Soldiers of Ruin

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “I can scarcely believe it,” Nellise whispered, her hand unconsciously grasping Pacian’s. “The duke seemed like such a kindly old man. What would he stand to gain by working with assassins and traitors?”

  “He wants to be king,” Ronan remarked. “Who doesn’t want more power and control in their life?” At that moment, Aiden was struck with a terrible thought.

  “Princess Criosa is under lock and key in the castle,” he breathed. “She’s right where he wants her and if the duke wanted us dead, he might be about to make his next move.”

  “We need to get back as soon as possible,” Pacian agreed. “It’ll take us days to dig through that collapsed passage.” Aiden nodded absently as he carefully placed the book into his backpack.

  “We can grieve over Sir William’s loss after we have avenged his death,” he stated bluntly. “Gather up your gear, we’re going to find another way out of this place.”

  “There might be some arcane method Aeldrith used to move around,” Sayana pointed out as she knelt down to investigate. “I can see that most of those parchments you threw to the floor carry an aura of power with them.” Aiden glanced around and shifted his sight until he could see what she was referring to, and saw that practically everything here was suffused with magic. He scooped up the scrolls and leafed through them for anything useful.

  “While you go through all of that, I am going to sanctify this place,” Nellise said quietly. “If this is to be Sir William’s grave, I will not have his remains defiled.”

  Aeldrith had acquired a large number of arcane scrolls in his time, or had possibly even created them himself. If his history was correct, Aiden figured the ancient wizard had been here for over two centuries, before the official formation of the Kingdom of Aielund itself. Incantations of staggering power were inscribed onto the parchments, and despite their predicament, Aiden was in awe of the collection he held before him. After several minutes of careful reading, he found what he was looking for.

  “This will get us out of here,” he announced, reading through the script in detail. Everyone except Nellise was seated on the stone floor of the laboratory, exhausted and lost after their costly victory. Their hope began to rekindle as Aiden spoke, however.

  “Will it blast that passage open?” Pacian asked curiously.

  “If I read this correctly, we will be instantly transported to a location of my choosing.”

  “… Is it safe?” Ronan asked as everyone responded with blank stares. “What happens if you read it incorrectly?”

  “Very bad things,” Aiden surmised after a cursory examination. “The greater the distance, the greater the risk, so to be on the safe side I’ll take us to the deck of the Redoubtable.”

  “Study that incantation well, Aiden,” Sayana advised sternly. “I do not wish to be dropped into the sea, or someplace worse.” Taking her advice, Aiden spent the next hour studying the scroll while Nellise went about sanctifying the cavern. The cleric sprinkled drops of blessed water on the floor and walls, whispering prayers as she went.

  Aiden took al of the scrolls, certain they would come in handy sooner rather than later and carefully picked up Aeldrith’s staff.

  “Can I take a look at that?” Sayana asked, pointing to the staff. Aiden nodded and handed it to her, curious as to what she’d make of the arcane weapon. The sorceress held it close to her, eyes closed for a long moment, before she nodded to herself.

  “Well?” Aiden prompted as he retrieved his gauntlet.

  “I think I can make use of this,” she replied softly. “Let me hold onto it for a while.”

  Nearby, Valennia found something of interest on the cold stone floor, bending down to pick up what appeared to be a shard of curved bone from the reanimated dragon corpse. It was nearly as large as her arm and although cracked and chipped, the akoran warrior strapped it to her pack. When she noticed Aiden watching her, she quietly explained what she was doing.

  “I failed to slay the dragon in the mountains when given the chance, but when I return to my homeland with this horn, none will dispute my victory over this one.”

  “Does it matter that it was already dead when we got here?” Ronan pointed out.

  “They don’t need to hear that part,” Valennia responded.

  Aiden’s attention was caught by Nellise standing over Solas Aingeal, the sword still lying on the stone where Sir William had dropped it during the fight. Cautiously, she wrapped her hand in cloth and gracefully knelt down to pick it up, but hesitated. At the last moment she cast aside the cloth and grasped the hilt of the blade with her bare hand.

  “Don’t touch that!” Pacian cried out in alarm as she picked up the sword. Aiden watched cautiously as Nellise seemed to gape in awe at something only she could see, but nothing untoward happened to her. After a moment, she looked at Aiden with a strange gleam in her eye and sheathed the weapon on her hip.

  “When we are done with Fairloch, I will return and finish what Sir William started,” she declared softly. “The man behind all of this must be brought to justice first. Farewell for now, William. I shall return.”

  “Are you okay?” Pacian hesitantly asked Nellise as the rest of the group joined them.

  “Of course,” she replied curiously. “What did you think would happen when I picked up the sword?”

  “Oh… nothing,” Pacian mumbled.

  “Okay, everyone join hands,” Aiden instructed. The incantation seemed to involve holding an image of the place he wanted to go in his mind, and to feel it like he was actually there. The more detailed his inner vision, the more accurate the incantation would be. Picturing the deck of the ship it in his mind, he could practically smell the salt air and hear the creak of the rigging.

  “Brace yourselves,” Aiden said before he lost his focus. He spoke the words of power from the parchment, and moments later, the parchment crumbled to smoking ash in his hands and they were pulled to the left, as though they were falling sideways. The sensation didn’t persist for long, and they suddenly found themselves on the bridge of the Redoubtable, much to the surprise of the crew.

  “Good God,” Captain Sherrard exclaimed in shock as he whirled around to witness their strange arrival.

  “Relax, Captain, it’s just us,” Aiden assured him, satisfied that he’d managed to pull off the difficult reading without error. Sayana weaved about on the deck as though she were about to faint, and Pacian bolted for the rail to return his lunch to the sea.

  “If you have the means, I would strongly suggest you announce your impending arrival in future,” the captain advised, pointing up to the crow’s nest, where two marines had their powerful, compact bows levelled at them.

  “I’m sorry about the abrupt appearance, but we don’t have a lot of time,” Aiden apologised.

  “You continue to surprise me, Mister Wainwright,” Sir Denholm remarked. “I suppose I shall have to write the longboat off as a loss, but I assume you have good reason for abandoning valuable materiel. Wait, where is Sir William?”

  “He didn’t make it,” Aiden replied with a catch in his voice. “This whole trip was a diversion, and I have good reason to believe the duke sent us here to die. We only made it out through Sir William’s sacrifice.”

  “The duke a traitor?” Sir Denholm barked. “I should hope you have evidence to back up your claim sir, for to accuse a member of the royal court of treason is met with the most severe punishment.”

  “Make for Fairloch with all speed, Captain,” Aiden gruffly advised. “We can tell you all about it along the way.”

  * * *

  Aiden stood on the shore, looking at the most exquisite sunset he’d ever laid eyes on. Light cascaded across the distant clouds in hues of pink and orange, yet he felt a sadness in his heart that he couldn’t quite define. A gentle breeze drifted past, teasing the sand at his feet into tiny whirlwinds that danced into the distance.

  The end comes to us all, but for some, sooner than it should, a familiar, deep voice spoke in his mind. Lo
oking to his right, Aiden saw the towering golden form of the dragon Salinder in all his glory, sitting upon his haunches and gazing out to sea. There were no signs of age or injury upon his sleek hide.

  “Am I dreaming?” Aiden asked, unperturbed by the sudden appearance of the dragon.

  After a fashion, Salinder replied, still staring straight ahead. Your recovery of an intact crystal sphere from Feybourne has facilitated easier communications between us. Aiden looked down at his hands and for the first time, noticed he was holding the crystalline sphere in his hands. It will come in useful in the coming days. I only wish it did not involve the death of one of my few remaining cousins.

  “Vindictus was your relative,” Aiden stated with a sigh as he recalled the terrible fight against the dragon in Feybourne. “I’m sorry it had to come to that. He was trying to kill us.”

  Long had he fought against the mortals of this world, Salinder explained. In centuries past, he was hunted by your kind for eating their cattle. He did not recognise humanity’s claim upon the beasts and chose to fight back. The war consumed him until there was nothing left but hatred. Thousands of mortals perished at his behest and yet… he was my cousin, and with his demise we are now seven.

  “Seven?” Aiden repeated. “There are only seven dragons left in Feydwiir?”

  Technically six, as I am not of that world any longer, the dragon corrected.

  “I am sorry for your loss,” Aiden mouthed, uncertain what else he could say.

  As I am for yours, Salinder added.

  “You know about that?”

  I have been watching you constantly since your recovery of that sphere. Had you taken it with you to the isle, I could have interceded and his death might have been avoidable. But what is done, is done. Aiden nodded glumly, his eyes drawn to the horizon once more.

  “Did you know the sceptre didn’t exist?” he asked after a short pause.

  My memory is not what it used to be, Aiden. There are countless relics from times past that have faded into history, and not all were known to my kind. I knew only what you did, for my senses were limited to the sphere, which you left in your room during all of your important meetings in the castle.

  “I couldn’t very well walk around holding a priceless relic in everyone’s face so you could see what was happening,” Aiden admonished him a little more harshly than he’d intended. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

  It is of no moment. You must continue your search for a way to stop the Ironlord, or your lands will be scoured of all life. The weight of Aiden’s responsibility, forgotten for a time, returned in full force at these words, though there was nothing further he could do at this point. They’d thrown all their hopes into locating the Sceptre of Oblivion, only to discover it wasn’t even real.

  “I will redouble my efforts to help find a way,” Aiden assured the dragon, “but first, we must confront the duke and eliminate the corruption from the palace. Only then can we move forward to find a way to stop the Ironlord.”

  Justice must be served, Salinder agreed. It catches up with us all, in the end. Aiden nodded, and the two of them looked out to the brilliant sky over the water, listening to the waves crashing to shore and thinking of those that were no longer with them.

  * * *

  The mood aboard ship was as gloomy as the leaden grey sky when they dropped anchor near the harbour, before noon the next day. Captain Sherrard could not dispute the evidence present in either the tome or Sir Godfrey’s journal, and his anger was like a cold thunder rolling across the sea.

  “Would that I could sail directly to the castle and unleash seven kinds of hell upon this blaggard,” he thundered. “I shall have to settle for speaking to him with my God-given voice, as opposed to the one offered by my ship’s armament.”

  “We appreciate your offer to accompany us, Captain,” Nellise said in an effort to placate him. “Your presence will add credibility to our claim.” The cleric appeared tired and worn from a restless night, and the rest of Aiden’s companions didn’t look much better.

  The captain signalled the shore for a longboat to be sent and once it arrived, they set off to the docks as quickly as possible. The weather was growing unsettled as the day wore on, with another heavy snowfall likely before long. It was business as usual on the docks as they disembarked from the longboat.

  It was just past noon by the time Aiden and his determined comrades made their way through the streets of Fairloch, its citizens oblivious to the corruption at the heart of their government. Families hurried along the streets as the weather started to turn, mothers herding their loud children to shelter as a storm blew into town. The castle loomed above the surrounding buildings, growing larger with each passing moment, but when they came close enough to see the main gate, Aiden saw that the drawbridge had been raised, blocking all access to the main keep.

  “Okay, I wasn’t expecting this,” he remarked softly, pondering this development as they stopped in the middle of the road. Sir Denholm took a more pragmatic approach to the problem.

  “You there, why is the drawbridge raised?” he asked of a nearby city watchman.

  “I don’t know, sir,” the portly man replied. “It went up last night and nobody has been able to figure out why. Can’t get in there to ask ‘em, see?”

  “They would not raise the bridge unless the castle was under attack,” the captain quietly remarked to Aiden, removing his plumed, wide-brim hat to run a hand through his hair. “Or perhaps, if there were some other emergency within those walls.”

  “This has to be connected to the duke,” Pacian added. “The bastard gets us out of the way for a few days, and then moves ahead with whatever else he had planned.”

  “The princess is locked in there with him,” Aiden warned. “He may be trying to force her cooperation. We have to get in there.”

  “The thing about castles is they’re designed to prevent exactly that,” Ronan pointed out. “Can’t you do that transport spell thing again?”

  “I only had one of those scrolls,” Aiden lamented, then looked hopefully at Sayana. “Unless you managed to figure out how to duplicate it?”

  “I was barely able to stand when you invoked that one, let alone figure out the pattern of energy,” Sayana replied ruefully. “Sorry.”

  “Alright, so how would you get in there, if you had to?” Aiden asked the retired thief, who appeared to ponder this question for a moment.

  “I’d ask her,” he eventually replied, pointing to someone standing at the edge of the street not far away. Turning to look, Aiden saw the familiar face of Sparky, the raelani thief they’d first encountered with the thieves guild weeks ago. For all intents and purposes, she appeared to be a human girl of roughly ten years of age, but there was a look of deliberate cunning in her eyes that no child possessed.

  “Sparky,” Ronan greeted her laconically.

  “‘Hawk,” the girl replied without pretence, her eyes darting around nervously. “Someone else in the castle is calling the shots,” she explained. “There was a raid on the guild the night before last, and even though they were dressed in city watch uniforms, it wasn’t the real coppers — these were some hard bastards who had no problem killing a few of us to get our cooperation.”

  “How did you escape?” Ronan asked.

  “You know me, ‘Hawk, I never get caught,” Sparky replied. “It was a close call this time, I’ll say that much for them. I managed to slip out in the middle of the scuffle, but anyone they didn’t kill, they took into the castle right before the bridge went up.”

  “I don’t understand what your dishonourable people have to do with all this,” Valennia asked gruffly.

  “Me either, though a lot of them think you’re responsible, ‘Hawk,” Sparky continued. “Reckon you gave away their location as part of some deal with your new friends in the Watch.”

  “That’s a bloody lie and you know it,” Ronan said with uncharacteristic passion. “You’re like a sister to me Simone, and the others
like extended family. I’d never betray the guild.”

  “Our answers lie inside the castle’s walls,” Nellise interrupted. “Can you help us get in there?”

  “Yeah I know a way,” Sparky replied. “It hasn’t been used in a few decades, and you’re not going to like how—”

  “It’s through the sewers, isn’t it?” Aiden sighed.

  “Yeah, but it’s the clean part,” Sparky said with a wink.

  “You’re not taking the word of this street-thief are you?” Sir Denholm asked incredulously. “For all you know, she’s been paid to lead you into yet another trap.”

  “No, I haven’t,” Sparky protested. “Although if I had been paid, I certainly wouldn’t tell you about it, so he has a point.”

  “We should go to the City Watch house and rouse the local guardsmen to action,” the captain suggested. “We will find a way in if we have to bring that gate down with siege weapons.”

  “Making a hell of a lot of noise in the process,” Pacian pointed out. “Whatever they’re doing in there, you’re not going to stop it with a frontal assault. Sparky may be unreliable, but she’s still our best bet at getting in there undetected.”

  “I don’t like it sir, not one bit,” Sir Denholm muttered. He looked to Aiden for his decision.

  “We do both,” he said. “Captain, get the local authorities to do what they can from out here. We’re going to follow Sparky in and see if we can infiltrate the castle and lower the bridge from the inside.”

  “Very well, I shall meet with the Watch Commander and entreat his aid,” the captain replied. “I wish you Godspeed and good fortune, ladies and gentlemen.” With that, he brusquely turned and began speaking with the nearby watchman, before they quickly strode off down the road.

  “This way,” Sparky whispered, gesturing for them to follow her. As Aiden suspected, there was a sewer grate in the alleyway she opened up and one by one, they descended into the foul environment.