Dawn of Darkness: Book 1 - Full (Where The Shadows Stalk)

by Adam Watson

  Yes, you would know what to do, wouldn't you old man? His father would have known what to do, his father always knew what to do, his father would have the gold back by now, and he would be sleeping on silk cushions and eating caramelised pork belly for dinner! Oh, I bet you would have put up a better fight than me too. The thought made Aiden seethe, mainly because it was true. He probably would have knocked Hammar straight out, making a complete arse out of him at the same time. Oh, how Aiden would have loved to have seen that! He would have loved to have done it himself even more; he grinned maniacally at the thought.

  This was getting him nowhere though, as much as he wanted to spend his time contemplating how he was going to wreak his revenge and get his gold back, he had more pressing concerns. Like what was he going to eat, where was he going to sleep, and more importantly, would he have to drink out of the horse trough again?

  He really didn’t want to do that again, at least not tonight, but where else was he going to get a drink? The tavern?! He needed money to drink at the tavern unless he wanted to drink the dregs out of the other customer’s empty mugs. No! He would rather drink the trough water again than resort to that.

  He cursed Hammar again for putting him in this situation and then tried to put a hex on him. He wasn’t actually sure how to put a hex on Hammar, by the gods, he wasn’t even sure what a hex was, but he knew it was bad, and if it was bad for Hammar, then it was good for him. If he still had his ten gold, he could have slept and dined like a king for a very long time.

  Aiden took a deep breath and sighed - now he was depressed. It’s going to be back to the cold, harsh streets. The bitter cold - it was something that he had never wanted to face again, but in the pit of his stomach he knew he would be and it would probably be tonight. I need to find work. At this point in time, anything would do; anything that got him out of the cold and let him sleep with a full belly would do.

  ***

  It had taken two days and two miserable nights, but Aiden finally found himself a job. On the first day, he had been picky and was trying to get a nice cushy job with a high pay. The second day, after the first day failed to yield results, he chose a different tactic, which was basically going into every shop and business that he happened upon and asked if they had any jobs available. Eventually, one elderly gentleman that went by the curious name of Gustavo Penchulla Rostonov offered him a job as an assistant shopkeeper.

  Aiden was hired on a trial basis and told that both his conditions of work and pay would improve depending on his performance. To start with he would be earning one copper a day. It wasn’t much, but what sealed the deal for him was when Gus told him that three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, would be included in the arrangement and that there was a small storage room not being used which he could use as a makeshift bedroom - as far as Aiden was concerned the coppers were a bonus.

  ***

  And so, it came to be. Aiden became a store hand at Gustavo’s General Store, and over the next few weeks he helped out by moving supplies in from the back, restocking the shelves, keeping everything neat and tidy and occasionally he would even serve customers.

  Life was starting to look up for Aiden, he had accumulated just over one hundred and twenty coppers. He hadn’t spent a single one since he started his job. Gustavo’s wife Jelana keep him full with hearty meals; serving him big breakfasts, filling lunches and exquistite dinners. He felt so full afterwards he had never had to buy food. Water was plentiful too, and sometimes Gustavo would even share his wine with Aiden. They were growing close, and the couple started to treat Aiden like the son they never had.

  Night time was a joy. The couple would let Aiden relax with them by the fire in the living room, and at night Aiden had a nice straw filled mattress to sleep on with woollen blankets to keep him warm. Gustavo had given the items as a reward for being such a loyal, trusty and hard worker.

  Aiden never grew up envisaging that the life of a storeman would be his destiny, but he was starting to get used to the lifestyle, he was even thinking less about his revenge and more about his future. He was comfortable living this way and now felt content with his life, but the problem with being content is – that it never lasts.

  ***

  One day Aiden was in the store trying out his handyman skills. He had noticed that one of the shelves had been loose for a while and he had finally decided that today was the day that he would put an end to that. Today he brought with him a hammer and some nails.

  His plan was to fix the shelf whilst Gustavo and Jelana were at the market getting supplies. He wasn't even going to tell Gustavo that he fixed it. Instead, he was going to hang back and see how long it took for him to notice. Aiden figured it wouldn’t take very long at all, Gustavo knew every square inch of that shop like the back of his hand, and he had only complained about the shelf two days prior.

  Aiden was excited, Gus was going to be so happy when he finally realised that Aiden had fixed it - and without him asking. Aiden could imagine him now. First, he would be pottering around, stocking the shelves. Then he would realise the shelf didn’t move anymore and then he would probably have a big look around the room to see if anyone else knew the shelf didn’t move anymore. Of course, they wouldn’t, they wouldn’t have any idea, except for Aiden, who would have to stop himself from smiling and pretend that he didn’t even know it was fixed.

  When Gus finally realised it was Aiden who had fixed the shelf, he would probably be so happy that he would actually dance around the shop. Then he would lavish praise upon Aiden, and probably even give him a big hug. Aiden was secretly hoping that Gus would tell Jelana to make one of her special desserts. Aiden’s mouth started watering, she had made some kind of bread and butter pudding the other night, and it was delicious! All right … back to work Aiden. He needed to get this shelf fixed before they got back or else his entire plan would become undone.

  ***

  A short time later Aiden was busy working on the shelf when three men walked in. Aiden looked around, Gus and Jelana weren't back yet, obviously, which meant he would have to serve them himself. He sighed, it annoyed him because he wanted to get the shelf fixed before they got back. He stopped what he was doing and walked behind the counter to serve them.

  "Can I help you, Sir?" The man looked around the store, trying to take it all in before turning back to Aiden.

  "This shop seems to be doing well," he commented. Aiden could hardly argue, Gustavo was a lot wealthier than most in the city.

  "Yeah, it does pretty well."

  "So, it’s a busy place, is it?"

  "Yeah, well it's quiet right now, but most of the time it’s quite busy."

  "Good to hear, this sounds exactly like the kind of business we're looking for." Aiden just smiled meekly in response, not really knowing what the man meant by that.

  "Er ... good? So how exactly can I help you?" The man waved his hands out on front of him.

  "No, no, no, this is not about how you can help us, but about how we can help you." Aiden was puzzled, he had no idea what the man was talking about.

  "How ... you ... can help me?" he repeated.

  “Exactly,” grinned the man. Aiden eyed the other two men that were with him, they just stood behind him and stared. Aiden had a bad feeling about this - it was starting to feel like Hammar’s all over again.

  “And how exactly do you want to help me?” The man smiled again, his teeth were very white - too white in Aiden’s book.

  “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Kass, and I am a representative of the Red Hand.” Aiden furrowed his eyebrow trying to make sense of it all.

  “And what exactly is the Red Hand?” This time it was Kass who appeared genuinely surprised.

  “You’ve never heard of the Red Hand?” Aiden shrugged nonchalantly.

  “Nope.”

  “The Red Hand is an organisation that offers protection to fine establishments such as this one.” Protection? thought Aiden. Why would he need protection? It wasn’t
like there was a band of marauding raiders rampaging through the city.

  "Protection from what?" The man moved a little closer to the counter.

  "Thieves, bandits ... people who want to damage your property. The world is full of people like this, and we can protect you from them."

  "Hmm, I don't think so. We've never had any problems before." Suddenly there was a bang on the floor, Aiden turned to see what it was and there he saw a broken bag and flour covering the vicinity where one of the other men stood.

  Aiden couldn’t believe it. Did he just do what I think he just did? Did that man just throw a bag of flour onto the floor? Now he was going to have to clean it up - his blood immediately began to boil.

  "Did you just throw a bag of flour on the floor?” he asked curtly. The man shrugged and shook his head.

  “No.”

  “Well, what’s that on the floor next to you then?” The man shrugged again.

  “It was like that when I got here?” he answered. Aiden closed his eyes and took a deep breath. What did they think he was … stupid? Suddenly there was another bang on the floor, he quickly opened his eyes to see more flour strewn. Aiden had had enough of this.

  “You three need to get out of here … right now!” The man in front of him put his hands up in a calming motion.

  “If you had our protection, we could stop things like this from happening. This is how it’s going to be … you give us twenty percent of your profits, and we give you all the protection you need.” Aiden closed his eyes again. Was this really happening? Was he actually being accosted by three unruly gentlemen in Gustavo’s shop? He opened his eyes. They were still there, he sighed - this wasn’t going to end well.

  “Get out of this shop now!”

  “It seems like you’re not willing to listen to reason,” said the man.

  “Boss, I found pickaxes.” The Red Hand leader nodded to the underling.

  “Very good … pickaxes are very useful,” he stated, turning back to Aiden. Aiden may have looked like he was calm on the outside, but on the inside, he was a seething cauldron. You touch anything else in this shop, you slimy bastards, and I’ll shove that pickaxe up each and every one of your arses! “Shall we show you what we can do with a pickaxe?” Aiden shook his head ‘no’, but the leader was having none of it. “Yes, I think we should. Gentlemen … do what you do best.”

  With that command, the two men proceeded to smash up the store. Aiden stood there in disbelief, unable to fathom what was happening. Then he saw the pickaxe go through the very shelf he was in the process of fixing and all rationale went out of the window.

  Grabbing Gustavo’s cudgel from under the counter, he swung over and planted his boot straight into the chest of the leader who immediately fell to the ground, winded.

  Aiden leapt over the leader and continued his mad dash through the store; his eyes were on the man that had smashed up his shelf.

  “YOU’RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT!” The man had just enough time to raise the handle of the pickaxe up. Aiden grabbed it and used his momentum to smash the man’s face. The man dropped to the floor with a broken and bloody nose – but that was only the start of his pain.

  Aiden quickly swung the cudgel down, striking the man in the face three times; turning it bloody and broken. He stood up and pointed to the other heavy.

  “YOU’RE NEXT!” he shouted, pointing the cudgel at him. The man smiled at him nervously, he was used to fighting, but he wasn’t used to seeing his friend lying on the ground in a pool of blood. He lifted the pickaxe in front of him, waiting for Aiden’s onslaught. Fool, Aiden thought.

  He walked into the man’s strike zone, the man smiled and swung wildly just as Aiden knew he would. He took a step back letting the pickaxe swing by then stepped back in clubbing the man on the temple. Aiden then brought the cudgel down with all his might, crashing into the side of the man’s knee and causing him to collapse to the ground.

  Aiden was just about to bloody the man’s face up when out of the corner of his eye he saw the leader coming for him. He dived out of the way, smashing through one of the shelves and coming out in the next aisle. The leader ran around to get him and when he did Aiden spear-tackled him to the ground. He quickly scrambled up on top of the man and starting punching him in the face. Blood was on his fist, blood was on the floor, the leader’s face was covered in it, Aiden didn’t want to stop, but at that moment Gustavo and Jelana walked through the door.

  “What’s going on here?” demanded Gustavo.

  “Get out of here Gus! We’re being attacked!” Gustavo walked in, unconcerned by the violence he was seeing, Jelana was right behind him, seemingly more concerned about the state of the store rather than the fight taking place.

  “Aiden stop.” Aiden looked at Gustavo in bewilderment.

  “What?!”

  “Aiden stand down, I know who these people are.” Aiden slowly got off of the leader, never taking his eyes off him once.

  “Gustavo, you know what’s going on here?” The leader rolled over to his hands and knees, blood dripped on the floor, but he seemed as surprised as Aiden to hear Gustavo’s words.

  “Yes, these fine gentlemen are members of the Red Hand are they not?” Aiden nodded, but he was still confused.

  “Yes … how did you know?”

  “The symbols on their lapels tell me exactly who they are.” Aiden looked, there on the small of the lapels were symbols of tiny red hands and above them were a series of dots. The leader looked up bloody and bruised.

  “You know the code?” Gustavo nodded, suddenly the leader had a realisation when he looked upon Gustavo’s own lapels.

  “Y-You’re B-Black Sun?” Gustavo smiled sardonically.

  “I am.”

  “I told you this place was the Black Suns!” shouted the first man Aiden had pummelled. He was pulling himself to his feet, holding the cut that was dripping profusely above his eye. “The signs were out there.”

  “This one,” said the leader pointing at Aiden. “Had no identification.” Gustavo walked over to the man, offering him a rag to wipe the blood off of his face with.

  “He is not part of the Black Suns. He is not part of that world.” The leader wiped his mouth with the rag; he held it out in front of him, taking note of how much blood there was on it.

  “Well, maybe he should be. He just cleaned the three of us up … not an easy task.”

  “The Red Hand will have no part of that,” answered Gustavo, the leader nodded.

  “Very well. We will move on.” Gustavo took the leaders hand in his.

  “It seems there was a misunderstanding. Unfortunately, you came here on the day that I was away getting supplies. I won’t hold you responsible, but I will need compensation for the damage to my shop.” The leader looked around, the place was trashed. Broken shelves and containers lay scattered around, the contents of bags and boxes were strewn across the floor.

  “The Red Hand will compensate the Black Suns for its losses. Again, we apologise for the misunderstanding and hope this brings no ill-will towards either faction.” The leader bowed formally and then went over to help his two associates out of the store. Aiden just stood there completely stunned, still trying to fathom what was happening in front of him.

  “Aiden, are you all right?” Aiden stood there blankly. “Aiden? Aiden?” Aiden shook his head and turned to Gustavo, the end of the cudgel covered in blood.

  “Gus … I’m sorry Gus, I tried to stop them, but they destroyed the shop.” Gus rubbed Aiden’s arm, reassuring him like a father would to a son.

  “Aiden, I’m just glad you’re all right. Now come this way.” Gus grabbed Aiden by the arm and pulled him towards the back room, where it was a bit more private. Jelana closed up the shop.

  In the back room, Gustavo sat Aiden down at the table and then sat across from him on the other side.

  “Aiden, I need to tell you some things about us … about me … that I didn’t want to tell you about, but now I feel like the time
has come and I have no choice.” Aiden felt concerned, he had never seen Gus this serious, and he had never heard Gus talk like this.

  “Why? … Why couldn’t you tell me?”

  “I wanted to keep you out of it. You’re a good kid Aiden, you deserve to live a good life.” Aiden wasn’t so sure that he wanted to hear what Gus had to say, whatever it was it didn’t sound particularly good.

  “Amalicia City is a very prosperous city. There is a lot of money in it. There are many businesses covering all sorts of different trades. People sell fish, they sell apples, they sell clothes, they sell armour, they sell weapons … they will even sell you food for your horse.” Aiden studied the table, he didn’t want to look into Gus’s eyes in case he didn’t like what he heard. “All these businesses Aiden, are controlled by a series of guilds.”

  “But that’s normal when it comes to businesses, isn’t it?” Aiden wasn’t much of a businessman, but he knew enough to know that there were guilds in every city.

  “Not those kind of guilds, Aiden. The guilds in this city are dangerous, there are many rules … and they are enforced with extreme violence.”

  “And the Red Hand is a guild? Is that why they started smashing up the place?” Gustavo nodded sadly.

  “They are. They came in here because they thought that this shop was unguilded, a shop that is not guilded is considered free reign for all. Had I been here I would have been able to show them my markings and they would have left quietly. You didn’t know what they were talking about and so they tried to convince you to join them using violence and intimidation - shopkeepers don’t usually fight back.” That thought made Gustavo smile, he hadn’t expected that Aiden would be such a good fighter.

  “Are you part of the Red Hand, Gus?”

  “No Aiden, not the Red Hand. I’m part of the Black Suns. The Black Suns is the most powerful guild in Amalicia, no others would dare mess with them. Even the Red Hand cowered away once they realised who really owned this shop.” It was all starting to make sense to Aiden now, but he still couldn’t believe it, he hadn’t suspected a thing until now.