Killstreak Book One Read online

  The woman’s eyes returned to the creaking floorboards beneath them. “It won’t bring them back,” she said.

  “Your mother will respawn somewhere,” Kadorax reminded her.

  Brinna’s voice took on a hardened edge. “She was a monster. She killed people, and she lied to me. Maybe for my entire life. She’s no mother of mine.”

  Kadorax understood the sentiment. Werewolves were a scourge meant to be eradicated. When they transformed, they lost whatever moral guide had kept them sane as humans. They would kill indiscriminately, and that often meant their own family members, especially in small towns where hunting was limited.

  “Did you know your father?” the man asked.

  Brinna nodded. “Mother said he died three years ago from fever, but now I’m not so sure,” she said.

  The boat swayed as it made a gentle turn through a bend in the river that would take them out to sea. “And… falling over the rail this afternoon?” Kadorax quietly pried.

  “I jumped,” Brinna said with half of a laugh. “I just wanted to start over, you know? To find a new village, new people to occupy my time.”

  “And when the Grim Sleeper brought you back, what did you feel?” Kadorax went on.

  Heaving a heavy sigh, the woman stood and used one of the taut ends of the hammock to steady herself. “I saw bits and pieces of what she was doing, that vile creature. I saw, but I couldn’t stop her.”

  Suddenly, Kadorax’s mind was filled with images of the woman jumping again from the railing, doing it every night, day after day, until she got her wish. He wasn’t too sure he’d even try to stop her. If she would just respawn, what was the point? Who was he to keep her from starting life anew?

  “Well,” Kadorax finally said, standing as well. “If you decide to stick around, I’m sure we could use your help. You’re a level five rogue. I used to be a level seventy-two assassin, the Lord of Darkarrow. You might have even heard of my exploits. I could teach you a great rogue build, help you along the way. What do you say?”

  She mulled over his words, then turned away, gazing out a small, frosted porthole at the waves gently lapping against the side of the ship. “Maybe,” she answered after a moment. “For now, I just want to sleep.”

  Kadorax left her to her own thoughts. He had never been great at consoling people. Perhaps with more points in Spirit and Charisma, he would be able to better understand her thoughts and empathize. As a bastion, he didn’t think he’d be earning too many increases in those departments. If he ever wanted to learn how to be at better listening, or whatever the skill was that he lacked, he would have to learn the old-fashioned way.

  In the room beneath the wheelhouse, Kadorax found Ayers hard at work establishing his seafaring blacksmith’s shop. He had been right, and there was a small anvil on the Grim Sleeper already, but there was no one skilled enough to use it efficiently. Minor repairs to the ship had been carried out by a man named Nathan, who quickly attached himself to Ayers as an apprentice. In the back of the room, two heavy black chains moved up and down as the wheel was turned, and a small grease box located near the top of the assembly kept them moving smoothly.

  “I see you’ve settled in nicely,” Kadorax said.

  Ayers and Nathan were busy organizing a new tool bench and several tall cylinders full of raw materials. “Ah,” the old man replied. “Not quite yet! There’s still the matter of establishing a forge, or at least a crucible, otherwise I won’t be melting anything without going to port.”

  “Just don’t burn down the whole damn ship,” Kadorax joked, though he still didn’t really understand how the whole setup wouldn’t burn it down.

  “And I’ve got leather vests for you and the snake. They aren’t much to look at, but they’ll do until I get some finer materials.” Ayers fetched two dark chest pieces from a crate near his feet and handed them over. “Just the most basic enchantment I have. I need the good magic to keep the heat contained, plus I never got that many talents related to adventuring in Coldport, but damn, I can churn out a barrel of nails in no time at all with Advanced Carpentry: Rank 7.”

  Kadorax grinned from ear to ear. “At Darkarrow, my former estate, we employed two different master smiths. One kept the house and grounds in working order, and the other was forbidden from learning a single talent unrelated to magically enchanted gear. I would have killed him if he had spent seven ranks on Advanced Carpentry!”

  “I’ll be getting some more interesting talents, don’t worry about that,” the man said with a smile. “Coming up next I’ll get to decide between Minor Runecrafting: Rank 2 and Enchanting Hammers: Rank 3. They’re still low-rank talents, but they’re better than nothing. Just keep bringing me raw materials, and my level will continue to grow!”

  Kadorax had every intention of doing just that. Employing a good smith was paramount to a life of success in the dungeons and forsaken temples of Agglor. Eventually, he would need to find a skilled mage to hire as well if he wanted any spell scrolls made, but that could wait.

  Focusing his vision, Kadorax accessed the details of the new leather vest the smith had given him:

  Toughened Leather Vest - Empty rune slots: 2. Reduces incoming concussive damage. Effect: minor. Passive while worn.

  “Thanks for the vest,” Kadorax said. “What kind of materials would you need to make some runes for it?”

  With a sigh, the smith shook his head. “You wouldn’t want either of the runes I know how to make. What I need most are schematics. Find me a few diagrams for adventuring runes, and then I’ll make you something useful. Right now, all the runes I know enhance talents in commerce and craftsmanship builds.”

  Kadorax thanked him again and left, searching out Syzak to give him his vest. He found the snake-man sitting at a table near the wheelhouse on the top deck, enjoying a drink with Lord Percival and one of the deckhands as the sun finished its journey beyond the horizon, leaving the Grim Sleeper in blueish darkness.

  “Come, take a seat,” the captain bade. “We were just talking with Syzak about your previous life. I’d heard about you two, you know? The Lord of Darkarrow is quite a lofty title.”

  “And we had earned the fiefdom a dozen times over,” Kadorax agreed. “More than two decades without a respawn. That’s a feat not many adventurers can boast.”

  Syzak took a long swig of whatever sweet drink he was enjoying. The liquid was dark green, the color of wet leaves, with the syrupy scent of sugar. “What’s even more interesting was life before Agglor. You should hear about that,” he said. He wasn’t drunk, not yet, but his words were starting to slur, and his serpentine hiss was becoming more prominent with each drink.

  “We’re both Earth-born,” Kadorax said. As it always did, the revelation garnered raised eyebrows from both the sailors seated at the table.

  “I met an Earth-born woman once,” the captain said. His eyes lifted up to the sky as he remembered. “She was beautiful, so full of life and energy, curiosity and excitement. But alas, she lives somewhere east of the mountains, and I have not seen her in many years.”

  “And what did you lot do on Earth? I’ve heard all sorts of crazy stories,” the sailor said with a noticeable slur, “but I don’t believe most of them. And I’ve never heard of snake-men being Earth-born. How’d that happen?”

  “How it happened, I doubt we’ll ever learn,” Kadorax told him honestly. “And you’re right, there were only humans on Earth, no snake-men. No jackals, elves, dwarves, gnomes, or any of the other non-human races that exist on Agglor. Just humans, at least for the intelligent species.”

  “Ha,” the sailor snorted. “Jackals aren’t intelligent here, either.”

  “Right you are, my friend,” Kadorax said. “And it wasn’t interesting, but I wrote titles back on Earth. I just sat at a desk and filled out paperwork all day, letting the government know when people bought vehicles.” He had once tried to explain the concept of a car to someone from Agglor, and it had not gone well. From then he had learned to just say veh
icle instead, though that always provoked a bunch of weird responses as well.

  “The king wanted to know when someone bought or sold a wagon?” the sailor asked.

  “Yeah, basically. I think you’ve got the idea,” Kadorax replied.

  “Bullshit!” the sailor drunkenly announced. “Earth-born are full of tall tales! Liars, the lot of you!”

  The man stumbled, spilling a bit of drink over the side of his cup.

  Ignoring his drunken underling, Lord Percival had a few questions of his own. “When did you arrive in Agglor?” he asked.

  Kadorax had to think back on it. Time didn’t operate exactly as it had on Earth, and without a phone in his pocket to constantly remind him of the date and time, he’d let such trivial things as those frequently slip from his attention. “Well, it’s a bit murky there, but sometime around thirty years ago, I think,” he answered. “Quite some time. I barely remember much of those first couple years. And other than being terrified and confused all the time, there isn’t much to remember. Agglor is a lot different than Earth. Namely, this place is far more dangerous.”

  The captain nodded, sipping his drink like a gentleman. “Would you go back if you could?” he wanted to know. There was a bit of longing in his eyes that hinted at a larger story.

  “Not at all,” Kadorax said definitively. “Life on Earth wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t great. I never would have had the chance to become a lord of a fiefdom, that’s for sure. And besides, everyone back home probably thinks I’ve been dead for three decades. Trying to start over there would be a lot more challenging than respawning here.”

  The captain’s eyes drifted among the stars. Behind the table, the helmsman moved the wheel a quarter turn, and the ship responded by rocking gently to starboard. “The woman I had known… that’s all she ever talked about: going back to Earth. She wanted so desperately to return to her home, but she never did figure it out.”

  Kadorax had done the same thing when he had first awoken in a dingy, stuffy inn above a bunch of class trainers. Thoughts of escaping Agglor and getting back to Earth had consumed his first two years, maybe even more, until he had finally broken down one night in one of Kingsgate’s many alleyways, weeping in self-pity until dawn. That had been the first night he had ever killed a man. The morning after, he had changed his name, accepted a low-level quest to earn some food for himself and Syzak, and decided to never feel sorry for himself again. If he was stuck on another planet, he would make the best of it.

  The three managed to drain an entire bottle of the captain’s expensive, sickly sweet booze as they reminisced and told jokes until well after midnight, eventually heading below a few moments after a new helmsman replaced the previous one at the wheel. The ship was sailing steadily south along the center of the river, and they didn’t pass much in the way of civilization. There were a few villages, some roughly the size of Coldport, though most were smaller, and they only saw two other boats the entire night.

  When dawn broke, the Grim Sleeper was close enough to the open ocean for the lookout stationed above in the crow’s nest to see the masts of the larger ships at sea. Unlike all the smaller villages and ports along the way, the mouth of the river was guarded by a sprawling city built from stone and fine craftsmanship, flanked on either side by huge, monolithic statues that rose up from the shoreline like the sharpened fingertips of some ancient, buried god grasping at the sun. Legend said that during certain times of the year, the sun and moon would align perfectly between the pillars—that was when the world’s magic was always at its height.

  Kadorax awoke some time before noon with the smell of salted pork filling his nostrils. Not far from the bunk room was the main galley, and there was no door to keep the two distinct aromas from intermingling. Above it all, the strong smell of the sea dominated every inch of the ship.

  It took a moment for him to get his bearing, and Kadorax realized he was alone. Everyone else who slept in the hammocks was gone, including Syzak and Brinna. When Kadorax tried to stand, he felt a jolt of pain accompanied by a splitting headache lodged directly behind his right eye, and he had to flop back into his hammock all at once, trying in vain to shut out the world.

  After ten minutes of struggling not to puke onto the floor, Kadorax got to his feet and shuffled toward the galley in search of fresh water and something bland to settle his stomach. Food and drink in hand, he climbed to the top deck, eager to take in some fresh air and find his friends. The view, even from a distance, was enough to make him stop in his tracks. He had seen Oscine City before—even a few times from a ship not unlike the Grim Sleeper—but the sheer magnificence of it all still caught him off guard. Earth’s cities simply could not compare.

  Oscine City, or Songbird Harbor as it was known to the locals and most of Agglor’s more romantic types, stretched for several miles down the golden coastline, its waters a deep azure shade that glittered in the sunlight. Overhead, a flock of gulls and other marine birds cut noisily through the air. Life was always plentiful in Oscine City, especially compared to the frigid temperatures brought on by Coldport’s high elevation.

  Then slowly, like a sheet being pulled in front of the world, another ship passed between the Grim Sleeper and the bay, plucking Kadorax from his thoughts. Lord Percival’s vessel continued further out to sea, beyond the reach of the longest wharfs and past the larger ships anchored further yet.

  “How long until we reach Kingsgate?” he asked as he approached the captain. The capital was located on a somewhat remote island not terribly far from Oscine City, but otherwise isolated from the rest of Agglor. Dozens of different stories circulated as to how the city came to be on an island and why the various monarchs had not moved it to the mainland. Despite the plethora of more outlandish tales, most of Agglor’s residents knew the truth. Kingsgate had been built over a huge iron mine, the largest in the known world, and the people who controlled the production of steel controlled everything.

  Not much was known about the royals themselves, and by Earth standards, Kingsgate employed a very strange form of government. Most of the important decisions were handled by the heads of the various guilds and associations throughout Agglor, and the king focused most of his attention on ensuring the continual squabbling of the groups so that no one organization ever gained too much power over the others. Still, the mines under Kingsgate paid for roads through Agglor, kept the city guards fed and stocked, and allowed the royal family the luxury of unlimited privacy.

  Kadorax had seen the king—Lord Bennington was his name—only once. He had been in the castle fulfilling a contract at the time, and he hoped the chance encounter had gone unnoticed due to the nature of the work the assassin had been carrying out. By all accounts, Bennington was a fair ruler, uninvolved as he was.

  The captain checked one of his instruments. “We should arrive by tomorrow morning, assuming the wind stays as it is,” he said.

  “Any chance we could make a stop in Darkarrow on the way back?” Kadorax’s estate was on just the other side of the Boneridge Mountains, only fifty or so miles from Oscine City, but completely unreachable by land. Stopping there would likely add an extra two days to the Grim Sleeper’s voyage.

  “I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for plucky villages in their time of need, and I don’t think the medicine for Assir can afford to wait,” Percival said with a shake of his head. He turned to look at Brinna, who was leaning against the back railing, facing forward.

  “After will be fine,” Kadorax agreed. He left the captain and headed in Brinna’s direction, trying to hide his nervousness that the woman would jump to her death.

  “Feeling better?” Kadorax asked.

  She nodded, though it was clear she wasn’t really paying much attention.

  “Have you ever been beyond Oscine City before?” he went on.

  “Not that I can recall,” Brinna answered. Her voice was still distant.

  Kadorax decided to just get right to the point. “So is there someone we
’re supposed to meet to get Assir’s cure? Somewhere we need to go?”

  “The Royal Alchemy Guild was supposed to deliver the serum directly to Coldport, and then a quest would have been posted by my mother to escort the serum to Assir. We can start by talking to the guild and the harbormaster. I don’t know if the shipment ever left the docks,” she explained.

  “Well, at least we have a plan,” Kadorax said. “I never had too many dealings with the alchemists of Kingsgate, but I do still have some contacts within the city, especially the shadier parts. We’ll find your cure.”

  Brinna nodded, still looking away into the distance at nothing.

  Chapter 6

  The rest of the journey into Kingsgate went without incident, and the Grim Sleeper pulled into the wharf an hour after sunrise. The island itself wasn’t terribly wide, but it towered over the ocean. Every layer of the city had been built higher in elevation compared to the one below, leaving the magnificent castle of Raven’s Peak at the top to oversee the world. Raven’s Peak had been built from stone plated with renowned Kingsgate steel, though all the shine and luster of the metal had been worn dull by centuries of heavy rains, relentless winds, and the constant briny attack of the sea. At one point, legend said that the sun reflecting off the steel had been so bright that no man could bear to look at the castle. Now, the structure was dark and foreboding, like a jagged chunk of obsidian broken from a spear tip.

  The crew made fast the ship, and Lord Percival was the first to disembark, wearing a lavish coat and a plumed hat like the first day Kadorax had met him. Behind him, Ayers carried a sack of materials he planned to trade in town, and Kadorax, Syzak, and Brinna took up the rear.

  “It’s been a few years, but I’m pretty sure I still remember where the Royal Alchemy Guild is,” Syzak stated. As a shaman, he’d had some cursory dealings with alchemists from all over Agglor, especially at higher levels when he’d needed components to be able to cast his spells. At level five, he was still a long way from requiring anything more than a word.