by Cat Wilder
I watched Izzy a moment. I remembered how easily she had manipulated me the previous night. She used sex and that damned compulsion against me, and now I had to help her return home. That could add weeks or months to my journey home.
I'm not a Wench of Easy Virtue. I'm a Wench of STUPID Virtue.
Izzy proved she was not a morning person, glaring at me and acting bossy-bitchy. She wanted water. Where's breakfast? Just berries? No one out-partied Izzy at night, and what an animal in bed, but I learned to keep quiet and avoid her for the first hour of the day.
While Izzy took her sweet time waking up and becoming civil, I took the opportunity to drink a mana restoring potion. 50 points ticked up over ten minutes, and then I took my last one. When it ended, I'd restored 100 points to Mana, leaving me at 336.
I need to find a town and buy some more mana restoring potions. I frowned a moment, considering my options.
I finally got Izzy out of the elven treehouse a good hour after sunrise. We started out walking, and after our limbs warmed up, we took off at a fast jog. We stayed off the few roads, and mostly off the larger game trails. And that proved a good thing. Just before midday we heard marching soldiers.
A motley company of human mercenaries marched up a road, while we hid in the underbrush and watched. I counted one hundred and forty-three men. They wore mismatched armor, at least the few with armor. Most looked like barbarian warriors, with swords and round shields. I spotted a contingent of twenty men in fur loincloths and carrying spears and slings.
As we continued on our way northeast, it quickly became apparent that the human mercenary company wasn't the only group out and about. The forest crawled with mercenaries of every game race, and I suspected King Raax had sent them looking for us. Pigmen patrolled the roads, goblins checked the game trails, and orcs garrisoned the larger villages and towns. We played cat and mouse for several hours with a squad of goblins that first day, but otherwise it went smoothly.
I continued on after dark to Izzy's protests. My plan to travel at night and sleep in the trees during the day while the mercenaries searched for us didn't sit well with Izzy. It took some convincing, but the drow came around to my way. My first company, the Red Death Warrior's Guild, taught me a few tricks. One of those tricks included how to secure myself so I wouldn't fall out of the tree while sleeping.
Around midnight I heard horses on the other side of a hill. I stopped and considered what to do. Horses pretty much meant soldiers or rich people. It could be a party of wealthy traders, or some traveling nobles. Or a troop of pigman heavy cavalry. Orcs and goblins rarely rode.
The smart thing to do at that moment would be to get off the game trail we'd been following, and then put as much distance as possible between us and whoever rode those horses. Curiosity is one tough cat to silence, however, so we headed up to toward the peak of the hill. I didn't go all the way to the top, but turned and led Izzy around about two thirds up. We moved quickly, but stealthily. Izzy never protested, so it seemed that her curiosity matched my own.
We found them easily enough.
A squad of pigman mercenaries had made camp at the base of the hill and next to a very wide road. It constituted a superhighway on that primitive world, although only about as wide as a single-lane road back in the real world. Yeah, it was huge by their standards.
The pigmen slept rolled up in their blankets around a fire. Their one guard sat staring into the fire, feeding it bits of wood every so often. I watched them for a long time, but mostly I stared covetously at the horses. We could escape the Kingdom of Gotari and King Raax's forces so much faster astride a horse.
"I can't ride a horse," Izzy said.
"Who doesn't ride horses?"
"Drow princesses." She scowled at me. "My kingdom is underground. We don't need horses."
I can't afford to feed a horse along the way anyway, I thought. I knew just enough to know the powers that be spaced villages and way stations with inns along major roads at a day's ride apart. Yeah, they didn't care about the comfort of poor people who had to walk. The poor couldn't afford to stay at an inn anyway. Who am I kidding? We'd get caught on day one.
A horse would force us to stay on the roads, which meant the king's mercenaries would catch us. Shame, because I loved to ride in real life. Maybe after I crossed the border out of Gotari I could get two mounts and teach Izzy to ride. I knew she'd love riding as much as I did.
I looked up at the stars through a gap in the canopy. "What we need is another flying carpet."
A flying carpet would answer more than one of my needs, because I could sell it in Laavik to pay my passage. Izzy might be able to reward me with a flying carpet after I re-installed her as Crown Princess and Heir, but why take chances? Since Izzy didn't really want to ride horses, a flying carpet rose to the top of our options. So that meant we needed to enter a sizable town. Few small towns and villages had mages, much less something as valuable as a flying carpet.
After leaving, we began paralleling the road. We passed by several villages, but it took eight days to reach a market town. I smiled at the port town on the Willow Bend River. It boasted a ferry to the bigger town on the other side, and we did need to cross the river to continue to Izzy's home.
I pulled up my HUD's map. A smile spread across my face. The map named the town Bullstead. The map listed it as a market town, and a garrisoned border town. We'd reached the Gotari border with the kingdom of Kolms. The market town of Halmstad sat on the opposite shore.
Farmland stretched out between us and the town. I noticed a lot of people out in the fields and on the roads leading into town. I spotted several mounted and dismounted patrols of pigmen and orcs, too. Unfortunately, the patrols and town garrison cut off the ferry as an option, so we headed for the river west of town. The Willow Bend River didn't look as wide as the Topecca River, but still too wide and swift to swim across.
Heading west along the river, we came upon a fishing village. Neither one of us had any money, so I had to dig into my inventory. I had some gems and jewelry I'd stored from my days as Queen of Gotari. I reluctantly paid an elderly fisherman the smallest piece of amber I had to take us to the other side. I probably gave him a month's income.
That short boat ride took us beyond King Raax's reach. Gotari and Kolms had a strained relationship at best, which had begun to warm under my short rule. I doubted they'd hand me over to Raax. King Jeric the Hammer had defeated Raax's horde twice. Yeah, I felt as safe as anyone in that virtual world.
Halmstad sprawled along the river, twice as large as its sister across the water. A sprawling castle squatted over a hill east of town. Massive walls surrounding the town as well. The docks stretched from one end of the walls to past the castle. The River Road ran to the docks on one side, and continued on the other side. We followed it onto the docks unchallenged, and headed for the first of five gates along the river.
That's when I realized the city walls jutted out into the river. The docks stood entirely on pilings driven into the bottom of the river. They constituted, in effect, a long bridge running the length of the city walls, with piers jutting out on the riverside. The builders left a good twenty-foot gap between the back edge and the city walls.
All five city gates had drawbridges lowered to the docks. The gatehouses towered over them, much more massive than the regular wall towers. Far more soldiers stood watch atop those walls and gatehouses than I saw in Got. A steady stream of people passed through those gates, so I hoped that meant the guards didn't inspect anyone too closely.
Many small shops and taverns lined the back edge of the docks, all just a single story high. Lots of saddled horses lined the front of those buildings. I didn't see any stables. Mostly, though, cargos, coming and going, took up all of the space on the docks. They had big medieval timber cranes with men providing the lift "walking" inside large gerbil wheels. The largest crane had a pair of ogres in the wheel.
Their docks looked almost as busy as those in Got, though with much smal
ler ships. All of the races were represented there. I even saw an entire ship of minotaurs, and three crewed entirely by orcs. Most of the sailors were humans, elves, and goblins. Centaurs worked on the docks, but I didn't see any that were obviously sailors. It had to be hard to sail a ship if you couldn’t climb into the rigging.
"Sold!" an old, mean-looking man cried.
I stopped to watch the auction. My breath rushed out when I realized it was a slave auction, and he'd just sold a beautiful redhead. She looked terrified as they dragged her off the auction block. I turned to stomp away in disgust when ten men struggled onto the stage, all fighting a tall, broad-shouldered hunk of a man. He had long dark hair and the most amazing abs.
Yeah, the slavers had stripped him naked. No chains bound his fury; just a simple enchanted collar, and yet they still struggled controlling him.
"Hello, Adonis," I whispered, pausing to admire his masculine beauty. "Oh my, he looks like a handful."
"Dragon," Izzy said. "They are notoriously hard to train. Nothing but discipline problems. Lousy slaves."
Why would anyone buy a man that is going to fight you with every ounce of his being? But then, he might be worth the fight. He stirred something deep in my belly.
"Behold, a dragon-knight! He was captured in Got a few days ago," the auctioneer called. "I'm told twenty orcs died capturing him. With the right enchantment, he can be brought to heel and serve his master loyally as a mighty battle mount."
"How rude," I said, pushing through the crowd to get closer. "A magnificent man like that should be free."
"I don't know," Izzy said. "Dragons are all a bunch of arrogant pricks."
"I've heard the same said about the drow," I replied.
"That from an elf?" she asked.
The struggling dragon-knight whipped his head to the side, flinging his long, loose hair out of his face. I froze, jaw dropping.
"Garikarous?"
Why did Raax capture and enslave an envoy? That could start a war. Maybe the orc warlord wanted to fight the Dragon Realms.
"Pretty," Izzy said. "But dragonkind are all gorgeous, and know it. Can we go now? I'm famished and you promised me a real bed and a hot meal. I expect a bath, too."
I expected her to be a pain in the ass the entire way.
"I know him."
She looked surprised, and then concerned. "How well?"
I grinned at her. "Almost as well as I know you."
"Damn."
I watched the auctioneer hold up a foot-long wooden wand. He chanted a short spell, and the wand began to glow blue-green. He spoke some odd word I'd never heard, and pointed the wand at Garikarous. The dragon-knight stiffened, eyes huge, and then relaxed. His handlers slowly released him and stepped back, while watching him warily.
"The collar controls him," the auctioneer called, lifting the wand high. "So you'll be bidding on both the dragon-knight, as well as the wand and collar set."
The auctioneer moved to the front middle of the stage, right above me. He pointed his wand at the enslaved dragon-knight and spoke a trigger word. Magic forced Garikarous to shift.
The crowd, me included, cried out and jumped back a step when that beautiful man quickly morphed into a cobalt blue dragon. His wings were a lot bigger than I expected, since they had remained folded when I'd seen him in the throne room, and they swept up, looking like he wanted to launch himself into the air. But the auctioneer shouted another word and he turned back into a very angry man.
"Oh hell yes," I muttered, and then steeled myself. Yeah, I was about to do something crazy. I already wore my bracers and all three rings. "Here goes nothing."
"No, no, no!" Izzy cried, wrapping her arms around me to stop me.
I levitated up onto the auction block, taking her with me. She cursed a blue streak. The auctioneer fell back in startlement. I called up my sword and shield. The idiot didn't turn and run, but attacked me. I swung my sword at his throat. He tried to parry with the wooden wand. The wand shattered, but it allowed him to escape my blade. For a second. I lunged again and skewered the nasty slaver bastard. Right through his corrupt, black heart.
"Ouch, I bet that hurts," I taunted the dying slaver, face-to-face.
A flashing red box appeared. Mana 810.
Did that mean I could take it? Okay, I really started to like the changes in the game more and more. Could I steal the mana from any spellcaster I killed?
"Now be a nice boy and give Momma some lip." I palmed the back of his head and kissed him. His mana flowed into me in a hot flash. I won't lie. It was good for me. Once I had it all, I kicked him off my blade. "Wow! That was heady."
I wagged my brows at the other slavers up on the auction block. They gawked at me. So I started hitting the slave-handlers with fireballs, burning up all that sweet mana I just stole. They quickly abandoned the stage and left me alone with Garikarous and Izzy.
"Hi, Garikarous," I said with a big smile. "Remember me?"
"Queen Carly? I thought that dishonorable pig, Raax, murdered you?"
"She's a stinking renner," Izzy said. "You can kill her a million times, but she keeps coming back." She glanced down at his junk. "Nice. Now I see why Carly likes you. You're a big boy."
"That's Izzy. She's my girlfriend."
The sound of metal clanking drew our eyes off behind the auction block. I saw two men passing out swords to black-clad slavers. I scowled at them.
"So, can you change into a dragon and fly me and Izzy out of here?" I asked. "We did just rescue you from ignoble slavery."
He growled. Just like a dog. Not attractive at all. Worse, he glared at me when he did it. Did dragonkind have some issue with people riding them or something?
"I can only morph when commanded to do so as long as this thrice-damned collar is around my neck. To regain my control, I'd have to remove the collar," he said. He looked at the dead auctioneer, and then at his destroyed wand. "And the only way to remove it was with the wand you so casually destroyed."
"Well that sucks greasy goblin balls," I said. I winked at him. "I have a spell that unlocks things like doors, but it might work on your collar. Let me try."
I touched the collar, since that might make it work better. Worth trying, anyway. I thought, Unlock. Nothing happened. So I spoke the spell out loud.
"Unlock, you stupid collar."
It did not obey. Dammit.
"You better figure something out, Carly," Izzy said, voice rising another octave. "Before those big bastards chop us into little pieces."
A dozen sword-bearing slavers started up the short stairs. My heart sank into my stomach. I'd find myself back in Taks' brothel if killed. Izzy and Garikarous would just cease to exist if they died here.
Chapter 8
"Carly, do something magical fast!" Izzy cried. "There's too many of them!"
"Calm down, girl," I said. I threw my right fist at the slavers charging up the stairs, hitting them with Percussion. Boom! thundered up and down the docks. That cleared the stairs, leaving groaning slavers scattered behind the block. Screams of "mage" rose up as the crowd ran off in every direction. I turned to Garikarous and smiled. "So, big boy, going our way? Izzy and I are a lot of trouble, but we're worth the effort."
The hunky dragon-shifter just stared at me. Did he think I was crazy? Then I heard more angry shouting behind the auction block.
"The slaver scum aren't as impressed with your awesomeness as I am," Izzy said. She pointed at the stairs with her sword. "They're coming back."
"I need a weapon," Garikarous said.
He left us behind, and jumped down in the middle of the battered slavers. I cursed him, and followed. I heard Izzy cursing me as she followed.
The stage stood about five feet high, so I maintained my feet when I hit the ground. Slavers rose up all around me. With sword and shield, I tore into them with a vengeance. Stab. Slash. I even smashed the edge of my shield into their angry, upturned faces.
"Kill them! Kill them all!" I screamed, more to frighten
them away than anything else.
"If you get me killed," Izzy cried as she leapt off the auction block. "I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you for a thousand years."
I paused to watch the drow beauty. Up until that moment, I didn't know if she could use a sword or not. She could. I wouldn't call Izzy a great swordfighter, but she proved fast, vicious, and she got the job done. Garikarous, though, got hold of a two-handed sword and started slaying slavers like a monster. I'd never seen anyone fight like that. He spun, kicked, and slashed like a bloodthirsty tornado. After only a moment, his skin shone red with the splattered blood of his enemies. The man was a beast.
Soldiers atop the city walls rushed toward the spot above us. Spears, rocks, and a few arrows began raining down. I ducked and looked around, searching for cover. My eyes stopped when I spotted the nearby end of the docks. The dirt River Road curved into the thick forest.
"Izzy, Garikarous," I shouted. "Head for the forest."
The dragon-shifter swung his mighty blade, taking off two heads, before he glanced that way. He nodded, and then rushed over to my side.
"I owe you my life and my honor," Garikarous said. He grabbed the back of my head and pulled me into a fierce kiss. "My life and blade are yours to command!"
"Lucky bitch," Izzy growled, skewered a slaver, and then took off running.
I sent a few fireballs up at the soldiers, before turning my attention to the crowd between us and the forest. Some of the men looked like they might try to stop us. They probably expected a reward.
I'll reward them with death.
I activated Loud Speak, then shouted, "Out of our way, or I'll kill you and enslave your souls for all eternity!"
I followed that threat with two fireballs. That's all it took. Men, goblins, and a minotaur scattered. I didn't know if the threat of eternal enslavement or the fireballs did it, but they opened up a path to freedom. We ran like bats out of hell, chased by arrows and thrown spears.
I almost tripped and fell when I made the mistake of looking back to ensure Garikarous had followed us. The dragon-knight proved that naked men running could be just as distracting as naked women.
