Warsinger by James Baldwin (most important books of all time txt) 📕

me a quest update.” She frowned, scanning her HUD. “I’m supposed to take it to the Morning Stars. Remember them? ‘This medallion, a relic of the era of the Demon Queen’, will be of extreme interest to the Morning Stars. Take it to them and learn more about its origins and purpose.’”

“Then I guess we’re going to Dakhdir,” I said. “Let’s take a couple days to level up, clear a few more local kingdom quests, and then head south before Suri’s quest gets any harder. All in favour?”

Suri silently put her hand up.

“Aye.” Istvan raised his hand. “Though I have to go and say my farewells, and make sure Vash stays in his damn bed.”

“I don’t know if we can go to Dakhdir. Ebisa and I need to go to Litvy so I can at least finish one of my projects, otherwise I won’t level up,” Rin said, deflating slightly. “I can be in reserve and join you if you find a Warsinger, but if I’m way behind on EXP. If I don’t power-level, I won’t be able to work on anything more complex than Lovelace and Hopper. I’m sorry to ask, but would it be possible to get a lift back to the RCE tonight?”

The RCE was the Royal College of Engineers. I motioned to my dragon. “That’s up to Karalti. I need to go level up and take care of some Voivoiding, but after that…?”

“Sure!” Karalti chirped. “I don’t mind. I can change shape back and forth one more time today.”

“Now you mention it, there IS something in Litvy I want to do,” Suri said, with a small, sly smile. “But we’ll talk about that later. After you’re done Voivoding.”

Chapter 29

There was, in fact, a great amount of Voivoding to do. So, for the first time in my twenty-seven years of life, I willingly sat at a writing desk and used it for its intended purpose: studying.

I went back over Rutha’s testimony in Taltos and Ignas’s lesson to me about statesmanship. I vanished down the Archemipedia wikihole, reading what I could and letting Navigail read me the rest. Politics, kingdom management, the economics of early-industrial feudal societies… I munched on Count Bolza’s surprisingly fresh pistachios and read, and read, and read. And as I did, my under-exercised Int score began to rise, just as it had in the early days of me training my Strength and Dex. A point here, a point there… it didn’t make me FEEL any smarter, but I definitely knew more about Myszno by the time Suri knocked on the door to the Ducal Suite.

“Coming!” I rolled up from the desk chair and went to answer. I opened the door to find her in the gold chain dress she had been wearing the other day, a heavy cloak draped over her arm. “Wow, I hadn’t intended to predict the future, but here we are.”

“That’s what I hope,” she asked mischievously. “Ready to hear my proposal for the night?”

“Suuuuurrrre,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away. “But I’d like to propose that you, me and your astonishingly hypnotic chest should go do something fun. I don't know what fun there is to be had in Myszno right now, though, other than motorboating you until you beg for mercy.”

Suri laughed, the first real laugh I'd heard from her since coming back from Al-Asad. “I've got an idea, especially seeing as you and Karalti are taking the Wondertwins back to Litvy. Think Karalti is fine waiting around for us there while we go on a date?”

“A date?” I perked up. Suri and I had literally only had time for one real date night in our nearly two-month-long relationship, which had been brunch at a kebab joint in Taltos. “Uhh... let me ask.”

Suri came in and settled onto the sofa while I closed the door and concentrated. “Hey, Tidbit?”

“Yeeeessss?” Karalti answered after a few seconds. To my surprise, she was eating – again. As our minds connected, I sensed that she was a ways away from the castle, busily sucking the blood out of an igunandont dinosaur she had pinned under her claws.

“In addition to giving Rin and Ebisa a ride to Litvy tonight, Suri wants to know if you'd be willing to hang around Litvy while she and I have some human time together.” Despite all of the delicious nuts, I found my own stomach rumbling in sympathy with Karalti’s. It was strange: she’d decimated that fish, and she normally didn’t eat more than once a day.

“Hmmmmm.” Karalti made a show of thinking about it, and as she did, I felt a flash of heat pass over my skin. “Maaaaybe. But tell her that if you two are gonna go and chase each other's tails in Litvy, then I get to sleep with you when you go to bed, in your bed, for as long as we want.”

“Sleep as in cuddle.”

She growled. “Sleep as in whatever I want.”

I nearly snipped back at her, but bit my tongue and rubbed my forehead instead. “I should have made you sleep in a kennel while you were growing up. You're spoiled rotten.”

“I am perfectly ripe, thank you very much.”

“You know I have to sleep in abath full of sand, right?”

“Yes, but I get to sleep in a bath full of sand with YOU, oh bonded one. After today's stinky poop adventure, I want to do that very much. I want to eat all of the food and snuggle with you for as long as I please, somewhere warm and dry and nice.”

That sounded good. Given I was sitting on an Exhausted debuff right now, it almost sounded better than going all the way to Litvy to do whatever Suri was thinking about. Almost. “Alright. Let me check with Suri.”

“Good boy.”

Suri was waiting for me, lounging on the sofa and watching me with hooded golden eyes. “So, what’s the verdict?”

“Her Scaly Highness decrees that we shall be permitted to date, but she calls dibs on post-date snuggling and sleeping,”