The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4

by Spencer Pierson

  “My father tried what we could,” Aiden heard Gavin call back. “Your duchy is half way across the world. Even if we’d sent troops there’s no way we could have supported them, not with Revyek already fallen, Caiterel is almost done for and dragging Banum down with it. What else could we do?”

  “You could have done something. Anything to stop them. Anything to stop the dragoon’s when they marched into my city and killed one person out of three. So you think on that, Gavin Terek, when I sell you and your friends for money to get my revenge. No matter what happens to you, your pitiful pleading won’t save you when I get the money for your hide, I assure you.”

  It was difficult to see from this angle but Aiden watched as Stitch stood in front of the other cell, his one fist clenched and his teeth bared. Finally, he shook his head, still glaring for a second before walking back toward him. His eyes were wild, but still held a cold, calculating center as they captured Aiden’s own gaze. Glowby had floated behind Aiden’s back, trying to hide from the man’s anger.

  “You never had a chance of getting away from me, kid. You would have saved your friends a lot of problems if you’d just come with me in the alley. Considering who’s buying you, I think you’ll live for at least a little while longer. I’m not so sure about your friends.” Stitch turned, preparing to walk away but paused. “I’m stationing one of my men at the end of the hallway so the crew won’t bother you. Or more particularly, your pretty friend back there. I would keep your voices down if I were you, though. No sense in tempting them.”

  Aiden slumped back against the wall and watched as Stitch walked out of sight and spoke to someone down the hall. He couldn’t hear what was said, but it was brief and then there was silence.

  “Well, I suppose exciting is no longer the right word to use about being around you, eh Aiden?” Ashrak said, leaning against the wall with him. “We’ll figure out something, and if not we had a good run. I mean, how many people get to say they were in Duke Feldar’s castle and not eaten?”

  “Yeah, I guess. Maybe you shouldn’t have come to save me Ashrak. He was right if he’d gotten me then none of you would be here. It’s all my fault.”

  Ashrak made a face and slapped his arm. “Nonsense, Aiden. At least for me. I could have run for the high hills or just turned you in if I wanted to do something boring, but I didn’t. That’s what that rat Skeeve did, not me. I’m pretty sure that pretty boy and Chari would say the same thing about sticking with you, or something equally altruistic.” He leaned his head back, looking up at the ceiling. “Amazingly stupid, I know, but there it is. Don’t blame yourself, Aiden. If you do that, you’ll never be able to think of a way to get us all out of this mess you’ve gotten us into.

  “Ashrak,” Chari’s strangled voice came from the other cell, “You are so impossible! Are you trying to make him feel guilty or help?”

  “Probably a little of both, Chari dear.” Ashrak chimed back pleasantly, “Orphan Boy has been doing some remarkable things lately. I’m placing my money on him pulling something else out of thin air if you don’t mind.”

  Chari went quiet though Aiden thought he could hear her teeth grind together, but other than that there was silence. Still, Ashrak was right. He had been involved in so much lately and done some odd things. He watched Glowby do a circle eight in front of him, glowing a gentle blue as he thought furiously.

  Of all of the things that had happened to him, how could any of it help? Could he do something with glimmer steel now, or make something? Maybe a sword? He shook his head. He’d seen Ashrak fight against Stitch, and it hadn’t gone very well. How were they supposed to fight against an entire ship’s crew? And where would they go afterward even if they were successful? No, a sword wouldn’t work. That would just get them killed.

  “I think he’s cooking something up in his head,” Ashrak said, startling Aiden out of his thoughts, “He’s got that wrinkle in his brow above his left eye.”

  “Shut up, Ashrak” Gavin hissed. “You’re not helping and don’t forget we’re being listened to. They can come in and get us at any time.”

  Aiden’s eyes lit up as he thought about what Gavin had just said. That’s right, they could come in and get them anytime they wanted, but what if he could stop that? The biggest danger was that they could come in and hurt them, or do even worse things to Chari. If he made a plate, couldn’t he make a box? First, he’d have to get them all into the same cell, though. He had no clue if this would work, but he wanted to make it as simple as possible.

  Ok, yes, Ashrak,” Aiden winked at Ashrak, waving his hands at him to play along, “I’ve got no plan at all so can you all please be quiet? I think I need to sleep. I’m tired.”

  Ashrak paused, his eyes narrowing before he nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll be quiet if lord jibber jabber over there does?”

  They both heard an answering disgruntled noise from Gavin that sounded suspiciously like a curse, but no further talking. Aiden didn’t know if they got the hint, or were just done talking to Ashrak but either way, he had the quiet he needed. He didn’t want the crew or Stitch’s men checking on them. Maybe if he made a knife first? Something small that they could hide away? It would be a good first test to see if he could make anything at all.

  Aiden moved to the back of the cell and sat, making sure he was as comfortable as possible on the moving ship and amidst the odd smells. Finally, he settled, watching as Glowby floated over in his lap in an almost stately manner. He was glad his friend was here as it served to calm his nerves.

  With his eyes closed, Aiden concentrated and tried to remember everything about that day when he’d made the plate and then the fire. Everything was so chaotic during both times but it was the plate that was most clear, allowing him to collect his thoughts more coherently. He began to recall how the plate looked. How it was supposed to feel not only from someone outside and touching it, but from the plate itself. The presence of Glowby began to make itself felt as well, guiding and nurturing him along his path.

  When he thought he had a good idea of how he’d felt during the making of the plate, he altered it; pushing the memory of the dagger that Stitch had used in the alley into its place. How sharp and lethal it looked. He imagined how easily it would slide into something, cutting easily through meat. No, not meat. He felt that wouldn’t be enough and also felt Glowby pushing him in another direction. It had to be sharper than that. Cutting through stone, wood, or even metal like paper.

  As he held onto the thought of that very sharp knife, he could feel a strange barrier up before him. It was similar to when he’d crossed over into the dream land so he reached out with his mind, exploring it with mental fingers. The comforting sense of Glowby riding with him helped, moving his mental manipulation in specific ways until finally, he felt the resistance in the barrier separate and let a faintly glowing material begin trickling through. It resisted at first, but grudgingly it came and to his minds-eye, drifted in the air like it was under water.

  The strange liquid began to drift towards his face, making him wonder what would happen if it formed around his head. What if it tried to form in his head? He began to panic and felt like he was on the verge of failure. If he couldn’t do it, then he couldn’t help them out of this situation. Couldn’t protect them and he’d be given to that terrifying Mourning Lord, with his friends sold into slavery or worse. Even as he could feel his concentration spiraling out of control, he felt Glowby’s presence more strongly, keeping him from falling all the way.

  Slowly and with Glowby’s help he stopped his retreat and then began pushing forward again with his plan. He realized he needed to do something else with the idea of the dagger. That the idea needed to be outside of his head so, that’s what he did. Aiden focused the idea and pushed it so it floated in the air above his hands. He felt a bit odd, but when he was done he could feel it there, existing but still under his control. The glimmer steel followed it like a happy puppy, forming around the blade and taking its shape like ice crystals formi
ng around a twig.

  The image of the knife began to become more and more defined with the silver chasing and ebony handle becoming sharper as his minds-eye focused on it. At the last moment he felt another nudge from Glowby, this time directed at the pleasant glow that Aiden was holding for the blade. For some reason, he seemed to like to make things glow, but he realized that would be dangerous on the ship so he forced it away, making the metal of the blade turn into a dark gray.

  Finally, he opened his eyes. At first, he thought he’d failed, but something in Ashrak’s eyes told him to look closer and he did so. He was glad Ashrak hadn’t said anything, because even though he knew what and where it was, he still gave out a soft gasp.

  It was hard to see, even floating directly in front of him. Aiden had only been trying to dampen the glow, but instead of just removing the glow, he’d made the blade go that far to the opposite and it seemed to drink in the light around it. It almost hurt the eyes as Aiden reached out, letting his fingers curl around the handle and feel the weight of it, he could tell it was lethal. Once he’d taken it in his hands it ceased to float, settling into his hands and felt more real to the touch. He looked up at Ashrak, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “I…I did it,” Aiden said softly, just holding the blade out in front of him.

  Ashrak nodded, leaning closer. “That’s quite a thing, Aiden,” he said in awe, “I’ve not seen a blade like that since, well, ever. The glimmer steel blades they make nowadays have to be made as long pieces of sharpness and then outfitted with handles and grips. Even then they almost feel brittle when you touch them. I think Duke Terek has one from before the Cataclysm but he never takes it out. This is like that one, fully formed. Beautiful.” Ashrak said softly, the awe in his face not diminishing. “What are you, Aiden Finn?”

  Aiden couldn’t answer him as a huge dizzy spell overtook him. Almost as if in slow motion he felt the blade fall out of his grasp with no clatter on the deck below him. No clatter, he thought curiously, it’s not metal, though, maybe it doesn’t make a clatter like metal.

  He felt his head hit, squishing unpleasantly into the rotten straw as his hearing and sight both narrowed into uncomfortable tunnels. Ashrak was calling his name from far away as his eyes focused on the handle of the dagger he’d just made. It was sticking straight up from the deck, which meant the blade had gone right through the wood. Ah, he thought, that’s why it didn’t make a clatter. Good to know.

  He didn’t know how long it took for him to recover but slowly the dagger became clearer and he could make out the words that Ashrak was urgently whispering into his ear. He also felt something wet touching his brow.

  “Aiden,” Ashrak whispered, rubbing the wet rag across his face that he’d used on Ashrak not so long ago. “Are you okay? You better be okay because you are brilliant! You were sitting there staring at your lap for hours and then bam, a bloody dagger popped out of nothing! Then you keeled over. Does that happen all the time by the way? Don’t do that again, you scared me to death. You orphans need to be more considerate.”

  Aiden looked up at Ashrak, blinking and feeling the strong urge to punch him, but he doubted he could put enough power behind it to make it worth it. Instead, he accepted Ashrak’s help in sitting up. His head still ached, even more than it had when he’d woken from being drugged. “Uh… I don’t really know if it happens all the time. It didn’t when I made the plate, but I passed out after the fire.”

  “Something else to figure out, I suppose.” Ashrak gave Aiden a considering glance before reaching down, pulling the black handled knife delicately out of the floor. “Well, no matter what, I’ve never seen a knife just fall into the floor before.”

  Aiden watched as Ashrak took a casual swipe at the wall and at first he thought he’d missed. Then he saw daylight come into the small cell they were in. It wasn’t much, but it was more than enough to see that the blade had cut all the way through the ship’s hull.

  “It’s daylight outside?” Aiden asked in disbelief. “I thought it was nighttime?”

  Ashrak grinned, nodding at him. “Well, it was night when you started. Now it's daylight. You do know you were…um… doing whatever you were doing to make this for a couple of hours, right? I stayed up to keep an eye on you. You’re welcome.”

  “Hours?” Aiden asked in disbelief, “I can’t believe it was hours. It only felt like… maybe half an hour? And did you just cut through the hull of the ship?”

  Ashrak nodded happily, taking another swipe through the wood and letting more daylight into the cell. “I did! Isn’t that fantastic? I’ve never seen something like this before.”

  “Yes, I do see that. “Aiden growled in a low whisper, peeking out of one of the lines that Ashrak had sliced through the wood. “And so will anyone else walking by, Ashrak. Quit cutting through the hull! And what are we going to do if we hit bigger waves? The surface of the ocean isn’t that much lower than we are.”

  Ashrak went pale, making a face saying quite clearly he hadn’t thought of that. “Oh, uh, I didn’t think of that.”

  Aiden scowled at him, shaking his head and regretting it almost immediately. The headache was starting to diminish, but it was still there and he couldn’t see Glowby anywhere in sight. That seemed to be becoming a pattern with his friend, and he hoped the process wasn’t dangerous for Glowby. He held his hand out for the knife and Ashrak handed it to him sheepishly and watched as Aiden cleared out a small area in the corner of the cell.

  “What are you doing?” Ashrak whispered, leaning over his shoulder and blocking the light.

  “Saving us, at least from them noticing the holes you put in their ship, and can you please get out of the light?

  Ashrak did as he was asked, leaving Aiden to find the side of one of the floor boards. He took a piece of straw and measured the width of the boards that Ashrak had sliced, and then cut a small length from one of the floor boards that matched the width of the wall boards. It was amazingly easy, the knife cutting through the wood as if it weren’t there. He hadn’t been sure it would work, but cutting two shims out of the small block was child’s play. With a bit of trimming, he pushed them into the slices and it blocked out the sun.

  “There,” Aiden said as he took a step back. It was still kind of obvious if you knew where to look, but he hoped it would do the trick. Since it returned the cell to gloom it had accomplished what he was trying to do.

  Ashrak clapped him on the back, grinning. “See? That’s why we keep your type around, Orphan Boy. You’re great at cleaning up our messes.” Ashrak leaned in, whispering quietly, “Now, what’s your big plan?”

  Aiden sighed and stood. “Well, I think we need to get Chari and Gavin into our cell, and then make a big box around us.”

  Ashrak frowned in disapproval. “A big box? That’s your plan?”

  “What? What’s wrong with a box?”

  Ashrak shrugged. “I just thought you’d have something more creative than a box. What happens after you put us in a box? Does it do something? Maybe fly away? Is it bigger on the inside?”

  When Aiden shook his head Ashrak just continued to frown at him. “Well, that still begs the question of what do we do after you put us in a box. I suspect our friend Stitch and his boys might be a bit upset with us. They might just dump us overboard.”

  Aiden watched Ashrak glumly, nodding. “I…don’t know yet. I just want to make sure they can’t hurt us first.”

  “How about food and water? I may like you, but you will need a lot of salt even after several days. Chari might taste better, but she’ll hurt me far more than you will.”

  That feeling of wanting to hit Ashrak came back stronger than ever as Aiden went quiet, gently fingering the dagger in his hand. “Okay,” Aiden finally said, “I get it; no box. Maybe you can think of something.”

  “I’ll try, but it’s not my thing,” Ashrak shrugged, gesturing to the hastily-repaired holes in the ship, “I’m much better at poking holes, as you’ve noticed. No, I’m afraid
it’s all on you, Aiden.”

  “Great,” Aiden sighed and slumped against the wall, “When isn’t it?” The two fell into a contemplative silence, slowly rocking with the movement of the ship.

  Chapter 21

  The two boys were still trying to come up with ideas after a few hours, trading increasingly odd thoughts or ideas until they both lapsed into brooding silence. Glowby hadn’t come back and Aiden was getting nervous at the absence. Had making the blade hurt his friend? From the steady breathing that came from the other cell, it sounded like Chari and Gavin were still asleep. They couldn’t really tell them what they had anyway, in case one of Stitch’s men might overhear.

  They were moved out of their reverie by the sound of thick boots clumping on the floor of the hall towards them. Curiously peeking out of the cell, they watched down the hallway as best they could from their poor angle.

  The figure that came into view was of a man of middle height with greasy hair and beard, squinting at them with an oddly disproportionate face. It was an interesting face to look at, with a broken nose, the crisscross of weather worn lines, and the occasional white scar. The man was smiling, clearly attempting his best at being charming but it never reached his eyes which put the boys instantly on their guard. He was holding two large platters with what smelled like food but otherwise resembled the mess a two-year-old would make of a mud puddle.