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

by Jamey Sultan

  James let it fizz until it had turned a deep orange, then capped the vials.

  With a ding, he got a new notification.

  You have gained 3 Skill Ranks in Poisons.

  You are now Skill Rank 8.

  James examined his poisons. Each was a translucent orange that fizzed with light blue bubbles. They glowed softly, and the entire alchemical laboratory smelled like freshly cut grass.

  Fiend’s Bane (x15):

  Weakens the bond between an undead and their host body. Will not work on Wights or other undead that inhabit their own bodies.

  Once he’d added the potions to his pouch, James went looking for his friends. The first place he checked was the kitchen, but it was empty with Arik’s map unfurled on the table.

  James found Nidra meditating on the floor of the living room, while Lucien practiced with his daggers.

  “Hey guys,” James said. “Where did Arik and Desi go?”

  Nidra shrugged. “No idea. Arik said something about a meeting.”

  James frowned. “He shouldn’t be leaving the house. He does know we’re wanted, right?”

  “Relax, the guards are too busy dealing with this Vampire crisis to come after us,” Lucien chimed in. “We’ll be fine.”

  James ignored the teenager, who’d gotten increasingly irritating the longer they were together. He was about to snap at Lucien when he was interrupted by a loud knocking.

  Someone was outside.

  Chapter 14

  The knock came again, louder and more insistent this time.

  James looked to Nidra, who shook her head. She wasn’t sure who it was either.

  James, Lucien, and Nidra all stared at each other, unsure what to do.

  The knocking continued for a few minutes before it stopped. There was one last loud bang that shook the door, and then nothing. A few minutes later, the door swung open and Arik entered with Desi and a third Dwarf that James didn’t recognize.

  James’ hand immediately went to the hilt of his sword, and he drew Tyrfing halfway from its sheath before he realized that nobody else looked tense.

  The Dwarf was well-built but looked less… blocky than most Dwarves. His beard was combed into two braids that hung down from the sides of his face, and his eyes had dark bags under them. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

  Name: Karim

  Race: Dwarf

  Level: 85

  Class: Hunter

  Desi led the group in, holding a crumpled piece of paper that had been nailed to the stone door.

  “Hello,” Karim said stiffly as he entered, his eyes darting between James, Nidra, and Lucien.

  “Hey there,” James said with an easy smile. “How are you?”

  James held out a hand toward the Dwarf, but Karim ignored it as his eyes took in every detail of the room. “You’re sure we’re safe here?” he asked Desi.

  Desi nodded. “Safe as we can be.”

  Karim grunted and walked into the kitchen, where he plopped down into a chair and let out a deep sigh.

  The rest of them followed him, settling around the table.

  “So, who is this?” James asked.

  “This,” Arik said carefully, “is Karim, the Dominus for House Fractus.” He saw James’ confused look and hastily added, “I guess you’d say something similar to a Baron.”

  James nodded. He realized that this was probably the person who was supposed to try to get them through the palace gate.

  Karim gave a stiff wave. “I’m here to help get you four out of the city.”

  “And I suppose that’s out of the goodness of your heart?” Nidra asked dryly.

  Karim gave her a thin smile. It didn’t reach his eyes. “You might’ve heard that my family is in a bit of trouble with the new regime.”

  “Right, your House was protecting the king when he died, right?” James asked.

  Karim’s eyes tightened, but he nodded. “I was in charge that night.” He looked at Nidra. “So no, not so much out of the goodness of my heart, but more out of a desire to save my own skin. If you want me to guide you out, you’re going to need to take me with you. At least until we get somewhere safe.”

  “He brings up a good point. Where exactly are we going after this?” James asked.

  He had a quest in Fallmire to speak with the high priest of Sytar, but James wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that anymore. He wasn’t exactly happy with how he had been treated by the priests of Sytar so far. Besides, there was so much of the world to explore, James wanted to see more wonders and learn more magic.

  “Well,” Arik said. “Both the palace and the Old City tunnels exit somewhere in Hedgehog Valley. We know that much for sure. The largest city in the valley is Silencia. Right now, the plan is to get to Silencia and then figure it out.”

  James noticed Lucien’s eyes narrow at the mention of Silencia, but the teenager didn’t say anything and neither did James.

  ***

  The next morning as everybody was getting ready, James noticed a crumpled piece of paper on the floor next to the table. He picked it up.

  Draft Notice I:

  Dear Citizen,

  The great King Remaksta has declared a martial emergency. War is imminent. As such, he has instituted a draft of all eligible fighters.

  You are listed as a Specialized Class Category Individual (SCCI). As an SCCI, your talents are especially useful for the war mobilization effort.

  Report to: Royal Smithy

  Report Date: Immediate

  Failure to report will be met with punishments ranging from fines to imprisonment.

  If you object to the war effort, fill out form 17838A.

  If you have a medical condition preventing your appointment, please fill out form 17838B and have a licensed healer fill out form 12991K.

  Any objections must be filed at least two months prior to receipt of this notice. Any late notifications will be incinerated and not read.

  Have a pleasant day.

  - Office of the King

  “Is this real?” James asked, flabbergasted by the ridiculous logic in the letter. How could you file a complaint before you received the draft notice?

  Desi nodded; his face set in a grim line.

  “But what about all these rumors portraying the Humans as villains?”

  Desi shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  James couldn’t understand what was going on. “Maybe he’s trying to placate Orc spies before launching an attack?” He hazarded a guess, then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter. I need to finish getting ready.” He didn’t have time to concern himself with Dwarven politics, he needed to take stock of everything in his pouch.

  “Wait.” Desi said as James turned to leave, putting his hand on his shoulder. “Before you go, I want you to take what you can from the alchemy room.”

  James’ eyes widened; the equipment and ingredients in that room were worth a fortune, not to mention the collection of rare books. “Are you sure?” he asked.

  Desi nodded. “Use it well to keep my son safe. It’s been gathering dust for too long.”

  James nodded and went down to the alchemy room. He took a deep breath and started to gather up equipment.

  A few hours later, Karim returned. He upended a backpack in the living room and supplies poured out. The backpack was similar to James’ pouch, but could only hold 300 pounds. It also didn’t reduce the weight of things put inside of it.

  Once they’d sorted through everything and added it to James’ pouch, Karim held up three vials of liquid. He handed one to each of them except Arik.

  James examined it. It was the strangest potion he’d ever seen. For some reason, he couldn’t tell what color it was, even after staring at it for a full minute. When he uncorked it, it smelled of stone and earth.

  Temporary Race Change Potion (Dwarf):

  Rank: Epic

  This potion will change a person’s race to Dwarf for one hour. Their stats and abilities will not change.

&nb
sp; “Holy shit,” James said. He’d seen the recipe for a Race Change Potion in one of Desi’s books and it was incredibly complicated. It wasn’t just an illusion; the potion actually changed your race.

  “Each of these potions costs a small fortune. We’re going to use them to get you through the inner ring and palace ring gates. From there we’ll head to the House Fractus compound.” While he talked, Karim tossed each of them a bundle of blue clothing.

  House Fractus Uniform:

  Rank: Common

  Clothing in House Fractus colors.

  “We’re not heading to the palace?” Nidra asked, taking her bundle and examining it. “I thought you were taking us out through the palace.”

  “You think we can just waltz in through the palace?” Karim snorted. “Be my guest. But I’ve heard they aren’t too happy with us lately.”

  “So how are we getting into the palace?” James asked angrily. He was annoyed that the plan seemed to be changing every time he heard it. He wished he’d been more involved in the planning, but he’d been too focused on learning about poison making.

  “When we get to House Fractus, I’ll explain more, but we need to be in position in a few days or we’ll miss our chance. Please, just trust me.”

  James ground his teeth together—he’d had enough of just trusting people, but at the same time Karim was already in a bad position, he was risking a lot to help them escape and James respected that. He stared into Karim’s eyes and only saw pleading. “Fine,” he said. “But if you betray us…”

  James downed his potion and the others quickly followed.

  Chapter 15

  They made it through the outer ring without encountering any problems. When they reached the gate to the inner ring, a Dwarf stopped them. “Papers,” she said, holding out a hand.

  Karim stood up straight. “Excuse me,” he said. “I’m Karim Fractus bringing a few potential branch recruits to meet the House patriarch.”

  James caught a glimmer of gold as he pulled an ID card from his cloak and showed it to the Dwarven guard.

  The guard waved them through. James caught the hint of a smirk on her face as he passed.

  “Have fun testing your recruits while you still can,” she called after them.

  Karim’s mouth tightened and his shoulders slumped, but he didn’t say anything.

  The inner ring was beautiful. Unlike the tangle of alleyways that made up the outer ring, the inner ring was full of open spaces. It looked more like a suburban neighborhood, whereas the outer ring looked like a scene from a medieval version of New York.

  They hurried through the inner ring, following Karim past well-lit storefronts and landscaped gardens that lined the main road through the city. Every time they passed someone, James twitched, waiting for them to recognize him. But no one did. They arrived at the gate to the palace ring without any trouble.

  The gate to the palace ring outshone the rest of the splendors James had already seen in the Dwarven city. It was massive, almost a hundred feet tall and carved from pure obsidian. Thousands of faces stared back at James, carved so precisely that he could swear he saw one take a breath. Next to James, Lucien inhaled sharply, his eyes wide.

  A guard stepped forward, sporting a red beard that reminded James of Linnaeus’ beard. The guard gave an easy-going grin to Karim. “Hey there, Commander.”

  Karim shook his head. “I told you to stop calling me that, Tim. I’m not a commander anymore. You’ll get in trouble.”

  The guard, Tim, shook his head. “You’ll always be my commander.” Then, as if noticing the others for the first time, he looked at James and his friends. “What’s going on here?” he asked.

  Karim chuckled ruefully and rubbed the back of his head. “About that… I screwed up. I’m supposed to be bringing them in for potential training but forgot their IDs. Is there any way you could let us through without them?”

  James’ heart beat rapidly in his chest as Tim looked at them.

  The potion timer ticked down in the corner of James’ vision—ten minutes left.

  Tim frowned, a conflicted expression on his face. “I really shouldn’t…”

  James’ hand crept down toward Tyrfing—he could feel the sword’s influence surrounding him, whispering for him to strike down the guard and anyone else who got in his way. He pushed the thoughts aside.

  “Come on, please,” Karim pushed. “You owe me. Remember the Myconids?”

  “Fine, but you have to stop holding that over my head. It was my first day.” Tim chuckled. “That was a weird day.” He glanced at James. “Listen, you guys make sure not to stomp on any mushrooms in the caves,” he said seriously.

  Karim chuckled. “They might stomp on you in revenge.”

  Tim smiled widely and waved to a guard on the wall. “Let ‘em through,” he called.

  The guard shouted back in confirmation and a second later the gate rumbled open, revealing the palace ring.

  The first thing James noticed was the greenery. The inner and outer rings had both been drab, with a dusty, dry color scheme. Even the rich colors on the shop fronts in the inner ring hadn’t been able to brighten the landscape enough to get rid of the almost oppressive dirty brown that seemed to cover everything.

  The palace ring was different. Lush, verdant greenery sprawled across the landscape. Patches of flowers and fruit trees were scattered along the roadside. The road itself was grey cobblestone, which shouldn’t have seemed like much, but it was the first grey stone James had seen in the city.

  ***

  “Make way, make way!” a voice shouted.

  James followed Karim as he stepped off to the side of the road to make way for an opulent carriage rumbling towards them.

  The carriage was richly decorated with golden designs. The back of the carriage was covered, but there were six Orcs laughing and talking, riding the open front of the carriage. James was so surprised to see them that he didn’t have time to react. By the time he’d realized who was in the carriage, it had already faded into the distance.

  “What just happened?” James asked.

  When nobody else replied, he realized that everybody was just as stunned as he’d been. Even Karim stood mouth agape, surprise written on his face.

  “No idea?” James asked Karim who shook his head.

  “Shouldn’t you have heard something about this?” James asked, his voice growing louder. “The Orcs are a bunch of murdering slavers who’ve been at war with you for hundreds of years. How could you possibly not know anything about them being here?”

  Karim opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. “I have no idea what’s going on,” he said, picking up his pace. “We should hurry.”

  As they walked as quickly as they could without looking suspicious, James tried to figure out what was going on. As far as he could tell, the palace and priests of Sytar were working together to spread Human hatred and confusion. At first, James hadn’t understood why, but seeing the Orcish caravan, James realized what was going on. It was a very heavy-handed way to redirect any anger the Dwarven population might feel toward the Orcs to the Humans.

  They stopped in front of a smaller wall built with blue stone. A guard on the wall opened the gate, revealing a sprawling compound of blue buildings scattered around a mansion.

  “Welcome to House Fractus,” Karim said, leading them toward the manor house.

  The door to the manor was surprisingly normal-sized—in James’ experience, larger houses tended to have huge doors, but this one was just big enough for Nidra, the tallest of them, to enter without ducking.

  The inside of the mansion was just as rich as everything else in the palace ring had been so far. A ten-foot-tall statue of a Dwarf overlooked the entryway, but that wasn’t what caught James’ attention. The entire inside of the mansion was covered in greenery. Hundreds of plants lined the walls, floor, and even ceiling of the building.

  Karim noticed James looking and clapped him on the shoulder. “Do you like them?�
� he asked.

  “It’s awesome,” James said. He’d always wanted to garden, but every time he’d tried to grow plants back on Earth, he ended up killing them.

  “It’s my mother’s,” Karim said proudly. “She’s the best herbalist in the city.”

  “So now what?” James asked as he examined a line of blue berries growing along a banister.

  Blue Berry

  Rank: Common

  It’s blue, and it’s a berry.

  “Now,” Karim said, “we talk to my father.”

  ***

  They found Karim’s father in a massive library. The Dwarf was quietly reading by a crackling fire when they walked in. His eyes widened as he saw Karim enter, followed by an Elf, another Dwarf, and two Humans. By that point, their potion had worn off and they were back to their original races.

  James’ eyes roamed the library. It was a large room with wall-to-wall bookshelves that extended to the ceiling, about fifteen feet above. The center of the room was dominated by a cluster of armchairs around a circular fire pit.

  James eyed the flames nervously. He hoped there was a medieval version of the fire extinguisher in this room. Glass display cases filled with strange artifacts were scattered around.

  Name: Branden Fractus

  Race: Dwarf

  Level: ???

  Class: Battlefield Scholar

  James cringed as Branden gently placed his book on the edge of the fire pit. The noble looked to be in his mid-fifties. The edges of his hair were starting to grey and he wore a pair of spectacles.

  James realized he’d been staring rudely and waved awkwardly. “Hey, I’m James.”