Nature Abhors a Vacuum (The Aielund Saga Book 1)

by Stephen L. Nowland

  Aiden stepped aside and brought the sceptre down upon the exposed right arm of a warrior with a satisfying 'crack' and followed through by smashing him across the face with tremendous force, shattering the man’s cheekbone and dropping him to the ground. With the power of the strength incantation surging through his body, Aiden was as strong as three men.

  The first savage to attack him bellowed as he struck at Aiden's shield, unable to break past and in doing so, left himself vulnerable to Pacian’s daggers. The barbarian staggered backwards as he was stabbed repeatedly in the kidneys, giving Aiden a chance to cave in his skull with the enchanted sceptre.

  Pacian disappeared into the shadows once more, darting out of the way of any retaliatory strike from the remaining warrior while Aiden discarded finesse and simply bashed in his head. Within seconds, he was on the ground, bleeding from a series of fatal injuries.

  Looking into the cell, Aiden could see two huge akorans looking out at the scene with consternation. Once their eyes met Aiden’s, the bloodlust rose in their eyes and the first of them quickly unlocked the cell door. When the two warriors stepped out, one of them tossed a naked and chained Nellise to the floor. Aiden hurled a vile insult at the vicious thugs who’d violated her.

  “I take your woman, yes?” the largest of the two warriors said in his broken dialect, answering Aiden's challenge. “She scream like little girl, for very long time. Maybe I give her something you never did?” Aiden held his ground as the savage stepped out of the cell and drew a sword – Aiden's sword – and with a grin, he and his comrade, who was wielding Sayana's mithral axe, moved to flank him.

  Aiden kept his eyes locked on the big man, making sure he had the savage's full attention. When he was fully clear of the cell, Pacian crept up from behind and with one quick move slit the barbarian's throat from behind. The giant staggered about, gasping for breath, while the other warrior turned and took a swing.

  Pacian was too quick for him though, easily dodging the clumsy strike. It gave Aiden a chance to smash him on the back of his head and drop him to the ground, while his companion slowly choked to death on his own blood, a few yards away.

  With the sounds of their battle echoing through the tunnels, it was inevitable others would come and they arrived only moments after the big one stopped twitching. The newcomers had no idea what they were facing however, and when half a dozen of them charged into the room, they were met with the blazing light of Aiden's sceptre. With the situation under control for the moment, he rushed into the cells to release his friends.

  Nellise was crawling across the floor towards the remnants of her white robe, trembling and sobbing uncontrollably. The chains stopped her before she could reach it, and she pulled at them ineffectually. Pacian dashed to Nellise's side, gently swatting aside her feeble attempts to reflexively push him away and quickly unlocked the manacles holding her in place. Her body was wracked with sobs and after Pacian had freed her, he held her tightly.

  On the other side of the cell was the prone form of Sayana, with most of her leathers ripped from her body. Aiden quickly checked her pulse to make sure she was still alive and was relieved when she groaned and stirred at his touch. He took off his heavy winter cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders.

  In the next cell sat Colt, stripped to the waist and chained to a solid wooden chair, looking like he had been beaten within an inch of his life. Aiden quickly moved to free the bloodied man from his imprisonment, warily watching the entrance for signs of reinforcements.

  “I don't know how you survived that blow, Aiden,” Colt struggled to say through his broken and bloodied lips, “but you're the most beautiful sight I've ever seen.”

  “I wish I could say the same about you,” Aiden replied distantly, raising up the sceptre and bringing it down on the rusty lock of the big ranger's cell door. The ancient metal gave way instantly and the door swung lazily open. He stepped inside and repeated the move on the chains binding Colt to the chair, allowing the ranger to slump forward, wiping the blood from his face with the back of his hand.

  Shrugging off Aiden's attempts to help him up, the big man managed to stand, then staggered outside and kicked the crotch of one of the akorans who had been in the cell with Nellise. Colt seemed to be in reasonable shape, all things considered, so Aiden quickly went back to Sayana's side and gently helped her sit up and lean back against the wall.

  “She tried to burn them when they started to rip her armour off,” Colt grunted, leaning up against the cell door as he wiped blood from his face. “Then they saw the tattoos all over her body and knocked her out. Wish they'd done the same to Nellise, to be honest. That's not something anyone should have to live through.”

  In amongst the torn robes on the floor Pacian was holding Nellise with both arms as she cried, clutching at the halo-ringed sword of Kylaris. She looked at Aiden and suddenly held her breath, thunderstruck at his apparent return from the dead. He wanted nothing more than to get them all out of here safely and never return, but there was only one way they were going to make it out alive.

  The only way out was through.

  “What are you going to do?” Pacian asked as Aiden rose ominously to his feet.

  “End this,” he replied coldly. He was certain the enchantments he had invoked had a limited duration and time was rapidly running out. At that moment, he felt like he could take on an army and he needed to make the most of it by cutting the head off this monster.

  “Do you know how to get to the main chamber?” Aiden asked Pacian, who shook his head in reply.

  “I know where to go,” Sayana whispered, slowly rising from the floor, grabbing some tattered cloth off the floor to tie around her chest. “I will take you there, so that I may strike down Erag myself.”

  “You're in no condition to go anywhere,” Aiden stated, knowing how this argument was going to end.

  “I too, will go,” said a deep voice from a nearby cell, across the way. Aiden turned and saw a bald, middle-aged man behind the bars. He was clad in torn rags and heavily built, yet in spite of this he maintained an air of pride and nobility.

  “I take it you are Morik Far-Eagle, the deposed chief of this band of savages?” Aiden asked, the insult intentional.

  “I am, though I take no pride in their actions this day,” Morik replied sadly. “I wish to see Erag dead as much as you, though I doubt you believe me at this moment.” Aiden casually glanced behind him at the rest of his companions, conceding the point. “Erag is not the real problem however,” Morik continued, “to free my people, you must eliminate our elder shaman, Tald Black-Tiger.”

  “We met him,” Colt grunted.

  “Then you understand his power,” Morik remarked. “He carries great influence amongst my people. His word is law in this land, and for reasons unknown to me, he changed his favour to Erag. Perhaps he senses the vulnerability of your lands at this time, yes? If we work together, we can eliminate them both, and I will reclaim my place as Chief. I will then disperse the war band and we will no longer be a threat to your people.”

  “How do I know I can trust you?” Aiden asked suspiciously.

  “I give you my word of honour,” Morik said with conviction, looking Aiden straight in the eye as he did so. “If you know anything of the akora, you know that we never break our word.”

  “Good enough for me,” Aiden agreed after only a moment's hesitation, smashing open the lock with ease and allowing Morik to walk free. From the way he moved, he was clearly an experienced warrior, and carried numerous scars on his body to prove it. He reached down and picked up a short battle spear from one of his fallen people, then looked over at the pile of bodies around them with something akin to regret in his eyes. In the cell next to him, Aiden saw much of their equipment piled up in the corner, topped off with Colt's longbow and greatsword.

  “My new friend and I are going to deal with Erag and his crew,” Aiden said to them, smashing the lock on the other cell. “Colt, you're in no condition to fight, so grab your
gear and stay here with Nellise and the others.”

  “I'm coming too,” Pacian growled, speaking more to Nellise than anyone else. “I swear to you, I'm going to kill the rest of this scum and get you out of here, do you understand?” Nellise, still in shock, didn’t react and the look on Pacian’s face was heartbreaking. Pace gently set her aside and left the confines of the cell, daggers gripped tightly in his hands. “I owe this bastard a red hot dagger in his groin and nothing's going to stop me, so don't even bother arguing, Aiden.”

  “Which way do we go?” he asked Morik.

  “There are stairs down, beyond the next room,” Morik replied courteously. “But he has personal guards protecting him.”

  “Let me deal with them,” Aiden responded, his voice heavy with determination and purpose. “Colt, you should be able to manage without us for a little while. If you get in trouble, grab Nellise and fall back down the stairs, you'll run into us eventually.”

  “Don't worry about us, I'll die before I let anyone else touch Nel,” Colt growled, limping into her cell with his longbow, while the young woman huddled into a ball and rocked slowly back and forth. Aiden nodded in reply, and then started walking along the passageway, arriving at the stairwell momentarily.

  At the bottom of the stairs was a large, open area, with several passages leading off. Morik pointed to the correct one and they moved off in that direction, hearing the sounds of heavy, booted feet from up ahead after barely a minute of walking.

  Aiden had become used to the darkness since he could see almost as well as if it were broad daylight down there, but the others were stumbling along the corridor, struggling to see where they were going. The lights from up ahead helped, but unfortunately they were being carried by a horde of their enemies.

  Once they reached the next large chamber, Aiden raised his arm to stop the others and unfurled a scroll. The warriors turned at the sounds of their footsteps and quickly readied their weapons. They never had the chance to use them.

  Aiden began reading the scroll, and was just about to raise his other arm to point at the group when Sayana let out a cry of alarm. She was too late to stop him however, and the incantation was completed a heartbeat later.

  A massive ball of fire materialised in front of him and shot towards the assembled warriors. It detonated in the centre of their group, shaking the very foundations of the tunnels and blasting Aiden and his companions off their feet with a wave of fire. The effect upon the akorans was far more pronounced, sending charred bodies crashing against the walls as the force of the blast shattered bones and ended lives.

  Aiden picked himself up off the ground a few moments after the flames had subsided, and surveyed the effects of the ancient wizard's incantation with cold disdain before moving onwards. Morik pointed in the direction they should travel and urged them to keep moving, carefully avoiding the blackened bodies of formerly loyal warriors scattered around the stone floor.

  The passage they travelled opened out into a chamber filled with an assortment of packages, wrapped in deerskin.

  “What is all this?” Pacian asked when they had caught up with him. Morik didn't even take a closer look before answering.

  “Dried rations, water skins, spare axes, bandages - everything a war band needs to keep fighting,” he said. “Erag must want to reclaim the lands of our ancestors, for there are enough supplies here to feed a thousand warriors.”

  “We should destroy all of this,” Pacian hissed. “We'll see how well their invasion goes when their bellies are empty.”

  “If we destroy this food, my people will starve before the thaw,” Morik warned harshly. “They may choose to attack out of starvation.”

  “We have our target,” Aiden decided, moving through the large piles of supplies. “Leave the food, it won't matter once their leadership is dead -”

  The mound of deerskin packages next to him suddenly toppled over, knocking Aiden to the ground. A group of akoran warriors burst out of their hiding places in amongst the supplies and set upon the small party. Aiden was the focus of one particularly large savage, wielding a mighty greataxe five feet in length.

  A flash of light from his spectral armour lit the immediate area for a brief moment as it took the brunt of the blow, but there was so much force behind the swing it also cut into Aiden's shoulder. Without protection, his arm would likely have been cleanly severed by the axe.

  Aiden, with the power of a dead wizard's incantation behind his sword arm dispatched his opponent with two quick strikes. No less than a dozen warriors had ambushed them and if not for the narrow approaches afforded by the huge piles of stores in the chamber Aiden and the others would have been overwhelmed already.

  The akorans fought without finesse, without fear. His adrenaline pumping, Aiden didn't feel any pain from his injury as he cut his way through their ranks with disquieting ease. More often than not, his sword met the shield of his opponent which simply shattered under the force of the blow, leaving them open to a killing strike.

  Sayana focused on staying alive, relying on sheer rage and the unnatural sharpness of her mighty axe now dripping with the blood of her former people. Whether they were under the effects of their battle-lust or they had been ordered to fight to the death, the akorans did not relent until the last one had been slain. Morik was unperturbed and immediately pressed on through the chamber.

  “Morik, wait!” Aiden called as loudly as he dared, torn between protecting his friends and following the warrior to make sure he didn't get himself killed. His decision was made moments later when the sounds of further battle echoed from down the hallway Morik had taken. Cursing under his breath, Aiden moved as quickly as he could to support his new ally, for if he perished, any plan to bring peace to this region would surely fail.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As Aiden rounded the corner, he saw Morik being attacked by three powerful adversaries armed with spears and axes. When Aiden moved in, he gained the attention of one and stepped inside the reach of his greataxe to engage him in close-quarters. After a furious exchange, Aiden finished off his opponent while Morik ended the lives of the other two men, having taken several wounds in the fight.

  “I will survive,” he grunted, noticing Aiden grimacing at the vicious cuts. “Erag will be just ahead and he will be ready for us, thanks to your loud entrance.”

  “The loud ones are the best,” Aiden drawled, feeling unstoppable. “Are there any other corridors that lead to his chambers from here?” Morik shook his head. “Perhaps we can force him out, and set up our own ambush,” Aiden muttered to himself. “Sy, are you there?” Aiden was about to say more when the hair on the back of his neck stood upright.

  “Take cover!” he shouted, crouching to leap aside as a stroke of lightning coursed through the charged air, hitting all four of them and knocking them to the floor. They didn't have time to recover before the terrifying visage of a giant man, his head obscured by a fearsome visored helm roared a battle cry and drove a six-foot battle spear towards Aiden's chest.

  He barely had the clarity of thought to bring his shield across to block the attack, but he managed to do so just in time. The shield, however, was destroyed by the force of the impact, sending a shower of blue sparks into the air and leaving his spectral armour to absorb the rest of the strike.

  Aiden bellowed and rolled away as the spear was drawn back by this new assailant, giving him a moment to regain his footing. During this time, Morik had risen from the floor, ignoring his wounds and stabbing at their armoured opponent with all of his might.

  Erag spat out a phrase in his native language, his helm rendering his voice hollow and cold. The only word Aiden recognised was 'Morik', who replied between stabs with his short spear.

  Aiden moved in on Erag's left flank to slash at the man, the battle too close to risk using the sceptre lest he strike Morik with the deadly ray. Aiden was suddenly struck a blow to his head which seemed to come out of nowhere. He staggered backwards, only to be struck again by the s
harp end of Erag's weapon.

  For a moment, Erag was exposed as a clear target and Aiden seized the opportunity to invoke the sceptre's power, scorching the warrior with a blast of light. He seemed to ignore the searing burns across his body as he lunged at Aiden.

  The shaman, Tald Black-Tiger, had so far remained out of the fight, no doubt watching his champion finish his adversaries but after Aiden's crippling attack, he spoke up for the first time.

  “You are wielding borrowed power, boy,” he rasped, slamming the butt of his rune-covered staff into the ground. “I shall strip it from you, piece by piece.” Aiden felt a wave of coldness wash over him and his supernatural strength drained from of his muscles.

  Erag, nursing his crippled arm, was set upon by Pacian, whose attacks were little more than harassment to the towering warrior. This still gave Aiden the time he needed to recover and he made full use of it, raising his sceptre and unleashing another blast at the akoran usurper.

  Somehow, Erag still had the strength to remain standing after the sceptre blast, and looking at the big warrior Aiden could see why. Even as he watched, Erag's wounds were slowly healing over as a faint, misty green light danced around his body, a light that seemed to be emanating from Tald's staff.

  Aiden now realised their mistake - focusing their attacks on the big warrior instead of the real danger, the shaman. Erag was suddenly engulfed in Sayana’s green flames, blinding him momentarily as his howls of rage and agony echoed through the caves. It was at this moment that a bloodied and enraged Pacian appeared behind the blinded savage and finally drove both of his daggers into Erag’s back.

  “Insolent upstart!” Tald cried out, dismayed at the loss of his powerful ally, and he retaliated by raising his staff, but aside from a few sparks crackling from the tip, nothing happened. A clothyard shaft then sank into his shoulder, staggering the old man backwards momentarily as Colt, armed with his longbow, limped into the battle.