“You know, sir, I am not a very good rider. I'm more or less fine in the saddle of a racing squirrel, but horses ... no, I'm better here, in comfort.“I have to insist,” Richard Hoss ignored the nonsense about squirrels, “get on the croup, I was asked to take you forward.- No.“Lord Adrian Olenway made this request. He asked me to clarify this for you if you still refuse.Tobius frowned and, chewing his lower lip in doubt, nevertheless jumped out of the cart.“It was a pleasure to meet you, ladies and gentlemen,” he shouted to the convoy people, trying to climb onto the croup of the horse behind Ser Richard, “God willing, maybe we’ll see each other again!”"Take care of yourself, char Tobius!"— God bless you, the Blacksmith!And thanks for the fish!Richard the Two Woodpeckers drove the wizard forward, past the marching host, past the rolling cannons, armored wagons of gunpowder and ammunition, past the troopers leading their horses, to where the banners of the fire-breathing bear a
Thobius turned, swaying dangerously in his saddle, and looked at the huge skeletons in the distance.“So when our people left Dubram, they had to work hard to remove the crumpled doors and what was left of the lattice from the road.When the stone massif of Dubram hung over them, people, without saying a word, fell silent. The soldiers took out crossbows and pistols, Ser Richard, passing under the arch of the gate, pulled the string and began to drive the bow from side to side. Tobius was ready to take off from his saddle and use his battle magic as Chaplain Gosef rode, swinging his heavy hammer in his right hand. Why he volunteered to go on this sortie, the cleric did not explain - he only said that he was obeying the will from above, which made the soldiers look at each other in bewilderment.Dubram's courtyard was empty, save for a few fires with empty skewers, long cooled and partly washed out by the rain. Stables, forges, warehouses were completely or partially destroyed, there w
- Sit silently!The wizard pulled the bolt, pulled out the ritual knife from the scabbard and began to put small icons on wood and metal, while reciting the memorized spell. Then he took a box of blue ointment from his belt bag and drew a continuous line across the joint.“It'll give us a few extra seconds if he starts rushing in here. Actually, the spell is designed for spiritual entities, not for demons, but we will win some moments ...Was that a demon?— No, the evil Gray Wolf! the mage barked.Ignoring the stunned people, Tobius looked around the great hall with sooty walls and ceiling beams, many hearths and stoves, tall skylights and empty cauldrons. Cold and musty reigned where suffocating heat and the smell of food should have reigned. The doors to the storerooms were left open. If, leaving, the defenders of Dubram left something to eat, then the Zulans and the like have long since cleaned everything up.The gray master counted the people who were lucky enough to be with him.
The demon was smart enough to understand that he was simply being starved out. With a howl of rage, he severed the magic ropes. The bully shattered into chips from one full-fledged slap in the face, from the second the Reaper broke. Anatar lunged at the earth elemental, crashing into the rock of its body with its horned head, and with two swipes of its claws tore the summoned creature apart. Having finally finished with the water elemental, the demon rushed to hitherto methodically strumming the bowstring Arrow, but Tobius managed to lift the last surviving golem to the ceiling and glue it there, safely. He cast several prepared spells on himself: Cat Reflexes, Invulnerability, Painkiller. With such a set of simple charms, he could emerge victorious from a battle with ten perfectly trained human warriors, but a demon raged below, who, in a fit of hungry rage, began to throw pieces of furniture and pieces of stone left from the elemental at the wizard. Realizing that it was useless,
Please give me my knife. Magda, fascinated by the dance of multi-colored luminous threads in the whirlpool of incomprehensible squiggles, shuddered as if emerging from a slumber, and handed Tobius his ritual knife. - Turn around. The wizard cast Painkiller, a blood-clotting spell on himself, and created a small magical mirror from the moisture pulled out of the air, after which he carefully opened his peritoneum and began to delve into his own giblets. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that Magda was following his manipulations, green with a bout of nausea. It seemed funny to him - the canteens often have to see mangled flesh after the battle, sometimes they help healers in hospitals, and sometimes they indulge in looting, so the habit develops quickly for many. But to see how a living person guts himself is too heavy and insane a sight for a simple human mind, so that even an experienced one can fail the stomach. Tobius completed the manipulation of his insides and fused th
"Char Thobius, have you traveled a lot?"“Probably not as many as you, sire.Have you met monsters?— I had to.- Me too. I remember once we encountered a jackalot. That creature devoured many children.“Jackalots are not monsters, they are beasts. Smart, strong and very dangerous, but still animals.“Don't be so quick to judge until you're face to face with these creatures.- Fair.- Who have you met?Tobius hid the book in his bag.— With many. If we discard petty evil spirits like pasatuksh, vadurgs and other zealots, then there will still be a lot left. I remember once I foolishly wandered into a cursed place, and there ... I still don’t know what those creatures were called, but it was a miracle that we survived then. Although not unambiguous. There was a case when I had to run away from Murza. Although Murz is also a beast. And once we encountered a Dezrimzen [Carnivorous tree monster that can move quickly.], this creaky creature was chasing us ... chasing for a long time, I mus
These thoughts made Thobius feel stuffy, though the breeze blew coolness and freshness into the bedchamber. The wizard closed the window, thinking, did not take the staff or bag and went out into the corridor. Lighting his way with a luminous moth, he descended to the lower floors of the main tower and stepped out into the night sky.The stars shone dimly from the sky, dark clouds similar to clouds floated slowly, inside the castle people went to bed, but outside, in its courtyard, life did not think to stop. Sentinels walked along the walls with spears and crossbows, a forge was working, servants scurried around in the light of torches, finishing what they did not have time to finish during the day, resting guards sat near the fires built right in the courtyard, and, judging by the smell, baked potato tubers in the fire. Attracted by the near-familiar sounds of a hammer striking an anvil and the hum of the flames in the forge, the magician headed towards the forge.The heat, the smel
There were very few materials in Valemar that could withstand the impact of something as unusual as solid magic - neither steel, nor granite, nor even diamond could withstand it.Descending from the heavens, Tobius sat motionless for a long time on the blood-pink snow, gazing with empty eyes as the parzud's orbiting eyes slowed down. This ancient monster evolved its regenerative abilities to the point of absurdity and stubbornly continued to live, even after death. There, under the snow, judging by the trembling that the wizard felt, the corpse was still moving. The mighty spinal cord of the eternal lizard forced the muscles to contract, and if the parzu were free, his blind doomed body could still rush back and forth for several more hours, crushing and knocking everything in its path.- Well done, baby, everything is in order, we are now out of danger.Bone armor fell to gray cloth, and the mimic purred softly. Then Tobius approached the neck of the parzukh, the muscles on which wer