The Crystal Bard: A LitRPG Adventure (Kingmaker Saga Book 2)

by Thomas K. Carpenter

  "More lessons later?" asked Terran hesitantly.

  "No, not today, and you have to leave tomorrow," said Jondar. "Keep up your practice on your journey. We'll resume when you return. In the meantime, you can show Chanterelle the other skills you've developed in your training, like how to hold your breath for a long time."

  Chanterelle tilted her head at Terran.

  "And how is this...oh," she said as he blushed.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Terran awoke in the morning to the sounds of Chanterelle preparing to leave.

  "Get up, lazybones," she said with a wink when she noticed Terran staring at her. "Patrol leaves soon."

  Terran stretched his arms above his head trying to shake off the sleepiness. "I'm still tired. Someone kept me up too late last night," he smirked.

  She threw his leaf armor at him. "No excuses. And I recall that last one being your idea, so you're to blame," she said with a wink.

  Chanterelle continued getting dressed, lacing up her pants and pulling on her leaf armor. As she stepped out of the morning sunlight filtering through the opening and into the shadow to grab her sword belt, her face lost its cheery, playful expression. "I'm not kidding, Terran. Get up now. I won't have you making me late and looking bad in front of my trainees," she said angrily.

  Terran was surprised by her sudden change in mood, but chalked it up to nerves. She was getting ready to lead a group of fairly green warriors on her first assignment. Not wanting to give her more to worry about, he jumped out of bed and quickly got dressed.

  They met the patrol group and replacement loamers gathering at the central fire. Terran was happy they were not the last ones to arrive. He complimented the patrol on their new bows, although he truly hoped they would not have to use them. Chanterelle gave orders to her unit as the final loamer joined the group. There was one loamer for each warrior, so they would travel in pairs. Terran and Luna kept to the back of the party, allowing Chanterelle to focus on her task of leading them safely to the loaming caves, and for Terran to continue annoying Luna with his singing practice.

  The two days it took to travel passed uneventfully, and the party easily made it to their destination. Terran spied little evidence of the peryton throughout the journey, so he hoped it was unusual for the beast to be that far north.

  Terran was eager to ask Kumotake about the Bluestar flower and hoped to leave with Luna immediately to finish that part of the quest. They found him at the Karst Hollow, a verdant grassy region with limestone towers from ancient erosion. Colorful flowers roosted in the hollows of the rocks, while the loamers worked the bases, digging carefully in the rich soil to uncover the valuable loam.

  Rock Elves perched on the limestone towers, their bows at the ready while they scanned the horizon with keen eyes. The ever-watchful scouts relaxed when the patrol arrived, waving and sending their greetings. While Chanterelle checked with her warrior elves, Terran went in search of her father.

  Terran found Kumotake at the camp, which seemed unassuming until he noticed the hammocks high in the trees.

  "Greetings," said Kumotake, giving Terran a surprise hug. "My old eyes are quite pleased to see you at my humble camp."

  "Quite humble," said Terran, glancing around. "Chanterelle is here with her patrol. She'll be staying a few weeks."

  "Wonderful, I'll catch up with her later." Kumotake gestured upward. "We pull everything into the trees at night. There are snorthorns and shock lizards that roam here, especially in the darkness." His lips stretched. "But nightly defenses are not important to you. Let me make you a nice crimwood tea. What brings you here?"

  When they got settled, and Kumotake had poured them each a ceramic mug of spicy tea, Terran explained what he was after.

  "Ah, the Bluestar, beautiful flower," Kumotake said. "Only blooms once a month for an hour on the night of a full moon. That's what makes it so hard to find. You have to know precisely what you're looking for, and wait for it to bloom. It's really easy to miss the small blue flower. My girls and I may be some of the few elves left that know where to find the blooms."

  "I love those flowers," Enoki chimed in when she overheard her father as she was coming back from the loaming grounds. "I'd take you to them, but the next full moon is tonight and we've found a rich vein of loam that we need to recover before scavengers dig it up. There are a few flowers not too far from here in some old ruins on a hilltop. It was once an elven garden. I miss our annual trips to watch them bloom," she finished with a wistful look in her eye and a sad smile on her lips.

  "Your mother really had a knack for finding them," Kumotake said and lovingly squeezed his daughter's shoulder. "We always called them moon flowers. Chanterelle can help you find them—she probably just didn't know their true name is Bluestar."

  They spent a little while longer catching up on the news of the settlement. When Kumotake had to return to the loaming fields, Terran went in search of Chanterelle.

  "How about a night alone in the woods?" Terran asked.

  She turned to him with one eyebrow raised. "I'm intrigued, but we both know there's no time for that."

  "I need someone to help me get the Bluestar flower."

  "Isn't my father going to help you? I thought that was the whole reason you came?"

  "Turns out the Bluestar is what your family called a moon flower. So I guess I could have Kumotake help me, but it seems much more fun to take you instead."

  "Moon flowers, really? My mother loved those." She reflexively looked up to the sky. "The full moon is tonight. It seems we have fortuitous timing."

  You have been given a quest: Investigate the old elven ruins for moon flowers

  Reward: A Bluestar flower

  Date night in the moonlight

  To catch the flower at the proper time, he and Chanterelle left the karst camp as the sun set, stirring the sky to brilliant pinks and oranges. Luna stayed with Enoki, who was her favorite elf, and likely the reason the lynx had come along on the trip.

  The ruins were more than five miles away on a tall hill. As shadows filled the valleys, Terran noticed a change in Chanterelle, as her lips squeezed tight and her brown eyes turned hard. He found it hard to keep up with her as she slipped through the trees like a swift breeze.

  An old path dotted with ancient stones led them up the hill to the elven garden. As they neared the top, Terran stopped watching Chanterelle and refocused his attention on the surrounding landscape. Before they left the safety of the forest, as the crown of the hill was unblemished of tree and drenched in silvery moonlight, Chanterelle grabbed his arm, startling him.

  "There's danger here," she said, glancing all around with her hand on the hilt of the Nightblade. She looked ready to fight. "We should stay in the shadows for safety."

  "We have to go up there and get the moon flower," he said. "We can't stay here."

  She blinked hard as if she'd just remembered their mission. "Right." She shook her head. "We should go up the hill. The moon flower. It only blooms at midnight, and then we'll only have an hour to harvest it. If we miss this, it'll be another month before you get a chance again."

  Her pronouncement was followed by a mournful hoot, a voice like nothing he'd ever heard before. The dreadful call was followed by soft wings gliding overhead and the sound of foliage rustling.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Terran shifted to place his back against Chanterelle's only to find her spot empty. The nimble elf had disappeared, leaving him alone. With no time to discover the reason for her absence, he grabbed a pine cone, preparing himself as the nearby bushes parted, revealing a strange face—full of wide eyes—peering back at him.

  The humanoid creature had mottled gray-and-white skin, fluffy feathers sticking from its temples as if it wore a mask, and glistening wings on its back. Terran let his hand drop, thinking the creature might be friendly, but it flew at him with fangs bared and claws extended.

  The Mothrin crashed into Terran, clawing him across the midsection. He shoved the pine co
ne into the creature's fluffy abdomen, exploding the pine cone, ripping it apart and forcing it to wing away. The speed of the creature's retreat worried Terran as he pulled out two more pine cones and crouched against a nearby tree.

  "Chanterelle," he whispered loudly. "Where are you?"

  A flash of wings overhead that quickly disappeared reminded him that he wasn't alone, and he needed to get to the crown of the hill to find the flower before the midnight hour was over. But neither of those things disturbed him as much as Chanterelle's sudden absence in the time of danger. Her ownership of the Nightblade worried him, especially given that Roald had not taken the weapon for himself, suggesting it had other properties that he did not wish to acquire.

  Further up the hill, along the line of a crumbling old stone wall, shadows shifted like living smoke. Assuming it was Chanterelle, Terran left the safety of the trees, running into the open with his head on a swivel. If he could reach the ruins of the garden at the crown of the hill, he would have some protection from the winged creatures.

  He wasn't twenty feet into the open when a group of Mothrin swooped upon him. Terran threw exploding rock shards at them, not so much to deal damage, but to keep them from ganging up on him. Their soft flesh took enough damage that they swung away. Taking advantage of their evasion, Terran pushed himself to sprint upward, but two more Mothrin caught him from behind, sending him cartwheeling into an old wall.

  The impact knocked him dizzy, but his training with Jondar kept him from losing his breath. He bounced up, throwing rock shards at flying Mothrin to keep them away, but there were too many of them, and they kept coming in waves. Eventually, Terran realized he couldn't maintain his position in the open, and made the short sprint to return to the trees.

  Sensing an opportunity, a Mothrin descended upon him, knocking him to the grass before he could reach the safety of the trees. The creature slashed the back of his calf with its extended claws, hobbling him from further escape. With no deep stone nearby, and the pouch that contained his pine cones crushed behind him, Terran opened his mouth, belting out a Sonic Disruption, but the vocal attack only ruffled the feathery extensions at its temple.

  Five Mothrin surrounded him, bloodthirsty lips smacking with anticipation. He was preparing himself for a quick death when a shadow moved out of the trees like smoke billowing. The inky darkness coalesced into Chanterelle, right as she shoved the Nightblade into the back of the nearest Mothrin. The tip of the weapon stuck from its chest as it howled in pain, sending the others into a frenzy of attacks.

  The opening gave Terran a chance to roll out of the way. He reached into his pouch and threw twin stone shards at the Mothrin, dealing area damage, while Chanterelle slashed between them, almost seeming to skip from spot to spot without actually moving, her weapons slashing away bloody fluff and glistening wings. The Mothrin were so focused on Chanterelle's deadly weapons that Terran escaped their ring and added to the destruction with successive stone shards.

  In the course of thirty seconds, the battle went from near death to complete reversal. When the Mothrin lay in a ring around their feet, and Terran leaned on his knees, not so much tired from the fight, but burning with adrenaline, Chanterelle advanced on him with her blades still drawn and menace in her eyes.

  "Chant?" he asked, stepping back.

  She hesitated, blinking hard before seeming to come out of her trance. Terran didn't relax until she sheathed her weapons.

  "Thanks for the save," said Terran. "I was a little worried for a bit. Where'd you go?"

  She was clearly working through something, so he gave her the room to process it by looting the Mothrin, but when he glanced to the Nightblade at her hip, still exhaling darkness, she put her hand on the hilt defensively.

  "Is it the Nightblade? Is that what's making you different?" he asked as he put the feathery wings and few coins he looted into his inventory.

  "I'm not different," she said. "But stronger. I can help the clan more this way."

  He narrowed his gaze. "What way? You know I've been worried that giving that blade to you was a mistake. Roald didn't take it for a reason. I worry the changes in you is why."

  Chanterelle took a step back, pulling the Nightblade half from its sheath. "Don't you dare take this from me. I won't let you."

  He held his hands up. "Chant. I'm not going to, or hurt you, so you can put it away. I just said I was worried. I need to know why and how it's changing you."

  She glanced to the silvery moon. "You should go to the ruins for the flower."

  "You're not coming?" he asked, his heart skipping a beat.

  "I'll be there in a moment. I need...I need a moment to think about what I'm going to say," said Chanterelle.

  "You're worrying me again, Chant."

  "Go," she said, gesturing up the hill with a slender arm. "First the flower. Then answers."

  The battle had scrambled his sense of time, so he jogged to the crown of the hill, finding a ring of old stone walls filled with old bushes, ragged from their return to wildness. Between the paths, flowers peeked out from the foliage, but he didn't see the blue flower anywhere. Worried that he would miss his opportunity, he sighed in relief when he spied azure petals in the center of the ancient garden.

  The Bluestar flower reflected the moonlight, twinkling as if it were a celestial body. The beauty of the flower caught in his throat, stilling him for a few breaths before he crouched to his knees to carefully dig the flower from the soil and place it in his backpack.

  You have completed the quest to investigate the old elven ruins for moon flowers

  Terran was knocking the dirt from his fingers when he sensed a presence behind him. When he turned, he found Chanterelle, but not as he usually saw her. Her skin normally was like cherrywood that glowed with a slight bronze shine. That tone remained, but atop it, like living tattoos, moved dark lines that followed the contours of her body. The effect was disconcerting, as it was hard to keep his eyes on one part of her, but also alluring, leaving him with a surprising amount of lingering desire.

  "Is that what the Nightblade is doing? Changing you?" he asked.

  She nodded her head to the side. "It wants to change me more, but I haven't accepted it yet. I'm worried."

  He stepped to her and collected her hands in his. "What will it do?"

  "That's the thing. I don't know. I think it's like when you became the Champion of the Mother Tree, but not quite."

  She led them to a nearby rock wall that looked over the valley beyond the hill. Terran thought he saw a glimmer of light on what appeared to be a road, but dismissed it to his imagination.

  Terran held her hand as she sat in silence.

  After a big breath, she said, "It's called the Shadowbane. I don't really understand what it is, or exactly what it wants, but I get the sense it's powerful, like a god, or something similar. The word I keep wanting to use is a house."

  "The House of Shadowbane," said Terran. "Interesting. I remember the Trio mentioning that there were bigger forces at work. Maybe this Shadowbane is one of them. But I don't understand why Roald didn't take the weapon."

  "Maybe they've sided with an enemy of Shadowbane, so he couldn't," said Chanterelle.

  "Are you saying that hopefully? Or does the blade give you that knowledge?" he asked.

  "I think both." She rolled her eyes, a playfulness that reminded him she was still herself. "If that makes any sense."

  "An enemy of my enemy is my friend," said Terran. "But I don't understand what these houses are, because this world was supposed to be fresh. That sounds like something from a more mature world."

  Chanterelle squinted at him. "I don't understand. How can you know this? Is this part of being an offworlder?"

  He squeezed her hand. "Let's just say that my body is riding through the stars toward a destination I'll never get to reach, and while it's there, my mind gets to come here and live out my life. This world was supposed to be fresh, untainted by past offworlders, but I'm beginning to suspect that
is not true. Not after Grimchar, anyway, and now you with this Shadowbane."

  "What you speak of, it sounds so strange to me," said Chanterelle, hanging her head.

  "It doesn't really matter," said Terran with a sigh. "This is my life, our lives, and it's the one I have to deal with. I guess I need to understand that is the reality. Which makes growing the settlement and getting my friends here even more important. If they're playing with a stacked deck, then we better find more allies."

  "What should I do about Nightblade?" she asked.

  "Is that what's making you angry?"

  She furrowed her brow. "Not directly. I think if I embrace it, I'll be less angry, but I'm afraid of what that means. Will I still be a Rock Leaf Elf?"

  "I'm still human, but also a Rock Leaf Elf," said Terran with a shrug. "But I understand your concern."

  As they gazed over the valley to the distant road, a glimmer of torchlight caught their attention.

  "Did you see that?" he asked.

  "I did," said Chanterelle.

  "What is that road? Who's on it?" he asked.

  "It leads to the old fortress in the Jagged Peaks," said Chanterelle. "It's the place the Crag Trolls used as their home base when they destroyed the Mother Tree the first time. I assume that's where they're at now."

  "We should go see who's on that road," said Terran.

  "Are you sure? That's a ways out," said Chanterelle. "We'll have to move fast if we're going to get there."

  "It looks like they're not moving quick, which could be a bad sign," said Terran.

  Chanterelle nodded.

  Together they rose from the rock wall. He let her take the lead since she knew the area and was the better scout. They moved swiftly through the night as the moon lit their path.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The pace Chanterelle set challenged Terran. His thighs burned while keeping up, but he kept his mouth shut and focused on where he placed his feet, trying to move as silently as possible. He gained a few points of stealth along the way, which normally would have been a source of rejoicing, but the mission and the truths about the Nightblade had tempered his thoughts.