by Elian Tars
I left the villagers to train by themselves and, riding Vella, set off into the woods, reminding people that they didn’t have to wait for me as I might come back the next day.
Actually, that was exactly what happened. I spent about day and a half in the thick of the forest, “calming down” every predator I met. Vella spoke to all of my “victims”. I had to admit that all of her “job interviews” looked very convincing, as if the creatures were intelligent beings and not just wild animals. I couldn’t say a word from all their roaring and barking.
Before I left, I asked Kane to widen his surveillance area around Ilyenta as much as possible. Of course, it was impossible to cover the entire area and there was a chance that an enemy could pass unnoticed. Kane’s Bats and two Crows were on a constant move, surveying the territory; if they noticed someone, they would immediately tell me and I would run back to the village at full speed. Was it risky to leave? It definitely was. But I needed energy for the Power of Light.
I had a lot of time to think about our current situation. The Gods obviously didn’t care that Ilyenta was standing in the Decay’s way, though, at first, I thought that it would be the opposite. But I had a lot since then. It was all logical; the Old Man’s congregation was more dangerous than it was useful. The fact that we were capable of defeating small groups of Decayed was nothing compared to how much we could harm the Gods. But I had no idea how exactly we were a threat to them. I lacked information. But I wasn’t about to call my Patron over for a chat. He wouldn’t tell anything unless he wanted to, so what was the point in wasting the faith points?
The next evening I was on my way back to Ilyenta. It got dark long ago; the villagers must have already finished dinner and were probably sleeping. I was a couple of miles away from the village left, when my permanent escort, “Crow No. 1” cawed and, circling in the air, flew down. Hovering in front my face it hissed.
“G-g-g-ue-e-est. Hur-r-r-ry…” Kane managed to say using the bird’s dead vocal cords.
“Come on, honey, let’s hurry up,” I pat Vella’s shoulder; the dog woofed and ran faster. A few minutes later, I saw the eastern border of the settlement. At first I could only see a couple of silhouettes. Getting a little closer, I recognized them; Kane, Mara, Horne, and about ten of the village guards. Everyone was ready to fight, gazes fixated at the girl who had just arrived. Dammit, was I really glad to see her?
My approach didn’t pass by unnoticed. Everyone seemed to let out a sigh of relief; everyone except Kane, who just shook his head, and the zombie-bull who was still furiously thumping the road with his hooves.
“Daerk? Changed your name again, huh?” Una chuckled. The girl was smiling haughtily as usual, but there was no fire in her dark eyes anymore. It seemed like she even got a couple of wrinkles. She could do with a drink, a meal and a good rest, forgetting about Zurtarn, Rugus and her duty for at least a couple of weeks. Instead of doing that, she came to Ilyenta. The goal of her visit was more or less clear. At least, the official part of it; there was no way that Rugus sent his most trusted person just to help an ally while his enemies were pressing him from all sides.
“I’m glad to see that you’re alive and mostly safe and sound,” I smiled back at her, jumping off the dog’s back. I approached her and outstretched my hand for a handshake. The girl chuckled and hugged me, patting my back.
“Me too,” she said quite vigorously. “But enough with sentiments.”
The girl made a step back and looked me in the eyes: “I hope you understand that you need our help again.”
I decided not to argue with her. I invited Una, Kane and Mara to my house as I wanted to discuss the vital issues in a comfortable place and away from prying eyes. Thanking the guards for their hard work and ordering them to return to their posts, we went along the empty village street. I was right; there was no light in any of the windows, people were fast asleep after a hard day of work.
“I think I’ll join you, too, Gleam-gan,” Rira approached us, getting round the corner of my house.
“Who’s that, Daerk?” Una got tense at once.
“Glozeysk,” I answered calmly. The sorceress’s eyes got wide and she stared at the girl. “Come in, I’ll explain everything.”
The conversation was strange to say the least. Present were a real God in the body of a simple village girl, and a Gleam, through whom another God watched was happening and transmitted his thoughts and words about the issues that piqued his interest to Una, thus participating in the conversation from time to time. And then there were we — two Old Man’s Followers and a zombie. Our Patron hadn’t express even the slightest desire to let us know about his presence.
For the next two hours we discussed the current state of things and the plan of protecting the Lake of Grace. Glozeysk would finish his arrangements by noon tomorrow. Our enemies didn’t know that he was helping us, so no one would try to get in his way. I sincerely hoped that nobody would attack us tomorrow because our enemy didn’t have enough information to give them a reason to hurry; they, too, had an opportunity to prepare for their operation.
Oh, how naive I was.
“Nobody get too relaxed yet. There’s a 98% chance that Ilyenta will be attacked tomorrow. Most likely, it will happen somewhere between six to ten p.m.,” Glozeysk brought me back to reality. I didn’t know whether he had read my thoughts or just decided to highlight the importance of the moment.
“Maybe you are mistaken?” Una frowned.
“Don’t count on it, Gleam-lar.” he replied, using another suffix when talking to her. “Don’t look at me with such skepticism. I mean, yes, mistakes do happen sometimes. No one’s immune to them. But let’s leave that for now and get to the details. Rugus,” he said, looking Una right in the eyes, “have you taken care of the reinforcements?”
The sorceress raised her eyebrows in amazement. Glozeysk’s presence surprised her at first, but all three of the Gods, those of Darkness, Control, and Knowledge, definitely knew about each other’s role in the upcoming venture. I wasn’t surprised that Rugus also kept some things from his Gleam.
Una got a grip of herself at once and calmly answered.
“The Great One says ‘yes’.”
In its entirety, the conversation was a productive one. After it had ended, each of us had a general idea of what to expect tomorrow.
“Thank you all, Rugus, Gleam-lar,” Glozeysk nodded at Una. “Gleam-gan, Disciple-gan, Wight-lar. I’ll get to work. You get some rest, make yourself comfortable,” he waved his hand, and Rira, regaining control over her own body, looked at us with puzzled expression, blinking like a confused goldfish.
“Did it happen again?” she realized at once. I nodded, smiling. Rira’s gaze stopped at Una. “Good evening, and who are you?”
Mara chuckled loudly and opened her mouth to say something snarky when Kane got up on his feet and beckoned her to the door.
“Rira, you should get some rest too. And I would like to have a word with Una.”
The girl tried to hide her frustration, but didn’t manage to do it well. However, she didn’t argue. A moment later, the sorceress and I were alone.
“You are not going to offer me share the bed with you, are you?” Moving a lock of black hair from her face, the girl smiled and materialized a bottle of wine, some cheese, a piece of meat, and a loaf of bread.
“No,” I shook my head, taking my late dinner out of my inventory. “You are going to sleep on the floor.”
Honestly speaking, at first I wanted to send her to sleep at Rira’s. But the idea of having the Gleam of Rugus and Glozeysk’s puppet under one roof on my territory scared me. I couldn’t deny the fact that the Gods were probably able to meet each other at any time in some “plane of the Gods”. But they needed to get there. Simultaneously. It definitely would take some time and energy to do it. Gods were, as I had noticed, very much like us humans, which meant that without they wouldn’t move a muscle unless they really needed to do so. But if they happened to already be
in one room that would be a quite different matter. In that case they could have a nice chat about all sorts of things.
“Is that a way to treat a lady?” Una shook her head, making a sandwich. “Oh, men these days.”
I decided not to engage in such a conversation with her, as I hadn’t changed my opinion about the man-woman relations. Yes, the sorceress was a pretty lady, and yes, Euphoria had some positive effects from. However, the buff lasted for a few hours; the scale could then stay in the “yellow” zone for a month. Also, I had enough problems even without that.
“Listen,” I decided to change the subject. “How did you manage to escape?”
The girl became sad and tired.
“Barely,” she said. “But Jerome died.”
“I’m sorry,” I said quietly.
Though the guy behaved defiantly, he didn’t deserve to die. And even though we had known each other for only a couple of days, the news about his death hurt me. We fought together and that meant a lot. And the worst part of it was that the guy died so that I could escape.
“This is war, Daerk,” Una said. “A lot of my friends didn’t survive it. Do you think they deserved to die? What… What’s this all for?”
“What do you mean?” I asked cautiously.
“Why have our Gods decided to go against other Gods? Why are they looking for this Zurtarn thing? What is the Cradle of Gods?” She leaned forward and covered my hand with hers. “Daerk…” she said in a quivering, without taking her beautiful eyes off me. “Why are we, Gleams, fighting in this world?”
I hated this world precisely because I couldn’t trust anybody. In front of me was a nice girl who was about to cry, and who wanted to engage in frank and sentimental conversations… But she was a loyal servant of the God of Control. What else did they do if not play with people’s hearts?
“I don’t know,” I said as calmly as I could. “What do you think about it, Rugus?” I looked her in the eyes.
The girl removed her hand and chuckled.
“Well, aren’t you smart? Fine, I’m tired. I’ll go to sleep.”
Swaying her hips, she went to the other room. Materializing a bedroll, she spread it on the floor and stretched. As soon as I realized that I was staring at her through the doorframe and that she had manipulated me, I silently stood up and went to bed.
“Good night,” I heard her sneering voice.
If one thought about it, she and Mara were rather similar. It was probably harder for women with a more mellow character to survive in the harsh corporate world. On the other hand, this dark world was full of strong and self-confident women. Nothing like that happened in our Middle Ages, according to historians. I wondered if emancipation in this world was connected to the fact that there were a lot of Goddesses, and not just Gods.
Speaking of them… The Old Man still hadn’t contacted me.
I was busy, boy, said a familiar voice.
“Simplified Call of the Patron” has been activated.
You have spent 20 faith points.
I was just about to call you, I answered. Are you busy? Do you have time for a long chat?
Chapter 29
Allies
The Old Man didn’t tell me anything new, but the conversation turned out to be very useful. He approved of the plan we’ve developed with our allies, and he gave me a personal quest, the likes of which I was going to do anyway. I spent half of the following day fulfilling it.
During my absence Shawn arranged the evacuation. Those who couldn’t fight went east into the forest, taking all the valuables with them; a few dozens of Wolves were appointed to escort the “refugees”. Out of one hundred and eighty residents of Ilyenta, one hundred and twenty remained, intensely preparing to protect the Lake of Grace.
“My friends!” I held a speech in front of the villagers before leaving. “I have to inform you that Followers of other Gods want to destroy Ilyenta. They are jealous of you and of the power that the God of Darkness gave you, because with your abilities you’ll soon become stronger than any baron’s or any mercenary squad. Besides, you are free; you fight for yourselves, your families, and your God! You fight for a rightful cause! Those who envy you can’t compete with that! They want to destroy both us and the Lake of Grace! And that’s why we’ll probably have to fight a hard battle today! And we will definitely win! Do you hear me?! We will protect the Lake! We won’t let the people who leave whole villages to die win today. The God of Darkness is with us! And we have allies! The Followers of Rugus are with us! The Baron Alv Gotz, the governor of Shelt, who you paid your taxes to, will be with us today! He won’t be looking down on you, as he did before! He will treat all of us like equals!”
I spoke a lot and with gusto, highlighting the righteousness of our cause and trying to bring to their attention that fighting the enemy was their own choice. In my speech, I inflated the sense of self-importance of the residents of Ilyenta, making them believe that they were as good as professional warriors, and that the difference in levels was compensated by their morale and powers of Darkness. I needed them to believe in themselves, so that it would never occur to them to run away or hide in a dirty shed.
I hoped I did my job well. I saw righteous anger in the eyes of some of my fighters.
Una didn’t sit idly either; she went to Rugus’s Abode, teleported ten Disciples from there and together with them went to meet Baron Gotz and his army. Yesterday, at our war council, she told us that Rugus made Gotz a Disciple and hinted to him that he had a chance to save his castle and people from Decay. According to Una, the ruler of Shelt was the type of nobleman who would do anything to keep his power and influence. Gotz would never sell all of his valuables and run away from the decayed lands, but he wouldn’t go to the count with a bunch of knights and bow down to him either.
At about three in the afternoon, I rode back to Ilyenta, moving from the east, and met our first patrol a couple of miles away from the village.
“Easy, men, relax! It’s our Senior Disciple!” I heard Golin’s voice from afar. Coming closer, I greeted two Wolf-riders and three horsemen — Baron Gotz’s men.
“Our forces have already united,” I smiled. “That’s good. When did you arrive?” I asked our new allies.
“At noon, hmm… Sir.”
Wishing them luck, I rode further, savoring the word “sir”. I couldn’t say that I was enjoying this servility, but it was necessary to make your status known, otherwise you could lose the already thin treads of control that you had over the situation. From the baron’s people’s point of view, I was an important religious person and an ally just as strong as their own “sir”. Being just a man, I would be fine being on first-name terms; but being first after the God of Darkness, I couldn’t allow such familiarity.
There were three men in the next patrol, and the last one had only two. We didn’t have enough men for full patrols of five. Their main task was to rush at full speed back to Ilyenta once they’ve notices the enemy. We shouldn’t count just on our winged zombie-scouts.
I noticed that Gotz’s soldiers would occasionally look at me with a strange mixture of wariness, bewilderment and what seemed to be respect. That must have been the effect of my current status, together with the upgraded Gloominess.
The village was pretty busy as both the villagers and Gotz’s fighters were running back and forth. People were preparing for the fight by fortifying their positions and building barricades. Having exchanged a couple of words with Shawn, I learned where to find Una and our guest, the baron, and then went to the Lake.
There was a lot of action around the Lake, too. At first, the Lake was situated outside the territory of the village and wasn’t protected, but several days ago, I ordered to build a fence around it. So now people were hastily finishing up what they hadn’t done earlier. Soldiers were also helping the villagers though they looked at them with barely concealed disdain.
Our guest, in the company of three, level 100 knights and Una, was sitting in the shadows, tal
king quietly to the sorceress about something. Encased in armor with bluish glint, he was a fair-haired man of about forty with a neat beard. Once he saw me he fell silent and ceased smiling.
Baron of Shelt, Alv Gotz
Level 104
HP: 5987/5987
“Here comes our dear ally!” he exclaimed, standing up and striding in my direction, “Glad to meet you, Daerk!”
He shook my hand and hugged me like we were old friends. “Can we be on first name terms?”
“As you wish, Alv!” I smiled. “How was the trip?”
“Nice. You know, if I wasn’t thinking that I was leading my soldiers to slaughter, I would’ve felt like I’m on falconry. Although, people die there too.”
“Why the pessimistic mood, Alv?” I asked, theatrically surprised. “We’re going to win.”
“I really hope so, my friend. I hope that our masters will help us and that they’ll effectively reap the fruits of our labor after we’ve enjoyed the victory a little bit. By the way, if we all survive, I would like to meet you in my castle. You’ve deprived me of a stream of taxes I got from this village. But I’m sure that our meeting will prove useful for all of us! I will be willing to forget about this little misunderstanding if that means saving my castle,” he continued smiling, but looked at with the eyes of a hungry predator. Was it just me, or did this man not fully yet realize that he had become a Disciple, and was now trying to take care of his own interests? Well, one didn’t exclude the other.
“Alv, you’re undoubtedly right,” I gave him a sincere smile, “only united can we stand against the enemy. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s the Followers of other Gods or the Decay. Have you discussed the plan of the upcoming battle with Una?”
“Of course, my friend.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Then you’ll excuse me. I’ll see you at the general meeting later today.”
“I’ll see you there,” he assured me.