Soldiers of the Heavens

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “I told you he'd be fine,” Robert remarked gruffly. “Welcome back mate. Not a pleasant experience, is it? Now you know why I didn't want to go through that again. I — bloody hell, what happened to your eyes?” Aiden gave him a confused look before guessing what had happened.

  He has given more strength to the dragon within, Sayana explained grimly. Aiden, your eyes have changed.

  “I bet I look like a real monster now,” Aiden lamented, trying to ignore the ongoing changes as Salinder had suggested. He really wanted to know how his last sentence was going to end. Aiden had the feeling it was very important.

  “Other than this rather disturbing development, how are you feeling?” Nellise asked gently. Aiden looked down at his body and noticed the tears in his increasingly tattered robe. There were dark stains of dried blood, yet no sign of injury. The amulet he wore around his neck bore an acrid smell and a faint sliver of smoke wafted away from what used to be a precious diamond. Now it was simply a chunk of coal, its magic gone forever.

  “A little dizzy, but I'm okay,” Aiden grumbled as he stood up and dusted himself off.

  “Do you remember anything?” she inquired.

  “Vividly. In fact, I could have used a few more seconds before coming back. The damned thing chose the wrong moment to fix me up. Never mind, don't ask — I doubt I could explain it if I wanted to. We're at the Akashic Throne, yes?”

  “We are,” Terinus rasped. Aiden's dragon-heightened vision allowed him to see far beyond the sphere of light suffusing their immediate area. They were in a dusty old storage area, apparently long abandoned. His ears told him the room was much larger and echoes from the faint noises they made had a metallic ring to them. A faint rumble was discernable through the floor, felt rather than heard. The air was stale.

  Visible nearby were ragged chunks of twisted metal lying upon a floor which reminded Aiden of the walls of the Black Tower — dark, with veins of grey metal running through it.

  “This isn't what I was expecting,” Aiden summarised after glancing around. “I thought our arrival would have stirred some interest. Could it be we've managed to maintain the element of surprise?”

  “We can hope,” Robert said with the air rattling in his lungs. He sounded terrible, though he gave no indication of discomfort. “So far, so good.”

  “First things first — is everyone okay? What of the portal?”

  We are all intact, more or less, Sayana answered. I triggered the device just before I broke off contact with the portal itself, so I'm certain nothing else will ever come through from that world again. Pacian is unconscious, though Nellise thinks he'll make a full recovery.

  “I must insist you explain why you chose to exorcise Benedictum,” Nellise asked Sayana firmly. “Not only was it an affront to a higher power, he was a valuable ally.”

  To whom you now answer, Sayana finished for her. Tell us why you did not attempt the same when it became clear he wanted to hijack Pacian's body.

  “I had faith it was for a righteous cause,” Nellise responded calmly. “It was not your place to guess if Pacian truly wanted this or not.”

  Ask him when he awakens and you will have your answer, Sayana said with finality. Her clothes had been shredded from the close encounter with the demons, but like him, the wounds beneath had been healed. A great deal of blue markings were exposed, which in itself seemed like clothing and Aiden noticed she stood with her arms held at an odd angle, as if attempting to conceal something.

  “Something wrong?” Aiden inquired pointedly.

  Nothing, I'm fine, she replied without hesitation. Dismissing the thought, Aiden noticed the floor she was standing on. A large, severed arm roughly the same size as Aiden lay there, oozing blood. The squared-off arch of the portal loomed behind it, but the floor itself bore many of the same markings, clearly indicating a connection to the device.

  “You have noticed the difference too,” Terinus remarked. “This portal is designed for moving large objects. The control panel is way over there, something we need to remember when it comes time to leave this place.”

  “Especially if we're in a hurry,” Robert added. “Enough chatter — we're in enemy territory and we need to focus on the job at hand. Get Pacian on his feet or we leave him behind. Sy, you and Aiden look around and find out where we are since you can both see in the dark.”

  Aiden nodded and slowly moved out of the lit area, his new eyes adjusting to the gloom. Gradually, they brought the place into sharp focus. He had only moved a few yards into the darkness when he noticed a hulking form looming before him. Unconsciously gasping in fear, he took a step back as he looked upon the chiselled metal body of the Ironlord. It was as if his nightmares had come to life, and in that moment his mind almost shut down with instinctive fear.

  “What is it?” Robert asked tersely while Aiden fought the urge to run. He held his formidable sabre in shaking hands, transfixed at the sight. The cold, etched face of his old adversary stared blankly into the distance, inert and unmoving. Then, light appeared from the ceiling in the form of hovering globes similar to the ones Terinus used in his tower. The lights gradually spread throughout the chamber, revealing more of the ancient construct, as well as another, and another, lined along the walls.

  “I found the command to light the hall,” Terinus rasped as he came in for a closer look. Aiden looked with dread at the dozen Ironlords. They were in various states of disrepair, with missing arms, legs and entire plates of metal. Dust was layered upon much of the exposed metal, and it was clear they hadn’t moved in a long time.

  “I would have been happy going the rest of my life not seeing that thing again,” Robert muttered, also gripping his sword tightly. “What is this place, a graveyard for monsters?”

  “A workshop,” Terinus corrected. “This is where they were brought for repair after prolonged fighting. I doubt any one of these armoured suits is functional.”

  Prolonged fighting? Sayana asked incredulously. It took an entire army to even harm the one we face at Highmarch. What could possibly have damaged these so badly?

  “What indeed?” Terinus replied, either unwilling or unable to answer the question. Steeling his nerve, Aiden crept closer to the nearest one and took a moment to examine the thing from his nightmares. Unlike the Ironlord they had faced, this one was in far worse condition. Deep gouges and scratches lined its metal body, and parts appeared as if they had been subjected to intense heat.

  Having spent years fearing and hating the sight of the Ironlord, it was oddly fascinating to see it as a simple, inert machine, as subject to entropy as anything else in this life.

  More curious than afraid, Aiden sheathed his weapon and pulled a large piece of metal across the floor to the side of the construct, which he used to climb upon. Its rear hatch was open, allowing Aiden his first real opportunity to examine the interior.

  “You know, I'm still annoyed you took the original away from Highmarch before I could look at it,” he remarked to Terinus, his voice echoing from the cold metal interior of the construct.

  “My masters would not permit anyone to examine it,” the wizard replied. “I was instructed to take it to Fairloch and introduce the king to the possibility of wearing it himself. They... enjoyed the chaos wrought by old King Alaric and wished to continue the process.”

  “I keep having to ask myself why I'm associating with the likes of you,” Nellise voiced from nearby. “So many deaths can be laid at your feet.”

  “Stay focused,” Robert advised before an argument could break out. “We're here to fix all of that, remember?” Nellise said nothing further and if Terinus was upset by her remarks, he didn't show it. Sayana drifted off to investigate elsewhere while the cleric continued her work with Pacian.

  Aiden barely paid them any attention. The inside of the sa'quaarin armour was remarkable. There was enough room for a person to sit and he recognised many of the sigils surrounding the control area.

  “Do you think we can fix one of these thin
gs?” he asked, catching Terinus off-guard.

  “What?” Robert blurted.

  “You wish to use it for yourself,” Terinus surmised after exchanging a glance with the mercenary. “I suppose your skill with their language may allow you to control it well enough. It took King Seamus months to grasp the basics, and even then he was overcome with the deleterious effects of the suit long before he could adequately control it.”

  “What sort of effects?” Aiden asked hesitantly.

  “If I had to guess?” Robert asked nobody in particular. “Insanity, at the very least.”

  “In a manner of speaking,” Terinus added. “These suits of armour are designed to support and prolong the health of the individual within, but sa'quaarin are quite unlike any race on Feydwiir. Extended exposure to the chemicals and energies produced by the armour results in mild psychosis, delusions of grandeur and detachment from reality.”

  “What about short term use?” Aiden pressed.

  “You may feel immortal.”

  “That hardly seems like a problem,” Aiden pointed out blandly.

  “Do not underestimate the perils of thinking yourself unassailable,” Terinus warned. “You may disregard your friends and even the objective in your delirium.”

  “That's a gamble I'm willing to take. I've seen what this thing can do first-hand and we'd be mad not to at least consider the benefits.”

  “I will concede the point,” Terinus responded. “Give me some time to examine the state of the equipment and I will deduce if it can be repaired.” Aiden nodded absently, focused instead upon the layout of the interior. He had waited a long time to finally see inside and he was reluctant to simply ignore the secrets within.

  “Sy, are you okay to scout outside this room?” Robert asked the sorceress, coughing a little in the process.

  I already am, she assured him, her glowing white eyes staring at nothing in particular. Aiden assumed her mind's eye was elsewhere, and her relative calm was a good indication there was nothing dangerous nearby.

  “Hey, what's going on?” Pacian called from near the portal where Nellise was tending to him.

  “You're finally awake,” Robert remarked, stating the obvious. “I was starting to think you'd be out all day. Or night — I actually have no idea what time it is.”

  “What happened back there?” Nellise gently asked Pacian.

  “Oh, with Benedictum?” he responded as he slowly got back on his feet. “Yeah, that came as a surprise. I wasn't expecting him to ask me to let him walk around in my shoes, if you know what I mean. He said 'Together we will fight evil, if you'll allow me', but with more ‘thees’ and ‘thous’. It was a little ambiguous in hindsight. I don't recall much after that, except that he was telling me everything was going to be fine, but he'd be staying a little longer than he'd originally said.”

  “Sayana informs me you were trying to force him out,” Nellise continued in her search for answers. Aiden had the feeling it was incredibly important to her.

  “Was I?” Pacian asked vaguely. “I suppose I might have been. I wasn't too keen on him in the first place and I was not okay with letting you all go on ahead without me.”

  “That settles it, then,” Nellise remarked softly. “He may not have lied, but Benedictum manipulated you into aiding his crusade. I'm starting to question the motives of the higher powers I have joined.”

  “Ben definitely thought it was for the greater good — that's not something you need to question,” Pacian assured her. “If he'd mentioned that before moving in, well, that's another matter entirely. Thanks, Sy. As much as I was honoured to be his vessel, Benedictum really had his own agenda. I'm not sure I fancied being stuck on that dead world for the next century or two.”

  “Any lingering effects from your experience?” Nellise prompted.

  “Not really,” Pacian answered. “As much as he was a bit miffed at Sayana's intervention, I could feel his genuine concern for my well-being. I feel good, actually. Really good. Have I told you lately that I love you all?”

  “Okay I'm going to chalk that up as some sort of post-vessel euphoria,” Nellise said with an odd look.

  “That's great,” Robert replied between bouts of coughing. “How about you take your new-found energy outside and check the area. I want to know more about this place we're stuck in the middle of.”

  “Can do,” Pacian acquiesced, heading to the door.

  “Robert, let me take a look at you,” Nellise offered with genuine concern. “Something's not right with your lungs.”

  “They keep trying to leap out of my chest,” Robert grunted jokingly, stepping aside and grudgingly submitting to an examination. When he offered to remove his breastplate, Nellise shook her head and simply touched him with one outstretched hand.

  “Aiden, help me install this replacement arm,” Terinus interrupted. Aiden glanced over to where he was pointing and saw a severed metal limb lying on the floor.

  “Does this mean you can get it working?” Aiden asked as he walked over to the arm and activated his gauntlet.

  “There are sufficient parts here to reassemble one suit of armour,” the wizard confirmed. “I won't know if it will function adequately until it's together.”

  “As much as I'd like to have that armoured monster on our side,” Robert said as Nellise continued her examination, “I don't think we can wait too much longer if we want to avoid Aielund becoming a wasteland. If you can get it working within half an hour, do it. Otherwise, we need to get moving.”

  “I will have the answers we seek well within that time,” Terinus answered.

  “Robert, how long has this been going on?” Nellise asked with soft disapproval.

  “A week, I guess,” he grunted dismissively. “Ever since Fairloch castle was levelled. All that dust and smoke, you know? It wasn’t really a problem until we were stuck in that frozen fortress. Every breath I took felt like inhaling knives. I'll be fine.”

  “It wouldn’t have affected you this severely if you weren’t already placing undue demand on your lungs,” Nellise advised. “Years of smoking those filthy cigars has left you weakened, and recent events have tipped them over the edge. Your condition requires extensive healing to remedy. We should have addressed this before we came here, to be honest. Why do men always have to bottle up their problems until they explode?”

  “You may have noticed we've been pretty busy of late,” Robert pointed out.

  “Hold still,” Nellise whispered, stifling conversation as she began to work on him. Sayana glanced at Robert in a moment of concern before returning to her vigil.

  They focused on their various tasks, with Aiden doing the heavy lifting as required by Terinus. The wizard would point him towards adequate replacement parts as discovered in the Lexicon, and use very specific incantations to attach them to the correct location.

  Even with Aiden's supernatural strength it was hard work, yet it was slowly coming together. Before long, a complete Ironlord was standing before them, scarred from whatever battles it had fought in the past but quite possibly about to redeem itself in a confrontation against its creators.

  “If you would step inside,” Terinus prompted, “we will learn if our efforts have been worthwhile. Also, remove your gauntlet — you will need to make direct contact with the interior surface to effectively operate it.”

  “Does that mean I can have it?” Robert asked, pointing at the gauntlet.

  “I suppose it wouldn't take much to teach you how to activate it,” Aiden said with a shrug.

  “Bugger that, just switch it on and leave it,” Robert advised.

  “I don't know how long it will work before shutting down,” Aiden warned. “It's been running without fault so far but it's over a thousand years old. Still, I suppose we need every edge we can get. Here, take it. I'll tell you how to switch it on once it's on you.”

  “I...” Robert started to say, before he suddenly began to cough something horrible out of his mouth.

  “Just
go with it,” Nellise advised, stepping back to watch closely. “Your body is rejecting the build up of residue in your lungs.” Robert didn't even try to speak, so caught up in his coughing fit as he was.

  What’s wrong? Sayana inquired urgently.

  “He's very sick,” Nellise explained gently. “His lungs are partially filled with an assortment of infected fluids and material from the destruction of Fairloch Castle.”

  “Stay focused,” Terinus advised Aiden as he looked on in sympathy.

  “You don't care?” he asked pointedly as he began to climb inside the armour.

  “Delaying the inevitable will serve nobody, save for our enemy,” the wizard advised. “Nellise can tend to Robert — you need to be certain you can operate this armour before throwing yourself into a fight.”

  Aiden silently agreed and turned his attention to the armour's interior. After unstrapping his sword and breastplate, he squeezed inside. He seemed to fit in the cavity well enough, though it was a tight fit in places. He extended his taloned fingers until he could feel the inner surface of the control gauntlets, at which point the armour shuddered as it came to life. The helmet above Aiden's head slid into place and the hatch behind him closed with a dull thud.

  It was a disconcerting feeling to be entombed inside the armour but the sensation of being trapped lasted for only a brief moment. The darkness vanished as a view of the area immediately in front of him appeared before his eyes. Aiden could see perfectly, even better than with his draconic eyes. Then, his sight was flooded as sa'quaarin sigils superimposed over the picture of the chamber before him.

  “Can you hear me?” Aiden asked, noting his voice sounded cold and metallic even to his own ears.

  “That brings back some chilling memories,” Nellise remarked as everyone present turned to regard Aiden in his new form.

  “Yes, we can hear you,” Terinus answered dryly. “You are probably looking at a lot of words right now. You need to sift through the text and activate the various armour systems, one by one, making sure you divert power to the armature. Only then will you be able to move. The magic of the device will follow your eyes and discern where you are looking at.”