Nature Abhors a Vacuum (The Aielund Saga Book 1)

by Stephen L. Nowland

  “Yes, later today, they were going to move me to Culdeny after seizing control of the port. Heaven knows what they had planned for me.”

  “It's a shame I had to let Bartlett go,” Aiden mused, feeling more relaxed as the healing energies did their work, filling the air with the pleasant aroma of summer breezes. “He probably could have told us everything we needed to know. What happened out in the main room anyway?” he asked of Colt.

  “We won,” he shrugged in reply. “The ones we locked outside ran around the back, but they never came in. Not sure what happened there, but I'm guessing they probably ran off with Bartlett.”

  “We already do,” Criosa said ominously. “I overheard the cads who kidnapped me, who are even now heading to Culdeny with the intention of laying siege to the town.”

  “I appreciate your concern,” Aiden replied tiredly. “But what do you expect us to do about it? They've got a full company of a hundred men or more, and we're just five people.”

  “Six, for I would be accompanying you,” Criosa corrected.

  “You?” Aiden exclaimed, suddenly fully awake. “We just went to a great deal of trouble to get you out of harm's way, and you want to head straight back into it?”

  “Given the choice, I would, of course, prefer to remain some place safe,” she explained, “but I will not sit idly by while treasonous men like Ronald Bartlett plot to take my father's Kingdom away from him!”

  “I like her,” Sayana remarked. “You have spirit, but can you fight?”

  “I'd certainly be dead without her help,” Aiden commented. “And I'll never look at cutlery in quite the same way again.” Criosa beamed at him, buoyed by his support for her position.

  “I have been trained by experts in swordsmanship, magic, and a few other skills for most of my life, so I assure you, I can hold my own,” Criosa said.

  “Good, then you should be escorted back to Bracksford where you will be safe,” Sayana told her firmly. “I have seen more than my share of battle in these last few weeks, and I would not wish it upon anyone, especially for someone so young.”

  “I'm nearly eighteen!” Criosa protested, managing to sound a little like a spoilt twelve year-old in the process. “That is precisely the attitude my father had, leaving me at Fort Highmarch for months while he went off to wage war.”

  “And look what happened when you decided to leave,” Colt grunted. “At the first opportunity, you get kidnapped by an enemy of the Crown. Nice work there, I'd love to have you on the front line with us.”

  “Sarcasm is the refuge of the simple mind,” Criosa replied archly. “Now, I need you to come with me to Culdeny. If they haven't been attacked already, then they soon will be. They don't have the manpower or the defences to withstand a concerted assault.”

  “Funny, neither do we,” Aiden mumbled tiredly.

  “All we need to do is remove their leadership,” Criosa persisted. “They are mercenaries - without their command structure, the attack will surely falter.”

  “She's right about that,” Colt remarked, leaning against the doorway. “Once they lose the man paying their wage, they're likely to bugger off. We'd have to hit them from behind, of course, but if we go straight there, and make sure the attack is under way before we strike... you know, we could probably do it. If we time it right, we could hit them just after dawn tomorrow,” Colt mused, rubbing his unshaven stubble thoughtfully.

  “Alright, you’ve sold me on the idea,” Aiden finally stated, “but I can't speak for any of you. This is a big task, no matter which way you look at it, and we might not all make it through to the end this time.”

  “It's my duty to do as the Crown bids,” Colt responded, “and she bids me to go save Culdeny. So that's what I'm gonna do.”

  “Culdeny is my home,” Nellise said quietly. “I will do my part to defend it, and if that requires me to give my life, then I do so gladly that others might be saved.”

  “You will need me,” Sayana stated. “How else do you expect to slay so many warriors with so few of your own?”

  “I was rather hoping you'd say that,” Aiden replied, genuinely pleased she had chosen to come along. Though she still seemed wary about him, she was at least prepared to fight alongside him one more time, despite whatever risk she thought he posed to her.

  “Well, I guess you have your answer, Highness,” Aiden told Criosa with a smile.

  “Smashing,” she remarked with satisfaction. “Let us have a quick meal then embark. The longer we wait, the greater the risk to Culdeny.” The sound of something being dragged along the floor outside room interrupted their conversation. Pacian, completely out of breath, leaned against the door and behind him was the body of Ronald Bartlett.

  “I was starting to worry about you mate,” Aiden said as he approached and quickly went through the body’s pockets, hoping there might be a scrap of information. What he produced was a short note on a folded piece of paper. He read through and instantly knew he had stumbled across something important.

  “Looks like Ronald was taking orders from someone else,” he said to the others. “I think we just stumbled across an important piece of evidence.”

  “This almost makes up for the other crap you’ve done,” Colt mumbled to Pacian, who simply grinned as he caught his breath.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  They left via the rear door of the manor, attempting to keep a low profile in case any mercenaries lay in wait. After a cursory search, Colt found the trail left in the snow and followed a course directly for Culdeny. The big man stressed they should travel the eastern highway instead of taking the direct route, as that reduced the chances of them encountering any ambush as they approached the town.

  The sight of the horses brought a smile to Criosa’s face, particularly the white mare Nellise had been riding. It was the princess’s own horse and Nellise was happy to relinquish it to her. The mounts were still tired from their long ride, so Aiden and the others were forced to walk them through the night.

  Colt stayed in the lead, keeping the Stonegaard Mountains to their right as they travelled briskly across the snow-covered plains of north-central Aielund. The air was crisp and cold as the terrain slowly began to ascend into the foothills.

  Shortly thereafter, Colt steered them away from the tracks they had been following, which could only mean they were only hours away from the besieged town. To their dismay, a dull red glow lit the sky to their north-west, an ominous sign of events transpiring in Culdeny even now.

  The waning moon provided only just enough light to see by so Colt was making good use of Aiden’s goggles as he and Sayana lead them onward. The dull roar of the sea could be heard somewhere up ahead, but it was a different sound that caught Sayana's sharp hearing stopping her dead in her tracks.

  “Did you hear that?” she asked with a trembling voice. Aiden listened carefully, but couldn't hear anything other than their horses steps through the snow, and the distant sound of the sea.

  “I hear nothing out of the ordinary,” he answered.

  “It was the growl of a large beast, far in the distance,” she explained. “I - there it is again.”

  “Okay, I heard it that time,” Aiden muttered in fear. Though they couldn't see each other's expressions in the darkness, Aiden could guess they were as afraid as he was. “Anyone care to venture a guess as to what that was?”

  “You hear all sorts of things during a war,” Colt said with a shrug. “That could have been the groan of a siege engine, or the collapse of a building.”

  “This far away from Culdeny?” Nellise queried.

  “We're wasting time,” Colt growled. “We need to get there as soon as possible, or there ain't gonna be a town left to save.” Too tired to argue, Aiden pressed on with a reluctant Sayana by his side.

  Nearly half an hour later they finally emerged onto the eastern highway, a long, straight stretch of road that followed the cliffs of northern Aielund all the way through the Stonegaard Mountains and on to the capital, F
airloch, nearly a week's travel to the east.

  They’d heard no more of the deep growling sounds, but the scene before them when they climbed down from their saddles was one of devastation.

  The smell of charred flesh and burnt wood drifted through the air, and the smouldering remains of a large fire could be seen just up the road a little. There were a dozen bodies all clad in metal armour that had partially melted from the heat. Nearby trees were blackened and charred, as if the entire area had been blasted with fire of incredible intensity.

  “What could have done this?” Criosa asked with a trembling voice as they searched amongst the wreckage. The princess suddenly retched, and dashed off into the bushes to throw up.

  “I've got tracks over here,” Colt said grimly. “Mostly theirs, I think, judging by the boot prints. They were running from the east as fast as they could. Whatever hit them, it happened while they were moving. There's no sign of a fight - they just burned.”

  Movement from the brush on the side of the road made everyone whirl around with their weapons at the ready. Half a dozen men in the livery of the Kingdom Guard emerged onto the road with their hands in the air. They carried an assortment of swords, maces and longbows.

  “Who are you?” Colt barked, ready to shoot them at the first sign of trouble.

  “Sergeant Evans, Kingdom Guard Culdeny detachment, second company,” an older man replied in a tired voice. “We’re the only survivors of this attack. You’re not with the mercenaries - that much I can tell.”

  “No, I think we’re on the same side,” Colt suggested before he was interrupted.

  “Help, I've found someone over here,” came Criosa's sudden cry from the side of the road. Colt and the others lowered their weapons. As one, they rushed over to see a terribly burned man lying in the snow. He was alive, though only just, and as Nellise brought forth a prayer of light, they could see that his skin was horribly burned and must have been in terrible pain.

  “You're going to be okay,” Nellise told him gently as she knelt beside the man, her crystal in one hand.

  “I've never heard a priest lie like that before,” the burned man managed to choke out, exhibiting remarkable bravado considering his condition.

  “She's the finest healer in these parts, friend,” Colt told the man, “she's gonna have you on your feet and back in the fight in no time.”

  “No thanks,” he gasped, “I don't want to fight that thing.”

  “You saw what attacked you?” Pacian asked.

  “Dragon,” came the dreaded reply, “it was a dragon. Size of a house...” Aiden felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and a deathly silence fell over the assembled group as they digested this information.

  “There hasn't been a dragon in these parts for centuries,” Colt said. “Where the hell did it come from?” Aiden kept his silence, hoping that somehow, the dragon in his dreams hadn't somehow come back to the real world.

  “I'll ask it next time,” the burned soldier replied, clasping onto Sergeant Evan’s hand as he struggled to breathe.

  “My squad was patrolling the highway,” the old soldier explained, “and we came across the monster in the mountains, watching the road. We managed to make it back here before it caught up. Is he going to make it?”

  “He's too far gone,” Nellise whispered sadly, looking down on the burned man with regret as he stiffened, then relaxed for the last time. Evans gently placed the man’s hand across his chest, while Aiden looked around at the carnage the dragon had wrought.

  “It must have attacked Culdeny,” he muttered, “that's why we saw it on fire, well before the Steel Tigers could have made it there.”

  “Maybe the dragon attacked the mercenaries as well?” Criosa asked with a trembling voice, sounding like she was starting to regret her decision to come along.

  “We'll find out when we get closer to town,” Aiden surmised. “If the army is still there, then it means the dragon has to be working with them.”

  “Is that even possible?” Pacian asked, incredulously. “How do you deal with something that could turn you into a pile of ash in seconds?”

  “It has been done in the past,” Sayana pointed out. “There are dragons in the mountains where the akora live. They have had dealings in the past, though the price is always too high.” Though she hadn't looked at Aiden directly, he knew she was speaking to him when she said that.

  “If they are working together, then there is nothing we can do to help Culdeny,” Criosa whispered soberly. “How can we fight something that powerful?”

  “We don't,” Aiden surmised. “We're going to engage the leaders of the Steel Tigers, and if that dragon shows up, we pull back. It can't be everywhere at once, and this poor man said it was back on the highway in the mountains.”

  “If you’re planning to take on the people attacking our home, we’re going to help,” Sergeant Evans volunteered. “My lads gave their lives in defence of the realm, and I for one ain't going to let them die in vain.”

  “We could use all the help we can get,” Aiden agreed.

  “Let’s move west while I scout along the way,” Colt ordered. “Save the horses. We’re going to need whatever they’ve got left.” With their numbers bolstered, they cautiously set off along the frozen road. It wasn’t long before they saw a flash of light rising into the sky from the tree line, to disappear into the distant glow from the town.

  “They've set up siege engines,” Evans advised. “I guess that means they are working with the dragon.”

  “No sign of it yet, though,” Aiden said hopefully. “Colt would have said something if he'd seen it.” It wasn’t long before they began to hear the sounds of distant battle, the screams and cries of men fighting for their lives echoing across the frigid landscape.

  When they had gone as close as they'd dared, Aiden called for everyone to stop so Colt could move ahead to investigate further. It was a tense wait, but gave them time to catch their breath after the long day’s journey. Aiden drank from his water skin and rested his eyes for a minute, letting the distant sounds of war wash over him.

  When he opened his eyes again, Colt had returned, crouching down in the snow to let them know the situation.

  “They're just over the rise, about two hundred yards away,” he started, speaking to the gathered assortment of soldiers, civilians and royalty. “Got themselves a couple of big siege engines, trebuchets I think.”

  “We're still half a mile from Culdeny,” the sergeant remarked. “How many men are they holding in reserve this far back?”

  “About two dozen, not including their engineers,” Colt grunted. “There are a few mounted warriors, too, including their commander, from what I can tell.”

  “Robert Black is there?” Aiden asked, suddenly very interested. “How could you tell?”

  “They've got a few runners ferrying orders back and forth from the front lines, and they were always meeting up with this one bloke in heavy armour. Has himself a nice big stallion to ride, too, so I think it's a safe bet that he's in charge.”

  “How much light was there?” Nellise asked. “We had planned a dawn attack, but if my guess is correct, we're still over an hour from first light.”

  “I saw some lanterns here and there, but it's not quite enough to fight in. I had an idea, though – they're using burning pitch in those siege engines, so if we set those on fire...”

  “I can do that,” Sayana said with a measure of fear in her voice. Aiden glanced around at the faces lit by the distant fires and saw the same trepidation he felt. They were in over their heads and they knew it.

  “Okay people,” Aiden said to catch their attention. “I know you're tired, and I know you're hurt, in more ways than one. I feel the same way. If I thought we had a choice here, I'd be staying out of this fight altogether. This isn't my war and for most of you, it isn't yours either.”

  “The people who should be fighting this aren't here, so it falls to us to step forward and do our part. We've heard abo
ut the King fighting a war in another country, and didn't think we were part of it. But now the war has come right to our doorstep and if we walk away, we may not have a home left to go back to.”

  “Things have come between us in recent weeks,” he continued sombrely, speaking directly to his companions, and more specifically to Sayana. “Personality conflicts, hard choices, stressful situations. Under ordinary circumstances, we probably would have gone our separate ways. But remember when we first started working together? We were a team, and we were unstoppable. That's what we need to be here. If we want to survive the next hour, we need to put aside our issues and trust in each other.”

  They looked to each other and in the dim light of the nearby burning town, appeared to be ashamed of the way they had been behaving of late. Pacian was the first to speak and for the first time in many days, Aiden heard his cocky old friend once more.

  “I think I speak for all of us, when I say that the Steel Tigers are in for a very bad day.”

  * * *

  A chill wind blew mournfully over the landscape as Aiden, his companions, and the men of the Kingdom Guard moved westward. There was still no sign of the dragon and Aiden fervently hoped it stayed that way.

  As they crested a rise, Aiden was able to see Culdeny itself in the distance, buildings torched by dragonfire and burning pitch, turning the sky a fiery red. More immediately, the entire scope of the battle could be seen from this position, which is probably why Commander Robert Black had chosen it for his command post.

  Less than fifty yards away, two siege engines could be seen, their crews winding back the massive wooden arms and placing large barrels of pitch into position before setting them on fire, ready to launch into the town.

  Positioned to the left of the trebuchets stood a group of mercenary soldiers, calmly watching the battle take place in the distance. Of that battle, Aiden could see little, but he knew the defenders, led by Sergeant Ariel, would put up a good fight. It would go a lot easier on them however, if the trebuchets were out of commission, and this was precisely what Aiden intended to achieve.