by Paul Kite
“Ra-Lam,” I narrowed my eyes, “you’re wrong! I wasn’t paid to save them. And for me, there’s nothing more valuable than freedom!”
The monk let out a sigh and... made a sharp wave of his hand. I barely dodged the knife flying straight to my heart.
Wow!
The next moment, the monk made a couple of smooth and fast steps, came close to me, and sent me flying with two strong blows. He literally knocked the spirit out of me for a few seconds!
The system reported that I got stunned and was immobilized for five seconds. Yeah, I felt it myself. It was good that I fell so that I could see the wizard. He was fighting two monks and a warrior at the same time. The others, as I understood, went to catch up with Kirk and Ariana.
I felt a strong jerk and was lifted by my collar. Ah, that was my old acquaintance again—Ra-Lam.
“Do you know the one who killed Dol-Zir, our senior priest,” the monk explained, seeing a shadow of bewilderment on my face.
“No,” I answer honestly.
“This is bad,” he threw me aside casually, like a child throwing away a doll that he got bored with.
Never, never anger a high-level character!
I hit my back against something very hard. I sank down like a sack and buried my face in the ground.
How much would the debuff last? Wow... Eight seconds! I could have done a lot in that time. Forgive me, Lsaeros. I’m useless, not you. I decided foolishly to try to engage them in an open fight.
“Why are you lying down, eh?” a cheerful young male voice rang in my ear. He jerked me to the side and the narrow neck of the flask with potion rested on my lips.
I could barely open my mouth.
“When you recover,” an unfamiliar young man of about thirty winked at me joyfully. He was dressed in a gray-green robe, covered with dried dirt and traces of soot, “Take the wizard and get out of here. Got it?”
I somehow managed to nod in response.
The man disappeared from my sight and shouted something to the Ardals. Noise, screams and... hot heat in my direction. The fiery wall froze six yards from the wall of the house where I stood!
Hmm, I think I know who set fire to the monastery.
The potion finally worked. It took off the debuff four seconds earlier and restored my health and stamina completely. I jumped to my feet and, trying to stay away from the fire, ran to the pier. The wizard was lying on the ground. He could barely move, but most importantly, he was alive!
However, I couldn’t see the guy anywhere, or the monks and soldiers. The wall of fire formed a circle, and the sounds of battle were coming from its center.
I put the wizard on my shoulder and rushed to the pier. Any boat would suit us. It was time to get away, it was getting too hot there!
Chapter 17
Harith-Hodor Island was behind us, and ahead... we had an endless ocean ahead and a long, long way to the Wastelands. Our ship, which I thought had an unnecessarily romantic and pretentious name ‘Moonlight’, almost flew through the waves. Its sharp keel cut through them like a hot knife through butter. It managed to gain such high speed thanks to the work of a skillful airbender wizard. I didn’t know where Captain Kirk found him, but he was a true professional. In an hour we got away from the three ships that were chasing us, leaving them far behind. They soon turned into dots on the horizon.
Speaking of the captain! As Lsaeros told me, Kirk was the son of his old friend from the Nazhar kingdom. His family came from an ancient genus. Ten years ago they were sent away from the capital, so they wouldn’t criticize the government. Kirk’s father was openly against the ruler’s friendly attitude to the dark elves. He remembered how they drank a lot of blood of the Nazhar residents in their time. Now the drow could trade peacefully on the territory of the kingdom, and at times they openly opposed the guilds competing with them. In turn, the drow rarely allowed ordinary people into their country and didn’t give them any special privileges.
As soon as the ships pursuing us disappeared from sight, the system pleased me with the implementation of the second part of the task related to the wizard. It presented me with only seven levels. It was disappointing! As for me, leaving the island was more difficult than getting the wizard out of prison.
Well, the next task was “To help Wizard Lsaeros to get to the divine source of the purest magical energy on the Gran-al-Hron Lake in the Orcs Wastelands and restore his strength fully.” I, of course, took it without hesitation. I was going to accept all the subsequent tasks too, because I had no other choice. By the way, I again had no time to scatter free points on the characteristics. Well, okay, the day promised to be long. I still had time to do it later. The first and most important step was to solve the issue with Ansr-run. The wizard promised to help me.
“Lsaeros, have you already forgotten about my collar?” I walked up to the wizard standing by the fence on the deck, one of the sailors called it a bulwark.
“No, of course not,” he shook his head. “You must understand that we didn’t have time for this before. And now…”
“By the way, where’s Ariana?” I interrupted the wizard, because I didn’t see the girl from the moment we left the harbor.
“She’s in the captain’s cabin. She’ll stay there for the rest of the voyage. As Kirk said: "The princess is worthy of the best chambers on my ship!" He stole the princess from you, Kraven,” the wizard smiled.
“I didn’t really want her,” I shrugged. “I’m not a pervert.”
“He isn’t either! However, she will come of age in two years under the laws of the Havrtol kingdom. Then she can get married. By the way, she can get engaged at any time.”
“Politics?” I asked.
“You’re quick to guess,” Lsaeros quipped. “As soon as the captain disembarks us in the Wastelands, he’s going to leave for Havrtol immediately. And while you were trying to burn those ships with a glance, the captain and I managed to write a cover letter, which Kirk will bring to the King upon their arrival in the capital. And Ariana, of course, will confirm everything. Too bad that I won’t be able to meet Bartohor personally.”
“They’ve known each other only for an hour!”
“Maybe it’s love at first sight?” the wizard narrowed his eyes slyly.
“Yeah, or her foresight worked once again. However, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is that everything goes well with her. She’s safe and happy.”
I later noticed that the princess really looked at Captain Kirk as... hmm... her chosen prince.
“You’re right,” Lsaeros agreed. “Let’s go to the cabin!” He nodded toward the utah — the so-called stern superstructure of the ship, “While we have time, let’s work on your collar.”
We had a twin cabin, though it was big and cozy. It was a guest cabin, as Kirk’s first mate named Mirko explained. Quite often they had to transport goods and the retinue of some rich merchant from Nazhar.
“It will be better if you take off your jacket and shirt. It’s more convenient for me to be engaged in your... decoration,” the wizard grunted, when I just pulled my shirt down, exposing the Ansr-run collar. “You have to endure the pain. It hurts,” Lsaeros added, taking out my dagger, which he apparently thought was a gift. “I have to draw the runes next to the collar to block its action. Right on your neck.”
“Well, okay,” I grimaced in displeasure, taking off my clothes, “I can be patient.”
“And by the way, what do you think about drinking two or three drops of someone else’s blood?” the wizard asked casually. “Alas, rune sorcery won’t work without blood. After all, I need to feed it with power. My power!” the wizard clarified.
“I’m not a vampire, but I have no choice,” I shrugged.
Lsaeros nodded contentedly.
“Well, vampires are the stuff of fairy tales... presumably,” the wizard added after a little thought. “There’s an old legend in the elven books before their division into dark, light and dawn. They said such a race existed many thousand
s of years ago. However, there’s no evidence for this except for the books that only the drow have preserved. Therefore, it’s most likely a scary legend!”
The wizard studied my collar carefully. He was whispering something thoughtfully under his breath and demanded that I don’t twitch. Then he began to apply carefully the runes on my skin...
When the process was nearing its end, I decided to voice one of my thoughts from prison.
“Can you teach me how to work with blood magic?”
“Hm,” Lsaeros scratched his chin. “I can, but I’m afraid you won’t succeed.”
“Why not?” I asked, somewhat puzzled.
“In order for rune witchcraft to work in the hands of a person and a representative of a different race, he must be able to work with magic, that is, to be a wizard. Not an ordinary student or a dropout, of which there are many in our world, but he must be a real strong and powerful wizard. Honestly, you don’t look anything like a wizard,” Lsaeros laughed.
“You mean, all representatives of the ancient sinrim clan were powerful wizards?”
I asked him for a reason. After all, I understood that my game character was sort of like a descendant of half-breeds of dawn elves and humans. I hoped to use blood magic created by my virtual ancestors. Runic sorcery could be another of my advantages along with my belonging to the Shadow clan.
However, the wizard was now destroying all my hopes!
“No,” said Lsaeros, after a long pause. “Not all of them were wizards, though returning to the study of runes, I’ll say you look like an elf even less than a wizard. And it’s unlikely that even a drop of sinrim blood flows through your veins, right?” he narrowed his eyes.
“Alas!” I lied without hesitation. “I’m neither a wizard nor an elven descendant. That’s right,” I highlighted this word with a touch of frustration and sadness.
I was disappointed that I couldn’t persuade Lsaeros easily. However, I was in no hurry to reveal all my cards.
“Does it hurt?” the wizard asked, scratching in the last rune. Probably, he noticed that I clenched my teeth, as he cut my skin too deeply that time.
“I’m fine,” I answered confidently.
“Then the final touch. Open your mouth.” Lsaeros pricked his index finger with the tip of the blade and squeezed a few drops of blood onto my tongue. He began chanting the spell. I, as always, didn’t understand a single word.
The runes glowed with a scarlet light, and when the wizard finished the spell, they disappeared, leaving barely visible scars. Besides this, I didn’t see anything strange or unusual and felt absolutely no change at all. Probably that’s the way it’s supposed to be.
“Everything turned out well,” the wizard rubbed his hands in satisfaction. “Of course, I didn’t block permanently,” he immediately upset me. “Twenty days will be enough. By the end of this time, I hope we’ll be ready to meet with Master Zorkhan. Freedom will be waiting for you, I promise!”
Many people promised me that, but nobody had done anything so far!
“You know...” the wizard spoke thoughtfully, “I can show you the simplest and easiest runes, if you’re that interested.”
“When?” I asked indifferently, trying not to show my excitement.
“Right now, if you can’t wait…”
* * *
A portal passage shone directly on the blooming lawn of some wildly rare light-elven roses in front of a tall three-story mansion. A young guy in a crumpled garment fell down on the ground. Livion, sitting relaxed in a massive armchair on a large covered veranda, immediately prepared one of his most murderous spells, but then, after he examined the visitor more closely, squinted his eyes and told Anax everything he thought about such an outrage.
“Kraven has left the island,” Arthur said shaking his head, trying to come to his senses. “On a ship. Lsaeros is with him, and some other girl.”
“Fine!” the ravan helped the wizard get up and gave him a couple of potions. “What girl? Who are you talking about?”
“I have no idea,” Arthur replied, thanking Livion with a nod. “Only the monks were alarmed because of her disappearance. It looks like she’s much more valuable than the wizard, whom Kraven rescued the dungeon. He didn’t seem to understand who I was. He wasn’t thinking about that moment. I detained the monks and the ship left the Fadlas harbor safely with Kraven on board. The monks set off in pursuit, but to no avail.”
“How soon will he arrive on the mainland?” Livion asked, sitting back down in his chair.
“Well, there was a hitch...” Anax began cautiously. Waiting for the necromancer’s reaction, he looked at him closely.
Livion only squinted and no longer showed his displeasure.
They went out to the open sea and sailed parallel to the coast, but, apparently, they definitely don’t intend to land in the Dark Forest.
“Where then?”
“I don’t know, alas, I don’t know.”
“Well...” the necromancer muttered something quietly. “You’re meeting Lady Kiera tomorrow, and tell her everything honestly... Well, tell her that Kraven left the island.”
Noticing the bewilderment on the battle wizard’s face, Livion continued, “Don’t talk about your presence on the island. Say that we found a person who was sent to Harith-Hodor after Kraven. By the way, mention the remaining remuneration. I want at least half of it. I need money urgently! Then you’ll transfer them to the real world. And we’ll begin carrying out our plan for leaking some documents to the media.”
“What about Kraven?”
“For now, forget about him, that’s my problem,” the necromancer said. “You did your job perfectly well!”
“Then I’m going to have a rest and write a letter to Verlain.” Arthur was about to go inside, when he suddenly heard a sound of claws scratching wood. He turned around and saw Livion, peering somewhere in the sky, who squeezed the arm of the chair, splitting it into pieces.
“Oh, the devil!” the ravan hissed through his clenched teeth, noticing a distant black dot in the clear sky. It was approaching his house. “What did she forget here?”
“Who is she?” Anax asked again, puzzled.
Following the necromancer’s gaze, he also saw the black dot, gradually growing in size, but couldn’t see who was flying up.
“Kiera,” Livion said evilly. “This is an Alkher pterod. And it’s easy to guess that a green lady’s, sitting on his back, is a dryad. Do you know many dryads?”
“Um...” Arthur said in surprise, trying to understand how the necromancer could see anything up there. “No. Where did she get the adult pterod?”
“She might have bought it or raised it herself... It doesn’t matter. She’s rich and can afford a lot. After all, you needn’t go anywhere. She’ll be here in a couple of minutes.”
Shrugging, the battle wizard leaned against the veranda fence, awaiting Verlain’s arrival.
The big pterod, having done a steep turn, circled the house and landed right on the very place where the teleport had recently opened. It almost trampled the lawn.
“Damn it!” the necromancer couldn’t stand it, breaking off the armrests of the chair. “You’re kidding me!”
“Hello,” Kiera said, jumping from the saddle fixed on the reptile’s back, “I flew past here and decided to visit you.”
“And rightly so,” without getting up, Livion smiled with his inimitable grin, deliberately making an unconstrained look. “And we have news of Kraven. Arthur,” he called his assistant closer with a gesture, “tell Lady Kiera everything that you’ve recently learned.”
Anax was speaking for half an hour. He said that the person they hired was sent after the guy to the island and all this time was in Fadlas. He closely monitored all new arrivals, paying attention only to those people who were similar to Kraven by description. And today, just three hours ago, he returned to the mainland and immediately conveyed the message to Livion. The man reported that Kraven had left the island. He sailed off th
e Fadlas harbor into the open ocean and headed west. This was all he knew. At this moment, the ship was supposedly sailing near the mainland, three or four miles off the coastline of the Dark Forest.
The girl shook her head in frustration.
“This is very bad! I hoped you would pay more attention to our contract. You shouldn’t have told me this. You should have found Kraven! The last time you missed him, I didn’t remind you of that. Still... How long will this situation last?”
“Lady Kiera,” the necromancer tried to object, “you must understand. This isn’t our fault. This is simply a coincidence…”
“Where should I look for him now? Where is he going to get off? Why didn’t he immediately go to the port of the Dark Forest or Nazhar?” the dryad peppered him with questions.
“I...” Livion began to get angry because he couldn’t stand that she was reproaching him for breaking the contract.
“You know,” the girl again interrupted him, “Perhaps I’ll continue the search without you. Arthur,” turning to the battle wizard, she glared at him. “To be honest, I’m very disappointed in you. Keep the advance payment,” Kiera said finally.
“Goodbye! I’m cancelling the contract!” She turned back to the necromancer. “I can’t say that I’m pleased to meet you, Livion. However, thank you for the information you’ve managed to find.”
Jumping into the saddle, she ordered the pterod to fly.
“I’ll probably go,” Anax whispered softly, taking a slow step toward the front door.
Arthur hid in the house, and Livion, closing his eyes and trying to calm down, silently scolded everything in the world. Especially Lady Kiera’s explosive nature, it was evident she inherited her mother’s fiery temperament.
Has the girl known anything? What were the reasons of our urgent meeting? She came that very moment when Kraven left Harith-Hodor!
The ravan took a deep breath, chasing away the disappointing thoughts that insistently came to him. Perhaps, Livion hoped he could smooth things out and planned to contact Kiera later. Finally, he made a decision and took out the amulet of communication with Dazrael. Livion intended to send the elf after the man, and it was better to do it right away. He should find out where exactly Kraven was going ashore, and why he never contacted his guild master about the completed task. And if it worked out, Dazrael would join the group. Kraven should trust him at least a little.
