Corpse Run: A LitRPG Adventure (The Crucible Shard Book 3)

by Skyler Grant

  Elsora shook her head. “No. They sank a lot of power into me. Flesh and blood and wit and charm all designed to make a certain man, who had loyalty as his greatest virtue, be unfaithful. When he denied me, I decided that instead of simply becoming his corrupting shadow, I’d spend those centuries becoming my own woman. They may have birthed me, but I am not theirs.”

  If she was still serving the Court, they wouldn’t have been confused on the issue of Leosi. I believed her.

  “So, the question then is—do we go to war with them for this idiocy?”

  “Pick your fights. You have wars coming you won’t have any choice in, don’t add to them unnecessarily,” Cobalt said.

  “I agree. It would be a war fought for pride, and those rarely end well,” Elsora said.

  Well, if those two were actually in agreement on something, I’d listen.

  “So, back to Leosi then. Earlier mention was made of the Goddess Mela. What do we know?”

  Elsora said, “I only know ancient legends. The Goddess of machinery and metal, her army of clockwork horrors tried to exterminate all life, before an alliance of good and evil sealed her away for all time.”

  “And it strikes you as a good idea to free her?” I asked with a pointed look to Ashley.

  “Hey. It’s Atlantia’s idea, not mine. Don’t blame the messenger. Besides, crazy world-destroying Goddesses just escaped from jail are kind of your type.”

  She had a point.

  “Mechanical adversaries are just what you want against the undead. Since Leosi is raising the corpses of his defeated enemies, it makes sense to force him to fight an opponent where his forces will suffer attrition,” Elsora said.

  “Any input, Cobalt? You know him best,” I said.

  Elsora cleared her throat. “She was married to him for a decade, I sat by his side for centuries. I would say I know him best.”

  “Yet only one of us ever managed to take him to bed,” Cobalt said. “More importantly, only one of us ever fought beside him on a battlefield. This will help, but less than you think. Leosi is not dangerous because he is a necromancer—he is not. He employs a necromancer, because it is effective and Leosi is a master strategist. Neutralize his army, you do not neutralize him. You simply give him pause while he adopts a new approach.”

  Elsora pursed her lips. “I must agree with the Dowager. He is not to be underestimated.”

  I was quite certain none of my exes would speak of me in such glowing terms. It had irritated me enough when the man was a dead. Since he was raised as a vampire and got an army, it was only becoming worse.

  “That is two voices against then,” I said.

  “I’m voting for, and of course I’m the only one that matters,” Yvera said in my head.

  “Any reason why?”

  “I didn’t mean to start a band, but Atlantia is already proving a help over there. Oh, the wicked things I can do with a Goddess of Machines in the pantheon. Make this happen, Liam. I have plans.”

  “We’ll go after her. I don’t suppose anyone knows where her prison cell is?”

  “That is the easy part. The desert of Alkari,” Elsora said.

  “How is that the easy part?”

  Elsora settled back. “It is said that Alkari was not always a desert. Once it was a lush jungle and home to a thriving civilization. Then came one great evil after another and the wars that followed. Win or lose, tales of evil end in Alkari.”

  “Sounds like just the sort of place an evil king should never go,” I said.

  “You’re getting better at being a King,” Elsora said, giving me an approving look.

  “Thank you?”

  “You are exactly right. You shouldn’t go to Alkari. You’re too important and stories like yours do end there. Let the others go and you can stay here with me. We’ve diplomats aplenty to keep you entertained,” Elsora said.

  “Afraid your claws are slipping dear?” Cobalt asked with a feigned smile.

  Oh good. They could fight over me too. I liked that a lot more than I liked them fighting over Leosi.

  “How far is Alkari?” I asked.

  “Two weeks by horse,” Elsora said. “I’m working to get the castle quick-travel system back online.”

  “We have one of those?”

  “We used to,” Cobalt said. “Of course, that was before an ill-cast curse murdered all the staff and let the place fall into ruins.”

  Elsora said with a too-polite smile of her own, “In truth, it was already failing at that point. Leosi was so heartbroken he let things fall apart after his wife abandoned him.”

  Everyone was being so damned nice.

  “So, when it is up and running we’ll be able to go anywhere?” I asked.

  “It used to connect the city to the other major centers of good, such as Beiza, the great city of the Elves, and Kavak, the great city of the Dwarves. It requires some tweaking, but when operational it should allow transit to other major centers of evil,” Elsora said.

  “Aren’t the other evil powers kind of jerks?” I asked.

  “Perhaps I should reconsider you playing diplomat,” Elsora said in a chiding tone. “There are always going to be areas of common interest and common cause.”

  “Sounds boring.”

  “I slept around a lot on diplomatic junkets as Queen. You might have fun,” Cobalt said. Eyes around the table swiveled to stare at her and she didn’t flinch. Damn, she was hot when she didn’t care what anyone thought. I found that degree of self-confidence intoxicating. I reminded myself that it was more than something just to lust after, it was something to aspire to.

  “Shelving that for the moment, two weeks is a lot of travel time. I know you’re going after Maria, would you be able to give the group we send to the desert a lift on the Vainglory?” I asked.

  “I’d like a lift to check out one of the battlegrounds as well. I’ll get a sense for Leosi’s necromancer,” Dara said.

  “I’m not public transportation,” Cobalt said with a scowl. “Fine. It’s not like I know where to find Maria anyways.”

  “I do,” Elsora said.

  “Why do you know how to find everything today? Is this new?” I asked Elsora.

  “You know I speak spider. I just asked. She’s off to the east exploring a cave complex.”

  “Caves? Why?”

  Ashley said, “She spent her whole life in the depths of this castle. Think how weird it has to be outdoors for her. The caves are probably a big comfort. Does she know her dad is back alive?”

  “I haven’t told her,” Elsora said. “But with her spiders, she is at the center of a global intelligence network. I can’t imagine she does not.”

  I felt my stomach drop. I hadn’t even thought of her feelings. I could really be a jerk sometimes.

  “Then we can assume she also knows that Liam is sleeping with her mother,” Cobalt said, sounding less than thrilled.

  My stomach dropped further.

  “No wonder she’s hiding in a cave,” Walt said.

  “I can give you a location,” Elsora said.

  “How close is Leosi to finding her?” Cobalt asked.

  “Not very. He can’t talk to spiders and she doesn’t seem to be seeking him out. You have time for detours.”

  “Some time alone in a cave might make her a bit less murderous too,” Ashley said.

  “She’s the Queen of Spiders, she’s always going to be murderous. It’s kind of what she does,” I said.

  “Like mother, like daughter.”

  There really was no comparison. Maria might be murderous, but Cobalt had what she called the Right of War. Wherever she went, war seemed to follow. Fortunately, she was superbly good at it.

  “Cobalt, have the Vainglory ready to go in the morning. I’ll decide tonight whether I’ll be joining you or staying here,” I said.

  “You can’t really be thinking of playing diplomat?” Ashley asked. “We’re badasses, we’re meant to be out there killing and looting, not making social rolls.�
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  Honestly, I didn’t know how to feel. I was King and I was starting to feel the weight of that. Elsora was working her ass off holding things here together and I kept wandering off. I know she craved power, but I also knew she was more complex than that. It had to suck to be the one always left behind. I wanted adventure, but I also wanted to be a good friend.

  “Just give me the night to think it over, Ashley,” I said.

  “We do have some merchants with magical items visiting. If you are holding onto any loot, it might be a good opportunity to unload it,” Elsora told Ashley.

  I admired her skill with people. Loot and coin were the way to Ashley’s heart.

  The voice of dissent silenced, the meeting broke up.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Elsora groaned beneath me and my world exploded for the third time that night. This was how my consultations with my regent tended to go. I never could figure out if she wanted this as much as I did, or if she found the whole exercise just a way to clear my head before we started discussing matters of state. It should have mattered which was true, but it didn’t. Still, in those moments I think I got a glimpse behind the mask that was such well-honed formality.

  “So,” I panted, rolling off her to settle my head back on a pillow. “The diplomats. You don’t really want me here to talk with them.”

  Elsora wasn’t out of breath—she didn’t need to breathe, or sleep, or do most of the things you’d associate with life. As a curse-given life, she operated by some entirely different set of rules I had yet to figure out. It seemed to me she shouldn’t be able to groan or speak without taking breaths, but she seemed untroubled by the mundane laws of biology.

  “You think I just want to keep you around to do more of that?” Elsora said with her own teasing smile. “Mhm. Maybe I am.”

  I would like to believe that. I didn’t.

  “Anytime, but I think it’s more than that. You were eager to get rid of me last time. What changed?”

  Elsora propped herself up on an elbow as she looked over at me. “You had to go then. We didn’t have a choice, you’d just taken the castle and we had no supplies, no friends, and no hope when that shipment got stolen. We have options now.”

  “Leosi and his army isn’t a small obstacle.”

  “There is any easy solution there. Marry his daughter, it is what he wants. Then you’ll have the castle and an army, and a general to conquer the rest of the Kingdom.”

  I stared at her incredulously. “You don’t want that.”

  Elsora bit her lower lip, “No. I do not. If I want anyone to be your Queen it is myself. But I also wish to give you wise council. Your friends and your allies have given you a mad plan to deal with a problem more easily solved with a wedding band.”

  She was right, of course. I don’t know why I wasn’t giving it more serious thought. I liked Maria. I probably loved her a little, despite that she was strange and she was broken. I think I loved every woman I slept with, foolish as that might be.

  “How long do you intend to keep us in this world?” I thought to Yvera.

  “Until I get what I want. Months? Years? I do not object to such commitments so long as you do not allow them come between us. You are mine, first. Always.”

  Right. I had to ask. Months? Years? I felt that should trouble me, but it didn’t. My life was good here, better than it was out there. Out there I had no future and was recovering from a breakup. Here I had a home and people to fight for.

  “If this was Maria asking, I’d consider it,” I said, after a too-long pause. “This is something different than that. This is Leosi making demands backed with threats.”

  “So, it is pride, then?”

  “I’d bend, if it was our only option. It isn’t.”

  Elsora gave me a sad smile. “He wouldn’t have either. He wasn’t a man to bend even when it was his only option.”

  “I hope that is part of what made him a great King.”

  “He was not a great King. It was not just snark, what I said back in the war room about him falling apart when his wife left him.”

  “He loved her that much?”

  “Like a warrior loves war. Far more than he should have.”

  It was strange to think of Leosi as a man. The first time I met him he was a rather talkative boss fight. The second time, the surprise villain and boss fight to come. But the more I found myself tangled with his daughter and wife, the two women who loved him, the more a person he became to me. The harder it made everything.

  “What is so special about her? You’ve lain with us both. Spoke with us both. Fought with us both. Why did he always choose her?” Elsora asked, her voice strained.

  I leaned in to press a kiss to her forehead and said quietly, “I can’t speak for him. For all that I am trying to take his place, I’m a very different man. Had I wanted to spend the night on the Vainglory I could have. He loved as he loved, it doesn’t define you.”

  “He casts a long shadow.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Half the Kingdom has fallen under yours. You have him beat.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “You are brilliant, beautiful, and very good at what you do. My life is better for having you in it. Despite the problems Leosi is causing, if I had to choose between him and you again, I’d make the same choice.”

  She liked that, her smile small, yet so sincere.

  “You aren’t staying, are you?”

  “I know you don’t understand, but there is more than just this Kingdom that I’m fighting for.”

  “Try me. Explain.”

  “Really?”

  Elsora laughed and shook her head. “Do you think I don’t want to know the truth? Try me.”

  “I come from another world. Yvera is trying to conquer that one and seems to think conquering this one first will help her somehow.”

  “Ah. The conquest of multiple worlds. She is a classicist.”

  “You poke fun.”

  “A bit. I’ve covered half your Kingdom in darkness, and if I have my way will keep going. Any woman with proper ambition wants to conquer the world.”

  “And still you poke fun.”

  “Fun with a hint of truth. I’ll help Liam, as best I can. My life is the better for having you in it, as well.”

  “Thank you for the talk. It helped. It always does. Tomorrow comes soon though, and if I am going to set off with Cobalt I need my sleep.”

  Elsora shifted position to straddle me. “That makes one of us. Do you know the absolute best part of being evil?”

  “What’s that?”

  Elsora leaned down to press a hungered kiss to my lips for a long moment, before pulling away to murmur. “Being selfish.”

  I didn’t get much sleep.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The Vainglory lifted away from the gardens of Castle Sardonis. The castle had no dock for an airship, although if we kept traveling in one I’d need to have Elsora build us one.

  Ever since taking the castle, the mists that Elsora had originally used to kill the castle’s defenders now filled the skies and plunged the land into eternal night. Flames below marked any signs of civilization. Not that long ago there had been scarcely any, but now lights were thickly clustered around the castle.

  The Vainglory made far faster time than we would on horseback as we headed east towards where Leosi’s army was to be found, and where the Dark Court held sway.

  After the long night before I wanted nothing more than to get some sleep, but the ship was shaking so much as it sped along I found my efforts ending in failure. I eventually wound up passing time alone and pacing around the deck.

  After a while, I was joined by Lea. The runes marked upon her skin soon glowing blue as she began to scry. I moved over to join her.

  “I could have used you when I appeared in a dungeon without a light source,” I said.

  “Pretty cool, right?”

  “I haven’t seen anything else like it.”

&n
bsp; “Symbology is popular in my part of the world. You can cast spells by drawing them on stones and scrolls, but there are a lot of advantages to having them right on your skin.”

  “You could go into a fight naked.”

  “Could. I’m not Cobalt though. I’ve been in a fight naked all of two times in my life and they were screw-ups. When your whole thing is being a seer, the more connected you are to your magic, the better.”

  “What were the two times?”

  “Skinny-dipping and these crazy murder fish was one, and an incubus the other.”

  Magical windows flickered before her as she continuously adjusted them and she finally made a satisfied sound.

  “Did you find what you were looking for?”

  “Riggs! Heading of 37 out about 400 fars. Yeah, I’ve got it. We knew Leosi had passed through the area a few days ago, we just needed to find a place he’d gone butchering.”

  I squinted as we crossed the line of eternal night and sunlight broke over the deck.

  “Wow, that’s bright.”

  “You know it’s pretty screwed-up that your kingdom has no sun, right?”

  “It wasn’t exactly my idea.”

  “But you’re sleeping with the little blonde that’s the cause of it all?”

  “Elsora. Yeah. She’s… nice.”

  “Uh huh.”

  “The seer in you telling you something else?”

  “Wouldn’t tell you, if it did. Prophecy telling is a lousy business to be in. Nobody ever appreciates it and half the time things work out in ways you’d never expect. So no, no prophecy, I’m just not an idiot.”

  Fair enough.

  The Vainglory was slowing and moving lower to the ground. Below us there was a forest and a winding road coming out of it. As we arrived at our destination the others came on deck.

  We made our way off the ship. Lea was right to guide us here—there were signs of a recent battle. Our group consisted of myself, Walt, Ashley, Dara, and Cobalt. The ground was stained with dried blood and arrows lay scattered, although there was a notable lack of bodies.

  Cobalt picked up one of the arrows and studied it. “Elvish.”

  “I didn’t know Galea had Elves,” I said.