“Good day,” began Doc.
The elf and the mammoth were silent.
“Ros, how were you? How was your holiday? Why are you silent?
“I do not like to talk to dragons’ asses,” I answered in a calm voice. “And that’s where I hear you from. Did he eat you? Do you already see the light of freedom?”
“Ugh …” the dragon hurriedly dropped a few meters down, and the rider took off his helmet, smiling broadly. “A little caustic today, eh?”
“Do you still like to look down on acquaintances?”
“No, not right away. Just used to hiding behind the dragon’s armor — you know, arrows, darts, spells and other bad things flying in from below.” The hand of the knight made a conciliatory gesture — “In recent days, the habit had only grown stronger.”
“Yes,” I nodded, starting to move up again. “What are you here for?”
“Well, one of the local leaders instructed me to fly here,” Florian said. “Courier work — nothing special. A continuous air routine. I am flying, I am scouting. They asked to check what was going on here.”
“Thank you for checking on us. Indeed, travelers could be in trouble. But we were all in perfect order, thank you, Florian.”
Only a complete fool would not read between the lines. I had literally told him to fly away. We would only be only happy if he showed us understanding and went about his business. The most neutral and normal answer, given the situation I was in. Not because of the climbing, but because I participated in the Great Voyage with the Sleepless, and not the Architects, who were breathing down my back.
I did not forget to climb. The mammoth continued to rise.
“And how is your wolf?”
“Alive and biting.”
“I see Doc and Orbit are here. What about the rest of your company?? I have seen Kirea with a fishing rod. She took a prize today, I think. Not the first, but a worthy one. I do not remember, exactly,” the knight spoke as the dragon slowly worked its wings, rising with me. Its huge shadow slowly crawled over the rock.
Perhaps Florian expected that I would ask him to help me — lift me to the top. But I’d rather crash down and start climbing again from scratch than take his help.
Why?
I did not believe in his sincere goodwill. Just as I did not believe in the fact that the dragon rider did not had the skill, or at least a good telescope, to look at any object from a distance, without spending his pet’s power on approaching us. Florian saw the climbers on the cliff very well. He recognized us. Recognized me. And only then did he come. I hoped there would not be any new guests.
“Everybody’s busy,” I said, continuing the small talk and giving nothing away.
“Very busy,” Doc supported me from below, taking a big sip from his jar. “No time to breathe.”
“I see,” Florian glanced down at the doctor, lying down on his back. “Looking good, down there.”
While I was thinking whether it was worth answering the banter, the cliff ended. We had managed. My “Climbing” skill did not increase, which was most likely due to the use of “vines.” But the spell improved a great deal. I would get to the next rank soon. Hopefully — I had to go down somehow and was not planning on jumping.
I pulled up my legs, swayed across the edge and let out a sigh of relief, falling onto my back and looking up at the sky. A huge shadow flashed across my face, and golden reflections. Florian, despite direct and indirect hints, did not want to piss off.
The golden dragon landed gracefully on the top of Tidal Death.
Damn it …
I focused on helping lift the mammoth. It was not that I was afraid of an act of aggression on the part of the old acquaintance. But Florian was likely not alone.
What bothered me was that Florian was not paying us attention at all. And neither was he concealing his intentions – Florian was looking for the reason for our grueling climb. It was not for nothing that we tore off the virtual skin from our fingers and shed buckets of digital sweat. Florian reasonably believed that we were led here a certain tip from the “local” residents. Perhaps there was something magical here — quite valuable in terms of money and practicality. A scroll with some sacred knowledge …
Florian tried to find this thing faster than we did and to take it to himself.
Unpleasant … And undoubtedly pragmatic. And where did all his familiar old-fashioned smiles and generous promises go?
Yet I was not worried. I rose to my feet and looked without fear at the knight who could kill me with a couple of blows. Behind me the panting mammoth stepped onto the cliff. The huge awkward elephant, half the size of a golden dragon. The wind ruffled our hair and tore at our cloaks. We stood facing each other and for the first time almost did not hide our true feelings.
A striking difference between the two opposing sides.
He … A lonely and majestic knight in glittering armor. A living statue of the sparkling golden dragon behind him. They seemed to had come straight out of a fairy tale about saving a princess from a gloomy castle of some black sorcerer.
And us … A dirty mammoth and three dirty guys in frayed and tattered clothing. Just attach a wagon to Kolyvan and throw in a bunch of potatoes or turnips — perfect.
We were like muddy peasants stumbling upon a royal knight on the road. And he looked at us with slight disgust, disguised with dispassion and calm. In his eyes sparkled with greedy curiosity.
Well, the knight was not mistaken. We had come here for a reason.
“We have personal affairs here,” I smiled miserly, but peacefully, widely spreading my hands in an apologetic gesture.
“Personal affairs for three men and a mammoth?” Laughed Florian. “Wow ...”
“Well, at least we do not dress in the same colors,” I remarked modestly, looking first at the gold of the armor, and then at the gold of the scales of the dragon.
Damn it… I did not want to say it. It is hard to be diplomatic.
“I will wait here,” dragon rider demonstratively settled on a stone.
Well … the cards were clear. A fight was unnecessary. And there were no verbal arguments left. The cliff did not belong to us. This was a rock, with many birds’ nests at the top — hanging out at the edges and resembling a hundred-story house. The size of gravestones.
“So what now, Ros?” Florian jerked his metal-clad shoulders with a clang. “Clearly, you climbed up here for the sake of something really special. Maybe I can answer a couple of secrets about the local places here. We found a lot of things here on the islands. Let us not play spy games. Just share the info. We’re adults.”
Chuckling, I left his words unanswered, continuing to walk steadily along the top of the Tidal Death, searching for the markings indicated by the old man. My one hope was that Roska told me everything correctly, and did not confuse anything. Otherwise, we had climbed in vain. Doc and Orbit were silent, and enjoyed the view — but the elf was clearly dissatisfied with the presence and arrogance of the knight. I was sure he was planning some kind of trickery. Just by looking at how his bitten ears were twitching …
“Ros, stop playing for time. Do not fill the price,” continued Florian tediously. “Come on.”
I was silent. And I smiled inwardly, because it was clear that he was not just sitting here now — he wanted to leave, to continue his own business. Time was money. A fast and powerful legendary dragon was a huge advantage with carrying out missions — with transporting and killing strong opponents. Florian earned a lot, raised his reputation, and fulfilled many errands. He had much to do, but he was here watching the sunset. And even if it was a beautiful one, he was sick of it…
“Ros ...”
I could not hear the continuation of the next phrase, just like with all the others. But then I heard the screeching of the wild birds, and the sky was filled with thousands of black dashes.
The giant cliff Tidal Death was surrounded by thousands of small but very fast birds. These were the local swallows. I
did not know where they were before — but they emerged at once, as if dropped out of a mass teleport. For a moment, I felt myself again on the bridge of the flagship during the passage through the hellish frontiers.
The gaming system posted a sad message that the birds were quite a threat.
The possibility of teleportation had disappeared. Communication had disappeared too, including messenger. We were trapped. There was still space above us — but, as I imagined, the birds would descend lower and lower. Soon we would have to sit down, and then stretch out on the ground to avoid them.
And now what?
Leap off the ledge through the birds? Well, maybe we would break through — after which we would go fall. And the speed of birds was such that I doubted that I would manage to get through this barrier alive … even an armored dragon would have trouble. Thousands of birds all around! They would do with the dragon the same thing that bird flocks do with jet planes in the real world. One of the birds hit the stone with its wing and left a deep scratch in the rock. Bad… very bad …
“You lured me?!” The golden knight shouted, clenching his fists and jerking towards me. I twisted my finger at my temple, walked closer, and said:
“Not everything is about you.”
My words sobered Florian, and he shook his head, free from his overwhelming anger. He spun on the spot, swearing in impotence. The dragon bent down his long neck, looking anxiously at the black air full of birds.
I made a small circle, again noting the indicated marks. Stepping towards Orbit, I whispered a few words to him. He nodded, a smile on his face, and he and Doc quickly climbed onto the back of the mammoth. I put up a magical shield and followed Kolyvan, coming closer to the golden dragon who occupied the central position on the top of the cliff.
“The dome will not cover us all, Ros!” Cried the knight.
“It is not for everyone,” I smiled back.
While he was finding the correct thing to say, I took a few steps to the right and squeezed a small gray stone. Turning, I walked a dozen more steps and touched a different rock three times, trying not to miss a very tiny black and red pebble.
“What are you doing, Ros?”
Without answering anything this time, I moved on, again hitting a rock once.
“Ros ?!”
And the last stone. Sandy yellow. Six quick touches. It was done.
Returning to the mammoth, I clung to his trunk. And underneath him, used the sole of my boot to draw an x on a square, black plate.
“Ros, what are you doing … Ros ?!”
The cry of the golden knight was barely audible from an ever increasing distance. The shaggy mammoth suddenly fell into the gap that opened beneath him. As if a hatch had opened on the top of the cliff, and we had fallen into it. A black bottomless well … standing on the back of the mammoth Doc and Orbit immediately cast thin strands of magical cobwebs onto the sides of the cliff, but these immediately broke, and Kolyvan continued to fall, albeit slower.
I activated the magic lights, turned them mon and threw them down. The space around us brightened.
“Ro-o-o-os-s-s!” I heard. Was it the roar of the knight left at the top?
And then the bright speck disappeared. The hatch that had opened to let us fall had closed.
CONGRATULATIONS!
You are the first heroes who found themselves in the territory of the lost dungeon An Gdar!
You were unlucky!
But determination and perseverance will help you overcome all adversity!
You are a pioneer!
Going on the unspoiled road is always a difficult business, unlike for those who follow your trail!
Penalties: …
“A dungeon?”,” I roared in fury no better than Florian’s. “What the hell?! It should just be a room!”
“Int-teresting,” gleefully yelled the elf, dancing on the back of the falling mammoth.
And we continued to fall to the foot of the hollow cliff, and we fell at the speed of a stone rushing to the very hard ground …
And as for Florian … the passage was wide. But the dragon could not pass through it. Though the mammoth had passed freely…
The golden knight remained trapped at the top of Tidal Death, cut off from the outside world by thousands of birds surrounding the cliff, armed with wings capable of cutting stone.
Chapter Twenty.
An Gdar.
The mammoth flew tens of meters down. We looked like a brightly lit elevator cabin … and yet, to our great joy, we stopped in the air, and not by splatting against the ground. Or rather, in water — the magic balls that had been dropped to the bottom emitted a greenish light, which broke through a layer of water.
The passengers of the “elevator” unanimously let out a sigh. The mammoth lowered his trunk into the water and thoughtfully let out some bubbles.
“I apologize,” I began, breaking the silence which had been, before, diluted only by the splashing of water.
“We will forgive you,” remarked the doctor. “Bom will not. And neither will Kaylen.
“They made their choice,” I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. From Roska’s words, I had deduced that the old man was talking about a secret room hidden on the top of the cliff. A sealed cave, or something. Empty and abandoned. And now… I do not know how the hell to get out.
“An Gdar …” Doc said. “What does the name mean? Does somebody know? The lost dungeon An Gdar?”
“Tide of death,” the elf replied, showing off his knowledge of the Ancient language written on the wall. It did not surprise me at all. “T-there.”
First, I did not understand what he was talking about — and then I looked up and noticed a distinct border around the wall. The stone was lighter at the bottom, and covered, in some places, with shells and scraps of algae. And above — the wall was clean, and darker. About four meters above our heads, a clear boundary was marked — the place the tide reached. Automatic drowning.
“The tide — when does it start?” I asked no one in particular.
“Soo-oon,” Orbit said in a deliberately gloomy tone. “The tide of d-death…”
“Well, are we dying then?” Asked Doc.
“What were those monsters? And who is the dungeon master here? Will the mammoth climb through the passage? Does the corridor narrow further down? Damn … more questions than answers. Is everyone’s connection blocked?”
“Yes.”
“Yee-es.”
“And we are now on Florian’s blacklist for sure,” said our doctor.
“I do not feel guilty of anything,” I grumbled angrily. “We did not call him!”
“I am g-glad…”
“I hope that someone knows how to draw a map. I do not,” I confessed,“Doc, maybe you?”
“We will make one. Not very good, but it will be done.”
“Turn on the aura of healing. Just for a few minutes.”
“OK.”
“Orbit, call your ghostly friends. We cannot do without ghosts. I need intelligence,” I ruffled my hair in a slight panic.
We had a problem. A big damned problem — we had opened a new dungeon and got status C.A.P.S in it. We are not ready, equipment wise — and our reserves of alchemy are not good enough. The salt water is just about to start rising, and out of all the available forces, we have a fat mammoth that is completely useless underground, one war magician with weak incantations, one mage-healer and one “spirit talker.” Such brave company. And what would we do now?
Pros — we had the words of the old man: “follow the blue words.”
Cons — this was a clue would have been more or less clear to me, if we were in a small cave or crypt. But we were in a dark dungeon going on for who knows how many tens of meters deep into the cliff or directly under the ocean floor. And where could I find these “blue letters”?
“We are looking for blue words,” I decided to clarify our goal immediately. “Or blue letters, incomprehensible runes or even separate stro
kes of blue. In a word — look for any wall markings! According to the old man, the marks will lead us to the point where you could get an increase in mana. I think this would benefit all of us.”
“Clear…”
“The blue writing, obviously, will be anywhere — but not in plain sight. Painted on under a layer of mud, on a high vault where the light of our lamps does not reach. Look everywhere — and try to see at least some indication of where they might be.”
“How about this?” Said Doc, pointing his hand just above my head.
Not believing him — was this a joke? — I turned, looked, and involuntarily laughed. On the damp wall, over a rather large passage in the rock mass, four colored arrows were painted. And they all pointed down. The arrows were blue, red, green and yellow. We were at the “starting line.” There was only one corridor the arrows pointed to. Later, there would be corridors branching away — but we would have to keep to the blue arrows. The instructions could not have been any clearer.
The last cobwebs snapped, and Kolyvan fell heavily into the water on his belly. The wave he lifted rolled along the corridor and was lost in the dark. Two ghosts rushed in behind it. Another one ran along the wall — a multi-legged, hairy spider the size of a Rottweiler. For once, Orbit decided to be serious.
Together with Kolyvan I plunked into the water. It was up to my chest. Fine — this was tolerable. I went forth, slowly but surely. The mammoth with two riders followed me. If I followed the mammoth, I would only be able to see his ass. If I was on top of him, my mobility would be reduced to zero. Therefore, I played the role of carefree asshole bravely walking through an unknown dungeon, wearing a woven jacket instead of powerful armor. In my right hand was ice magic, and in the left, “string”. I had several scrolls and flasks in special pockets on a wide leather belt. From my shoulder bag, I took out a miserable handful of glowing “stickies”, forty pieces at most.
The Way of the Clan 9 Page 5
