A soft chuckle made its way across the telepathic link. ‘That’s fine. Enjoy it if you can but be careful. After all that training, it would be a shame to lose you.’
‘Yeah, losing two summoned people would be really bad. I’ll try not to let it happen.’
~~~
‘Okay, so, I’m sorry to bring this up, but I simply don’t buy the story about this elf you’re looking for being named after the Cadorian in the legends.’ The party were in the Sword and Staff again, drinking again but far more slowly than the night before, and Mimi was curious. She also knew too much about elves. ‘ No one would do that. It’s considered really bad luck because he vanished right after his greatest victory.’
‘It could happen,’ Aneshti countered. She did not sound especially convincing.
Kana sighed. ‘Maybe it could, but it didn’t.’
‘Kana…’
‘I don’t think it’s enough of a secret to keep it from them.’
Kana looked around her three new friends, catching the eyes of each. ‘That said, I’d rather it wasn’t blabbed around everywhere.’
‘Of course,’ Mimi replied. Constance and Rain gave shrugs which looked like agreement.
‘The reason Cadorian vanished all those years ago is that he was summoned through time to now. The spell that was used… It sort of grabs the hero you need from wherever it can find them.
Apparently it’s rather unreliable but in this case it seems to have worked as well as it can. Cadorian killed Serpens in the past. Now he’s here trying to stop Serpens from being resurrected. Except that he’s gone missing.’
‘Wait, Serpens can be brought back?’
‘There were rumours,’ Constance said. ‘When I was with the satanists, there were rumours that the dracs were trying to bring Serpens back and that a group of satanists were trying to help them.’
‘Why?’ Rain asked. ‘I mean, spreading evil, I guess, but Serpens would be bad news for everyone . Except the dracs, I guess.
Maybe.’
‘The rumours said that there was some way of controlling Serpens.
Or that Serpens had made a deal with Satan. They were just rumours. But maybe they weren’t. The dracs have been trying to bring Serpens back for millennia with no luck. Maybe it would take some help from Satan to do it.’
‘It couldn’t hurt, I’d imagine.’
‘So, ultimately, you’re trying to stop Serpens from returning to the world?’ Mimi asked.
‘Not personally,’ Aneshti said.
‘We’re just trying to make sure Cadorian is still free to do it,’
Kana said. ‘Um, I was an earlier attempt at summoning a hero to stop it happening. I wasn’t born on Soken, I was summoned here from another world. But I don’t fit the role, apparently. I can’t honestly see me going up against an ancient, dead dragon, so it’s probably true.’
‘That still sounds like something Soansha would want me to help with,’ Mimi said. ‘I’m up for helping any way I can.’
‘If there is a satanist involvement, or even the possibility of one, I’m happy to help stop it,’ Constance said.
Rain chuckled softly. ‘Anyone with half a brain would be happy to stop something like Serpens turning up. That would be all sorts of bad news.’
‘That’s settled then,’ Constance said with a nod. ‘We’ll help however we can.’
‘Thanks,’ Kana said. ‘Unfortunately, there’s nothing much we can do now aside from keeping our eyes and ears open. I reported what we heard from Raknar. Now I’m waiting to find out whether there are any new instructions.’
‘Makes life easier. Now you’ve got five sets of senses working the problem instead of just two, but we can carry on as we planned until something comes up.’
‘You know it’s unlikely we’ll get paid for any of this, right?’
‘Yes,’ Rain said, ‘but it’s really hard to make money after the world ends, so I think a little effort is economically justified.
Am I the only one who’s stuck on Kana being from another world?’
‘It makes sense,’ Mimi replied.
Constance nodded. ‘It does. It makes sense of some things, like what she doesn’t know.’
Rain snapped her fingers as if a revelation had just appeared before her eyes. ‘Orichalcum! Everyone knows what orichalcum is, even if they’ve never seen it. It’s in more or less all of the legends involving heroes. They all had orichalcum swords and armour.’
‘Yes, and then there are the weird words she uses sometimes.
Whatever it was she said Mitzka was, for example.’
‘Kawaii,’ Kana supplied. ‘It means… cute. Oh, and the burajā you like so much, that’s a word from my native language because there wasn’t a word for them in Alabethi.’
‘Kana invented those,’ Aneshti said, rather proudly.
‘Reinvented. They’re everyday items where I come from. As I keep telling Aneshti, we don’t have magic, so we had to invent things to take the place of it. Occasionally we invented things which just make life easier, like the burajā. When I got sick of breast bands, I talked to some people and we recreated something from my world. I didn’t know it had got as far afield as here though.’
‘Thankfully, it did,’ Mimi said. ‘The two of you are from the White Castle, right? You came from the north. It’s secluded, off the beaten track. And it’s one of the few places I could imagine working up a spell to summon people from other worlds or the past.’
‘Is that a problem?’
‘Depends who you ask. I don’t believe the crap the Mages’ Guild says about the White Castle. I don’t think Constance is going to worry over it.’
‘Not hardly,’ Constance said.
‘I couldn’t care less,’ Rain said. ‘You’ve proven yourselves allies.’
‘Right,’ Mimi agreed. ‘It just fills in the last few blanks. So, the Master of the White Castle is trying to stop Serpens from being resurrected.’ She paused, staring at the ceiling for a second or two. ‘Huh, being on his good side wouldn’t be a bad thing either. Two good reasons to go ahead with this. Are you sure we shouldn’t go out to Skovir to see if we can pick up Cadorian’s trail?’
‘I was told to wait here,’ Kana said. ‘If Cadorian has gone to Skovir, we don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. Besides, it’s a long way to Skovir and we might just have to come back and head south or something. We’ll wait here and see if we can’t have a few adventures.’
‘Sounds good to me.’
~~~
‘Rain! You’re back. I hope Gunthard has been treating you well on your travels.’ The voice was loud and filled with humour. Rain did not seem pleased to hear it.
There was a flash of irritation on the fighter’s features, which was mirrored in Constance and Mimi, then Rain fixed a smile on her face and turned to look at the man marching toward them with a pint of ale in one hand. ‘Roland. Seems you’re back too.’
‘I am!’ Roland exclaimed, raising his drink and then sinking half of it. He was big. He was taller than Kana and his loose tunic did little to hide the muscles on his solid frame. He was also a handsome man with black hair and a neatly trimmed beard which had some hints of grey in it. He had blue eyes, a strong jawline, narrow cheeks, and a straight nose. There appeared to be little about him to warrant the irritated looks, except maybe that he was a bit loud. ‘A successful quest into Soansha’s Crown. Undead eradicated and treasure uncovered, by Gunthard’s blessing. You’ve new friends, I see.’
‘Right. Yes.’ Rain gave a look that might have been an apology to Kana and Aneshti. ‘This is Kana and Aneshti, both mages of some power. And this is Roland. He’s a paladin of Gunthard and has quite a reputation.’
Kana got the distinct impression that Roland’s reputation did not entirely have to do with his prowess as a paladin. ‘Ladies, it’s a pleasure to meet you.’ The way he emphasised ‘pleasure’ tended to suggest that Kana was right about his reputation. ‘Feel free to consider me your shield aga
inst the dangers of this world,’ he went on. ‘I’m always ready to lend my sword and shield where it’s needed by a member of the fairer sex.’
‘We know, Roland,’ Constance said. ‘You’re always ready to defend a lady’s virtue. It’s just a shame there are no ladies at our table.’
‘All women are ladies at heart, Constance.’ It was clear that he had heard her, but it was kind of like the words had failed to penetrate his conscious mind. ‘Enjoy your evening.’ And he wandered off to find someone else to greet with excessive enthusiasm.
‘I get the feeling you don’t like him,’ Kana said.
‘He’s an idiot. His idea of saving a woman’s virtue is to save it for himself.’ Constance gave a shrug. ‘He’s actually not that bad in bed. Selfish, but that’s a common trait in men.’
‘He’s also a pretty good paladin,’ Rain added. ‘I mean, for most other religions he’d be considered less than perfect, given that he does believe his reward for saving a woman should be a night of unbridled passion, but Gunthard is a rather… basic god.’
‘None of the human gods are exactly genteel,’ Mimi put in. ‘If you ask me, that’s why so many humans turn to the elven pantheon.’
‘Maybe. Then again, some elves have come over to worshipping Gunthard. Their war god went out of favour after the Founding War. Uh, not that Gunthard is actually a god of war. He’s more of a patron of warriors. He’s more about individuals than armies.
Wota is the old human war god and just about no one worships him.’
‘It doesn’t seem like war is a big thing on Soken,’ Kana observed.
‘Not for the last six thousand years,’ Aneshti replied. ‘Then again, if we fail and Serpens returns, we might need all the war gods we can muster.’
30 th Thokarte.
The summons came in the form of a small boy with a message from Sonia at the guild. He had, apparently, been to the stables first, because Rain was already waiting when Kana, Aneshti, Constance, and Mimi arrived to find out what was going on. Along with Sonia, there was another woman in the guildhall, a slight woman with dark hair rolled into a bun wearing robes which had seen better days and carrying a staff. The clothes and staff marked her out as a mage, possibly belonging to the Mages’ Guild, or aspiring to be; the Mages’ Guild liked the idea of robed mages. What she was doing there, looking nervous and worried, was an unknown, however. Kana did not recognise her.
‘Now that you’re all here,’ Sonia said when they were, in fact, all there, ‘this is Megaina. She came to Hillock this spring and joined up with a party of other new adventurers. They’ve been out in the forest for the last week looking for a lost dungeon Megaina uncovered in some dusty texts or something.’
Megaina’s cheeks coloured. She was a pale girl and the blush was really obvious. ‘We found it,’ she mumbled.
‘That they did. An undiscovered dungeon is a valuable find. It’s really good news for a young party like Megaina’s. Unfortunately, that’s where the good news ends. Tell them what happened, Megaina.’
‘W-we found the entrance, concealed by a form of enchantment as I suspected, and made our way in. There were a few simple traps but our rogue was able to disarm them without trouble.’ Rogue was a
polite way of calling an adventurer a thief; Kana smiled a little at the reference, but you could tell from Megaina’s stumbling narrative that this was not going to end well. ‘N-none of them had been disturbed, so we were sure the dungeon was undiscovered.
We were working our way through the tunnels, doing our best to map as we went. I was bringing up the rear. You know, standard dungeon-crawling formation. That’s what s-saved me. All of a sudden, the air filled with a brownish, greenish mist and I stopped. The n-next thing I knew, everyone was t-turning to st-stone.’
‘Magical trap, perhaps,’ Constance mused.
‘That mist suggests a biological agent,’ Mimi countered. ‘Some form of dungeon ooze.’
‘Hm. Did their gear petrify, Megaina? Or just their bodies?’
‘Uh… I think their gear too,’ Megaina replied.
‘Magical.’
‘I still think that mist means something,’ Mimi said. ‘Might be a supernatural component to an ooze attack. Fungus or mould. That would be my guess. Was there anything you noticed about the tunnel where this happened, Megaina? Any growths on the walls or floor? Perhaps the texture of the stone was different.’
‘Well, I th-think it looked… shiny. Shiny. It looked shiny in the light from my staff.’
‘You may have something then,’ Constance admitted. ‘That does sound like it could be a mould.’ She grimaced. ‘I hate dungeon moulds.’
‘We’re not talking about the stuff that grows on cheese here, right?’ Kana asked.
‘Well, they’re related,’ Mimi said, ‘but it’s a bit like the difference between a rock lizard and a dragon. Sure, they’re both a type of lizard, but one of them isn’t going to bite your head off. Dungeon moulds tend to have all sorts of ways of discouraging things from eating them, though I’ve never heard of one petrifying people.’ She looked up at Sonia. ‘You want us to go in there and bring them back, right?’
‘You can turn them back into flesh, as I recall,’ Sonia said.
‘I’d rather not lose four young adventurers when they could be recovered. Megaina has agreed to split the discovery of the dungeon with your party as a reward and the guild will chip in a gold piece for each of you if you’re successful.’
‘And we’re pulling fellow adventurers out of a potentially lethal situation,’ Rain added.
Constance sighed. ‘Yes. We’re always in need of good publicity around here.’
Sonia smiled. ‘Sorry to say it, but yes, you are. Are you all willing?’ There were nods from around the group. ‘Then I suggest you start in the morning. Megaina says it’ll be about a day and a half’s journey to the dungeon, but it doesn’t seem likely that the people you’re going to help are going to suffer for waiting an extra half day.’
‘Probably not,’ Mimi agreed. ‘Frankly, either I’ll turn them back and they’ll be okay, or they’re already dead.’
~~~
‘What are you wearing?’ Kana asked.
‘It’s my new adventuring outfit,’ Aneshti replied. ‘How does it look?’ She was twisting and turning in the space between their two beds, trying to get a good look at what she was wearing.
Kana, lying on her bed, had a much better view, though perhaps from too low an angle. ‘That depends entirely on whether you bought it for practicality or picking up men.’
‘Picking up men in a dungeon? Seems unlikely. And wrong.’
‘In which case, don’t you think it’s a bit brief? And what’s with the heeled boots?’
The boots were actually the most practical part of the outfit: knee high with a bucket top. They did, however, have a five- or six-centimetre block heel, which seemed less than practical. The top was a sleeveless, leather affair which cut off not far below Aneshti’s breasts and hugged her figure rather closely. The leather was too thin to be practical as armour and the shaping suggested the garment was more designed to show off the wearer’s curves. The skirt… Well, it was short and black with a loose pleat.
‘That skirt is indecent,’ Kana added. ‘I can see half your behind.’
‘It’s not that bad. It’s easy to move in. And your skirt isn’t that much longer.’
‘My skirt is longer than that. And I won’t flash anyone nearby if I turn around fast. Can you run in those heels?’
‘Yes. Probably. I’m sure I can. They’re not too high and they’re wide. Fairly wide.’
Kana frowned. ‘Are you just trying to match my height?’
‘Of course not! Why would I do that? That’s ridiculous.’ Pause.
‘Am I as tall as you in these?’
Smirking, Kana got to her feet – her bare feet – and stepped up beside Aneshti. She looked down into the elf’s eyes; there was still a good six centimetres’ difference. ‘Not e
ven close.’
‘Beanpole.’
‘You can call me all the names you like, but you’ll have to invent platform boots if you want to be my height.’
Aneshti grinned. ‘That means that your people already invented them, so all I have to do is persuade you to talk to the right cobbler.’
‘No way! There is no way I am going to bring disco culture to this world. No one would ever forgive me!’
Alabeth Forest, 1 st Anokarte.
‘What sort of problems are we likely to run into here?’ Kana asked.
They had been walking for about half an hour, down the hill from Hillock and into the outer band of Alabeth Forest. Now the trees were getting a little closer together and the undergrowth was getting thicker. There was still a track to follow at this point, but that was narrowing. As the trees grew thicker, the light was getting dimmer and the humidity was rising. There was a muggy, clammy feel to the interior of the forest, even though it was definitely autumn now and the weather was supposed to be cooling.
‘Well,’ Mimi said, ‘at this end of the forest, there’s not that much to worry over. There are a couple of goblin tribes in the north who sometimes come south, but that’s mostly when the food is scarce, and it’s been a good year. There are a few arachine here, but they rarely attack humans and almost never a party of this size. Once we get deeper in, we’ll need to keep an eye out for dangerous oozes. If you see odd-looking mushrooms or the ground appears slimy, make sure I’ve seen it. We’ll need to be sure we’ve purified any water we take from streams and pools.’
‘That’s just standard survival procedure,’ Aneshti said. ‘I can make clean water anyway.’
‘W-what are we doing for food?’ Megaina asked. ‘You said we d-didn’t need to bring any, but…’
‘I can make that,’ Kana replied. ‘This way we can travel light and get to your friends faster.’
‘That’s good. I mean, they’re petrified so I don’t think they can be coming to any more harm, but faster is better, I guess.’
‘We don’t know what’s happening to them while they’re in that state,’ Mimi said. ‘Some rock moulds leach minerals out of the stone they’re living on, like mould on bread takes nutrients from the bread. That stuff may petrify things to feed on them.’
The Girl Who Dreamed of a Different World Page 18