Soldiers of Avarice

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “Don’t worry about it,” Aiden said dismissively. “Despite what Colt said earlier, we appear to be fairly safe for the time being, and Clavis assures me he’s a crack shot with that crossbow. What you were doing was quite astonishing, actually. I’m rather impressed.”

  “It’s a simple illusion,” she shrugged, standing up and dusting snow off of her leather trousers. “I used to do it all the time when I was little, but in the past few years I haven’t really had the strength to waste on something so impractical.”

  “I was wondering if I could ask you something personal,” he began hesitantly.

  “You were wondering how I fared in my homeland, which does not tolerate sorcery,” she finished for him.

  “I suppose it was rather obvious,” Aiden admitted ruefully. “Were either of your parents gifted, as you are?”

  “My mother was, yes,” Sayana answered quietly. “I have few memories of her, except that she was lovely and kind.”

  “I’m guessing neither of you were truly accepted into their society,” Aiden stated somberly.

  “We kept a low profile, but eventually we were found out. I’m sorry,” she blurted suddenly. “I really can’t talk about this.”

  She jumped to her feet and hurried back toward the camp. Aiden cursed himself for causing her distress and letting his curiosity get the better of him, and resolved to make it up to her in the morning.

  He settled into his shift easily, taking the time to wander around the camp perimeter as he looked for any threats. As he’d suggested to Sayana earlier, it was a quiet night, and he saw nothing of interest.

  When the time came for Aiden to get some rest, he quietly roused Clavis from his sleep before lying down on his bedroll once more. This time, he had no trouble drifting off, with the soothing sounds of the wind sighing through the trees.

  * * *

  His dreams were especially vivid that night, as he once more lived through that fateful day in his past as if it were absolutely real. A sudden blow on his chin stunned Aiden as he crashed down the hole in the forest in Cairnwood. Bewildered and smarting from half a dozen scrapes and bruises, Aiden struggled to clear his head, trying to figure out what had just happened.

  Pacian eventually went for help, leaving Aiden down in the hole for some time on his own. Aside from the light streaming in from above, there was only blackness, but in the deepening gloom before him, he thought he saw something shining in the dark. Curiosity getting the better of him, he crept forward to try to see the faint light more clearly.

  Avoiding the worst of the sharp rocks, Aiden reached the source of the dim blue light. Slowly, he moved his right hand close to the light, and felt around to try and figure out what the object was. It was round, cold and hard, which did very little to enlighten him. But the instant both fingers touched it, a blinding light replaced the darkness around him.

  Aiden squinted against the sudden light and gaped in astonishment, for he suddenly found himself standing upon a snowy plateau with majestic peaks looming around him.

  A battle was taking place before him, between armored men wearing the gold dragon tabard of the Kingdom of Aielund, and hooded, robed warriors, with signs of steel armor hidden beneath their garb. The fallen from both sides of the battle littered the landscape, and the ringing of steel and the cries of the combatants echoed across the land.

  His mind struggled to comprehend what had happened to him when one of the kingdom’s soldiers suddenly ran through him, appearing out of his chest as though he were a ghost. Sayana, looking as shocked as he was, suddenly appeared to his left and stared around the scene in bewilderment. Her right hand was touching the glowing sphere in Aiden’s hand, and in the midst of this strange vision, Aiden was surprised by her presence.

  She tugged at Aiden’s sleeve with her free hand, drawing his attention. Her mouth was moving, yet no words came out, as if she were only partially there. She pulled on his arm, trying to drag him backwards, but his feet were stuck fast.

  Aiden’s attention was caught by one man who stood on the wall of the fort, dressed in shining, gold-trimmed armor, and appeared to be in command of the kingdom’s forces. He pointed across the field and shouted a warning, and as if on cue, the ground started to shake from what seemed to be a minor earthquake. Aiden felt all this as if he were standing right there amongst it all, but the soldiers around him paid him no heed.

  The ground shook with greater intensity until the head of some kind of giant, armored man appeared, slowly lumbering step by step over the frozen ground. It was easily over twelve feet in height, with shoulders eight feet across, and fists like battering rams. Aiden thought it might have been a suit of armor, but then the empty eye sockets flared red from fires burning within a hollow shell of metal.

  It was joined by another, and another, of the massive creatures, and a cry of despair arose from the defending soldiers. Sayana grabbed Aiden’s attention once more, turning him toward her and practically shouting in his face. As before, no sounds came from her mouth, and a look of frustration appeared on her fine features.

  She tried to pry her hand from the glowing sphere, but it refused to budge, as if some power were holding it in place. Feeling like he had been there a thousand times before, Aiden was inspired to try and pull his hand away from the sphere, only to meet the same result. Looking around for something to help them, Sayana resigned herself to watching the battle before them, and slumped against Aiden’s side.

  The lumbering metal creatures smashed through the lines of the kingdom’s soldiers, leaving broken and shattered men and weapons in their wake. A few of the towering creatures we brought down, shaking the ground when they fell, but in the end, only the gold-armored warrior remained to defend the castle.

  He faced off against the remaining armored creatures alone, armed with a huge axe made from a dark metal. Expecting him to face them all, Aiden was surprised when the host parted and a single metal monster strode forward.

  This one was different from the others – shorter by two feet, and wielding a huge sword in one hand, the edge of the blade rippling with light. They came together in a devastating dance of savagery, sparks flying from their weapons and armor as each combatant sought an advantage over the other.

  A shadow grew over the battlefield as something immense obscured the sun. Aiden and Sayana squinted against the light to see what was happening, and were staggered by the appearance of a creature straight from legend. An immense golden dragon was descending onto the battlefield, its wingspan easily over a hundred feet.

  Talons the size of a man dug into the ground as it crashed to the surface behind the black warrior and its tail swept over the battlements of the fort. Its fine scales gleamed in the cold light, the majestic creature both immensely beautiful and terrifying beyond measure. Sayana gaped at the sight of the great creature, and, trembling like a leaf, she moved behind Aiden as far as she could.

  Aiden knew what was coming, as a thousand memories of this event seemed to come through from his subconscious mind; but unexpectedly, the dragon turned its great head to look directly at Sayana, eyes narrowed and steam issuing from its nostrils.

  Sayana’s mouth opened wide in a silent scream, her left hand held up before her to create a translucent shield. The dragon bellowed a mighty roar, and a flash of white light engulfed the battlefield as a blast of wind sucked Aiden and Sayana off their feet. Reflexively, he reached out his hands to stop their fall and dropped the glowing orb, shattering it upon the ground of the cave.

  Aiden sat bolt upright, throwing off his blanket and gasping for breath. The forest of the Calespur ranges surrounded their camp, and the gray light of predawn tinged the sky. The others were sleeping around the remains of the fire, but Sayana was sitting next to him, her right hand still holding the shard hanging around his neck, a look of horror stamped on her face.

  Realizing he had entered her dream somehow, Aiden took her by the shoulders to snap her out of the trance she appeared to be in. She blinked and let g
o of the shard, then clutched at her head as though in blinding pain.

  Aiden shook his head to try and clear out the nightmare from his mind, as he tried futilely to understand what had happened. Sayana gestured weakly with her left hand for him to lean closer.

  “Aiden, that was no dream.”

  * * *

  Sayana’s words sent a shiver down his spine, and it was all he could do to stop himself grilling her for answers, but she was unable to think clearly after her experience.

  “My head feels like it’s going to split open,” she whispered, barely able to stand up. “I’m okay; give me some time to rest. This happens when I push too hard.”

  Aiden helped to ease her onto her bedroll, where she pulled a blanket over her head. Just before she disappeared beneath it, she looked at Aiden. “Don’t tell anyone else what happened,” she said, leaving Aiden to ponder exactly what had happened.

  The sun was rising, and the others appeared unaware of what had transpired during the night. Even though she had been trying to shout and scream within the vision, evidently Sayana had been silent in the real world. The camp was as peaceful as it had been when he fell asleep.

  Sayana had said nothing at all upon waking an hour or so later, and remained quiet throughout the morning, as everyone woke and set about preparing for the day. Nellise expressed concern that Sayana was looking very tired, and surmised that the late-night watch had been harder on her than she had thought. Nellise forbade her to take any watches for the next few nights, which did not meet any protest from the sorceress.

  Pacian poked Aiden relentlessly, assuming something was going on between him and Sayana.

  “What happened with you two?” he chided, keeping his voice low, as the two young men kept to the rear of the group.

  “Enough already,” Aiden replied, exasperated. “Look, if I tell you, will you shut up?”

  It took Pacian a few moments to decide. “Probably. There’s one way to find out, though.”

  “Do you remember where I found this?” Aiden asked, lifting the shard on its chain from around his neck enough for Pacian to see it. His mocking smile faded.

  “You know I do,” he whispered. “What of it?”

  “Every few nights since then, I’ve had a dream about that day. A really vivid dream, and it’s always the same.”

  “How come you’ve never told me about it?”

  “I thought I was traumatized, or something,” Aiden replied, fighting feelings of embarrassment. “Besides, you remember how everyone treated me when I told them what happened. I wasn’t about to go through that all over again.”

  “Fair enough,” Pacian conceded. “What’s this got to do with Flame Girl?”

  Aiden glanced around to make sure nobody else was within earshot. “Last night, she appeared in the dream. Specifically, right when I was watching the battle.” Pacian seemed skeptical. “I’m serious — she was standing right next to me, shouting, but with no voice.”

  “Was she wearing anything?” Pacian asked with a wink.

  “No, no, it wasn’t like that at all,” Aiden insisted, trying to keep Pacian on track. “The dragon looked right at her, and she screamed, like it was about to attack her or something. That dream has been identical every time, except for last night, and when I woke up, she was holding on to this shard thing.”

  Pacian took a deep breath and appeared to think about it a little. “She is a strange one, I’ll give you that,” he mused. “Who knows what sort of abilities she has? Maybe it was real enough for her to jump into your head like that. I don’t know. Perhaps you should go and talk to her.”

  “I don’t want the others finding out about this yet,” Aiden muttered. “Maybe when I get a chance to speak with her alone, I’ll see what she knows. But you know what she’s like — everything she does is instinctive, and she doesn’t really understand how she does any of it. Somehow, I don’t think I’m going to get much from her.”

  “Worth a try, though,” Pacian replied, as Colt signaled them to gather around from up ahead. “Oh look, perhaps our intrepid ranger scout has located another distillery from which to sup the sweet nectar of life.”

  Aiden smiled in spite of himself as they moved forward to investigate. “This is as good a place to rest as any,” Colt declared when they had gathered around him. “Get something to eat and catch your breath.”

  They sat on fallen logs and ate a hot meal of sizzling bacon and toast. Clavis and Colt talked about their impending journey into the mountains, while Pacian and Nellise sat away from the others, talking quietly. Aiden wondered who was trying to change whom, and which one of them would give in to the other’s point of view first.

  As he ate, he glanced over at Sayana every few moments. His desire to ask her more about the dream last night prompted him to discreetly move to her side and speak in hushed tones.

  “Can we talk for a moment? There’s something we need to discuss.” She nodded silently, picked up her bread, and followed him a little distance from the others, where they could talk amid the cold forest without being overheard.

  “First of all, I want to apologize for offending you last night,” he began. “I obviously touched upon a delicate subject, and I should have chosen my words more carefully.”

  “Don’t feel bad; you couldn’t have known,” she whispered in reply, pulling her warm cloak tightly around her to keep the chill at bay. “It isn’t something I have talked about with anyone before, ever. It’s hard to open up.”

  “I know how you feel,” Aiden said reassuringly. “Well, I hope you’re feeling better. Anyway, you know why I wanted to speak with you. I’ll accept that you somehow managed to appear in my dream, or whatever it was. But if it wasn’t a dream, then what was it?”

  “My mind would not let me rest,” Sayana explained. “I lay there for several hours, thinking about the glass you wear around your neck, and where it might have come from. Like you, I want answers.

  “I went to take a closer look, and since you were sleeping, I didn’t think you’d object. When I touched it, I was instantly in some other place — you were standing next to me, and yet you were younger than you are now.

  “Aiden, the reason I said it wasn’t a dream is the detail I saw — the misting breath from the fort’s warriors, the fluttering of the flags, the crunch of snow beneath their feet. No dream has that much detail. It was like I was actually there.”

  She paused to take another bite of bread, conserving her strength. Aiden said nothing, awaiting her next words with as much patience as he could muster.

  “There was something else, though, a feeling that you and I were visitors in that place. It was as though we were walking in someone else’s mind. I tried to pull you out of it, but I was stuck, just as you were. I didn’t know what else I could do about it, and then ... the dragon flew in.”

  “As I recall,” Aiden said slowly, trying to remember the details, “you screamed when the dragon appeared.”

  “No, I screamed when it looked at me,” she corrected with a shudder. “Have you ever had that feeling, like you're somewhere you aren’t supposed to be, and then you get caught?”

  “I may have experienced that sensation,” Aiden replied flatly. It was actually Pacian who had been caught in places he shouldn’t have been, but Aiden had had the misfortune of being there at the time.

  “It was like that. I could feel its anger, and it was ... terrible. I wanted to run, but I couldn’t get away.”

  “Wait a moment,” Aiden said. “In the dream, the dragon always looks at me. And although I feel awe, I’ve never felt terrified of it; at least, not until I wake up. You don’t think it’s some weird memory, or a magical message-in-a-bottle from long ago?”

  Sayana shook her head. “Are you saying it’s alive?” Aiden pressed, drawing a meek nod from Sayana, which drew Aiden to an unpleasant conclusion.

  “Lovely. I have a dragon living in my head.”

  Chapter Ten

  The next day, they cleared
the edge of the forest and saw the Calespur Mountains rising before them. Snow crunched beneath their feet as they headed inexorably up the foothills of Mount Cale, one of the tallest mountains in the kingdom.

  Despite the remoteness of their location and the density of the forest receding behind them, a road of sorts could be discerned through the scrub, winding its way along the mountainside. Clavis, normally one to keep to himself, seemed to come to life at the sight of the road.

  “This was the main highway between the city of Ferrumgaard and the human village o’ Culdeny,” he said, pointing towards the coastal town far in the distance. “Engineers spent a year layin’ down stonework to make this road, in the hopes of increased trade with the fledgling human community. Dig down through this snow and dirt, and the flagstones’ll still be there, as solid as the day they were laid out.”

  “How large was Ferrumgaard?” Nellise asked.

  “Nearly ten thousand of me kin called the inside o’ Ferrumgaard home,” Clavis responded, a note of pride in his voice. “But it ain’t sprawled out like a human city. ’Twas dug into the mountain, a quarter of a mile wide and twice that in length, layered down through the rock to the valuable ore deep inside.”

  “I’ll reserve my excitement for when we get there,” Pacian remarked dryly.

  “That ya will, lad, that ya will,” Clavis chuckled. The cold mountain wind chilled Aiden to the bone as they walked along the road for hours, yet in spite of their discomfort, they were treated to a magnificent view of the Calespur Mountains around them.

  As the sun dipped below the horizon, the road veered to the left and came to an end at a sheer cliff-face, fifty yards away. A pair of stone doors loomed before them, easily fifteen feet high, etched with strange patterns and words written in the old dwarven language.

  One of the doors was hanging off its top hinge, leaving a large gap open near the ground, where it showed signs of a century of wear. The ominous howl of wind blowing through the opening into the chamber beyond reminded them that this was a dead city, one with a reputation for ending the lives of those who were incautious. The air coming from within was dry and odorless.