Sands of Blood and Bone: A LitRPG Adventure (Defying Divinity Book 2)

by Jamey Sultan

  ***

  Desi escorted them escorted through a living room area to a table in what looked like the kitchen. Swords were everywhere. Large swords, small swords, broken swords, beautiful swords. All types of swords were scattered haphazardly around the place. Other than that, there wasn’t much in the way of decorating.

  Although the sign outside had advertised potions and weapons, there wasn’t a single potion bottle in sight.

  The group sat around a large cast-iron table as Desi bustled around the kitchen cheerily. He insisted on feeding them, despite Arik’s protests that they were fine, so they huddled in the kitchen, bizarrely waiting for Desi to finish cooking them a meal while they jumped at every sound outside the door.

  Finally, after almost twenty minutes of silence, Arik snapped. “Dad, stop cooking. We need to talk to you about something serious.”

  Desi turned around with a stern look on his face. He placed his knife down on the cutting board and glared at Arik. “No, you listen to me. I have not seen my son in almost a year, and I’ll be damned if I don’t give him a nice home-cooked meal when he comes here. You left me here alone. Alone. Now I understand why you left, but that doesn’t mean I liked it.”

  The sudden shift in Desi’s demeanor seemed to take all of the wind out of Arik’s sails. The Dwarf deflated, and he mumbled, “Okay, Dad.”

  James could feel his cheeks burning even though he wasn’t the target of the Dwarf’s anger. He gave Nidra a sly grin when he was sure that Desi’s back was turned. It was pretty funny to see Arik chastened like that.

  Desi hummed as he cooked. From the smell of it, he was making some sort of soup with a tomato base. It had chunks of what looked like chicken meat and some vegetables that James didn’t recognize floating in the boiling red liquid.

  James grimaced as Desi threw a bundle of green herbs in the soup. He’d always been able to smell cilantro from across the room, and he hated it. Still, he could readily admit that sometimes a soup needed cilantro.

  Once he’d gotten his soup bubbling happily, Desi joined them at the table.

  “Nice to meet you.” James liked Desi. The Dwarf was friendly and cooking them what smelled like a fantastic meal, or at least would smell fantastic if it didn’t have so much cilantro in it.

  “It’s nice to meet you, too,” Desi replied. “I’ve been worried about what my son has been getting up to, but it’s nice to see he’s made some companions.” He turned back to Arik. “How long are you guys,” he looked at Nidra, “and the lady, staying?”

  Arik ground his teeth in frustration. “James,” he snapped. “I think we have more important things to talk about. And Dad, we can’t stay. We should’ve already left. We’re being chased by the guards, and they will probably come to look for us here soon.”

  Arik’s dad smiled. “I wouldn’t worry about that; the guards are pretty busy with something else right now.”

  “What do you mean?” Nidra asked. “We just escaped from the Coliseum; I think we’re pretty high on their list of priorities.”

  Desi chuckled. “Maybe on a normal day, but today isn’t normal.”

  “What do you mean?” James asked.

  “Well, you four aren’t the only ones who escaped from the Coliseum.”

  James and Nidra exchanged a worried glance, but nobody else noticed.

  “The other day,” Desi continued, “an elder Vampire escaped.”

  “We saw that,” James said. “He was in the cell next to ours.” He described the Vampire’s escape to the others.

  Desi’s perpetual smile turned into a frown. “It looks like the Vampire’s gone on a bit of a rampage through the city. He’s brutally murdered at least five people.” He shook his head. “Anyway, the point is there’s been a curfew instated. Nobody’s allowed out past dark, and all the guards are too busy hunting for the Vampire to concern themselves with you four.”

  “Oh, that’s why the streets were so empty on our way here,” James realized aloud.

  Desi nodded, “You were lucky you weren’t killed.” He shook his head and wiped away a tear. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if something happened to my Ari, too.”

  James was about to ask him what he meant when a series of heavy knocks on the door interrupted the conversation. The sound startled James, and he jumped, knocking his chair to the ground.

  Shit. They found us. I thought he said we’d be safe.

  “Quickly, Arik, take them to the lab.” Desi grabbed the dishes he’d set on the table and started putting them away.

  Arik hesitated, a conflicted look on his face. “Are you sure, we haven’t—”

  “Now!” his dad shouted, interrupting him. “No time to argue.”

  Arik led them through the kitchen and into another room, which James assumed was a forge. Half-completed weapons were scattered around the room, and there was a dark metal anvil off to one side. There were also a few other tools that James had never seen. Briefly, he wondered how Desi could work in a room like this; it seemed like smoke would build up easily, but James’ eyes flicked up to a large hole in the ceiling that might have been used to vent it.

  Arik grabbed a spear off of a weapon rack and pushed it into a slot in the wall. There was a low rumbling as a section of the wall lowered into the ground to reveal a hidden room.

  Once everybody had entered the room, Arik removed the spear and set it against the wall as the secret door slid back into place. They were in pure darkness for a second before a ball of flame flickered to life near Nidra’s head.

  Arik reacted instantly, telling her to put it out. His tone brooked no argument. Nidra’s eyes widened at the unexpected fear, and Arik’s voice and her light proofed out of existence as quickly as it had appeared.

  Through the darkness, James heard Arik let out a sigh of relief. Then there was the sound of sloshing water, and a harsh fluorescent light came into being.

  James blinked at the sudden brightness. It was coming from a liquid-filled globe hanging from the ceiling. Arik gave the globe one more shake, and the light brightened just a hair more.

  They were in a small alchemical workshop. Shelves of ingredients lined the walls and took up the majority of the space in the room. What little space wasn’t covered in shelves was taken up by a desk, barely visible under all the equipment piled on it.

  Everywhere James looked, he saw jars of powder, beakers, vials of liquid, even something that looked like a Bunsen burner. Everything in the room was covered in a thin layer of dust.

  In the quiet of the workshop, James heard the sound of the door opening and some talking, but the voices were much too muffled for him to make out anything that was said.

  James picked up one of the jars and examined it. It was full of a whitish-grey powder. He blew dust off the label.

  90% Whiteroot.

  10% Corpse Dust.

  Underneath the label was another, smaller label. This one was written in red.

  Warning! Volatile!!! Handle with care.

  James quickly put down the vial as he read the notification above the herb.

  Whiteroot powder:

  Rank: Common

  Powder that has been harvested from the Whiteroot flower. It has been alchemically stabilized with a Corpse Dust extract. May explode on contact with moisture.

  James looked around the workshop, trying to take everything in. Some of the equipment looked incredibly sophisticated, almost like lab equipment he’d see on Earth. “What is this stuff?” he asked Arik in wonder. “This is amazing.” Then he saw the expression on Arik’s face. The Dwarf’s eyes were red, and as James watched, he rubbed away the traces of a tear.

  “You okay?” James asked, his good mood fading. He’d never seen Arik upset like this. The Dwarf was a lot like his father in that he always seemed to be in a good mood.

  Arik took a deep breath. “This was my dad’s shop.” At James’ look of confusion, he explained, “Not Desi, my other dad.” Arik took a shuddering breath. “He likes… liked to expe
riment with less-than-legal ingredients and has a few completely illegal books.” Arik gestured at a section of a bookshelf filled with guides for working with poisonous plants.

  “What happened to him?” James asked, noting that the room looked like it hadn’t been touched for years. He wondered if Arik’s dad had poisoned himself by accident.

  Arik sighed. “Sebi, my other dad, went missing almost five years ago on a quest to the Frostlands. He was searching for a dungeon said to have a Crystal Lotus.”

  James wasn’t sure what a Crystal Lotus was, but it sounded cool.

  “What happened?” James asked.

  “He never came back.” Arik said. “That’s why I left. I wanted to find him.” He kicked at the ground. “A lot of good it did me,” he muttered bitterly.

  “Hey,” James said, clapping Arik on the back. “We’ll help you find him.”

  As if to solidify his words, a prompt appeared.

  You have been given a quest: Crystal Lotus I

  Crystal Lotus I: Find out where the dungeon Sebi went to is located. All you know is that it is somewhere in the Frostlands.

  Suggested level: 50

  Reward: Unknown.

  Penalty for failure or refusal: Arik will leave the group.

  James gulped; he didn’t want to lose Arik. “Of course I’ll help,” he said.

  “Me too,” Nidra said, nodding. “I bet my fire will work pretty well on those ice creatures.”

  They both looked to Lucien, who hesitated before nodding. “I guess I’ll help too,” he said, but James detected a bit of a strange tone to his voice. He dismissed it, though, because it didn’t seem like anyone else noticed it.

  “Thanks, guys,” Arik said, wiping away a tear. He choked on his words as he thanked them. “You’re good friends.”

  “But seriously, where did he get this stuff?” James asked, examining a jar with what looked like the corpse of a baby goblin floating in liquid. He read the label—it was a baby goblin floating in liquid.

  Goblin (Infant):

  Rank: Uncommon

  The well-preserved corpse of a Goblin Infant. Your harvest knowledge is too low to see more information about this ingredient.

  While James examined the corpse with a morbid curiosity, elsewhere in the house, the sound of muffled voices had quieted. A door closed, and footsteps traipsed toward them. The secret door opened, and James almost dropped the jar. He carefully set it down and looked around guiltily, but no one was paying him any attention. Desi entered the room with a grim look on his face and gestured for them to follow him back into the kitchen.

  Chapter 12

  They entered the kitchen to find steaming bowls of soup set in front of each of their chairs. Before he sat down, James picked up a crumpled piece of paper from the floor and unfurled it. It showed a picture of a Dwarf wielding a sword and shield. Underneath was some text.

  Are you tired of living in fear?

  Do you want to leave the city?

  Join the Army of King Remaksta as we forge new alliances with old enemies.

  “What is this?” James asked, smoothing out the paper as he placed it on the table.

  “It’s a recruitment flyer,” Desi explained. “With King Terrin gone, Remaksta is building the Dwarven armies back up.”

  “So?” James asked, “are they just gonna push back against the Orcs?”

  Desi shook his head and flipped the leaflet over. On the other side was a series of claims that Humans were responsible for the war between the Orcs and Dwarves. The leaflet insinuated that the Orcs only tried to attack the Dwarves because Humans wouldn’t give them any land.

  “This is ridiculous,” James said. “Is anyone listening to this?”

  “Oh yeah, a lot of people,” Desi said. “There’s always been resentment toward Humans for abandoning us to the Orcs, but it’s gotten much worse lately.” He scratched his chin. “Actually, it started getting really bad two years ago, around when you left,” he gestured at Arik.

  “But why?” James asked, confused. He didn’t understand why the Dwarves would want to redirect all their anger toward the Humans, especially after over a hundred years of war with the Orcs.

  Desi shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you. I’ve been out of the kingdom’s grace for years.”

  James struggled to connect the dots; he knew the priests of Sytar were involved with the propaganda, he’d seen it for himself, but he just couldn’t see the big picture.

  “It started off small,” Desi said, bringing James back to the present. “At first, it was just small stuff, little things, just word of mouth stories about Dwarves, always with Humans as the villains. Then it got worse. A few months before you arrived, an emissary of the Orcs went to speak with Remaksta. He—”

  “Why would he talk with Remaksta?” James interrupted. “Why not the king?”

  Desi shrugged. “I don’t know. Highly unusual. But anyway, the Orc only visited briefly, but when he left, new rumors spread. These rumors painted the Orcs as victims, a people living in a barren wasteland who just wanted a new home.”

  “That can’t possibly have worked.” James said. “That’s ridiculous.”

  “When it’s all you hear for months…”

  Nidra interjected, “So then what?”

  “Then you arrived,” Desi said grimly. “Two Humans and an Elf, brought through our secret tunnels.”

  “That couldn’t have made them happy,” James observed.

  “No,” Desi said, “it didn’t. When King Terrin let you go, the Dwarves almost rioted. Remaksta publicly denounced his father’s decision. A few nights later, the king died.” A thoughtful look passed over his face. “He must’ve been planning this for years.”

  For the first time, Arik reacted to the story. A look of shock and outrage crossed his face. “You think Remaksta had his father killed?”

  Desi looked at his son with concern. “Things are different than when you left.”

  “If people think Remaksta killed his father, then why hasn’t anyone done anything yet?” James asked.

  “Nobody can prove it,” Desi said simply. “None of the Houses would dare to accuse the current king of patricide unless they had iron proof.”

  James shook his head. “I just don’t get it. I don’t understand how the entire city could fall for propaganda like that. How they could team up with their old enemy so easily.”

  “To understand, you really need to know our people. You may think we take a long time to do things—” James thought about his first-hand experience with Dwarven bureaucracy and chuckled, “—but even we have our limits. The people stopped being angry at the Orcs long ago. Imagine what the Dwarven people have gone through. Hundreds of years trapped in our city, none but the richest merchants able to leave. It has worn our patience. We understand war; what we don’t understand is giving up. And that’s what it seemed like King Terrin did.” Remi apparently noticed the look of concerned disapproval on James’ face because he smiled. “I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about the general population. And what they saw was King Terrin sitting on his throne, refusing to fight because he didn’t want Dwarven lives lost. He was a good king, but not the king we needed. He claimed there was no reason to fight a war where there would be countless deaths, since we could simply wait in our city safely.”

  James understood that, but he wasn’t sure how he’d deal with being forced to stay in the city like this with the world full of adventure outside.

  “So how do we know the son killed him?” Nidra asked. “I mean, it seems likely, but weren’t other Dwarves opposed to his policies?”

  Desi nodded. “Sure, but among the opposing voices, his son Remaksta was always the most outspoken.”

  “So Remaksta wanted to start the war back up with the Orcs again? Then why is he trying to promote peace with them? And I still don’t understand what this has to do with the temple of Sytar,” James said. He was more confused than at the beginning of the conversation.

  Des
i shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  James thought for a second. “So we’re in a city of Dwarves who want us dead. We need to get out of here.”

  “Yeah, that’ll be easy,” Lucien said sarcastically.

  James glared at the teenager. “If you’re going to say something, at least make it useful.” He was a bit annoyed at Lucien for never really helping.

  The teenager glared back at James sullenly, and James knew there was nothing he could do at the moment to change the teenager’s demeanor. He turned away from Lucien and back to Desi. “What about people who oppose him? Do you think they might help us?”

  Desi tapped his chin. “Well… House Fractus is one of the largest opponents of Remaksta’s regime. They were loyal to the old king. But I’m not sure how much help they’ll be.”

  “Why not?” James asked.

  “They were the palace guards before the assassination attempt.”

  “So?” James asked. “Why does that matter?”

  “Well, they failed to protect King Terrin, so when Remaksta took over, he relieved them of duty and submitted a form publicly reprimanding them. Rumor has it he’s also working on a form to dissolve the House entirely.”

  “Wait,” James said in disbelief, “you’re telling me that he’s punishing House Fractus for not preventing an assassination that he planned?”

  Desi laughed grimly. “You should read up on Dwarven history.” His smile faded, and he became serious again. “I’m sure he’s only publicly angry. He’s probably quite pleased with himself. No matter how much I despise him, the assassination itself was a masterstroke. In one move, he managed to become king and take out his biggest opposition. After this, even the Houses that didn’t support him before the coup have fallen in line.”

  “Okay, I think I have a rough picture of what’s going on now, but I still don’t understand what any of this has to do with Sytar,” James said. He could feel his brand hot and heavy against his calf. “Why are they going after Humans?”