In Service of the Pharaoh (League of Losers Book #2)

by Michael Atamanov

  “Here’s what we do…” I said, making my decision. “Set up the traps. But make it so that the system doesn’t activate from the monster’s weight, but from some lever or button instead. That way we give the Minotaur a chance to fulfill his promise and let us go peacefully. If he keeps his word, then we leave, and we take those ancient books as our promised reward. If the Minotaur betrays us, then we’ll hide in our shelter. He won’t be able to kill us, and sooner or later he’ll go back to his lair. And we have an invisible girl in our team who can creep in here at the right moment and press the lever!”

  Chapter 35 [Kitten]

  League of Losers

  WE DIDN’T RUN into any human or sherkh squads on the way back, but the road itself through the marshy forest and along the great river was exhausting. Especially since the creeping crocodiles were with us now, and Tick-Tock and Katy could move quickly only along the river. In the swamps and overgrown forests, they slowed down the rest of us. After struggling a while with the armored reptiles as they slowly crawled through the woods, we decided to split up. The little Veterinarian would lead the creeping crocodiles along the river, her pet Snowflake proudly riding on her shoulder, whistling into her ear. The winged veyer served as an aerial scout for the group while it was on water, finding the right flows between the labyrinth of islands.

  Julie ordered her raptorhound to follow Irosaurus Regina — it would be safe near such a huge reptile; none of the local monsters dared tangle with the deadly megasaurus now that she was at level twenty-seven. I rode on the megasaurus’s back alongside Varya. We had plenty of time to talk, and I’d asked the girl to hold the book of transformation spells open in front of her as we rode. And even in the darkness, when the human girl couldn’t see much, I still peered at the pages covered with strange text. Admittedly, I didn’t understand much at all. There wasn’t a single familiar symbol, and only the illustrations of animals helped me figure out what the spells were for.

  I really hoped to level up my now badly needed Translator skill. But my studies remained extremely slow. I was still tempted to spend my Mutation Points on a way to speed up my understanding of the text, but I resisted the urge. My Translator skill was currently at level forty, and counting the nine free skill points I’d saved, I had potentially almost reached level fifty in the skill. Just one level stood between me and my sacred goal. Having that skill at level fifty would let me take the Modified Vocal Chords mutation, and that would cost a whole twenty Mutation Points.

  The trouble was that the Bookworm skill was leveling up instead of Translator. Not a bad thing, of course, just not what I was hoping would happen. I even started to suspect that my character would level up again before the Translator skill went up by even a point. But neither happened during our journey. We reached the Southern Ruins by midnight, where we reunited with Julie and the creeping crocodiles. The soaking wet girl climbed onto the bank and shivered in the cold like an autumn leaf. The water in the river was freezing. We needed to make sure our little Veterinarian didn’t catch a cold. But starting a fire might draw attention.

  “The green light is over the castle,” Varya warned us. “How will we get inside? The defenses will kill us before we reach the walls.”

  But the Philosopher helped us out. Or the Wise One, as he was now known. Our friend appeared at our mooring and waved us to follow him.

  “Leave the animals.”

  Along the way, the incorporeal Wise One explained:

  “I can’t be away from the books in the old ruins for long, so let’s hurry back. There’s an old underground passageway nearby that we can use to enter the castle unnoticed. Hurry! Your friends are in a rough spot right now. They might need your help. Just try not to make any noise. The Minotaur is blind drunk and no threat for now, but the Lamia is awake and full of strength, and she is particularly dangerous at night. Make haste, and try not to attract her attention! There are also many enemies nearby apart from the castle’s owners. Sherkhs, humans and some other strange creatures that crawled out to eat the dead on the battlefield.”

  “There was a fight here?” Varya asked in a whisper. Our acquaintance nodded.

  “And quite the fight it was! First, one of the Pharaoh’s squads of raptorhound-mounted cavalry detected a large group of sherkhs and a bloody battle ensued. Then, when dusk fell, the Minotaur emerged from the castle and crushed the camp of the survivors, killing many and dragging a few prisoners back with him. Then the Lamia made a pass through the battlefield, finishing off the wounded where they lay. Now carrion-eaters of all kinds are feasting, including some species of ghoul.”

  We stopped by a large stone with a narrow and dark crawlway beneath it. The Wise One went down first and lit a dim lantern.

  “Follow me. But in the name of all the gods, don’t make any noise!”

  An old underground passageway, its darkened stones overgrown with slimy lichen and mushrooms. The big oafs squelched through mud as they walked. Suddenly, we found a rusty iron gate blocking our path.

  “I can handle this!” our Thief promised, and true to his word, a minute later he had the gate’s lock open.

  We walked into a large room full of old barrels and stopped in surprise. We had good reason — the whole room was filled with huge, horrifying rats! There must have been at least a hundred.

  “I see our Beast Catcher has gone mad…” Varya the Scout said, trying to hide her confusion and fear behind laughter.

  It was true — all the rats were tamed! Sergeant owned most of them, although I also saw pets belonging to Anita Ur Vaye, Max Dubovitsky and the other members of the League of Losers. By then, I’d finally gotten my bearings and I wasn’t surprised when the incorporeal Wise One led us further through the cellar — I remembered there was a way up to the castle’s first floor there.

  “I’m going to put out the light. Be as quiet as you can!” the ghost said. He walked through the rows of saber-toothed rodents and we had to follow after him.

  My eyes helped me to find my way in the dark, but the humans and the veyer had a tough time of it. Julie covered her mouth with both her hands, shaking and fighting the desire to scream in terror. The saber-toothed rats parted and sniffed at us with interest, but showed no aggression. A minute later, we found ourselves in the first-floor hallway. We heard the Minotaur’s drunken cries from toward the great hall, along with terrified screams of pain as if someone was being tortured or eaten alive. They may well have been.

  Radar Ear skill increased to level thirty-four!

  Fortunately, we were headed in the other direction. We crept through the corridor and stopped beneath the hole disappearing upward where the stairs to the second floor should be.

  “This way!” the Wise One pointed upwards. “I’ll tell Sergeant and the others to let you through.”

  Truly, a minute later we saw flashes of torchlight above, and then a pole with steps hammered into it was lowered to us, allowing my companions to climb up. Wow! At the top was the thickest barricade I’d ever seen, bristling with sharpened stakes and covered in a thick layer of sticky webbing. Julie couldn’t contain her emotions and tears. She rushed to embrace Sergeant as he came to meet us with axe and torch in hand. Varya wasn’t far behind her.

  “It’s alright, calm down, everything is fine,” my master said, a little taken aback by this outpouring of emotion from his companions. “We’re safe here. The Lamia tried to get in a few times, through the second-floor windows, and even tossed a harpoon at me from the first floor,” the Beast Catcher pointed at a yard-long throwing spear stuck in the wall nearby, tipped with serrated bone, “but she took a shotgun shell to the face and crawled away to complain to her boyfriend. The Wise One told us you were coming, but we weren’t expecting you until morning. Now that you’re here, let’s decide what we’re going to do next!”

  * * *

  The stories from Sergeant and the other group members quickly explained the situation for me. All the work ordered by the castle’s master had been done, and th
e Minotaur had previously promised to let Sergeant and the rest of his group go. Only the defensive field was still active. The castle’s master was in no hurry to switch it off, and whether the horned monster would keep his promise was an open question. In addition, the Lamia had arrived at the castle, and she had given no guarantees of safety. On the contrary, she’d already tried several times to break into the bastion of the League of Losers here in the castle’s northern wing. On top of that, the Minotaur and the Lamia had brought in living prisoners, who they kept bound in the central hall and seemed to be executing. One had certainly already been executed — the Minotaur’s giant and insatiable partner had swallowed him alive. According to the Engineer, the unlucky man’s screams echoed through the castle corridors. It would take a long time to forget that horror.

  Sergeant’s attempt to talk ended fruitlessly — the Minotaur refused to speak to the human, and the Beast Catcher himself barely made it away from the gigantic, hungry and deadly snake woman. And the Minotaur didn’t even try to stop his spouse when she attacked the negotiator. My master showed us his bone armor. The shoulder piece bore clear signs of the Lamia’s sharp teeth, along with scorch marks as if from some strong acid.

  “A little venom got on my skin,” Sergeant added, grimacing with unpleasant memories. “Still burns a little, but our Engineer and Mechanic helped neutralize the venom.”

  “You have an antivenom to Lamia bites?” the Veterinarian asked with interest. The strong young man suddenly frowned and blushed.

  “Well, we have one antidote left. Our last one. We decided to save it and make do with a more traditional remedy…”

  The Wise One interjected at this point, explaining that, on his recommendation, they had used an ‘alkaline liquid’ to neutralize the poison. He didn’t specify which, but my sharp cat’s nose told me the full story. Sergeant’s armor stank of urine.

  At that moment, our conversation was interrupted by a barely audible rustle from the other side of the wall, and the big oafs carefully approached the arrowslits, looking tensely out into the darkness. Something fast and bright flashed by the narrow window, but I couldn’t make out what it was. Margarita reacted faster than me, firing her elephant gun. The boom of the rifle shot in the small room nearly deafened me! Oh, my sensitive ears…

  “Did you hit?” Edward asked, but his girlfriend just shook her head.

  “Missed again. That Lamia is too damn fast. She’s gotten more careful since she ate lead that time by the barricade.”

  Little Hope woke up from the loud noise. Anita hurried to soothe her. Sergeant shuddered.

  “The Lamia hears the child and goes insane trying to reach her,” he said. “This night creature won’t leave us be. We have to do something about her.”

  “Let’s wait until morning,” careful Edward suggested. “The Lamia doesn’t like sunlight and will crawl back to her bog. And we can handle the Minotaur alone, you know how.”

  But the group leader objected; there were still stormclouds in the sky, and tomorrow promised to be overcast too. He could never forgive himself if we didn’t at least try to save the unfortunate prisoners.

  “We’ve already seen that the respawn point is in the castle courtyard. That boy the Lamia ate revived there and got captured again. The monsters were waiting for him. So the bloodbath won’t stop until the prisoners lose all their lives. We’re their only hope of rescue. And I say we go and stop this mad slaughter! Who’s with me?”

  I looked over the other members of the League of Losers. All were silent, hesitating to support Sergeant. Finally, Varya stepped forward:

  “I’m with you, Sergeant! I was taught to fight against evil and stand up for the downtrodden. This is a time to stand up.”

  Right after his daughter’s choice, the Engineer stepped forward. He said nothing, just reloaded his rifle. I announced my choice too, by jumping onto Sergeant’s shoulder.

  “And I’m with you too, brother!” the little Veterinarian girl said, running over to hug Sergeant. He stroked his sister’s hair gently.

  The sherkh Huntress adjusted her crossbow and throwing knives. “No, Julie, you have to stay here with my daughter. I’ll go into battle in your place!”

  The next to step forward was the veyer, Avir Tan-Hoshi. He too said nothing, just stood alongside those willing to fight. Edward the Mechanic whispered something into Margarita’s ear, but she answered him with a slap in the face.

  “No, I’m going with them! You can stay here in safety with the children, coward!”

  “I’m not a coward!” Edward said hotly, offended. “I’m going to go, I was just saying you should stay here and not risk your life. Because I care about you, Margo! I know this isn’t the best time to say it, but… I love you! Will you marry me?”

  That was sudden… The girl blushed, dropped her gaze to the floor and announced that she wasn’t ready to answer yet. She suggested they return to the subject after the battle against the pair of dangerous monsters.

  * * *

  We didn’t even need the signal from the invisible Huntress sent ahead to know that it was time to begin. The Minotaur’s deafening roar as the bed folded up beneath him and the powerful mantraps snapped shut on his arms and legs was probably audible even at the mountain pass, near thirty miles from the Southern Ruins.

  “It’s time! Follow me!” Sergeant kicked the Marsh Mistress into motion at the head of our troop. “Rats, advance! Distract the Lamia! Don’t let her free the Minotaur!”

  It was epic! A living, roiling carpet streamed through the corridor toward the great hall. The humans tried to keep up — every second counted. If the Lamia freed her spouse, then the whole plan would fail, and we’d have to fight against both enraged legendary monsters at once without much hope of victory.

  I didn’t waste any time either. Sitting on Varya the Scout’s shoulder as she ran, I cast Stoneskin on my allies, prioritizing Sergeant and the Marsh Mistress, who would be our tanks in the coming battle, taking the bulk of the terrible Lamia’s damage on themselves.

  Elemental Magic skill increased to level twenty-eight!

  And now that I’d reinforced all my main allies’ armor — Transform into Beetle! That form made my spells more powerful. Then into stealth!

  We reached the central hall. The Minotaur, trapped and wrapped in metal cables, hadn’t stopped roaring even for a second, and it sounded louder than a ship’s horn. All the same, I sighed in relief — the horned beast was still bound to the enormous bed and couldn’t free himself on his own, no matter how hard he fought. Next to the gigantic bed was a puddle of blood, and in it was scattered a mess of empty wine bottles, handmade playing cards, scraps of clothing and human bones… I nearly threw up.

  Three prisoners scared near to death hung on the wall by the lit hearth, hanging from hooks overhead by their bound hands. Two injured men, one of them a sherkh. And a middle-aged woman with dark hair, her clothes torn to shreds. There was no fourth, although I’d heard there were four prisoners. The bones on the floor must have belonged to that unlucky one. The smell of burnt hair and scorched meat radiating from the hearth brought me even closer to throwing up once I realized what it was that the castle’s masters were cooking.

  But where was the Lamia? For a moment, I feared that one of the man-eating monsters had slipped from our grasp, but then I saw the live carpet seething in a heap in the far corner of the hall. There she was, under attack from a hundred rats! Curse Magic! Paralyze on the Lamia!

  Invalid target for this spell.

  Surprise, surprise. Then Weaken on her instead! And another Weaken! Slow! Slow! Slow!

  Either my magic was doing nothing or the monster was too strong; the rats suddenly flew through the air from a sweep of her long serpentine tail. No further than an arm’s length away from me and Varya as we stood in stealth, a glistening white snake body shot by toward the opposite corner of the great hall.

  ☠ Lamia. Queen of the Snake People. Legendary Monster.

  Another ‘le
gendary,’ as if the Minotaur wasn’t bad enough… She was a huge and fairly fat snake, light in color, her long scaled body growing into a woman’s torso raised above the floor, with a human set of arms and a head covered in wild silver hair. Her maw — to call that terrible orifice a ‘mouth’ was too generous — was filled with teeth and marred with blood. The monster’s eyes gleamed scarlet and her face was twisted with rage.

  I kept sending curses at the Lamia, although I could already tell that my actions were having very little effect. Rifle shots weren’t doing much good either — the bullets rarely hit the lightning-fast monster, and even then they didn’t always pierce her hard scales. Sweeping away the rats with her tail again as they caught back up to her, the Lamia sped back to the opposite side of the hall. Strange… Nothing was stopping the dread man-eater from running out into the corridor and then the castle yard to save her skin, but for some reason, the Lamia took the fight in the hall. Either she was completely sure of her ability to win or something kept her here in battle.

  How could we stop her? Now Darkness appeared from a shadowy corner, attacking the Lamia with all her claws and teeth, but took a venomous bite and was forced to retreat. The Chimeric Cougar whined, took a few uncertain steps and fell, her paws curling inward. Then the Lamia shot toward Margarita as she reloaded her elephant gun, but I confused the monster’s plans by firing my flamethrower at her — Combined Fire and Air.

  Elemental Magic skill increased to level twenty-nine!

  Conjurer skill increased to level fourteen!

  Shame the Lamia didn’t catch fire — the flames on her skin quickly went out. But then I fell out of stealth, and so did Varya for some reason. The Scout screamed in fear when the monster turned to her and flew at us like a whirlwind.