Steel Wolves of Craedia (Realm of Arkon, Book 3) (31 page)

"You've grown up, wolf cub!" a familiar sardonic voice sounded in my head. 

"It's good to see you, Ulissa," I smiled at the young woman before me after my vision returned. 

"Are these yours?" the countess motioned at the rigid formation behind me. 

"Aye. My clan's fighters have decided to devote themselves to Ingvar's service." 

"Very well," Ulissa nodded. "But let's take care of you first. On your knee, lieutenant!" there were notes of steel in the voice of the warrior god's companion. The massive two-hander landed heavily on my shoulder; there was a booming of thunder in my ears as fire scorched my cheek. "By the name of the god from whom I draw strength..." the forceful words of the knight-commander of the Order of Punishing Steel punctuated the air. And as I knelt there, transfixed by the beautiful Valkyrie, I knew that another phase of my life had come to an end. 

You have earned a new rank,
Knight-Captain of the Order of Punishing Steel
. Now you can command groups of up to 500 sentient NPCs. You and the warriors under your command receive 10% increase to your physical and magic damage, 10% to armor class and all resistances, and 10% to the effectiveness of healing spells. Experience gained by sentient beings under your command is increased by 10%.

"Congratulations, brother," Ulissa embraced me tightly. "I didn't expect it to happen so quickly—you keep surprising us!" She took a step toward the formation, then spoke loudly: "Warriors! What you have accomplished today will go down in the annals of history as a legendary feat! The Order is glad to welcome you into its ranks!"

The sky above the troops darkened, and what happened next could only be described as pandemonium. The thunderous racket clogged my ears through and through, as lightning tore up the sky. It took a full minute for the mayhem to start to abate. When it was all over, the formation was completely gone: some soldiers stood there in stunned silence, others were on the ground, trying to regain their senses. 

"I may have gone a tad overboard," Ulissa sniffed, though she didn't look at all distraught by it. "Give them a minute to recover," the countess sheathed her sword, turned to me and said. "Got any grub? I'm hungry."

"Sure! We're about to sit down for dinner," I nodded, then cast an incredulous look at Reece, who was studying the tip of his own tail with equal measure of incredulity. 

"That's right, even that windbag has earned the right to be called a knight," Ulissa chuckled, following my eyes.

"Why did you come to him in a dream, but not to me?" 

"Because I couldn't. You dreamers aren't like everyone else. And there's an added layer of queerness to you on top of that," she shrugged. 

"Dar! Look!" Iam, who had become a tifling along with all the surviving demons from the first group of recruits from one month ago, was pointing up at the clan's banner flapping in the wind. The familiar muzzle of a wolf cub was gone, replaced by a scowling, red-eyed young wolf. I focused my eyes on the banner.

Steel Wolves Banner V.

The banner of the Steel Wolves clan.

All clan members and their allies within a half mile radius of the raised banner receive the following bonuses:

+10 to morale (only for NPCs).

+5% to maximum constitution.

+3% to all maximum resistances.

Warning! If the banner is lost or captured by the enemy, all clan members suffer the following debuffs for the next three months:

-25 to morale (only for NPCs).

-5% to maximum constitution.

-25% to all resistances.

As expected, the banner's stats had increased to reflect the clan's higher level. I'd earned a promotion, too, and the symbol on my cheek had changed as a result. Suddenly I felt incredibly fatigued—today had been entirely too eventful. 

"James," I called over my deputy. His cheek now bore a single line across it, same as the cheeks of all the demons who had become nobles this day. I now realized that the symbol denoted the title of knight. "Are we eating today or what? You promised us wine..."

Find me a boy who hadn't had this fantasy at some point in life: sitting at a feast alongside real knights in a castle they had just seized in glorious combat? And it didn't matter that everything was probably very different in the times written about by Walter Scott. Our table may have been much more modest—we hadn't exactly had the time to prepare a proper feast—but so what? On this day we had slain the companion of a god, and here was the companion of another god sitting to my right, holding a glass in her hand like an ordinary woman. I now had the ability to lead a raid of five hundred fighters—an amazing development, though I feared even those numbers might not be enough to rescue the captive dragon deity. And we would have to rescue him one way or another, no matter the cost. Without him I had no way of getting to Cheney; moreover, his death might lead to this world becoming an altogether unpleasant place to live. And it appeared that I was stuck here for quite a while... Should I consult with Ulissa? No, better not—Celphata had made it clear that the gods might not resist the temptation and end up disturbing the delicate balance. After all, being able to conceal a whole plane of reality using the captive god's blood was a tremendous advantage. Could there be something else like that, besides the blood? The exchange with the White Dragon was too short to explain everything, so let's focus on the things that
were
said. He'd mentioned that before I came to his rescue, a woman would appear in my life. And not just any woman, but
my
woman. And I doubted she would be some ordinary gal. I looked at Ulissa sitting next to me. Could it be her? The countess was anything but ordinary, that much was certain.
Alas, my mates are limited to succibi and elder demonesses,
I thought with a sigh. 

"Why so glum?" Ulissa looked at me with surprise. "In barely a month you've risen to the rank of captain, found loyal friends, and slain a great monster."

"Grown horns and a tail," I continued, imitating her tone. "Stopped being human."

"Do you think they care what you look like?" the woman motioned at my clanmates around the table. "Don't anger Sata with your sulking, friend, you're doing just fine." The countess took a sip from her glass, then bared her snow-white teeth in a grin.

At first, the presence of Ingvar's messenger had my demons behaving like military cadets around a four-star general. It took several rounds of wine tasting and a few choice tales of adventure from Ulissa to finally put everybody at ease.

I couldn't argue with the countess. Unfortunately, good mood isn't something you can order off a menu. Ulissa would soon take her leave, and most of my clanmates would pair off and disappear in their rooms, and I would return to my quarters all alone. I would fall into bed without bothering to undress, and dream of the day when I would get out of this plane, find Alyona and Max, and finally be rid of this solitude.
Maybe I should ask Ulissa to find my sister above and give her something from me?
I considered the thought, then rejected it. No, I'd already asked Kirana, and nothing came of it.

I took a sip of wine, and forced a smile on my face. I sat there with everyone a while longer, and when the countess stepped away somewhere, I got up and trudged back to my room. I was feeling miserable, but I'd still need to be up at the crack of dawn to fight off the remnants of the undead, and then set out for Gilthor. Those people had only several days left to live, so time was of the essence. If not for that, I'd return to Xantarra and recruit folks there. After what we had done, there should be no shortage of volunteers. The race continued, and I couldn't shake the feeling that I was following some linear script. Too bad the script had been written without me.

Having made it to my room, I lit a few magic lanterns, poured myself another half glass of wine, opened the window and plopped down before the monitor. I needed to plan out the next phase of my development. Outside the window the moon was huge and round like a cartwheel amid scatterings of twinkling stars, streaming moonlight that seemed to infiltrate every crevice. The ambiance was entirely unsuitable for messing around with stats and talents. I reached for my pipe just as there was a series of soft raps on the door.

"You're a lousy flirt, wolf cub! A woman comes to visit you, and you don't even bother inviting her up to your room," Ulissa stepped through the door, shut the door, slid her hands around my neck, and arched her brow with feigned indignation. The Valkyrie's gray eyes sparkled playfully.

"But..." I felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me. "But we can't... I can only—"

"Silly boy," she laughed softly. "Those restrictions don't apply to me."

Her lips were unbearably close to mine, smelling of wine and some fragrant herbs.
Maybe she is the one?
the thought flashed through my mind as I threw caution to the wind and drew this intoxicating creature closer.

Chapter 13

Autumn had come to the princedom, painting the trees and bushes a spectrum of colors, from deep yellow to rusty orange. The cold western wind was blowing in heavy gray thunderclouds from the Great Lake with increasing frequency, which disgorged nasty frigid showers onto the ground. A thick fog had blanketed the ground from sunrise, concealing the hooves of horses and giving the illusion of riding over a magical cloud. The fog had dissipated closer to afternoon, with maybe five-six miles left to go to the Gilthorean border.

We had departed La-Kharte yesterday morning, after taking a full day to get things in order and sort out the treasury. There were barrels of wine, rolls of fabric, wooden and iron components of obscure contraptions, tons of tools and a veritable mountain of metal ingots, of which only three dozen mithril bars held any value. We'd taken the mithril with us and dumped the rest into the castle's treasury, seeing no use in hauling extra cargo.

As our party rode through the ravaged province, we saw countless deserted villages, houses with roofs caved in, fences broken, sheds rotting and gardens overgrown with tall grass and withered trees. Despite these dreary vistas, the clan's spirits were as high as ever. And no wonder! The satrapy was completely rid of the undead scourge—the eight stragglers that had turned up to storm the castle the morning after our battle with Nerghall had been the last of them. Callehzia was now free, and the greater share of my clanmates that called this land home were brimming with elation so infectious the rest of them could hardly resist.

Only little has changed in my own life,
I thought gloomily, throwing off my hood to expose my face to the warm headwind. Ulissa had left the morning of the following day, with a kiss on the cheek and a parting wish to keep riding my streak of luck. Now, far be it from me to complain after the fact, but a man with any insight into the fairer sex always knows the true feelings of a woman who, by some twist of fate, ended up his bed. All that the countess had wanted was a bit of adventure, and the wine over dinner hadn't hurt. Maybe it was for the best? Everything about that night had felt magical, but in the light of day I was struggling to imagine any kind of future with Ulissa. I smiled and shook my head, chasing away idiotic thoughts. Was I going senile in my old age? After my divorce I had vowed to never remarry, but here not a day went by without me fantasizing about a woman by my side. Why bother with any of that? There were countless brothels across Demon Grounds, and I was rolling in dough. Once I escaped this plane and found Alyona, I would come back for a month of pure hedonistic debauchery. Cheney could wait until after I'd had my fill and resumed the hunt with a clear head. The plan made me feel better. I looked over my troops riding down the road.

A century of cavalry in plate is no joke,
I thought, admiring the sight of my armored clanmates. The getare were wielding spears with colorful triangular pennons—one of the two visual upgrades since being made noble by the will of a god, the other being the sharp steel spikes jutting out from the muzzles of their armored horses. It was all just for show, but it made the horses look rather formidable just the same. Hart! And I was in command of all these knights! Life was funny like that. I hadn't even dreamed of anything like this a mere two months ago, and here I was now, leading a burgeoning army of hardened veterans. Of course, I wasn't counting the time wasted in the vault of the Twice Cursed god, but then again being there had earned me the rank of knight-lieutenant, so maybe "wasted" wasn't the right word. I wondered what else the future held for me... Wait, what was I going on about? My future was crystal clear: first there would be Gilthor with its Derelict Temple, then Suonu, and finally Craedia. And I had barely over three weeks to accomplish all three.

"You promised to help me out, Krian," Reece reined in his horse as he pulled up to me. The freshly minted tifling had a distant, contemplative air about him. 

"Why don't you think of it yourself? After all, it's you who's going to wear that name, not me."

After being knighted by Ulissa, all the demons who'd joined me in Ballan were faced with a brand new problem: surnames. Whether or not the countess had simply forgotten or this was just how things were done, but right after the ceremony the clan's menu had lit up with big fat question marks that were blinking red next to the knighted demons' names, calling on the tiflings to fix the problem. And nobody had any issues picking a surname save for Reece, who'd been agonizing over his choices for going on two days. The mage had been pestering everybody about it, to the point where even the imperturbable Aritor had snapped and suggested that he pick something unprintable, then loudly presented him with a dozen choice options. And now it was my turn. Yesterday I'd dismissed the mage, citing matters of great urgency, and Hart had possessed me to promise that I'd help him with his problem later!