by Andrew Novak
“I saw the airship. Eh, forget about it,” Jack hurried to direct Sartorius’s thoughts away from this slippery topic. “Tell me, how much farther do we have to sail?”
Where did that put him? Had he been right, that the sighting of the airship was somehow connected with the Service to the Dark, and with Jack’s actions? And the events that followed attracted the alphas’ attention? Not just any alphas, the top alphas. A regular alpha like Sartorius could not send out an airship of technicians, and then send another to cover up its tracks. Did it mean that the rulers of New Atrium were involved in it? And why destroy all the evidence, shooting at the airship after it went down? Maybe there was an internal conflict among them, and Jack fallen into something serious? Too serious for a simple omega citizen.
No, Sartorius was not involved in it, so he didn’t know anything. They probably hid the information from the likes of him, too. The conflict was happening in the upper levels. And Jack needed to be careful, not only in the game but in real life as well.
“Two days left until Fan-Go, so the day after tomorrow, in the evening I’ll hand in the letter from Hiji to the Captain of the Guard,” the alpha mumbled, monotonously. “After that, it’s up to Khao Nai. This NPC is a rather prominent person in Fan-Go, and may participate in some other quests, in which case we’ll have to wait or find another way to continue on to the north.”
“That’s a long trip,” said Eloise. “Though I don’t mind. It’s very beautiful here!”
“Yeah, it’s a long way,” agreed the alpha. “And I’m not going to enjoy the scenery. I have a lot to do: I need to read the guides on the savages again, see what’s in the Shell, look around in the Gravediggers forum and sort out my magical scrolls. Two days is just barely enough.”
It started getting darker, and they lit the lanterns on the ships that were sailing the Chand. It was a magical view. However, the beauty of Alterra did not touch Sartorius at all. He said that he had some business to take care of, and would meet them again in the morning. With that, he went into the cabin to leave virt. Jack and Lisa also had some things to do in real life, but they stayed until dark to enjoy the night view of the river, lit by the lanterns of the ships sailing by, and the occasional lit windows in the houses along river bank.
Alterra lived its own life. Sometimes you could hear bits of music coming from the shore, and other days you came across a ship, carrying people loudly singing a raunchy song in hoarse voices. From time to time the tune would be interrupted by a woman’s shriek and bursts of laughter. Once they passed by a burning village. The horseriders rushed through the pillars of smoke and flying sparks, tiny figures scattering away from them into the darkness. Zambal shifted the steering wheel, and the Runner turned to the other bank to avoid being close to some stranger’s war.
“Hey, captain, what’s going on over there?” Lisa called to him.
“The Lahitte nomads,” he muttered, “they went raiding again, damn bastards. One of the steppe khans decided take a haul on banks of the Chand. As if you can make money that way! It would be better to invest money in sea transportation, as real men do.”
He was an Achaean, and they were a trading people. So Zambal was assigned such lines. Jack accepted his remarks as fact, and Lisa was excited by them. For her, Alterra was still an unexplored territory, even in such mundane things. In the end, they decided to go back into reality, where even on a narrow bed in a miserable trailer, adventures sometimes happened.
Jack woke up at dawn. He could not understand what made him wake up so early. Lisa was sniffling quietly, her nose buried in his shoulder. Jack carefully snuck out from under her hand and looked at the girl. An amazing creature. In the game, she looked rather small, but in real life she managed to occupy the whole bunk, which, as Jack used to believe, was quite roomy, even for such a big guy like him. Sitting in a chair, he put on the virtual helmet and turned on the console.
In Alterra, of course, he was already dressed and armed, so he stepped right away out of the cabin and onto the deck. Alterra greeted him with cries and curses.
The Runner was gliding on the waters when someone yelled in a hoarse voice from the shore where a small castle stood on a steep bank,
“Come on, turn into the pier! Customs inspection! This is property of Lord Fanagor, and all who sail by must pay a fee! Hey, you, on the ship! Are you deaf? We’ve got a ballista here!”
“And I’m captain Zambal!” roared a black-bearded Achaean in response, leaning on the steering wheel to steer the ship away from the shore. “And I don’t pay taxes to anyone! Not to you, to your master, nor to his ballista! Let him shoot himself right through with it!”
The Runner turned around. The sail slammed overhead as the wind filled it at the new tack. Jack estimated the distance to the castle: an arrow from the ballista could still be a threat, but in half a minute, the ship would leave its range of fire. He looked further down along the river, and the far bank, low and flat, was covered with thickets of sedge. Spreading apart the thick green shoots, the nose of a boat appeared and then next to it, another one. The two boats hastily raised their sails and rushed across to block the path of the Runner.
Chapter Fourteen. Pursuit, Boarding, and Another Romance
"ZAMBAL, CAREFUL! Ambush!" roared Jack, rushing to the cabin. He paused at the threshold, to be sure: the captain did see the new danger. Then he burst into the cabin and popped out into reality.
All was quiet there. Absolutely nothing had changed. Lisa was still sleeping and morning in the ghetto had only just begun. Omegas, as a rule, tended to rise later. The later the next difficult day began, the shorter it seemed and less trouble it could bring.
Jack gently shook Lisa's shoulder:
"Hey, wake up!"
And when she opened her eyes, he tossed a console and headset onto the bed beside her.
"They're attacking us, let's go! I promised you a fun life in Alterra, and so it continues.
Naked and in a virt-headset, the girl looked so, ahem... attractive, that he was afraid: another moment longer, and he wouldn't be able to leave her for Alterra. So he quickly threw himself into virt. Lisa stepped from nowhere into the cabin after him.
"We were attacked. Are you ready to fight?"
"I'm right with you – always," smiled Lisa.
They came onto the deck and a scream crashed down on them after the quiet in reality. The ambush had worked. The Runner, turning away from the castle, lost speed, and those on the boat managed to hoist their sails. Now the light boats were overtaking the heavily laden cargo boat. Jack saw that there were five or six people in each boat. He couldn't read their stats from this distance, but by the color of the letters, he could see that they were players, not NPCs. The pursuers waved their weapons, and red flashes of the rising sun played along the edges. One of the boats was quicker than the other, and there they were already preparing boarding hooks. On the boat that was a bit farther behind, Jack spotted an archer with a strange, unusually massive crossbow. That meant that the crossbowman would provide cover, and the ones in the front vessel would attempt to board the Runner.
The distance between the cargo boat and its pursuers was rapidly decreasing. Should he call the goblins to help? No. They were too small and weak. Only five of the little green guys wouldn't be of much use.
A player in the front boat put his foot on the lower deck and began twirling a cable with a hook overhead. He got ready... and threw it. The cable loops uncoiled in flight with a rustle, and the hook embedded itself in the gunwale. Jack struck and the enchanted sword cut through the steel hook. The pirates hadn't expected that. Instantly, the rope slackened, splashing and throwing up spray, and fell into the waves. The player holding it fell onto his comrades, who were crowded behind him.
The Runner had won a few minutes, but it wouldn't save them from a skirmish – the pursuers were faster. The archer on the slower boat raised the crossbow. Jack forced Eloise to duck down, then dove himself under the cover of the boat's sides. An ar
row penetrated the wall of the deck superstructure with a crack. It was followed by another, a third... the fourth hit the side.
What was with the rate of fire? There had been only one crossbowman, right? Jack cautiously lifted his head and immediately hid it again. Another two arrows struck their ship. He just barely managed to make out that the crossbow looked unusual, as if a flat box was attached to the top on the stock.
"Hey, Zambal," Jack snapped. "What is that he's shooting at us?"
"Chu-ko-nu is what they call this Taunitian filth," the skipper replied. He was also hunkered down at the helm, afraid to stand. "Ged damn the bastards who fight with such dishonorable weapons!"
A multi-shot crossbow? Jack had never heard of these. An idea was starting to form... but now was not the time to turn a new thought around in his mind. It was that the thought was worthwhile, but all the rest would come later.
A rope with a new hook whistled through the air and planted into the gunwale, this time on the far side away from Jack and Lisa. He would have to crawl over there on all fours.
"They're coming from the other side!" a sailor shouted. "Look, the second boat is already on the right!"
Naturally, the pirates wanted to exploit the advantage of their numbers. But that meant the crossbow was now on the right. Jack nodded to Lisa:
"Try to slow down the ones in the second boat, and I'll deal with these."
"Don't worry," she dropped her cloak, demonstrating to the world her magnificent necromancer armor.
In her right hand, Eloise began to build an oily, glowing, green orb of flame. Jack didn't pay any more attention to the second boat and prepared for the fight. Two fighters vaulted over the side where the hook had sunk in, and he met the pirates with a wide sweep of the Shadow of the King. The epic-level blade, as always, cut through his enemies' weapons and armor with no effort. Both fell, flooding the deck with red, liquid textures. Another two came after them. Jack cut them down in midair, again with one stroke. The one who had jumped first, couldn't make it over the gunwale and, raising a fountain of spray, flew back overboard. The one on the left, along with the pieces of his severed curved sword, fell onto the deck.
Jack stepped to the side and felt a painful jolt to his shoulder from behind.
You receive damage!
You lose 4 hit points!
Right behind him, a magical flame hissed, and a roasted pirate howled. Eloise had thrown a lump of green fire at the crossbowman. Jack cut the grappling cable away, pulled the arrow from the chu-ko-nu out of his shoulder, and looked around. Both boats lagged behind, and the fighters remaining on them were scurrying about, maneuvering, and trying to turn the boats to the side, simultaneously lowering their sails. Their master's castle was far behind them and their prey turned out to be too difficult to catch.
Jack ran to quarter-deck toward Zambal and grabbed the steering oar. He pulled hard, shoving the surprised skipper aside and made the Runner start to turn. The rigging creaked, the sail flapped as it lost wind... and the heavy vessel began to slowly turn around.
"What are you doing?" the skipper screamed, unsuccessfully trying to take the wheel back from Jack's hands.
"I need that crossbow!"
Jack pushed harder, and the bearded Achaean staggered back.
"I'll buy you a damned crossbow! When we get to Fan-Go! I'll run to the shop myself! Just give me the wheel! I'll buy it! Later!"
"You'll buy it, as promised! But I need this one!"
Jack took the Runner to intercept the boat with lively tongues of green fire running along it. The remnants of the team were fussing uselessly about, not knowing what to do about this assault. That's right. They had never encountered a necromancer's magic. They played too far away from Nightmare. Kudos to the guys from Alterra Conqueror, who had made Stoglav so huge, that in certain regions, they couldn't tell one kind of magic from another.
The ships collided with a deafening roar. The heavier Runner remained on course, but the inertia rolled the smaller boat, a wave throwing it under Zambal's ship. The yard of the pirate boat fell from the mast and almost pinned the captain to the deck. Jack barely managed to push him out of the way.
The boat was dragged along with the Runner, and Jack, abandoning the wheel, ran along the side. When the boat was under him, he jumped over the gunwale and rushed at the pirates, bringing the Shadow of the King up. However, the pirates lost their nerve and ran shouting to jump overboard. Jack glanced around. The side of the boat was broken by the collision. The little ship was falling to one side and the tip of its mast traced a smooth arc in the bright blue morning sky. Maybe that's why his enemies had fled. Although Jack liked to think it was because they were afraid of him.
He picked up the crossbow from the water gathering at the bottom of the boat, turned around – the Runner was already almost past the sinking boat, its aft in front of Jack. He pushed off with all his strength and jumped. He caught hold of the gunwale and hung there... Two sailors jumped to the side, helped pull him up and rolled him onto the deck. Lisa was beside him in an instant, crouched and holding a bottle of healing elixir.
"Never touch my helm!" Zambal roared, his bravado had already returned. "I'll buy you a chu-ko-nu like I promised. Just don't ever touch my wheel, in the name of all the gods patronized by crazies like you!"
"Five," Jack croaked. "I need five of these things. Definitely need them.”
The door of the cabin swung open and Sartorius stepped out onto the deck. He looked around for a moment, keeping his eyes on the changes that had occurred on the deck: the pallid, melting bodies of the pirates, the red puddles, and the arrows lodged in the wall of the cabin.
"You were having fun again," he muttered.
"And again, without you," Eloise smiled mischievously. "Once again, you missed all the interesting stuff."
"Pirates attacked my Runner," Zambal bellowed from the aft, "but, praise the wise Zaratos, we fought them back! You brought brave companions with you, venerable one."
Sartorius shrugged. Eloise was about to dish out another barbed remark, but Jack took her by the arm and dragged her firmly into the cabin. There, he sat down and began to examine the device on the looted crossbow. It wasn't complicated. In the box was a magazine of ten arrows, the bowstring cocked by the lever.
Jack's idea began to form. He put the weapon down and pulled out the box of goblins. As soon as he pressed the bottom, the cramped cabin was filled with bustling and screeching. The goblins rejoiced at the opportunity to hop around and stretch their limbs after sitting in tight quarters.
"Come on, quiet!" Jack shouted at them. "Everyone listen to me. This thing is called a chu-ko-nu. Clear? This is a deadly weapon and I want to teach you how to use it. Watch..."
The goblins watched their master's hands with respectful concentration as he loaded the magazine into the box of the crossbow, cocked the string, and aimed at the far wall. Then Jack made them repeat his actions. They learned the lesson. That was the advantage of NPCs – they didn't forget and didn't lose abilities. If they got it right once, then you could be sure they would manage it again. Lisa went onto the deck to collect the arrows stuck in the sides, and the goblins mastered one more piece of wisdom: how to equip the magazine. In comparison with a player, the little green monsters were frail, but they were strong enough to cock the bowstring.
The new toy delighted them, ensuing a bout of enthusiasm. All five were tearing the weapon from the paws of the others and they were eager to demonstrate to Jack how clever they were with the cho-ko-nu. It was clear that they would never get bored, but Jack finally took the crossbow back.
"It was a good idea," Eloise said when the training was over. "They throw stones anyway, but the crossbow is much more effective."
"I'm not sure that they could manage with a normal crossbow, but this toy won't require much effort."
"We can cope with anything for the Master!" the goblins chattered. "Just command us! We will win! We will tear all to pieces! We are great warriors! St
rong, agile, terrifying! We faithfully serve the Master! Just give us more! More time to play! Just a little mo-o-o-re..."
"What are they saying?" Lisa asked. She didn't have a translator's ring.
"They're telling you not to pick on our Master."
"He brings it on himself, tell them! If you want to know, I didn't like him from the very beginning."
"But you came to him yourself with the Corrupted Book."
"I liked his wallet, but him – no. You saw how he treats his servants? You saw the kind of housekeeper he had in the tower, Adelia? Although, I didn't like her either, but still, did you see what Sartorius did to her?"
"I don't have another Master for us," Jack made a helpless gesture, "Let's take care of this one."
They stayed on the deck all day. No one else tried to attack the Runner. Jack and Lisa looked over the oncoming ships, towns and villages sailing past, and caravans wandering the roads alongside the river. Steppe animals occasionally came down to a watering place, birds flew overhead... Then Zambal carried wine up for everyone and loudly demanded that they all drink to victory.
By the evening the landscape changed. There were almost no forests or cities, the cliffs disappeared. Now the Chand carried its waters across the steppe. Pale yellow, waist-high grass rippled in waves when the wind blew, herds of antelope swept across the plain, and sometimes a group of horsemen could be seen. The images flowed from one to another. He could watch life in Alterra forever. The huge land lived its own life and Jack often reminded himself that it was not real, it was an image. All these people, animals and landscapes – they were all columns of numbers. But this world was so much cleaner and more beautiful than anything that could be found in real life. The dirt of the ghetto and the gray, withered land of the Blighted Wasteland – were they better than the splendid shores of the Chand?
They only began to come upon settlements the following day. First there were fortresses, multi-colored flags fluttering above them. Their garrisons protected the lands from raids by the Lahitte nomads. Then villages and small towns started to appear more often along the riverbank.