The Bathrobe Knight: Volume 3 by Charles Dean Read Free Book Online Page A

have when faced with the challenge of a lifetime?” A sultry voice crept inside Ashish’s right ear at the same time a hand slid across his left shoulder. “Don’t tell me you would think of a chance at the panda’s throne as nothing more than something to ‘get over with.’”
    The two men turned to face the woman who had snuck between them, and a shiver creeped up and down Ashish’s spine. When did she get here? Where did she come from? He cursed as his eyes darted around, trying to figure out where she had come from and how she could have gotten the drop on them. Linzmeier’s sense of things had turned out to be more accurate than Ashish had thought. Everyone in the bar was gone. Only the building, a hollow shell of what it had been before, remained. Was it all even here to begin with? he wondered, now even more on edge.
    “Easy there, handsome.” The dark-haired, red-eyed woman’s voice enthralled Ashish with its demure melodiousness like no music ever could. “You came here to find me, so I just thought I’d make it easy for you,” she said, letting a red-lipped smile creep across her pale face ever so slowly.
    “Boss, let’s get the quest and leave.” Linzmeier knocked Ashish on the shoulder, jolting him back to reality.
    “Of course, you’re in charge. Why wouldn’t you be? You’re destined to greatness, born to rule men. It’s as plain as day to see.” The words lured Ashish back into a dream world, reality and logic quickly behind him again. “Now, have you come to save me from my problems, kill the evil demon and prove yourself worthy of the crown?” She smiled, producing the fabled crown of Robin the Panda King from behind her back and proffering it to Ashish.
    “Of course.” Ashish nodded as he stared into her beautiful red eyes. “Of course I’ll save you.”
    “Ashish, snap out of it. Get the quest, and let’s leave. I don’t like the effect this lady seems to have on you.” Linzmeier nudged his leader again, but, this time, it produced no response. Ashish was already lost to the siren’s melodies.
    “If you wish to leave, by all means, feel free. However, if you wish to finish the quest, you will need this.” She handed Ashish a scroll. “When you get out of here, open up the scroll, but be careful whom you share its contents with. Inside is the location for the secret portal that must be destroyed at all costs. If you are the first to destroy that unholy gateway, then I will grant you this crown, and you will have the right to claim the Panda King’s glorious throne. Yet, beware! The fiend who guards it is no easy man to kill. He has covered the earth with the blood of thousands who came before you.”
    Ashish looked at the scroll. So this is the map of the unbeatable dungeon Lawlheima. “Alright.” He rolled the parchment back up and gripped it firmly. “Let’s get out of here.” With that, he turned and strode off in the direction the pair had come from, his Jotunn comrade lumbering alongside him, obviously relieved.
    “About time.” Linzmeier didn’t stop looking at Ashish. “What did she do to you?”
    “I . . .” Ashish tried to recall. He knew there had been a feeling, an enchanting charm that had spread over him moments ago, but no clear memory of it remained now. All he could recall was meeting someone who gave him the key to a kingdom, the only condition being that he had to turn it himself. “I don’t know, but I do know that if we take over that throne, our name will go down in gaming history.”
    “Easier said than done.” Linzmeier took the scroll from Ashish and opened it up in much the same fashion someone disarming a bomb might. After nothing happened, a mild look of shock crept up his face.
    “What? Were you thinking it might kill you?” Ashish laughed at his Jotunn friend.
    “Not exactly, but, hmm . . .” He studied the paper for a moment. “What is this?”
    Ashish looked over at the scroll. On the bottom it had a countdown timer with