“Nebula?!” I said. “What are you doing in the waking world? We ARE in the waking world, right?”
Nebula nuzzled my face with hers. “Of course, silly. I just thought it would be interesting to join you out here.”
“You can do that?”
“In a way,” the cat said. “I’m not here, merely a projection of your mind.”
“So no one else will see you?” I couldn’t afford to be going crazy at the moment.
“Of course they’ll see me. And anyone who crosses me will feel my claws, too!” She was adorably serious sometimes.
“We do dangerous things. Won’t this put you in danger?”
“Not really. At worst, if something happens, I’ll be unable to project myself here for a bit.” A tiny, furry, adorable ball of death that couldn’t be permanently killed? Nice. “Also, I think you can shape my form a bit. Try it. Focus on my claws, imagine them being sharper.”
I focused as she said. The claws blurred and warped. It took me several moments to get them under control, but when I did, they were now made of some unknown material, and they looked wickedly sharp. “Whoa!” I breathed.
“Yes, these will do very nicely,” Nebula purred. “I will make our enemies bleed!” She let out what was supposed to be a roar, but it ended up an adorable meow. I managed not to giggle and pull her to me.
“Shall we go see what everyone else is up to?”
“Yes! Let us go awe them with my magnificence!”
I remembered something. “Actually, wait. I have one more thing I need to do.”
“What’s that?” she asked.
I spoke to her in that strange alien language I’d woken up knowing the other day. “I’m worried about what happened in that dream of Terry’s. I need info. So I’m going to do something about that.”
Nebula nuzzled me approvingly. “Yes,” she answered in the same language I was speaking. “It is wise to know more about those who share your territory. Best to know now whether you can trust her or whether she is only waiting to sink her teeth into your throat. So, tell me, what plan have you made?”
“Well, she wanted a device that could view porn. So let’s give her one.” Luckily, I’d started Cortana booting the replicator before bed. “Cortana, I need you to make a phone for me,” I said in Mandarin.
“Understood. What model shall I make?”
“The same as mine. Tie it into your system so it can make calls using you as a cell phone tower. Copy all media and games you have stored onto it. Then I want you to make a special program for it.” I spent several minutes explaining the precise parameters, but basically it was a bug program that would allow the phone to record all audio around it constantly, then Cortana could filter that audio for things that might be relevant to me while allowing Terry to maintain her privacy the rest of the time.
Juiz does the same thing to me. As an AI, she can safely decide what information reveals real threats to my safety and what information should be kept private. If she shared everything, I would have constantly sought ways to elude her observation. But she never ratted on me when I did things that were merely disobedient, so I could tolerate her presence.
Cortana – or more precisely, a shard copy of Cortana installed on Terry’s phone – would do the same thing, except for the fact that Terry would have no idea she was doing it. As far as Terry would know, the copy would simply be there to help her access porn, play games and allow her to browse main Cortana’s catalogue of gear, giving recommendations based on parameters Terry could set. And maybe I could finally learn what the hell was going on with this crazy child.
The ability to use it to contact me if we got separated was just a bonus.
I took the device – complete with a rechargeable battery that would run for about four days – and headed out of the room, nearly crashing into Terry in the process. From the looks of it, she had been standing outside of my room, trying to strike a cool pose.
“Yo,” she said. “I seem to be on fire. Should I be alarmed?”
Sure enough, her chain shirt looked like solid but still swirling flame. “Nope. It’s a side effect of the Dreamlands. It appears to be a pretty solid upgrade, too.”
“Sweet. It’s comfortably warm, so I was hoping it wouldn’t be a bad thing. So, what took you so long to get up?”
I handed her the phone. “I was having Cortana make this for you.”
She took the device, which looked like little more than a nine inch long squished cylinder. “What is it?”
“Hold it like this,” I said, demonstrating with my phone. “And pull gently.” As I demonstrated, the cylinder separated and the screen inside unrolled as I pulled the ends apart.
The screen on Terry’s phone displayed an image of Cortana. “Greetings, new user. I am Cortana, and I will be happy to assist you in using your new phone. I’ve noticed that this device comes preloaded with an array of media. Would you like to see a sample?”
“A what?” she asked.
“Remember the box in the dream?” I said.
“The box?” Her face went red. “Oh! OH!”
“In addition to that, the phone can be used to play a number of games,” I said. “Chess, for instance. Cortana is an excellent chess player.”
“Ooh!” Terry’s face lit up like a kid on Christmas.
“But the best part is that if we ever get separated and you need to talk to me, you can ask Cortana to contact me. It’ll work as long as you’re within a few miles of the central box.”
“That could be useful.”
“I thought so. I was thinking maybe we’d see if Burin and Gregor wanted some as well. That way we can coordinate with each other even if we’ have some distance between us.”
“Works for me. Anyway, aside from my armor, I came to tell you that a bunch of food randomly appeared on the table. I wasn’t sure if it was safe to eat, so I wanted your opinion.”
“Let’s check it out, then,” I said.
The table had a rather substantial spread of traditional Russian dishes. Gregor was already seated, eating a bowl of kasha – a porridge made of buckwheat groats – with no apparent ill effect. Burin, who had also found a place at the table, was drinking some kvass – a low alcohol fermented drink, I think it tastes like feet – and eating some kind of sorrel soup, complete with a couple hardboiled eggs.
I tested the food for magical auras, but found none. It wouldn’t enchant us, at least. “It seems fine,” I told Terry. “The house knows what we are, so I doubt it would try to hurt us.”
To make my point, I served myself a bowl of what appeared to be a fish soup – likely ukha or some earlier predecessor – and a small plate filled with some bread and various toppings. “What’s that stuff?” Terry asked, pointing at the stuff I was popping into my mouth.
I bit down, and was amazed at the flavor as the caviar popped between my teeth. My parents aren’t fans of caviar, so it was rare that I had it available at meals, but I really liked it. “I’m guessing you don’t mean the bread?” I asked.
“No, the black stuff on top.”
“Salted fish eggs,” I told her.
She made a face. “Yeah, no. I think I’ll pass on that. What are those?” she asked, pointing at a plate on the table.
“Looks like pelmeni.” Oh, right, she had no idea what that meant. “It’s a type of dumpling. Not sure what the filling is, but a minced meat would be traditional.”
“Yeah, I’m eating those.” She pulled the entire plate to her, causing Gregor to spear a few pelmeni off of the plate as it passed him.
Caviar done, I turned my attention to the soup. It wasn’t bad, but it needed something. “Nebbie, would you grab my bag for me? I need my bottle of hot sauce.”
The cat went the forty or fifty feet I was too lazy to walk and returned with the bag. “I have a question,” Burin declared.
“Go for it,” I replied, as I dug through the bag.
“Isn’t that the same cat you had in the dream?”
I began dumping a lot of hot sauce into my soup. “Yes. She decided she wanted to come see what the waking world was like, so she projected herself here. Like how we do when we’re in dreams, only in reverse.”
“Oh. Okay.” And just like that, he was no longer worried about it.
“What is that you’re putting in your soup?” Terry asked.
“It’s a condiment from home. It’s a hot sauce that measures two hundred and fifty thousand on the Scoville scale.”
“The what?”
“It means that it’s very spicy,” I said, taking a bite. God, the delicious burn.
“But it’s good?”
“Oh yeah,” I said, taking another bite.
“Can I try some?” she asked. Then she thought about it. “On second thought, you eat fish eggs. I think I’ll pass.” Aww, that would have been hilarious. Oh well.
“I guess we should explore our surroundings after we eat?” I asked.
“There is not much,” Gregor said. “Plenty of books, if you want to look at those, though.”
“Wait, are those cakes?!” Terry asked, suddenly noticing a plate of pryanik.
Well… close enough. “Yes.”
“Any of that we don’t eat now, I’m saving for later,” she declared seriously.
Nebula bounded up onto my shoulder. “We’re being watched,” she said softly into my ear.
I must have made a face. “What’s wrong?” Gregor asked me.
“Someone’s watching us,” I whispered back. Well, the cat was out of the bag. “Whoever is there, please come out and say hello. We don’t have to be enemies as long as you don’t mean us any harm.”
“Yeah, come join us!” Terry called out. “We have cake, coffee,” then her voice dropped to a whisper, “and bullets.” No one answered and Terry got annoyed. “Hey, where is this hut taking us, anyway? HEY! Whoever is listening! As one-fourth of the Black Rider, I demand to know where we’re going, sir!”
Once again no one answered.
After we finished eating, we checked out the rest of the hut. As I had been told, there was a fairly large library. So at least I’d have something to do while we traveled. I doubted there’d be anything I’d enjoy in fiction, but there were sure to be some rather interesting books on magic.
There was another room with a giant map of Irrisen. It looked like some kind of war room. Had Baba Yaga used this place during her subjugation of the land of winter? I didn’t know, of course. And unlike the shattered remains of the bone golem, I had no one to ask.
“Gregor and I destroyed it,” Terry confirmed.
“I struck the killing blow,” Gregor said.
“Only because you got in my way and I didn’t want to shoot you,” Terry argued.
“Would not be a problem if you were a better shot,” the fighter quipped.
“Next time, I’m just shooting through you,” I heard Terry grumble.
The cauldron room looked like little more than a kitchen, and there was a vestibule-like room that was mostly uninteresting. The only interesting part of the latter was when Nebula flew up and looked out the window.
“What do you see?” I asked.
“Nothing, I think.”
“Nothing?”
“It’s like a black void.”
“Weird.”
And that was pretty much our surroundings. We had nothing to do for some time, so I started looking through the library for magical texts and anything that might offer a clue as to our destination. It was slow but fulfilling work, but it certainly lacked a bit of excitement. In fact, I think I said as much to Nebula right about the time gunshots rang out.
I got up and moved towards our quarters – the source of the gunshots – and nearly ran headlong into Terry. “I found a talking duck lady! She yelled at me and then tried to hit me with a broom while I was in the privy! So I shot at her and chased her away!”
I needed to figure out what she was talking about, but first there was a more pressing matter. “Terry… pants,” I said. Well, she was definitely a girl now, though that still didn’t answer my suspicions about what she was before, if anything.
“Oops!” Terry said, quickly pulling up and fastening her pants. And just in time, as Burin and Gregor finally reached us. Burin had managed to trap himself behind a pile of books in the library and Gregor had probably been off training… somewhere. I have no idea where. Maybe back in the map room.
“What is going on?” Gregor asked.
“A duck lady attacked me in the bathroom,” Terry said.
“What?”
“With a broom, apparently,” I added.
“And she yelled at me,” Terry said.
“What did she say?” Burin asked.
“She said we were in her house,” the girl answered.
“Oh. Maybe we’re the invaders here?” He put away his axe. “Hello! Sorry for our friend! We didn’t know anyone was here!”
Suddenly, a creature with a beak not unlike a duck appeared before us. She also had ears like a donkey, horns or antlers of some kind – surprisingly, not goat’s horns – clawed hands and taloned feet. She wore a peasant’s dress and a red shawl over her stringy black hair. In her hand was a crude straw broom. “Who do you think you are, coming into my house and taking my food like that?” I knew that I knew what she was, but I needed a moment to think about it.
“I think we’re the Black Rider,” Burin answered.
“You don’t look like him,” she said suspiciously. It was obvious she was keeping an eye on Terry regardless of who she was talking to.
“With his dying breath, the last black rider vested us each with a portion of his power and charged us with rescuing Baba Yaga. He wasn’t sure how, but he believed that she was in danger,” I clarified.
“How could Baba Yaga be in danger?” she asked.
“Are you aware of the current political climate, ma’am?” Terry asked. The creature smacked the girl with her broom and disappeared. “HEY! I was asking a legitimate question!” Terry said, ducking behind me.
I finally realized what the creature was. “She’s a kikimora,” I declared.
“I am not knowing what that means,” Gregor said.
“She’s a house spirit, a fey. Sort of like Hatch, but also very different.”
“That’s obvious,” Terry grumbled. “Hatch didn’t look like a duck.”
“Dangerous?” Gregor asked, letting the girl’s comment pass.
“Not particularly. Mischievous, though.”
“Excuse me, miss kikimora,” Burin said. “But is there any way we can prove who we are? From what my friend tells me, the house knows us. Is there any way you could be sure of who we are?”
“Not unless you can manifest the power of the mantle,” the fey answered, appearing once again.
Terry approached her and the fey raised her broom, ready to strike. “I’m sorry, miss. We got off on the wrong foot. You’re a very attractive house duck thingy. Maybe we can be friends? Swap beauty secrets? Braid each other’s hair? Maybe a back rub here and there? You know we can be friends, or maybe more? Like allies or something?”
The girl was trying to be diplomatic, but the way she was emphasizing words, it was like she was hitting on the fey. I wasn’t the only one who thought so, apparently. “Stop. Stop. Is very painful to watch,” Gregor said.
“Fine,” Terry replied, annoyed. “Why can’t we just settle this the way we always do? You know, with violence?” The fey smacked her with her broom once more. “Hey! Stop that!”
No. Perhaps we weren’t at violence yet. Well, not at serious violence anyway. I had an idea. “My name is Lyriana,” I said in Russian. The fey looked at me, her eyes going wide. “You recognize this language, don’t you? Yes, I can see you do. I come from the world where this language originated, a place called Earth.” I think. At this point, I wouldn’t have been surprised if you told me that Baba Yaga had brought Russian to Earth from another world.
“I’m listening,” the fey responded, also in Russian.
“I’m not asking you to trust us, not yet. All I ask is that you give us time to prove ourselves. We truly do seek to rescue Baba Yaga and we truly mean you and your home no harm. In time, I believe you will see the truth of this.”
The fey regarded me for a moment. “Very well, Lyriana of Earth. I will give you the time you request. But know this, my name is Zorka, and I will be watching you. All of you.” She pointed at her eyes and then at Terry. “Especially this one.” Despite not knowing what she said, Terry stuck out her tongue at Zorka. Zorka made the eye gesture again and disappeared.
“What did you say to her?” Gregor asked. I explained for a couple minutes. “And she recognized this language? How?”
“My father wasn’t the first visitor from my home world to this world,” I said. “As I’ve mentioned before, there are many tales of Baba Yaga on my world. I don’t know if she’s from my world originally, but Zorka’s reaction suggests that she might be. Heck, for all I know, Zorka herself might be from my world originally, from back before the fey were banished by Merlin’s magic.”
“If there are others like her, then knowing this language may prove useful. Will you teach me?”
I shrugged. “Sure. It’ll be something to do while we’re waiting for the hut to arrive wherever we’re going.”
I was awoken the next morning by the world becoming fuzzy. Or something. It’s hard to describe. For a moment, everything felt… not real. Shifting, maybe. And then it stabilized. We had probably arrived, if I had to guess.
Nebula hadn’t appeared in the waking world yet, so I prepared my spells while waiting for her. Sure enough, she appeared right about the time I finished my preparations.
“We have a problem,” Burin said to me as I exited my bedroom.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Gregor went for training and the door to the map room is gone.”
“Gone? What about the library?”
“The library is there, but we can’t go further than that. Also, there’s a new door leaving this room.” He pointed at the slightly ajar door that definitely hadn’t been there when I’d gone to bed.
“Has anyone investigated?”
“Terry and Gregor are taking a quick look. If they haven’t gotten back in a few minutes, we should probably check on them.”
They returned a few moments later. “There’s a long hallway in both directions,” Terry said. “And a door at each end, then the hall curves and seems to continue.”
“If I had to guess, is large triangle with loops at the ends,” Gregor added.
“Have you checked the doors?” Burin asked.
“No. We thought it might be best if we waited until all four of us were there,” Terry said.
“Let’s get to it, then,” I said.
We took a right and found ourselves at a door with a symbol on it. It looked like symbols I’d seen in some studying I’d done, but I couldn’t tell what it said. I did recognize it as a symbol favored by witches, though. So that matched the surroundings at least.
The room inside was pretty dark, illuminated only by a glowing red orb hanging from the ceiling. As we looked within, we heard the soft flutter of wings and a large crow – or was it a raven? I can never tell those two apart – landed upon the orb.
“It’s carrying some kind of chain,” Terry said, her voice barely louder than a whisper. There seemed to be magic preventing any sound much louder than that. “Should we try to coax it down and see what the chain is?”
“I have some seeds,” Gregor replied. “Leftover from dinner last night. Perhaps these will be enough to attract the bird?”
“It’s worth a shot,” Terry replied. Gregor handed her the seeds. “Come down, pretty bird. Let us see what you’re carrying.”
The bird laughed, which was a rather strange sound. “What fools these mortals be, to treat one such as me as a normal raven, in the house of a witch.”
Terry reacted immediately, bowing with a flourish. “Our apologies. O Thouest Raven, we come here at the behest of the previous Black Rider to find and rescue Baba Yaga. Please tell us how to find thine mistress.”
The raven chortled. “You have convinced me of your intentions, as well as amused me greatly. But you have yet to convince me of your wit. To prove your cleverness, you must find the answer to my riddle:
I mark night’s coming,
I will mark your end.
I run not in fear,
I have not a friend.
“The answer to my riddle lies within the passage of night, which lies beyond. To find the path to what you seek, drink from the silver chalice within the grotto. Go now and do not return until you can prove your worth!”
The riddle was fairly easily solved, as it clearly indicated that the answer had something to do with time itself. So we entered the now open door on the far side of the room to retrieve whatever it was the raven wanted.
The room was a large pool with a platform in the middle and a walkway between our door and the platform. Spaced around the room were five alcoves, which we could not see into due to the extreme darkness. On a pedestal at the center of the platform were five chalices, each bearing a different rune.
I had little trouble deciphering the runes, now realizing that they were witch runes common to the land of Iobaria. We found the one marked “Hourglass” and took a sip, as we’d been instructed. One of the alcoves lit up momentarily, revealing our prize, and stepping stones rose from the water to our prize.
Terry rushed over, reaching the alcove just as the stones began receding. Panicking, she grabbed hold of the alcove, managing to hang there, just above the water line. She tried to scream, but it came out as a whisper.
Gregor reacted immediately and took a running leap to help her. As he sailed over the pool, the water flashed. He grabbed his throat and teleported instinctively. He ended up appearing in the alcove, wedging himself within as he gasped and struggled to breathe.
“Take another drink,” Burin told me. Right. I’d been so focused on what they were doing that I forgot that I was holding the chalice. I took a sip of the wine and the stones rose back up, lifting Terry up.
“You need some help?” I heard her ask Gregor.
“I- am- fine-“ the fighter replied, gasping as he regained his breath.
“Okay,” she said, grabbing the hourglass and hurrying back across.
Gregor managed to free himself and made it back before we had to drink again. “I am thinking this place is not to be taken lightly,” he said.
The bird congratulated us on our success when we returned. “You have taken on a great burden. That which you desire is held by the changeling.” He tossed us the chain, which bore another Iobarian witch-rune. This one held the symbol for “gold”. So we needed something gold from a changeling. Now if only we knew where the changeling was.
“Oh thouest raven, I would ask of thee another boon,” Terry said. I have no idea why she was talking that way.
“And what do you wish of me, child?” the raven responded.
“An’ it please thee, I wouldst dare ask thee for one of thine glorious feathers, as a token of thine favor.”
The bird looked curious. “And what would you offer me in return, child?”
“I do not know what I have that thouest would value,” Terry responded.
“A lock of your hair would be an equal trade,” Burin suggested.
“Perhaps that’s true. Would that suffice, thouest raven?”
“Tied with a shiny ribbon, I would accept that as even trade,” the bird answered. Terry pulled out a ribbon and tied it in a bow around a lock of her hair, then cut off the hair and held it up for the raven. The bird responded by plucking out a feather and tossing it down. “Leave the hair upon the ground and I shall retrieve it later.”
Terry thanked the bird, who identified himself as Rozum, and we left, continuing around the bend in the hall into another long hallway. At the end of this hall, we found another room, this one marked by the Iobarian symbol for Twilight or Dusk.
The first thing I noticed after opening the door was the smell. The room smelled like a peat swamp. The walls inside seemed to be made from interwoven branches of black, leafless trees. The room was lit by another orb, this one shedding a pale light from its place within a nest of black iron branches in the center of the room. As we entered, another raven flew down from the trees and landed upon the orb.
“Greetings, thouest raven,” Terry said. “We have come from the chamber of Rozum, and suspect that thou hast a riddle for us and a test so we mayest gain thy clue so we mayest find and free thine mistress. Perhaps, first, though, introductions are in order. I am known as Terry and together with my companions, I bear the duties of the Black Rider.”
“Indeed, child, I do have such a test for you. You may address me as Moc. You will find within the chamber beyond the Challenge of Strength, and you shall find it more dangerous than the Test of Wit that Rozum placed before you. First, hear my riddle:
Born twins, they live not.
Yet they grow until death.
Their fates are of’n tied.
Ever crescent, as the moon;
Symbols of a warrior’s pride.
“The answer to this question lies in the chamber beyond. Return to me with the answer and I shall give you that which you seek.”
As we were leaving, Gregor stopped and turned to the raven, “Do not be surprised when girl asks for one of your feathers. I believe it is to be a thing with her today.” I couldn’t help but giggle and Nebula rolled her eyes.
Inside the next chamber was a massive boar, which we had to kill. It was a moderately difficult fight, focusing its fiendish power on Burin, but in truth, not a very interesting one. In the end, we took its tusks – Gregor did an uncharacteristically poor job removing them, even with Terry’s help – and its hide.
Then Burin cut off the boar’s testicles. “What are you doing?” I asked the dwarf
“‘Symbol of a warrior’s pride,’ right?” he replied, completely serious.
“But those are living tissue, so it doesn’t exactly fit ‘they live not’.”
“I’m going to take them anyway, just in case you’re wrong about it being the tusks.”
When the tusks were presented to the raven, it tossed us the amulet hanging from its neck and gave us its advice. “This amulet holds a clue to the first ingredient you shall need for Baba Yaga’s kettle, to continue to follow her trail. You will find this key at the place where time catches up to us all.” The rune on the amulet read, “Dragon”. Burin was just going to LOVE that. And he was already not looking terribly happy about being wrong about the testicles.
As Gregor had predicted, Terry bargained away another lock of her hair in trade for the bird’s feather, then we continued down the hall.
This hall was different, with a door that opened on the inner side. Inside, we found the cauldron room, which once more was not terribly interesting, so we continued until we came to a third runed door. This one had the Iobarian witch symbol for “Dawn”.
Again, the first thing I noticed upon opening the door was the scent. It was warm and floral, and particularly reminded me of Mama, for some reason. The room itself was lit by a warm glow that emanated from a pool at the room’s center, and flowering vines draped the walls all around the chamber. Perched next to the pool was a third raven.
Terry introduced us once more and Gregor patted her on the shoulder. “That was well done.”
“I’ve done this before. I just needed to shake off the rust,” the girl replied.
“You’ve talked to birds before?” Burin asked.
“I’ve seen some shit, man.”
“Me too. I dig our latrines, after all.” I’ll admit that the dwarf’s comically serious nature was starting to grow on me.
“I am Tryva,” the third raven declared. “And you will find that my Challenge of Endurance is the most difficult of all. To prove your resolve, you must face what I, the herald of the coming day, cannot.
Each night it visits—
Sometimes horror,
Sometimes wonder,
Sometimes prophet.
When dawn wakes, it flees.
“When you face this thing, you shall know its desire. In its desire, you shall find your own. Only by sharing this desire with me can I bind your fates. Once they are bound, I will be able to see your destiny.”
In the end, the challenge consisted of tricking a fleeting memory in the form of an animated dream into revealing what it wanted. It took some doing, but in the end, we found out that it was the memory of Yelizaveta, who I remembered was the thirteenth daughter of Baba Yaga and a former queen of Irrisen. And what she desired was both freedom and revenge on her mother.
We returned this information to Tryva. She congratulated us and tossed us her amulet. “Well done. Seek now the sisters three who are one: Mother, Maiden and Crone.” Her amulet held the word “Artrosa”, which I remembered vaguely as being some kind of Mount Rushmore sort of monument located in Iobaria. And that it depicted the Three Faces of Eve, not that the people here would call them that.
Once more, before we left, Terry bargained for the bird’s feather, giving a lock of hair in exchange.
As we entered the hallway, we heard the sound of a door opening and spotted movement in the hallway just across from the door to the cauldron room. So, of course, we knew we had to check it out. After all, we had no idea how to go outside and the clues we’d gotten told us we needed to go to Artrosa, which I really hoped was nearby.
The door opened to what looked like this configurations version of the vestibule room. Inside, standing guard, was a man in coat of chainmail made entirely of ice. Which meant we were at two elemental chain armors that we’d seen thus far. He had a wild look in his eyes when he greeted us.
“My name is Ratibor of Iobaria, son of Thorvenk the Wise, son of Jolmund the Strong, son of Ilvard the Stolid, son of Ragnvild the Fierce, son of Aldebor the Heroic! At long last, the key to my salvation lies before me!”
“Why do I get the feeling I’ve heard that last one before?” Terry asked Gregor.
“Because you did. From dwarf in dream.”
“Oh, right. So does that mean he has demon powers like Segrit?”
Gregor looked at Burin, then Ratibor and I saw realization dawn. “Suchka!” he exclaimed. Obviously, I had taught him the curse words first. He needed a bit of work, but I was proud of him for it only being a day since I’d started teaching him.
“We can’t talk about this?” Burin asked the warrior.
“Draw your axe and fight!” Ratibor roared as he charged. It was the last thing he said, as each of us reflexively unleashed an attack, bringing him low. As he fell, wispy black tendrils leached out, pouring into Burin.
“Are you okay?” Gregor asked the dwarf.
“It’s a small piece. The portion of the demon in me is still much smaller than the piece I held before. I should be fine.”
I healed the wound Burin had taken from the surprise attack while Gregor and Terry stripped the body of everything useful. Gregor walked over and held up the barbarian’s boots. “Are these magical?” he asked.
I checked them. “Yes. They work like the boots I’m wearing, but will also let you turn into a frost giant once a day for maybe ten minutes.”
He checked them against his feet. “Looks about the same size, yes?”
“They’re magical. They’ll shift in size to fit you just fine.” His eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas as he kicked off his own boots.
Meanwhile, Terry had taken the armor from the corpse and carried it to Burin, who was sulking a bit. I think the probably unnecessary fight bothered him. Terry poked him and held up the armor when he turned. “You get hit a lot, man. And when you get too hurt, it seems like I’m in danger of getting hurt too. So maybe this armor would be better than what you’re wearing? It certainly covers more than that chain shirt.”
Burin smiled. “Thanks, little girl. I’ll try it on.”
The rest of his gear wasn’t very useful to us, so we tossed it into our bags for breaking down later. We’d expended a fair amount of resources, so we decided to rest before heading out. Hopefully, the wards that had kept Greta out would bar other intruders.
The next morning, we prepared ourselves and made our way back to the vestibule. We took a few breaths, steeling ourselves for whatever waited for us outside.
A voice boomed at us as we stepped outside, though I didn’t speak the language. I looked around the forest clearing – the trees were definitely different than the kinds I’d seen in Irrisen, so we really were likely to be somewhere else – and saw a squad of eight – EIGHT! – frost giants standing about fifty feet from the hut. It looked like they had just exited the tree line as we had come outside.
“And what if don’t do whatever the hell it is you just told us to do?!” Gregor shouted back in Russian.
The giants yelled back angrily. Terry whipped out her gun and shot into the air. “Who the fuck are you people and why the fuck are you yelling at us?!” she shouted in Taldan.
“We are followers of Vsevolod, mighty priest of Kostchtchie! And we are here to claim the Crone’s hut and kill any who would think to aid her minions in Artrosa!”
“Somehow, I had a feeling you’d say something like that,” Terry said as she shot the closest giant in the face.
Burin and Gregor moved forward, taking up positions to get between us and the enemies. Gregor emphasized this by activating his boots and taking the form of a frost giant. Burin struck his mithral buckler menacingly with his axe, which amused the frost giants.
As for me, I had just the thing for frost giants. I wove together my spell and unleashed a fireball into the hilariously clustered group. Then something strange happened. Suddenly the first fireball was followed by a second out of nowhere. I have no idea how I did that, but I would have to study and try to figure out how to replicate it.
Whatever had caused it, it was hilariously effective. The frontline giant, the one who had been shot by Terry, fled in terror, to the scorned shouting of his fellows. Four of the others charged, stopped by Burin and Gregor. The other three hurled rocks larger than my head – two at me, one at Terry. Gregor reached out and nudged one of the rocks off course, causing it to narrowly miss me.
The other glanced me. It hurt like hell, but the shield I’d woven around myself with the ambient energy of the fireball had mitigated some of the impact. Because of the pain, I didn’t notice if Terry had also been hit.
After I tossed another fireball, one of the giants engaging Burin came for me, but Terry finished it off at the same time she sniped the fleeing giant. She flexed at me with a grin as it fell, though I could only weakly return the expression since the giant had managed to strike me with his club before falling.
Meanwhile, Burin held his remaining giant in place while Gregor used his increased size to great effect, laying low both giants with massive blows.
I launched another fireball, laying low the two giants remaining next to the one who had spoken, and scorching him greatly. The leader roared in chagrin. “WHAT KIND OF MONSTERS ARE YOU?!” he shouted, as he turned to flee.
Apparently that was the cue for the hut to defend itself. It got up and chased down the fleeing giant, stomping him into the ground and picking up his corpse with its foot – like it had with Greta – and tossing him into its mouth.
I clutched at my broken ribs and yelled at the hut. “NOW?! Now is when you decide to help?!” The hut turned to me and cowered like a scolded puppy. I ignored the hut and fumbled at the wand on my bandolier. It slipped from my numb fingers and clattered upon the ground.
“Here,” Burin said. “Let me do that.” He picked up the wand and used it on me, despite the fact that he’d taken a worse beating than I had. Then he hit himself.
“We’re gonna need another wand,” I joked, grimacing at the pain.
“I do believe so,” Burin agreed.
Meanwhile, Gregor and Terry were dealing with the corpses, Terry looting while Gregor skinned them. Once we were healed, Gregor came to check on us. “Is a shame that there is no use for these other than to sell,” he said, holding up a pristine giant hide.
“I think that there’s a type of magic armor that uses those for a base,” I said.
“Really? What does it do?”
“I think it lets you turn into a giant.”
His eyes lit up. “YES. Let us make one of those.”
I nodded. “Sounds good. Now let’s get going. We have a journey ahead of us.” I took a step and nearly blacked out.
Burin caught me. “I don’t think we should go anywhere right now. Even after the healing, you need some rest from your injuries.”
I sighed. “Fine.” I whistled for the hut, and it bounded over like a great big idiot. “Down, girl. We’re going back inside to rest.” Damn it all.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow, we’d finally set out and find Artrosa.
0 Comments