Nature Abhors a Vacuum (The Aielund Saga Book 1)

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “She was lying right next to you, what am I supposed to think?” he chided, keeping his voice low as the two young men kept to the rear of the group. “And she's so tired, I mean, you've got to go easy on the poor girl - she's skin and bone.”

  “Enough already,” Aiden replied, exasperated. “Look, if I tell you, will you shut up?” It took Pacian a few moments to decide.

  “Probably. There’s one way to find out, though.”

  “Do you remember where I found this?” Aiden asked, lifting the shard on its chain from around his neck just enough for Pacian to see it. His mocking smile faded.

  “You know I do,” he whispered. “What of it?”

  “What I never told you is that every few nights since then, I've had a dream about that day. A really vivid dream, and it's always the same.”

  “How come you've never told me about it?”

  “I just thought I was a little traumatised, or something,” Aiden replied, fighting feelings of embarrassment. “Besides, you remember how everyone treated me when I told them what happened. I wasn't about to go through that all over again.”

  “Fair enough,” Pacian conceded. “What's this got to do with Flame Girl?” Aiden glanced around to make sure nobody else was within earshot.

  “Last night, she appeared in the dream. Specifically, right when I was watching the battle.” Pacian seemed sceptical. “I'm serious - she was standing right next to me, shouting, but with no voice. She wasn’t wearing much either, for some reason.”

  “Oh, well, that explains a lot,” Pacian said with a wink.

  “No, no, it wasn't like that at all,” Aiden insisted, trying to keep Pacian on track. “The dragon looked right at her, and she screamed like it was about to attack her or something. That dream has been identical every time except for last night, and when I awoke, she was holding on to this shard thing, and then she collapsed.” Pacian took a deep breath and appeared to think about it a little.

  “She is a strange one, I'll give you that,” he mused. “Who knows what sort of abilities she has? Maybe it was real enough for her to jump into your head like that, I don't know. Perhaps you should go and talk to her.”

  “I don't want the others finding out about this just yet,” Aiden muttered. “Maybe when I get a chance to speak with her alone, I'll see what she knows. But you know what she's like – just about everything she does is instinctive, and she doesn't really understand how she does any of it. Somehow, I don't think I'm going to get much from her.”

  “Worth a try, though,” Pacian replied, both of the young men noticing Colt signalling them to gather around from up ahead. “Oh look, perhaps our intrepid ranger scout has located another distillery from which to sup the sweet nectar of life.” Aiden smiled in spite of himself as they moved forward to investigate.

  “This is as good a place to rest as any,” Colt declared when they had gathered around him. “Get something to eat and catch your breath.”

  They sat on fallen logs and ate a cold meal of cheese, sausage and bread. Pacian and Nellise sat together away from the others, talking quietly. Aiden wondered who was trying to change whom, and which one of them would give in to the other's point of view first.

  As he chewed his meal, he glanced over at Sayana every few moments. His desire to ask her more about the dream last night was almost overwhelming, tempered only by his desire to keep this strangeness a secret from the others.

  It was possible they might be able to understand what was going on, but they might also dismiss it as nonsense, which seemed the most likely result. Aiden wasn't even sure if he really believed it, despite having borne witness to the vision.

  “Can we talk for a moment?” Aiden asked Sayana quietly. “There's something we need to discuss.” She nodded silently, picked up her bread and followed him a little distance from the others where they could talk amid the cold forest without being overheard.

  “First of all, I want to apologise for saying something that offended you last night,” he began. “I obviously touched upon a delicate subject, and I should have chosen my words more carefully.”

  “Don't feel bad, you couldn't have known,” she whispered in reply, pulling her warm cloak tightly around her to keep the chill at bay. “It isn't something I have talked about with anyone before, ever. It's hard to open up...”

  “I know how you feel,” Aiden said reassuringly. “Well, I hope you're feeling better anyway. You do seem to topple over quite a lot.” She shrugged and took a moment between mouthfuls of food to answer.

  “My talents require a lot of energy, and I simply cannot eat enough food to keep me going sometimes, especially during an event like last night.”

  “Is that why you eat so much and never gain weight?” Aiden inquired. She stared at him with penetrating green eyes.

  “Why did you think I was eating so much?”

  “... A love of food?” he replied weakly. “Honestly I didn't know what to think. But we're getting side-tracked here. You know why I wanted to speak with you.” She nodded, and stuffed her mouth full of bread. “I'll accept that you somehow managed to appear in my dream, or whatever it was. I've seen you do some pretty amazing things, so I can believe you're capable of entering a person's mind. But if it wasn't a dream, then what was it?

  “My mind would not let me rest,” Sayana began to explain. “I laid there for several hours, thinking about the glass you wear around your neck and where it might have come from. Like you, I want answers. I went to take a closer look, and since you were sleeping, I didn’t think you’d object. When I touched it, I was instantly in some other place - you were standing next to me, and yet you were younger than you are now.”

  “Aiden, the reason I said it wasn't a dream is the detail I saw – the misting breath from the fort's warriors, the fluttering of the flags, the crunch of snow beneath their feet. No dream has that much detail. It was like I was actually there.” She paused to take another bite of bread, conserving her strength. Aiden said nothing, awaiting her next words with as much patience as he could muster.

  “There was something else though, a feeling that you and I were just visitors in that place. It was as though we were walking in someone else's dream. I tried to pull you out of it, but I was stuck, just as you were. I didn't know what else I could do about it, and then... the dragon flew in. It was the only other thing in that vision that seemed real.”

  “As I recall,” Aiden said slowly, trying to remember the details, “you screamed when the dragon appeared.”

  “No, I screamed when it looked at me,” she corrected with a shudder. “Have you ever had that feeling, like you were somewhere you weren't supposed to be, and then you are caught?”

  “I may have experienced that sensation,” Aiden replied flatly. It was actually Pacian who had been caught in places he shouldn't have been, but Aiden had the misfortune of being there at the time.

  “It was like that. I could feel its anger, and it was... terrible. I wanted to run, but I couldn't get away.”

  “Wait a moment,” Aiden said, “in the dream, the dragon always looks at me. And although I feel awe, I've never felt terrified of it, at least, not until I wake up. And you said that it was the only other thing that felt 'real' to you? Are you saying it's alive?” Sayana nodded meekly, which drew Aiden to an unpleasant conclusion.

  “Lovely, I have a dragon living in my head.”

  Chapter Ten

  The next day, they cleared the edge of the forest and saw the Calespur Mountains rising before them. Snow crunched beneath their feet as they headed inexorably up the foothills of Mount Cale, one of the tallest mountains in the Kingdom. Despite the remoteness of their location and the density of the forest receding behind them, a road of sorts could be discerned amongst the scrub, winding its way along the mountainside. Clavis, normally taciturn, seemed to come to life at the sight of the road.

  “This was the main highway between the city of Ferrumgaard and the human village o’ Culdeny,” he said, pointing back
down towards the coastal town far in the distance. “Engineers spent a year layin’ down stonework to make this road, in the hopes of increased trade with the fledgling human community. Dig down through this snow and dirt, and the flagstones'll still be there, as solid as the day they were laid out.”

  “How large is Ferrumgaard?” Nellise asked.

  “Nearly ten thousand of me kin called the inside of Ferrumgaard home,” Clavis replied, a note of pride in his voice. “But it ain't sprawled out like a human city. 'Twas dug into the mountain, a quarter of a mile wide and twice that in length, layered down through the rock to the valuable ore deep down.”

  “I'll reserve my excitement for when we get there,” Pacian remarked dryly.

  “That ya will, lad, that ya will,” Clavis chuckled. He seemed quite confident that the sight of the old dwarven city would impress Pacian, and he became thoughtfully quiet for a time.

  The cold mountain wind chilled Aiden to the bone as they walked along the road for hours yet in spite of their discomfort, they were treated to the magnificent view of the Calespur Mountains around them. The road itself wound along the side of Mount Cale, with an ever increasing drop off to the right.

  Just as the sun was dipping below the horizon, the road veered to the left and came to an end at a sheer cliff-face, fifty yards away. A massive pair of stone doors loomed before them, easily fifteen feet high, etched with strange patterns and words written in the old dwarven language.

  One of the doors was hanging off its top hinge, leaving a large gap open near the ground where it showed signs of a century of wear. The ominous howl of wind blowing through the opening into the chamber beyond reminded them that this was a dead city, and one with a reputation for obliterating the lives of those who were incautious.

  “Tell me again why we're doing this?” Pacian asked timidly, looking up at the doors. The stark reality of the place was becoming apparent, even to him.

  “In your case, money,” Aiden reminded him.

  “Aye, we're not here fer glory or fame,” Clavis nodded soberly, taking out his crossbow and checking it carefully. “Twice before this place has thwarted me attempts at recovering the lost treasures of me kin, and I consider meself fortunate to still be drawin’ breath. But I can see the looks in yer eyes, and ye needn't worry – if'n it looks too dangerous to push through, we'll call the whole thing off.”

  “How far in do we need to go,” Aiden asked, peering through the gap in the doors and seeing only darkness beyond.

  “The fifth floor down was the height of the flooding, if memory serves,” Clavis replied. “I'm thinkin’ we'll swing through the fourth level, and maybe see if'n there might be a way to get at the things on the fifth. Might have to go for a bit of a swim, though.”

  “Are we planning to rest before heading in?” Nellise inquired, glancing around at the freezing conditions without any enthusiasm.

  “Aye, we can rest inside,” Clavis assured her. “It'll be safe and sheltered from the worst of the weather.” He hefted his crossbow and took a step inside the ruined doorway, peering around cautiously with Sayana following in his footsteps. Aiden waited patiently for the better part of a minute before deciding it was probably safe to shelter out of the bitter wind, and leading the others in.

  “Aye, it's clear enough,” Clavis muttered from somewhere ahead of them. A small tongue of flame appeared about twenty yards away, dancing in the palm of Sayana's hand. The light it shed wasn't nearly enough to gauge the look of the place in which they now stood, but it was comforting nonetheless.

  “We can set up camp here and get some kip,” Clavis declared, as Nellise used her staff to provide additional light. “We're in the main foyer, a vast chamber thirty feet high and a hunnerd long, so if there's something living in here, it'll find us whether or not we have a fire going.”

  “Nobody and nothing comes here,” Colt muttered. “This place is cursed, and even the animals know that.”

  Everyone decided to focus on setting up the camp and preparing a hot evening meal to ward away the chill. They ate in near-silence, and then one by one turned in for the night

  Aiden slept fitfully during the uneventful night until awoken by Nellise at what he assumed was just after dawn. Awakening to her exquisite face and golden eyes in the flickering orange firelight was one of the perks of adventuring with her, though Aiden would never actually tell her that.

  They ate breakfast with a measure of enthusiasm for the coming day. Nobody was more excited than Clavis however, who was well refreshed from his night's rest and ready to tackle his life-long dream - again. Not that Aiden held that against him of course, but it did make him question what exactly had prevented his prior success.

  “Keep an eye on our short friend,” Aiden whispered to Pacian as they packed their belongings. “I don’t think he’s told us everything about his earlier visits to Ferrumgaard, and I don't want us getting killed as a result.”

  “You don't think he's lying to us do you?” Pace asked, eyeing the dwarf as he stood thirty feet away, at the limit of their light sources.

  “Lies? Not really. I don't know, call it a hunch if you want, just watch out for anything strange from him.”

  “Can do,” Pacian shrugged. With their supplies packed, they readied their weapons and fell into line behind Clavis. Sayana used her unique skill to shed light on their surroundings, but the sheer size of the space they walked through meant they could barely see the ceiling, let alone the walls. The stone underfoot was smooth and unblemished, despite being carved into shape centuries before. There were no signs of any tracks, or other disturbances in the immediate vicinity, giving Aiden hope that the place really was deserted.

  A few minutes’ walk from their camp was another set of double doors, similar to the massive gates at the entrance only this time still intact. They were closed, and bore the marks of heavy siege equipment from some time in the past.

  “Whoe'er cracked open the outer doors tried the same approach on these,” he explained, as would a tour guide. “Little did they know that the ceiling behind these doors collapsed not long after the city were abandoned. Hunnerds of tons of rock have made sure they will never open again.”

  “I assume you have some sort of alternative route?” Nellise remarked, taking in the former majesty of the doors before them.

  “Sure do,” Clavis replied, gesturing to the left. “Figurin’ there was still some treasure to be found below, they opted to dig their way around the inner gates.” He led them over to where the walls were rent by heavy tools. A tunnel of sorts had been dug in through the surrounding rock, circumventing the blocked doors. Clavis didn't hesitate, stepping straight into the roughly-hewn tunnel without caution, closely followed by Aiden and the others. Unlike their short friend, they had to stoop a little to get through without bumping their heads.

  “Was this carved by dwarves?” Aiden asked curiously, drawing an irate look from Clavis.

  “Does this look like the same quality as the foyer ya just walked through?” he asked irritably. “Whoe'er did this had no finesse, no skill at all. Just wanted to get into the city and grab whate'er wasn't nailed down. Little more'n grave robbers,” he added for good measure, although it was unclear if he was disgusted by the grave-robbers, or the poor quality of their stonework.

  The tunnel curved around in a large arc, then re-joined the main structure of the city's upper floor after a short distance. Not far to their right stood the doors they had travelled around, along with several hundred tons of rock piled up against them. The granite was piled all the way to the ceiling, a stark reminder that they were walking around inside a hollowed-out mountain.

  “Somehow, several pillars came down in the first years after the exodus,” Clavis observed quietly. “Eventually the ceiling just gave way in the unsupported areas. The rest 'o the place is holding up just fine, in case ye were worried about a collapse by the way.”

  “No, why would we be thinking about that,” Aiden replied dryly. The chamber
they were now in was lined with what appeared to be empty houses, carved with intricacy and care from the surrounding rock.

  Supporting columns similar to those Clavis had described lined what could only be called a street, which continued off into the darkness beyond their lights. In the echoing stillness, they walked along the deserted street mindful of the people who used to fill this place with life.

  “Most of the food services worked up on this level,” he continued quietly, “so as the smoke from the fires could get out 'o the ceiling vents. 'Twas the most efficient way to feed the city, so just about everyone who lived up here was a cook 'o some sort.”

  “I suppose the people who lived on the top few levels were the first out, then,” Aiden wondered aloud, looking in through one of the empty windows of a local residence, long since abandoned.

  “The MacTavish clan was the most predominant up here,” Clavis answered darkly. “Fancied themselves the kings 'o the upper levels. When the surge of people running up from below flooded this place with men and women lookin' ta get out as quick as they could, the MacTavishes joined them, without thinkin' 'o the real King 'o Ferrumgaard, Arland the seventh, trapped down below in his throne room.”

  His speech was laden with barely disguised hatred, so much so that Aiden turned and looked at the normally taciturn dwarf, just to make sure it was the same person. Clavis noticed that everyone else was looking at him the same way, and quickly shook off the dark mood.

  “That's all in the past now,” he muttered in a more reasonable tone of voice. He continued walking onwards; Nellise was close by Sayana, whose soft light revealed her troubled expression quite clearly.

  “Does that count as strange?” Pacian whispered to Aiden sarcastically when Clavis was out of earshot.

  “Yeah, it does,” Aiden muttered as the two friends silently contemplated the implications while following Clavis further into the dead city.