If he was clever, ruthless, and continued to do what his foes least expected, what had once been the desperate dream of a player attacked on all sides might just be within his reach.
He would have to strike when and where his foes least expected, taking full advantage of the incredible possibilities now within his grasp. But daring the Path of Kings was not without peril. When his foes realized what he was truly capable of, when he revealed his trump card, he had no doubt he would become enemy number one, forced to face off against dozens, if not hundreds of powerful Highlords eager for the throne, a corrupt High Council, and a scheming Overlord who Val was chillingly certain would not be opposed to breaking all conventions and accords, so long as it allowed him to assume de facto control over Jordia and Phoebe both.
Everything depended upon him keeping his cards close to his chest until all the pieces were aligned just where they needed to be. Only then would he dare to reveal his hand, and embrace the chaos that would ensue.
Yet perilous as the path before him was, Val couldn't help but feel a heady sense of elation as all the wondrous potential of this vast new territory he had acquired resonated through him.
But it was nothing compared to Viturlund’s awe-filled gaze. “Our home… reforged by fate and time, made whole anew! Even now I sense limestone hardening, several millennia worth, the ancient skeletons of machinery long since fallen, as old as the rock it has bonded with, casualties of battles fought before man had ever settled this world. For all that I know just hours ago…” The dwarf shook his head. “Truly a fearsome, terrible thing, to walk the Path of Kings, causality itself shaped by your will.”
Val bowed his head. “If only I could do more.”
A powerful hand lifted his chin, brilliant eyes an impossible shade of blue locked upon Val's own. “Descendant of ancient heroes honored by all our kind, you have done more than any man or dwarf could. For that alone, we will honor and revered you for so long as even a single member of our clan yet lives.”
Val flashed a fierce smile. “And that will be til the sun itself dims and cools. And we’ll cut down any man who would think to make it otherwise, no matter how many bastards we have to kill.”
A warm chuckle with those words. “I can see why Arilius took such a shine to you, lad, if the stories I glimpse within your mind are history’s own truth.” He gently squeezed Val’s shoulder. “I think we both know the step you must take now.”
Val swallowed and nodded, knowing all too well.
No matter how remarkable his accomplishments so far, a foe favored by the entire council still sought his downfall, and the Overlord commanding the dreadnought now overseeing Phoebe and Jordia both was no friend of Val’s.
If they were to have a shot of actually surviving this thing, Val had a ruin to explore and a ship to claim, and nothing was going to stop him from doing just that.
No matter what he had to do, or who he had to kill, to get it.
With final heartfelt farewells, Val took his leave and ported through the closest gate to Terrance Province once more, happy to see that the horrors gazing at Val with hungry eyes of flame from the Wildlands could only hiss and snarl at the powerful runes Val had placed before the gates. For any abomination small enough to force himself through would be far too weak to survive Val’s Level 40 wards.
Val clenched his fist and stared at the snarling horrors beyond.
Soon it would be time to deal with them.
But not yet.
Turning on his heel, wearing dwarven armaments once more with his Shadowcloak flowing behind him, Val made his way to the Highblood gate, determined to make his arrangements and leave, feeling the sands of time trickling away far faster than he would like.
29
“Oh my god, oh my god what just happened, Julia? What just happened?” Plaintive lavender eyes in an exquisitely beautiful face sprayed with blood gazed imploringly into Julia’s own.
Julia shook her head before gazing down at her own trembling fists, visions of the monster that had torn out that pleading soldier’s throat seared forever in her mind. “I don’t know, Yin. I just… I don’t know.” She found herself gently but inexorably dragged away from the sight of that man’s death by Chris’s powerful grip, much as Yin was in her lover’s powerful arms, all of them racing down to the front gates, the sounds of desperate screams choking off into dying gurgles haunting their footsteps.
The look she had seen on Val’s face… savage. Inhuman. It had chilled her worse even than the monster who had so badly abused her, because this was the man she had given her heart to. Whose warm gaze and gentle smile had been such a balm to her wounded soul. Yet now she knew, unequivocally, that when the rage took hold, he was just as savage a killer as all the monsters and Darklords they had faced together.
No. He was worse. More savage. More brutal. And he reveled in his kills. She had always known that in the back of her mind, and been fiercely proud on some primal level to know he’d fight and kill for her without reservation, should their beautiful world be shattered by cruelty or any predator look their way.
But now she had seen the eyes of the wolf within him gazing right back at her.
And it chilled her to the bone.
What if she hadn’t let go? What if…
She felt Chris’s powerful arms give her a squeeze. “Don’t even think it, Julia. It’s all going to work itself out. Our man Val just needs some time to get his head together, and it’s up to us to give him that time.”
Yin flashed Chris a look of incredulous disbelief from Dirk’s arms as they raced for the abandoned velimobiles left at the checkpoint when the bloodbath began. “Get his head together? Are you serious? Did you see the armor Val was wearing? Bark and wood and blood splattered all over him. There were antlers on his head, Chris. Antlers on his head! He tore someone open with them and flung them right off his helm. You saw it, Chris. We all did! How strong is he? He was berserking like some dark avatar. Like the fucking High Hunt, and everyone in this awful territory is his prey!” She began to sob. “Dirk, I don’t want to be here anymore. Take me home, please? Please take me home?”
Dirk exchanged a pain-filled glance with Julia before shaking his head as he gently put her down before the velimobiles. “I’m sorry, babe, no can do. As much as I’d love to, Earth is filled with hostiles who have access to the internet, and probably all our profiles by this point. Darklords who would love to see us dead. For better or worse, this is our home now. And we’re a hell of a lot better off on the Southern continent with the powers we have than we would be back home, where we’d be four wanted men and women captured in the blink of an eye.”
Yin’s face crumpled and she sobbed, Dirk gently stroking Yin’s hair as Chris peered intently at the velis that refused to start.
Julia frowned. “It’s getting dark, and I can tell the light’s already affected by Haunting Luminescence, just by the way the stars are glowing and shimmering like back at Highblood manor.”
“So what are you saying?” Yin whispered. “Why won’t the car, I mean the veli, start?”
Julia grimaced. “Val sort of learned how to flood any territory he claims with so much magic that all technology totally shorts out. Like the Psiblade at my hip, and all the hundreds of blasters that stopped working all at once when Val, well, sort of went crazy and killed everyone.”
Yin’s eyes widened. “It was deliberate. All of it! When Val went to do reconnaissance. He already knew what he was going to do! No survivors. Isn’t that what you told me his secret black ops unit was known for, Dirk? No survivors!”
Dirk frowned at the veli Chris was working on with tools he seemed to have pulled from nowhere, the sound of metal being plunked and twisted audible to all of them. “Think we’re going to have to go on foot? With Haunting Luminescence in play, the main road out of here is our best bet. Either way, we need to move."
Julia’s gut twisted in anxious knots. She didn’t even want to think it, but…
And much
to all their collective surprise, the soft hum of a working veli turning on was sweet music to all their ears. Yin almost sobbed when she gave Chris a fierce hug. He smiled but kept one hand carefully on the veli. Dirk gave his friend an approving nod. “Well done.”
Chris grinned. “Cybermancer is something else,” he said, sliding over so Julia could take the controls, Dirk and a still shaking Yin hopping into the back seat. “I’m starting to get a feel for how all this electromana radiation is fragging Dominion tech, and I can sort of squeeze tight in my mind’s eye and keep everything holding itself together, if that makes sense. Anyway, I sort of have to concentrate on it, I’m just now getting the hang of it.”
Julia flashed a relieved smile, giving Chris a light kiss on his cheek. “That’s okay, Chris. I got this. You just be the standup guy you are, and keep us from flying to pieces while I get us to wherever the hell it is we’re going.”
And they all seemed to collectively hold their breaths as they picked up speed after sliding past the last of the abandoned velis, no one saying a word until the intermittent screams behind them had at last died off completely.
Yin squeezed Dirk’s hand as he held her tight. “Guys, where are we going to go? What are we going to do? If Val really is… oh god, no place is safe! No one is safe! Everyone is crazy, and Julia’s mom loves Val. She’ll even love the crazy Val and then they’ll have fun lopping off heads together!” She sobbed and Julia couldn’t help laughing at the mad comment even as Dirk hissed and told her to keep her focus on the road.
“Fuck, when you’re right you’re right, Yin. I love my mother to death, but sometimes the look in her eye… she really is a mad queen trying to hold herself together for love’s sake alone. I know that. Goddamn, do I know that. She’s like an addict with power. When she was on Earth, away from all this, she could act normal. Sometimes. She was always a little crazy, but is beautiful enough, charming enough, no one really paid it any mind, and she always had Dad wrapped around her finger. She was his clever little eccentric inventor, and never mind the ethics violations we never talked about, that no hospital administrator even seemed to care about, before they mysteriously disappeared from her record, just like my marijuana possession. As far as the law was concerned, we could do no wrong.
“Now? With the mad ways of Highlords all around her? I love her with all my heart, but I see the way she holds back sometimes. The way her hands curl into fists, glaring at flinching servitors before she collects herself. Maybe she glances apologetically my way, or Val’s way, really, and gives the servant a firm warning and he’s sobbing with relief, like he was afraid she was going to kill him.”
Julia grimaced, shaking her head while keeping her eyes on the road. “And Val,” she whispered. “He never seemed bothered, never seemed perturbed, no matter how unstable Mother’s acting. That wry smile he’d flash her made me feel like he was in utter control, like she was in recovery and he her sponsor, and she’s always so damn eager for his approval, though she’s classy enough never to show it too openly.”
“But really he doesn’t care, because he’s just as bloodthirsty as she is!” Yin declared. “Maybe worse. Maybe she’s so deferential because he’s like her alpha wolf or something.”
Julia winced, not even bothering to contradict her friend when what she said was so damn close to the truth.
Chris turned around, the pools of mercury that were his eyes still conveying his disciplined concern. “Captain?”
“Safehouse,” he said.
Chris nodded. “Good plan.”
“Safehouse?” Julia furrowed her brow, hating the way the road ahead seemed to waver and shift in the brilliant moonlight even though the Haunting Luminescence that came with Greater Mana Warping seemed to be set on ‘friend’ mode for her and her companions. She could only imagine how dizzying it all would be for any hostiles who entered her mad lover’s latest acquisition. “Shit, how far does Val’s territory extend?”
“That’s the million credit question,” Dirk said. “And don’t worry. Before Chris and I ever set up Guild Ottalaus, we made a number of precautionary safehouses and hideaways, just in case the unforeseen should occur.”
Yin’s eyes widened. “Shit, you mean like befriending a mysterious kid you thought totally confused and clueless before he saves our asses, tries to become king, then goes completely mad and kills everyone?”
Dirk chuckled softly. “Something like that, sure. No, seriously, love. It’s standard procedure and good practice. A way to hone our survival and crafting skills. Not something we took too seriously. Remember, at the time we were all porting in through our black cat helms, so it hardly served as the emergency shelter we might need if we were on Earth.” He shrugged his powerful shoulders. “Still, it was good practice.”
“And will come in damned handy now,” Chris noted.
But Yin was sobbing again. Though this time, to Julia’s ear, it sounded like tears of happiness.
“Yin?” Dirk's gaze was filled with sudden concern.
Yin grinned through her tears. “You said the word. I was waiting for you to say it, but it was stupid. I mean, we’ve only known each other for a handful of weeks, and we’ve only been, you know… for a little while.”
“The word?” a confused Chris asked.
Yin’s teary smile seemed to light up the entire back of the veli. “He called me love.”
“That he did.” Julia grinned, happy to see Dirk holding Yin close and stroking her brow as she drifted off in his arms, his dark, brooding gaze capturing her own through the oddly placed mirror that served as the Jordian equivalent of a rearview.
He winked. “I think you’re the best veli driver out of all of us.”
Julia forced a smile. “Even though Chris and Yin both utterly kick my asses piloting a battle-mech, sure.”
Dirk shrugged. “That’s part of their class. You and me? We’re a little bit of everything. Especially you.”
Julia chuckled. “I’m trying to get my head around everything, and save for a tactical spell and a shout, I’m doing terrible, whereas you’ve managed to synergize the best skills for a dueling Highlord, combined with a modified Haste spell that will make you all but unbeatable in the arena, won’t short out your weapon, and your opponent won’t even know. Even a 20% increase to reaction time will let you counter all their moves and strike between the beats. I think you’ve managed to focus your build into the perfect duelist. You’re far more with it than I am.”
Dirk flashed a sympathetic smile. “Frankly I think you’re doing a stellar job, Julia.”
She smirked, blinking back an annoying tear. “What, not bawling my eyes out because the love of my life went completely freaking mad, and at this moment I’m utterly terrified of him?” She swallowed, suddenly too choked up to speak.
“Among other things, sure. But even without factoring in Val taking a detour to Crazyville, you’ve still kept yourself together phenomenally well. You’re the perfect teammate. Guild Ottalaus would never be the same without you, whatever happens to the world around us.” Intent golden eyes gazed into her own. “That will always be true, Julia. We’re a team. No matter how bad the shitstorm, we can always count on each other.”
Julia swallowed, suddenly choked up, when Chris’s powerful hand suddenly squeezed her wrist.
“Julia! Stop! You’re going to run him over!”
A desperate twist and wrench and the sound of ball bearings screeching in ways physics back home on Earth wouldn’t allow, and they pulled to a stop just inches away from a kid wearing a strange combination of Highlord battlemesh, leather vest, boots, and what Julia would forever think of as a cowboy hat, with soft blue eyes and the saddest smile she had ever seen.
What made her blood run cold was the pair of .45s she saw strapped to his waist in quick-draw holsters, and something in his gaze made it damn clear that yes, they shot real bullets, not energy beams, and his calm blue eyes never missed.
He didn’t look a day over 16.
> “Name’s Bill,” he said. “Wow. Driving at night.” He looked down at his waist, an inch from the front of the veli. “Almost hit me, too.” He shrugged as if it was of no consequence. “Don’t suppose you guys would mind giving me a ride?”
Dirk stared at the kid for endless moments before his hard features softened into a smile. “Sure, kid. Hop on in.”
“Name’s Chris,” Chris said, giving the kid a meaty paw to shake, Julia and Dirk greeting him in turn, Yin still asleep, nestled against her boyfriend.
“Dirk,” Dirk said. “Good to see another friendly face.”
Bill nodded. “Likewise. You guys are from Earth, I guess? Adventurers like me?” He frowned. “Hell, maybe there are other worlds just like our own, playing this game. Damn, but I hope this is just a game. But sometimes I wonder, you know?”
Dirk gave a slow nod. “I know exactly what you mean. And yes, we’re Terran adventurers, just like yourself.” He flashed a bemused grin. “The fact we’re all speaking English with American accents sort of gives it away.”
Bill grinned. “Hell, you’re right. It does. I’m originally from Champagne myself. How about you all?”
Julia blinked. “Champagne, France?”
Bill shook his head. “Nope, Champagne, Illinois. Not that far from Chicago.”
Yin, now very much awake, gasped. “Jeezus, are we all from Chicago, then? How the hell does that work, anyway? Um, my name’s Yin, by the way.”
Bill winked, taking her hand. “Sorry if I woke you. And I gotta say you got the most gorgeous eyes I’ve ever seen.”
Yin flushed at that, but couldn’t help grinning. “Ooh. You’re a natural charmer. And you got the whole wild-west gunslinging look going on. I’ll bet you got all sorts of admirers.”
Bill’s smile turned sad again. “Not really. In real life, I’m a shy nerd who hated sports. All I was good at was hunting and shooting with my father when he wasn't on duty. When we moved right to Chicago proper six months ago, we couldn’t even do that anymore without people giving him a hard time because they’re so anti-gun there, and it was ‘bad optics,’ the police chief said, for my dad to take me shooting. Then I got into this game when my cousin loaned me his black cat helm, which he couldn’t use anyway, and next thing you know, I wake up in a starter zone vat and all the Dominion troopers are giving me strange looks because I came out with the very guns I dream about shooting from all the hundreds of hours I played Gunslinger’s Redemption and games like that.” He chuckled softly. “My grandpa was really, really into westerns, and it left an impression. Anyway, I really appreciate the lift you guys are giving me.”
Oblivion's Crown Page 36
