by Cat Wilder
We knew that part of Tartha pretty well. I hoped to surround the assassin. For once, neither of my ladies argued. We went after that damned killer-nun.
I pulled up my HUD, and then expanded the map. The nun-assassin appeared as a red dot, while me, Elky, and Meike appeared as green dots. Everyone else on the streets remained yellow dots. The green dots were a new feature in the game, and might've thrown me off a few seconds. Elky had a map, too, so that assassin could not escape us.
An alley in Battle for Glory was just the tiny gap between two structures. Hell, most of the streets were only as wide as an alley IRL, at best. The alley the assassin took proved so narrow I had to shuffle down it sideways. I watched everyone's movements via the map the entire trip down the alley, so I knew the assassin passed through a shop to the next street. That fooled Meike, but not Elky.
When I reached the next street over, I spotted the sorceress and signaled for her to go over one more street. Then I raced through the same cloth shop our foe used, finding it in disarray from her passage. You know the owner turned his anger on me, but I ignored him and drove on to the next street. It wasn't uncommon in that part of town to have streets on both sides of a house or shop, front and back.
The assassin turned right after she exited the shop, and my map showed that she and Elky were about to meet. I redoubled my efforts to reach them in time.
Feminine screams of rage erupted down the street. I plowed through the crowd, knocking over men and women. I heard calls for the City Guard. We didn't want them involved. Then I noticed that Meike had arrived on that street, rushing towards us.
"Assassin! Give it up," I cried as I ran up to them.
The assassin fought with the glowing blue Epic Sword. Elky countered with her enchanted Shield of Isis. An icy grip seized my heart. The Sword of Kiantor's magic was directed at players, and only players. If slain by the sword, a player was stripped back to level 1 on all skills. Worse, his Player Level returned to level 1, too. Yeah, it turned even the most powerful players into newbs.
"Be careful, Elky!"
"Oh, you think?"
The two women circled each other, neither able to break through the other's guard. I changed the equation, and positioned myself directly behind the assassin. She dropped back into an aggressive fighting stance, and my curse kicked in. I didn't want to look at her butt, but honestly, it was amazing! Shiny wet black leather sheathed butt cheeks, just meaty enough to pop with an open hand… Oh yeah.
"Cormac!" Elky cried. "Concentrate!"
My face heated up. The assassin tried to shift, to keep both of us before her, but then Meike arrived and foiled her plans. We had her surrounded.
"You really don't think you can win, do you?" she asked.
"Three to one? Yes," I said. "And one of us is an elven sorceress."
Fire blazed around both of Meike's hands, the same fiery red as her long hair. At some time during the fight and ensuing chase, she'd magically changed into her fighting outfit: green elven leathers, very similar to what a ranger would wear. Her hair remained in a thick braid. Besides her magic, she had a sword on her hip.
Of the four of us, the sorceress looked the most eager for a fight. Meike had a temper, that Elky blamed on being a redhead. The elfmaid loved to fight as much as Kahlan hated fights, yet they'd become as close as sisters.
"I bet all that grease burns real hot," Meike said.
That made the assassin stiffen. No one wanted to burn to death. I really hoped it didn't come to that.
"Return the Sword Ring of Kiantor to me," I urged. "We'll talk, and come to some kind of understanding."
"Are you daft?" Elky asked. I raised an eyebrow at her. The Amazon shook her head. "Yeah, dumb question."
"You might kill me, but another will be sent," the assassin said. "Once the Order of the Sacred Death accepts a commission, the job will be completed. It is our vow, and our honor."
"Assassins have no honor," Elky snarled, eyes narrowing.
I tensed up. Elky was through talking. She tensed up to attack, so I had to be ready to support her. Even Meike understood the situation had changed, and her eyes narrowed.
A horn sounded down the street. That was the Tartha City Guard's version of a police siren. All four of us went into motion at once. Elky lunged behind her shield, trying to gain the assassin's full attention and knock her back a step, which would open her up to mine and Meike's attacks.
The assassin's crossbow appeared and she shot at Elky. The bolt hit the enchanted shield, and its magic reversed the bolt and sent it flying back into the assassin's right shoulder. And everything happened in a flash after that. Glowing red-orange magic tendrils erupted from Meike's hands, enveloping the assassin. I rushed up and pounded an uppercut to her chin. As the assassin lost consciousness, Meike released her before I tossed her limp body over my shoulder.
"What are you doing?" Elky asked. "Kill her!"
"No, we have to take her back home and question her further," I said. "We have to find a way to make sure more assassins aren't sent after us."
"Halt!"
I spun around to find a squad of ten City Guardsmen threatening us with lowered spears.
Chapter 3
Cormac
Elky and Meike placed themselves between me and the City Guardsmen. Those two would rather fight to the death than surrender. But, if killed, only Elky would respawn. Yet, I'd heard grim accounts of City Guard "interrogations." They operated on the belief the truth had to be beaten out of a suspect.
"Cormac?" Meike asked, hands ready with fireballs blazing.
I regarded the ten men facing us. I'd never encountered such brutal looking men, with lots of scars, broken noses, missing teeth. In the real world, they'd be called thugs, muscle, and such. Their faded red surcoats, with a yellow lion's head emblazon, showed they served the ruling family as a police force. They were poorly paid and ill-equipped by their employers. Their spears and cudgels were the cheapest weapons available. Only one of them had a sword, and he was their officer.
"Do it," I said.
All hell broke loose. Her fireballs scattered the City Guard squad. She purposely went high to avoid killing any of them, but they didn't run away. Instead, they broke ranks and rushed us with wild battle cries. Meike stepped forward, and threw out her hands with a shouted word.
Ka-boom!
That percussive spell knocked all of the City Guardsmen down, and everyone behind them for a block. Meike sagged a little afterwards, so I knew the spell took most of her mana. There wouldn't be much more coming from her, and she proved it by pulling her sword.
I took off running away from our home. "Follow me."
We couldn't lead them back home. Our safe haven had to be protected. Without it we'd be shit out of luck in that city. Besides, Kahlan wasn't prepared for the onslaught that would follow us in.
Running through those narrow streets proved harder than swimming upstream. The crowd stepped aside after spotting the woman over my shoulder, and sword in my hand, but not fast enough. I shouldered many of them aside, which caused more problems. Men, no matter what station, took offense when shoved aside. Elky and Meike dealt with them in my wake, and neither of them felt as restrained as me when it came to using their swords.
Halfway to the next street, I heard the City Guards plowing through the foot traffic. It sounded like a melee, and the Guardsmen didn't hesitate using the point of their spears on innocent citizens.
"I don't think we're going to be very popular after this," Meike said.
"I have some gold, and know a guy who can calm the waters with the authorities," I said.
"Not if the City Guard figures out where we live first," Elky said. "I say we grab Kahlan and hit the road."
Honestly, Elky had a worse case of cabin fever than me. Meike was the one who wanted to settle down. The rest of us liked roaming the world.
"Let's deal with this assassin first, and then decide what we're going to do."
I turned down a dark
alley. It proved too narrow to walk straight down, but I couldn't turn sideways with the woman over my shoulder. So my upper arms got abraded raw. But Meike entered last, and threw up a glamour that fooled our pursuit. We paused to watch them continue down the street with barely a look at the alley.
The assassin groaned miserably. So Elky whacked her on the head with the pommel of her sword. For a second I worried she'd killed the assassin, but I felt her breathing.
"Meike, can you glamour us new looks?" I asked.
"I only have a little mana left, but I think I can do a group glamour," she said. "But we have to stay close together, and don't allow anyone to pass through our rank."
The fiery-haired elfmaid moved between Elky and I, closed her eyes, and lifted her arms high. Then she slowly chanted as her hands arched down to either side. I felt static in the air, but didn't see any change, despite her pleased look.
"Lead the way, Cormac. Walk slowly, calmly," she said. "Everyone will see us as a family of pigmen, and the assassin will look like a heavy sack of flour."
The static in the air remained, but we looked the same to me. Trusting her magic, I turned and headed to the other end of the alley. Emerging, I braced for an attack. Few on the street gave us a second look, if they bothered to look our way at all.
I walked up the street, staying to the right side, and moved with quiet confidence. Pigmen were big and strong, and most people didn't want trouble from them. They could be rather surly. Most were warriors, too.
"Why are some of them giving me a second look?" Elky asked.
"I don't know. Maybe they've never seen a fat pig-child in a tiny loincloth before," Meike said, and I heard the mirth in her voice. Elky gasped. "I have to say, that's a mighty impressive gut you have hanging over you belt, little boy."
"You can be such a bitch."
"Shhh," I said.
We worked our way through the hot, dusty streets. I concentrated on my map. It stopped showing the City Guards as red dots after a few moments. They blended with all of the other yellow dots after that, so I turned my attention on finding a roundabout route home. I did keep a watch on our home to ensure the City Guard didn't go there and threaten Kahlan.
"If the City Guard manages to identify us, we'll have to leave," I said. "Any suggestions on where to go next?"
"Over the mountains," Elky said. "There's a desert kingdom there, and I've never been in a desert before."
"I have. It sucks the life out of you," Meike said. "I vote to go north. It's cooler, more pleasant up in the northern forests."
I started to zoom the map out, and view that portion of the world, but a commotion up ahead brought me to a stop. The City Guard blocked the way, and I saw them patting down everyone that passed by. I noticed them shaking a few down and demanding fees to pass.
"We will not pass that kind of scrutiny," Meike said.
I figured as much. Since I had a sack of flour, I headed for the bakery near the Guardsmen. They barely gave us a second look as I entered the shop. The baker and his wife looked up and smiled.
"Elky, handle it," I said.
The Amazon might be a fierce warrior, but she had more Charisma. Meike might be a charmer, too, but she relied too much on magic and flirting.
"Don't break rank," Meike said under her breath.
"My Pa and grandma only speak, um, piggish," Elky said. Meike stiffened, and I shook my head woefully. "Pa wants to put our flour in back, 'cause he fears it'll be stolen if left out front."
That's what I needed. With a friendly grunt, that I hoped sounded piggish, I proceeded through the shop's back door. I entered a storeroom, while Meike and Elky blocked the baker from entering. I paused long enough to identify the door out into the back courtyard, which turned out to be where his ovens were located. I counted four ovens, and the aroma of baking bread made my mouth water. Only frying bacon smelled better.
Homes and shops completely enclosed that courtyard, with no alleys leading off it. So I headed to one of the open doors. I ignored the baker's confused shouts. I cringed, worried the City Guard out front would hear and investigate.
"Sorry, Pa don't like how you do baking," Elky said.
"Pigmen don't speak like illiterate hicks," I whispered.
"They do in my head," Elky said. "Ask grandma."
We entered the back of a cobbler's shop, making his wife scream. I shushed her, but she screamed again and the cobbler rushed back with a long knife. He looked thirty-something, fit, and more than capable of using that blade. I didn't want trouble.
"Sorry, we're lost," I said. "Baker insulted us, and we went through the wrong door."
"Get out, or I'll cut you into bacon strips."
The assassin started to wake again. I hurried out of the cobbler shop before they noticed my sack of flour moaning and squirming. I spotted the door to our shop as soon as I stepped on the street. I also saw City Guardsmen in both directions, and heading our way.
"Act normal. We're almost home," I said.
Walking straight at the approaching Guardsmen freaked me out, but I reached our door first and turned inside. My 'pigman" family followed me inside. A City Guard stepped in after us. I steeled myself for a fight.
"We're looking for two warriors, male and female, with a redheaded elfmaid," the Guardsman said.
Kahlan looked at us, then at the guard, before she replied. "You are the first to enter my shop in the last hour."
The Guardsman turned and left. Kahlan looked at us. "Cormac? Why are you a pigman?"
"How did you see through my glamour?" Meike demanded.
"I can't, but I am linked to all three of you, so I knew it was you. Why are you carrying a sack of flour?"
I just went to the back room and dumped the assassin on the floor. That shattered Meike's glamour spell, and I felt the static evaporate. Kahlan gasped. Then her eyes locked on the crossbow bolt in the assassin's shoulder.
"No," I cried, but too late.
Kahlan knelt beside the wounded woman, pulled out the bolt, and healed her. The assassin's eyes popped open. Elky, Meike, and I jumped atop the assassin, and the fight was on. Her greased leather clothes proved just as difficult as I expected. So it quickly devolved into elbows and assholes for a few minutes before we subdued her, wrestled her wrists behind her back, and bound them. Elky then bound her ankles, while I tied her knees together.
"I'm going to kill you all!"
"No you're not," I said, yanking her mask away.
I grabbed her face between my hands and forced her to look me in the eyes. The combination of skin-on-skin contact, with eye contact, made her stiffen and gasp. I watched the rage melt away. Averting my eyes, and releasing her face, I then caught her eyes again. The assassin gawked at me, before I cupped her lovely face in both hands.
"Can't we just be friends?" I asked, making Elky roll her eyes.
"No. I must kill you before…"
"Before what?" I demanded. She clammed up, face set with determination. So I kissed her. Her eyes widened, but she still refused to cooperate, so I smothered her face with kisses. "Come on, baby, tell me what you know. You don't want me to get hurt, do you?"
The Heart of Aphrodite's insidious magic messed her up. The more intimate the contact, the greater power in the magic. And it was some powerful aphrodisiac magic, though she resisted it so long I wondered if I'd have to bang her to get any answers.
"Do not make her fall completely in love with you," Elky warned. "I don't want an assassin joining the family."
I claimed the assassin's lips in a deep, passionate kiss. She hesitated, but soon pushed back into it. When she opened my mouth with hers, thrusting her questing tongue in, I knew she was ready to answer questions.
"What's your name, beautiful?"
Actually, she looked quite attractive. She'd cut her dark hair off in a messy bob, and she had an athletic body. What I liked most was the incredulous look on her face.
"What kind of magic are you using on me?"
"What's
your name?"
If I could get her to answer any question, then it would make it easier to get more answers out of her. She resisted, head lolling around a second, and then she bit her lip. I moved in to kiss her again.
"Laryn," she said. "Chief Assassin of the Red Priory."
"Red Priory?" Meike asked.
"The abbey has two rival priories, Red and Black."
"How do we end the contract to kill me? Can you help us fake my death?" I asked.
"The commission is open until Lord Quinton accepts our proof of your death," Laryn said. "You should also know, Lord Quinton has put an open bounty on your head of ten gold crowns, and five for each of your ladies."
Chapter 4
Cormac
While we digested that grim news, I noticed the Sword Ring of Kiantor on Laryn's left middle finger. She didn't want to give it up, but I twisted it off her finger. It had shrunk to fit her finger perfectly, so I pressed the now too small ring to the tip of my right ring finger, and it opened up to slide easily on. I felt it tighten and loosen a few times until the fit was perfect.
Having the Epic magic item back felt good.
I noticed Laryn scowling at my ladies, who were arguing over our next move. Kahlan thought us safe in Tartha. The City Guard had a short memory, she argued. Personally, I think they overlooked some things if you greased their palms well enough, but they held a grudge. Elky still wanted to immediately depart the city and cross the mountains to the Markhah Desert. Meike stood adamantly against it. The sorceress wanted to travel north.
"What is wrong with you two?" Kahlan shouted. "We have people here depending on us. We can't leave until we find someone to replace us. Besides, this is the safest city to hide from the assassins, since we've already defeated the one sent here."
"Wrong," Laryn said. My ladies all stopped to glare at her. "When I don't report in, my priory will assume you killed me and send another twenty assassins here."
"Damned stupid nun-assassins," Elky snarled. "Bunch of religious zealots, I bet, all hell-bent on death and destruction."
