden saw a large group of skeletal warriors climb onto it, staring lifelessly up at them. Before he could formulate a plan, Sayana made her way up from the back line, swapping places with Valennia.


  “I’ll take care of this,” she assured them, shimmering from various protective magics laid over her armour. “Give me one end of the rope, and secure the other to the path.”

  “Got it,” Ronan replied, uncoiling the rope he had with him still and handing her one end. Aiden stepped back to make room for him, flinching slightly as Pacian continued to shoot bolts into the host below them.

  “Pace, save your ammunition,” Aiden snapped, the stress of their predicament starting to grate on his nerves. “We don’t know how much further we have to go. We’re not going to win this with fighting.” Pacian stopped shooting, but kept the crossbow aimed behind them.

  Sayana leaped from their lofty perch and floated down to the lower floor, landing gently upon the blackened flagstones to begin securing the rope. Aiden’s view was obscured by darkness as the spectres, sensing her vulnerability, began to swoop in on the sorceress.

  “Look out!” Aiden cried as they clawed at Sayana. Her magic protected her to some degree, yet she cried in pain as she continued to work. Aiden fired off another stroke of lightning, vaporising several of the spectres. Pacian shot a couple of bolts into the mix with similar results, but by the time the spectres withdrew, Sayana was no longer moving.

  “Sy!” Valennia called down, eliciting no response from the red-haired girl. Spitting out a curse, Ronan tested the rope and found it to be strong enough to bear his weight, then started rappelling down.

  “Nellise, you’re going to have to go down next.” The serene cleric nodded vaguely and made her way forward. When she went to put her crystal aside, Aiden stopped her.

  “We’ll be dead in seconds if you stop,” he advised, coming up with an idea. Activating his gauntlet, he took Nellise around the waist with his other hand and grabbed onto the rope. With the added strength of his relic, Aiden had no trouble carrying Nellise down to the platform below, landing lightly on the ancient flagstones next to Ronan and Sayana’s unmoving form.

  Aiden deactivated the gauntlet, unsure how long it could function and then made room for the others as they slid down the rope, one-by-one. Nellise checked on Sayana while Ronan watched, but Aiden was on alert for trouble and saw it just ahead. Although they had descended roughly twenty-five feet, Aiden and the others were still fifty feet above the true floor of this cavern. The path before them continued onward at a downward slope, leading him to believe they were soon to run afoul of the entire army.

  “Sy’s unconscious, but alive,” Ronan reported. “She must have known what would happen when she came down here,” he added in a low voice.

  “Carry her, we need to keep moving,” Aiden instructed, his eyes scanning the ground below. More undead were starting to climb the supporting columns, so it was only a matter of moments before they would be overwhelmed. Ronan lifted Sayana in his arms and they set out along the platform once more, slowly descending towards the cavern floor.

  At the edge of their light, Aiden could see broken stone buildings, columns and archways from some kind of ancient city. The entire place had clearly fallen from above due to some kind of calamity, and it was possible they were battling the population of this fallen city, animated by Aeldriths’ necromancy.

  The broken floor suddenly shuddered, as if from a massive impact on one of its columns. Glancing over the side, Aiden spotted a number of much larger foes amongst the seething horde that were bashing the columns with their huge skeletal arms, and the ancient stone was beginning to give way.

  “Hold on to something!” Aiden cried as the final blow destroyed the last of the supports, and the far end of the platform plummeted to the ground, sending splinters of stone scattering throughout the host. Aiden and the others lost their footing and slid towards the ground at increasing speed, right into the path of the terrible monsters awaiting them. Aiden raised his arm and sent another bolt of lightning into their ranks, just before he and his companions tumbled into the exploded remains.

  Valennia was the first to regain her footing as the host closed in, and brought her scythe to bear, spinning around with the blade extended and shattering everything it touched. The light from Nellise’s crystal wavered as she tried to recover from the fall, and the army of the dead leaped at them. Filthy claws and bones used like clubs hammered at Aiden, who lashed out with his sword in an effort to regain his footing.

  He had taken a beating by the time he managed to stand up, and did not hesitate to activate his gauntlet. With strength surging through him, he threw off the debilitating effects of the spectre’s fleeting attacks and crashed through the horde, sundering skeletons into dust with each powerful sweep of his ancient sword.

  A giant skeleton loomed over him, its body a grotesque assortment of smaller bones fused unnaturally into a single massive body, with three skulls adorning the top of its torso. It slammed one of its six-foot long arms into the ground where Aiden had been standing a moment before, and followed through with its other, smashing into his unprotected side and sending him rolling across the ground.

  Aiden was quick to get back on his feet and charge back towards it. With his gauntlet starting to glow red with heat, he swept his blade careening through the fused bones on its forward leg, shattering it completely and toppling the creature to the ground like an unholy dead tree. Its bones were thick enough to survive the fall, but not strong enough to survive the incoming strike from Valennia, who leaped through the air and brought her scythe down on its remaining skulls.

  The light from Nellise’s crystal suddenly flared to an incredible brilliance, almost like looking at the heat emanate from a furnace. The intensity of the light shattered nearby smaller skeletons, and charred the larger ones so badly they actually retreated into the darkness.

  Amidst the carnage, Nellise stood holding her crystal aloft, a beautifully serene expression on her exquisite features. The others looking like they had been scratched and beaten quite badly in the assault, but were quickly taking advantage of the lull to regroup.

  “There’s a gate over there,” Ronan yelled, pointing to a wall that stood right at the edge of their vision.

  Aiden quickly deactivated the smoking gauntlet as they followed Sir William over to the massive wooden gate, braced with belts of rusted steel and with a very ominous-looking lock prominently on the front.

  Ronan deposited Sayana against the gate, the sorceress still unmoving in spite of everything. Aiden felt a lump in his throat at the sight of her so pale and lifeless, but he had other concerns to occupy his thoughts at that moment.

  “Pacian, get the door open,” Aiden advised. “Nel, you’re going to have to do something for Sayana — we need her.”

  “That will leave us vulnerable to attack,” the cleric warned, the tone of her voice still sweetly musical despite the gravity of her words.

  “Leave that to us,” Valennia replied grimly, glancing at Aiden and Sir William. “You have become strong in your travels, Aiden. I am in awe of your might.”

  “Don’t get used to it,” Aiden grumbled, glancing down at the still-smoking gauntlet. “I can’t maintain that for very long.”

  “Here they come,” Sir William interrupted, still trying to catch his breath from his efforts. The light from Nellise’s crystal dimmed as she turned her attention to Sayana, and on cue, the skeletal warriors of this damned place returned in force. Pacian started investigating the complexities of the ancient lock while the three warriors took up position around the gate and met the assault with courage and steel.

  Aiden fired another lightning bolt into the mass, blasting many skeletons before more came in to take their place. There would be no victory over the army of the dead — all they could hope for was to hold them off until they made it through the gate.

  Sir William barely had to hit the gathered undead, for the aura of light surrounding Solas Aingeal was enough to cleanse the dead of whatever foul magic suffused their decaying bodies. Valennia smashed apart the ranks of their enemies with sheer power and rage. She didn’t even try to defend herself, relying on
her dwarven-crafted plate armour to deflect the clawing attacks of their unclean enemy.

  Aiden risked a glance behind him, and could plainly see Pacian struggling with the door. Ronan was with him, the two experts seemingly at a loss to figure out the secret to the door’s mechanism. Ronan gave up and began walking up the gate, with his enchanted boots holding to its surface until he disappeared from view.

  “Ronan and I can’t get this bloody lock open,” Pacian reported, “but I reckon there’s a crack through the wall someplace where he can slip in and open it from the other side. Hold out a bit longer and we’ll get this thing open, I swear.”

  “We could use a hand over here!” Aiden called back, lathered in sweat from each swing of his blade.

  “I’ve only got ten bolts left,” Pacian answered, shooting one into the throng. “Make that nine,” he added tersely. Aiden spat a curse and pressed the attack, hoping that Ronan could get the door open before fatigue got the better of him. His breath was coming in laboured gasps, and he was starting to slow when he heard the sound of the latch opening behind them.

  “Get inside, quick!” Ronan blurted as he helped an apparently conscious Sayana to her feet, while Nellise sent out a wave of divine light once more to push back the advancing undead. Aiden staggered through the gate last, then slammed it shut behind them. He leaned forward and pulled out a skeletal hand from his leg, the bloodied bones still squirming about as they tried to work their way further into his flesh. He tossed the hand to one side and shattered it with his sword.

  “Sorry that took so long,” Ronan apologised. “The gate was barred from this side, but I found a crack in the ceiling, just like Pace thought. Nice one, mate.”

  “A lot of good it’s going to do,” Pacian muttered bleakly. “This place will be the end of us.” As he spoke, the ancient doors shuddered as their relentless opponents began hammering upon it. Ronan double-checked to make sure it was secure, but Aiden was beginning to see what Pacian was talking about.