Soldiers of Avarice

by Stephen L. Nowland

  The stone around and above him was too perfect for the fire to have happened by accident. Combined with the scorched door and the broken bones, it was clear that this doorway had some rather serious eldritch protection upon it.

  Leaning in for a closer look, Aiden could see etched runes around the edge of the door, familiar shapes that he recognized from his long years studying arcane knowledge. Most of them he could interpret as protective wards which invoked tremendous energies if the door was touched, but some of them he did not recognize. Whatever they were, it seemed likely they were all related to keeping people out of the room.

  Despite the ominous implications, this actually gave Aiden hope, for it increased the likelihood of the contents of the room remaining undisturbed for the past century. If he could figure out how to bypass the protective runes on the door, he’d be able to find out, one way or another.

  “Dead bodies lying in front of an enchanted door probably means we should be running the other way,” Pacian whispered over his shoulder, startling Aiden, who hadn’t heard his approach. “You actually think you’re going to get through that with all your limbs still attached?”

  “I can read most of it,” Aiden muttered irritably. “The runes I understand are the parts that summon fire to kill you, though. It’s the section over here that I can’t read that’ll have something to do with switching this off. You know, Clavis said this was a library, but I think it’s more than that. Protective magical runes like these aren’t placed on common buildings; they’re usually reserved for more specialized places, the kind where magical artifacts are stored.”

  “Is this the dwarves’ language?”

  “No; it’s the language of magic, wizard’s stuff,” Aiden replied absently.

  “But if you can’t read it,” Pacian slowly replied, “how are you going to figure it out?”

  “Context, Pace, context. I can see runes for passage and authority near the end, so the ones in between should be related.”

  “If you say so, mate.” Pacian shrugged. “But if I know locks, it’s probably something simpler than that. Can’t imagine dealing with all this every time I wanted to go in or out of my room, if you know what I mean.”

  Aiden was fairly certain he’d skimmed over all the arcane runes ever written in the years he spent researching, and if he could jog his memory, he might be able to recall exactly what they were. His frustration began to build as the answer eluded him, impairing his ability to concentrate. Finally, he threw up his hands in exasperation, unable to crack the puzzle.

  “It doesn’t make any sense,” he whispered to Pacian, who was fidgeting madly.

  “How do you know?” Pacian whispered back impatiently. “Maybe it’s something you’ve never seen before, though that’s hard to believe, with the amount of reading you did.”

  “Runes are basically pictographs,” Aiden explained, “and each has to represent something, in some fashion. This squiggly rune represents fire, for example. But that one right there seems to be complete nonsense; it has no relation to anything else up there.”

  Pacian rubbed his chin stubble for a few moments, then, before Aiden could stop him, reached forward and pushed the indecipherable rune.

  Aiden recoiled reflexively, expecting a blast of arcane fire to incinerate them. To his surprise, the rune sank smoothly into the door frame and then stopped with a solid clunk. The door opened just a crack and a slight gust of stale air swept past them.

  Aiden stared at it for a long moment, and then glared at his friend.

  “Told you it was simple,” Pacian said. “Are you going in, or what?”

  “One of these days, you’re going to get your hand blown off,” Aiden growled softly, cautiously pushing the door inwards. He held the torch forward to shed some light inside the doorway and saw a dusty room that seemed to serve as both living space and laboratory.

  There were shelves on the wall to Aiden’s right, and further along a large bookshelf was filled with crumbling tomes. He carefully examined the contents of both as he slowly limped past, seeing only normal household objects or jars of long-expired foods. A huge wooden desk was positioned next to the bookshelf, covered in an assortment of curiously-shaped items covered in a thick layer of dust.

  Aiden inhaled sharply as he spotted the desiccated corpse of a robed man slumped over the desk. He had clearly been dead for decades, but whether or not his passing had occurred before or after the terrible events that befell the city, Aiden couldn’t tell.

  Across the room, Pacian was rifling through a large chest he’d discovered at the foot of a once-plush bed. Rotten old leather shoes and other articles of clothing flew across the room, until he came across a pouch near the bottom of the chest.

  “Finally, some worthwhile loot,” he breathed, hearing the sounds of coins jingling within.

  Gingerly, Aiden pushed the poor dead chap back in his chair and looked at the desk closely, taking a deep breath and blowing away clouds of dust to reveal what lay beneath.

  “Aiden? Where are you?” came Nellise’ voice from down below, a little louder than he would have liked.

  “If you’re done over there, you should probably go tell them what we’ve found,” Aiden told Pacian.

  “Yeah, I’m good,” Pacian answered, pocketing the coin pouch. “The sooner we get out of here, the better, you know?”

  “Well, that’ll give you something to do while I finish up here,” Aiden responded absently.

  There were a number of strange objects and papers on the desk: sheets of dry parchment, an ornate metal rod, and other odd knickknacks. In the background, he could hear Pacian quietly informing the others of their find.

  A peculiar sound echoed off the stonework. It was deep, more of a vibration, and was powerful enough to cause a few of the glass objects in the room to shake.

  Somewhat alarmed, Aiden tilted his head to try and discern where it had come from. He was fairly certain it was echoing up from below, so at least it wasn’t something he’d unleashed by opening up this room.

  “Aiden, something’s not right,” came Pacian’s call from outside the door, all pretense at stealth thrown to the wind.

  “Another minute and I’ll be done here,” he called back, unable to pull himself away from the wealth of information, and potential answers, he could sense laid out before him. He quickly took off his backpack, pulled out a waterproof oil sack and started carefully placing object after object from the table into it for later examination.

  A moment later, a woman’s scream sounded from below, only to be cut off by the deafening roar of some unimaginable creature.

  Pacian swore loudly, and Aiden dropped the sack in shock, limping outside as fast as he could manage to join his startled friend at the edge of the large hole, looking down at the most terrifying sight he had ever seen.

  Emerging from the water below was a massive serpentine head, easily ten feet long, with a long, sleek body that disappeared into the depths. Glistening water dripped from the dark, scaled skin of the creature’s head as it extended from a breach in the floor and closed in on their companions.

  Sayana was scrambling over the rubble, trying to get away from the approaching monster, while Colt and Nellise were moving through the water as fast as they could. The massive head moved with uncanny speed, heading straight for Colt’s back, but the big man must have sensed its approach, for he turned around in the water, sword drawn, and looked straight down into the mouth of hell.

  Aiden clutched onto the edge of the stone hole with white-knuckled tension as he watched the scene unfolding below. The giant serpent snapped its jaws a couple of times at Colt, who swung his sword back and forth to keep the giant fanged mouth at bay.

  Wary of the large weapon, it suddenly lunged at Nellise, who was stumbling through the knee-deep waters nearby. She didn’t even see it coming, intent on escaping as she was, and was snatched up in the massive jaws of the serpent as they clamped down on her torso and lifted her from the ground.

&nb
sp; “Son of a bitch!” Pacian yelled instinctively, drawing his two daggers and courageously leaping through the hole to land squarely on the beast’s back. Its head was too far from where he landed to permit any eye-gouging, but that didn’t stop Pacian from driving both blades deep into its hide, causing it to emit an ear-shattering roar as it spat Nellise out. Her staff was flung from her hands as she fell, landing on a nearby pile of detritus, but still shedding enough light to see by.

  Colt seized the opportunity to move forward and lunge at the distracted beast with his greatsword, finally facing a foe that the oversized weapon was ideal to fight. With two sweeps of the weapon, Colt cut deep slashing wounds along the sides of the creature’s underbelly, spilling its blood into the foul waters around them.

  The giant serpent was thrashing about, trying to dislodge Pacian, who was stabbing it over and over again in blind rage. Despite his best efforts however, he couldn’t maintain his grip on the slippery hide of the beast, and was thrown into the shallow water nearby.

  Aiden wracked his brains, trying to figure out a way of hurting the beast. Looking around frantically, he spied a large chunk of rock. Grasping it with his gloved hands, Aiden heaved with all the strength he could muster, slowly moving the massive chunk of stone towards the large hole, spurred on by the terrified shouts of his friends below.

  He gave the rock one last heave and pushed it over the edge, then watched the results. His aim was a little off, but the rock clipped the side of the giant serpent’s body distracting it from its prey. The head pulled back from harassing Colt, then tilted upwards, looking Aiden straight in the eye. Panicking, he scuttled back from the edge as quickly as he could, narrowly avoiding the head as it thrust straight up through the hole, slamming into the rock above it.

  A large reptilian eye, bright yellow in color, stared down at him, and the distinctive coppery smell of fresh blood almost covered the musty odor of its slimy hide. The torch Pacian had left with him was starting to die, its meagre fuel having been used up, but it was enough for Aiden to see that the immense maw before him was filled with razor-sharp teeth.

  Aiden lunged towards the doorway at full speed, only to have his wounded leg give way as he hit the door. Pain surged up his body as he tumbled into the room in time to avoid the serpent’s head, which slammed into the wall behind him. Its head was too big to fit through the doorway, but it gnashed its teeth and bellowed loudly trying to break through.

  Again and again, the giant serpent slammed into the doorway, the sound of stone cracking from the impact becoming louder with each hit. If only the door’s trap was still active, it’d probably blast the head off it.

  An idea flashed into Aiden’s mind — if the man who had lived here had a mechanism to quickly switch off the trap to allow safe passage, there was probably a way to switch it back on from the inside.

  He limped painfully over to the edge of the doorway, making sure to stay out of the monster’s reach. By the dying light of his torch, he could see the same incomprehensible rune Pacian had recognized as the secret switch. He jumped back in fear as the serpent crunched into the stone, roaring so loudly Aiden thought he’d be deafened, then rushed back in and pushed the rune.

  Whatever cunning mechanism the dwarves had designed was still working after a century of neglect, and the door cranked itself shut. From beyond, the unique crackle of arcane power being unleashed could be heard, along with the agonized roar of the serpent. Intensely bright light suddenly shone from under a crack in the door and the sound of the serpent, still howling madly, could be heard withdrawing until it vanished altogether.

  Aiden slumped against the door, breathing hard and shaking like a leaf. He sat there for the better part of a minute, gathering his courage, before he leaned over and pressed the button to open the door once more.

  The smell of charred fish wafted in as the door swung open. He could hear his friends below calling out for him, no doubt unaware that he was still alive, after a fashion.

  “I’m okay,” he called back, picking himself up, being careful to keep his weight off his injured leg. While not broken, it was certainly injured, and wouldn’t be much use to him until they’d had a chance for Nellise to rest.

  “We have to get moving, now!” Colt bellowed impatiently. “Drop whatever it is you’re doing and get down here — Clavis says he’s found us a way out.”

  Aiden picked up the sack and swept the rest of the material into it. Satisfied he had everything of value, he said a quick farewell to the remains of the wizard whose trap had saved his life, then limped outside, closing the door behind him and touching the arcane rune so that the remains would continue to go undisturbed. He secured the sack over his shoulder, tying it in place so as not to lose it, then hurried over towards the hole.

  Before he could make it, several spears were thrust through the gap in the wall, coming close to impaling Aiden’s chest. He jumped backwards in surprise, then tossed the sputtering torch down onto the pile of detritus below and quickly lowered himself through the hole. He landed heavily on his good leg and looked around to gauge the situation.

  The others were gathered around Nellise, who had begun to heal them. Her battered breastplate had been cast aside — the serpent’s great teeth had left gouges all around the armor, to the point of rendering it beyond repair, but it had saved her life.

  “Those crazy dwarves know where we are,” Aiden blurted quickly as he got back on his feet.

  “Great,” Colt growled. “You know, when Pacian loots something, at least he’s quick about it.”

  “Sorry, but I found a few things that might turn out to be important. Is everyone okay?”

  “Yeah, but only because we got lucky. That damn snake was too cautious attacking us. Probably been stung in fights with the dwarves in the past, ’cause I saw a lot of scars along its hide. But you burned its face real good, Aiden. It’ll either swim back to its mother, or come back and attack us with everything it’s got.”

  “Ho there,” Clavis called from nearby. He stood right at the outer edge of their light, holding something in his right hand. “I found me king’s axe!” he roared, holding the shining weapon above his head in triumph. “I’m freezing me arse off, but I’ve other good news, too — I found that breach ya thought might be there, Aiden, and it’s a beautiful sight! It’s not far down this hole and leads up into an old lake, mostly drained now, o’ course, but I felt a breeze on me face. Say, what the hell happened here?”

  “We’ll tell you later,” Nellise said with a tremulous voice, popping her crystal back into its pouch and slowly getting to her feet. “That’s all the healing I can do for now, my friends. Any more, and I won’t have the strength to swim out of here.”

  “We’ll manage,” Pacian remarked hastily. “Clavis, can you lead us over to this breach you found?”

  The dwarf was about to answer when the water between them erupted, and the serpent’s head plunged towards them once more. In the brief, terrifying second before it struck, Aiden could see its face was hideously scarred from the explosion above. Its left eye was milky white, having been blinded from the blast.

  It lunged for Pacian, who managed to leap aside as the massive jaws clamped shut on the air where he’d been standing. Nellise and Sayana backed away from it, wading through the water as fast as they could.

  “What happened to my crossbow?” Nellise exclaimed, grabbing the space behind her back where it normally hung, frantically searching for the missing weapon.

  “Never found it!” Colt barked back, maneuvering for position against the immense creature.

  Aiden drew his sword and spoke the command word to bring his shield into being, but nothing happened. Whatever magic had been in the glove’s crystal was now gone.

  The beast wasn’t waiting to see what happened this time — it struck the big ranger, slamming him back into the debris pile on which they stood, and then attempted to bite his head off. The remains of his leathers weren’t enough to thwart the serpent’s attemp
t to dig in its huge fangs, but while it was busy doing that, Aiden summoned all of his strength and, along with a weary Pacian, managed to get a couple of vicious stabs in on its blind side, distracting the monster before it could snap Colt up in its jaws.

  With his wounded leg, Aiden couldn’t move out of the way fast enough to avoid its bulk as the serpent crushed him up against the pile of debris. Aiden felt his leather breast piece crack and gasped in pain, but fortunately the giant serpent did not keep up the crushing attack as Colt went on the offensive.

  Gasping for breath, Aiden glanced to his left and noticed that Clavis still hadn’t joined the fight. The dwarf stood there, not twenty yards away, clutching his new-found prize and watching the battle unfold before him.

  “Clavis, help us!” Aiden called, picking himself up and clutching at his side with his free hand. The dwarf continued to hesitate and then made up his mind, sinking down into the water and disappearing from view. Uncertain what he was up to, Aiden swore under his breath and limped back into the fray, taking a futile swing at the long body of the serpent as it continued to press the attack.

  “You wanna eat something? Eat me, you hell-spawned bastard!” Colt yelled out in challenge to the giant serpent, swinging his weapon wildly at the monster. Pacian resorted to throwing his few remaining knives, trying to keep it distracted so that the others could attack it, but the giant serpent seemed beyond such minor annoyances.

  Colt almost lost his footing on the treacherous surface as he moved in for a swing at the beast. Though it only took a second to flash through his mind, the sense that they were finally beaten took the remaining strength from Aiden’ resolve.

  Then, with a burst of water, Clavis emerged at the base of the monster’s body, roaring and swinging his family’s ancestral axe at the vulnerable flank of the beast. The shining weapon cut through its hide like a hot knife through butter as it roared in agony. Quick as a flash, the razor-filled mouth turned straight for the dwarf.