“What happened next?” Tusk asked threateningly.
“We stopped to take a breather for a couple hours. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep right where I hit the ground. In the middle of the night, I woke up to a scream. It was Sam. Wooks severed the tendons of his legs while he slept.”
“He left his brother in arms as bait,” the ogre spat out again.
The longer I listened, the viler I felt being next to the man. But I resisted and asked another question:
“Did you see the beast that attacked you?”
“I did,” Hedgehog nodded. “But I couldn’t make out its level or name. It was just painfully fast.”
“Can you describe it?”
“Hold up,” Gino stopped him and turned to the dryad: “Midori, kid, do me a favor and fetch me my bestiary.”
She nodded in silence and ran to the wagon. A minute later the old lanista was holding a big old book in encased in a dark brown leather jacket. Would you look at that! It took me some effort to hold back the explosive curiosity.
“How many limbs did the beast have?” Gino asked, opening the book to page one. Based on the lines and page numbers opposite them it was the table of contents.
“Not a one,” Hedgehog answered shortly.
Gino snickered comprehendingly and asked:
“Something like a snake?”
“I think so, yes.”
“I see,” the old man said, opening the book nearly to the middle and handing it off to Hedgehog. “Here, take a close look at these pictures. Do any of them look like the thing you saw?”
Hedgehog accepted the folio with quavering hands and started looking closely at the images. I, burning in impatience, could not deny myself the pleasure and also leaned in over the book. I recalled our school bestiary. A thin little tome of seventy entries – most of the land critters and birds that lived in our region.
Nothing in common with what I was now seeing. Not exactly your wolves and sparrows! A true bestiary! With brilliantly rendered images and detailed descriptions of every monster! My hands started shivering.
Meanwhile, Hedgehog flipped to his fifth page. He was about to go to the next one but suddenly his hands started quivering even harder and he slowly raised his head.
“T-there it is,” he said, hiccupping.
Gino took the book and looked at the picture. The creature staring back at us looked more like a lizard with no arms or legs than a snake. The body was too short. And it had fins and a head like a fish...
“You must be mistaken,” the old man said confidently. “You cannot have seen this creature.”
“But that is what I saw!” Hedgehog replied no less confidently. His pupils grew wide, his hands balled up into fists. Seemingly, the man was firmly convinced.
“But how can that be?!” Gino exclaimed.
“Well what’s wrong with this monster?” I enquired.
“Only everything!” he huffed. “First of all, it’s exceedingly rare. So rare that many learned men consider it an extinct species. And second, because it simply could not be found in an area such as this.”
“Why?”
“Because this is a Dartan Whipsnake! These creatures once inhabited the Icy Sea and its vicinity! That is the very northernmost point on our continent! How could one have gotten here?!”
I breathed a heavy sigh and rubbed the back of my head. My state did not evade the old man’s sharp gaze.
“Is something the matter?” he asked excitedly.
“The man is most likely not mistaken,” I answered. “It seems I know how that beast would have reached these climes.”
“We’re listening very carefully, Master Eric,” Gino said.
All of my travelling companions’ gazes intersected on me. Hedgehog also perked up his ears.
Although Mee and Maya knew what I was talking about already, I’d have to come up with a plausible tale for the others. After a moment’s thought, I decided to take an orcish old wives’ tale as a basis and make a few minor additions.
“Far to the east of here, in the depths of the Wastes is a place the orcs call Dread Cliff,” I began and caught an approving look from Mee out of the corner of my eye. My friend thought I was making the right move.
“We’ve heard of it,” Tusk surprised me and exchanged an understanding gaze with Gino. “And what does that orcish campfire story have to do with the beast that devoured the Hornet’s scouts?”
“Well, I suppose their connection is as direct as can be,” I answered.
“So are you trying to say that the tales of that place resemble the truth, and that cliff really does exist?” Gino frowned.
“Exactly,” I nodded. “As a matter of fact, it’s not for nothing they called it ‘dread.’”
The old man shifted from one foot to the other and, putting his hands on his sides, said untrustingly:
“You’ll have to forgive me, Master Eric, but the longer I listen to you the less I understand what you’re trying to get at.”
“For a long time, that cliff served as a prison for some of the world’s rarest and most dangerous beasts,” I answered quickly.
That made Gino and his familiars shudder. Hedgehog, sitting on the snow, hiccupped loudly.
“Are you trying to say...?” the old man started.
“Yes,” I interrupted him. “The ‘prisoners’ escaped and scattered on the steppe.”
“But how do you know that?!” Midori couldn’t resist asking. Her eyes flew open wide. Her arms started slightly shivering. Apparently, the news of the beast prison had her pretty shaken up.
I was ready for that question, so I quickly lied with no pangs of conscience:
“Our companions told me about it. The ones I mentioned earlier.”
When I said that, I nodded pointedly at Hedgehog on the ice as if to say I’d explain later, without strangers listening in. Gino shook his head comprehendingly and, turning the conversation down a different path, said pensively:
“Hm... Rare and dangerous beasts collected from all over the world and imprisoned in one place. Only a mage would be able to do something like that. As a matter of fact, only a very powerful mage specialized in control magic could have done it.”
I shuddered despite myself. Master Chi’s vile magic was something I’d never forget. Quickly looking over the others’ faces, I exhaled in relief. Nobody noticed my state.
Meanwhile, the discussion carried on.
“The orcs must have had a hand in it too,” the ogre tossed in his three copper.
“As far as I’ve heard, the orcs used to fear that place,” Maya objected.
“I agree with Tusk,” Gino said. “It wouldn’t be realistic to feed such huge beasts way out there without orcs. So that means the masters of that cliff must have had an arrangement with the local chieftains. A-hem... Dark dealings... I’m afraid to even imagine what could have kicked off that jailbreak.”
The old man furrowed his brows and looked at me sidelong. My heart can sense he has a lot of questions. I need to prepare for them.
“Something else has been bothering me though,” Tusk said thoughtfully. “How would a beast from there have gotten so close to Tradepost? Of course, there must have been flying beasts among the monsters...”
The ogre skipped a beat and glanced at me searchingly. If I say “yes” they’ll have more questions, if “no” – same story. Better keep mum. So I just shrugged my shoulders indefinitely – take that as you will.
“Here it says the Dartan whipsnake lives in water,” Midori said thoughtfully. The dryad opened the bestiary and attentively read the description of the northern monster. “It comes on shore rarely. Just to hunt and it never goes far from water. It pulls its prey down to the bottom but doesn’t eat it right away. It waits a few days for it to start spoiling.”
“A lover of rot,” the ogre winced and asked: “But I still can’t understand how it got to this area.”
“Strange,” Gino said thoughtfully. “As far as I know, there aren
’t any steppe rivers that connect with the bodies of water around here.”
“Maybe it crawled from one body of water to the next?” I suggested. “For example, from the Snakelet, a steppe river, to some swamp. Then from the swamp to the next river and so on...”
“Perhaps,” the old man agreed. “That leads to the next logical question. Why would it do that? This is a long way from the Wastes.”
“Not enough food?” the ogre suggested.
“Unlikely,” Gino waved it off. “There’s plenty to hunt on the steppe.”
“Well maybe there was something hunting it out there.” Mee unexpectedly intervened. “That cave probably held other aquatic beasts more dangerous than a Dartan whipsnake.”
“Bravo, Master Mee!” Gino exclaimed. “Your guess would explain a lot!”
Mee’s ears went slightly dark. Watching the gremlin get embarrassed, I chuckled. The old man had been generously doling out praise to my familiar over the last few days. And of course he was! The constant presence of a healer had really brought the old man back to life.
“Master Mee is actually right in some measure,” Midori said as she closed the bestiary. “There’s one other reason the Dartan whipsnake might leave the water for a long time.”
“What might that be?” Tusk asked for all of us.
“That whipsnake is most likely a female. Before laying eggs, they spend a long time looking for a nesting spot and they are very particular. It looks like Master Mee is right. Many predators escaped from that prison and they would be a threat to her future offspring. And so she was fleeing that danger. It says in the book that female whipsnakes lay eggs once every few years, usually just two to three at a time. They then remain in the nest until the eggs hatch. They leave the nest very rarely. Only to hunt...”
The dryad trailed off and turned sharply toward Hedgehog. Then she started again, drilling into our captive with her eyes:
“Looks like someone’s trying to play us for fools.”
The ogre gave a menacing growl and took a step forward. Grabbing the shrinking Hedgehog by the collar, he lifted him up and shook him forcefully. I could clearly make out the ripping of clothing and clattering of teeth.
“Think you could play a joke on us, you rapscallion?!” Tusk roared right in the captive’s face.
Hedgehog whimpered plaintively. I saw blood on his lips. Looks like not only his clothes tore.
“Start talking!”
And hiccupping, Hedgehog began. For the most part, he had already told us the whole truth. About the attack on his brigade, and him and two others surviving by fleeing. But he left out a few important details.
“While the others setup camp,” Hedgehog murmured plaintively. “Me and Wooks went to the lake to fetch some water. There, among the stones, we found a big huge nest. And in it were the bones of every creature that lived in the area! We even found a few bear skulls. We put two and two together right away. This was no simple beast’s dwelling. We were compelled to dig through all the shit. And we didn’t come away empty-handed...”
“What did you find?” Gino asked agitatedly, his whole body lurching forward.
“This here,” Hedgehog lowered his shivering hand into his knapsack, cringing with pain. And a second later, he was holding a turbid gray pearl the size of a dog’s head.
Just then, I detected a weak barely perceptible taste of rot on my tongue. Looking gloomily into the pearl’s description, I breathed a heavy sigh. I activated Sixth Sense and saw a tiny dark pulsating cluster in the center of the pearl. And when I looked closer, I noticed a thin dark thread running from it to the east. A chill ran down my spine.
“These two plundered a female whipsnake’s nest and made off with her most precious belonging – an egg,” I said. “Beyond that, there’s a thin magical thread stretching from the egg back toward Tradepost. I trust you all understand what I’m talking about?”
“This thing’s mommy will be dropping by soon to pay us a visit, and she’s gonna be pissed!” the ogre exclaimed. The notes of glee in his voice, to be frank, baffled me. Which I told him right away.
“You don’t understand a thing!” the ogre waved it off carelessly. A dreamy smile stuck fast to his ugly tusked face. “We’d do well to capture a beast such as her! All our problems would be solved in an instant!”
My friends and I stared uncomprehendingly at the ogre. Seeing our faces, Gino and Midori smiled.
“Any beast from this little book,” Gino said, pointing at the bestiary in Midori’s hands. “Will fetch a handsome bounty from the organizers of the games.”
“Are you being serious right now?” I asked uncomprehendingly.
“Absolutely,” the old man nodded. “The more dangerous and frightening the monster, the more spectacular the battle. And that means it’s worth more. Tusk is right. If we can trap this northern snake, we could straighten out our financial situation. Now this is a totally different level! Not just some half-dead orcs...”
“They keep staring at us like we’re psychos,” Tusk chuckled and gave a happy wink.
“I understand perfectly well what you might be thinking,” Gino turned to me with a calm voice. “But let me assure you, it’s all just because you don’t know the finer points of our profession. But we’ll get to that later. For now, while we have time to prepare, we have a rather delicate question that needs answering.”
“And what might that be?”
The old man squinted and bared his teeth happily.
“Would you like to help us hunt a Dartan whipsnake?”
Chapter 13
WHEN THE LANISTA first made his offer, I refused vociferously and without a second thought. And at that I gave quite the verbose and angry speech about the lunacy of the lanista himself and his familiars as well. The old man however calmly waited for me to blow off my steam, then started laying out his plan.
“We’ll lure the beast into a trap!” he said excitedly. “We’ll wait for it on that slope there, a bit away from the water.”
I glanced gloomily where he pointed. Agreed. A good place for an ambush. A steep slope with dense tree cover.
“We’ll put the egg in a place that’s hard to get,” the old man continued. “An aquatic beast crawling up a mountain among trees will make a great target!”
“What next?”
“While the happy momma is busy with her egg, you immobilize it with your spell,” Gino said eagerly. And, winking, he added: “I saw the way you made the Hornet’s cutthroats freeze like stone statues. If it’s not a secret, how long can you keep a victim under control?”
Hm... Looks like the old man got the idea I have control magic.
“Forty-five seconds,” I decided to tell the truth. “But there’s one problem.”
“I’m listening closely.”
“The spell might not work.”
Gino waved it off.
“Based on the description in my bestiary, the Dartan whipsnake is a normal beast without any magical or special abilities.”
“That means whoever wrote the book was working on incomplete data,” I objected.
“This book is a highly valuable artifact!” the old man stated with offense in his voice and immediately corrected himself: “In fact, this is a copy of the Complete Bestiary, composed by the greatest minds of the royal academy of sciences!”
“But there isn’t a single word about the magical link between mother and egg.”
“That’s probably an exception,” the old man relented.
“Where there is one exception, there could be more!” I parried.
Gino rubbed his brow and, once calm, exhaled a few times.
“Alright,” he said in a calmer tone. “I must agree with your conclusions. Beyond all doubts I am proposing a risky venture. But there is one ‘but!’ If we succeed, the reward will be worth the risk!”
“Are you talking about money?”
Seeing that his words had me intrigued, Gino chuckled conspiratorially.
“No,�
� he shook his head. “Not money. I’m talking about big money! As I already said, the organizers of the games will pay handsomely for any creature from the bestiary. According to my estimations, we can easily count on two thousand gold coins at the very least! Maybe more! And don’t forget the egg! It’ll fetch a pretty penny as well!”
I felt an unwitting chill run down my spine. Unable to hold back, I whistled loudly and scratched the back of my head, perplexed.
“I can see my words have made an impression on you,” the old lanista chuckled in self-satisfaction.
The Dark Continent (Underdog Book #3): LitRPG Series Page 12