Gavin took off his glasses and blinked at Aiden. “Uh, Aiden, isn’t going to the Anderealm fatal for anyone but you?”
“It is, but that’s not where we’re going. Remember when Ashrak and I took a trip to spy on Duke Feldar? He was perfectly safe, and you should be too.”
“And the floating things?” Gavin continued, eyeing his friend. “Didn’t you say there were tons of them chasing you? I don’t think I fancy a hoard of monsters chasing me versus reading a good book.” Gavin waved the book at him. “Besides, I doubt we can do this without Markam. He’s already terrified of spiders; I can only imagine how he’ll feel about floating tentacle monsters.”
“We both know it won’t stop him,” Aiden said, shaking his head. “The worst is he gives me the evil eye and continues to wish I was dead.”
“He doesn’t hate you, you know, Aiden,” Gavin said, laughing. Getting up and retrieving his overcoat before putting it on. “He’s…”
“Just doing his job,” Aiden finished for him. “I know, I know. I can’t fault him for it, but it's awfully hard to like him when he’s glaring at me all the time.”
Gavin didn’t answer but grinned, slapping Aiden on the back and heading out of the room. “Let's go give him the good news.”
***
“Absolutely not, Gavin!” Markam growled, glaring daggers at Aiden who thought it best to be standing by the door for a quick escape if need be. He also had his thumb on the shield button of his walking stick just in case the large boy put action to what his eyes were promising.
“Come now, Markam,” Gavin answered, holding his hands up towards the infuriated guard. “It doesn’t sound that bad. Aiden promises that we’re not going into the camp and that there were none of those floaters outside the walls. We’ll just pop in, scout about, and then be back before midnight. Easy!”
Markam let his eyes float over to his charge, clearly disbelieving everything that had just come out of Gavin’s mouth. “When has anything ever gone according to plan around him?” Markam said, punctuating what he said with a sharp jab at Aiden. “Seriously, Gavin, he’s a menace!”
“Hey, now!” Aiden barked. “I’m not the menace here! I would have preferred not to be involved in this whole business, but it was you lot that dragged me into it! Don’t just conveniently forget that.”
Markam ignored him, but Gavin gave Aiden a pained expression that made Aiden feel bad. Nevertheless, it was true, and Aiden’ didn’t feel like being blamed for things that weren’t his fault.
“However, the fact remains that I was giving this task to carry out by the Duke and he wanted Gavin to help,” Aiden said coldly as his resolve firmed. “He didn’t say that you were needed, though. You are free to stay behind if you wish, Markam.”
Gavin and Markam just gaped at him, suddenly frozen in shock at Aiden’s tone. Gavin continued to blink, but Markam wasn’t so easily cowed.
“Now, just you wait a minute! You can’t talk to me like that. Even if the Duke gave you an errand, you’re not even old enough to be in fealty to anyone. You can’t give us orders,” Markam snapped, stalking quickly towards Aiden in the small room. “I don’t have to listen to you, and I won’t let you endanger Gavin!”
“Wrong!”
The word cut like ice through the room, quelling Markam’s anger with its strength. Though not tall, Aiden had risen to his full height and was now pointing his walking stick just under Markam’s chin, bringing the boy up short. Aiden’s eyes, however, were what had stopped Markam’s rush. They were hard as granite and locked onto the guardsmen.
“I swore fealty directly to Duke Valeran just before we left. He is my liege lord, and I am carrying out his direct order. If you deny me, you are defying him.” Aiden paused, letting each of the following words grate out through clenched teeth. “Is. That. Clear”
Gavin could only stare in shock as Markam nodded dumbly, backing off from Aiden’s walking stick. It was Markam that broke eye contact first and Gavin would never have believed his burly friend could back down from the diminutive Aiden, he could believe it now.
“If you want to go, get your gear and meet us in my room, Markam,” Aiden said as he turned towards the door and began to walk out of it. “We’re leaving in ten minutes.”
Gavin and Aiden were silent as they made their way back to Aiden’s room until just before they got there.
“Aiden?” Gavin asked tentatively, looking at his friend from the corner of his eyes.
Aiden paused with his hand on his doorknob before closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. “Let’s get into my room. If I try to answer you out here, I may pee my pants.”
Gavin laughed nervously but followed his friend inside watching as Aiden collapsed onto his bed.
“He’s going to murder me, isn't he? I won’t even have to wait for a pack of creatures to be chasing us.” Aiden said, speaking through the arm thrown over his face. “Do you think he’ll wait to corner me in an alley or just beat me in front of everyone?”
“I don’t know, Aiden. I’m still trying to process the fact that you suddenly transformed into an adult.” Gavin said, sitting in a chair. “Did you move into an estate or get married to that sea clan girl or something? Is that how it works?”
Aiden laughed, throwing a pillow at Gavin. “Stop that! I’m trying to have a nervous breakdown, and you’re making jokes.”
Gavin grinned but then turned serious. “All joking aside, that was impressive. I was fairly sure Markam was getting ready to murder you to protect me. But really, I don’t think he’s going to do anything to you, Aiden. I think it was good for him. He’s been looking at you like that orphan we first found in class, and not like one of the more powerful people on our planet. I tried talking to him about it, but it hadn’t sunk in at all. Now, I think he’ll listen.”
“Do you think he will?” Aiden asked, peeking out from under his arm. “And what do I do now? How do I treat him that won’t just piss him off more.”
Gavin shrugged. “That...is not actually a hard thing. For now, you let him process. If you try to act like anything other than normal or like you are trying to avoid him, he’ll react badly. Let him make the next move.”
“I’ll try,” Aiden said, sighing. “But he’s so big, though!”
“You are correct,” Gavin said, agreeing with him. “He’s also well trained, disciplined, and quite deadly. But Aiden, what you have to see is your own worth. Compared to most men and women, Markam is impressive but compared to you? You make Dukes and Duchesses tremble. You have to see that, or you won’t be able to protect people simply because you can’t see yourself doing it.”
Aiden listened in silence. Gavin was right, and intellectually he knew it, but it was still hard to feel it within himself. However, he had stood up to Markam and succeeded. That, as terrifying as he had been, helped.
A few moments later, Markam walked in quietly. He had his armor and weapons and also Gavin’s, tossing them to him before beginning to shrug into his own. He didn’t meet Aiden’s eyes, but Aiden remembered what Gavin had told him and forced himself not to react. Instead, he got up and began to put his own armor and helmet on, covering up the fact he hadn’t even thought of it.
“Okay,” Aiden said after the three friends had gotten settled. “Give me some time to make the transition, but it should be pretty simple. I’m going to put us far enough outside of the fort so we shouldn’t have to worry about the floaters.”
As he closed his eyes, he cast his thoughts towards his friend Glowby. He hadn't told Gavin and Markam that he didn’t have a clue how to bring people with him. He was pretty sure Markam’s protective instincts would override his newfound respect, and he would punch Aiden. Instead, he sent his thoughts toward Glowby, putting his faith in his strange, glowing friend to lead him.
Thankfully, he felt the warm comfort of his friend reach back for him, and almost immediately he could feel concepts intrude on his mind, and he knew his friend was helping him. They felt right and simila
r to what he’d done with himself when he traveled to the Anderealm with only minor differences.
The first part made sense. It was a bubble of will that he wrapped around his fiends. The second, however, was a bit odder. It felt like a direction that was different from the Anderealm. The closest he could summarize was instead of going left, he was going right except the mundane concepts were too simple. The direction he was dealing with now was far more complex, and it took a few more moments for him to absorb its alien design before he felt comfortable moving the three of them.
Opening his eyes, he blinking in shock. He had been expecting the barren, nightmare landscape of the battlefield littered with dead bodies in the dark of night. Instead, they were surrounded by hundreds of enemy troops who were assaulting the trembling walls of Camp Swamp Gas. It was full daylight!
The immediate smell of burnt char assailed his nose, reflecting the fear he felt which tripled in strength as both Gavin and Markam leaped to their feet, pulling their swords from their sheaths.
“Dammit, Aiden, what have you done?” Markam yelled, putting his back to Gavin's and preparing to fight.
Aiden didn’t have an answer, but it looked like they were out of time. Just as he was opening his mouth, a massive rock slammed into the wooden wall of the camp and sent thick timbers flipping into the air with not a few, twisting forms of soldiers flying even higher.
It looked like Duke Norpon had grown tired of waiting.
Chapter 20
Markam and Gavin were looking around themselves with wild eyes. Aiden felt the same way, but only for a moment before remembering that, most likely, the charging army around them couldn’t see or touch them.
“Wait! Stop!” Aiden called, standing up from his crouch and screaming over the noise. He was about to say more when he felt someone pass through him as they charged toward the walls of the fort. He couldn’t describe the feeling directly, but it made him shiver with its alien strangeness as his entire body stiffened and his teeth clacked shut.
The soldier who had run through him also seemed to feel something, stumbling and falling into the mud in front of Aiden. The woman looked up, her harsh features wide in shock while her hands patted down her body. Clearly, she thought an attack had struck her but once she realized she didn't have an arrow or bolt sticking out of her, she began to stand, charging forward at the angry imprecations of a sergeant that had helped her up.
At the same time, Markam had made several cuts at other soldiers who were charging towards him. The sword did nothing to stop the charging mass of humanity, and both Gavin and Markam experienced what had happened to Aiden several times, adding to the confusion and chaos.
It took Aiden several moments, but he finally realized that while what they were experiencing was highly disconcerting, it wasn’t harming them. He struggled forward, fighting off the nausea and grabbed both Markam and Gavin’s arms, pulling at them to follow.
The main body of the troops that had been charging the fort passed, giving them breathing room. Seeing Glowby flashing off to the side, he quickly led Gavin and Markam further away from the main line of attack and turned to look at what was befalling the fort.
Despite watching part of the wall destroyed by a catapult, the earth ramparts studded with sharpened spikes and the defenders seemed to be doing well. Sheets of bolts and arrows were landing amongst the charging pikemen and skirmishes, taking their toll. In addition to the determined defenders, Aiden watched as patches of sky filled with swatches of stone, launched from the defender's own machines of war.
Rather than single large boulders, these were groups of fist-sized stones that, when they landed, injured or killed patches of attacking soldiers. It was more effective than larger stones since the muddy ground would not allow anything to bounce or roll far.
“Okay,” Gavin rasped as he continued to breathe hard. “That was… I don’t even know what that was. Gods, and what’s that smell?”
Aiden pulled his eyes from the battle going on in front of them. It was loud with soldiers screaming both in rage and pain. “I don’t know, but let's move further away. I can still barely hear anything. We’re safe for the moment, but I wasn’t expecting that! It was night time, wasn’t it? Why is it daylight?”
Gavin and Markam nodded and followed them as Aiden led them further from the walls and battle. When they could finally speak without yelling, he stopped and turned to face his friends. “First, that smell, or smells you’re experiencing. The closest I can say is that for some odd reason, emotions are smells here. Like that hot pepper smell mixed with burning wood.” Aiden said, eyeing Markam. “That’s fear and anger, I think.”
“Appropriate,” Markam growled. Aiden noticed the smell of burnt wood decreased but the hot pepper didn’t. “What about them passing through us? Are we ghosts or something?”
Aiden blinked, thinking for a moment but finally shaking his head. “No, at least I don’t think we are. We’re not dead, but it was clear that the soldiers somehow reacted to us. I know we can’t pass through solid objects. I tried kicking a door when I was here last, and it barely rattled.”
“So, physical objects are still solid?” Gavin asked, looking nervously toward the now distant walls and the sheets of arrows and bolts. “What happens if one of those hits us?”
Aiden turned and followed Gavin’s gaze. It was a good question, and he had no answer. It was worth testing out, but the only question was how to do so without actually endangering themselves.
The three continued to watch the battle for several more minutes, but it wasn’t until a half-hour had passed that things began to change. The walls of the fort had clearly taken a beating but had done their job. The Norpon troops began to withdraw, leaving behind several destroyed catapults and not a few dead bodies.
“Look over there,” Markam said quietly, pointing towards the flank opposite from the one they were watching.
Aiden looked and only saw retreating troops, but Gavin sighed angrily. “Troops from Feldar. It doesn’t look like there are many of them, but it's unexpected. I’m amazed Norpon even let them try to attack. They think every other soldier on the planet is a joke.”
Aiden looked at him questioningly but didn’t understand Gavin’s anger.
“Those troops had to have been here long before the attack at Riften,” Gavin said. “It means they’ve been planning this for a long time.”
Aiden nodded, continuing to watch the enemy troops withdraw from the shadows of camp swamp gas’ walls. The dead were left to lie where they’d fallen, and just in the short time since Aiden had last visited, he could tell the camp had suffered further attacks. He quickly quelled his reaction so he wouldn’t have to smell the decay his emotions brought, knowing that the reality of the death before him would have been far worse if they were standing in the real world.
“So, what do we do now?” Aiden asked, turning towards Gavin. “Where shoud we go to determine where to place the gate?”
“Around,” Gavin said. “From what you said, going into the fort is not a good idea if it's swarming with those floaters. There’s probably a swath of reasonable dry land around the walls. They couldn’t build them right up to the swamp. The water would collapse the walls, depending on how far they go around.”
Aiden blinked, not understanding. “You mean the walls won’t go all the way around?”
Gavin shook his head. “No, from what I hear, the walls don’t. Norpon can't get around the small area between the walls and swamp, and if Caitrel did make walls all the way around, then if Norpon took the camp, they’d have a ready-made defense facing Caitrel.”
As they began to make their way around the walls, Gavin’s prediction proved to be true, and about halfway around, the walls tapered off and disappeared. Once they cleared the walls, they could see more clearly the number of troops, buildings, and tents. From what Aiden could tell, there seemed to be a lot of missing troops.
Of the troops that were still in camp, they could also see the evil fl
oaters buzzing above the oblivious men like insects taking nectar from a field of sick-looking flowers.
“Those things are the floaters?” Markam asked, than began to shake his head. Aiden could see the guardsman harden his eyes. The bloated, tentacle-laden creatures dipping into the heads of the human soldiers struck a nerve with Markam, but as usual, the large youth simply bulled through it.
“They are the cause of the plague,” Aiden said warily. “I’m sure of it. The men over there are half-dead. It doesn’t kill them directly, but I don’t know how they can fight.”
“Fear,” Gavin interjected. “Fear for what those Norpon soldiers would do to their loved ones if they break through. That and Camp Swamp Gas’ defenses keeping them from hand to hand fighting is my guess.” The tall nobleman looked at his sword and then back towards the floating monsters. “Any idea if one of these swords would do anything to them, Aiden?”
The Glimmer Steel Saga, Boxed Set, Books 1 - 4 Page 82