Soldiers of the Heavens

by Stephen L. Nowland

  Chapter Three

  Aiden followed the dark form of Terinus, who evidently knew his way around the tower. There were subtle differences in spite of its generally similar design, but they appeared to be of roughly the same age. Dark stonework laced with the curious black metal formed the walls, and there was entirely too much space on this floor. Clearly the owner of this place had access to the same powerful magic as Terinus, suggesting an obvious link between her and the sa’quaarin.

  Their host’s shoes clicked on the surface as she walked disconcertingly close to Aiden. He glanced behind to find her regarding him with an unsettling smile. Terinus led them into a sitting room with plush furniture and green flames crackling in a fireplace devoid of wood. Once they had entered the room, he turned to address their host.

  “You do not seem overly concerned at our unannounced arrival,” he rasped.

  “What have I to fear, here in the heart of my power?” Veronique remarked. “Besides, I often bring attractive young men to my chambers,” she added with a glance at Aiden.

  “Lucky, lucky young men,” Robert muttered under his breath, much to her delight.

  “Do not be fooled, Robert,” Terinus warned with narrowed eyes, “underneath her charming exterior beats the heart of a woman with an unfortunate deficit of sanity.”

  “Well, as my old drill sergeant used to say, ‘crazy women make the best love’,” the mercenary said, shortly before receiving a firm jab in his ribs from Sayana’s elbow. Neither she nor Nellise were overly impressed with Veronique, and the mysterious woman had completely ignored their presence since they first appeared in the tower.

  “If you are quite finished,” Terinus said with seething impatience.

  “Oh, I don’t mind,” Veronique replied with a playful glance at Robert. “But I do believe you owe me an explanation, Terry. What brings you to my abode, and why would you bring these particular people here? The last time I checked, they were involved with Osric’s plans to conquer Aielund.”

  “Precisely,” Terinus answered. “I saw you by his side in Fairloch, and was displeased at your presence in my territory. I expect to be consulted when you conduct your affairs on my doorstep.”

  “I did try to warn you,” Veronique protested smoothly, “yet you were nowhere to be found. I then concluded it was easier to beg forgiveness than ask for permission. So… am I forgiven?”

  “I will overlook your transgression this time,” Terinus rasped after a moment’s consideration, “if you provide me the information I require.”

  “I am nothing if not… accommodating,” Veronique suggested as she sat on a plush divan.

  “I came to ask you about the Vault,” Terinus continued abruptly, avoiding her subtle invitation to sit with her. “The entire facility has been ransacked and vital information gone missing.”

  “Yes, I imagine it was. I sent Osric there to retrieve some things for me.”

  “You… sent Osric there,” Terinus repeated with an empty voice. “Why, pray tell, did you do that?”

  “He is part of my designs,” their host explained. “Much in the same way Seamus was a project of yours. See, you would know all of this already if you bothered to stay in contact. It is such a pity my project beat yours, but I did warn you how unreliable that old armour is. You would have been better off making use of a sorcerer to cull the herd, like in the good old days. You even have one in your midst! Why you have not availed yourself of such an asset is beyond me, and she would make a much more efficient killer than that plague you tried.”

  “A poor decision on my part, perhaps,” Terinus replied while Sayana stared daggers at Veronique’s back. Aiden did not miss the reference to a plague, and made a mental note to inquire about it later. “Be that as it may, you should not have given Osric access to the Vault. That knowledge was not meant for anyone but us.”

  “I’m trying something a little different,” Veronique hinted. “I sense a rare talent in Osric, one I wish to exploit to our benefit. With the information at his disposal, I expect to see great things in his future. Great things… besides you weren’t supposed to give Seamus the armour, were you now?” Veronique pointed out as she leaned forward and spoke in a loud whisper. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

  “What of the golem?” Terinus asked brusquely, ignoring her charms. “The one you had by your side when you visited Fairloch. Where did you obtain it?”

  “Oh, you mean the dreadnought,” Veronique replied after a moment’s thought. “Golem is such an archaic term, hardly appropriate for this particular design. It’s so far removed from one of those clunking old constructs as to be something entirely different. Our friends from above have provided it to me for my years of loyal service. It is one of their newer designs, more powerful than anything that has come before. Wait… you didn’t receive one? How odd. It’s almost like they don’t trust you as much as they used to.”

  “I shall speak of this with our masters on our next meeting,” Terinus remarked caustically. “I believe our discussion is concluded.”

  “So soon?” Veronique purred, leaning against the wall seductively. “I was rather hoping to rekindle our relationship. It has been so very long since our last dalliance, and we can just let all that nonsense between us slide, yes? Forgive and forget?”

  “Another time, perhaps,” Terinus answered abruptly as he pushed past her towards the door.

  “Stay away from Osric, Terry,” Veronique warned in a far more serious tone as she stood once more. “Whatever your plans are for these people, he isn’t part of them. He belongs to me.”

  “I had no intention of disturbing you, your toy king or your designs any further,” Terinus responded evenly.

  “Good, because I am currently in favour with our masters, and they will not tolerate any meddling in my affairs. As for your new associates… I may have to report your collaboration. Or perhaps not, I will have to give it some thought. You might consider sending them away, just to be safe.

  “If you bring them to my tower again, they shall find their flesh burned away before they can draw breath.” She then made a sharp gesture with both hands and Aiden suddenly felt like he’d been punched in the gut. A flash of violet light obscured his vision and moments later, when he could finally see once more, he noted they had all returned to the laboratory of the Black Tower.

  “What the hell was that?” Pacian asked as he staggered to recover from the sudden shift.

  “She kicked us out of her tower, is what it felt like,” Robert growled. “What was the point of all that talk?”

  “I needed to know how much she knew,” Terinus explained, leaning heavily on his staff. “Veronique is more involved than I had imagined.”

  “She’s like you, isn’t she,” Nellise remarked accusingly. “An agent of your ‘masters’. How many of you are there?”

  “Eighteen, located throughout Aeos,” Terinus replied without pause. Aiden swore under his breath as the scale of the meddling in their lives continued to expand. “They are irrelevant, however. Our power is derived from the sa’quaarin, and once we have dealt with them, the other agents will be as vulnerable as any mortal. We must stay focused on the goal.”

  “Will Veronique inform them of our presence?” Aiden inquired. “I can’t imagine the implications of our presence went unnoticed. Why did you even take us there?”

  “I had my suspicions before we left the Vault,” Terinus explained as he turned to one of the consoles, and began tracing runes across its black surface. “Had I gone alone, I am quite certain I would have been killed within moments of entering her tower.”

  “She was afraid of us,” Pacian stated.

  “Yes, but more than that, she chose to bide her time,” Terinus added as he discovered something of interest. “It seems she is close enough to Fairloch to be unable to contact our masters, just as they cannot see what we are doing. As soon as she is able, she will tell them of what she has learned and it will be over.”

  “Are you… shaki
ng?” Sayana asked of Terinus, whose gloved hand did indeed appear to be shaking slightly. The hand stopped moving as quickly as they had noticed it, however.

  “There is much at stake, far more than you realise,” the wizard rasped. “The information taken from the vault is in the hands of a deranged king. Knowledge, centuries ahead of your own is at his fingertips, and with it he could reshape the world.”

  “I find the thought of Osric with that much power… disquieting,” Pacian said quietly.

  “Tell me you want to deal with him now,” Aiden implored Terinus.

  “We have no choice,” he replied, turning to face them. “He has the equipment and the knowledge we need to fight the sa’quaarin. Removing such knowledge from the world is a fortunate co-incidence.”

  “He’s been conspiring with dark powers to further his own goals,” Aiden added. “His deal with Criosa is null and void, and she must be restored to the throne of Aielund. We go to Lanfall immediately and take what is ours.”

  “Veronique may be anticipating that,” Nellise suggested. “Your assurance of not interfering with her plans rang false, I’m sorry to say.”

  “Not my finest moment,” Terinus conceded. “It is likely we would have to deal with her one way or the other. She has always enjoyed our work far more than I, and I find it distasteful. Gather your equipment. I will take us to Lanfall when you are ready and we will assault the palace.”

  “You’re not going to have any lingering feelings if we do fight her, are you Terry?” Pacian asked in a surly tone. Silence fell on the group for a long, awkward moment before the wizard replied.

  “Our past dalliance was a mere physical distraction during endless years of servitude,” Terinus explained patiently. “And don’t ever call me that again.”

  “I can understand perfectly,” Robert interrupted, ignoring a scathing look from Sayana. “All of that aside, are you quite sure you know what we’re walking into? We’ll be facing the remaining elite palace guard, Osric, armed with god-knows-what, that ‘dreadnought’ Veronique was gushing over as well as her inevitable intervention. I’m guessing she’s probably as strong as you—”

  “She really isn’t,” Terinus rasped in a dangerous voice.

  “Okay… but that’s still a lot to deal with. I’m still sore from the last bloody fight.”

  “Don’t be alarmed, but we may have to resort to subtlety,” Pacian advised sarcastically. “A frontal assault is just going to get innocent people killed. We can get to Osric with a minimum of fuss if we use our heads — present company excepted.”

  “We’ll scout the area after we arrive,” Aiden said impatiently. “We know what the goal is, and further planning will have to wait until we know more. Everyone get ready and meet back here in half an hour.” His abrupt manner gave them pause, but he was in no mood for further discussion. They had been duped into accepting a bad deal from Osric and Criosa was paying the price. Aiden intended to remedy the situation.

  They returned to their separate chambers to collect their gear, but Aiden had very little to gather. He already wore the robe which gave him an edge against hostile magic, and the pieces of armour he strapped over it to provide him with more mundane protection. He picked up the two Phoenix Stones he still carried, a recent gift from Terinus. They were crafted by the elves of old, able to bring an individual back from the brink of death, but only once.

  Other than these, he only had his plain sword and a few odds and ends. While Terinus might have something else for him to use in the tower, the prospect of being forced to rely on sorcery to survive the coming battle almost made him reconsider the risks involved with the “procedure”.

  He glanced down at his clawed hand, clenched into a fist from frustration. To face what was to come, Aiden needed more power, without risking his continued existence by transforming completely into another creature.

  “Having second thoughts?” Sayana asked from the doorway, catching Aiden completely off-guard.

  “Maybe,” he replied uncertainly. “I don’t think I have much else to offer at this point, and I don’t relish the thought of taking on what could be the most powerful individuals we’ve faced, armed with only a plain old sword.”

  “I said I would protect you, and I will,” Sayana reminded him.

  “That’s not the point. I need to contribute something, or I’m simply going to be a distraction.”

  “Then remain here, and the rest of us will free Criosa from Osric.”

  “You couldn’t stop me from coming,” Aiden said plainly. Sayana considered this for a moment before speaking her mind.

  “Do you think Criosa wants to see you again, given her last words? I recall her disgust at your… transformation.”

  “That was just shock,” Aiden retorted defensively. “Before she left with Osric, she mouthed words to me. ‘I love you’, she said.”

  “Really? It looked like ‘I loved you’ to me. Past tense,” Sayana countered, leaving Aiden speechless for a moment. It was a possibility, but he just couldn’t imagine the love of his life abandoning him so easily.

  “I… we killed her father,” Aiden mumbled, feeling a dull ache in his heart. “Maybe I have lost her. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to leave her in the hands of that little monster. I just need some scrolls, or a staff… something.”

  “Everything alright in here?” Robert asked as he appeared behind Sayana. He was already clad in his heavy armour and idly smoked a cigar, as he laid a familiar hand on her hip.

  “Aiden’s feeling a bit useless,” she informed him, much to Aiden’s chagrin. Robert sized him up with his one blue eye as smoke wafted around his face.

  “Come with me,” he muttered, clanking down the hallway without waiting. Aiden and Sayana followed curiously until they came to a workshop, the one in which they had eventually faced off against Terinus during their first encounter. The place had been cleaned up, most likely by Lucas and Saffron. The tables were almost completely empty, but there were a number of weapons arrayed on the wall like trophies.

  “I meant what I said the other day,” Robert grunted as he unclipped his own sword, the elf-crafted blade he had carried for years. “You’re an ordinary swordsman getting by on luck and magic. You’ll need this more than I will.” He shoved the sheathed weapon and its belt at Aiden.

  “It’s a generous offer, but what are you going to use?”

  “This,” Robert answered, taking down a massive greatsword from the wall. It was the same one Terinus had animated with his magic during their battle. It was big, old and appeared to be very dangerous. “I’d let you use it but I don’t think you could swing it without knocking yourself on your arse.”

  “What is that thing made from?” Aiden asked after a cursory examination.

  “It is auldsteel, capable of slicing through iron as if it were paper,” Terinus answered as he entered the room with staff in hand. “It is, in fact, the last auldsteel weapon ever made, at least on this world. Knowing the formula for its fabrication was lost, the elves of Acadia put considerable effort into fashioning that weapon. It is utterly unique, and you will ask before you borrow it.”

  “I was going to,” Robert assured him, slightly hurt. “Does it have a name?”

  “The elves called it ‘Falon Eteri’. In the ancient Ramidian tongue, it is known as ‘Aeon Invictus’, or in the modern language ‘Eternally Undefeated’. I believe the weapon smith who created it was thinking of their legacy.”

  “And apparently had a chip on his shoulder,” Robert mused. He swung it through the air a few times, marvelling at its balance and weight. Aiden swung his elf-crafted blade in a similar fashion, gaining a feel for the weapon. It was larger than most of the blades he had used, and forged from vythir.

  “This will help, no question,” he said in thanks to Robert, before turning to Terinus. “I could really use some scrolls or other relics, if you have some.”

  “I gave you what I had during your last ‘visit’,” the wizard replied. “Ra
rely do I keep stores of such things in abundance. They are for lesser practitioners, if you’ll pardon my language.”

  “No, that describes me pretty well actually,” Aiden conceded. “You don’t have anything? Even something sa’quaarin would be useful.”

  “Do you not have any of the items I gave you previously?”

  “I think I used them all,” Aiden replied thoughtfully. “After the castle’s destruction, I didn’t have anything else on me, so it’s possible I lost anything remaining in the confusion.”

  “Well, I have already offered you the only real sa’quaarin weapon I possess that isn’t already bolted to the floor.”

  “Then I’ll take my chances with what I have,” Aiden replied stiffly, unwilling to submit to the strange device. “Let’s get on with this.”

  “As you wish,” Terinus rasped with a slight inclination of his head. “Gather the others in the laboratory and I will take us to Lanfall.” Sayana and Robert stayed behind for a few brief moments alone together. Despite her customarily distant façade and his cocky attitude, Aiden glimpsed the mutual affection they had for each other just before the door swung shut.

  Pacian was already waiting in the lab, having already gathered his one piece of equipment — his quarterstaff. Beneath the unassuming wood was the deadly vythiric blade of a long dead knight, waiting to be unleashed. One word written in Auld Aielish was carved into the flowing lines of the hilt — ‘Vigilance’, evidently the name ascribed to the weapon. The course of the former ascetic’s life had changed of late, and the weapon seemed appropriate given the battling sides of his personality. Subtlety or brutal death were at his fingertips, and the moral compass that decided which came to the fore was damaged long ago.

  This left Nellise, who was tightening the straps on her plate armour when Aiden knocked on her door.

  “Nearly done,” she called as he peered cautiously through the doorway.

  “Do you need a hand with that?”