“It was a worthy battle,” she replied. “It should hold me for a while.”
“Heh, I like this one,” Sulinus said to the chamberlain over his shoulder, who managed a slight smile in response. “Ya got beat upon real bad, but I’m pleased to see Relnak saw fit to reward ya for yer efforts with continued life. Rest assured, I’m gonna throw in me own reward as well, not just fer savin’ me worthless hide, but as recompense for the bloody awful time ye’ve had in Stonegaard since ye’ve arrived. That goes for all of ya, in case ye were wondering.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Nellise said with a brief curtsy. “The role of a king is a difficult one, but I don’t think of your ‘hide’ as ‘worthless’ by any measure.”
“Thank you, Madam Ambassador, but I know my own value,” Sulinus sighed, his speech becoming more formal for a brief moment. “Ya have to understand — when we fled the fall of Ferrumgaard, me people were in complete despair. Just about all of the nobility were dead, and it fell to community leaders to hold us together. People like me father. Aielund was of great assistance to us at the time, giving us this mountain range to carve a new home out of, but it took years.”
“When me father passed, I took on most of his duties, and I was eventually named the new king o’ the dwarves. Though there were a few o’ the MacAliese clan still about, the people blamed the last king for so many deaths during the tragedy and weren’t likely to let another of their blood sit on the throne. Me guess is they was harbouring some resentment from that decision.”
“The seeds of this uprising were sown during those dark days,” Chamberlain MacKenner added solemnly.
“It goes deeper than that, Majesty,” Nellise added, going into further detail about the real cause of Ferrumgaard’s demise, and the mad dwarves that had plotted revenge for their fall from grace as a result.”
“They were going to what?” Sulinus barked when he heard of the plot to flood Stonegaard with lava.
“It’s true,” Sayana chimed in. “I fought an earth shaman down below, and she had been stirring up the molten rock deep within the ground for weeks. If we hadn’t stopped her, it would have risen up and boiled your city alive, or quite possibly have blown the top off the mountain.”
“And Old Hamish was crazy enough to go along with this plan?” the king inquired.
“I don’t think he quite knew what his cousins were capable of,” Sayana explained. “In the end, he found out and they turned on him pretty quickly. He’d already committed treason, however, so he had nowhere else to turn. I think he came at me just so he could die with some dignity. I’m not sure having an axe split his skull was very dignified, however.” At the mention of the axe, Sulinus’ eyes lit up.
“Thanesedge… do you have it?” he inquired, the eagerness plainly heard in his voice.
“Unfortunately, it slipped into the lava along with Hamish’s body,” she replied quietly. “It didn’t melt right away, but it was beyond saving. It’s gone.”
“Underground, it’s called ‘magma’, lass,” Sulinus remarked, unable to hide the disappointment behind a casual statement. “The loss of the axe is a bit of bad news, to be sure. It would have made me job a lot easier, but I’ll have to make do without it now. Uniting the clans has been a goal of mine fer decades. At least this debacle has allowed me to purge some of the more treasonous bastards from me city, and for that, I thank ye again.”
“Enough with the thanks,” Pacian blurted. “We came here for a specific reason, and we’ve wasted time helping you out with your endless problems. You’d better have that bloody sceptre, or you’re going to be in debt to Aielund for a long time.”
“Ah yes, the Sceptre of Oblivion,” Sulinus replied, unperturbed by Pacian’s brusque manner. “We’ve been a little busy around here of late, as ya may have heard, yet I did set the head of the reliquary to the task of tracking down yer little toy. I’m sorry to tell you this, but we have no record of any such device on the books.”
“Nothing at all?” Nellise inquired, giving Pacian a placating gesture to calm him down.
“Look, we lost a lot of knowledge during the exodus,” Sulinus explained. “Centuries of notes, not to mention valuables, were left behind in our haste to save as many people as we could. It’s possible it might still be back there in Ferrumgaard, deep within the earth, but the master of the reliquary has been around for a couple of centuries and he swears he never saw the thing on the books even before all that happened. I’m sorry, but as far as we’re concerned, it doesn’t exist.”
“I see,” Nellise replied, crestfallen. She looked around at her companions, but there was nothing she could really say to them.
“As I said, I’ll make it up to ya,” Sulinus promised. “If ya can stay here for a few more days, I’ll have me personal armourer and weapon smith see that you carry our finest equipment with ya back to yer city. I see you already have one of our daggers there, lad,” he added, pointing to the gleaming vythiric dagger on Pacian’s belt.
“It was a gift from one of your soldiers,” Pacian explained, his voice devoid of emotion as he recalled the face of Tosh as he plunged that dagger into his back. “He fell during the fighting.”
“Sergeant MacIntosh, yes I was informed,” Sulinus nodded solemnly. “He was a good man, and a loyal soldier. He’ll be missed.” Pacian didn’t trust himself to speak, struggling with the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him once more. Nellise put a comforting arm around his shoulder and squeezed, which helped him a little, but he remained silent for the rest of their meeting. When they finally left to return to the inn, Pacian’s introspection illuminated one little fact of that last, fateful battle next to the lava pool.
“Sy, when you killed Hamish with the axe, his body just kind of… slumped onto the ground, as I recall,” he remarked.
“That’s how I remember it, yes,” the red-haired girl replied.
“Then how did his body suddenly topple into the lake like that?” he pressed, suspecting the truth but wanting to judge her reaction first. She held her silence for a long moment, which garnered the curiosity of the other two.
“I guess the ground it was sitting on was a bit uneven,” she finally answered, trying to sound casual but failing to impress.
“You’re a terrible liar, Sy,” he drawled. “Why don’t you leave that to the professionals, and just tell us the truth.”
“I pushed it in,” she said without further hesitation, as if she knew her lie wouldn’t be believed.
“What?” Valennia exclaimed. “That weapon was magnificent. Why would you destroy it like that?”
“A leader shouldn’t need to rely on a symbol — he should just become a better leader,” Sayana answered simply. They all pondered this little bit of wisdom as they headed back through the bustling city, and a thought occurred to Pacian.
“I hope Aiden can find that sceptre, or we’re going to have to figure out some other way of stopping this Ironlord thing,” he muttered quietly, drawing a look of consternation from Nellise.
Chapter Fourteen
Beyond the magical shield’s impenetrable barrier was a world frozen in time. A large, open area of barren dirt separated Aiden and his weary companions from the stairs, and the base of the tower. The rippling surface of the shield above had prevented any rainfall to the ground since the fall of the city. Not a single blade of grass could be seen on the field, and each step sent a small cloud of dust drifting across the windless plain.
The desolate field was a couple of hundred yards across, and bordered by the remnants of high buildings, their stone walls built solidly enough to withstand the test of time. The tower itself had been partially destroyed during the initial earthquakes that struck the city, and rubble the size of cows was strewn around the base of the shattered tower, with large sections of jagged stone jutting out of the torn ground.
Aiden was in awe of the surreal scene and stepped slowly across the empty field with the others, the sound of their quiet footfalls accompanied only
by the subtle hum of the barrier. There was no sign of any life here at all and the idea that the druid’s new leader, the one who had brought them to the brink of destruction, might somehow have been living here for months was ridiculous.
The four of them walked slowly amongst the ruins, threading their way through the giant slabs of broken stone as they made their way towards the tower. From what Aiden could see, the main doors were still standing, despite some heavy damage from the fallen stone and with any luck, the secrets he sought lay just beyond. The prospect of finding the Sceptre of Oblivion buried within, as well as other hidden treasure, was tantalising.
“I’ve found something,” Ronan whispered from just up ahead. Aiden hurried through the small maze of shattered stone to see the sailor crouched over a pile of bones on the ground. A tattered brown robe was partially covering the remains, and one of the skeletal hands was clutching a small staff.
“Perhaps the remains of that wizard you spoke of?” Sir William suggested.
“No, he never actually touched the ground in the vision I saw,” Aiden replied. Maggie moved in for a closer look, and spent a few moments searching through the bones.
“These are only a few months old, at the most,” she said. “The robe is the kind my order wears… I think I know who this was.”
“A friend of yours?” Ronan drawled.
“Yes, actually, and the last time I saw him, he was heading into the ruins to search for something. He was the Enlightened One, the leader of the order and our spiritual compass. I knew him simply as Calum. I had thought this was the man who was leading the others, yet part of me knew he couldn’t be. He would never have advocated the destruction of a city, nor would he have expunged me from the order.”
Quite right, a soft, clear voice said within their minds. Aiden looked around in surprise, unsure who had spoken when he noticed something strange. The rocks and the ground upon which they sat were distorted, warped as if he were looking at them through water. There was a sensation of movement past where Ronan was standing and as Aiden watched, the distorted vision coalesced into a massive shape of familiar appearance.
A dragon, its hide shimmering as the illusion of rock and earth fell away, towered before them with one of its claws already in motion. Ronan, as stunned as the rest of them by the sudden appearance, was struck on the side of his body, and thrown onto the ground.
His feet frozen in place, Aiden could only gape up at the dragon in terror. Its sleek reptilian face was familiar to him, but his mind refused to process this information. He was shoved towards the tower doors by Sir William, the knight throwing his shield up to deflect another strike from the dragon’s claws.
Sparks flew from his shield as the two men crashed through the doorway, with Maggie’s diminutive form darting past them just before the dragon struck at the ground where they had been standing a moment before, the force of the blow throwing a cloud of dirt into the air.
Aiden stumbled over some rocks on the floor of the tower as he scrambled away from the door. His heart pounding in his chest, Aiden’s mind reeled at the thought of a dragon awaiting them just outside the doors. He quelled his rising panic and tried to remain calm.
The morning light was finding its way through cracks in the wall as well as a few small windows. A stairwell was visible nearby, though most of the stairs were broken and useless. Walls had fallen down within, leaving an open space nearly twenty-five yards across, filled with rubble and debris. The sound of Ronan screaming in pain could be heard from outside, and Aiden stared in terror at the door.
Your friend still lives, for the moment, the dragon said as clearly as if it were speaking into Aiden’s ear. This situation will change depending on how quickly you follow my instructions. Aiden could hear heavy steps as the dragon shifted its bulk outside the broken tower doors, though it was far too large to enter. Maggie huddled in a far corner, her eyes wide with fear and Sir William simply seemed to be struggling with the sudden change in their situation.
“Who are you?” Aiden shouted, gathering his courage.
I am known to humanity as Vindictus Spitefury, the Unseen Terror, came the reply. You have something I want — Aiden Wainwright, you carry upon your person a key to passing through the barrier. Give it to me, and I will let you leave in peace.
Aiden looked down to his hand, where he still grasped the amethyst he had removed from the stone to bring them back to reality. He felt around in his pouches for a moment before realising that he had dropped the stone itself during the dragon’s initial attack. It was out there on the ground, somewhere, though the dragon didn’t yet realise it.
“Why do you want it?” Aiden asked, stalling for time, “and how did you come to be in this city?”
I have been here for many years, tiny mortal, the dragon purred. I descended upon the helpless creatures of this city and struck them down, sending those I did not kill fleeing into the night. The owner of this tower was not so easily dispatched. He fought with lightning and fire, and nothing I did could touch him. So, I destroyed his tower and sent him plummeting to his death.
“You did not kill him,” Aiden shouted defiantly. “He exists still, in the Aether!”
He was defeated — that is all that matters, the dragon hissed back. His last act was to invoke this shield that surrounds us even now, trapping me within as the city fell. Unable to escape, I have slept these last eighty years and more, dreaming of freedom and continuing my crusade against humanity.
“Ronan is out there, dying,” Maggie whispered urgently. “Can’t you just give it the key?”
“It was in my hands when the dragon attacked,” Aiden whispered back. “It’s out there on the ground somewhere.” The tower shook from a violent impact, showering them with dust and small rocks.
I do not like being ignored, Vindictus warned them. Bring me the key, Aiden, so I can continue my work. Corrupting the priests of this forest proved to be ineffective — I must take to the skies once more and return this land to its natural state through more persuasive methods.
Aiden glanced at Maggie, who seemed to register the news that the dragon was responsible for everything that had happened to her order. Her expression changed from fear to one of determination.
“We cannot let this fiend loose upon the world once more,” Sir William advised grimly, “or other cities will suffer the same fate as Feybourne.”
Ronan screamed again, and Aiden closed his tired eyes and tried to think for a moment. If they could somehow get out there and find the stone and then gather up Ronan, they would be able to escape and leave the dragon trapped here. How to achieve this was beyond him — Vindictus had them right where he wanted them, almost as if this had been planned. Again, the tower shook from a powerful impact as the dragon made its feelings known.
I am growing impatient, it hissed in their minds.
“How do you know my name?” Aiden asked, suspicious of this whole situation. “I suspect that your ability to speak in our minds does not let you read them.”
You are incorrect, though that does take considerable effort on my part, Vindictus replied casually. But in your case, my methods were far more devious. I was awakened by the arrival of the druid you referred to as the Enlightened One. I never bothered to learn his name, and after I had made a meal of him, I searched his belongings and discovered a curious artifact, no doubt recovered from within this very city. You might recognise it, Aiden. Come closer to the door and I will show you. I give you my word you shall not be harmed.
“Don’t listen to him,” Sir William hissed as Aiden, his curiosity driving him forward, stepped closer to the large crack in the door. Through it, he saw the dragon’s scaled wing and in its claw was the object of which he had spoken — a crystal sphere. Aiden unconsciously reached up and grasped the shard that hung around his neck, the fragment of a similar sphere broken years ago.
Yes, now you understand, came the dragon’s smug response. It was I who spoke within your dreams, guiding you to the crypt w
here you were to find the only method that would allow you entry to the tower. You are here by MY design. What, did you think it was Salinder? He grows old, little human, and sleeps more and more as his time draws to an end. The two of you have had such interesting communications lately. I found it all highly entertaining.
Aiden let out a strangled cry of frustration — he had been manipulated by Vindictus into this trap, and they were all going to pay the price for it. Their only chance for survival was to relinquish the key, in turn unleashing the dragon on an unsuspecting world while trapping them here forever.
“Sir William is right — we can’t let it escape, or it’ll wreak havoc,” Aiden whispered stubbornly, sharing a look of understanding with the old knight.
“How in Gaea’s name do you suggest we do that?” Maggie hissed, her disbelief accentuated by another blow to the tower that shook them to the core. “I want it dead as much as anyone, but we simply don’t have the means.” Thinking of what he had at his disposal, Aiden quickly rummaged through his pack and pulled out a scroll left over from Alain’s place, and the gauntlet he had been given.
He scanned the ancient script upon the scroll and determined that it was some sort of mind enhancing incantation, which unfortunately wouldn’t help with their current situation. Instead, Aiden focused upon the gauntlet, taking out the cube and quickly scrolling through the information presented on its shimmering, mirage-like pages to see if there was some information about the relic. The runes and glyphs etched upon the ancient metal gauntlet were identical to those within its ephemeral pages, and he was certain that he could figure out how to work it with enough time.
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