Suri barely got out of the way as her adoring dinosaur wife snaked her neck forward and lovingly regurgitated a metric ton of assorted giblets onto the cobblestones where her new mate had been standing a moment before. SPLORT.
I wheezed. "Cutthroat YES!"
A few people actually applauded. But then there was a crashing and whinnying from deep within the stables. Cutthroat's head whipped around, her eyes smoldering with bloodlust. Before anyone could stop her, she put her head down and bolted for the broken doors. The other hookwings screeched their support, lunging against their rider's reins and trying to pack up with her as she plunged into the gore-soaked building.
“GET BACK HERE! I’M GONNA PLUCK YOUR ARSE AND TURN YOU INTO A FUCKIN’ FEATHER MATTRESS!" Suri pulled at her hair with both hands, running straight in after her.
“I can’t… oh god,” I wheezed. “My organs. Help.”
"You! You shut up!" Lord Zediwitz yelled at me over my laughter. He got to his feet, sword clenched in one hand. "I squired with that corrun since I was sixteen years old! SIXTEEN!"
"I'm sorry, I just-" A huge, cold shadow blotted out the sun overhead. Everyone looked up as Karalti wheeled around the edge of the stable-yard and then touched down in the center, driving up great clouds of dust. Lord Zediwitz was promptly knocked back down by the wind.
"Hi hi! You were gone for ages! What happened?" Karalti chirped, lowering her head toward me. Her eyes widened when she saw the line of carnage leading to the stable doors. "Oooh. Is this for me?"
I wiped tears from my eyes. "Her Holiness has graciously offered to... uhh... clean up the mess. I'm sorry, man. I know it's not the point, but we'll pay for a new horse."
Zediwitz was staring at Karalti open-mouthed. The full size of a dragon was hard to comprehend until they were almost on top of you. "I... yes... I suppose the damage is done, isn't it? Please, your Holiness, take my steed back to the gods."
"Yay!" Karalti bounced forward, shaking the yard with every step, and began to eagerly snarf up the meat on the ground.
Suri returned with Cutthroat on a short rein, the hookwing strutting alongside her with unmistakable air of smugness.
I grinned at Suri. "Well, on the plus side, it seems the potion’s worked through her system. So I guess you can ride her now?"
“Thanks, mate.” My girlfriend regarded me sourly.
"We'll leave you two lovebirds alone." I clapped Karalti on the arm, then jumped up lightly onto her back from the ground. "Assuming my dragon isn't too fat to fly."
"Am not!" She tossed her head back, jaws champing on a mouthful of bloody meat. When she was done, she licked her muzzle and lifted her wings, pacing a few steps forward. "Do we need to go somewhere? Where?"
"I need to see Istvan," I replied. "We’ll talk on the way."
Chapter 33
Karalti was pensive as we flew to the administrative wing of the fort, where Istvan was sure to be. I'd explained the quest on the short flight, and she had been chewing on it.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked me. "If you die..."
"I'll respawn. It'll suck, but I'll be okay. Archemi doesn't punish you too hard for dying. The only thing I'll have to do is make a corpse run, but as long as I have a camp and some item storage-"
"That's not what I mean." She hesitated for a moment. "I mean... the memory loss thing."
I chuckled, and got in position for landing. "It's not that big a deal. I’m going to record that message to myself before I leave."
"That’ll help. But I’m worried… I think the memory loss has gotten worse each time you die," she said. “Do you know if that’s true?”
I thought back to my first in-game death: the wreck of the Arabella. I absently rubbed my shoulder, the one with the black patch of space, and frowned. "The first time I died, I was fine. I got that weird patch of nothing on my shoulder, but that was it."
"And the next time?"
I struggled to recall the next time. "That was... Taltos? I had some weird memory loss and some other issues, but they resolved pretty quickly. There was some weirdness going on there, though. I didn't respawn at my spawn point. I came back at a shrine to Matir underneath the city."
"Okay. And this time, you forgot EVERYTHING. But you were still acting like you knew where everything was. It was worse than the last time."
"Kind of? I don't know. I know that when I touched you, everything came back in a big dump of information. Felt a lot like how it felt to learn a language, actually."
"You really need to not play around with this," Karalti scolded. "I know you come back, but I'm worried that if it happens too often, not all of you WILL come back."
I sighed. "Look - if I think about this too hard, I'll go crazy. It's probably nothing serious. I had a weird start to the game... it's probably just a symptom of being glitched when I spawned in, okay?"
Karalti rumbled, turning her attention to landing. She dropped neatly to the stones and dipped her wing down as I stood to dismount. It was a small ritual that we seemed to get better at every time we flew.
"I'm going to worry about you." She craned her head down with a soft groan, sniffing over my head after I pulled my helmet off.
"I'm going to worry about you too," I replied. "Be careful of Soma. He’s going to keep creeping on you."
"If he gets too pushy, I’ll just eat him," she said. "Speaking of that, though... I want to start learning how to fight as a human."
"Good idea. I can give you some pointers, if you want."
She drew a deep breath. "No. It's okay. I want to learn from someone else."
"Really? Why?" I asked a bit too quickly. "I mean... okay. Got a tutor in mind?"
"Yeah." She turned her head to shyly nibble at the edge of one wing. "Vash. And Suri, maybe, but I don't think she has time."
I swallowed the jealousy that reached up my throat and forced a small nod. "I think Vash will be a good teacher. But if he or anyone else gives you any shit, you tell me straight away. Okay?"
"Of course." Karalti dipped her muzzle toward me and flickered her tongue out, curling it around my entire head. It still smelled faintly of blood. I sputtered, and she giggled.
"Ass." I wiped the drool off my face and smeared it on her nose.
She yelped in protest. "Eww!"
"Eww you too, you big lizard."
"Lizard. Huumph." Her horned crest rose and fell with mock irritation. "Just you wait. One day, I'll turn YOU into a dragon. Then YOU'LL be the lizard."
We were stalling for time. Karalti and I had only been separated for any length of time once before, and it had been one of the worst experiences of my afterlife. I steadied myself, breathed deeply, and clapped her on the neck. "Go on, Tidbit. If you want to bribe Vash to teach you, I'm pretty sure he accepts payment in weed.”
"And hookers." She bobbed her head. "He said he likes those."
I snorted. "I’m sure Slutlava has many... uhh... ladies of the night. And gentlemen of the night. He strikes me as the kind of guy who swings both ways, or maybe all the ways."
Karalti inflated her throat and laughed aloud as she turned away. I watched her spread her wings, and my chest tightened with a strange mix of feelings. Pride, mostly, but also the sensation that I was losing a piece of her somehow.
"I love you. I'll see you later," she said. "Good hunting."
I swallowed around the lump in my throat. "You too."
She took to the air. I started for the building and forced myself not to look back. It was easier that way.
***
Istvan was in the War Room, pouring over a set of terrain maps with half a dozen knights, a couple of Yanik scouts, and one of the militia captains. The conversation died as I let myself in and closed the door. Istvan stood, scowling. He'd been hitting the bottle again - the one next to his elbow, which was knocked over and dribbling milky liquor onto the floor.
"Greetings to the Commander of the Western Wall," he said, acidly. "What can this humble Sheriff do for you?"
I looked over the assembled men. None of them looked pleased to see me. "Don't give me that shit, man. I didn't ask for Soma to come out like a huge prolapsed asshole this morning."
Istvan's mouth twitched. If there was one way to this man's heart, it was through ragging on his nemesis.
"I came to ask you for something," I said. "Vash said to speak with you."
That got his attention. "Vash? He spoke to you? The Oathbreaker, that he loathes?"
I gave a testy little sigh. "Yes. And it's urgent. If you guys can suspend your plans for desertion for ten minutes or so, that'd be great."
The air of the room dropped about twenty degrees. Every man stared at me, anger - and fear - in their eyes.
"That's what this is, right?" I gestured at the maps.
Istvan's back stiffened. "Excuse us a few minutes, my druzhina. Give us privacy."
The other men in the room shot me dark looks as they withdrew from the table and filed out into the hall. The last one shut the door, leaving me and Istvan alone.
"What do you want?" He asked coldly.
There was no point in losing my temper with him. Vash had nailed it on the head: the status manipulated the feelings of NPCs, not the other way around. Istvan couldn't help the way he felt.
"Vash has issued me a challenge to atone by deed," I said. "He told me that if I solo whatever is holding up the caravans in Krivan Pass unassisted and bring proof of what I found, then I'm off the hook."
"And you think you can do this?" Istvan peered at me through a lock of disheveled hair. "Whatever lurks there has shot down two cargo ships and one warship. It is keeping the Pass wreathed in mist that is impenetrable to scrying, to quazi, to everything."
I looked down at the table. The maps were of Krivan Pass and the surrounding terrain. "But you and your men were going to risk it anyway?"
"What choice do we have?" He said bitterly. "Soma is mad. His plans for the Wall will result in certain death for thousands. My honor demands that I not join the army of my enemy as a walking corpse, or a vampire or a wraith. I would rather renounce my station and help the people of Myszno until my dying breath."
That was exactly what Soma wanted, but I didn't have enough Renown to tell him so. I shrugged. "Talk to Vash about that. Are you willing to give me the SITREP or not?"
His brow flickered at the modern military term, but he processed it after a moment and nodded.
"Good." I leaned forward on the edge of the table, studying the terrain. "Start from the beginning."
Istvan looked around for his bottle, and when he noticed it had tipped over, he sighed. "The beginning... yes. Before the fall of Karhad, we had ships and wagons running through Krivan Pass every day bringing supplies across the Prezyemi Line. There was an earthquake in the Pass shortly after the Demon took the castle, during our retreat. Nothing seemed to come of it, but about a week after we arrived here, one of the caravans sent a distress call. The message said that one of the cliff sides had ruptured and collapsed and they were trapped in the Narrows, which is about half-way through."
He tapped the map of Krivan Pass. A push-pin marked the narrowest point of the 80-mile valley road, which wound between steep cliffs and mountains to either side.
“Another cargo ship was diverted to provide assistance," he continued. "It vanished without a word. Soma ordered that a warship be dispatched from Litvy, and that also vanished. We stopped trying after that. Anyone that has gone there, by land or air, has not returned.”
“Has anyone observed anything weird about the place?” I asked. "You mentioned a mist."
Istvan pressed his lips together and shook his head. "Everything about it is Stranged. Not even Soma's telescopes can penetrate the fog. It swirls like steam, but does not disperse. We had dragoons scout from a distance... they said they saw terrible shapes in it, the forms of screaming humans and dragons and other creatures. Soma said that it could be from the mana released by the ships, if they crashed and the cargo and engines caught fire."
“And Vash expects me to do this alone.” I grimaced and shook my head. “Welp, heroes gotta hero. Do we know anything about the way the caravans were taken out?”
He sucked his lip in under his teeth and shook his head. “Only that it was sudden. The airships did not even have time to send a mayday. I thought it might be pirates, but…”
“It could be. No one’s seen the Pass since the earthquake happened, right?”
Istvan shrugged. “Not seen it and returned.”
“Huh." I used my menu to take a snapshot of the map, adding a copy to my Inventory. "Welp. Whatever’s going on there, I’ll kill it.”
Istvan raised an eyebrow. “You sound confident.”
"Worst thing that can happen is that I die." I rolled my shoulders to work some of the tension out of them.
"There are worse things than death. And do you know how much firepower that warship was fielding?"
"Is that like one of those 'how many jellybeans in the jar?' questions?" I asked. "I don't give a shit. Vash gave me the quest, I accepted, and it needs to get done. I need to ask a couple of favors from you before I go."
His eyes narrowed to pale green slits. "I owe you no favors.”
"No, but you DO want to stick it to Soma," I replied. "And both the things I need from you will piss him off."
Istvan thought about that for a minute, then shrugged. "Alright. I confess I’m curious."
"Firstly, I need a quazi. A fast one," I said.
"I see. And the second?"
“Keep Soma away from Karalti,” I said. “If you can.”
The Captain quirked his lips to one side. “Ahh... yes. I had wondered if he was up to something. He has taking the archivists to find every possible book on dragons, and has been trying to cozy up to her.”
“He is.”
Istvan nodded slowly, thinking intently. "Very well. I will do my best, for her Holiness’s sake. You may borrow a quazi. Go to the stables and ask for Temaz. He is a good steed, and swift."
"Thanks." I saluted, as I had the first time we'd met.
"Don't thank me yet, Tuun," he called as I left. "Thank me if you succeed."
Chapter 34
I took a while to brew some potions, made sure all of my points were spent and my skills and abilities were as high as I could get them. Once I was satisfied, I sat down to record a message. The only option was to use the Journal in the Character Log. I set it up, flagged it as ‘Important’, and began to speak.
“Greetings, my future amnesiac self. It’s me, Past-Hector,” I said, watching the blinking red light in front of me. “We’re at war, where the risk of needing to die and respawn is pretty high, but we’ve had a problem with dying and forgetting shit. This is a brief summary of everything that’s happened in the last month or so. I suggest you pause this here, go look at your character sheet, then come back. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. For you. I mean, me.”
After a pause, I rattled off everything I thought future-me might need to know. Where I was, why I was here, who I was with. I forgot Karalti’s name every time, so I talked about her, and Suri as well. I listed off the key NPCs and the ones who were significant, but not necessarily here with us: Ignas, Rutha, Masha. I recorded what I knew of Baldr, Lucien, Violetta and the Demon. When I was done, I gave the log a memorable title and saved it, then headed off to the Dragoon Rookery to go on my first quazi ride.
Temaz was a handsome black, cream and slate blue beast the size of a large horse, and he was nothing like riding a dragon. The saddle was a forward-leaning seat very similar to a sports motorcycle, with straps that went around your legs so you didn't go sailing off to your doom. The up and down motion was jerky and very pronounced, nothing like the graceful serpentine motion of Karalti's back. I immediately gained new respect for the soldiers who were able to shoot - and hit - while flying one of these things.
We flew north-east over the Sarviz River, plunging almost immediately into mountainous semi-tropical terrain that wo
uldn’t have been out of place in Brazil or Argentina. The Highlands were very high, a spread of mossy green hills thick with rainforest, tumbled black mountains, turquoise blue lakes, sinkholes, and streams. It was lush and green, nearly unspoiled, the kind of wild place I had always wanted to see when I was a kid. The air was sweet and fresh, ruffling through the cleverly placed vents on my helmet. Ebisa and Rin were both very good at what they did, and on the journey, I found myself thinking of the King's Blade. I missed her common sense and her cold, shrewd humor, and Ignas's stern but steady presence. In the weeks we'd spent in Vulkan Keep, I'd started to look up to him a bit. I missed the food we all ate together, too - the heavily spiced stews full of fatty lamb and sweet red wines of the Raven Court, the bustling beer halls and food stands of Taltos.
There was little evidence of civilization at five thousand feet. There were small villages here and there, about one every fifty miles, but hardly a soul on the roads below. The terrain was too severe to enable much farmland. The mountains were monstrous, and by the time we reached the mouth of Krivan Pass, great snow-capped volcanic ranges loomed fifteen thousand feet or more over the narrow, shadowed valley where the Pass began. The shipping route ran between high, sheer cliffs formed from hexagonal pillars of black basalt. The sun was setting, the rising golden moon was starting to rise behind the span of a crumbling stone bridge that spanned the entrance. On the right was a ruined keep, half-collapsed and abandoned. The road was wide and clear for about half a mile, then plunged into a thick, lavender-tinted mist.
Temaz and I landed on the road beneath the bridge, lured by traveler's rests built into the volcanic stone cliffs, with firepits, hitching posts, and bed-like depressions worn into the stone floor. I fed the quazi some fish and ate some trail rations, set a timer for three hours, and wrapped myself in my cloak to get some shut-eye and refill my stamina.
Two hours later, the earth shook me awake.
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