“Give me a little notice before you just appear out of thin air like that would you?”
“Where's the fun in that?” Pacian answered with a wink. He’d cleaned himself up a after rising - his hair had been trimmed and brushed, his skin was completely clean, and he'd even shaved his scraggly beard down to a stylish, if sparse, goatee. Even his camouflaged leather armour had been cleaned and polished.
“What's with the neatness? You look like you're going to ask the Princess of Fairloch out for dinner.” Pacian's eyes gleamed, and his eyes darted around to make sure the others in their group weren't listening. As far as Aiden could tell, they hadn't even noticed his reappearance, since the two of them were walking at the back of the group.
“I think Nel has a thing for me,” Pacian confided. “She suggested I clean myself up, so I wanted to make an impression.” Aiden concealed a grin, unsure who was playing whom at the moment.
“Just try and be subtle, you know?” he advised. “Don't just come right out with it.”
“I know how to ply the ladies Aiden, trust me, I'll be so subtle she won't even know what's happening.” Aiden gave him a wry look as the impulsive young man strode forward to show off his appearance to the ladies. Aiden couldn't hear from where he was, though Nellise did seem both surprised and appreciative of his efforts.
Presently, they arrived at the church of Culdeny, a squat, stone-walled structure. Above the doors was the symbol of a sword, point down, with a halo around the hilt - the symbol of the Church of Aielund. Beautifully crafted, stain-glass windows added colour to the almost universally grey stone of the surrounding buildings, and a small group of people were leaving, just as Aiden and the others stepped through the tall, bounded wood doors.
The interior walls of the church were raw stone. Torches placed in sconces along the walls provided more light, giving the nave the ambience of perpetual twilight. It was far more elaborate than the small chapel Aiden had seen in his home town, but still lacked the feeling of grandeur he associated with a place of worship.
An older woman with bright grey eyes and small stature caught her attention, and Nellise excused herself from the group. The two priestesses walked off through a doorway at the rear of the nave, and Aiden sat back on one of the pews. Colt slumped down beside him and pulled his hood low over his eyes, appearing to doze off, while Pacian casually walked around the church examining the architecture.
It was perhaps ten minutes later that Sayana, gazing out of a window, noticed something unusual.
“Is that supposed to be happening?” she remarked, standing on the tips of her toes to see properly. Curious, Aiden wandered over to the window and noticed what she was referring to. There was a large cemetery to the left that ran all the way to the wall of the town, roughly fifty yards away. The ground directly between the church and the wall consisted mostly of tall grass, but appeared as if it had been deeply gouged somehow, and even as he looked the soil fell away in clumps, vanishing into the increasingly large hole beneath.
“That can’t be right,” Aiden muttered in disbelief as he saw the distant wall shudder and tilt as the ground beneath it gave way. The progress of the subsidence had been slow and steady, until it suddenly gave way altogether and a cloud of soil shot upwards through the rift. A dull rumble could be felt through the floor, a true indication of the scale of the collapse.
“The bloody ground is collapsing?” Pacian said incredulously. Aiden had no answer for him, having never before seen the like. He found it all quite fascinating until he saw somebody’s hand poking up through the large scar that ran along the ground.
“There’s someone in there,” Aiden breathed and immediately ran for the door. He rushed around the corner of the church itself and didn’t stop until he was at the lip of the rift, where he skidded to a halt. Scanning around carefully, he finally located the hand that emerged macabrely from the earth, and satisfied that the collapse had finished, carefully made his way down the side of the exposed earth towards it.
By the time he was within reach of the hand, his companions had caught up with him and looked on in consternation. As Aiden grasped it, he noticed fresh blood running down one side of the arm. He grasped it and pulled, expecting to help the poor soul who had fallen in the collapse, but instead found himself holding only a severed arm.
“I think it’s too late for that one,” Pacian said darkly.
“It might be a freshly buried body from the cemetery,” Colt suggested. Aiden dropped the arm in revulsion.
“No, it can’t be,” he responded after a moment’s thought. “The hand was warm, and the blood was still fresh.” He looked back up at the others as the answer came to him. “I think he was already underground.”
“One way to find out,” Colt muttered, sliding down the incline to land next to Aiden. Using his hands, he began to dig away at the loose soil, attempting to uncover what lay beneath. Aiden and the others joined in, until a vast amount of dirt was being shovelled away.
The digging stopped when they ran into a freshly-cut beam of wood, a pick-axe, and yet another body amongst the rubble. By now, a small crowd of locals had gathered above them, peering curiously down at the odd scene.
“Is this a collapsed mine?” Aiden asked aloud, unsure what to make of the odd discovery.
“In the middle of a town? Not likely,” Colt snorted. “I can think of only one reason they’d be here. They’re called sappers, men trained to undermine the walls of a town in order to bring them down, or bypass them completely. I’ve no idea what they’re doing here, but I’d wager a gold sovereign that’s what these poor bastards are.”
“Who would want to break into Culdeny like this,” Aiden mused quietly, while Pacian took a more personal approach. Half-buried in soil, he scoured the bodies, searching their pockets and meagre possessions for any sign of who or what they were. After a minute or so, he retrieved a folded sheaf of paper from one of the bodies and pocketed it, along with a few minor coins.
“Hey, you lot down there,” called a guardsman from above. “Get away from that, it’s a bloody crime scene, don’t you know!”
“Sorry sir, we were trying to help,” Aiden called back, signalling to the others that their time here was done. Climbing out of the hole proved to be more challenging than entering it, but with some help from above the four of them were soon standing upon solid ground once more.
Nearly fifty people were milling around nearby, talking amongst themselves as several members of the local guard regiment kept them at bay. The guard who had ordered them out of the hole asked a series of questions regarding their involvement, but after a few minutes allowed them to leave. During the questioning, Aiden noticed that Pace didn’t mention the note he’d found.
“What was he going to do with it, file it away or something?” Pacian protested when asked about this. “Bugger that - I want to know what was so important that sapper took it to his grave.” He led them to the doorway of the church and, making sure they weren’t being watched, produced the note and carefully unfolded it. There was more dirt than words on the page, which consisted of little more than a sentence or two. But the lettering was crisp and Aiden guessed that whoever wrote it was likely an educated person.
“What does it say?” Sayana asked.
“'Find a way into Culdeny. I don't care how you do it, but my forces must have access by the end of the month,'” Aiden read aloud as he peered over Pacian’s shoulder. “Signed, 'R.B.'”
“Thought so,” Colt grunted in triumph. “Someone with the initials ‘R.B.’ ordered those men to dig their way in, for what, I can’t say. But that’s practically an act of war.” As they pondered the importance of the document Pacian had recovered, Nellise and the matronly priestess appeared at the entrance.
“What on earth just happened?” Nel exclaimed. Aiden let her know what they’d discovered, and then showed her the note.
“You should take this to the Sergeant of the Guard immediately,” she advised breathlessly. “I don
't know what threats are facing the town, but thank God you discovered this when you did.”
“I agree,” Aiden assured her. “Are you finished with your affairs?”
“We were just about to discuss that when I noticed the commotion outside,” Nellise answered. “I was wondering if you still required my services here, Archioness. I am ready to return to the church and resume my former duties, if you so desire.”
“I had planned for you to do just that prior to the discovery of that tunnel, Nellise,” the Archioness explained with a smooth voice, “But from what you’ve described, you have been an invaluable aid to your companions, and I believe you should remain with them a while longer. While they talk with the guard sergeant, however, I would ask that you aid me with a few minor tasks for a couple of hours.”
“Certainly, Mother,” Nellise replied, then turned to Aiden. “I'll catch up with the rest of you at the inn this evening.” Aiden gave her a polite bow as the two ladies of the cloth disappeared inside once more.
“We should get right on this,” Colt advised. “There's no guarantee all of the sappers were killed in the collapse. All it would take is for one of those bastards to get away and tell whoever that 'R.B.' person is what happened and we might never find out who was behind it.”
It wasn't difficult locating the guardhouse – even hung-over and injured, Colt was able to point them in the right direction. The building near the front gate was basically a small fort inside the town. Heavy stone walls two storeys high gave it a bulky, squat appearance that would have been more intimidating if the rail on the top floor wasn't being used to air out ladies' undergarments.
“Interesting decoration,” Pacian quipped. “Maybe there's a brothel upstairs?”
“What's a brothel?” Sayana asked, puzzled. Aiden and Pacian exchanged a hesitant glance.
“You tell her,” they both said at once. Colt laughed, the first time Aiden could recall hearing it.
“I'll tell you some other time,” Aiden said to Sayana, who glared at Colt, probably assuming she was once again the butt of some joke. Aiden opened the heavy wooden door before him and stepped inside.
Before him was a small room that seemed to be an office, with stairs against the far wall and a doorway on the left, presumably leading to the rest of the barracks. A woman sat at a desk, busily writing on documents with a quill, her dark hair tied back in a plait and her head bent over her task.
Aiden walked forward and stood in front of the desk, making sure his boots made enough noise on the wooden floor to attract her attention. She had swarthy skin, large, brown eyes, and wore a guard’s uniform.
“Is there something I can do for you?” she asked, looking up to see who had entered.
“I was wondering if I could speak with whoever is in charge here,” Aiden replied.
“Concerning?”
“An important matter of town security,” Aiden added, somewhat impatiently.
“I'm afraid the captain is two hundred miles away fighting for his country,” she explained delicately. “But you can tell me your problem and I'll let him know when he gets back.” Aiden blinked, caught off guard by the unexpected answer and feeling stupid as a result.
“I'm sorry, I guess I should have known he'd be away fighting in the war.”
“We can't all be brilliant,” she replied tiredly. “I'm Sergeant Ariel, temporarily in command of the Kingdom Guard of Culdeny.”
“Aiden Wainwright and associates. We just recovered a document from a group of deceased men digging their way under your walls.” Ariel gave him a sharp look, perhaps not believing him.
“One of my men just told me about the collapse, but I hadn’t heard anything about evidence turning up. Tell me everything, right now,” she ordered. Aiden proceeded to do so, ably supported by Pacian and the occasional remark from Colt as they filled in details he overlooked. When they were done, Ariel slumped back down in her chair.
“And the document?”
Aiden handed her the note he had taken from what he assumed was their leader. The sergeant took the offered paper and read it several times, possibly trying to glean more information from the brief message than was actually there.
Now that he had a better look at her, Aiden could see she was very fit, and clearly not a secretary or desk sergeant as he had briefly thought earlier. This woman was trained to fight, which wasn't exactly common these days. Much like the rest of the country, the town was obviously hard-pressed to find enough people to fill important posts during this time of war. He also noticed a wedding band on one of her fingers.
“I wonder who this 'R.B.' is,” she mused.
“We've been thinking the same thing ourselves,” Pacian remarked, surreptitiously examining the sergeant with an expert eye. “What's your take on it, sarge?”
“Well, someone wants a tunnel large enough for 'forces' to move through, and that suggests an army. The only force in the region with anywhere near the numbers required to take a town of this size are the Steel Tigers, a mercenary company.”
“There's a company of mercs near Culdeny?” Colt asked ominously. “What idiot hired 'em?”
“Probably one of the local merchants,” Ariel suggested, “they've been concerned about bandit raids on their caravans along the mountains between here and Fairloch. I guess they didn't care about the road south though. I wonder if 'R.B.' could be Ronald Bartlett.”
“Who's that?” Aiden inquired.
“A nobleman who operates the North Shore Trading Company out of Culdeny, along with a few other wealthy individuals,” she explained. “They have a lot of financial backing, and could probably afford a mercenary company.”
“Sounds like you should pay him a visit and ask him a few pointed questions,” Pacian suggested. Ariel shook her head and shifted in her chair.
“Easier said than done I'm afraid, he's quite elusive. Doesn't mingle with the commoners a lot, as you'd expect. He frequents a local bar called the Gentlemen's club, a very exclusive gathering of movers and shakers.”
“Ok, so you do know where to find him,” Colt said impatiently. “Go do your job.”
“I would very much like to do that, but they don't tolerate women in their gentlemen's club,” she replied evenly. “In fact, only ten people in town are wealthy and powerful enough to qualify for entry.”
“How can they refuse entry to a commander of the guard?” Aiden asked in disbelief.
“It's not so much that they'd refuse entry,” Ariel explained, “it's that they would refuse co-operation, because I'm a woman and also merely a temporary commander. And they’ve enough power and influence to remove me from office, if it came to it. I’m sorry to say this, but there's not much I can do with the evidence you've given me. This is only a hunch we're going on here, and it’s going to take more than a scrawled note to figure out who's behind the attack.”
“Do you think the mayor would be rich and powerful enough to be a member of this club you mentioned?” Aiden asked thoughtfully.
“Without a doubt,” Ariel concurred. “What are you thinking?”
“I'm thinking that if he understands the gravity of the situation, we're going to be the newest members of the Gentlemen's Club, even if only for a few hours.”
“If you manage to get some information of merit, bring it to me, and I'll figure out the best way to make use of it. In the meantime, I’m going to investigate this collapsed tunnel you found and see if we can find out more.”
“I think I'll sit this one out,” Sayana said quietly. “I should go and eat anyway.”
“No, I want you with us,” Aiden disagreed. “I have an idea.”
“You want me along too?” Colt asked. “You probably know I'm not going to be any good talkin' with nobles.” Aiden considered this for a moment.
“I guess it wouldn't hurt to have you looming in the background,” he finally decided. “Just don't say anything.”
“I can loom with the best of them,” Colt grunted.
“Alr
ight, let's go pay the mayor another visit,” Aiden said. “We'll get in touch with you later, sergeant, and thanks for your help.”
“That's what I'm here for,” Ariel replied, before returning to her work.
* * *
“You again,” Mayor Buchanan sighed as Aiden and the others pushed their way through to the office once more. The queue outside had returned in their absence. “What on earth could you possibly want from me now?” Aiden decided on a diplomatic approach, despite his impatience.
“I understand you are a member of the Culdeny Gentlemen's Club?”
“Indeed I am. It is a place I go to unwind from the hassles of my office, such as yourselves. What business is it of yours?”
“I have need to speak with Ronald Bartlett, co-owner of the North Shore Trading Company, and I have been informed I will not be permitted into the club.”
“Quite so,” Buchanan replied haughtily. “Try not to take offence, as the club exists primarily to keep people like you, away from people like us.” Aiden stared blandly at the overweight man for a few moments before he could compose his next thoughts in the form of a question, instead of a fist to the man's face.
“We've just come from the barracks, where I spoke with Sergeant Ariel. An incident occurred this morning concerning the security of the town, and she wants Ronald Bartlett to answer some questions. Being the discreet and thoughtful individual she is, the sergeant thought it would be better if the questions came from a man. So, if you could see your way clear to allow us entry for a few minutes, we could get this whole matter resolved promptly.”
“You can't expect me to...” Buchanan stammered, peering incredulously at the rough-looking group. “I mean, my reputation would be ruined if the lot of you were to show up.” Sensing the failure of diplomacy, Pacian stepped forward.
“It's in your best interest to help us out here,” he said, keeping his voice low and casting his gaze around, as if to check for who might be listening. “Some information we recently received implicates you and the mayor of Bracksford in some, shall we say, highly illegal activities with the North Shore Trading Company. Does the name Merin ring a bell? Help us out here, and that information will almost certainly be tragically lost somehow. Otherwise, well, these things have a way of getting out, if you know what I mean.”
Nature Abhors a Vacuum (The Aielund Saga Book 1) Page 11