Fayroll [04] Gong and Chalice

by Andrey Vasilyev

  I decided to give it a shot, figuring that it wouldn’t be hard to find two allies.

  You unlocked Princess Anna

  This is the second in the All Hail the King! series of hidden quests.

  Task: Find and convince Princess Anna to participate in your palace coup, taking the throne afterward.

  Reward:

  2000 experience

  Ability to unlock the next quest in the series

  Brother Yur and I bowed to each other, and I left him thoughtfully drumming his fingers on the desk. I winked to Adalard, who was pacing outside the door, and walked out into the fresh air.

  “We’re getting somewhere,” I said to no one in particular as I headed toward the city center. Back during my first walk around Aegan, I’d noticed that there was a sort of diplomatic region not far from the central square, and I assumed the Borderlands embassy was there. The hotel was also on the way. While Brother Yur hadn’t asked me to show him the crown, Princess Anna would be far less inclined to take me at my word. Incidentally, why were the coup and taking the throne listed separately in the quest description? They’re the same thing, really…

  Warning!

  You are regularly failing to meet your obligations to the Free Companies. If you don’t visit your company’s base, you may be subject to penalties.

  Damn it! I’d completely forgotten that I needed to go buy out my contract. Spending a whole 50,000 gold was a shame, of course, but it had turned out to be a good investment. Without Lane and Ur, I would have had a much tougher time getting through the temples, and I’d also picked up a few levels along the way. Really, if I just needed to put my head down and do some leveling up, the Free Companies were the place to be. The life was harsh, boring, and rigid, but it did the trick.

  Over the next hour, I visited the hotel and the local Free Company office, which was off in some hard-to-find side street. I got the usual “I’m sorry to hear that, son, I really am; you were a good warrior,” but finally managed to extricate myself and get the city guards to help me find the building that housed the emissaries from the Borderlands. It was a large, unmarked building hidden behind a high fence, and I would have never guessed that a whole ambassadorial delegation could have lived in it.

  I knocked on the door and stepped across the threshold into the darkness, and that was enough to get me a punch in the stomach. My assailants knocked me to the ground, tied my hands behind my back, and a second later had cold steel against my neck.

  “It’s him,” someone said. “I noticed him in the palace. He was just hanging around us, and now he found his way here. The way he’s snooping around, I swear he’s got to be one of Federik’s!”

  “Sure looks that way, Ring.” That voice I recognized; it was gray-mustachioed Sventonidius. “I think we can just slit his throat and dump his body in a well. We’re leaving tomorrow anyway, and we’ll be gone by the time they find him.”

  “No, no, no!” I called out to him. “Stay away from my throat, not to mention wells! I’m here with an offer for you.”

  “Your business on this earth is done,” a third voice chimed in. He had to be their leader, the one who left the reception hall first. “Go ahead, Ring, drag him out into the courtyard. I don’t want his blood in here.”

  “Just listen to me, would you?” I yelled, rolling up my arms and legs. “You can’t kill me—I’m too valuable. I swear, I really am!”

  The only answer was amiable laughter.

  I felt like an idiot. Some stranger had walked in already with an offer to overthrow the king… Damn it, Brother Yur was right again, all except one thing—they’re going to cut my throat rather than beat me up. The general idea, granted, was the same. How does he always know what’s going to happen before it happens?

  “Untie one arm and let me show you something. You can leave the sword on my neck,” I said calmly. “What’s the harm in that?”

  “Well, seeing as how you’re so graciously allowing us to keep the sword there, then of course,” the leader said sarcastically. “Untie him, and let’s see what he’s got.”

  I relaxed, a knife cut away the rope at my wrists, and it fell to the floor. Then I very slowly lifted my right hand, stuck it into my bag, felt around for the White Prince Crown, and pulled it out, looking their leader in the eye as I did.

  “Hey, you in charge, you know what this is?” I asked, breaking the silence that had fallen over the group. “I think you do.”

  It was a big risk. The cutthroats very well could have just slipped the sword at my neck a little deeper in hopes of grabbing the crown. They wouldn’t have been successful, of course, but it would still have been frustrating. I’d have had to dress myself up and come back to collect my things…

  Somebody whistled, and that’s when the leader of the Borderlands warriors spoke up. “Yes, that’s pretty serious. Let him go. I don’t know who he is but it’s safe to say he’s certainly not one of Federik’s. All he had to do was give that to Federik, and he, his grandkids, and their grandkids would never have had to worry about money, girls, or drinks ever again.”

  “That’s for sure,” confirmed Sventonidius.

  They let me up, pulling the sword away from my neck, and I looked around cautiously.

  “So why are you here?” asked the leader, a tough-looking guy whose name was Bran.

  “Don’t laugh, and don’t think I’m crazy, but I think we’re looking for the same thing,” I replied.

  “You need an alliance with the Western Mark so you can fight off an invasion from the South?” Bran asked.

  “No, I don’t need an alliance with the Western Mark,” I replied, matching his tone. “I need somebody else on the throne in the West—the kind of person who can give me what I need and you what you need. I think we should combine our forces and try to make that happen together.”

  “Forces?” Bran smiled. “I only see one of you, and there isn’t much reason to believe you. Do you have anyone else?”

  “I’m in no hurry to spill my secrets either,” was my dignified reply. “If you’re interested, I’ll give you an address to go to. There will be somebody there to answer all your questions.”

  “It’s a trap, Bran,” one of the warriors said.

  “Doubtful. If it were a trap, we’d already be in a fight surrounded by the city guard. What’s the address?”

  I explained where he needed to go, wrapping my explanation up by telling him that it was the Tearful Goddess Order. Bran and Sventonidius exchanged glances.

  “The order is involved?” Sventonidius asked with reverence in his voice.

  “Yep,” I said, looking over at him. “You aren’t the only ones who’d like to slit Federik’s throat. Okay, anyway, if we’re all set here, I’m going to head off. By the way, I wouldn’t wait too long to make that trip; we need to get going.”

  Bran nodded. “Okay, if you’re telling the truth about everything, I think we’ll be able to make you quite a nice gift. We Borderlanders remember the good things people do for us as well as the bad.”

  “Who do you want to replace the old bag on the throne with?” Sventonidius asked suddenly.

  “Anna,” I replied impressively. “Princess Anna.”

  Bran and Sventonidius glanced at each other again, and this time the gray-mustachioed warrior nodded with satisfaction. Phew, looks like they definitely won’t be killing me now.

  “Nobody’s seen her in a while.” Bran frowned. “Do you know where she is?”

  “That isn’t just my secret,” I said, deciding against laying all my cards down on the table. It wasn’t worth it.

  “Okay, then we’ll do this,” Bran replied, coming over to stand in front of me. “We’ll go where you told us to go, and we’ll talk with whoever meets us there. But if it’s a trap or some sort of joke, you should know that the entire Borderlands will hunt you up one side of Rattermark and down the other. We’re a close community, with at least one of ours in pretty much any city you might visit. But, again, if you’r
e telling the truth, you’ll have a hundred of the best fighters on your side; there are twenty here with me, and at least another eighty hired out in this area.”

  “Don’t talk with just anyone you meet!” I said quickly, worried he’d ruin the whole thing by spilling the beans to Adalard. “Ask to speak to Brother Yur.”

  “I warned you,” Bran said menacingly once again, “and you heard me.”

  “Why would I possibly want to lie to you?” Giving it one more effort to get through to him, I left with a wave of my hand. It was no use trying to prove anything to the warriors or their leader, and pressing the point would have just left them less inclined to believe me than ever. Forget them—Brother Yur can play on their emotions or, more likely, their greed. He had a better shot at it, and I had better things to do. Time was becoming a factor, too.

  I’ll start with this. I pulled out the ring the dryad had given me in the North. It hadn’t seemed like much then, but it was exactly what I needed.

  Princess Anna’s Signet Ring

  A family heirloom lost and long looked for by one of the most well-known families in the West.

  Quest item

  If you don’t have the quest this item is for, you can accept it right now.

  Would you like to accept it?

  Obviously, that’s exactly what I wanted to do, as I figured it would take me precisely where I needed to go next.

  You unlocked Family Heirloom

  Task: Try to find Princess Anna, who is currently in hiding, and give her the ring that was stolen from her family many years ago.

  Reward:

  2000 experience

  Rare item: random

  The gratitude of the princely house of Eisher

  So that wasn’t exactly what I was looking for: “try to find,” “currently in hiding”… You’re kidding me. I pulled up my map and wasn’t too surprised to see that there weren’t any red spots anywhere. That would have been too much to hope for. You know what? Screw it, I have a personal contact I can call on. And where was he? Exactly. In Radzhach Province.

  ***

  It was with no pleasure whatsoever that I breathed in the pungent, humid air of the South. I just didn’t like it in the least. There were the snakes, the constant moisture, the unfriendly looks. Speaking of which, there’s that kid checking me out.

  “Hey, you,” I called over to him with a wave. “Go tell whoever you’re supposed to that there’s a stranger here about to march into the jungle. Go, go!”

  He stared at me, his eyes popping out as if to say that he had no idea what I meant and wasn’t really right in the head to begin with. Then he took off running.

  “Back to the guerilla warfare,” I said, spitting, before heading toward the edge of the village and starting along the familiar path.

  I spent the next half hour sitting on a log and thanking my lucky stars that there weren’t as many flying nuisances in the game as there were in real life. How do people possibly go to the jungle for fun?

  “Looking for someone?” Danoot asked, pulling me away from my thoughts.

  “Hey, Comandante.” I held up my right fist in a salute. “Patria o muerte!”

  “What?” Danoot stared at me in confusion.

  “Forget it,” I replied with a wave. “Where’s Vaylerius?”

  “There, he’s coming.”

  The young mage stepped out of the jungle.

  “Hi, Vaylerius,” I called over to him. “Do you know how to use portal scrolls?”

  “Of course,” he answered with surprise.

  “Then here, take this, and let’s go see your mom,” I said, only increasing his surprise.

  “Why?” Vaylerius was taken aback by my directness, not to mention the fact that I was a bit rude, but his good manners kept him from telling me to screw myself. “My mom…”

  His voice trailed off when he saw the ring I pulled out of my bag and showed to him.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  In which the hero gets a kick out of the people he spends time with.

  “Dale August’s signet ring!” Vaylerius gasped. “Where did you find it?”

  “That’s a long story, my friend,” I replied, adding a veil of mystery. “Regardless, I think it’s something your mom’s been trying to find for quite a while now.”

  “My entire family’s been looking for it for a century and a half.” Vaylerius was having a hard time pulling himself together. “They announced rewards, set up a mage competition to see if they could use magic to find it, even sent out troops. The number of our warriors who died in the search…crazy.”

  Danoot snorted, clearly displaying his contempt for the stupid aristocrats who would go tramping off who knows where in search of a dumb trinket rather than stay at home loving the beauty of life.

  “What was that about mages?” That caught my interest. I wasn’t sure what lay ahead, and knowing people who could find things from a distance was never a bad thing.

  “Bunch of crooks,” Vaylerius replied, twisting his face into a disgusted grimace. “We still lived in the castle back then, since it was before we were banished, and my mother announced a competition she called Battle of the Sorcerers. Naturally, maybe two dozen of the rogues showed up. Some had tambourines, others crystal balls, some had beards down to their knees, and one came wearing feathers pasted to his skin. He even had a few sticking out of his rear end. They didn’t find a thing, though they searched the whole courtyard, ported servants off to who-knows-where, got into a fight with the head of the guards, and somehow even got into the wine cellar in the middle of the night. I don’t know what kind of sorcerers they were, though they obviously had a good bit of experience finding alcohol.”

  “What happened then?” I was enjoying the story.

  “Nothing.” Vaylerius shrugged. “Some of them were hung, a few had their heads cut off. Mom made the one with the feathers jump off the castle wall. She said that anyone with that many feathers must be able to fly.”

  She does sound like a sweet, quiet, compassionate kind of princess. I’ll have to make sure she doesn’t try to have me “fly.”

  “But the ring is the most important thing. Let’s go see her right now; there isn’t much time. And you, Danoot, I have something for you to do that’s more in line with your interests, so come with us. Emancipating the people and all that.”

  “You do?” Danoot squinted at me incredulously. “That’s odd.”

  “What are you talking about?” I sniffed, insulted. “You don’t think my heart aches for all the orphan boys and girls, the downcast, the browbeaten in the world? It may very well ache more than yours. Don’t be an idiot. Let’s go, time’s running out.”

  “Hold on,” Danoot said, his face turning a little red. “We’re going to see the princess, so I need to change and get some of the others. They’ve never met her, and they’ll be hurt if we don’t invite them.”

  Seriously? This was the leader of the swashbuckling partisans. They should have jumped on the disgraced aristocrat, tramped across the floor in rags and muddy boots, and sniffed as they spat at her. Instead, he wanted to put on his Sunday best, and he even had a little rosy flush to his cheeks. Regardless, I wasn’t opposed to meeting the other two leaders; I figured they might come in handy.

  “Damn it, I’m not walking through the jungle again,” I said, agreeing with him. “Here’s a scroll; let’s head to your camp.”

  Danoot faltered and then handed the scroll to Vaylerius. “I don’t know how. I just don’t,” he explained begrudgingly.

  “That’s no good. You should be in a tireless hunt for new skills and abilities,” I told him didactically. “Knowledge is the best weapon the proletariat has at its disposal. It works much better than rocks, another popular weapon in their arsenal.”

  “Who?” asked Danoot. “What’s the ‘proletariat’? Can you tell me more about that?”

  All I needed was to teach those compañeros Marxist-Leninist theory, and have them throw their own socialist revolu
tion out there in the jungle.

  “Forget it. And keep nonsense like that out of your head,” I replied quickly. “Leave the thinking for…I don’t know…the bears. Their heads are bigger.”

  Vaylerius had been patiently listening to us, though he finally cut in. “Are you two about done? Can we go now?” He opened the portal.

  ***

  The rebel camp was… Well, it was a rebel camp. There were tents, fires, and the slaughtered carcass of some herbivorous animal that had had the misfortune to catch the eye of one of the rebel’s archers. It was noisy, laughter rang through the air, and you could barely hear yourself through the hubbub.

  “Ah, they caught a nobleman!” said one of the free people when he saw us. He was a small, scarred man wearing a leather vest over an otherwise naked torso. “Time for some fun?”

  “Shut up, Swifty,” Danoot shot back at him.

  “And there you have it, brothers! What did you say to me, you shameful she-wolf?” Swifty said in a hysterical and anguished voice. “Looks like our leaders are tired of us; they’re off cavorting with the noblemen, the dogs…”

  A knife flashed, and Swifty’s body collapsed into the fire.

  Progress made completing Military Aid

  You and your associate have been joined by one group of warriors.

  Ah-ha! It looked like Brother Yur had been able to work Bran, picking the right arguments and words to bring him over to our side. Why was I not surprised?

  “Xant, why?” Danoot frowned. “The idiot was just running his mouth. What was the matter with that?”

  An unbelievably beautiful girl wearing a leather jacket and pants that accentuated all the right curves bent over gracefully, shooting a playful glance in my direction, and pulled her knife out of Swifty’s body.

  “I couldn’t take him anymore. Always with the yelling, the nonsense, and especially when he was drunk. It would’ve been fine if he hadn’t been so loud, but no… And the way he looked at me made me feel like I needed a bath. How long can you put up with that? And who did you bring?”