Stay on the Wing Read online

  Stay on the Wing

  a novel

  by Michael Atamanov

  Dark Herbalist

  Book#2

  Magic Dome Books

  Stay on the Wing

  Dark Herbalist, Book # 2

  Copyright © M. Atamanov 2017

  Cover Art © V. Manyukhin 2017

  English translation copyright © Andrew Schmitt 2017

  Editor: Zach Lewis

  Published by Magic Dome Books, 2017

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN: 978-80-88231-00-4

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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  Table of Contents:

  The Tail-End of a Long Story

  Cards on the Table

  Until the Hunt Begins

  The Hunt Begins!

  Under the Black Flag

  At a Crossroads

  The Island of the Wanton Widow

  Hungover Morning

  More Than Just a Game

  Return to the Bireme

  Tracked Down

  Night Boarding

  Perfumer

  Senior Tester

  Level-Up

  Dotur-Khawe

  The Hunt Comes to a Close

  Epilogue

  The Tail-End of a Long Story

  "AMRA, ADMIT IT. At the end of the day, all our searching has turned up nothing. There’s no trace of them!" said the morbidly thin wood nymph in a light frock sitting on a fallen tree and yawning wide, demonstrating a set of sharp predatory teeth.

  My sister hadn't gotten any sleep all night and was clearly beside herself. And the only reason she was up at this ungodly hour was me, not the light and not the dawn. Valeria had expressed her disapproval in sharp terms and refused to enter the game for some time. But the risk that some of the many killers after me might show up near the Cursed House was absolutely real, so in the end, Val apologized and agreed to come play with the rest of our group.

  Max Sochnier, who I'd called on his cell phone, had promised to come in to work as soon as possible and catch up to us near Stonetown. And even Leon, after a moment of thought, asked me not to leave without him. I understood perfectly how difficult this choice was for the former construction worker, too. On the one hand, he had the half-destroyed goblin village of Tysh, where his character, an Ogre Fortifier, had work lined up for a month, providing him a steady stream of missions, experience and leveling. On the other hand, he was being asked to cast in his lot with our group, fleeing from hired assassins in peril and anonymity. Leon chose the option of staying with his friends, and I deeply appreciated that. By now, he would have already arrived by taxi to the Boundless Realm building, and should have been entering the game at any minute. After that, we could all run for our lives to Stonetown.

  Taisha walked up to me, wrapped tight in my coat and accompanied by the clearly limping Akella. The beautiful green-skinned goblin lowered her eyes in response to my inquisitive gaze and shook her head.

  "I’ve got nothing. I walked around the Stonetown stockade and checked the gates a few times, but the lady wasn't there. I looked over the tracks left by the farm workers again, too. There are a lot of footprints, but none from a lady. The runaway must have left a few days ago. I sent Tamina Fierce’s children with Lobo and White Fang back to check the road from Stonetown to Tysh in the opposite direction. Although, as you must understand, the chances are low. We've already looked there a couple times..."

  I swatted at a level-4 Fly buzzing peskily around my ear (our Naiad Trader hadn't been exaggerating — near the river, there were flies the size of a fist) and plopped down wearily next to my sister on a fallen log. Taisha carefully found herself a place next to me.

  Day was dawning. The sky in the east was growing noticeably pink. But today, I wasn't afraid of the sunrise, because I could already see plenty of thick rainclouds dashing about the sky like dark tattered rags. It would probably start raining any seco
nd, then our search for the missing dark-haired girl would become utterly useless — the rain would wash all remaining evidence away. The wolves of the Gray Pack would no longer be able to smell her trail, either. The rare Gray Pack's Past quest threatened to remain unfinished. But I had big plans that were entirely reliant on finishing that mission—it would give methe ability to include ferocious and swift-footed wargs in the Gray Pack, which was very, very tempting!

  I took a heavy sigh and removed the brightly colored headband I'd found in the warg's lair from my inventory and spun it in my hands. To look at it, it was just a headband as average as they come, the kind village girls wear to keep their hair back but, when I found it, the next mission in the Gray Pack chain initiated. We couldn't just let that pass us by and let the runaway escape. I sincerely hoped we still had a chance. If not, we might have bungled the whole Gray Pack mission chain, which would be terrible. In vexation, I slapped my palm against an impudent fly landing on my forehead, crushing it.

  Damage dealt: 18 (Slap)

  Experience received: 4 Exp.

  Object received: Dead Fly (bait)

  Your character is missing the requisite skill to use this object

  Skill required: Fishing (P A) level-3

  I flicked the fly away. It was useless to me anyway. Then, I shouted in a fit of anger, not clear who I was addressing:

  "There's no way a pregnant lady could just go up in smoke, much less with her young niece and nephew! After all, there must have been some reason for her suddenly fleeing after such a long stay. Just imagine how hard it must have been for her to walk! Damn, all these flies really have me worked up!"

  As a matter of fact, a whole swarm of the buzzing insects had come in place of the one I’d killed, and were now cutting circles above our heads with a vile whirring sound. Valerianna Quickfoot shook her right fist, and all of her hornet pets moved out to help us, taking down the insolent blood-suckers in a matter of seconds. Taisha, on seeing the dangerous overgrown wasps, crouched down and tried to cover her head with her jacket. I, meanwhile, whistled respectfully, having counted at least ten wasps, which were either black and brownish-yellow or orange-red. I even saw that some of them had already reached level sixteen.

  A bit more leveling and they'd reach twenty, then the Beastmaster could choose useful perks for them. Knowing my sister, I had no doubt that Valerianna Quickfoot had already thought through a development plan for her pets down to the smallest detail, considering both the strong and weak points. Clearly, the wood nymph hadn't selected her swarm at random, given the several distinct types of wasp within it. My sister, obviously flattered at the attention paid to her variously-shaded pretties, sent her flying pets away and answered me:

  "Why she ran is, of course, clear. In the last few days, eleven of her friends have been killed. She likely knew they were wargs. She might not be, but she began justly fearing for her own life all the same. Although, Tim, we might be wrong. Maybe the dark-haired girl had absolutely nothing to do with it, and her leaving the farm is just a coincidence. In any case, we should come to an agreement on the runaway as quickly as possible — we can't just stick around near Stonetown. When the sun comes up, there might be assassins about. My opinion — we should stop searching and leave right away."

  My sister then went silent abruptly and got on edge, seeing a bare-footed gray-haired old man dressed in a dark chlamys walking in our direction from the houses of the village. But based on how Valerianna immediately breathed a sigh of relief, I realized that this old man was familiar to her and presented no threat. I quickly read his info:

  Umar Bonesetter

  Level-45 Human Witch Doctor

  This must have been the Stonetown doctor the wood nymph had met on our second day in game. She’d told me about him on a number of occasions. With a short nod to my sister, as if greeting an old friend, the gray-haired bearded man stopped next to me, looked me over and gave a kind-hearted laugh:

  "You must be the big-eared goblin herbalist who moved into the Cursed House! I've been expecting plant deliveries from you for quite some time! You're late!"

  If the old man thought he could shame me with those words, he was wrong. I was seeing him for the first time. I had no obligation to sell him plants, so I didn't feel at all guilty. What was more, I didn't even have enough plants to practice Alchemy with, so the witch-doctor was absolutely wrong to be counting on me. But the man wasn't even expecting me to answer and had already turned his attention to Taisha. Under his harsh gaze, my companion grew embarrassed, shrunk and wrapped herself tighter in the jacket, covering over her thin thief's outfit, still burned through in many places.

  "In my time, girls would have been embarrassed to walk around looking like that," said the old man, shaking his head judgmentally. "You may enter the village. The guards at the gates know you. They'll let you through. My home is the second on the right from the gates. You’ll find a needle and thread on the shelf in the entryway. Sew that wretched outfit up."

  Taisha turned to me and, after getting permission, jumped up off the log and scurried off to mend her clothes. The witch-doctor immediately took her place, croaked out like an old man and sat down next to me on the fallen tree. He gave Pirate a scratch behind the ear, truly unafraid of the level-17 Forest Wolf, dozing away under Valerianna Quickfoot’s legs. Being honest, I was taken aback by the old man's lack of caution. I mean, my sister's pet Pirate was a wild predator, after all, and this old man couldn't possibly know how the wolf would react to an attempt to stroke it like that. But the wolf just twitched his ear lazily, as if chasing off a gadfly, and continued dozing.

  A private message came in from Shrekson:

  "Me and Leon just entered the game and are hurrying on our way to you. We're going as fast as possible, but we still need an hour to get to Stonetown. Wait for us."

  So, I had one more hour to pick up the runaway girl’s trail. In that time, the sun would be coming up. And after that, we would have to run as far as possible from Stonetown. The chance of us meeting a high-level enemy was increasing with every minute. Also, the residents of the human village would be waking up soon. They would be sure to take an interest in our search, making it impossible for the wolves of the Gray Pack to work effectively.

  As if reading my thoughts, the old witch-doctor spoke with an old-man's growl:

  "Come to think of it, this is some strange business. A whole group of goblins with a pack of wolves and a dangerous mavka came to our human village and, now, they’re all crawling about stubbornly trying to sniff something, or somebody out. One might start to think you have ill intentions for our village. Perhaps I should send a runner to the garrison for more guards…"

  I turned in fear to the old man and discovered that he was smiling and could barely hold back his laughter.

  "I'm just joking, dumbo," the witch-doctor hurried to reassure me. "The mavka told me who you're looking for yesterday. It's just that you aren't talking, Amra. I'm only trying to start a conversation."

  "We is looking after runaway farmhand from long-away plantation. Many farmhand is run, master no understand where and why workers is leaving," I said, purposely distorting my words.

  But the old man answered, beaming all the brighter and shaking his head in reproach:

  "Oh, goblin, you're a bad liar... Never in a million years would I believe that the greedy Kariz would go search for missing workers, especially near the end of the season when pay time is coming. For him, the farm-hands disappearing is a good thing — it means he has to part with less of his coin."

  I looked thoughtfully at the man, who appeared wizened by a long life... and decided to tell him the whole truth as it was, hiding nothing. And I even spoke in normal human language without my tongue-tied "goblin accent." Umar Bonesetter listened to my story about killing the wargs and discovering their lair very carefully, without a single interruption. And when I reached the part where I discovered the headband, leading to my suspicions on the runaway dark-haired woman, the witch-
doctor said thoughtfully:

  "The runaway was named Belle. I knew from her first day in town that she wasn't just a simple villager. She’s a short girl with short hair. She showed up in the village five months ago. The farm owner, Kariz, hired that group of farm-hands in the spring for sowing and asked me to give the lady a checkup. She looked far too thin, beat-up and unhealthy. It was as if she were ill. And also, her short hair aroused suspicion. What kind of girl would just cut off her braids like that? It spoiled her womanly beauty! The only reason I could think of would be typhus or some disease."

  The old man stayed silent for a bit as if trying to remember then continued, noticeably quieter:

  "At that time, Belle's belly wasn't noticeable at all. No one had any idea she was with child. But when I was looking her over, she just told me all about it. She said she'd fled back-breaking labor, squabbles, and humiliation. Even worse, she told me of her master’s daily unwelcome advances. She couldn’t even walk around the farm without being harangued. She told me that her former master's wife had cropped her hair like that to stop her stealing her husband away. I took pity on her, so I didn't tell Kariz anything about her pregnancy. Otherwise, he wouldn't have taken her on."

  "So, what made you realize she was unusual?" the wood nymph inquired. "From my perspective, she sounds like a typical browbeaten village girl with a difficult lot in life."