"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
For lunch, the prisoner of the Calpe fortress was served a bowl of thick and hot soup-puree, in which pieces of chopped herbs and rare meat fibers floated, a single crispy cracker rubbed with salt and garlic, instead of bread, and a decent pile of stewed mushrooms, as well as all kinds of forest berries. The meal was composed rather strangely, the abundance of gifts of the forest and the lack of habitual food were especially surprising, and in a wooden mug there was the most ordinary water, judging by the temperature, recently boiled. Suspicion aside, Tobius quickly finished his meal, licked his spoon, saved half the glass for later, and tried to sleep.Even the dimmest light no longer filtered through the narrow gap in the shutters when the sounds of someone's footsteps and the uneven light licking the eyelids were driven out of the prisoner's restless slumber.“Light the candles, please,” a rough male voice asked. “Char, if you try to fool around, my friend will bite your face off.
During the weeks that Thobius spent in Calpe, he climbed the whole fortress, got acquainted with many of its defenders, studied the state of defensive weapons and fortifications, after which he came to the conclusion that an army, and a hundred times superior to the garrison itself, would break their teeth against this stronghold. Kalp was full of weapons and food, although there was some strangeness with the second. The favorable location of the fortress made it almost invulnerable, and the cruel discipline that the commandant maintained in his people aroused genuine admiration.The magician spent his time dealing with everyday problems, of which, in fact, the work of a healer was the most important. He quickly put most of the wounded and sick soldiers on their feet, and closely monitored the condition of the most difficult. At the same time, the wizard slowly tried to stir up the alchemist Gaston and arrange everything so that the laboratory began to smell of reagents, and not of ol
The crossbowman smiled.“I can see and hear everything myself, so don’t worry, magician. Yes, and the soldiers will not run to the commandant with denunciations, he does not like this. After all, everyone here is talking about it, it's no secret to anyone. People are happy, you know?- Understand. In our west, the racial issue has always been blunted, there are almost no elves, dwarves, halflings and goblins here, and those that still live in Riven are so few in number that they do not interfere with anyone. Especially elves. So, apart from the Church, we have a pretty good relationship with them ..."You're thinking the wrong way, Toby," the free gunner interrupted. - The soldier loves her because when she showed up here, the forest became kinder to us. Understand?Tobius stopped forging.- Not sure.“Well,” Matisse thought for a moment, “I’ve only been hanging around here for a couple of years, and all this time she was here, but there are also such servicemen who stuck out on this
“They will go to the bottom of Yakon!” - proclaimed the commandant, loudly approved by the soldiers.Then, at one moment, the warlike cries died down - a giant appeared from behind the trees, a huge, shaking with folds of fat, thick-bellied giant with a bump head sticking out of his shoulders. Following the first, the second moved, and both giants dragged behind them on thick ropes woven from vines, something like a giant leather bag. Dozens of them fussed around them, freaks, trying not to fall under the feet of the giants, smeared the grass and earth under the bag with fats and oils so that it would glide. The Cyclopes dragged her ashore, and the Zulan hordes parted to make way for the giants.“There you are, Cyclops. Matisse Cordol lowered his crossbow, put his foot in the stirrup and pulled the thick string with the lever, as if he intended to kill one of the giants with his own shot right away."They're bigger than I thought," the magician said softly so that he wouldn't be heard
- Is there anything you can do?- I'm needed here.The Zulans were already dragging what could possibly be called boats to the water. The trunks of the ancient giants, skinned, with a hollowed out core and installed wooden shields, were already ripping up the shallow water of the western shore. The Zulans jumped onto these long, unstable little boats and rowed with everything - branches, makeshift oars - everything. One, three, six, ten, thirteen, twenty-five, more and more new boats rolled into the water, and each carried one and a half, two, or even two and a half dozen mighty rowers.- Artillery, do not sleep! Musketeers, please! Archers, set fire! To the bottom of them! To the bottom of the geeks!Cannonballs, arrows and bullets rushed towards the approaching flotilla. Even without hitting the targets, the cannonballs flopping into the water created enough waves to capsize the unstable primitive boats.- Like this! Don't hesitate! Reload soon!The archers fired from a canopy, the