Soldiers of Avarice

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “Olaf will have to make do with what he has. If he feels the quantity of his garrison is inadequate, he can easily draft local civilians into the militia to bolster his defenses. Now, there is nothing further I can do for you, so if you are quite finished...”

  He gestured expansively toward the exit. Aiden, exasperated, looked to Nellise for anything she might want to add.

  “Anything you could provide, even a symbolic gesture would go a long way,” she implored, which only seemed to harden the mayor’s resolve.

  “My position is unchanged,” he answered stubbornly.

  “Well … I think we’re done here,” Aiden muttered, turning and walking out the doors. The others followed closely behind, remaining silent until they were some distance from the mayoral building.

  “Arrogant ass,” Colt spat. “No band of outlaws or Akoran raiders is going to attack a town the size of Culdeny. He could easily have sent a dozen men south.”

  “Perhaps. Perhaps not,” Nellise countered. “He is the one responsible if anything goes wrong, so if he sent reinforcements elsewhere and Culdeny did come under attack, the mayor is the one who will be blamed.”

  “The same holds true if he doesn’t send soldiers to help Bracksford and they do come under attack,” Aiden added. “The poor bastard probably doesn’t know what to do; no matter what happens, he’s going to get blamed.”

  “That would probably explain his disposition,” Nellise mused. “Tell me, Sayana, you are of the Akoran people, are you not? Would they really attack an entire town?”

  The wild young woman didn’t answer right away, but Aiden couldn’t tell if she was thinking, or merely uncomfortable with the question. “There are many kind and noble people among the tribes,” she said at last, “but there are also many angry men, descendants of those who lived during a time when Aielund seized or conquered Akoran lands. If there is talk of war from the tribes, it is these men who would push for conflict to take back what is rightfully theirs.”

  “Wonderful,” Aiden grumbled. “As if we didn’t have enough to deal with at the moment.”

  “If they’ve heard that your king has taken your soldiers far away, they might see this as the perfect time to strike,” Sayana added. “The threat could be very real.”

  Aiden and the others thought about her words until Colt broke the pensive silence. “Damn, this sun is bright; not used to such clear skies,” he muttered, pulling his hood up again to cover his eyes.

  “I think it’s probably more the hangover than the sun,” Nellise chided. “I should check in at the church and inform them of recent developments.”

  “Fair enough,” Aiden said. “I have something else I want to talk to you all about, as soon as we get back to the inn. I have a job that needs doing, and I’d really like your help, if you’re willing.”

  “What is it?” Sayana asked curiously.

  “It’s a long story; I’ll tell you about it over lunch.”

  They made their way along the cobblestone streets, passing merchants hawking their wares and the local citizenry going about their daily affairs. The rare sunny day brightened their spirits, in spite of the looming threat overhanging their land. It was still quite cold, but it was nevertheless a welcome respite from the unrelenting rain in the south.

  Without warning, Pacian materialized from the crowd to Aiden’s right, giving him quite a start. “Give me a little notice before you appear out of thin air like that, would you?”

  “Where’s the fun in that?” Pacian asked with a smirk. He’d cleaned himself up after rising that morning — his hair had been trimmed and brushed, his skin was completely clean, and he’d even shaved his scraggly beard down to a stylish, if sparse, goatee.

  “What’s with the neatness? You look like you’re going to ask the Princess of Fairloch out for dinner.”

  Pacian’s eyes gleamed, and his eyes darted around to make sure the others in their group weren’t listening. Colt and Sayana were a few yards away, shopping at one of the market stalls.

  “I think Nel has a thing for me,” Pacian confided. “She suggested I clean myself up, so I wanted to make an impression.”

  Aiden concealed a grin, unsure who was playing whom at the moment. “I think you’re barking up the wrong tree, mate,” he advised. “She is a member of the Church, you know.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” the irrepressible Pacian said with a wry look as he joined up with the others.

  Presently, they arrived at the church of Culdeny, a squat, stone-walled structure. Above the doors was the symbol of a sword, point down, with a halo around the hilt — the symbol of the Church of Aielund. Nellise had a tiny version of this symbol on a thin chain around her neck.

  Beautifully crafted, stained-glass windows added color to the almost universally gray stone of the surrounding buildings. A small group of people were leaving just as Aiden and the others stepped through the tall, bound wood doors.

  The interior walls of the church were raw stone. Torches placed in sconces along the walls provided more light, giving the nave the ambience of perpetual twilight. It was far more elaborate than the small chapel Aiden had seen in his hometown, but still lacked the feeling of grandeur he associated with a place of worship.

  An older woman with bright gray eyes and small stature caught Nellise’s attention, and she excused herself from the group. The two ladies of the cloth walked through a doorway at the rear of the nave, and Aiden sat back on one of the pews. Colt slumped down beside him and pulled his hood low over his eyes, appearing to doze off, while Pacian casually walked around inside the church, examining the architecture.

  It was perhaps ten minutes later that Sayana, gazing out of a window, noticed something unusual. “Is that supposed to be happening?” she remarked, standing on the tips of her toes to see properly.

  Curious, Aiden wandered over to the window and looked out. There was a large cemetery to the left that ran all the way to the wall of the town, roughly fifty yards away. The ground directly between the church and the wall consisted mostly of tall grass, but appeared as if it had been deeply gouged somehow, and even as he looked the soil fell away in clumps, vanishing into the increasingly large hole beneath.

  “That can’t be right,” Aiden muttered in disbelief, as he saw the distant wall shudder and tilt, the ground beneath it giving way.

  The progress of the subsidence had been slow and steady, until it suddenly crumbled altogether, and a cloud of soil shot upwards through the rift. A dull rumble could be felt through the floor, a true indication of the scale of the collapse. From nearby windows, local men and women looked out in astonishment at the sudden change in the landscape.

  “The bloody ground is caving in?” Pacian said incredulously. Aiden had no answer for him, having never before seen the like. He found it all quite fascinating, until he saw somebody’s hand poking up through the large scar that ran along the ground.

  “There’s someone in there,” Aiden breathed, and immediately ran for the door. He rushed around the corner of the church itself and didn’t stop until he was at the lip of the rift, where he skidded to a halt. Scanning around carefully, he finally located the hand that emerged macabrely from the earth, and satisfied that the collapse had finished, carefully made his way down the side of the exposed earth towards it.

  By the time he was within reach of the hand, his companions had caught up with him and looked on in consternation. As Aiden grasped it, he noticed fresh blood running down one side of the arm. He grasped it and pulled, expecting to help the poor soul who had fallen in the collapse, but instead found himself holding only a severed arm.

  “I think it’s too late for that one,” Pacian remarked morbidly, as Aiden dropped the arm in revulsion.

  “It might be a freshly-buried body from the cemetery,” Colt suggested.

  “No, it can’t be,” Aiden responded after a moment’s thought. “The hand was warm, and the blood was still fresh.” He looked back up at the others as the answer came to him. “I th
ink he was already underground.”

  “One way to find out,” Colt muttered, sliding down the incline to land next to Aiden. Using his hands, he began to dig away at the loose soil, attempting to uncover what lay beneath. Aiden and the others joined in, until a vast amount of dirt had been shoveled away.

  The digging stopped when they ran into a freshly-cut beam of wood, a pick-axe, and yet another body amongst the rubble. By now, a small crowd of locals had gathered above them, peering curiously down at the odd scene.

  “Is this a collapsed mine?” Aiden asked aloud, unsure what to make of the odd discovery.

  “In the middle of a town? Not likely,” Colt snorted. “I can think of only one reason they’d be here. They’re called sappers — men trained to undermine the walls of a town in order to bring them down or bypass them completely. I’ve no idea what they’re doing here, but I’d wager a gold sovereign that’s what these poor bastards are.”

  “Who would want to break into Culdeny like this?” Aiden mused quietly. Pacian took a more personal approach. Half-buried in soil, he scoured the bodies, searching their pockets and meagre possessions for any sign of who or what they were. After a minute or so, he retrieved a folded sheaf of paper from one of the bodies and pocketed it, along with a few minor coins.

  “Hey, you lot down there,” called a guardsman from above. “Get away from that; it could collapse further at any moment!”

  “Sorry sir, we were trying to help,” Aiden called back, signaling to the others that their time here was done.

  Nearly fifty people were milling around nearby, talking amongst themselves, as several members of the local guard regiment kept them at bay. The guard who had ordered them out of the hole asked a series of questions regarding their involvement, but after a few minutes, allowed them to leave. During the questioning, Aiden noticed that Pace didn’t mention the note he’d found.

  “What was he going to do with it, file it away or something?” Pacian protested when asked about this. “Bugger that — I want to know what was so important that that sapper took it to his grave.”

  He led them to the doorway of the church and, making sure they weren’t being watched, produced the note and carefully unfolded it. There was more dirt than words on the page, which consisted of little more than a sentence or two. But the lettering was crisp, and Aiden guessed that whoever wrote it was likely an educated person.

  “What does it say?” Sayana asked.

  “Find a way into Culdeny. I don’t care how you do it, but my forces must have access by the end of the month,” Aiden read aloud as he peered over Pacian’s shoulder. “Signed, R.B.”

  “Thought so,” Colt grunted in triumph. “Someone with the initials R.B. ordered those men to dig their way in — for what, I can’t say. But that’s practically an act of war.”

  As they pondered the importance of the document Pacian had recovered, Nellise and the matronly priestess appeared at the entrance. “What on earth just happened?” Nellise exclaimed.

  Aiden let her know what they’d discovered, and then showed her the note. “You should take this to the Sergeant of the Guard immediately,” she advised breathlessly. “I don’t know what threats are facing the town, but thank God you discovered this when you did.”

  “I agree,” Aiden assured her. “Are you finished with your affairs?”

  “We were about to discuss that when I noticed the commotion outside,” Nellise answered. “I was wondering if you still required my services here, Archioness. I am ready to return to the church and resume my former duties, if you so desire.”

  “I had planned for you to do just that, Nellise,” the Archioness explained with a smooth voice, “But from what you’ve described, and in spite of dealing with some very unpleasant situations, you have been an invaluable aid to your companions.”

  “Her particular gifts have kept us alive,” Aiden agreed, “but if you don’t want her in harm’s way, I can understand why you’d keep her here in town.”

  “I’m sure you’re all aware of the situation throughout the western kingdom,” the priestess confided. “We’re all going to have to contribute if we want to maintain order and peace throughout the land.

  “Nellise has already proven herself worthy of the task, and so, in spite of my concerns, I believe she will be of further use to you in the field, rather than dusting old bookshelves here in the church. It also speaks well of the church itself, that we are willing to risk our lives to help others.”

  “I am pleased you have such faith in me, Mother,” Nellise answered, sounding slightly taken aback at the praise.

  “There are some in the hierarchy who would frown upon an acolyte carrying a crossbow around, but I think it is appropriate to defend yourself in these difficult times,” the Archioness added. “However, while your companions go and speak with the sergeant of the guard, I would ask that you aid me with a few tasks around here for a couple of hours, before you head out again.”

  “Certainly, Mother,” Nellise replied, then turned to Aiden. “I’ll catch up with the rest of you at the inn this evening.” He gave her a polite bow as the two ladies of the cloth disappeared inside once more.

  “You see?” Pacian whispered with a nudge to Aiden’s ribs. “They may be in the church, but they can be flexible with certain restrictions.”

  “Give it up, Pace; she’s not going to succumb to your charms,” Aiden retorted under his breath, noticing Sayana, just out of earshot, was looking at them curiously.

  “You know, that high priest lady seems pretty decent,” Colt remarked, oblivious to their discussion. “Maybe there’s a few priests with backbone around here after all.

  “Anyway, let’s move. There’s no guarantee all of the sappers were killed in the collapse. All it would take is for one of those bastards to get away and tell that R.B. person what happened, and we might never find out who was behind it.”

  Without any dissenting opinions, the four of them headed for the local guardhouse. “Are they like wizards?” Sayana asked Aiden as they walked.

  “The priests? No, not at all,” he replied, a little puzzled by her question.

  “I want to know how I’m different from them,” she clarified.

  “Ah, well, that’s a longer story,” Aiden hedged. “They ask an angel of God for their power, and she provides it. It’s more complex than that, and I don’t know anything more about how that all works, but you’re as different from them as you are from wizards.”

  “Interesting,” Sayana mused, appearing pensive and thoughtful as they continued walking.

  It wasn’t difficult to find the guard barracks. Even hungover and injured, Colt was able to point them in the right direction. The building near the front gate was basically a small fort inside the town. Heavy stone walls two stories high gave it a bulky, squat appearance that would have been more intimidating if the rail on the top floor wasn’t being used to air out ladies’ undergarments.

  “Interesting decoration,” Pacian quipped. “Maybe there’s a brothel upstairs?”

  “What’s a brothel?” Sayana asked, puzzled. Aiden and Pacian exchanged a hesitant glance.

  “You tell her,” they both said at once. Colt laughed, the first time Aiden could recall hearing it.

  “I’ll tell you some other time,” Aiden said to Sayana, who glared at Colt, probably assuming she was once again the butt of some joke. Aiden opened the heavy wooden door before him and stepped inside.

  Before him was a small room that seemed to be an office, with stairs against the far wall and a doorway on the left, presumably leading to the rest of the barracks. A woman sat at a desk, busily writing on documents with a quill, her dark hair tied back in a plait and her head bent over her task.

  Aiden walked forward and stood in front of the desk, making sure his boots made enough noise on the wooden floor to attract her attention. She had swarthy skin, large, brown eyes, and wore a guard’s uniform.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” she asked, looki
ng up to see who had entered.

  “I was wondering if I could speak with the captain of the guard,” Aiden replied formally.

  “Concerning?”

  “An important matter of town security,” Aiden added, somewhat impatiently.

  “I’m afraid the captain is two hundred miles away fighting for his country,” she explained delicately. “But you can tell me your problem, and I’ll let him know when he gets back.”

  Aiden blinked, caught off guard by the unexpected answer and feeling stupid as a result. “I’m sorry; I guess I should have known he’d be away fighting in the war.”

  “We can’t all be brilliant,” she replied tiredly. “I’m Sergeant Ariel, temporarily in command of the Kingdom Guard of Culdeny.”

  “Aiden Wainwright and associates.”

  “Oh, I see. I was informed that you lot cleared the highway of bandits,” Ariel remarked. “I’ve sent a few of my more experienced people out to take a look, but if it’s true, you have our thanks.”

  “It was mostly Colt’s work, but we all pitched in,” Aiden explained.

  Ariel glanced at the unkempt and bear-like ranger with an expression of mild distaste at his rough appearance. “Yes, I’m sure. Anyway, was there something else you wanted?”

  “We recovered a document from a group of deceased men digging their way under your walls,” Aiden answered, prompting Ariel to give him a sharp look.

  “One of my men told me about the collapse, but I hadn’t heard anything about evidence turning up. Tell me what you know,” she ordered.

  Aiden proceeded to do so, ably supported by Pacian and the occasional remark from Colt as they filled in details he’d overlooked.

  When they were done, Ariel slumped back down in her chair. “And the document?”

  Pacian handed her the note he had taken from what he assumed was their leader. The sergeant took the paper and read it several times, possibly trying to glean more information from the brief message than was actually there.