Nature Abhors a Vacuum (The Aielund Saga Book 1) by Nowland Stephen L

Author:Nowland, Stephen L. [Nowland, Stephen L.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2013-12-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Thinking quickly, Aiden took off his longcoat and draped it over the gap in the wall. Then, he poked his head down through the hole in the floor and raised a finger to his lips to call for quiet from the others. Ignoring their curious looks, he limped over to the torch, picked it up, and then cautiously approached the area near the blackened door.

The stone around and above him was too perfect to have happened by accident. Combined with the scorched door and the broken bones, it was clear that this doorway had some rather serious eldritch protection upon it.

Leaning in for a closer look, Aiden could see etched runes around the edge of the door, familiar shapes he recognised from his long study of arcane devices. Most of them he could interpret as protective wards which invoked tremendous energies if the door was touched, but some of them he did not recognise. Whatever they were, it seemed likely they were all related to keeping people out of that room.

Despite the ominous implications, this actually gave Aiden hope, for it increased the likelihood of the contents of the room remaining undisturbed for the past century. If he could figure out how to bypass the protective runes on the door, he'd be able to find out, one way or another.

“Dead bodies lying in front of an enchanted door probably means we should be running the other way,” Pacian whispered over his shoulder, startling Aiden, who hadn't heard his approach. “You actually think you're going to get through that with all your limbs still attached?”

“I can read most of it,” Aiden muttered irritably. “The runes I understand are the parts that summon fire to kill you, though. It's the section over here that I can't read that’ll have something to do with switching this off.”

“But if you can't read it,” Pacian slowly replied, “how are you going to figure it out?”

“Context, Pace, context,” Aiden instructed his friend. “I can see runes for 'passage' and 'authority' near the end, so the ones in between should be related.”

“If you say so mate,” Pacian shrugged. “But if I know locks, it's probably something simpler than that. Can't imagine dealing with all this every time I wanted to go in or out of my room, if you know what I mean.”

Aiden was fairly certain he'd skimmed over just about all the arcane runes ever written in the years he spent researching, and if he could just jog his memory, he might be able to recall exactly what they were. His frustration began to build as the answer eluded him, impairing his ability to concentrate. Finally, he threw up his hands in exasperation, unable to crack the puzzle.

“It doesn't make any sense,” he whispered to Pacian, who was fidgeting madly. “That rune is nonsense, as far as I can tell.”

“How do you know?” Pacian whispered back impatiently. “Maybe it's just something you've never seen before, though that's hard to believe with the amount of reading you did.

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