Early in the morning, so as not to waste time, I got up, had breakfast and went to Master Loiniel. The master got up early, so he was not afraid to wake him up. It must be said that the sleeping city is beautiful: dawn rose in the east, its red rays illuminated the spire of the town hall, touched the magic dome of the academy and sparkled in it with a riot of colors. It was like a miniature aurora borealis, under which a soundless salute exploded. This celebration of the eyes did not last long, about five minutes, the sun came out, and everything took on its colors. Immediately, the magic lanterns along the streets went out, a rooster crowed somewhere, and I realized that I had been standing with my mouth open all this time. Coming to his senses, he moved on. Loiniel, as usual, was standing on the porch, is he sleeping here, or what? After greeting, he told me to open the map, on which he indicated the purpose of my visit. He also handed over a tube of papers for the Scorpions. Thanking him for everything, he went out of town, along the way, taking advantage of the deserted streets, opened the map and went a little nuts. I had to go through half the kingdom, and then go through the lands closed to me, approximately the length of the kingdom on which I am. There was no time for reflection and throwing, so I decided to change my route. I went to the guild of magicians, where for a tidy sum of five thousand gold they sent me to the nearest city to the point I needed. This city turned out to be Belograd. where, for a tidy sum of five thousand gold pieces, they sent me to the nearest city to the point I needed. This city turned out to be Belograd. where, for a tidy sum of five thousand gold pieces, they sent me to the nearest city to the point I needed. This city turned out to be Belograd.
Belograd was a border town, with a small population, but a strong garrison. The need for a garrison was due to the fact that from the neighboring state, Lemrado, groups of evil spirits sometimes came out, there was such an attack there. He did not stay in Belograd for a long time, saddled his camel and went to the near abroad - Lemrado.
I had to go through a field, approximately in the middle of which I was overtaken by a message that I had set foot on the ancient land of Lemrado, where all sorts of evil spirits are now unleashed. I didn’t find anything new in the message, all this was told to me earlier by a bored guard at the gate. It didn’t take long to get to the border town of Lemrado, about two hours, and I drove into Perle, my first city in this state. There I immediately went to the guild of magicians, in order to use the teleport, but they broke me off, saying that you can only teleport to the territory of an open map. I learned there on the topic of fighters with evil spirits, a separate guild was engaged in this, which paid according to the price list for the destruction of evil spirits. On reflection, I decided to go there, to find out the nuances. As it turned out, not in vain. To receive a reward, it was necessary to provide evidence of the murder. I didn’t want to mess around with a bag of heads, so I bought a book for a hundred gold pieces, in which a record automatically appeared about what evil spirits were destroyed, the type of creature and its class were determined by the emanations of death and aura. And in the guild itself, the owner of such a book cannot be deceived by calling the dead, say, a zombie. There was still a little time, so I went on a further journey, I had to make it to the next city, in extreme cases I would stop in some village located on the highway.
The area around the tract: forests and fields, sometimes I crossed the rivers, not wide, but often located, so neither I nor the camel experienced problems in the water. The time was approaching for dinner, and when I, having not found game around, wanted to open crackers, I saw a village in the distance. There was a tavern in the village, to which I hurried, having attached the camel to the stable, let them feed, and at the same time the cattle will rest.
The tavern was in twilight, lit only by a fireplace and two oil lamps. A couple of men sat at a corner table and talked. The room was dark, so I couldn't see them. I ordered dinner from the owner and began to wait. The men, after sitting for a while, stood up and approached me, despite their decent size, about two meters tall, they stood uncertainly in front of me, shifting from foot to foot. Their beards were disheveled and their eyes were red, as if they hadn't slept in days. From clothes, shirts and leather vests, low-key pants and strong leather boots. Clutching his hat in his hands, one spoke:
- Sir, excuse us, we are a simple people, we are not trained in various etiquettes, we would like to talk to you.
- So what's the deal? Have a seat.
The thing is, sir...
- Mirage.
- So, Mr. Mirage, I'm Arkhip, and this is Fedor. Woe is with us. We went to the fair, where they sold the vegetables that we had grown, and on the way back, in this very tavern, three men came up to us and ordered us to give them all the money. We did not agree, and one even had to be beaten, they left. And a couple of hours later, when I went to the toilet, I heard two people talking around the corner, the same beaten man and some Roni. They wanted to wait for the others and come talk to us. I think you understand what kind of conversations there will be.
The owner had just brought food, and I, starting to eat, asked:
- Do you have a plan? What role have you given me?
- The role was frightening, I'm sorry if I offended.
- No, what are you, I'm not touchy. I understand figurative expressions.
- Thank you, Mr!
- Just a Mirage.
- Thank you, Mirage, it's just that there are village men, and you look menacing, and, apparently, you don't just carry weapons for beauty. Just scare them, that's all.
- Well, let's say, and then what?
Looking at each other, the men said:
- They will get scared and leave us behind, and we will go home.
- I'll leave, and in an hour you will pass away, and it's not a fact that they will be afraid of me. One against the crowd is not a warrior. They are filled with corpses. So get ready, go with me to the nearest town, and there you will find someone who will guide you.
The men gathered quickly, I finished my dinner, had a bit of a rest, and we went on. However, we were not allowed to leave quietly, as soon as we approached the edge of the village, about ten people blocked the road. Playing with pitchforks, one of them went to us:
- Well, good gentlemen, drive the toll, al life is not sweet to you?
Not wanting to get into a debate, I activated the spell built into the cloak, my eyes immediately flashed red against the background of endless darkness, and I, having moved close to the speaker with a jump, added infrasound into the voice:
- Are you going to take her?
Apparently, he went too far with infrasound, otherwise why was there one big puddle under them? Pushing this scum into the crowd, he ordered to get out. I have never seen such sprinters. Turning around to his new acquaintances, he saw whitened faces, although he sent a wave of sound forward, it still caught on, and his face had not yet been removed. Deciding not to mock the men anymore, he deactivated the spell and took off his hood. Smiling with all thirty-two teeth, he jumped on the camel and, waving his hand, they say, come on after me, and rode on. By the evening I expected to be in Vorngrad, which, to my great joy, I succeeded. There, saying goodbye to Arkhip and Fedor, he went to look for a hotel for the night.
It turned out to be quite difficult to find a place to sleep, so I had to turn to a guard passing by:
- Excuse me, dear, can you tell me how to get to some tavern or hotel, such that it is good, but not very expensive.
- Good evening, go down this street to the crossroads and to the right. There you will see a two-story red house with a golden door, this is the tavern, signs are prohibited in our city, so all taverns have a similar color.
- Thank you very much, if not for you, I probably would have been looking until morning.
Well, who would have guessed that there are no signs! I already thought that I was stupid in the region, despite the increasing intellect, and I walk in circles on one block. I found the tavern quickly, everything, as the guard described, inside it was a cozy building with a small dining room, where there was solid furniture. The lighting was magical, so the ceiling remained white, as it was originally created, clean and tidy, which immediately captivates. Then a pretty girl came up to me and offered to choose a table. I chose a table in the corner to see the whole room, I don't like it when someone walks behind my back. Booked dinner and a room for the night. They fed deliciously, in fact, to satiety, after dinner I only had the strength to walk to the room, and just in case, put a dagger to the window and door. If someone opens a door or a window, the daggers will fall and make a decent noise. But all the precautions were taken in vain, no one bothered me at night, so I met the morning in a great mood, had a quick bite and went on a further journey.
Lunch was almost here, and in order not to remain hungry, I decided to go hunting. Yes, I understand perfectly well that there are crackers, but who wants to eat them? So go ahead! Into the forest! And don't look at me like that, I'm on the hunt, the environment will not suffer. There was a pleasant coolness in the forest, the birds were singing, somewhere not far away I heard the roar of deer. The deer attracted me, calling the camel away, I went into the shade and began to creep up to the place where I heard the roar. I had to walk long enough, almost an hour, and when I did find them, I fell asleep, stepping on a branch, so I had to catch up. Perhaps it was worth spitting on this matter, but I had already bitten the bit and did not want to leave without game, although I spent several hours on it. It seems to have overtaken, deer stood in a tight circle in a clearing and ate grass. I’m not going to make such an oversight anymore, so I tried to foresee everything: branches, wind,
I woke up to the accompaniment of a downpour, the rain charged like a bucket, and, judging by the sky, this is for the whole day. The mood has dropped sharply, like it or not, but you have to shuffle under the downpour, the time spent in this location is limited. I reluctantly had breakfast and took food for the road, and why didn’t I do this before? Fucking romantic. Hunt him, you see, serve, uuu, how angry I am. Okay, depressed, and that's enough, it's time to go. He called his hunchbacked horse, jumped up and rushed towards adventure, that is, he trudged along where the map ordered. In the whole situation, one thing was pleasing - the road remained strong, the camel's hooves did not fall into the mud, so we were going fast enough. The whole day passed in silence, I was already used to the rain knocking on the hood, and the next day was just as wet and cloudy. So a week passed, during all this time only once a horseman came across, and even that one, judging by the form, the messeng
The day was beautiful, today I had to drive through a pine forest. The sun broke through the tent of branches, playing like bunnies in the morning dew. The camel, to which I never bothered to give a name, easily walked along the coniferous carpet, breathing easily and naturally. Today I was going to make a decent push and leave most of the trip behind me. The road ran easily, from the soul poured out of nowhere a pop-up song: “You are a sailor, I am a sailor. You are a fisherman, I am a fisherman. You are on land, I am on the sea. We will never meet." Further, for the life of me, I don’t remember, but I sang these four lines for probably an hour, until a branch from a fallen tree flew over me. It was so unexpected that I choked on a sailor, and then, by inertia, it turned out that I was a crack. I didn't think about it, didn't think about it. I am sitting, thinking about the intricacies of fate and the love of a sailor and a quack, and what should she do, poor fellow,
It seems that the job is done, but it's too early to relax. The first desire was to wake up all the slaves, but after a little thought, I decided that it was better to leave this matter until the morning. Firstly, it is difficult to predict the reaction of people to a man in black who appeared out of nowhere and soaked fifty people. And if this appearance is also at night, but by the light of fires, uuuu. So we clear the leader's tent from the corpse and climb there on the bainki. The morning is wiser than the evening, although it is not clear why, the evening is older, which means that he has more experience. As soon as he fell into bed, he immediately jumped from a sharp cry right above his ear. This is the same girl who was with the leader, I was in the middle of a fight and forgot about the poor fellow, and she sits there, shaking, apparently, she hid here all day, and I accidentally lay down on her. And once such an incident happened, you need to calm down. To begin with, I took
Finally a city. The transition turned out to be tiring, so I decided to rest in the city for a day. The town is small, but located on an important trade road, so many caravans stop here all the time. The walls are not high, but thick enough, they are more from robbers than enemies from abroad. I decided to stay at the Prancing Pony Hotel, which is run by a young couple with a young son. I liked the hotel with a simple but interesting style. When I went inside, I was amazed: a simple house on the outside, unremarkable from the rest, inside looked like a marvelous garden. All the walls were covered with vines and, remarkably, with bunches of grapes. At the entrance, a security guard stopped me and warned that it was possible to pick grapes, but only visitors to the establishment, and as much as they need for food now, cannot take grapes with them to their room and take them out of the hotel. A reasonable rule of thumb is to ensure that there is eno
We were very lucky - by the time the undead broke into the city, we had blocked all the passages and windows, remade the chimney, closed the fresh masonry with oak shields, and collected firewood and supplies. And, most importantly, while working, people gained the determination to fight, now there was no crying, but only quiet and calm conversations. The people who showed their leadership qualities during the work organized the sorting of supplies without mention. The breakthrough occurred in the evening, at which time the parapet¹ of the bodies reached the top of the wall, and an avalanche of undead flowed into the city. We could not watch everything, I wanted to go out in invisibility for reconnaissance, but there are so many undead that they will trample the invisible. Therefore, one had to sit and listen to the growling, the beat of thousands of feet shaking the ground, and the screams of people. I really wanted to help them, but there was no such opportunity, our she
The further path was marked by the passage of a dozen more traps. And finally, in front of me is the wall of the secret passage. The hope of getting out outside the city was not destined to come true, gently opening the sash, I slipped out in invisibility right behind the zombies. Moreover, the zombies stood in a tight wall, shoulder to shoulder, and so far as the gaze spread. In order to inspect everything, I carefully climbed the wall to the roof, fortunately, my stealth skills have already taken a big step forward, and I'm not talking about the level of invisibility, but about understanding how to put a foot, how to move silently, which side to enter , so as not to impersonate any third-party factor.The view from the roof amazed me. All the streets were densely packed with standing zombies, they stood everywhere, on every free heel of space, all the floors of each of the buildings were occupied, where there was an exit to the roof, they stood on the roof, and all this without a si
Four hours, this, of course, is not a complete rest, but at least it turned out to freshen up a little, otherwise, in fact, a day on your feet fogs up your mind. He called Dmitry, found out which of those present was more respected, and on his advice he called three more. I need people who can be senior in my absence, and for this I need to explain what I want from them and what the plan is all the same. I had a conversation with Dmitry, because I know him better.- So what did you think, Mirage?- A little about the situation: the streets are clogged with undead, I did not find the living from the word at all. Apparently we are the only ones in this city. Now about the main thing: while reading a book about the undead, I found an interesting fact - after death, the bodies of the undead are burned, as they burn well, like an oiled rag. There are thousands of bodies here, outside the walls of the city they lie in a dense ring to the very walls, and in the city itself, although not so m