Archemi Online Chronicles Boxset

by James Osiris Baldwin

  About twenty minutes later, with barely half an hour to spare before we needed to be at Kobayaz, I knelt on Karalti’s back on the edge of the tallest building in the Tanners’ District. It was a massive granary and warehouse complex that backed against the city walls, at least fifteen stories tall

  “I always joked around that if my parents made me go to prom, I’d have jumped off something tall to avoid putting on a tuxedo.” My voice echoed behind the concealing half-mask of my helmet. I could barely hear myself. “Maybe we can just fly back to Vulkan Keep and rejoin the questline tomorrow or something?”

  “I don’t think that’s how that works,” Karalti replied.

  “Probably not.” The wind howled over us up here, chilling my skin even through layers of armor and clothing. My hands sweated on the saddle grips, and I was trembling with about six parts excitement, one part cold, and three parts sheer, gut-wrenching terror.

  I’d flown dragonback before, but that had been a very different experience than what we were about to do. For one thing, Talenth - the ex-Knight Commander’s dragon - had been about a hundred feet long, with a back big enough to carry six people. Karalti’s back was about as long as I was tall. For another, Talenth’s saddle had tie-down straps, plus an experienced rider guiding him. Karalti’s did not, because neither of us really knew what we were doing. Getting on my dragon in the middle of a fight and gliding twenty feet to the ground in broad daylight had been one thing. Straddling her back the way I would a racing bike, on the edge of a granary a hundred and fifty feet off the ground was quite another.

  “Now... Let me think...” I said aloud. “Head down, ass up when you’re diving. I think that’s right.”

  “Uhh… I guess?” Karalti shifted restlessly from side to side. “Who told you that?”

  “This airforce pilot I knew. But he might have just been hitting on me.”

  Karalti giggled. “Okay... you still wanna go?”

  “Yeah. Let me do one last thing.” I drew a deep breath, focusing on the Mark of Matir, and invoked Blessing of the Raven. The energy of the Dark God hit me like a shot of caffeine to the brainstem. When I opened my eyes, the bonus skill EXP buff icon floated at the corner of my eye.

  “Okay.” I stared out over the city and narrowed my eyes. “My body is ready.”

  The dragon bunched like a sprinter beneath my thighs. Even at her Level 5 size, I could feel awesome, fiery power surge through her body. She relaxed her wings out to the sides, letting them catch in the breeze. As she did, I felt her second heart speed up and fall into sync with the first. Dragons had two hearts, and while I didn’t yet know much about the biomechanics of why, I suspected that one of them was basically just for flying.

  My chest and ears thumped in time with the rhythm. I buckled my feet in, backed my ass up, put my face against the base of Karalti’s neck, and drew a deep breath. Anticipation built into an eye-of-the-storm sensation, the feeling of being so excited, so wound up, that your mind was empty and calm.

  “Hold on! And don’t fall off!” Karalti wiggled to test her traction, and before I had time to reply, kicked out from the battlement and threw herself into the open sky.

  Anyone who has ever felt really good torque knows that roller-coaster thrill: your teeth step back in your head, your skull pounds, your guts feel like they got left a mile behind you on the road. You can’t do anything but cry out with shock. It’s arousing. It’s addictive and unsettling and terrifying. It’s a high so intense that you will always be chasing it, no matter what happens.

  “HOLY SHIIIIIT!”

  We fell about twenty feet before Karalti gained lift. I howled with wild laughter as my stomach lifted up behind my eyes, then fell out through my asshole. Her wings pumped to either side of my knees, and all the blood in my body rushed down into my legs as she began to climb. When she levelled out, I slid back into the shallow scalloped seat of the saddle, and for a moment, I regretted telling Mix that I didn’t want restraining straps. Then she dropped a wingtip and rolled gently to one side, and my lizard brain screamed at me that this was It. I was dead, I was going to fly off and burst like a ripe tomato when I hit the ground.

  Karalti sensed my sudden terror. She straightened up so quickly that she nearly pitched me off. “Hector! Are you okay!? What’s the matter?”

  Time had slowed, and for several seconds, I couldn’t reply. My eyes were watering from the ferocious wind as I stared out over the city. It was beautiful. Taltos glowed orange and charcoal from up here, bathed by the light of the setting sun. “I’m fine. Fly properly, just like how you would without a rider. Just try not to do anything too crazy.”

  “Okay. Lean with me… I felt you pushing back against the turn before.” She rolled to the left again, circling in and beating her wings to climb back up. My heart skipped a beat as the torque shifted back, then forward again. The muscles of Karalti’s back surged under my hands and against my knees, and every time she lifted and dropped, I felt like I was going to fly off into the wind.

  My entire body thrummed with tension, hands white-knuckled and shaking against the grips. “This is fucking incredible! Oh my god! Why did I let myself get this far away from the ground?!”

  “We’re not that high, silly Hector.” Karalti’s voice was thick with mirth, but warm as well. “You having fun?”

  “This is the second-most awkward hard-on I’ve ever had!” I was yelling telepathically for some reason.

  Karalti bellowed joyously, and before I had time to adjust my position, she rolled sharply to the left and veered into a strong, cold stream of wind. Her wings filled with air, and suddenly, we jolted upwards, higher and higher. My stomach pulled down, and I barked a cry of excitement that turned to manic, wild, howling laughter. When she topped out and beat her wings to join the swiftly moving coldstream, she picked up speed. Tears were pulled back along my cheeks, my heart raced, my fingers pounded in time with my pulse. I was terrified, moved, and exhilarated all at the same time.

  It was the best I had ever felt in my entire life.

  “This is amazing!” I shouted, as we thundered over the city wall, heading for the country estate marked on our minimap.

  Karalti’s ribs flexed like a bellows as she settled into a glide. She was panting, neck straight, her horns held tightly to her skull. I tried to minimize my drag the way that I would on the back of a motorcycle, flattening down. We passed carriages and hookwings the size of Matchbox cars on the ground, winged over a crossroads inn and a small cluster of summer homes, and continued toward the Kobayaz Estate. Notifications began to trickle in.

  [You have reached Dragon Riding 2!]

  [Karalti has learned Laden Flight 1!]

  [You and Karalti are a good match! You earn +10% skill EXP for Riding: Dragon and Laden Flight thanks to skill synergy!]

  [Would you like to learn about Skill Synergy?]

  “Not right now!” There was already a lot to get used to beyond the act of holding onto my dragon’s back. The game’s interface had adapted to being in flight. An Augmented Reality display had appeared, overlaying the terrain of the air and sky and helping to keep me oriented on the horizon. This gyroscopic jet fighter-style vision was not something I’d had before the Trial of Marantha. When I scanned the patchwork of fields below, the AR highlighted landmarks of interest – places where we could do sidequests, landing zones, even a couple of random monsters prowling a ruined hut. I could zoom in with my vision, too – to about 200% magnification, which I figured was also something I’d gained from my dragonrider mutations.

  My stomach plummeted as Karalti suddenly jolted and lost altitude. When she dropped again, I looked to make sure nothing had happened to her wings. They were fine, but her wingbeats were off-rhythm. I banished the HUD and refocused on her. “You alright?”

  “This is hard!” Her breathing was becoming more labored, the muscles of her back and shoulders shuddering with effort. “We gotta practice more!”

  “Time to land, Tidbit,” I said. “We
can walk the rest of the way.”

  “No, I can make it!” She rallied out of sheer stubborn pride, pumping her wings to stay in the air stream, and then angled her head toward the manor yard. Kobayaz was at the back of an orchard, with a cluster of buildings surrounding a central court. There was a crescent-shaped carriage yard out front, currently filled with an array of vehicles.

  “You’ve hit your limit, girl. If you run out of stamina, we’ll fall out of the air.”

  “I know how much stamina I have!” she replied hotly. “I’m starting the descent. Get your head down!”

  I bit my lip and held on as she angled into a shallow dive and swooped down toward the carriage yard.

  As she deepened, I really began to feel those Gs – the blood rushed to my head and left me dizzy. I tucked down and stuck my butt up, trying to look past Karalti’s shoulder. What I saw made my heart skip. People were running out of the house and cluttering up our landing zone. They pointed and waved at us, jumping up and down.

  Dragon riding lesson number one: people are fucking stupid.

  “Get out of the way!” I growled, hanging onto the saddle grips for dear life.

  Karalti snarled with frustration as she came in low, and I knew she was still going too fast. My eardrums popped, and I flinched just before she swung her back legs and tail forward, back-winging, flapping madly to halt her momentum. Her mana gauge burned down as she hit her new Split Turn ability, and that was all that stopped us from careening to the dirt in a cartwheel of broken wings and necks. Squawking like a hatchling, she tripped and skidded forward onto her keel as screaming guests threw themselves out of the way.

  The landing was harder than I expected, and I’d been expecting a hard landing. It sent me sprawling forward, but because my feet were locked into the stirrups, I didn’t go flying. Instead, I pitched over Karalti’s shoulder, jarred my legs, and banged my face down against her armored scales. My nose burst like a grape on impact as we slid to a stop in a spray of dirt.

  “Holy shit. Holy fucking shit.” I groaned, struggling back into a seated position. Every one of my limbs was like jelly. “Shit. Shit, Karalti. Are you okay?!”

  “I’m alive!” she squeaked. She pushed herself up with her forearms and wing claws and hopped forward a few steps, shuddering with exertion “Only lost a little HP. Are you okay? I smell blood!”

  ‘A little HP’ was about twenty points for her, and fifteen for me. I got a couple of Mint Potions out, and patted her neck to get her to turn her head around so I could feed them to her. As she chugged them, people began to gather around us, open-mouthed and babbling with excitement.

  I pumped a fist, stashing the empty potion bottles in my Inventory, and then set about unstrapping myself from the unfamiliar saddle. “Good job, Tidbit!”

  Karalti whipped her head from side to side, her throat clicking, tongue hanging out. Shaking, I slid off her back, hanging onto the saddle to drop onto the ground. I was so wobbly that I stumbled a couple of steps to the side.

  A young woman in a canary-yellow and white dress closed in at the front of the admiring crowd. Her eyes were as big as saucers. “You’re the hero working for the Volod! Can I touch the dragon?”

  I glared down at her, blood pouring out of my face, and uncorked another potion. “Do you just touch random people on the street, lady? No, you can’t.” I drank this potion down myself and tossed the bottle into my Inventory as well.

  “Get out the bloody way!” I heard a familiar voice call out. Suri. She was shoo-ing people left and right, clearing the twittering crowd ahead of herself.

  “Did I do okay?” Karalti nuzzled at me urgently as I dropped down, licking my chest and shoulders.

  “You did great on all counts. We just flew ten miles in ten minutes. That training’s paying off.” I reached up to rub her jaws and throat with one hand, and set my nose back in place with the other. I was so high I barely felt it.

  “Yeah!” Karalti ducked her head down and dropped her wings, cheeping like an overgrown chick. I smiled, looking up as Suri reached the front of the pack. At the sight of her, my petting hand slowed, and my eyes widened.

  When Suri had told me she was going dress shopping, I figured she was joking. You know – ‘dress shopping’, as in, shopping for armor. But no. Suri sashayed toward us in a sheer ankle-length gown that hugged her every curve. It was sleeveless, with thin straps and a very deep neckline, so deep I wasn’t entirely sure how it was staying on. The fabric looked like a swirl of monarch butterfly wings had been sewn together around her body. She was wearing gold rings in her ears, nose, and lip. Her axes were on her belt, and her huge sword and scabbard were slung over one shoulder, an odd counterpoint to the dress and jewelry.

  “Nice landing. I like the blood.” She came to a stop in front of us and struck a pose: hands on hips, chest out. The dress slid over one of her legs, baring it up to mid-thigh. “What’dya think, soldier? Look alright?”

  My first thought – beyond “Holy shit, she’s gorgeous what the fuck do I say” – was the sudden terror that Archemi might have a ‘Hide Your Awkward Boner’ minigame. Karalti’s body stiffened behind me.

  “I, um, uh, wellll…” I tried to subtly adjust myself without using my hands. “Is it just me, or is this new armor of mine really hot all of a sudden? Hoooo. Ahhhh. Excuse me for a moment.”

  I turned, marched on the spot until the pain stopped, then turned back. “There we go. Better.”

  “What are you doing?” Karalti demanded. “We were talking!”

  Suri arched a scarlet eyebrow, and glanced down at my crotch. “I guess that answers my question.”

  “Hang on a second.” I patted Karalti on the neck, and pointed up at my face. “Excuse me, ma’am. My eyes are up here?”

  Suri smirked. “Could have fooled me, given how much time they’ve spent resting at tit-level over the last couple days.”

  Okay, that one actually got me to blush. I glared back at her and gestured at her chest. “It’s just that I can’t help but wonder how you don’t float away into the sky like a hot air balloon.”

  Suri let her lips part and wet them, leaning forward in a way that made it very difficult to continue looking at her face. “Probably for the same reason you don’t bust the cup off your armor every time you think you’re gonna see a nipple.”

  “Stop it!” Karalti lunged past me at her, snapping and slavering.

  I was not expecting to be suddenly shoved from behind. Her elbow hit me in the shoulder and sent me face-first into the gravel. “The fuck, Karalti!”

  “Mine!” Karalti snarled at Suri as she backed away. Drops of white napalm splattered on the stones and in the garden bed, where they sizzled. “Get away from him!”

  Suri held her hands up. “Whoa there, Sunshine.”

  “Karalti! Cool it!” I scrambled up to my feet, confused and shaken. “What’s gotten into you?”

  “Stupid party! Stupid Suri!” Karalti’s eyes blazed with hot, humiliated anger. She snapped at me, narrowly missing my face. “Stupid YOU!”

  “What?” I tried to go to her, but she irritably flicked me back with a wing. “Come on, Tidbit, we just-”

  “Don’t you ‘Tidbit’ me! I didn’t put this saddle on so you could… so you…” Karalti couldn’t finish whatever she was trying to say, and spun around with her nose in the air. Scattering people with her tail, she stalked off down the driveway, roaring at a pair of hookwings who tried to bob their heads at her. The dinosaurs screeched and backed into a carriage, nearly knocking it over.

  “I… what?” I stared after her in bewilderment.

  “Your little dragon’s in love with you, Hector,” Suri said, suddenly close beside me. “You hadn’t figured that out?”

  “In love with me?” I reached up to untie my hood from my helmet and pushed it back. “I know she’s attached to me at the hip, but… She’s a completely different species. Not to mention, she’s basically my kid, and that is all kinds of weird.”

  “
Yeah, but she’s not your kid, is she? She’s a moody teenager the size of an elephant.” Suri clapped me on the arm as I blinked. “C’mon. This is just one of those things she’s going to have to work through.”

  “But… What if she doesn’t come back?” I felt – and sounded – as young as Karalti actually was.

  “She will. She’s gonna go write in her diary about how much she hates you, sing some pop songs, and then she’ll be back and trying to crawl up your arse again.” Suri gently took me by the elbow. “Come on, Casanova. We’ve got your nose to mop up and our primaries to protect. They’re waiting for us.”

  Chapter 28

  I let Suri guide me up the stairs to the gate leading to the manor courtyard. Nobles, courtiers, the king’s advisors and spies and religious allies mingled among disguised soldiers. The butler and servants dashed around the garden looked stressed - everyone looked kind of stressed, actually – but the real guests had turned up in gowns and porcelain heels, fur-trimmed coats and wigs and foppish hats. They were drinking wine and nibbling on nuts and fruit while uniformed guardsmen lounged boredly at the fringes. The other half of the crowd were also richly dressed, but in ways that could readily conceal weapons. These guests were also polite, but wary, alert, and not drinking anything.

  The elegant entryway into the manor itself was manned by guards and a pair of Knights of the Red Star who were frisking everyone who went inside.

  “Kingsman.” One of the tattooed knights – a woman – stepped forward to greet us. “You’re allowed to bring your arms and armor in, but I must inspect you for magical contagion. Curses, hexes, suchlike.”

  “Sure.” I held my arms out.

  “Do I need to go through processing again?” Suri asked.

  “No, my lady.” The knight took a thick golden wand off her belt, and ran it up and down my body like a metal detector. It crackled with energy, and glowed blue when it passed over my backpack.