by Cat Wilder
Kahlan and Meike watched me a moment. Meike spoke up first.
"What makes you think he's following after us?" the elfmaid asked. "What if the bounty hunters are coming up behind us? There's a five gold crown bounty on each of our heads, too."
"I don't know," I admitted. "But Cormac, with or without the bounty hunters is gaining on us quickly. He's only a few miles back."
Kahlan's face lit up. "Horseback? I'd kill for a horse right now."
That was my guess. But Meike had a point, as well. The bounty hunters might be making a play to capture us. Lord Quinton would pay twenty-five gold crowns for all four of us. Beats the hell out of ten just for Cormac.
I pointed at a saddle between two hills up the road. "I thought we could hide on the high ground, just in case Cormac's not alone."
"I told you a hundred miles back," Meike said. "I used up most of my mana in the fight to escape. I wanted to stop and generate mana; but no, you insisted we keep going."
Sometimes I wondered if Meike was a lesbian. She sure liked to use Kahlan as a source for mana, and rarely asked Cormac to generate it with the healer. Kahlan didn't care who she slept with, and she almost never said no to any offer. Though, she did seem to prefer sex with Cormac over that with me or Meike.
"You have a sword."
That earned me a blistering look.
I shook my head and headed for the hill. I rescued them from slavery, yet those two wanted to blame me for all of our troubles. Hell, I even returned all of their possessions. Many of which were Meike's talismans. Surely she had something to fight with that didn't require copious amounts of mana? I knew some talismans didn't require any mana.
Kahlan wouldn't fight, it being against her religion. But she had a little mana, so could help with healing.
"Once we reach the hilltop, you two can go at each other like sex-starved rabbits until Cormac catches up," I said. "Generate mana to your hearts' content."
"Why do you sound so…" Meike said in a taunting tone, but trailed off. "Oh fuck."
I froze. The sorceress rarely cursed, and that sounded bad. I spotted the problem as I turned back to her.
Goblin warrior floated above his head. He wore a chainmail vest, iron helmet, and carried a long spear and sword. And that wasn't the worst part. The little bastard sat atop the biggest, meanest, most vicious looking beast I'd ever seen.
"What the hell is that?"
The four-legged beast stood as tall as a large pony. Maybe a little long, with dark shaggy fur and a bushy tail. He looked more wolf than anything, but a hundred times scarier.
"Direwolf," Meike said.
He lifted a ram's horn, and blew a loud blast. Other horns in the middle distance replied.
"Shit." I whispered.
The red-gold bangle on Meike's left wrist began to glow, and suddenly stretched out into a curved length of fire. It solidified into a bow, though still looked like living flames. An arrow, also of fired reddish-gold flames, appeared in her right hand. She nocked it, drew, and released as quickly as an elven ranger. The arrow exploded in the goblin's chest, knocking him off the direwolf. The next arrow crippled the charging direwolf, and the third finished the beast off.
I ran over, snatching up the dropped spear as I went, and then thrust it into the writhing goblin's chest. I yanked it back out once he stopped moving. I could hear more direwolf riding goblins smashing through the trees. Tossing the spear to Kahlan.
"At least help hold them off," I said, and led the way toward the hilltop. I can't believe I used to pay out the nose to do this for fun.
"How are you doing with mana?" Kahlan asked as we ran.
"Low, but this bow doesn't use more than one point per arrow," Meike replied. "But anything you can give me will help."
"Elky, should I give her all my mana, or save it for healing?"
"We have healing potions," I said. "Give her the mana."
I turned off the road, and wended my way through the trees to the hilltop. The old growth forest wasn't as tightly packed with trees as a newer growth, so I knew the goblins had plenty of room to maneuver astride their direwolves.
"I wish I had a direwolf," I muttered at the top of the hill. I pulled the Shield of Isis out, and stood firm with sword ready. My map showed angry red dots swarming around the hill. How the hell were we going to survive the fight? "Time to earn some XP, girls."
"Real people don't get experience points," Meike snapped. "And I'd rather have a flying carpet than an ugly direwolf."
"I'd rather be on a beach in Cabo," Kahlan said.
I looked at her, mouth open.
The healer winked at me. "Cormac told me it was lovely there."
The first wave of goblins surged up the hill. Meike began peppering them with fire arrows. Kahlan moved up between us, but slightly behind and spear presented at the enemy. Hell, she might even accidently kill something for a change.
"Here they come!" I cried.
Chapter 19
Cormac
I reined my mount to a stop. "Ram's horn?"
I hadn't heard that sound since being chased out of Tartha by the City Guard a week back. Surely they wouldn't still be after us. And then another ram's horn blast filled the air, followed by many others.
I checked my map.
"Holy crap! Where'd they come from?"
The three green dots representing Elky, Kahlan, and Meike stood surrounded atop a hill a few miles up ahead. Angry red dots surrounded that hill. The red dots remained in constant motion, swarming, so impossible to count. And there were a lot of them. Too many.
"This sucks," I muttered.
I nudged the horse onward, all my senses on high alert. Before reaching the top of the next hill, I stopped and tied the horse off to let him graze a bit. I continued on foot, and eased into the forest before reaching the peak. And then I spotted them.
"Goblins?" I said. "Riding wolves?"
The wolves were huge, rangy looking beasts. Direwolves? I'd heard of them being in the game, but had never seen one. Some stood as large as a small horse.
"How the hell do I get through them?"
A level 100 barbarian warrior couldn't defeat that many direwolf riding goblins. If the goblins didn't get him, the direwolves certainly would. Actually, I was pretty sure direwolves trumped goblins. And my ladies stood dead center in their midst.
"I seriously need to find some invincible battle armor or something for situations like this."
I quickly designated a new respawn site right there. I had no doubt I'd be killed multiple times before I fought my way through their ranks. Then I saw a reddish-orange fireball, and knew the fight had begun.
"Here goes nothing," I cried, racing back to the road.
The second I reached the road, before I could turn toward the fight, a deep thumping sound brought me to a stop. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't place it until I looked up.
"Dragon!"
A fierce looking dark, blood-red dragon hovered over the road, black tail flicking behind him while he glared down at me. He had to be a hundred feet long, four-legged with black claws, wings, and horns down his spin. Indeed his tail was completely black. It took a moment of gawking before I noticed the rider.
Sacred Death assassin!
The blonde in black leather grinned down at me, and then aimed a crossbow at me. I darted right, making her miss. Then I pulled a dagger and hurled it at her.
"Tahki, kill!" the assassin cried.
The dragon's long, vicious looking mouth opened wide, and I saw the intense light of fire. I made a beeline toward a boulder, and prayed it was large enough to save my ass. Another crossbow bolt grazed my left side as I jumped. Intense dragon-fire seared the boulder and ground all around me for a long moment, burning up all my oxygen.
I leapt to my feet the second the torrent of fire ended, racing under the dragon so he couldn't get a clear shot at me. The assassin cursed, and then she barked commands. The dragon responded immediately.
How the h
ell do I fight a fucking fire-breathing dragon!
I plunged into the thick forest. Five strides in, I cut sharply to the right. And none too soon. Intense fire bathed the forest game trail I'd been following.
I ducked behind a thick oak, dropped to one knee, and pulled up my inventory list. A translucent blue pop-up appeared with a list everything in my inventory. I needed something to fight a dragon-riding assassin. Anything at all.
"Bow and arrows," I said, and willed that into my hand. The pop-up vanished, and at the same time the Sword of Kiantor returned to the ring. "I bet the sword will kill a dragon. If I can get close enough."
I had to kill the assassin. Hopefully, with his rider dead, the dragon would fly away for lack of guidance. Maybe I'd get lucky and the mean-ass beast would unleash his anger on the goblins. A man can dream, can't he?
I watched the dragon circling above. I thought I'd escaped, since they obviously couldn't see me. If they had magic, then they would've already flamed me into crispy critters. So I turned my mind toward how best to lure that assassin and dragon toward the goblins, and get them to start fighting. The assassin couldn't allow the goblins to capture me. She wanted that reward too much, not to mention whatever glory and accolades she'd receive within her evil Order.
The forest erupted with crashing sounds. That stupid ass dragon came down only twenty feet to my left. His tail whipped around, snapping off some smaller trees and making a god-awful racket. And then his head swung around, and we locked eyes for a long, electric moment.
Yellow, slit-pupilled eyes widened, both of us frozen in place, before the assassin shouted, "Catch him!"
Panic took over, and I charged the dragon and rider. I shot the bow as I ran, so didn't hit a damned thing. The assassin had to duck, but she never looked away. Neither did the dragon.
The weird eye-contact with the dragon reminded me, giving me a path to victory. I had to catch the female assassin's eyes. Touch her. The more I did so, the more she would like me. And with enough contact, she might even want me.
I inventoried the bow a split second before reaching the dragon. The scary beast's right front paw, or hand, reached for me. At the same time his massive, triangular head swung down at me. Did he want to smash me to the ground with his scaly jaw, before grabbing me? I leapt up, slapping both hands against his snout to propel myself to the side.
I hit the ground beside the dragon and immediately surged back up his side, going for the assassin. I expected her to be frightened by my fierce attack. Instead, she gave me a contemptuous look as a sword appeared in her hand. The sword tip moved to catch me as I went up after her, but I pulled up the sword of Kiantor and parried it aside.
That left me unable to grab her. My left hand came down on her gleaming black leather sheathed thigh, but like the Sacred Death assassins back in Tartha, she'd smeared oil or grease all over so I couldn't get hold. Oddly, touching her leg didn't seem to have any effect on her. Was she warded against the Heart of Aphrodite? Or did the leather protect her?
I remembered I had to have direct skin-on-skin contact. So my attempt to bring her into my sphere of influence failed. The dragon whirled around on me, so I wrapped my arms around his hind legs. The dragon ran in a circle in a vain attempt to reach me.
"Stop moving, damn you, Tahki!"
The dragon came to a huffing, snorting stop, eyes locked on me. I turned to taunt him with an arrogant brow wag, but again our eyes locked and it proved even more intense. I broke eye-contact when through periphery vision I saw the rider pull her crossbow out of inventory.
Ducking under the dragon, keeping one hand on him at all times, I tried to drive the beast mad by moving from side-to-side. The dragon's head whipped from side-to-side as well, before he roared in frustration.
And then I remembered the Sword of Kiantor could probably kill a dragon. Only one way to find out. The sword appeared, glowing blue, in my hand. I took hold of the hilt with both hands as I raced up under his chest, ready to plunge it through the monster's heart.
"Halt!" a woman's deep, authoritive voice commanded.
It wasn't the rider. My jaw dropped when I spotted not one, but four other Sacred Death assassins. They surrounded me on foot, aiming crossbows at me, and too close to miss.
"Drop the sword, Cormac mac Brocc," their leader demanded, dark eyes narrowing. "We will not kill you. Instead, we will wound you so you are in agony for the entire trip to turn you over to Lord Quinton."
That didn't sound like fun. Then the rider slipped out of the saddle, the dragon backed away to stand behind me, and I heard the distant sounds of battle where my ladies fought the goblins. I cursed my rotten luck, Lord Quinton, and the assassins.
"We know your respawn site," the rider said, with a roguish smile. Up close, she was quite pretty, with her long blonde hair pulled back in a thick braid. Shame I couldn't add her to my team. She stepped closer, extending her open hand. "Give me the sword."
I heard a rumble from the dragon, and glanced back at him. The beast was glaring, but not at me. At his rider. Then I noticed the dragon's lower belly. No penis.
No, could she…? I thought. Then I spoke. "Tahki, defend!"
Chapter 20
Meike
"Are you sure?" I asked.
The Amazon nodded, a grim look on her face. "I don't joke about shit like that, Meike. That dragon is after Cormac."
That made my head spin. A dragon? Sure, legends told us of great warriors who fought and killed dragons, but I didn't know a single person that survived a fight with a dragon. Dragons always won.
"Here come the goblins!" Kahlan cried.
I felt my lack of mana profoundly. Kahlan had given me all she had, so I had to use it sparingly. I had a few talismans that didn't require mana, but they weren't fighting magic. The flame bow and arrows remained my best option.
A direwolf riding goblin raced up at us with startling speed. Elky charged them with a wild battle cry. The goblin looked confident as he thrust his spear at her. The Amazon blocked the spear thrust with her enchanted shield, and that spear's impact activated its magic.
The goblin cried out when the shield's magic blasted his spear straight back into the woods. Then Elky slammed shield first into the direwolf's flank, which sent him and his rider flying back into the woods.
"We need to find a way to slow them down," Elky said as she rejoined us.
"If one of you has an axe, I'll start chopping down trees," Kahlan said.
"The fight will be over before you can chop one down," Elky said.
I nodded agreement, but then had a thought. "Not true. At least not if we use magic."
The flame bow vanished into inventory the second I opened my hand to release it. I activated my sword bangle, and a flaming sword appeared. It used one point of mana per minute, so I had to work fast.
Moving down about twenty feet, I swung at the trunk of a mighty oak. Honestly, I'd never struck a tree with that sword, so didn't know if my plan would work or not. The enchanted blade sliced through the hard wood effortlessly. I cut a notch on one side to guide the fall, and then finished it off. I was already cutting the second tree before it hit the ground.
I circled our position, cutting the trees so that the canopy fell toward the goblins. All of those tangled branches provided good cover, but we knew they could still force their way through them. I only forced them to a crawl, but it was better than nothing.
Once I circled our position, I started cutting down the trees above them on the hill. I cut every single tree down. I had them stacked five deep upon each other. Honestly, I was quite proud of myself.
"You did great, Meike," Elky said.
"Thank you," I replied with a smile. The effort left me winded and sweaty, and worse. "I'm completely out of mana now." I pulled a regular bow and arrows out of inventory, as did Elky. "I have sixty-three arrows."
"You're doing better than me," the Amazon said. "I have thirty-nine."
It sounded like a hundred ram horn blasts fil
led the air, and then a throaty shout from the goblin warriors. I nocked an arrow, and began scanning the surrounding jumble of fallen trees.
"The battle has begun," Elky said. "We sell our lives dearly."
Chapter 21
Cormac
The dragon roared and charged. I braced myself, but Tahki dropped her head and used it as a battering ram. Only she knocked her rider flat on her back instead of me.
And then Tahki growled.
All five Sacred Death assassins stared incredulously at the dragon. I moved first, sidling up close to Tahki and stroked her leg affectionately. I felt her stiffen under my hand. The Heart of Aphrodite's magic really affected her, a full-blown dragon. The script above Tahki's head showed – Dragon. Period. So she wasn't a dragon-shifter. And yet, the Heart's magic still influenced her.
"Davita! Get control of your dragon," an assassin commanded.
The brunette did most of the talking, so she had to be in command of their team. She stood taller than the other four, not quite as pretty as Davita, but quite attractive even with her hair severely pulled back in a ponytail.
"Tahki, back off," Davita said in a firm voice.
The dragon actually took a few steps back. I moved back with her, trying to maintain physical contact to get the beast more and more under my magic's influence. If she reacted anything like a human or elf, then every touch made her deeper and deeper in love.
Is dragon love anything like human love? That thought worried me. What if dragons ate their mates? Would she save me from the assassins, and then gobble me down?
Davita took a step closer, giving me a wary look. I caught her eyes, and felt the electricity. She froze, looking unsure. So I looked toward their leader, and caught her eyes. Just like Davita, she looked surprised and confused.
"Go," I ordered the assassins. "Leave us alone. Tell your abbey that Lord Quinton hired you to kill players, renners. We can't be killed, so it's a fool's errand."
I expected them to at least consider my command, but no. All of them took a step closer, swords appearing in their hands. So I quickly caught the eyes of the other three assassins. I could see the Heart's magic affected them, but I noticed no slacking of their determination.
