The Sorcerer of Wands: Azabar's Icicle Part 2

by Jem I Kelley

  “R...right,” said Bliss, who despite her quavering voice, kept toe for toe with Aden as they put their energies into a final sprint; a run which would put them under the ice-golem's legs, through the gash in the Argent building, to its interior.

  As Aden approached the gash, cold from the monster congealed like a chill mist around him. Ear rending squeaks erupted as one huge leg entered motion. A hail of ice fell around Aden as the leg lifted. He kept running as the creaks and pops of the vast joints above twisted and turned; he kept running aware a huge foot of ice was poised ready to strike down. As he ran, he dodged earlier victims.

  Crash! The ice-golem’s foot pummelled the ground, missing Aden by inches. He dived forward, landing with a lucky roll and crashing into the rubble around the entrance to the building. The knock left his lungs empty of air. His shoulder and hips exploded in pain and he lay on the floor.

  Twisting his head, he looked back to see Bliss fallen beside the great foot. The shock-wave of the giant’s footfall must have winged her and she now lay dazed between the creature's legs. Aden watched Bliss stir and urged his friend to move. Horror wrapped around his thoughts, as Aden realised one of Bliss’s limbs lay at an unusual angle. The ice-golem raised its foot again, and paused, ready to strike down. Ice and water showered Bliss. Aden prepared for the worst. Bliss, shook her head, opened her eyes and noticed Aden. She gave a weak smile and a thumbs up sign. As the ice-golem’s foot descended, she withdrew an object from her coat pocket and thrust it to the creature's other foot resting near her.

  Bliss and the ice-golem blinked out of existence.

  Chapter 64: The Haverland Traitor

  Bliss had used the disc; had gone to Blissaden, taking the creature with her, realised Aden. Only he was left to stop Azabar now.

  A hand touched his shoulder, in the half-gloom.

  “Are you all right?”

  He turned and looked up, having to peer hard, with few of the gas lamps in the room still operational.

  “Yeah, I’m just…”

  The words trailed off.

  Alicia was standing over him. Bloodstains smudged her face and school shirt. Her forehead held a nasty cut. Aden couldn’t have made his voice sound enthusiastic if he’d tried.

  “What are you doing here?”

  She put out a hand, and helped him to his feet.

  “Mr Hardcastle…”

  She looked disorientated.

  “...he was about to take us on a school trip, three days in Argent. We’d signed in at the reception when the whole place exploded. I must have been knocked out.”

  Aden took in the shadowy mess around him: the argent reception room was in pieces; paper scrolls, furniture and bodies lay scattered like a shipwreck.

  Alicia touched her forehead and winced.

  “There was a massive ice monster outside…”

  “It's gone now,” said Aden, nodding towards the gash in the building's wall.

  Alicia shuddered.

  “Where did the thing come from?”

  Aden felt the anger begin to well up inside.

  “Your father helped a sorcerer attack this place.”

  She blinked and frowned, and her confusion looked genuine.

  “What? My father and a sorcerer working together? But there aren’t any sorcerers.”

  Aden glanced at the bodies near him on the floor. Most looked dead; he hoped they were just unconscious. He saw what might have been Mr Hardcastle in the darkness at the back of the room, the man wasn't moving.

  Feeling the anger in him growing stronger, Aden turned back to face Alicia again.

  “That ice golem was created by a sorcerer. The sorcerer’s name is Azabar. Your father smuggled him into Haverland.”

  Alicia stepped back, she shook her head.

  “No! You’re lying. No, it’s not true.”

  “It is true. I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t help him.”

  Alicia slapped him hard.

  “How dare you!”

  Aden ignored her. Wincing from the bruises he picked up after the encounter with the ice-golem, he staggered past the entrance and called to the soldiers in the distance, asking them to come to the building.

  Shouts returned from the gloom of the evening, telling him to run out, to get to safety until reinforcements arrived, that there was a sorcerer in the building.

  “If we don't so something now,” said Aden turning from the gash in the building to face Alicia again. “Azabar will get the Argent Artefact. We can't wait until the soldier reinforcements come.”

  Alicia touched the gash on her forehead and winced.

  “Why?”

  “Because,” said Aden, feeling time was running out, “he’s had Theodore Stig negotiate with the Argents. If Azabar can open portals there, and bring those metal creatures over at will… well… imagine it.”

  “Of course that might not worry you,” he added. “You like powerful ruthless people, don’t you? After all, it’s a dog eat dog world, you say.”

  Alicia blinked, as if she tried to recall when she might have used such a phrase in front of Aden. It was clear she couldn’t recall such a time, and gave up.

  She shook her head, narrowed her eyes and stood up straight and proud.

  “I don't believe my father is with Azabar on this.”

  Aden felt tired.

  “You’re father brought Azabar to this country. I think he hoped Azabar would fetch some wands and then go to the bugbears besieging Novogorad: be a northern ally for Dazarian. But, he betrayed your father and went for the Argent Artefact instead.

  Alicia seemed to think things through. Then her jaw firm and her expression became one of determination.

  “This is a ‘dog eat dog’ world, Aden. By betraying my father, it’s clear which side Azabar is on - his own. We’ll stop this sorcerer, between us.”

  She turned and picked her way carefully towards a cast-iron door set in the rear of the room. She pulled the handle and heaved.

  “The artefact to Argent is stored in a safe, except of course when someone is using it.”

  Aden followed Alicia into the corridor beyond. Dark pipes snaked along the ceiling, and iron benches sat below paintings of metallic cities. Most of the gas lanterns here were operational and the two increased their pace.

  “Is the artefact in the safe now, or has someone got it booked out.”

  Alicia gave him a worried look.

  “Theodore Stig’s got the artefact.”

  “When will he be back?”

  “Any time now. You better tell me everything you know about this sorcerer he’s working with.”

  Aden told her the essentials, as they walked briskly along the corridor He told her of Azabar’s transformation into a form of vampire a thousand years ago. He told her how he believed the creature had murdered Spud, Munter and Arple; that the sorcerer had a wand which could create ice-golems once a day, and that he had wands which could fire lightning, or freeze people. Then he explained how Bliss had used an artefact to take the ice-golem to Blissaden, probably sacrificing her own life in doing so. At this point Alicia stopped and turned to him.

  “What disc? I haven’t heard of an artefact that goes to a place called Blissaden? How would Bliss get hold of it?”

  Aden made a quick decision, and explained.

  Alicia put her hands to her hips and scowled.

  “You mean to say the Dazarian artefact you stole actually worked?”

  “Yes.”

  Aden was unable to resist a smirk, despite the circumstances. “Bliss and I have been Disc-Men for a week or two now.”

  Alicia’s mouth worked itself into a thin line.

  “So one of the Disc-Artefacts you pinched did work! That artefact should have been mine! I should have explored its world!”

  Aden shrugged.

  “So where did Tanest get those discs from? Somehow I don't think they were from Haverland originally after all.”

  She gave him a shrouded look and didn�
��t reply; Aden pressed her.

  “I've told you the truth, why don't you tell me your truths?”

  Alicia snorted and then muttered under her breath as Aden waited.

  “Oh, very well. A Dazarian border patrol found an ex-Amari observatory high in the mountains to the South-East, a few months back.”

  “And the artefacts were there?”

  “Yes, a cache of thirty piled in the basement.”

  “Had they been tested at the time Bliss and I took two?”

  She gave him a sharp glance

  “What do you think?”

  “Have the rest been tested now?”

  “You don’t need to know.”

  “Mathematically, no more should work.”

  “I’m not going to talk any more about them now, Aden. We don't have time. C'mon.”

  As they raced towards the heart of the building, Aden realized there was one more thing she needed to know. He spoke in a low voice, telling her what he and Bliss had been up to earlier that day.

  Within minutes they'd approached their destination. Alicia explained to Aden that beyond the door at the end of the corridor was a huge room that connected to the transit-room the Disc-Men used to transport to and from Argent.

  They reached the door, and Aden turned the handle, and eased the door ajar and poked his head around.

  He saw a place that smelt of odd odours, lit by overhead gas lanterns. As his eyes adjusted to the brighter light he realised the room was indeed the size of a large warehouse. There was a couple of wagons, long rows of plants and trees and an area of boxes piled high.

  Down one end of the room Azabar was straining to pull a wheel attached to a pulley. Chains slithered and a vast shutter began to raise. Squeals erupted as metal moved against metal.

  “Quick while he’s not looking.”

  Aden stalked into the room and headed for a stack of boxes. A tug on his arm and Alicia’s expression caused him to change direction and find a hiding place amongst a stand of young potted conifers. The trees were in ranks three deep and stood well above Aden’s head and so were perfect cover.

  The two children crouched low, and peered over the tops of the pots, the smell of pine and earth all around them.

  “Where we are now is where goods are stored ready to be transported to Argent,” Alicia told Aden. “Beyond the shutter that Azabar is raising, is the room the Disc-Men use to transport themselves to Argent. The shutter is for security, and is meant to be down when a disc-man returns. If anything dangerous comes through that danger would have to fight their way past plates of iron whilst a massive set of spikes gets dropped on them from above.”

  “Nice!”

  Alicia smiled.

  “The spikes can be dropped to prevent anything returning: displacement theory.”

  Aden remembered what he’d heard. That if something occupied the surrounding area of return, the artefact wouldn’t function.

  He watched Azabar tying the shutter too, now it had been raised. He saw another wheel and set of chains near to where Azabar stood.

  “I suppose the spike release is there?”

  “Yes.”

  “No chance we’ll be able to get to it?”

  “No.”

  Now the rattle of the chains and the squeal of the metal on metal had stopped, Aden became aware of chirrups and grunts and oinks in the nearby boxes that he'd originally planned to hide behind.

  “What’s the noise?”

  Alicia jerked her head.

  “Caged animals and birds. If we’d have hid there they’d have made a racket every time we moved.”

  Aden was confused.

  “What do the Argents want with trees and birds and pigs?”

  “They’re fascinated by them. There’s nothing like it on their world.”

  “If they like life, perhaps they won’t go along with Azabar’s plan quite like he thinks? Theodore Stig told us they don’t have wars on their world any more, that the soldiers are redundant.”

  Alicia seemed doubtful.

  “Soldiers redundant? Then why keep them?”

  A gnome-like figure blinked into existence. With him appeared a metal container the size of a room. Aden watched as Theodore Stig took a deep breath and smiled tiredly.

  Azabar addressed the toy-maker.

  “There was delay, yes?”

  Theodore Stig pulled a lever on the container and one side of it crashed to the floor, revealing figures within.

  “The small Haverland garrison in Argent just wouldn’t listen to reason. The Argent prime machine for the sector explained to them they wouldn’t be harmed if they surrendered, but...”

  Azabar waited as Theodore approached him and handed a Disc-Artefact over. Aden could see Azabar inspect the Disc-Artefact before dropping it into his cloak’s inner pocket.

  “Then they didn’t surrender?”

  Theodore Stig waved his hands in frustration.

  “No. They were fools. Even I talked to the garrison commander. I tried to explain it was obvious an advanced nation would want to own the building any artefact jumped to; that they would have their security concerns just as the Haverlanders do. Of course I didn’t tell him that our Argent friends promised to send us an army so we could bring peace to the world.”

  “Were there casualties?”

  Stig’s head bobbed, “Some, only a few. The Argents gave restraint in every action they took. They lost two of their own soldiers because of their efforts to not harm the Haverland garrison.”

  “Regardless, the Disc-Artefact's destination point. It is now controlled by our allies, yes?” Asked Azabar impatiently.

  “Yes.”

  Azabar marched towards the container.

  “Then let us now ensure this building is controlled by us too. Come forth my allies: be known.”

  The noise, which had come from the container, a dull rumble, increased to a rhythmic puff and Aden watched in fascination as figures emerged. The beings resembled the small statue of an Argent soldier machine, that Theodore Stig had placed in the Haverland Museum. Spikes jutted from elbows, knees and shoulders; swords issued from wrists, and the hands had knife like fingers; a small pipe to one side of each machine’s head issued percussive gouts of steam.

  One machine was different, a wider torso and no arms. As the others achieved formation outside the container, this unique unit came to a stop before Azabar.

  “I commander for expeditionary. Instructed to take orders from the Lord Azabar. You are the Lord Azabar?”

  “Indeed,” purred Azabar, obviously impressed by the 'Lord' prefix.

  “Haverlanders take…. Names… you may call me by name… Clangthrudhiss. I am to aid establishment of bridgehead. One thousand of sector’s soldiers are promised to you.”

  Alicia nudged Aden.

  “One thousand of those things brought across to bring peace? Oh, please. Just how naïve is Stig?”

  Aden didn’t know what to make of the steam creatures he saw before him, other than that they were the most fearsome soldiers he’d ever seen.

  “Still sure whose side you’re on?”

  Alicia’s voice was sharp.

  “I don’t just follow blind power. I’m not that shallow or simple. Azabar must be stopped; I’ve no doubts about it.”

  At that moment a voice sounded clear across the room, it came from the door Alicia and Aden had passed through.

  “Who goes there?!”

  Aden and Alicia shuffled to the other edge of the potted conifers. They peered through the branches and they saw a contingent of Haverland infantry file into the room and spread out. There were about ten soldiers visible; Aden heard more boot steps approaching from the corridor. The men adjusted their chain mail shirts and slid their arms into straps of shields; swords dangled at their sides.

  Azabar turned to face the Haverland soldiers and his expression was scornful.

  “I am Azabar. This building is mine. All but one representative of your people, depart now.”
>
  A man with the lion of Haverland upon his shield and a pot helm on head marched ten paces and stopped. He drew his sword and levelled it in the direction of Azabar.

  “I am Captain Harcourt of the Kings’ guards of Haverland. You, Sir, are under arrest for the destruction you have wrought to this building and the deaths of my men. Those things with you will stand aside.”

  Azabar drew a wand from the pocket of his coat and aimed it at Harcourt. Lightning leapt across the gap and sizzled into the chest of the Captain. He gave a cry and fell instantly to the floor. He didn’t stir.

  A cry rose from his men, some thirty strong now, and they charged. Aden felt Alicia’s hand grip his and hold it tight as the two of them shuffled back to a position in the conifers that allowed them to watch events close to where Azabar stood.

  The Argent soldiers moved in response. Jerky fluid steps and they’d formed a crescent around Azabar and Theodore. The toymaker cowered in fright. The King’s infantry crashed into the Argent line like a wave hitting a sea wall. Those whose swords had met the torso or limbs of the Argent soldiers now stood gripping their arms; for the shock of impact against solid metal caused them to lose grip on their weapons.

  Such men died in seconds as the Argent wrist swords sliced through necks or punctured chests. The Argents whirled onto the second wave of infantry, wrist swords flashing. They scythed half the Haverland infantry down like corn, the rest turned and ran.

  “Theodore, take Clangthrudhiss and secure entrance to building, yes? Also, I would know why the ice-golem let these soldiers through. Perhaps something happen to it? If so we must prevail until my wand has recharged, and until we can bring more Argent soldier across. The next half hour, it will be crucial.”

  Theodore Stig picked himself up and walked cautiously to the door. His journey forced him to step over bodies of the King’s guards. He looked shaken and his voice quivered.

  “Yes…. Yes of course Azabar. What a frightful loss of life.”

  “At start, bloodshed, it will be necessary; little bloodshed, not much. Then people will listen.”

  “Yes, you are right, Azabar, of course you are.”