The bolt slid back and the door opened wide.
Not bad.
Eric refilled the purse with gold and precious stones, then stood back up.
“Let’s go. All of you,” he commanded, and the four others followed him out.
“Close,” he said, and the door slammed shut. The sound of the bolt driving home echoed through the sewers.
“Alright… as for the rest of you…” He smiled darkly. “Get in the water and drown yourselves.”
He half expected them to rebel – to attack him, or run away, or something –
But no, they all stepped off the raised platform on the side, into the stinking muck, and laid back down in the ooze.
Their black-eyed faces were the last thing visible – and then those disappeared beneath the foul water, too.
Air bubbled up – there was a tiny bit of thrashing – and then nothing.
Except that black vapor curled up from the water’s surface as the demons departed their hosts and returned to whatever corner of hell they’d been summoned from.
The bodies all surfaced, this time rolling over on their backs, and began to drift slowly along with the current.
Whoa.
Eric shook his head in wonder and disgust, then headed for the surface.
The entire time he thought to himself:
It’s only a game…
It’s only a game…
43
Daniel
Daniel woke up before his bedside alarm even went off. He was so excited he could hardly stand it. All night he had dreamed of quests and battles and monsters and adventure – and now he was about to go experience them in a world even more vivid and real than dreams.
He got ready – bathroom, brushed his teeth, got dressed – and went and rapped lightly on the door to the spare bedroom.
No answer.
He knocked again, more insistently.
When there was no sound again, he opened the door to take a peek.
Eric was on the bed, still dressed, his shoes on the floor, mouth open and a tiny bit of saliva drooling out of his mouth.
“Gross, dude,” Daniel said with a laugh.
Eric’s body jerked and his eyes opened blearily. “…wha…?”
“Time to play, man! Although I thought we should grab some breakfast first.” Daniel suddenly noticed how red and bloodshot Eric’s eyes were. “Are you okay?”
“…mm? Yeah, yeah,” Eric mumbled as he sat up on the side of the bed and yawned. “ ‘m fine…”
“Did you sleep okay?”
“…hm? Oh… I guess… no, not really… but I’m alright.” He yawned again.
“Are you sure? You seem pretty beat. I could let you sleep a little longer – ”
“I said I’m fine,” Eric said crossly. “Let’s get some breakfast and get going.”
Daniel frowned, a little off-put. “Alright…”
He chalked up Eric’s attitude to a bad night’s sleep. Nothing more than that.
Downstairs they made quick work of a couple of bowls of cereal and chatted while they ate.
“So what did you get from the mage temple?” Daniel asked.
“Huh?”
“The mage temple – you went back there to buy some stuff, right?”
“Oh… oh yeah,” Eric said. “You know, just… basic spell stuff.”
“How much was it?”
“What?”
“How much was it to buy the basics?”
“Uh… a couple of diamonds, maybe? I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
Eric looked mildly annoyed. “Dude, I’m still only half awake.”
“Okay, okay…”
“Come on, let’s go upstairs before I decide to take a nap.”
They went back up to the guest bedroom and put on the headsets.
Immediately the world went white, then faded in to a beautiful morning.
Daniel was in the Court of Mercenaries – and there stood Eric next to him, tricked out in a big black cloak with a hood. His fingers were covered in rings, and several ornate necklaces hung across his chest. He also wore a brown-skinned, knapsack-looking thing strapped to his back, and he was carrying a walking staff that looked oddly familiar.
“Wow – this is kind of cool,” Eric said as he looked around at the players training and the mercenaries hawking lessons.
“Yeah, it’s interesting,” Daniel said. “Hey – I thought you burned that one up.”
“What?” Eric asked, confused.
“Your black cloak,” he said, pointing to what Eric was wearing. “You burned that up the first day we were here.”
“Oh,” Eric said, looking down at it. “This is another one.”
“What’d you do, buy it from the mages?”
“Uh… yeah.”
“And what’s with all the rings? You look like you’re trying to be a rock star or something.”
Eric looked down at his hands as though in a trance – then came back to himself. “Oh… just mage stuff they gave me.”
“Somebody was busy last night.”
“I guess you could say that.”
“What’s in the backpack?”
A panicked look flitted briefly over Eric’s face, and then he grew calm again. “Oh – just some maging supplies.”
“Cool, can I see?”
Eric winced. “I, uh… I promised the guys at the temple I wouldn’t show anybody… top secret stuff… I’m sorry.”
“Oh,” Daniel said, slightly uneasy – though he couldn’t say why, exactly. “No worries. And what about – ”
Suddenly a burst of recognition hit him like a semi truck.
“What the hell are you doing with Merridack’s staff?!”
Eric’s eyes widened, and then he looked down at the staff. “Oh… yeah… uh… well…”
Finally he decided to stop stalling, and just grinned. “I guess you could say that Merridack won’t be bothering us anymore.”
Daniel stared at him. “Did you kill him?!”
Eric paused a second too long before answering. “…no. He tried to kill a mage and they killed him.”
“Merridack was at the temple?”
“Yeah, he, uh – he followed me. I think he knew I was lying about you being dead, so he tailed me and… shit happened.”
The reminder that Eric had lied to keep him safe calmed Daniel down.
You couldn’t exactly get furious with your best friend after he’d risked his own life to save yours.
Even if it was a life in a video game.
But Daniel was still incredibly unsettled by everything he’d heard.
“Why’d you take his staff?”
Eric shrugged. “It was either that, or they were going to throw it away.”
Daniel frowned. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this over breakfast?!”
“I know you don’t like killing, so…”
Daniel immediately felt his stomach knot up. He leaned in and whispered, “That was just that one time – ”
“ERIC!”
A new voice joined the noises of the courtyard – a familiar, female voice.
Eric and Daniel turned and saw a dark elf striding towards them across the courtyard.
“Is that Mira?” Eric asked in shock.
“Yup.”
“Wow… you weren’t kidding about how hot she is…” Eric whispered.
“Yyyyup.”
Mira broke through the crowd and ran over beaming. “Hey, guys!”
“Hey, Mira,” Daniel said.
“Hey,” Eric said with a wave of his hand.
“Good to see you – finally!” she said, then reached out and grabbed his hands. “What’re you trying to be, lord of the rings?”
“Ha ha,” Eric said without laughing. “They’re magic.”
“Yeah, okay, whatever.”
“They are!”
As Eric and Mira bantered, the hulking barbarian, the goblin, and the fish-man walked up.
Eric looked up at the barbarian. “Are these guys with you?” he asked Mira.
“Yeah – this is Drogar the barbarian – ”
“Vhat is up, doot.”
Eric frowned in confusion.
“He’s from Romania,” Mira explained. “Then there’s Vlisil the Goblin – ”
“Have a care, mage,” the goblin hissed, “or I’ll pluck your eyeballs from their sockets and eat them like grapes.”
Eric just gave him a Get over yourself look.
“ – and Lotan the Droth,” Mira finished.
“Are we going somewhere with water?” the fish-man asked in his whiny voice. “Preferably a large body of water?”
Eric looked over at Daniel like What the HELL did you get me into?
Daniel shrugged apologetically.
“Feeble-bodied though he may be, the droth asks a good question,” growled a voice lower to the ground. “The preparations are made, but exactly where are we going?”
Daniel looked around. There was Simik, dressed in dwarven armor and carrying a giant hammer.
“Oh, hey, Eric, this is Simik,” Daniel said. “He’s going to be our guide and teach me sword fighting on the way.”
“Provided you can pay for it,” Simik said testily. “Which brings up a second question – where’s the payment for all the horses and supplies?”
“Oh – I forgot – I’ll go get it right now,” Daniel said.
“I got it,” Eric said.
He reached into his cloak, produced the purse, and tossed it through the air into Daniel’s hands, where it landed with a heavy jingle.
Daniel looked down in surprise at the bundle. It seemed oddly heavier and bulkier than what he remembered.
Probably just my imagination…
He opened it up. Gold, diamonds, rubies, and emeralds glittered in the early morning sunlight.
“Whoa,” Mira exclaimed.
“Doooot,” the barbarian said approvingly.
“Oh my gosh,” the goblin said, dropping his overwrought voice and sounding like the fifteen-year-old kid he actually was. “Where’d you get all that?”
“That’s a good question,” the dwarf growled as he stared at Eric.
Eric fluttered his ring-covered fingers in the air. “Magic,” he said mockingly.
Simik and Eric matched stares until Daniel intervened. “Is that enough to pay for everything?”
“That’s more than enough for ten expeditions,” the dwarf growled. “Unless you’re planning to resupply in every town along the way to the North’s End.”
“Is there a large body of water there?” the fish-man asked, wringing his hands fretfully.
The dwarf just scowled at him, then turned back to the group. “Now – where are we going?”
Daniel looked at Mira. “I – uh – we didn’t really get to – ”
“The Mines of Alark,” Eric said confidently.
Everyone looked over at him in surprise.
“The Mines of Alark?” Daniel repeated.
“Yup.”
“What’s there?”
“Lots and lots of treasure.”
“Is there a large body of water?” the fish-man whined.
“Yes, there is,” the dwarf said – then added ominously, “and a great deal of dark magic to boot.”
Eric shrugged. “Hey – wouldn’t be fun if there wasn’t, right?”
Daniel glanced at Simik. The dwarf was staring at Eric through narrowed eyes, with the most distrustful look Daniel had seen on the dwarf’s face yet.
“Where’d you hear about the Mines, boy?” the dwarf snarled.
“From the mages… dwarf,” Eric answered sarcastically.
Simik stepped forward. “Answer me with that tone again – ”
Eric cocked his head. “And what?”
“I’ll rip the tongue out of your mouth, is what.”
“Come on and try it, shrimp.”
“Hey – hey!” Daniel said, stepping between them. “We’re all on the same team, remember?”
Simik and Eric exchanged glares, but didn’t say anything more.
“How far away are the mines?” Daniel asked.
“About three days’ ride,” Simik glowered. “Although with the late start we’re making, make it four.”
Daniel looked around at the rest of the group. “Sounds good to me – everybody else okay with the Mines of Alark?”
“Sure,” Mira agreed.
“Oh yaaah,” the barbarian nodded.
“As long as there’s treasure, I’m in!” the goblin said gleefully.
“And a large body of water,” the fish-man said.
“Sounds like that settles it,” Eric said with a self-satisfied smile.
“A word,” the dwarf growled at Daniel, then turned away from the group.
Daniel followed him until they were about ten feet away from the others. “What?”
“I don’t like your friend,” the dwarf snapped.
“Well, you haven’t exactly been polite to him,” Daniel pointed out.
“He’s a bad seed, boy,” the dwarf growled. “I’ve seen his kind. There’s darkness in him.”
Daniel winced. For a second he thought of the old man lying on the floor of the mansion, blood seeping out from his body in a puddle…
…and of how quickly Eric took to being an assassin under Merridack’s tutelage…
…and his feeling just now that Eric hadn’t been telling the truth about the thief’s staff or how Merridack had died.
Then the dwarf followed it all up with the knockout punch: “Where’d he get all that money?”
Daniel sighed. “We stole it.”
“‘We’?”
“We worked for a thief when we got here. He sent us to rob somebody, and… I was part of it, too. If Eric’s got darkness inside him, then I’ve got just as much,” Daniel said guiltily.
The dwarf looked at him hard, searching for something in his eyes.
“If you don’t want to go with us, I’ll understand,” Daniel mumbled.
“I thought you said you were trying to go down another path.”
“I am. That’s why I left the thief and came here and found you.”
“The thief let you leave?”
“No – Eric covered for me. He told the thief I was dead.”
“Hm.” The dwarf looked over at Eric, seeming to see him in a different light. “Alright. If you’ve really chosen a different path, then… I won’t abandon you on the way,” the dwarf grumbled.
“Thank you,” Daniel said, real gratitude filling his voice.
“But I think your friend is still on the old path.”
Daniel looked back at Eric – at the rings, the cloak, the necklaces…
…the staff.
He didn’t say anything to contradict the dwarf.
“And if you are actually bringing me along for my counsel, then I would advise you to avoid the Mines of Alark.”
“Why?”
“It’s a place of great evil. And great danger.”
Aren’t all dungeon crawls? Daniel thought sardonically, though he kept that to himself.
“Where did he get the idea for the Mines, anyway?” the dwarf scowled.
“From the mages.”
Simik shook his head. “The mages would never send anyone there, boy. Not a beginner, leastways – and not on a quest. Given how new you are to all this, it’s suicide, plain and simple.”
Daniel looked back at the group. They were all talking to each other now – even the goblin and the fish-man. Eric seemed happy and relaxed and confident.
If I go back over there and tell Eric that Simik says we can’t go to the Mines, it’s not going to go well.
“I think they’re pretty much set on it,” Daniel said.
“Then they’re fools.”
“If we go… are you out?”
The dwarf grunted. “I should be, if I had an ounce of sense.”
Daniel waited with bated bre
ath.
The dwarf peered up at him from under one cocked eyebrow. “You’re lucky I want to get away from my wife so badly.”
Daniel laughed in relief. “Yeah – thank goodness for that.”
“Alright, let’s go get the supplies.”
Daniel thought back to the sword hidden on the roof. “Um… actually… can you handle it? There’s one last errand I need to run.”
The dwarf groaned in irritation and shook his head. “Fine – give me the money and meet me at the city gates in one hour.”
Once he had the purse, the dwarf set off across the Court of Mercenaries, the bag jingling at his side.
Daniel walked back over to the group.
“Dude, is that a good idea?” Eric asked. “Giving some NPC all our money?”
“I trust him.”
“That’s what I’m saying – that’s the problem.”
“I trust him,” Daniel repeated, and Eric got the hint to let the subject drop. “I need to go back to the rooftop to get that other… uh, ‘object.’”
“I’ll come with you,” Eric volunteered.
“Can I come?” Mira asked, looking up longingly at Eric.
“Uh, this is a ‘just guys’ kind of thing,” Eric answered.
Mira pouted but didn’t argue.
“Cool – we’ll come,” the goblin said, then remembered he was a goblin. “And flay the skin from any who should bar our path.”
“Yah, kuhl,” the barbarian agreed.
“Is there water?” Lotan the fish-man asked.
“Actually, this is a ‘just these two guys’ kind of thing,” Eric said, pointing at himself and Daniel. “Private party. You understand.”
Daniel smiled.
Despite whatever the dwarf may think, he’d overlooked the crucial thing:
Eric was his best friend.
There wasn’t anything that could break that bond.
As the others grumbled, Daniel said, “Meet at the gates in an hour. Simik’ll be back with the horses and supplies, and then we start on the quest.”
That cheered everyone up, and they all split up with smiles on their faces.
44
As he walked with Eric through the city streets, Daniel said, “You didn’t have to come with me.”
“Dude, I’m going to be hanging out with some Romanian gamer and whiny fish dude for the next six days. I am overjoyed to come with you.”
Shattered Lands: A LitRPG Series Page 20