“Uhm, some,” I said, shrugging vaguely.
All my experience was limited to kitchen shifts in the army and my time as a student, when there was nobody around to cook for me but me. Of course, I could clean and cook potatoes and make a decent steak, but asking me to do anything more complicated might not go too well.
“Level thirteen…” the Chef read my character information and shook his head doubtfully. “I can’t let you do any actual cooking yet. But never mind, there’s plenty of work here for an unqualified kitchen hand. Don’t worry, you’ll level up fast in a busy kitchen like this. For now, take this knife and cutting board. Chop these greens finely. Then pluck those birds over there and bring some water from the well.”
When three high-level Scouts from the Pharaoh’s guard walked into the kitchen a couple of minutes later, I was already toiling away at my cutting board in a chef’s hat and apron. The Scouts examined the kitchen, looked into the pots standing by the wall, even waved around some gleaming amulets dangling on chains. They found nothing suspicious or dangerous. They asked Li who I was and he answered that I was a kitchen hand and I worked there. Amazingly, it went off without a hitch. The Pharaoh’s guards seemed satisfied and left to inspect the palace’s other rooms.
* * *
I’d been working in the kitchen for two hours. I was sweating, tired, I had two bad cuts and a scald from boiling water. In my human form, I could hold items in my hands just fine, but after almost a month of being a cat, I was completely out of the habit of using fingers. Learning fine motor skills all over again was a damn tough job. The smallest inattention was all it took to fail a Luck check. That meant another cut, burn or bruise.
But I was doing alright — over those two hours, none of the players in the palace had found reason to suspect the Chef’s new assistant. The Pharaoh’s people thought I was a servant and paid me less attention than the furniture. I took lunch to the guards at the gate and they just assumed I’d arrived along with the large group of players.
Shapeshifter skill increased to level twenty-six!
That was another perk to being in human form. I didn’t know what was influencing my leveling more — completing human work or passing for a human without arousing suspicion — but the skill was leveling up very fast. I even relaxed a little. Which is why what happened next came as a shock.
When I brought lunch to Margarita Ovchinnikov in one of the servants’ rooms, she asked me outright: “You’re actually a ginger cat, right?”
“Uhm… what makes you think that?” I said, trying to hide my fear behind laughter.
“It’s just…” the girl smiled at me. “I just have a way of noticing little things. You’re wearing the t-shirt that I once wore, until I was given this serving uniform. The Lady wouldn’t share such things with just anyone. And I didn’t see you arrive with the Pharaoh, and I’ve never seen you before among the other palace servants. You don’t have to tell me. But if you really are a cat, then if I were you, I’d run away from here as fast as I could while I still had the chance.”
“Why?” Maybe that question gave the game away, but I needed to know what danger threatened me.
“So I wasn’t wrong.”
The girl smiled sadly, then told me to follow her. First she warned me not to make noise or talk loudly — the palace’s mistress was currently in the first-floor bathroom with her husband, but she had extremely good hearing.
Quietly, on tiptoes, we walked through the hall to the nursery. My escort pointed at the cradle, covered over with a canopy. Margarita put a finger to her lips and carefully moved the opaque veil aside, revealing the child. Inside the cradle was… no human child, but a black kitten! It took a lot of restraint not to shout in surprise.
“This is why the servants aren’t allowed to go into the nursery,” the girl whispered, pointing at the furry kitten sleeping among its cushions. “Lady Victoria says she fears charms or evil spells, so she never shows her kitten to anyone, even her husband. And she never leaves it for long. She always takes her daughter with her when she travels, but then she puts illusion spells on the kitten to make the animal look like a human child to everyone else. And Lady Victoria herself turns into a black cat when she sleeps, too. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. She isn’t human, she’s a cat. An evil, lustful cat, who killed her mistress and took her place by the Pharaoh’s side.”
The girl quietly covered the kitten with the veil and left the room on tiptoes again. I followed. We returned to the servant’s room. Margarita closed the door behind her and slid the bolt shut from inside.
“Why are you telling me all this?” I asked, failing to see the girl’s stake in the whole affair.
Margarita was quiet a moment, then pointed at her slave collar.
“Help me escape! As soon as the mistress realizes that I’ve uncovered her secret, I’m done. She will kill me to keep her place by the Pharaoh’s side secure. But I don’t know how long Lady Victoria can hide the truth. A child is supposed to grow up, learn to talk and walk. One day her husband will ask why his daughter is still in a cradle when other girls her age are crawling and babbling. The little kitten that the Pharaoh believes to be his daughter is doomed. She will ‘die.’ From illness or something else. The inconsolable mother will declare a cause of death and everyone will believe her. In reality, the kitten will become a ‘pet,’ another one of those cats that lives in the mistress’s palace. All this is why Lady Victoria desperately wants another child, but one that can integrate into human society. She can’t have children with her human husband, but wild tomcats only give her mindless kittens. So the Lady has been searching for a sentient cat, whose offspring will also be sentient, like both its parents. And if you are such a cat, and especially if you’ve already slept with the mistress, then… you’re in trouble. As soon as Lady Victoria is certain she’s pregnant, she’ll kill you to keep her secret safe! Oh, no…”
Margarita went white with fear. The girl sobbed, covered her face with her hands. I turned sharply to find out what had scared the girl so badly. A large and wet black cat stood by the window in our locked room, nervously twitching its tail.
Time seemed to stop. Thoughts span furiously in my head. What could I do? Run? Not likely. Attack Bastet with magic? Out of my arsenal of spells, only Paralyze might work against such a strong mage, and that wasn’t guaranteed. But I had to do something. Doing nothing meant death. I took a deep breath, and… cast Paralyze on the serving girl! Margarita froze and fell to the floor like a puppet with her strings cut. The cat shifted her gaze from me to the motionless girl and back again several times, then spoke, not hiding her annoyance and surprise:
“Why did you do that? Do you think my heart-stopping spell doesn’t work on stunned targets?”
“No. It’s just… I have a couple of important questions for you after all I’ve heard. Very important questions. And I don’t want a curious serving girl to overhear us.”
I think I managed to surprise the lady of the house. The black cat twitched her tail nervously a couple more times.
“Alright. You’ve intrigued me. I’m listening, Andrei.”
“Do I understand right that you’re the only creature in this world that I can have children with? Answer honestly. It’s very important to me.”
Lady Victoria took her time over answering. It seemed this was a touchy subject. But then the cat spoke, choosing her words carefully.
“That may be so. Although I’m not sure. This horrible girl listened in on my conversations with my cats in moments of sadness, then mixed the truth with her own conjecture. Yes, my child is not the Pharaoh’s. And the cradle holds my kitten, who will never be sentient. That is where the truth in her words ends. I did not kill my mistress. She lost her final life for another reason. And it isn’t necessarily the case that you or I can’t have children with humans. There haven’t been enough… ahem… experiments… to be certain. But even if that is the case, the children of shapeshifters can live among humans and blend in wi
th them perfectly on the outside, though they will have far greater capabilities. Potentially, you and I are rulers among humans. Our magic is strong. We can control people, make them serve us. That’s how it was back in Ancient Egypt, when sentient cats ruled over mankind. And in the new world, with its endless possibilities, we too can…”
Victoria broke off in mid-sentence. I stayed silent, letting her develop her thoughts, but Bastet added nothing more to what she’d said. Then I asked my next question, or rather, made my offer.
“My master has a child on a raft. Three weeks old. A girl by the name of Hope. Her mother went beyond the barrier, left the child behind in the sandbox. Nobody in the New Pharaohs knows about her. In fact, very few humans here do. I thought that might be of interest to you…”
An instant, and a young naked woman appeared before me in place of the cat, her hair still wet from the bath. Ignoring the serving girl laying at her feet, Lady Victoria spoke decisively:
“You’re not wrong. The baby girl certainly does interest me. That child could become a princess with a great future. To the carriage! We’ll take no servants, I’ll steer the raptors myself. I need to talk to your master Sergeant as soon as possible.”
“Wait,” I said, deciding to stand on principle despite the tension in the air. I pointed at the unconscious servant. “You promised Margarita freedom if she found Sergeant’s kitten. She held up her end of the bargain. Free her!”
Victoria Bastet pulled a face. In cat form, she would have hissed.
“That nasty bitch stuck her nose in where it doesn’t belong, and she’ll pay for her curiosity with her life. You know I can’t let her live.”
“No, that won’t do. Margarita will go through the barrier with Sergeant and his group. That’s the best way to keep your secret. And it’ll show me that I can trust you.”
Intellect check successful!
Magic Resistance check successful!
Choose the learnable skill Mental Defense for your character?
Choose the learnable skill Magic Defense for your character?
I smiled in satisfaction as I watched the growing fear in the dread witch’s eyes. I must have just reflected some spell. And while Victoria froze, still not believing what had happened, I took a step toward her, embraced her and kissed her right on the lips. The young woman twitched, but then softened. We stood for a minute, lost in the kiss. I broke away, looking right into the deadly woman’s eyes.
“We don’t need to argue. We’re on the same side in this world. Let Margarita live, and you can count on my help. I’ll take her to the carriage. You get dressed and meet me in the courtyard. And grab that book with the human transformation spell. That will be my rewa… Meoow!”
Before I could finish my sentence, the room’s floor suddenly rushed up to meet me and the ceiling stretched upward. What the hell?! Why?! Then my Mana Points suddenly burned away to zero in a split second. I lost the ability to cast spells. I was helpless.
Lady Victoria leaned down and picked me up by the scruff of my neck. She turned the ginger cat before her eyes and spoke with reproach in her voice:
“How can you lose track of your transformation time like that? Such a rookie mistake. Keep making it and you won’t survive in the world of humans. You are still weak and inexperienced, Andrei, and yet you make demands. I don’t like that one bit. I’ll forgive you this time, but next time, I’ll kill you!”
The young woman glanced at her serving girl, then back at the helpless cat hanging from her hand. She sighed deeply.
“Alright, I’ll let Margarita go, since I promised. And I’ll give her three days to level up and get through that barrier. I don’t know how you’re going to tell her that, but if I see this worm in the territory of the New Pharaohs after her three days are up, she will have a long death! And if information about my child spreads, I will destroy not only this girl, but you too, and all the players from Sergeant’s crew! As for the transformation spellbook, you can have it, minus one page. The one you want. That page you’ll get once the Beast Catcher and all his band go through the barrier, and you stay with me. You’ll work for me a while, complete a range of tasks to earn my trust, and then and only then will I teach you how to turn into a human!”
Chapter 25 [Sergeant]
The Courtesan’s Gift
WHAT THE HELL was all that? I watched thoughtfully as the carriage clattered away. According to Haze, who knew the hierarchy of players in his guild well, Lady Victoria was the true leader of the New Pharaohs, and just now she’d suddenly galloped her way here to the bank of the great river. And the level 78 Courtesan arrived without the bodyguards that you’d expect to be escorting such an important individual. She didn’t even have a driver. She brought an unconscious girl by the name of Margarita Ovchinnikov. She ordered the free players of my group crowded on the bank to unload the woman from the carriage. This is my gift to Sergeant, she said. He knows her.
It was true; I remembered the girl. She was the one that ended up in the new world completely naked after trying to kill herself in a bathtub. Now Margarita wore a serving girl’s uniform and a metal slave collar. And for some reason, the girl was unconscious.
While the members of my League of Losers crowded around the unconscious girl in the grass, the Pharaoh’s spouse examined our raft with interest, a babe wrapped up in cloth in her arms. She nodded in satisfaction at the defensive walls and spikes, the ballista and the circling creeping crocodiles. She exchanged a couple of sentences with the Philosopher as he toiled over his epic work, played with the megasaurus hatchlings and the Chimeric Cougar kitten, looked apprehensively at the Marsh Mistress and the two people of other races in my group, then left the raft.
She called me over at the end and asked, although it was really an order, that I not waste any time capturing the minotaur, that I should go hunt it right away.
“I give you two days. The day after tomorrow, by nightfall, the monster must be in the arena. I forbid you from involving members of the New Pharaohs in your hunt. My warriors currently have other matters to attend to. The Pharaoh said the sherkh guilds have started moving. We need all our forces on the border right now. Prove that you are worthy, that you deserve your freedom!”
After that tirade, the Pharaoh’s wife took the reins in hand herself, shouted the hitched raptorhounds into motion and started clattering away back home, leaving a cloud of dust behind her. All we could do was stand uncertainly around the girl, a level 18 Jill of All Trades. As we stood, the guild name ‘New Pharaohs’ disappeared from the description above her head.
Margarita Ovchinnikov. Human. Female. Level 18 Jill of All Trades.
I could barely feel the girl’s breath. Her eyes were closed and her limbs strangely stiff. Shame my sister Julie wasn’t with us. The ever capable Veterinarian might have been able to provide some medical help.
“Take the collar off her,” I ordered the Mechanic and Engineer, then headed over to Diogenes — I needed to find out what the influential and powerful lady had asked him about.
“Nothing in particular,” Diogenes shrugged. “She just asked about the strengths of the Philosopher class, but I don’t think she even listened to the answer. The scrolls of priceless formulas, lemmas and theorems spread out over the table didn’t interest her one bit either. She seemed more interested in our little baby. She even looked into the basket and touched her.”
She touched her? A wave of alarm washed over me. I walked over to Hope, sleeping quietly, and glanced into the baby’s cot… only to shout in surprise. Instead of a human child, my own kitten Whiskers lay in the bed, tightly wrapped up in a blanket! The animal was conscious. He stared daggers at me. His paws were bound with rope and his jaws muzzled with birchbark to stop him scratching and biting.
Whiskers. Cat. Male. Level 31 Shadow Hexxer. Sergeant’s pet.
There could be no doubt about it — this was my own cat, who had disappeared to who knows where for the last few days, and had apparently found time to level up nic
ely. But what had happened? Had the Courtesan kidnapped the child, using her magic to replace the girl with my pet unnoticed? But why did the Pharaoh’s wife need the baby girl in the first place? Maybe the girl who Lady Victoria had left with us would answer when she woke up.
I untied my pet. The kitten ran out of the room, hissing furiously. The megasaurus hatchlings jumped up and ran after him excitedly, but I wasn’t worried about him in the slightest — Whiskers could stand up for himself.
“Sergeant, there’s something you need to see,” Varya said from outside, her voice somehow strangely lifeless. I went out and she pointed out what she wanted me to look at.
Woah… The unconscious girl’s mouth was full of thick, dark blood. Her tongue was completely gone. Cut out at the root! Why maim her like that? What the hell was going on?!
Varya’s face was white as she surveyed the horrible sight. “Such meaningless cruelty…”
“Not at all,” the Philosopher said, walking over and leaning down to look at the mutilated girl. “It’s both a punishment and a warning. Perhaps a hint that she should stay quiet about something, and level up quickly to fix the injury.”
“I found this in the girl’s bag,” the Engineer’s daughter said, handing me a thick and worn leather-bound book. “It’s something related to magic.”
I opened the heavy tome, leafed through its pages. Geometric patterns, drawings of strange polygonal shapes, odd diagrams that meant nothing to me. All the text in the book was in an unfamiliar language. At the end of the book were two color drawings, a man and a woman, clearly human. But the page opposite the drawing had been very roughly cut out with scissors, leaving only a narrow strip of paper marred with dried blood.
ATTENTION! Your character does not have enough Intellect to identify this item.
Whatever this book was, for the time being I put it with the scrolls on Diogenes’ desk and called for a group meeting. We needed to decide what to do in light of this new situation. Whiskers the cat joined in on the discussion too, jumping up onto Varya’s shoulder. The two megasaurus hatchlings, who never did manage to catch up to the cat, slowly crawled their way back onto the raft at a snail’s pace, whining with fatigue. I took the opportunity to feed them. A fish for each hatchling was enough to tame them.
In Service of the Pharaoh (League of Losers Book #2) Page 23
