We
made camp and rested about halfway back to Waldsby, and finally went
over the equipment we’d acquired from our trip. It was mostly
standard stuff, but it was fairly valuable. The most valuable item
was a ring that we couldn’t identify. Heck, even Cortana couldn’t
identify it as she broke it down, which meant that it wasn’t in the
database Daddy had given her, despite how thorough that was. Still,
it was worth a massive amount of gold.
We split the filthy lucre five ways, cutting in Nadya for a share. It was more money than she’d ever seen, by a large margin. It was so much that we had to give her the magic bag from the treasure hoard just to carry what was left over after she spent much of it on new gear. She even bought boots like the ones Burin and I were wearing since they offered protection from the cold as well as the ability to walk on ice and snow. She then sold her magical snowshoes to Gregor at the same price the box was willing to give her.
She looked rather good with the darkwood longbow slung across her back, the exquisite pair of cold iron kukris sheathed on her belt and the magical chain shirt hidden between her undershirt and outer coat. Now if I could just get her to ditch that silly ushanka so she could flaunt her pretty hair, she’d make a great wing-woman for hitting up the tavern.
For dinner, we had a simple goat and turnip stew. It wasn’t too bad, once I added a bunch of salt and pepper, though it was a bit chewy. It might have been my imagination, but I kinda thought Terry looked like she was eating it spitefully. I even think I heard her mutter something about, “that stupid goat lady” as she went in for a bite.
After dinner, I took my turn with Cortana, coming up with what to spend my money on. In the end, I made some gloves that would help me activate magical devices and a pair of earrings that would enhance my attractiveness to help me convince people to help us. Cortana then made a suggestion based on my funds remaining, which I accepted, since it was from Daddy’s adventuring guide. And that’s why I no longer had to eat, drink or fear mind control and possession by evil creatures.
Of course, I was still going to eat and drink when there was something worth eating or drinking. But it would be nice not to have to worry about it when the only options were boring. I just wished I’d had it before dinner.
Back in Waldsby, Nadya volunteered to lead us to Whitethrone. “What about your boys? Will they be safe while you’re gone?” Burin asked.
“No,” Nadya said. “I want to take them with us. Even if I stay, they won’t be safe here if Nazhena realizes I helped you. I want to take them to Ellsprin, a village on the way, and leave them with an acquaintance of mine.”
“We can certainly take you with us,” I said. “But wouldn’t it be better if you stayed in Ellsprin with the boys?”
She shook her head. “My late husband’s uncle, Ringeirr, lives in a village just outside Whitethrone. If I go with you, I can introduce you. He’s a fisherman, but I’d bet he’d know someone who could get you into the city safely.”
I couldn’t see any reason to argue. “Anyone have any objections?”
“I’m not comfortable putting children in danger,” Burin said.
“You are traveling with little girl barely two years older than my sons,” she pointed out.
“Girl can fight,” Gregor said. “Let us see if the boys can do the same.” The warrior got the boys, Orm and Mjoli, from the other room and led them outside. He began showing them methods of fighting, amazing them as he left dents in the trees when he struck them.
It was adorable watching the twins emulate Gregor. Nadya had been worried at first, but her fears calmed when the “training” turned into a snowball fight.
The boys came in, complaining about the cold. Nadya ended up having Cortana make two more pairs of the magic boots, one for each of her sons. She still had more than enough money to live comfortably for years left over.
Terry returned sometime later, having gone out looking for information in town. She returned and told us about what she’d learned, and she’d learned a lot. “Vinnie was working with three others,” she said. “The elven alchemist, we’ve already met. But he was also with Vasily and some dwarven woman with claws. They were the ones who killed the Red Rider, at least, according to the Toad’s boasting.”
“Red Rider? I thought it was just the Black Rider.” Gregor said.
“There are three,” Nadya said. “Black, Red and White, they come every hundred years to herald Baba Yaga’s return.”
“Then perhaps White Rider could be our ally?” Gregor suggested.
“It’s worth a shot,” I agreed. “But I have no idea where to look for him.” No one else had any idea, so we agreed to keep our eyes open and hope we saw signs we could follow. An ally would be quite useful. As it was, we were floundering in the dark with only the slimmest of leads. Find a house and hope it could take us to the next step? Madness.
We ended up trapped by a blizzard. I thought I was going to go stir crazy by the third day. Evidently, Gregor felt the same way. “Burin, come with me,” he said.
“Where are we going?” the dwarf asked.
“To the bar. I am needing a drink.”
“Oh. Okay. I could use some beer.” Dwarves.
“I should go with them,” Nadya said to me. “Can you keep an eye on the boys?”
They were asleep already. “Sure. I’ll just stay here and read.” I still had that book I’d grabbed in the tower, and it seemed like it would be an interesting read. After she left, I realized that I should have asked if she was leaving me money to order a pizza.
They returned less than an hour later, bottles of alcohol in hand. “Emil refused to let foreigners drink at the tavern. I managed to convince him to sell us some alcohol to bring home,” Nadya said, answering my unspoken question.
“Good call,” I replied.
After some drinking, Gregor and Burin stepped outside for a bit, needing some fresh air. Nadya was looking a bit melancholic. She might just have been that kind of drunk. “You once said that you were from another world, yes?”
“I did,” I replied.
“Is it as horrible as this?”
“There are some bad parts,” I said. “But in truth, it’s probably better there on average than it is here.”
“And your childhood? Was it good?”
I nodded. “I grew up in luxury. I never really knew adversity, not in the sense that many experience. Not to say I wasn’t challenged, nor that I never encountered hardship, but it was not a daily fact of life.” I sighed. “Though, considering the invasion, it’s possible things back home are just as bad or even worse than here.”
“Then you were brought here to escape this invasion?”
“No. I came here to become stronger. Magic talent grows quickly in the face of adversity. I figured I’d find people in need, help them and become stronger in the process. Maybe kill a few monsters along the way. Simple adventurer stuff. Then I got word of what was happening back home. I wish I could go back, but the truth is that there’s likely little I can do to make a difference there. Here, well, maybe I can do some good.”
She laughed. “You are the strangest people I’ve ever met. You walk around dressed like a blyad, yet you seem to care about people.” I looked it up, and the word she used approximately means “whore”. “And the girl, she seems so angry, but there is sadness in her eyes when she thinks no one is looking.”
“I suspect she may have been a child soldier,” I confessed.
“That would make some sense, but I am thinking there may be more to it.”
“It’s possible.”
“The dwarf is… well, he is an odd one. But again, not unkind, though I worry about his tale of the demon. And the other, he has strange ideas, but there was gentleness in his treatment of the children. He seems to fret about the girl when she goes into danger.”
“His order, which was pretty much the only family he knew as far as I understand it, was wiped out almost to a man. I’ve seen his dreams a few times and it definitely haunts him. I’d be surprised if he isn’t afraid of losing another companion.” I laughed softly. “As my father tells it, my mom was like that, back before I was born. She was a mercenary and lost so many companions that she was terrified something would happen to those she traveled with.” And now, it was possible she’d lose many more friends in the fighting.
Gregor stormed in and sat by the fire. He took a big drink. “It is easier to train children than to train that guy,” he said, speaking to someone we couldn’t see. “What? You couldn’t teach him either? As if he couldn’t even see you? Oy, that pizda.” You don’t want to know what that one means.
Burin came in moments later. “I still don’t understand. Why would I want to dodge when I can just take the hit? If I take it, it becomes mine!” Yeah, he was probably drunk.
It took one more day before the blizzard subsided, and we finally set out. We ended up with one dog sled between us to carry gear, since we didn’t have enough trained sled drivers to carry the full party. It also meant we didn’t need to carry nearly as much extra food, so at least there was that.
We encountered a swarm of ravens on the first day. She didn’t say anything, but I could just imagine Terry thinking that we should have killed the sylph when we had a chance. After the stupid ravens clawed at my eyes, I was inclined to agree.
I spent the rest of the day on the dogsled while my eyes healed. The damage wasn’t too bad, but exposing my eyes to the cold air caused them to sting and water, which made it hard for me to see. So I just wrapped my head in cloth and accepted my temporary blindness.
The next day, my eyes were a bit better, but I kept a thin cloth on them since they were still sensitive to the light reflecting from the snow and the cold air. The day was mostly uneventful, except for Terry waking us up that night with gunfire. Apparently gremlins had tried to sneak into the tent, but Terry spotted them and reacted immediately, scaring them off.
The next evening, while I was helping Nadya set up the tent and Burin was digging a latrine, Terry and Gregor got into a knife throwing contest. The twins watched with intense glee as the two competed to see who would be best. Gregor won, though not by much. Where he really shined was the depth of penetration with the knife into the tree. It took a Herculean effort to yank it out, much to the children’s amusement.
The next day, we encountered an ambush. A number of men on snowshoes were hiding in some brush, but one had failed to hide the metal on his helmet, which reflected light that several of my companions spotted.
The soldiers sent their trained attack falcons to attack Gregor, who dodged them easily as the first foe fell. I unleashed a ray of fire, which caused them all to start focusing on shooting me. Jerks.
Meanwhile, a giant wolf came out of nowhere. Not just any wolf, though. It was a winter wolf, a magical beast of great power that lives within Irrisen. They joined Baba Yaga’s army and were rewarded greatly. They even have the ability to assume humanoid form in certain places – one of Baba Yaga’s gifts.
This one was just a giant wolf, though. An ice breathing wolf. Its breath was even cold enough that I felt pain from it, which was surprising. Gregor, Burin and Nadya surrounded the wolf and began trying to bring it down, which meant that the stupid archers were free to focus on me. So Terry and I kept attacking them.
Before the wolf fell, it called out to the guards. “Flee! Return to Nazhena and tell her of our failure!” Then it was brought down. One guard managed to make it a little ways away, but Gregor teleported over to him – I have got to figure out how he does that – and finished him off.
“We should skin the beast,” Nadya suggested, not noticing that Gregor had already begun doing so.
I pointed to Gregor. “That’s kinda what we do. Any particular reason why with this one, though?”
“It had two eyes of different color. If a winter wolf such as this is skinned, magic remains in the pelt. It allows its wearer to become a winter wolf, at least for a few hours. If entering Whitethrone is your aim, then an item such as this would be invaluable, as the winter wolves come and go freely from there.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “At the very least, it’s an option.”
“You should consider having girl use it,” she told me. “Whitethrone is not safe place for children. A young winter wolf, however, should have little to fear from witches.”
“So I’d have paws?” Terry complained. “I wouldn’t be able to fire my gun if we needed it.”
“The wolves may assume human form while in certain places. Whitethrone is one such place.”
“Then why not tell everyone I’m a winter wolf and be done with it?”
“You would not look right. They have white hair and pale blue eyes. In your wolf-turned-human form, you would have those as well.”
White hair and blue eyes? “How about Burin?” I asked. “I mean, he’s a dwarf, but he fits everything else.”
“Would not work,” Gregor pointed out. “Beast such as this uses more than eyes to see others. Dwarf would not fit in with wrong scent.”
We could work with that. “Take some of the wolf’s fat. Cortana should be able to analyze it and create a chemical spray Burin could use to smell like one of them.”
“I hope I won’t smell bad,” Burin said.
“It’ll probably be subtle enough that you’ll barely notice it,” I told him. Of course, I had no idea if I was right or not. But it sounded like a thing that could be true.
“Beasts have stronger noses than us,” Gregor agreed.
“If it works on him,” Terry said to me. “Would it work on you? You can change your hair color, after all.”
“She’d need to change her eye color too, wouldn’t she?” Burin pointed out.
“Back home, we have a technology that lets us disguise our eye color by putting colored lenses in our eyes. But we’d need some kind of magic box capable of crafting such a lens for that to be an option,” I said slyly.
“But don’t you have a magic box that can make things from your world?” Burin asked.
I didn’t have the heart to call him Captain Obvious. Or the desire to spend all day explaining what I meant by that. So I let it slide. But I was looking forward to trying this. We might actually be able to pull this off. Assuming I could get Burin to understand how infiltration works.
Maybe if I started now, he’d almost have it down by the time we reached the city. Maybe. I hoped.
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