Land of Drunken Pharaohs: A GameLit Urban Fantasy (High Table Hijinks Book 3) Read online

  Land of Drunken Pharaohs

  High Table Hijinks Book Three

  Christopher Johns

  Copyright © 2021 by Christopher Johns

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Newsletter

  The story so far…

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Afterword

  About Christopher Johns

  About Mountaindale Press

  Mountaindale Press Titles

  This book is dedicated to my readers suffering through those silent battles that others may never know or even begin to understand. I hope you find solace and care in these words, because you matter to me and all these characters. We raise our hearts and glasses to you in solidarity and unity.

  Acknowledgments

  I would love to thank my wife, and our daughter, my son and his mother, for all of their patience and perseverance as I work through all of the fantastical stories stuck in my head. This work takes me away from all of you for so many things, and through all of it, you support me how you can. I can only hope that in the times you have me to yourselves, you guard that time and treat it as special as it is for me. Because every anchor to this reality is precious and you keep me floating safely.

  I love you all.

  Newsletter

  Don’t miss out on future releases! Sign up for the Mountaindale Press newsletter to stay up to date. And as always, thank you for your support! You are the reason we’re able to bring these stories to life.

  The story so far…

  We saw Marcus Bola, Marine, returned to Columbus to hide from some shady dealings that took out his unit while stationed overseas, then got involved in some crazier and shadier dealings himself. The supernatural world is real and there are people out there trying to maintain the tenuous peace between humanity with their ignorance and the supes in their incessant boredom.

  Those good people happen to be employed by an organization called the High Table and, with branches all over the world, they keep the monsters who go bump in the night bumping to good music with good booze and service.

  At least, that was until the wanna-be-drug-cartel-kingpin Seelie Fae, Ascal Qin Moira, decided he didn’t want to wait for natural progression to give him power and instead decided to try to flood the streets with a new drug. This drug was liquified mana that had been chemically added to and then further altered to make it highly addictive. It gave a wicked boost to the already powerful supes who took it, but it even gave humans a boost as well, allowing them to see the supernatural aspects of the world and flow of mana too. But the cost for the supes using it was just as intense—to the point that it would eat the natural mana supply of the user after a while and make them a mana funnel before killing them if they couldn’t find more magic.

  Marcus, with his new girlfriend Cassia, an oni with a big heart and a penchant for fighting, stumbled onto the scene and couldn’t leave well enough alone. To help with the growing crisis Marcus had Arden, a flame jinn, and Galaxy, the amnesiac goddess who resided within him and drove them all to grow stronger, join his increasing crew to stop this all from going down. In the fray which ensued, they encountered Merlin, a young Warden in training who had been assigned to a nephilim junkie, and took him in under their wing when things went south for his former trainer. You know, six feet south.

  With the help of his new friends at the High Table, Marcus was able to rescue his son and stop the production of the magical drug in time for the different Warden orders to clean up the mess and really buckle down on the area.

  But with their involvement came the need to scrutinize Merlin, who had been ordered to attend a tribunal and face judgement for his actions. At the same time, Marcus was given a seemingly-impossible task by the High Table Council. He and his newfound family and friends would need to go out and reclaim the Huntsman’s Mantle in order to be of even greater service and use to the High Table, ensuring this would help keep his crew together, and Marcus safe from any possible Seelie reprisal should he fail.

  Merlin’s outcome was a sentence to perform the rite of passage for the Order of the Sword, which necessitated Merlin having to join with Marcus, Galaxy, Cassia, and Arden on their trip into Grestal to hunt for the Mantle. But this was never meant to be an easy thing. The entire place wants to kill and consume, but the Wardens couldn’t just leave the group alone either. Driven and hunted on all sides, the group commandeered/rescued a young lady by the name of Amabala who could sense portals around her and had trained to be able to see and find them her entire life by her abusive Matron.

  After being there to help support Merlin in passing his rite of passage, the group went to a city in the humanoid portion of Grestal in order to try to gear up for Marcus’s portion of the mission. There, because the Wardens are asshats and can’t leave well enough alone, they are set upon by said Wardens. After the fight, the group takes off into the Forest of the Fel, where even the monstrous creatures that make up the myths and legends of Earth, who call Grestal home, refuse to go. The search for the elusive Huntsman’s Mantle takes days, after which they find a city of small cat people who end up sacrificing them to their god of death in a massive ziggurat of blackened stone.

  While trying to figure out a way to escape, the group is beset by a drake, who calls for another that the group had previously injured and forced to run off.

  Thrown into the temple of the cat peoples’ god, the deity reaches out and offers to help Marcus with the fight to save his friends from the monsters outside.

  It helps with the depleted power of the Wild Hunt.

  After the fight goes their way, Marcus takes the black-scaled drake as his mount, a requirement to bond with the Huntsman’s Mantle.

  Skipping the showdown with a certain mohawked, sword-wielding Warden, they all end up home after having accomplished the mission. Normally, we would stop there, but when it rains, it pours and Marcus and his friends find out that Merlin had been abducted and go to find him after needing to put down Manny the Mantle’s conscious mind.

  Xehano had been the one to abduct Merlin, and there was no way that was going to stand for long. Marcus battled the boy’s former mentor from the Order of the Staff as Cassia and Arden fought the jinn that he had somehow managed to enslave. The group saved the day, rescued the damsel in distress and
made off with the jinn to free him and learn more about Arden’s bottled family members who appeared to have been scattered to the winds. One of them in the sands of the desert close to Egypt.

  Already preparing to embark for Cairo as their first job acting as the Wild Hunt, Marcus and his friends better get a move on…

  Chapter One

  My phone chirped and whirred on the stand next to my bed, the light filtering from it blinding to a still slightly drunk and exhausted me. I lifted it to my ear and grunted, “Hello?”

  “Marcus?” I recognized Luca’s voice and my heart instantly began to race.

  “Is Connell okay?”

  He chuckled, the sound of me falling off the bed to try to find some clothes likely going through the receiver before he could reply. “Yes, the boy is fine. I called because I got word that you had returned from Grestal, and thought that you would like to meet with Conellar some time soon?”

  I smiled, grateful for the other man’s presence just then, relief notwithstanding. “I would love that. I’ll be heading to Cairo in a couple days, but is there a time that would work better for you? I can put off some prep time to see him.”

  There was a pause and then I heard, “So it’s true? You truly have become the Huntsman?”

  I grunted and cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I have.”

  “I see.” He paused and his voice became muffled enough that I couldn’t hear it. He was gone long enough that I worried that he would have to hang up. Which reminded me, how had he gotten my number?

  His voice returned. “We would not want the Huntsman’s missions to be delayed over much, but if you would like, I can bring him to see you for a short time today? Maybe there in an hour or so?”

  “You’ll do that?” I asked, more than a little shocked.

  He laughed again, deep and throaty. Finally, he said, “I meant what I said about him getting to know you. He wants to know who his father is, and I am inclined to facilitate this. I think it best that a boy knows his father.”

  I nodded and then realized he couldn’t see me. “Thank you, Luca. That means a lot.”

  He added softly, “I have only just gotten his mother to agree to this. Sorry it could not have been sooner, forgive me.”

  “Nothing to forgive.” I grinned. “You guys wanna meet at the High Table? Have some breakfast?” I looked at the phone in my hand; it read early afternoon closer to one. “Make that lunch?”

  He laughed again and then I heard giggling in the background which had me grinning even broader as he said, “That would be nice. See you soon.”

  I stood up and stretched, casting my gaze back to the bed to see Cassia staring up at me with a handheld game system in her hands and a grin on her face. “You gonna see your son today?”

  I nodded at her and looked down at Galaxy who was cuddled into the crook of Cassia’s arm and nestled closer. Her dark skin with specks of light strewn across it could have been a mosaic to the stars and skies of the heavens, her elvish features cute while she slept with her dangerous curves hidden from us both with a blanket. Cassia wore nothing but a pair of basketball shorts and watched with a grin still on her face.

  She caught my gaze and gave me a slow wink that could have made any battle-hardened man blush and I sure as hell wasn’t about to be the exception. But my mind was elsewhere.

  “Can you take care of munitions for my Fae Frame and Silvaero?” She blinked at me, slightly crestfallen, but nodded. “And could you check in with Jayvali to see if he has Thumper up and running yet?”

  “I’d have to go in and see him. Probably gonna take a huge bribe to get him to part with another rifle like that.” She frowned then smiled. “Though Magdalena will want to talk to Merlin about her little project, so I imagine that could buy us a little sway. Arden and I can take him shopping and finish out there for you. Is there anything else you want?”

  I grimaced at the memory of the sword the dwarves and goblins had concocted, phials of mana filled with the ambient magic in the air or from things he killed with it, connected to it to give additional magical power to strikes. I wished there was something I could do for guns, but even though gunpowder was a Grestallan thing, it was pretty much useless there. That whole thing confused me as it was some kind of mixture of Grestallan and Earth materials, but it acted differently only on Grestal. I wanted to call bullshit, but it wasn’t in me to risk a weapon if I didn’t need to, so I trusted Cassia and my friends. Though I was jealous of it in a way, that didn’t help me thinking about how Thumper was still out of commission.

  One of the last surviving Seelie had doped himself with Divinity and attacked me, my only manner of staying relatively uninjured being to use the Dwarven rifle as a makeshift shield to block the strike. She’d crumbled and Jayvali still hated me for it.

  “Pop for the flight.” Galaxy yawned and opened her vivid green eyes up at both of us, snapping me from my revery. “I desire much of it.”

  That made both of us laugh, then I pointed to her. “You know, that stuff will rot your teeth.”

  She blinked at me and replied pointedly, “I am a goddess, Marcus. I am unused to being teased, and I think my teeth will retain their enamel just fine should I will it to be so.” I blinked at her, a little deflated until she grinned back at me. “I like this teasing thing. Are you going to take a shower?”

  I nodded as Cassia snickered and fought not to laugh at my confusion outright.

  “I’ll join you, if you don’t mind?” My eyebrows shot up and I glanced to Cassia who shrugged. Galaxy grabbed my chin and her voice rang out in my mind. This is my right as your girlfriend, as well. It is only the two of us, Marcus. No other woman is needed and Cassia is fine with it.

  Was she? I raised my eyes to her and she caught my gaze.

  “If you don’t go take a shower with her, I will.” Cassia smiled at me and I just shook my head before I turned and went to the bathroom with Galaxy.

  A short time later, I came out of the bathroom clean shaven for the day and dressed, Cassia looking up from her phone with a smile. “Jay’s pissed, but he’s said that he has to listen to Magdalena in this matter and will try to get you something close to the majesty that was Thumper.”

  “He hasn’t been able to fix it?” She shook her head and I grimaced. “Man, I really fucking feel bad about it.”

  “It was outside your control; I wouldn’t worry too much about it.” She grinned and got off the bed, standing so that she could move to stand in front of me. “The big crybaby will get over it eventually. Despite how he acted last time, he does still like you.”

  I frowned, uncertain if she was being honest or not, then again, she’d never lied to me before. “You sure?”

  “He called you a beardless fuck stick, of course I’m sure.”

  “Cass, I don’t think that’s a sign of someone liking me.” I stared at her and she just rolled her eyes. “What? What don’t I know?”

  “When a dwarf insults you, it means that they’re more likely to forgive you for something.” She patted both my shoulders at the same time and let her arms fall to her sides. “I’m his favorite, so I should know.”

  Galaxy burst into a fit of laughter in the bathroom that caught us both by surprise. She poked her head out the door, her hair still wet from the shower. “You broke how many of his weapons?”

  Cassia looked bashful for a heartbeat, the tips of her index fingers touching like she was some adorable anime girl as she answered, “‘Bout twenty-three?”

  “Holy fuck!” I almost fell onto my desk with the shock from it but she looked really embarrassed. “How did you break so many?”

  She groaned and grimaced before she finally answered, “He kept trying to ask me on a date and when I refused, he would challenge me to a fight. He let me pick the weapons and I broke the majority over his head.”

  I laughed so hard that I saw spots in my vision after a while. After a minute or two wheezing, I finally managed to say, “Why?”

  “I did
n’t want to date anyone at the time, and he thought I was just a Touched human. I showed him I was an oni and we’ve been friends ever since.” She crossed her arms and kind of smirked. “It’s because of me he’s one of the most feared fighters that the Forge has, you know?”

  I snorted as she tried to explain herself. Finally, she tired of that and went off to look for Arden and Merlin to save her from Galaxy’s and my chuckling at her past with the surly dwarf.

  “I think we should make it a point to reach out to Servant and Chris to ensure they know that we will be out of reasonable reach should anything happen for an undisclosed amount of time,” I muttered to Galaxy as I pulled my boots on and laced them up. “You know, just in case Servant can’t keep him safe from whoever could potentially be a threat to him, and all that? Still don’t understand what kind of threat that could be, really.”

  She nodded as she dressed, and her figure faded and shifted until she was inside of me where she belonged, as I was her vessel in the mortal world. That would be a good idea.

  “Well, let’s go and see Connell.” I threw my dirty clothes onto the floor at the foot of my bed and raised my voice. “Seamus, I’ll be back in a little bit and I’ll bring some stuff for you too.”

  I heard a snuffling laugh from the reclusive brownie and closed my door, locking it before I moved away.