“Ashrak, this is serious. Stop being such an idiot,” Chari snapped while Aiden batted his hand away. “What do you mean about last night? What happened?”
“I suppose you could say that we took a bit of a trip,” Ashrak said, unconcerned as his eyes roved over Chari’s angry face. While usually quick to take the bait, this time, he didn’t and Aiden was glad an argument didn’t flare up. He noticed that Glowby was floating near Ashrak, sometimes even moving in and out of his head and began to wonder if his friend was actively doing something to keep him calm. The memory of the garkit with flashing green eyes suddenly intruded on his consciousness.
“All of a sudden I was flitting above the clouds with Aiden. Don’t ask me how, but we ended up flying down a chimney and were the gracious and thankfully unknown guests of kindly Duke Feldar, if you can believe it. Fortunately he didn’t know we were there, sitting in the fireplace watching him eat children and being visited by a Mourning Lord, but there we were. I have to admit, I am glad we didn’t have any bodies or I would have surely peed myself.”
Gavin and Chari looked at him in disbelief but paused when they saw Aiden nodding. “It’s true. I don’t know exactly how or why, but I think it was something like walking in the dream land. For whatever reason, we ended up in Duke Feldar’s chambers.”
“But a Mourning Lord,” said Gavin, shaking his head as deep concern washed over him. “And was he really eating children?”
Aiden snorted and gave Ashrak a look. “No, not the second part but there was a visitor that was able to walk in the dream lands like I have, and he did visit the duke. I don’t know myself, but Ashrak said it was one of these Mourning Lords.”
“Yes, the children thing is a well-known rumor about him, but no, we actually didn’t see him dining on any. An oversite on the duke’s part, I think. As for the other part, yes, I’m pretty sure it was one of the Mourning Lords, though I’ve never met one personally. It was absolutely terrifying and they clearly were in the habit of using ancient artifacts. The duke even had a terminal inserted in his desk and didn’t seem to be a stranger to its use.” Before he continued, the waitress arrived to take their order. Ashrak held up his hand, stopping the discussion. “We’ll have four roast chickens and a pot of red berry juice, please? Yes, and four glasses, thank you.”
“A real Mourning Lord,” Gavin said, shaking his head as they watched the waitress disappear back into the crowd. “What was it doing with Duke Feldar?”
“Actually,” Ashrak frowned, “it turns out he was asking Duke Feldar to acquire Aiden here and encouraging him to do it as soon as possible with everything he has. The implied ‘or else’ was clearly there as well. From what I’ve been able to piece together from that conversation, Skeeve ratted out Aiden to his father, who’s been locally trying to kidnap Aiden so he could sell him to Feldar. I think he’s been working with Feldar for some time, and thought he may be interested but right now isn’t sure why. However, once Feldar gets word back to him that he is interested, things will get far more serious. He’ll be sending his own resources as well, and they mentioned the Scratchers.”
Chari and Gavin both went pale, scaring Aiden with their silence. Finally, Gavin spoke, his voice serious. “Scratchers? Are you sure they said Scratchers? Duke Feldar told the Ducal Council that they were all killed decades ago.” Gavin paused, something suddenly occurring to him. “Also, how do you know about the people that were trying to kidnap Aiden?” He asked suspiciously
Ashrak shrugged, holding his hands up as he did so. “Ah, and dukes never lie, right? As for how I know about the kidnappers, let’s just leave it at the fact that I do know.”
Aiden shook his head at Ashrak, “No, we need to be upfront about this. So much is going on that they have to know and I think they’d be suspicious otherwise. I told them the same thing about you so don’t argue.” Aiden paused, watching as Ashrak wrinkled up his face but didn’t continue his protest. “Ashrak is the one that saved me from the kidnapper that night. He almost died but he asked me not to say anything because he didn’t think anyone would believe it was him.”
The pause that greeted that news was long and pregnant with silence, but finally, Gavin cleared his throat, nodding slowly. “All right,” Gavin said, “Well, that’s not half as crazy as some of the things we’ve experienced. I’m willing to go along with it. I don’t know why you did it, but I’m happy you helped save our friend.” Chari remained quiet, still looking suspicious but didn’t volunteer anything further.
“Okay, now that is settled, what is a scratcher?” Aiden asked, feeling totally lost and unsure of what they were even talking about. He could tell it was bad, but he didn’t know how bad it was.
“No one outside of Feldar Duchy has seen one and even then it’s been decades. Anyone else has probably never lived to tell,” Chari said, putting her warm hand on Aiden’s arm. “The only description I’ve ever heard was that they were kind of spider-like, and lived in the deepest mines.”
Gavin piped in, nodding. “Father said the Feldar dukes used them as assassins, but the Ducal Council decreed they all needed to die or the rest of the duchies would go to war. They were that bad. The previous Duke Feldar was said to have killed them, and let several duchies verify. But yes, like Ashrak said, it’s not like a duke’s never lied before. Damn, this isn’t good news. I… I almost have to tell Father now. This is big.”
“So, it’s either be eaten by giant spiders, thrown in the tar pits, or dissected by a Mourning Lord?” Aiden said, sadness washing over him. Suddenly, the whole thing just felt too big, and he slumped in his chair at the enormity of it all. How could this have happened to him? How could he hope to stand up to all of it, and live? The answer was, he couldn’t.
The food came but Aiden’ didn’t feel like eating any of it despite how good it smelled. The others only picked at theirs except for Ashrak, who dug into his food with gusto and a pleased expression on his face.
“Come now, I know it looks bad but really as long as you are alive, there is hope,” Ashrak said, popping a piece of juicy chicken into his mouth and chewing happily. “For what it’s worth, I agree with the golden boy over there. We should tell his father. I doubt he’ll just chuck you into the pits, Aiden. We will figure out something.”
Chari’s hand slammed down on the table, making others nearby look over in shock at the loud sound. “You insufferable jerk! How can you sit there and make light of this whole situation? It’s your and Gavin’s fault that Aiden is in this mess in the first place. If you hadn’t have made that stupid bet, none of this would have even happened. It’s not like your life has ever been threatened, has it?”
Ashrak stopped and listened to Chari snarl at him, nodding softly. He waited until she was done and then put his knife and fork down on the table before patting his mouth dry.
“Almost every day, until I came here,” he finally said, his voice quiet and calm.
“What?!?” she said, her eyes flashing.
“I said,” Ashrak continued calmly, looking down at his plate of food, “Almost every day until I came here to the city of Terek, my life was in constant danger. I would be dead now if it weren’t for one of my sisters mentioning my…political usefulness as a hostage for my father’s good graces to the Ducal Council. My family believes strongly in competition, even up to and including who gets to sit on the throne. We were only protected until the age of five, and then we were fair game for the other siblings.”
Ashrak met Chari’s gaze levelly, a profound feeling of sadness emanating from him. “I currently have two older brothers, and a younger sister left. There are seventeen graves on the grounds of our home, and before I was sent here, my two older brothers had already dug another that was fit to my dimension, as a joke. Father thought it was outrageously funny.”
Chari and the rest of them stared at Ashrak in horror as he slowly picked up his knife and fork, and began to eat again. After a few minutes of the stunned silence, Ashrak cleared his throat and spoke.<
br />
“Please eat, I’m paying for it after all, and I’m not giving up.”
Slowly they all began to eat in silence, each of them deeply in thought. Aiden watched Ashrak out of the corner of his eyes, wondering about everything he had said. Yes, his life was currently in a lot of trouble, but he’d grown up in a caring, healthy environment at the school. There had been no one trying to kill him then, and no graves of his friends sitting just outside to remind him that his own family was a pack of insane murderers. It was sobering.
Finally, he opened his mouth to speak, interrupted by a large yawn that threatened to overtake his face. He covered his mouth, thinking he was more tired than he’d thought he was. “Okay… So, Gavin, I think you are right. We have to tell your father. I mean, the Mourning Lords caused the Cataclysm right? And Duke Feldar is not a nice person, it sounds like. If they are involved, we can’t keep this quiet.”
Gavin nodded, taking a drink from his cup and stifling his own yawn. “Yes. I think we do. Maybe Father can protect you from the Ducal Council. Or keep it quiet? With all of this, I don’t think he’d just throw you to the feloxin.” Gavin said as his voice trailed off, closing his eyes and resting his head against the back of the booth, deep in thought.
Aiden turned lethargically to Ashrak and Chari, wondering what they might think but saw that they too were resting their eyes. No, something was wrong. Chari had her head on her arms on the table and Ashrak slumped in the booth. Glowby began to flash a bright red and circled quickly, buzzing the food on the table. Aiden looked down at the food, and then tried to stand so he could run out of the tavern and go get help, but instead of standing he almost fell flat on his face.
The only thing that stopped him was a pair of arms, one missing a hand that caught him and pushed him back into the booth.
“Well, well, looks like you’re a bit tired, kid,” said a frighteningly familiar voice. “We better get you somewhere so you can sleep it off.”
Aiden stared into the same angry eyes as the man that had captured him in the alley and almost got him at the docks. Trelakor had called him Stitch. I wonder why Aiden thought. There no scars on his face. Maybe he has some on his body. The fear deep in his belly began to fade, slowly changing into a tired whirlwind that sucked him down into darkness.
Chapter 20
Aiden woke to the smell of salt in the air and a rotten bilge as the floor gently rocked back and forth beneath him. He thought for a second it was just him and his dizzy head, but the motion was too pronounced. Coupled with the decayed straw he was laying in, he decided he must be on a ship.
When he finally managed to open his eyes, he was able to look around and see he was in a small room with bars across the front of it. Beyond the bars was a nondescript narrow wooden hallway and inside the cell with him was another form crumpled up in a fetal position against the far wall. Other than a couple of buckets and the barren wooden hallway outside of the bars, there was nothing else to see.
Gingerly, Aiden sat up and watched Glowby brighten and flutter gently against the far wall. He crawled on the floor, not trusting himself to stand yet and pulled the shoulder of the figure, watching as Ashrak’s face came into view. He was unconscious still from whatever drug they’d used on them at the tavern, but otherwise was unharmed.
Aiden shook his shoulder, trying not to be loud as he whispered to his friend. “Ashrak, are you okay? Answer me.”
He didn’t awaken at first but made a small moan as if still in a dream. Aiden didn’t want to risk smacking his face so reached over and pulled one of the buckets to him. Unlike what he’d thought he might find, it contained only stale water so he tore a bit off of his shirt and dipped it in, then patted away some of the dirt that was smeared on Ashrak’s face, hoping it would wake him.
“Ashrak, can you hear me?” Aiden said, watching as Ashrak’s eyes fluttered softly. “Wake up. We’re in trouble.”
Ashrak nodded weakly, indicating he’d heard what was said to him and let out another soft groan as he reached up and cupped his head with one of his hands. “You look like you have the same headache I had when I awoke,” Aiden whispered quietly, leaning back on his haunches.
“Oh gods, why is the floor moving? We didn’t drink anything, did we? I thought I only ordered juice,” Ashrak asked weakly, trying to sit up. “Or maybe it was bad chicken. I guess we shouldn’t have ordered the chicken… or at least asked how old it was. It tasted fine. And what is that smell? Did we fall asleep in a barn?”
“No, I think we were drugged at the tavern. I saw the man you fought in the alley right before I passed out. He must have been watching us. I think he’s brought us to a ship.”
Ashrak nodded, finally peeking out between his fingers. “Great. Well, that’s the last time I go to that tavern. Rotten luck, and now we’re in a tiny cell sailing to who knows where. At least wonder boy and Chari aren’t here to keep us company. They always bring me down.”
“Don’t think you’re that lucky,” came a familiar whisper from outside their cell. Aiden quickly moved toward the bars, pressing his face and trying to see. “Is that you, Chari?”
“Yes,” came the voice from next to him. The angles were bad so he couldn’t see her but could just make out her fingers wrapped around the bars on the cell next to theirs. “And Gavin is here with me though he’s still sleeping off whatever it was. We are definitely on a ship, though it doesn’t feel like were out of the bay yet. The swells are too low. Does anyone know what happened? Ashrak, what did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Ashrak said sourly, pushing forward next to Aiden. “Why is it always my fault, anyway? It’s not like any of you give me a break as it is. Especially you.”
“You are such an idiot, Ashrak!” Chari said with more volume, clearly getting upset. “You never think of anyone else!”
“Shhh,” Aiden hissed quietly while Glowby buzzed about in agitation. “Both of you, we’re in enough trouble without you getting angry at each other. It’s done, so we should try to figure out how to get out of this.”
Ashrak turned away glumly but nodded, and Chari didn’t respond. He hoped she was able to control her irritation with Ashrak. They were in way too much trouble.
“Okay,” Aiden said. “I think I know what happened, at least somewhat. I think the food was poisoned. I saw you all just fall asleep for no reason, and when I got up to go for help I couldn’t even walk. Stitch was there and pushed me back into the booth.”
“Who is Stitch?” Ashrak asked, puzzled.
“The man you fought in the alley. That was Stitch. We heard about him after he tried to get us on the docks out at the cutter fish races. Trelakor, the head of the Sea Clan group we were visiting, told Gavin’s father who he was, and that he was…hunting me. I don’t know anything more about him.”
“Well,” said a low voice as a figure stepped closer from the shadows, making no sound as he moved, “at least now I know who to thank for giving you my name.”
Aiden felt Ashrak jerk in surprise beside him as both of them turned, watching the figure walk out of the shadows. Both of them stared at the man for long moments. This was the first time they’d seen Stitch up close and uncovered. Other than his obviously missing right hand, he was about average height, strongly built, and had numerous daggers in various sheaths on his body. The man’s bald pate glinted in the dim light. It was his eyes that were the most noteworthy, being piercing and intense as he stopped in front of their cell.
“You’ve led me a merry chase, kid,” Stitch said, studying him calmly. “Not sure why you are wanted, but at least we’ll stop being ignored by Terek and get some help, even if it’s not from the duke.”
“What do you mean get some help?” Aiden said, narrowing his eyes as he tried to piece together what the man was saying. “Who ignored you? What does anything have to do with me?”
The man shrugged, crossing his arms as he leaned against the wall. “You’re just a resource, kid. A resource my people need desperately. I
didn’t ask why you’re wanted, but I really don’t care as long as it buys some more arms and armor.”
“I know who, or at least what he is now, Aiden.” Gavin’s voice came weakly from the other cell. “He’s a Revyek resistance fighter. I’ve heard my father talk about them. After their dukedom was taken, groups of them dispersed around the world looking for any kind of help to fight or hurt the Duchy of Noropol and their stinking occupation. Sounds like he’s deep into it and doesn’t care who he hurts to get his way.”
The man launched himself across the narrow hallway and kicked hard at the other cell, causing Chari and Gavin to both cry out. “Shut up, you spoiled brat! By the seven circles, I’d like to see what became of you if you saw your precious little jewel of a city burnt and half of its people killed. Not that your stinking father is interested in helping, just sitting on his throne eating his fish, damn him. You’re lucky you’re worth more alive.”
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 24