In Service of the Pharaoh (League of Losers Book #2)

by Michael Atamanov

  For the first time, I regretted not taking Healing Magic. That would have been handy now. Maybe I would have been able to save my master. His pale face and the spreading pool of blood beneath him didn’t go unnoticed to Avelia either. “Do you need help, Sergeant?” she asked, cocking her head.

  “No, I’m fine,” Sergeant said, then tried to stand up and… fell down on his side, unconscious.

  Avelia started to rush forward, but stopped herself. The Swordmaiden hesitated, glancing up at the tall tower, then at the daggers in her hands, then at the exit from the fortress. I think I understood her train of thought. If any spying sherkhs saw her helping her ‘brother’s killer,’ there would be serious consequences. The most tempting way out in this situation was to send this human on death row to the graveyard, killing him to end his suffering. Only it was unlikely that Sergeant would appreciate that kind of ‘help,’ and the Swordmaiden needed help from him. Avelia Un Ponar made her decision. She sighed, sheathed her daggers, went into stealth and hurried to the exit from the old fortress. She abandoned my master to bleed to death. Bitch!

  I had to act alone. After casting a longing glance at the nearby corpse of a rock lizard — my rumbling stomach reminded me that it had been a full day this kitten last ate — I transformed into a beetle, raised the hard covers over my wings and spread them. Upwards, to wake up Julie! Although the Veterinarian specialized in treating animals, not humans, she’d try her best to save her brother. With a loud buzz, I flew my beetle body up to the top floors of the tower and flew through the window.

  Transformation Magic skill increased to level twelve!

  The spell’s effect ended and I transformed back into a kitten again. Just in time.

  “Meow!” Meow!” I started rubbing my face against Julie’s cheek, but she just waved me away and rolled over. “Go away, Whiskers! I’m trying to sleep!”

  The thought occurred to me to wake Julie up in my beetle or arachnoscorp form — I remembered the girl asking her brother over and over again the night before to make sure there were no dangerous insects in the tower. The little level 15 Veterinarian was terribly afraid of bugs. She’d wake up instantly if I touched her face with my chitinous legs! Only how would I make sure she didn’t stab me with her harpoon, or worse, faint in fear?

  I jumped onto Julie’s back and tried to wake her up, but failed again. She pulled the light sheet over her head and ignored me completely. I don’t know what I would have done next, but an unexpected turn of events solved the problem for me — the rope left by Sergeant suddenly stretched taught and began to twitch rhythmically, then Avelia Un Ponar appeared in the window. Wow. So she’d changed her mind and decided to help after all!

  “Get up! Your brother needs help!” the Swordmaiden shouted as soon as she got into the room.

  Julie woke up instantly, threw off her sheet and stared at the sherkh stranger. The veyer woke up too, his eyes just as wide in surprise as Julie’s. Avelia repeated her words and asked whether the little human girl needed help to get down the rope from the tall tower into the courtyard. Julie cast a doubtful glance at the attached rope, stood, walked to the window and looked down. Right away, she saw her brother lying on the rocks and, instead of using the rope to get down, she called the Marsh Mistress. The little Veterinarian climbed onto the arachnoscorp’s back and went down into the palace courtyard that way.

  “Go help her!” the Swordmaiden commanded the winged boy, pointing at the window.

  The veyer didn’t understand human speech, but through tone and gesture she made her meaning clear to the thief, along with the consequences for refusing. Avir Tan-Hoshi nodded and flew through the window. Avelia, now alone in the shelter at the top of the tower, began to look around interestedly. The little kitten she didn’t take seriously. She felt no shame at all before me. She checked the pots on the shelves, put a clay cup and bowl in her belt bag. She looked into the pot, chuckled with satisfaction, pulled a wooden spoon from a knee-high boot and started eating the cold leftovers of the mushroom stew. I didn’t intervene, just watched the girl.

  Sated, Avelia continued her examination of the room. The salt didn’t catch the Swordmaiden’s interest, but she took the edible plants the veyer had left on the shelf. Once done with the kitchen, the long-eared girl continued to explore the tower’s rooms. She peered for a long time down the hole where the staircase had collapsed, even shifted the planks and dropped a heavy stone down into the darkness to judge the height. She examined the big water tower, cast a somewhat disgusted glance at the life teeming in the water, but apparently still felt it was good enough to wash in, because she started to undress.

  Wow! For the second time in two days, I was watching a live striptease from this fearsome, deadly woman. But yesterday, when the Swordmaiden had been fixing her clothes by the fire, she’d stayed in her underwear… it seemed I was about to get a more exciting encore. It must be said that out of all the races inhabiting the new world, the sherkhs are the most alike to humans. Only their long elf-like ears, slightly slanted eyes and too-sharp facial features differentiated them as another race. And Avelia was stunning, too. But alas… Before taking off her final items of clothing, the Swordmaiden suddenly disappeared into stealth. I couldn’t hold back a “meow!” of disappointment.

  “Aba!” the invisible girl gasped in response to the cold water.

  Choose the learnable skill Translator for your character?

  Hmm. Maybe not, actually. It would be a useful skill, but it didn’t fit at all with my plans for leveling up my little curse-casting mage. After choosing the Conjurer skill to allow me to combine spells, I only had one skill slot left, and I wanted to spend it wisely, on something really necessary.

  Avelia bathed for the next ten minutes, laughing happily and splashing me as I set at the edge of the pool. I meowed in displeasure, but didn’t leave. I was enchanted by the unusual and somewhat erotic sight. Although I saw only a fine water outline, it perfectly showed all the curves of her young feminine form. Ah, why was I a kitten and not a man? Although if I had been a man, Avelia would never have been so open and free with me. In fact, I had no doubt she would have killed me. Finally, the girl had enough of swimming, took a thin towel out of her bag and dried herself off thoroughly. She spent a long time running a bone brush through her invisible hair, then rubbed her whole body with an ointment to protect against insect bites. Then she reached for her clothes and soon reappeared in her full black bodysuit.

  After her bath, her investigation of the tower continued. Next in line was the library. I thought the Swordmaiden might take an interest in the old books, but she ignored the lichen-covered tomes completely. Strange. As for me, I’d spent the day before perusing all the books that were still legible — they contained ancient maps and drawings of some mysterious islands, a multitude of images of fantastical birds and even dragons, blueprints for sailing ships and strange, arcane mechanisms. The game system invited me several times to take the Cartography, Mechanics and Engineering skills, but I made myself refuse each time — they were very tempting, but unsuitable for my character. But I’d raised the Bookworm skill yesterday by a whole nine levels, up to level eleven. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any new spells in the books — the tower’s former owner didn’t appear to be a spellcaster, but some sort of scientist or traveler, and the books in their library reflected that.

  Alongside my study of the books, I’d also been practicing my Elemental Magic. I’d even tried to create and cast spells from different classes of magic, but hadn’t made great strides yet — the spells cost a lot of Magic Points and rarely worked. I didn’t have much mana yet, and it regenerated slowly, so I was very limited in my magical experiments. Although Elemental Magic, Conjurer and Mysticism leveled up from my studies too — to six, three and twenty-two accordingly. And just before I went off to sleep, I got a character level for my efforts! Level twenty-one.

  After the library, the Swordmaiden tried to climb to the very top of the tower, to the collapsed roo
f. She tried to clear away the rocks blocking her path and even looked out the windows in search of ways round. In the end, she abandoned it as too risky. But then Avelia did something strange. The girl began to pace along the walls, measuring their length in steps, then started knocking on them. Something was bothering the Swordmaiden. She even picked up a splinter of wood and started drawing a floorplan of the tower’s rooms and floors on a damp wall. I watched her create the diagram with ever growing interest. Apparently, there was another room into which neither Sergeant nor anyone else had found an entrance. After arriving at this conclusion, Avelia returned to the library and began to throw ancient crumbling tomes down off the bookshelves, then pulled the bookshelves themselves down on top of them. One by one they fell, and then there it was — a wooden door, darkened from time and damp.

  Avelia took a heavy hammer from the workshop and started to break through the old door. The wood was rotted through; it didn’t take the Swordmaiden long. After making an opening, Avelia climbed through the dark hole. I followed right behind her.

  ATTENTION! You found the first of eight hidden areas in the game’s starter zone!

  The rate at which you gain experience and skills has been tripled.

  Duration: 48 hours.

  Woah! What a lucky find! It wasn’t just the buff to experience I was celebrating, it was the treasury that opened up before us. A round room with shelves of books and scrolls running all the way around, and they were well preserved! Some of the books and scrolls glowed, speaking to magic power within. I was the luckiest cat ever! I could spend a whole year learning new spells and studying here!

  Two large wrought-iron chests stood at the room’s center. Between them was a stone pedestal, and upon it… my ears pricked up in excitement… there shone a golden magical artifact card!

  Spheres of Invulnerability (single-use artifact). Sphere radius: 6 feet. Spell duration: 8 seconds.

  A most useful item for any player! And for a fighter, thief or mage, simply priceless. It allows you to save one of your remaining lives! Avelia had more than enough Intellect to see the value in what she’d just found.

  “Puro vinto! Abal!” the Swordmaiden said, swearing in her own tongue. She walked to the pedestal and quickly hid the artifact away in her bag.

  Uh-oh! She shouldn’t have done that! It was obvious that this girl was from another world and had never seen any Indiana Jones movies. Ancient treasuries was always protected by deadly traps. Something clicked beneath Avelia’s feet. At the same time, a fine beam of red light stretched out from the pedestal up to the ceiling.

  Luck check failed!

  Wait, what!? What had I done wrong? While the girl hesitated, not knowing what was going on and examining the red light, I was already rushing back to the entrance. In the meantime, the tower began to shake dangerously. Stone shards and chunks of plaster fell from the walls and ceiling. To the window, fast! I had to turn back into a beetle and fly out of there!

  “Non migo! Uvari! Yom shashun babakh!” It turned out the Swordmaiden was rushing to save herself as well.

  Avelia scooped up my tiny kitten frame as she ran and unceremoniously stuffed me into her bag, tying it closed tightly over my head. The girl probably thought she was doing a good deed, saving me. But she was more hindrance than help — without Avelia, I could have just flown out the window. Now I froze, not knowing what to do. I generally tried not to reveal my magical abilities to strangers, and I couldn’t escape from the bag without them. Some leaps, some shuffling, the clatter of falling stones… It felt like the Swordmaiden was flying down that rope as fast as she could, but I didn’t know if she’d make it before the tower collapsed. I no longer had any doubt that the tower was coming down — the crash of falling stone was overpowering!

  Radar Ear skill increased to level twenty-three!

  But as it turned out, the Swordmaiden wasn’t given command of a scout squad for looking pretty, but for her exceptional agility, speed and combat skills. Avelia was quick enough to reach the ground and run to a safe distance before the old tower finally collapsed. The earth shook. I couldn’t see what was happening around us, but based on the sound, I figured it out.

  Avelia was breathing heavily and walking somewhere.

  “Where’s Whiskers?” I heard Julie say in alarmed tones. “Is he under the stones?”

  The Swordmaiden patted her bag.

  “I saved him!” she called. “And I’m keeping this kitten as a reward for helping to save your brother!”

  Next the bag started twitching rhythmically — Avelia hadn’t stayed to listen to the little human girl’s objections. She took to her heels to run far away from the old fort. I couldn’t believe my ears. What? She was kidnapping me? If only I were a human, I would have laughed at the very thought. A normal kitten could easily be stolen from its owners. But how could one keep hold of a creature that could turn invisible, transform into other creatures and fly, crawl and swim underwater, poison and stun enemies, and use magic to protect itself? I couldn’t wait to see how my kidnapper would handle that, and how long her nerves would last while she tried to keep a kitten that didn’t want to be kept!

  Chapter 6 [Sergeant]

  Return to the River Island

  I CAME BACK to reality fast, as if breaking the surface from underwater. Ugh… My back was killing me. My health bar was half empty, and my stamina was at zero. I felt broken all over, with a fuzzy head like it was the morning after a hard night’s drinking. And where was I? I carefully turned my head, though even that simplest of movements was hard to do. The Marsh Mistress walked alongside me, riderless, pressing her way through the undergrowth of vines and hanging roots. She was almost up to her torso in green, murky water. A little further along in the shallows swam both my creeping crocodiles. As for me, I seemed to be lying on the back of giga-komodo Atlas. And I wasn’t wearing my armor. Before that fact could alarm me, I noticed my bone-plate armor in a bundle attached to the Marsh Mistress’s saddle.

  I heard my sister’s voice, cheerfully talking about the school friends she left behind in the old world. There was a thick bandage on my body all the way around my torso. I kept my hands off the bandage just in case, but it was that, along with the pain in my back, that finally brought the memories crashing down. The attack from that sherkh madman, Avelia killing her own brother, the arrow stuck beneath my shoulder blade… That meant I must have lost consciousness after my injury, and Julie had been nursing me back to health. My sister managed to lead the animals out of the old fortress all on her own and had reached our familiar river meadow, picked up Katy and Tick-Tock, and continued on. The area seemed somehow familiar. Oh, now I recognized it! We were on the bank of the big river, halfway between the river meadow and Rumbler’s Refuge. So we were almost back. My sister was a smart cookie! I turned my head the other way, to look at Julie and thank her for the help.

  But what was THAT? Apart from Julie holding the reins, with her white lizard Snowflake on her shoulder with its ginger crest, I also saw a back shrouded in black wings. It was that veyer thief. And with the sherkh’s crossbow and quiver of bolts. What the hell was he doing here? I asked the question aloud. My sister turned.

  “Hey, brother, you’re awake! Oof, you scared me! As for Avir Tan-Hoshi, don’t shout at him. He really helped a lot with the operation! I wouldn’t have been able to pull that arrow out without him. It was deep. The veyer has really fine fingers. He could have made a great Healer if he hadn’t chosen the path of Thief. Afterwards, when the tower collapsed, we pulled your body onto the arachnoscorp together. And he climbed up next to me. I couldn’t just chase him away! Anyway, how would I tell him? I don’t know a single word in his language, and he doesn’t speak ours either. He’s been riding with us ever since.”

  I noticed that Julie had already reached level seventeen. The surgery must have been really tough for my sister to gain a whole two levels. I’d caused these two quite some trouble. Alright, to hell with it, the veyer could ride with us. I wasn’t
about to be ungrateful. But it was something else in Julie’s words that really caught my attention. The old tower had fallen down? Although, come to think of it, that wasn’t much of a surprise. But my backpack full of all our things was in there!

  “I found your backpack in the rubble. It’s all dusty and a little ripped, but mostly fine. Even that sealed jug inside survived somehow. But Whiskers…”

  Only then did it occur to me that I couldn’t see my kitten. He usually rode beside me, so quietly that I often forgot about him. Had my furry little pet died?! But my sister soon calmed me down; she explained that the long-eared Swordmaiden had kidnapped Whiskers. Although Julie herself was worried and berated herself for not somehow stopping the sneaky kidnapper, I was actually glad she didn’t try — my sister would have had no chance at all of going up against Avelia and thwarting her plans.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll be meeting Avelia soon, and then I can get Whiskers back. And our kitten isn’t just any kitten, you know. He can stand up for himself. If he doesn’t like his new owner, he’ll just run away from her and come back. But it’s good that you figured we needed to get away from the old fortress. That sherkh who attacked me won’t back down. He’ll come after me again and again. Better if we have the protection of the village next time he attacks.”

  “By the way, I have his things,” my sister said, digging around in her backpack. “A few throwing knives, a couple of curved daggers, infrared goggles and a radio with no batteries. I gave the crossbow and bolts to Avir Tan-Hoshi, since it needs the Crossbows and Ranged Weapons skills, and we don’t have those.”