Chapter 21
"Get off of me!" she roared.
Aria let go of Aramus's tunic with a repulsed huff and swung her bound hands at his head. She caught his jaw with the side of her gauntlet. With a grunt of pain he dropped her onto the uneven path below. Winded for only a second, she rolled off her back and onto her feet. The world spun again, but she refused to let it unsteady her as she tried to bolt from her captors. A sudden jerk from the binds around her hands yanked her back toward Aramus. The tail end of her restraints were tied to two black belts lashed around Aramus's waist, one of which she recognised as her father's scabbard holding his golden sword.
"Give that back," she demanded, outraged. "I will not allow you to hold it again."
Aria rushed forward to grab the sword from Aramus's side, determined that when she caught hold of it she would remove his head with one clean sweep. But the son of Dantet was ready for her, and with the full force of both hands, shoved her backward again, sending her tumbling to the ground. Aria felt her breath leave her chest and she struggled to fill it again. His amber eyes rested torpidly on her as she lay on the ground, before wiping away the trickle of black blood that oozed from a cut on his jaw. Aria couldn't help but sneer in unobjectified pleasure at her gauntlet's handiwork.
"Numpty!" came the loud voice she now recognised as the dwarf called Bernard. "Are you three tankard's short of a good time, or some'ing? Whot, in the name of all things hairy, dae ye think would make us gave ya that? Yer a monster, a cold-blooded killer, wih' no regard fer life. Because of you my brother is? " The dwarf's voice broke and the last word his mouth moved to say, refused to come out. But Aria knew he meant it to be "dead".
Without warning, Bernard reached behind him and detached the broad-axe that was strapped to his back. Flipping it over into the wide palm of his hand, he raised it above his head and pushed passed Ol?rin. With powerful strides, the half-man charged Aria, his teeth gritted through his fiery beard and a deranged look in his steel blue eyes. Still on the ground, Aria had no choice but to raise her arms over her as her only defence. She peered between a small gap between them as the very ground itself trembled under the dwarf's enraged footfalls.
"Bernard!" Ol?rin boomed, raising his staff and pointing it at the storming dwarf.
The old wizard's staff glowed with an intense whiteness, and Bernard's axe was frozen to the spot. Aria recalled then how her plan had fallen apart, how the wizard had pulled something from his hat and put it into his staff just before her army ran away, terrified. The staff before this point appeared to be just a simple wooden walking stick. But now it hummed as a powerful white magic flowed over its smooth surface, like a multitude of tiny shimmering rivers. Whatever Ol?rin had done to his staff, it seemed to have imbued him with a certain vigour too. His stoop was gone, and his thin frame was fortified with a visible strength that Aria could not explain.
Despite Bernard's best efforts to break his axe free from the grip Ol?rin's magic held over it, he could not.
"No," the dwarf spat, nearly hanging from the suspended weapon now. "I'm wearing the Etherium armour, it's immune tae yer trickery. How can ye still stop me?"
"My dear friend," Ol?rin spoke calmly. "You buried your brother's Etherium sword with him. Your axe, although it is quite impressive, is made from simple iron, and therefore subject to the effects of my magic."
Bernard let go of his axe and dropped the last few inches to the ground. He breathed heavily and shifted the ill-fitting armour over his chest until it lay somewhere in the middle. His neatly plaited beard had started to come undone with the effort of his actions, and his thick red hair kinked in places.
"And so it should be," he panted. "No warrior should go tae the afterlife wih'out his sword, and Angus was the mightiest warrior tae ever walk these lands. Ye may have a hold over me axe, wizard, but ye have no hold over me."
Quicker than Aria thought possible for the wide-gaited dwarf, he spun on his heels and charged toward her again, leaving the axe hanging in mid-air. Before he could reach her, Aramus's lean frame stepped between her and the angry half-man. His large black wings opened out to full width and startled Bernard just enough to stop him in his tracks.
"Bernard," he began with a sympathetic tone.
Bernard ignored Aramus and punched him firmly in his stomach. The winged man doubled over with a grunt and Bernard tried to push past Aramus. But Aramus was quicker. He held out his strong arm in time to grab the stampeding dwarf. Aramus pushed hard against Bernard, who in turn pushed back against Aramus. It was a battle of strength to see who would win, and the straining of muscles and sliding foothold of the winged man told Aria that she was about to die.
"BERNARD!" Ol?rin thundered.
Bringing his white staff down hard on a protruding boulder, the marshy ground beneath them shuddered with the threat of giving way. Aria, unable to steady herself with wrists bound, toppled sideways onto the path and watched as the feisty dwarf gave up his drive, turning on the enraged wizard instead.
"Do not toil with me," Ol?rin seethed, walking toward Bernard with the floating axe now circling around his head like an obedient bird. "I may not be able to stop you, but I can conjure all manner of illusions that would feed on your worst fears, and no Etherium can protect you from that. I can ask the ground to swallow you whole, or the rains to wash you away."
Ol?rin reached Bernard and bent down until their eyes came level. Even Aria had to admit that if she were the dwarf, she would not be standing so fiercely against such an ominous figure. The axe slowly descended before landing gently on the ground as Ol?rin took a deep breath and regained some composure.
"But in doing that I would take away your ability to fulfil the last promise you made to your beloved brother. That is not my wish. You have promised to help us on our quest, and I heard from your own brother's lips, that if you give your word you will be true to it until the end. I hope you will not make a liar out of him."
"That's no' fair," Bernard said, giving the old man a poisonous look. "Dinnae use me brother against me. And fer yer information, I only promised tae no' kill her. I never said anything about letting that cow live a pain free life, now did I?"
Aria slowly sat up but daren't say a word against the irate dwarf. It wouldn't do her any good anyhow, and becoming headless was a surefire way not to escape.
"Don't you see, Bernard," Ol?rin said, standing up again, "that if I allow you to hurt her, your rage might kill her. Then I shall die too, and our quest will fail. But if, by some chance, you do not kill her, you will only slow our progress. Time is not our friend, and by delaying our quest you might be putting the lives of everyone in Naretia at risk. By the ill-thought-out actions of your anger, you will end what your brother has given his life to protect."
Bernard opened his mouth like he wanted to say something. He raised his finger as if some important point he was about to make would refute what the wizard had just said. He even took in a series of deep breaths, and they all waited. But nothing came out.
"Promise me," Ol?rin said. "Do not have your brother's final request marred with the stain of vengeance. Promise that you will not attack the queen anymore."
Bernard hesitated. He took angry glances between Aria and Aramus, who was still standing at the ready between them. Looking as though lightning could erupt from his eyes, Bernard let out a low growl before throwing his short arms in the air.
"Och, fine," he spat. "I promise tae behave. But if she should happen tae fall down a hole, or drown in a river, I willnae be saving her either."
Bernard gave Aramus one last punch in the stomach before picking up his axe and stomping down the uneven path through the mire. Aramus clutched his stomach and Aria saw him grimace.
"That's the third time he's punched me, old man," Aramus said, standing up again and rubbing his midriff. "One of these days I might just punch him back."
"No you won't," Ol?rin replied. "His anger will pass eventually, as will his taste for punching things. We must be patie
nt until then."
"You mean I must be patient. I don't see him punching you."
"Ah, that is because I am old, and with age comes certain benefits? like not being a worthy target for a dwarf's anger. Come, the day is waning, and night will soon be on us. We must find someplace more solid for our camp."
Aria watched Ol?rin leave and waited for Aramus to order her to get up, but he didn't. Not for a long time. Instead he waited, and by the furrowing of his brow he was evidently considering some other options. She became aware that it was just her and Aramus left behind as the others were nearly out of earshot. If he waited long enough he could tell them that she put up a fight, that he had no choice but to kill her, and they would believe him.
Aramus cocked his head toward her, his wings now neatly folded behind his back. His amber eyes rested on her as she sat on the ground, and she felt her heart take off into a gallop as he stepped closer.
"Come on," he said, holding out his hand. "I assume you're able to walk."
Aramus took hold of the crook of her arm and helped Aria to her feet. She was slightly taken aback at the fact that he wasn't shoving her, nor was there a sword drawn to shepherd her toward the others, nothing that she would have done as a matter of course. Once she was righted and her feet steady, he let go of her arm and followed his two companions, who were both a good distance away by now. Aria's bound hands, still attached to Aramus's belt, jolted her forward and she reluctantly followed them. She was determined to escape her captors, but now was not the time - not when the only place to run was into the morass landscape.
Aramus's pace was fast, it had to be to catch up to the others, and Aria found it difficult to match it. Her head still pounded from the dwarf's assault, and her body was still weak from having chased her prey with little rest. On more than one occasion she stumbled over the uneven surface of the road, and Aramus caught her arm to stop her falling flat on her face. Each time she was irritated at her gratitude that he did.
It wasn't long before they caught up to Ol?rin and Bernard, and their pace slowed again, for which Aria's weary legs were thankful. Perhaps it was the constant squelching inside her boots, or the loud clanging of her armour, or just her mere presence, which seemed to irk Bernard so much that he spent most of his time throwing scathing looks in her direction instead of ignoring her. Whichever was the case, she was determined to not let it bother her. But it did, and she couldn't help but see the irony of it all.
Aramus had slain her parents, and her whole life since then had been spent hunting him down and wishing vile curses upon him. She, in turn, had killed Bernard's brother and expected that he felt the very same hatred toward her. In some small way, she understood the winged man better now. As they had fought on the mountain peak, he had told her of how he had been vilified and feared all of his life, simply because of his likeness to his father. If that was true, Bernard had given her only a taste of the many years of torment which he had suffered.
The memory of their mountaintop battle came back to her then. The memory of Aramus kneeling down before her with his arms open wide, waiting for her sword to pierce his chest. If only she hadn't hesitated, if only Luscious hadn't interfered, he would already be dead, and things would be a lot less complicated. But now that she had this small understanding of the vilification he had suffered, she was beginning to know why he had asked her to kill him, asked her to rid the world of him, and it saddened her.
'Stop it,' she seethed. 'He is a murderer plain and simple. He killed your parents and he doesn't deserve your pity. He must pay for his crimes.' The long walk through the mire was giving her too much time to think, so instead Aria decided to spend it looking across the vista for any means of escape. Detachment was much easier when not so close to the subject, and getting away was her priority now.
As the sun dangled just above the flat horizon, its light turned the mire's watery puddles into liquid gold. Spikey reeds poked their heads up from within the tufts of grass and Aria could tell, from the scent of flowers in the air, that spring was on its way. The days weren't so cold now. But even with that, the night still clung to its beloved frost, unwilling to part with it. Nights always preferred the cold.
The four walked in silence, everyone save for Bernard who was determined to continue throwing back vile curses toward Aria for as long as he remained conscious. Aria hoped that they would make camp soon so that the dwarf might sleep, and she might get some respite. As if Ol?rin heard her thoughts, he stopped and examined a particularly large boulder that gave the impression of a desert island in the midst of a vast ocean of mud. It was just big enough to fit all four without needing to be on top of one another, for which Aria was grateful.
"We stop here," he said. "The worgen are still trailing us, but with a few well-placed spells on the outskirts of our camp, I am positive they will not attack."
"How positive are you, exactly?" Aramus asked, looking around cautiously.
"I am as sure as I know the sun will rise tomorrow. But if you doubt me, feel free to stay up all night and keep watch."
Supper that evening consisted of raw eggs, which only Ol?rin and Bernard ate, stale bread, and whatever dried fruits Ol?rin salvaged from the bottom of his hat. Aria's attack on them had sent their supplies to the bottom of the mire. It would have been a small victory in her eyes, to weaken them in any way, except now her own rumbling belly was suffering along with theirs too. There was no dry wood to create a fire, and no desire to alert the wandering ogres to their whereabouts either.
Aria was too hungry, and tired, to turn her nose up at the meagre offerings. She nibbled at something that once resembled a plum, now wrinkled and chewy, secretly hoping that Luscious would make his presence known during their meal and rescue her. She had seen no evidence that the worgen were nearby other than the prickling feeling at the back of her neck warning her that she was being watched. But the worgen seemed to have his own reasons for following them, and it became apparent that rescuing Aria was not one of them.
Ol?rin and Bernard settled easily into sleep. Bernard's loud snoring disturbed the mating call of the surrounding frogs to the point that Aria saw them hop in the opposite direction of their camp. As she lay down on the hard rock, she focused her attention on Aramus - to whom she was still attached. He was the only one still awake, sitting up and staring out over the chameleonesque marshlands that had now turned silver under the moonlight.
His wings wrapped tightly around him as the night's frosty fingers caressed them all. Aria shivered against its touch, her armour absorbing the cold as the frost drew delicate patterns over the red metal. Ol?rin had rummaged out a heavy brown cloak from his hat, and thrown it over himself to keep warm. Bernard on the other hand, looked as though he needed no comfort and had simply found a spot to plonk himself down on and snore. Aria was positive that a sudden downfall of snow, or a bomb, would not dislodge this dwarf from his slumber.
"You cold?" Aramus asked.
Aria blinked, wondering why Aramus was asking.
"I'm fine," she said, trying unsuccessfully to stop her jaw chattering as she spoke.
"Oh, okay then," Aramus replied, wrapping his wings around him more tightly. "Only, I was going to say that if you are, you could sit by me and my wings would keep us warm. But since you're not cold, I won't mention it again."
Aria's mouth dropped open. She was expecting a torrent of vile words to spew from it at the mere audacity of this creature presuming she could stand to be anywhere near him. But nothing came out. The truth was that she had been near him for the last few hours and had only tried to hurt him once. In any event, the only curses she could think of were the ones Bernard had said to her earlier, and she daren't repeat those.
"Thank you, but I'm fine," she said.
Aramus looked over his shoulder at her and gave a crooked smile.
"Well, if things should change the offer is there."
Aria returned his smile meekly, more out of not knowing how to take his gestu
re than anything else, before curling herself into a ball as much as possible. She forced herself to close her eyes and try to fall asleep, confident that the wizard's request to spare her, and his close proximity, would keep her safe for the night. But between Ol?rin's nose whistles, Bernard's snoring, and the cold, Aria couldn't sleep. Giving up on the idea, she sat up and followed Aramus's gaze over the mire. Apart from mist rising off the water as it cooled, there was nothing out there that she could see.
"Do you not trust Ol?rin's spells then?" she asked.
Aramus half turned toward her and rested his amber eyes on her face for a moment. The moonlight muted their colour and he almost appeared normal to her then.
"No, I trust him," Aramus replied, shuffling back toward her until he sat only a few inches away. "I just don't want to sleep, that's all."
"Why not?"
"If I told you that, you might want to kill me again," he said, resting his arms on his knees and clasping his hands together.
"I thought you wanted to die," Aria said, examining his furrowed brow with some curiosity. "That's what you told me on the mountaintop."
Aramus sighed deeply, his lips pursed together, and his head hung as though something very weighty had suddenly landed on his shoulders.
"I did, and in some small way I still do," he said, picking up a pebble and tossing it into a nearby puddle. "But I think even that option has been taken from me too."
"What do you mean?"
Aria's armour had begun to rattle with the shivers that were now involuntarily coursing through her body. With her hands still bound she couldn't even wrap them around herself to try and stave off the cold. Aramus noticed, and, without asking, his nearest wing opened out full and wrapped itself behind her. Aria flinched, wanting to pull away. But she so desperately needed the warmth emanating from him. It was so warm, in fact, that Aria was sure Ol?rin had given the winged man some magical artefact to heat him.
"I suppose you've heard of the prophecy?" he continued.
"A little."
"Turns out that if I die, my soul, or whatever it is I have, will find its way to my father and he will use my powers to break free from his world. Then you will all die. I guess I am to have no peace in life or in death."
"But I thought he needed you alive to carry out his plans, that's what Luscious told me, and that's why he, as a traitor, wanted you dead."
"I'm afraid I can't tell you the motives behind my father's minions."
'If Dantet truly wanted Aramus dead, then why did Luscious interrupt me as I was about to kill him?' Aria's head whirled with the connotations that swam in there. She wondered then if Luscious hadn't made her one of Dantet's pawns after all, if he hadn't some ulterior motive for his attack on Aramus. If he did, she couldn't fathom a reason why.
"Who is Luscious?"
"The worgen who left me to die," Aria said, unable to hide her tone of disgust.
"I see," said Aramus.
The two sat in quiet contemplation for a while until Aramus broke the silence.
"I hear him, you know, in my head," he said quietly. "My father. He tells me things, things that he wants me to do. Sometimes his voice is so strong that I find myself doing those things without realising. It's always worse when I dream, and I'm worried he will make me do something terrible while I am not conscious. That's why I don't want to sleep anymore."
"Does Ol?rin know about this?" Aria asked more loudly than she had intended.
Aramus nodded sheepishly, the weight on his shoulders slumping them further forward.
"He saw it in the dwarf city. I think he wants to believe the best in me, but I'm not sure that I would."
"So, you can't stop it, you can't fight your father's will? Are you aware of what you've done afterwards?"
"Not really. It's like living in a dream," Aramus said, wrapping his other wing around Aria as she shivered against the cold again. "Do you know the way that you try to run in a nightmare, but you can't, like your limbs just won't listen to your head?" Aria nodded, remember her own concussion induced dream earlier. "It's a little like that. I see myself doing things and I try to stop it, but I can't. When it's all over I sometimes think that it was all just a dream and none of it actually happened. Other times I'm not quite so sure."
Aria remembered the fiery glow that had been in his eyes the day he killed her parents and an unsettling thought raised itself in her head. 'Had his attack on my parents been one of these dreams?' If that was the case then it changed everything. While he had committed this one crime, potentially without knowing it, she had committed many more whilst in full control of her senses. That would make her the only monster here. 'No, he admitted to killing them, so he must have known what he was doing.' Aria's head spun as it argued with itself, but one thing had become very clear. For the sake of her people, and to protect her brother's life, she couldn't kill Aramus until she found out more about this prophecy.