City of the Dead Read online

  His nerve returning, Tailyn bent over the stranger’s dead body. It was true—he’d never seen the face in town before. Definitely an outsider. The boy had heard on many an occasion about how valiant warriors stripped the bodies of their vanquished foes, so he knew exactly what to do. As he pulled the cloak back so he could rip it off the stranger, Tailyn caught a glimpse of the many pockets and froze. That was presumably what Master Isor and his son had been looking for. He pulled a small pouch out of one of the pockets, and that was when a message popped up in front of him:

  Designer’s Arcane Dust. Description: ingredient used to create Arcane Ink.

  Tailyn looked over the packets and couldn’t figure out what they were good for. Even pulling one of them open to see what was inside, he stared in confusion at the green powder. What was so valuable about it? The name was funny, too—arcane ink. Perhaps, he could give it to Master Isor? The powder wasn’t anything he needed, so that seemed like a good idea. His guardian would definitely know what to do with it.

  Pulling off the cloak, Tailyn accidentally brushed a hand against the man’s body and froze. He’d never seen a message like that one.

  Would you like to search Elass Jing’s body?

  Nobody had ever told him anything about that, not even kind Mistress Valanil. But what did the search entail? Without taking long to think about it, Tailyn hit the green square.

  Loot received.

  Rough Waterproof Bison Cloak (1). Description: an ordinary item that protects the wearer from bad weather and the hot sun. Shield level +20.

  Rough Leather Boots (1). Description: an ordinary item that protects the wearer’s feet. Shield level +5.

  Designer’s Arcane Dust (79). Description: ingredient used to create Arcane Ink.

  Crystal (5). Description: none.

  Bloodthirsty Whip. Description: enchanted ordinary weapon, dangerous in agile hands. Attributes: physical attack +100, Bloodletting ability. Required skills: Whip, Agility.

  Poisoned Knife. Description: enchanted ordinary weapon, dangerous in agile hands. Attributes: physical attack +50, Poison ability. Required skills: Melee Weapons, Agility.

  ***

  Gold received: +22.

  The cloak and all the packets of powder disappeared. Tailyn stared, dumfounded, at the almost naked body, not really sure what had just happened. Where was everything? Where had it gone?

  But everything made sense as soon as he pulled up his status table. His heart began beating in double time when he saw the twenty-two gold in his account—he was fabulously wealthy. Noticing a new icon next to the status button, Tailyn remembered the virtual inventory he’d picked up and tapped it. That opened a familiar field with cells that now held the items he’d just received. Only they were all in miniature. And they weren’t alone. His inventory also held three small scrolls, one of which was sparkling green. They hadn’t been in the list of loot, which meant the scrolls had already been in his inventory. Were they a gift from the ancient one? Could he have been an alchemist, as well?

  The boy reached out to grab the shimmering item only to have his palm slip through the field as if it weren’t there. Scratching his head, he tried some experiments. There had to be a way to get at everything—Mistress Valanil had mentioned that on many occasions. He stared at the simple scroll. But as he tried to figure out how to reach it, the item suddenly began blinking. Just below it, a green square labeled materialize appeared. That did the trick.

  Mouth open, Tailyn stared at the little miracle forming in his hands. The thick piece of paper was building itself out of nothing, out of thin air, slowly revealing a florid script in a language the boy didn’t know. But while he couldn’t read the message, the majesty of the moment was in no way diminished, and the god itself explained what Tailyn was holding as soon as it finished appearing:

  Alchemical scroll: Shield Restoration Potion. Description: teaches you how to make a potion that restores personal shields. Alchemy skill required.

  ***

  Would you like to use it?

  Tailyn even hiccupped in his hurry to agree.

  Recipe learned: Shield Restoration Potion (ordinary recipe). Current level: 1. You learned how to make potions that restore 1 shield unit. The amount of shield they restore depends on the recipe level. Required ingredients: Alchemical Retort (1), Ordinary Loach (1), Ordinary Lavender (2). Potions can only be made in an alchemy workshop.

  ***

  Would you like to boost the recipe level?

  Sweat broke out as Tailyn read the message. Who wouldn’t want to?

  Select how many levels you would like to increase the recipe.

  1-2-3-4-5.

  Obviously, the only right answer to a ridiculous question like that was five.

  Shield Restoration Potion level +5 (6)

  Crystals (5) were used and removed from your inventory.

  The boy’s stomach dropped when one of the cells in his open inventory was suddenly vacated. The very same crystals you could be executed for having had just disappeared. If Master Isor found out, he was going to have Tailyn’s head. And that made it final—the boy wasn’t going to be saying a word about either the crystals or the mission.

  His gaze fell on the next scroll, and it immediately started to blink invitingly. It took a while, but Tailyn’s curiosity won over. Both papers were in his hands a couple minutes later. And yes, one of them was somehow shimmering. The boy stared with round eyes at the green light, the sparks that weren’t hurting him, the mystical magic he could only dream of.

  Recipe learned: Mana Restoration Potion (ordinary recipe). Current level: 1. You learned how to make potions that restore 1 mana unit. The amount of mana they restore depends on the recipe level. Required ingredients: Alchemical Retort (1), Ordinary Lavender (1), Ordinary Daisy (2). Potions can only be made in an alchemy workshop.

  ***

  Recipe learned: Magic Enhancement Elixir (rare recipe). Current level: 1. You learned how to make elixirs that increase magic attack strength by 1 for 24 hours. The attack strength increase depends on the recipe level. Required ingredients: Alchemical Retort (1), Ginseng (1), Edelweiss (2), Lily of the Valley (1), Pasqueflower (3). Potions can only be made in an alchemy workshop.

  Both recipes looked useless to Tailyn. He couldn’t help but think he should have sold them to Mistress Valanil rather than learn them—who needed magic? There was no way he could use it, anyway. It was just a fancy way of lighting up an area.

  The dark cloak looked ominous, so Tailyn refrained from materializing it. The boots, on the other hand, fit him perfectly. But that was no surprise—the boy knew the god personally made bonus clothing. It was just nice to finally have something that gave him a boost, as Master Isor had never let Tailyn close to any of his things.

  Elass Jing didn’t have anything else of use to offer. Tailyn wasn’t about to strip him of his underwear, as it wouldn’t have done him any good, he wouldn’t have been able to sell it, and he didn’t really want to touch the body, anyway. Suddenly, he had an idea. His breath caught in his throat. Flowers packed his pockets, and it occurred to him that it might be possible to drop them into his inventory. Pulling out all thirty-two loaches and placing them on the nearest stone, Tailyn concentrated. Finally, he let out a happy cry.

  Would you like to place Ordinary Loach (32) in your inventory?

  The answer to that question was obvious, and Tailyn quickly opened the field and scanned the cells. There they were, all in the same one. The only problem was that Mistress Valanil’s drawings categorically refused to hide in the inventory, though the boy was able to slip them into one of his boots. That left his pockets empty. If he was waylaid on the way home, there wouldn’t be anything to rob him of.

  Pulling open his status table, the boy had to smile.

  Status table

  General character information

  Tailyn Vlashich

  Alchemist

  Level

  1

  Age

  10
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  Yearly tax (crystals)

  1 (beginning at age 16)

  Coins

  0

  Gold

  22

  Main parameters

  Shield level

  65

  Mana level

  60

  Physical attack

  14

  Magic attack

  16

  Skills

  Alchemy

  Shield Restoration Potion

  6

  Mana Restoration Potion

  1

  Magic Enhancement Elixir

  1

  It wasn’t bad at all for a ten-year-old kid. That number six in the line for the shield restoration potion was especially heart-warming—none of the people Tailyn knew working in the forests or on the farms had a single skill above one. And there he was, all the way up at six. But he wasn’t going to say anything. He hadn’t seen any crystals, after all. Although, why hadn’t anyone known you could use them to boost your skill levels?

  Stepping gingerly around the corpse, Tailyn headed toward the rope hanging from the hole above him. But he stopped. There was the mission. He was supposed to get to the control room, whatever that was, and find instructions there. But which direction was he supposed to go? Which way was “farther into” the tunnel? Both sides were blocked off, and that still left the problem of which was in and which was out. The rough stone had collapsed to keep him from going anywhere. Really, he was going to need a shovel, a pickaxe, and oceans of free time. The good news was that he certainly had the latter.

  Clambering up the rope turned out to be much harder than Tailyn had been expecting. A couple times, the boy just about fell, and right around the middle, he stopped and looked down for whatever reason. It would have been a long drop. Frozen with fear, his hands grew slick with sweat, and he began to slip lower. But no matter how hard he squeezed, it was useless—he couldn’t hang on.

  Time after time, the boy headed up the rope. Time after time, he got no further than halfway. Once, he fell and just about broke his neck as he slipped down the incline. He burst into tears when he got to the bottom. It was all in vain—there was no way he was getting out. In a week, he was going to die from hunger, and nobody would ever hear about his achievement.

  “Anyone alive down there?” A threatening shout broke through the boy’s sobs. The voice was unfamiliar, though Tailyn was too scared to think straight. All he cared about was getting out of the hole he was stuck in.

  “Y-yes!” he called back. “It’s me, Tailyn Vlashich. I’m stuck. Can you help?”

  “Are you alone?”

  “Yes… I mean, I am now,” the boy replied with a glance at the body.

  “Do you know him?” the stranger asked someone off to the side.

  “Yes, it’s a kid the elder looks after. He brings the herbalist flowers.”

  Tailyn’s heart skipped a beat—he knew that voice. It was the head of the guard, Master Motar. He was a good guy who’d given the boy some treats a few times.

  “It’s me, Master Guard!” Tailyn yelled as loud as he could. “I can’t climb up the rope. Please help!”

  “How did you get down there?”

  “I was running away. I happened to see this stranger kill Dort, and then he came after me. But the god was kind and punished the killer.”

  All the sounds coming from up above suddenly stopped.

  “The god punished the killer?” asked the surprised voice. “Wait right there—I’m coming down. I need to see this.”

  Tailyn expected someone to come sliding down the rope, which meant he nearly jumped out of his skin in fright when he saw how the stranger actually descended. He was flying. Literally. The hole was flooded with a bright blue glow coming from a pair of highly unusual boots. Chills ran down the boy’s spine—he’d never seen anything like that. Soon, a body was visible through the light, and that was when Tailyn turned into a statue. The boy knew exactly who was allowed to wear snow-white mantles in the empire. He was looking at an actual mage from the academy itself. A mage. In Culmart.

  After casting an appraising glance over Tailyn, the mage pulled out a small card, held it up to his face, whispered something, and then blew as if to clear the dust off. The only difference was that a yellow mist came off it to fill the cave instead. Suddenly, it was as bright as day, and the niche Tailyn had been hiding in began to glow.

  The mage started with the body. Waving a hand over it, he turned to Tailyn.

  “I want to know everything that happened here. I need your logs.”

  “My…”

  “Worthless…” the mage muttered under his breath before continuing in his usual voice. “Do you know how to copy your logs?”

  “N-no, Master,” the scared boy replied. “What-t are they?”

  “How old are you?”

  “T-ten, Master.”

  “And you still don’t know what logs are? What kind of nonsense is that?! Who taught you?” The mage’s expression was tinged with a threat, and Tailyn shrank back.

  “Nob-body, Master,” he whispered almost inaudibly.

  “Ridiculous… Tell me everything you did from the moment you left the city. Clearly and with every last detail.”

  “Okay-y, Master,” Tailyn squeaked before beginning his story. He’d never been that scared. The rumors that swirled around mages were so contradictory that he forgot to breathe, doing his best to spit out his adventures as fast as he could.

  “Wait! You have herbalism? How did you find the flowers?”

  “Using these pictures.” Tailyn pulled the three sketches out of his boot—a loach, a lavender, and a daisy, all ordinary. From what Mistress Valanil said, they were the only plants that grew in the vicinity.

  “Just pictures?” the mage asked, surprise creeping back into his voice. “And you were able to use them to find something?”

  “Yes, Master,” Tailyn replied just a bit more confidently. “I picked thirty-two loaches today.”

  “Using pictures? Thirty-two flowers?” The mage laughed. “You can’t pick flowers without the skill, you idiot! What you picked looked like the real thing, but it’s just trash. Okay, keep going.”

  The mage tossed the pictures to the side before turning back to the body. He’d lost interest.

  “But…” The boy just about burst into tears. Those sketches were the only valuables he owned, and he couldn’t let anyone treat Mistress Valanil’s work like that. Deciding to prove to the mage how wrong he was, Tailyn pulled up his inventory and began materializing all the flowers. It was time for the truth to come out.

  “I’m waiting,” the angry voice shot back. “You got to the city and…”

  The mage stopped short, his gaze fixed on the bouquet. Tailyn, in turn, was bewitched by the materialization process even if it was old hat for the mage.

  “This is getting interesting,” the latter whispered. The boy had pulled a surprise out of his sleeve: a virtual inventory and real, honest-to-goodness loaches. Where had the little ruffian come up with them?

  “See?” Tailyn held his prize out to the mage and continued, his firm voice surprising even himself. “They’re not trash! The god says they’re real flowers.”

  “No, you’re right, they’re not trash,” the mage said calmly. Suddenly, he remembered why he was there—he was an investigator, and his job was to figure out what had happened to the city elder’s son. And it sure looked like that Tailyn knew something. The kid needed to talk. The mage’s true word card had just three charges left, but if there was ever a time to use it, it was right then. The ignorant child was just babbling. And since he couldn’t string together a coherent sentence, Forian was losing time trying to understand him.

  Tailyn’s surprise knew no bounds when a small card appeared in the mage’s hands. The process was the same as the one he’d just discovered, only much faster, and the mage once again held the card to his lips, whispered something, and blew on it. Only that time, he blew in Tailyn’s direction.
A strange golden glow enveloped the boy, who suddenly realized he no longer feared anything. Not the mage, not the unusual tricks the mage was pulling, not even Master Isor, who was going to take out on him his rage at the loss of his son—none of it. The terror subsided, giving place to peace and…something else. Understanding?

  “I need your logs from the moment you set foot in the city until you heard my voice,” the mage said. Oddly enough, Tailyn understood what he was asking for.