Soldiers of Avarice

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “The shield magic seems to have stopped working for me,” he mentioned, handing her the glove. “I first noticed this when I was being stabbed with spears down in Ferrumgaard.”

  The sorceress examined the crystal closely, able to see things others could not. “The crystal has been damaged,” she finally surmised. “Quite badly, too. I would guess that this device has not been working properly for a long time.”

  “That can’t be,” Aiden objected. “I definitely used it when we were down in the city, even though it didn’t last very long.”

  Sayana seemed to think about this for a long moment, and then she handed the glove back over to him. “Put it on and invoke it,” she instructed.

  Aiden looked at her dubiously. “I can try, but I assure you, it isn’t going to work.” Sayana only gazed at him until he finally relented and spoke the command word.

  To his astonishment, the shield of force appeared before him, as it had always done. With a subtle smile of satisfaction, she reached over and snatched the glove from his hand — he expected the shield to move with it, but incredibly it stayed where it was, floating about ten inches in front of his left hand.

  “How?” Aiden blurted in amazement. “People don’t suddenly acquire the ability to channel arcane power; you’re either born with it or learn how through years of extensive study. Even then, a wizard has to incant that power through words and sigils. It doesn’t spontaneously shoot out the end of your fingers.”

  “You’re like me,” Sayana answered, pointing at Aiden’s head. “You have been around this magic for some time now, and you carry within your mind the knowledge of how the energy flows. All you need to do now is invoke it with your will.”

  “No, wait,” he protested. “Down in the city, it didn’t work at all. How do you explain that?”

  “You were tired,” she explained. “The potion Nellise gave us made you feel like you were rested, but you were not. Channeling this power takes strength and spirit, and you were short on both. Remember that, when next you use it.”

  Aiden sat there, looking at the shield for a few moments, before he dismissed it with a gesture. This was an astonishing development.

  After years of study and research, not to mention a desire to travel to a school to learn magic, he had wanted to be able to harness the powers he’d read about others using on a daily basis, but he’d figured the level of expertise required was immense. He grinned excitedly at Sayana, who returned his amusement at this sudden development.

  “I guess I’m a sorcerer,” Aiden remarked in disbelief, the words sounding bizarre in his weary state. “I’ll have to read through these other scrolls tomorrow to see if there’s anything...” He lifted some of the papers up and noticed something he’d missed lying on the bedcovers.

  A small cube, no more than three inches on each side, had been hidden under the papers he’d been leafing through. Aiden’s breath caught in his chest as he realized that what he was looking at was the very item he had once seen in Alcott’s Treatise of Artifacts Most Ancient. With trembling hands, he picked up the cube and brought it to the light for closer examination.

  “What is that?” Sayana asked curiously.

  “This,” Aiden breathed, “is something very important.” He hadn’t intended to be so cryptic, but he was too engrossed to elaborate further.

  The resemblance of the item in his hands to the sketch in the Treatise was remarkable. He wiped some of the dirt and dust from it with his shirt and could see a few markings along one side that looked very similar to the script he had seen on the glass orb.

  “Aiden, it is a small box,” Sayana observed, sitting quite close to him with their arms touching. He couldn’t help but notice she had brushed her wild red hair, too.

  He reached down and fetched his backpack to retrieve Alcott’s book after a few moments of sorting through the contents. A feeling of dread washed over him as he brought the book into the light, however, for he could see severe water damage on the cover, and he suddenly realized that he hadn’t placed this book in the waterproof oil-sack along with the rest of his recovered valuables.

  “Oh, no,” he sighed, opening the book to see that the contents had dissolved into an unreadable mess.

  “Is it supposed to be like that?” Sayana asked, sensing something amiss.

  “No,” Aiden replied flatly, dropping the irreparably damaged book onto the floor like so much rubbish. “Never mind. I’ll say only that this cube has writings on it similar to my shard, which is another clue to discovering what it’s all about.

  “This, Sayana, this was the whole reason I went to Ferrumgaard. I don’t know exactly what it’s about, but it’s important, that much I can tell you.

  “Tomorrow, I’ll take it to Dale, a local sage, and see if he can make heads or tails of it. I think we’re done for the night,” he said to his guest, who was looking at him in a very strange way.

  “Is there something wrong?” Sayana shook her head and gave him a strange smile before jumping onto him and planting a kiss on his lips.

  “Wha?” was all that came out of Aiden’s mouth, as her lips were getting in the way of any meaningful conversation. After a few moments, he relaxed and enjoyed the moment, and to his surprise, she pulled the covers over both of them.

  “Oh, and by the way, I did see you undress,” she murmured with a grin before blowing out the candles.

  Chapter Fifteen

  After an eventful night, the day dawned to the sound of rain, which was fast becoming the norm in Bracksford. Sayana slept peacefully, nuzzled against Aiden’s shoulder as they huddled together for warmth under the blankets.

  Aiden had been with a woman once before, roughly a year ago — a brash young farm girl named Millie, back in Coldstream, who gave Aiden quite an education … particularly afterward, when he’d learned she slept with him to get back at Pacian for something he’d done to her. It had almost ruined Aiden’s friendship with Pacian, and from that point on he was more careful with propositions.

  It wasn’t much of a guideline, given he’d never really had time to chase girls around. He was driven by events outside of his control to learn more and more about what had happened to him in that cave, and as a result, the chasing girls part of his life had been neglected.

  Apparently, however, he had paid sufficient attention to Millie’s lessons, for he’d found last night to be a pleasant diversion from more pressing matters.

  Feeling the need to further investigate the strange cube, Aiden began the delicate process of extricating himself from Sayana’s embrace. He was halfway clear when she emitted a faint whimper and gripped him a little tighter, making the last few moments that much more difficult.

  Once he was finally free, Aiden dressed himself quietly, noting with mild annoyance that some of his clothes were damp from where water had dripped through a leak in the roof. He briefly glanced at Sayana as he was stuffing his treasured relics into the oil sack, noticing that one of her eyes was open and watching him.

  “Good morning,” he whispered.

  She smiled back at him sleepily. “Where are you going?”

  “Dale is an early riser,” he explained. “After breakfast, I’m going to see what he has to say about this cube. Why don’t you sleep in a bit? I think you’ve earned it.”

  “Mmm, I think I will,” she murmured. “And then I’m going to buy new pants. No ... two new pants.”

  “I’ll catch up with you later,” Aiden mumbled, blushing as he quickly stepped over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

  “My lips are down here,” she whispered, looking up at him with amusement.

  “Right, sorry,” Aiden replied with a laugh, correcting his mistake by planting a lingering kiss on her full lips. He was unsure if this was a one-night thing, or if it was going to be the start of something more serious, but he resolved to go with the flow and see how things turned out.

  Outside the room, Aiden looked down the dimly-lit hallway and saw someone slumped against another
door. The shock of blond hair indicated that it was Pacian, sleeping quite soundly in what Aiden could only assume was a drunken stupor.

  And while he wasn’t sure, he suspected it was Nellise’s door he was camped outside of. Pacian had probably been too drunk to figure out how to open the locked door.

  Deciding to let his friend sleep it off, Aiden went down the stairs and stepped into the common room. Colt was in his customary position, sprawled on the floor, with three bruised local men unconscious nearby. Some of the tables and chairs had been broken, most likely having been used as makeshift weapons during the night.

  It was still early for patrons to be lining up for breakfast, but Tom, the innkeeper, and his daughter Aislin were already up and about, preparing for the day ahead. The little girl was standing over Colt’s prone form, poking the big man with a broom in a courageous, yet vain attempt to wake him.

  “It’s probably better for everyone if you let him sleep,” Aiden advised her as he approached.

  “But he smells so bad,” Aislin complained while continuing to poke him with enthusiasm. “People will be eating soon, so he needs ... to... move....”

  “Tom, why don’t you help me carry him someplace else before your daughter breaks something important,” Aiden requested.

  “Not a bad idea,” the innkeeper rumbled, setting aside his mop to assist. “Let’s put him out in the stable for now; I think it’s a kinder solution than throwing him out into the cold.”

  “You are the very soul of consideration, Tom.”

  “I don’t normally provide this level of service to customers,” he confided, “but you and yours did us a real favor by getting that north road cleared, and I’m not unappreciative, even if Colt is a loud-mouthed braggart.”

  “Go easy on him; he’s nursing a broken heart,” Aiden said as he picked up the big man’s arms, while Tom grabbed his feet.

  “Yes, with an elf-maiden,” Aislin remarked. “It would be nicer if he’d bathe.”

  “Told you that, did he?”

  “He told everyone within earshot last night,” Tom grunted as they shuffled across the floor towards the back door and the stables beyond. “Personally, I think he should settle for a nice human woman, although I don’t know anyone who’d have him, to be honest.

  “The man has some issues, no doubt about it. Here now, watch your footing, mate; the bottom step is a bit loose.”

  With some careful footwork and maneuvering, they managed to lay the big man down on a pile of hay without waking him. Aiden washed his hands quickly in a nearby trough, and then headed back inside and ate a decent breakfast. After throwing a few copper jacks in Tom’s direction for the fine meal, he pressed on with his plan for the day.

  Leaving the Bracksfordshire Arms, he dashed across the street to purchase fresh clothes and a new longcoat before heading over to Dale’s. The old man was already up, as Aiden had predicted, and welcomed him inside once more.

  “Damn this cold weather, wot?” Dale bristled, opening one of the curtains to let in a modicum of light.

  “Yes, it’s winter,” Aiden said without interest. “I have something here you might like, if you’d care to take a look.” He fished out the cube and held it out before him, immediately drawing intense scrutiny from Dale.

  “Well, well, what have we here,” he murmured, peering through his spectacles at the odd device before he plucked it out of Aiden’s hand and sat down at his desk.

  “There are small nodules on this side of the box,” he mentioned as he examined it with a magnifying glass. “The runes upon them are quite familiar to me, although I can’t quite place where I have seen them before...”

  This caught Aiden’s attention, and he had to fight the urge to prod the man to elaborate. “I’m sure it will come to you eventually,” Aiden suggested. “Just tell me what you can.”

  “Well, it is clearly quite old indeed, judging by the slight scarring along the sides, as you can see here, and along here,” he said, pointing at the areas in question with a long, bony finger. “It seems to be made of metal, though I can find no signs of forging or working of any kind — it is completely seamless, aside from the aforementioned nodules. Where did you find this?”

  “I first saw a diagram of something like this in Alcott’s Treatise, the very book I purchased from you recently,” Aiden explained. “I needed to know more, so we undertook an expedition into Ferrumgaard to see if anything more could be found. I was fortunate enough to locate the relic itself, amongst other things, and there may be something of importance written upon some scrolls I recovered with it.”

  Dale turned to look at him with astonishment. “You ventured into Ferrumgaard? How remarkable! You must have seen such wonders down there. I’m rather envious, actually.”

  “Don’t be,” Aiden informed him with a shudder. “I will spare you the grisly details and say only that it was an unpleasant experience for all concerned. Here, let me show you these notes which seem to relate to the cube. They’re in dwarven, so I haven’t been able to read them.”

  He reached into the sack and produced the relevant papers, carefully depositing them on the desk next to the cube. Dale was quickly engrossed in their contents.

  “Remarkable,” he finally declared after a few minutes, picking up the cube and pressing on one of the nodules. It sank into the side of the box with a soft, audible click, but nothing else happened.

  “Was that supposed to do something?” Aiden asked uncertainly.

  “Well, the chap who wrote these notes used to press that one, and strange glowing script would appear on the other side of the cube,” Dale explained patiently. “However, he also wrote that after a few weeks of experimentation, it stopped working altogether, and nothing he did ever made the script appear again. So, I think we can safely conclude that this arcane device has succumbed to the ravages of age. Much like myself, wot?”

  “Was there anything else in those notes about what the device did when it was working?” Aiden asked, ignoring the attempted humor.

  “A few scratchings here and there, but nothing substantive,” Dale replied. “If I’m reading this correctly, these were his research notes, used as a basis for writing a book on the subject. They’re incomplete, so either you missed something while you were down in Ferrumgaard, or he finished his book and left with it before the city fell.”

  “No, he was still there when I arrived,” Aiden remarked dourly, drawing a raised eyebrow from Dale. “I suppose I could have missed something, but I don’t recall seeing any other books around.”

  “I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you at this point,” Dale concluded rather hastily. Aiden could see he was clearly impatient to get back to his own research.

  “Thanks for your time, Dale,” he offered graciously. “I’m very appreciative. Can I be of any help to you in return?”

  “Only if you know what that damned thing over there is,” the old man muttered, gesturing at the large contraption Aiden had seen the last time he was here. Back then, it had been covered in dirt and grime, but since then Dale had cleaned it thoroughly, and a gleaming device now stood against the wall.

  It was a glass tube, perhaps five feet in height, mounted vertically on a metal base, and capped on the top with more metal. Worn metal pipes wound their way from the base up the sides where they connected to the top, and it was the strangest thing Aiden had ever seen.

  He moved to examine it closely, more for personal curiosity than for any insights he might provide. The tube was pitted and scarred to the point that it looked more like frosted glass, and prevented him from seeing what was inside. Aiden tentatively ran his hand along the tube, remarking to himself that it felt more like metal than glass.

  The metal base it was mounted in was dark gray, not from dirt, but by design. It was as worn as the tube, but featured several nodules along the top, with runes etched into them that were barely legible. Crouching down for a closer look, Aiden could immediately tell that the runes were in the same language as th
e ones on the cube.

  “Dale, the runes on this device of yours are similar to the ones on my box; did you know that?”

  “Of course,” the old man exclaimed, slapping himself on the forehead. “I would forget my head if it wasn’t attached to my neck. Yes, that was where I had seen them before, my boy. Forgive my poor memory — it’s the first thing to go at my age.”

  He stood up and shuffled over to the large contraption with the cube held in one hand. “Yes, yes, clearly from the same creator.”

  “Have you any idea what the runes represent?”

  “I haven’t yet seen enough of them to provide a basis for translating the language, although this cube of yours does provide me with a few more letters ... words ... whatever they are. You have some degree of magical understanding — do they look like arcane sigils to you?”

  “None that I have ever seen,” Aiden answered. “There’s enough diversity in the individual letters that I think it has to be a complete language, albeit an extremely complex one.”

  “Most curious indeed. I shall take notes.” Dale shuffled back to his desk, dipped a quill into a vial of ink, and began writing down notes of this new finding.

  On an impulse, Aiden leaned over and tried to push in one of the nodules, much in the same way as Dale had done with the cube, and was pleased to see a small hatch flip open. The inside of the little hatch was empty, though it was lined with tiny bumps and grooves.

  “Did you know about this little hatch?” Aiden asked Dale.

  “Yes, it’s the only thing that still works,” the old man replied. “Another press on that same nodule closes the hatch again.” Aiden rubbed his chin absently, pondering the meaning of this development, when a thought occurred to him.

  “Pass me the cube, if you’ve finished with it.” Aiden placed it over the hatch, discovering that it was the same size. Applying pressure gently to the cube, he slowly pushed it inside the chamber until it attached itself with a click. It was a perfect fit.