Fimbulwinter

A Daniel Black Novel

By E. William Brown

Copyright 2014 E. William Brown

Amazon Kindle Edition

Contents

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

Epilogue

Chapter 1

I probably would have said no, if I hadn’t just had the most epically bad week of my life.

It started out well enough. My team had been working round the clock on our current software project, and on Monday we finally delivered the first release candidate to QA. Granted it was just a project management app for the company’s oilfield operations, but it was still a good feeling to know we were closing in on the finish line.

Like a lot of software projects the original estimates had been wildly overoptimistic, and what was originally supposed to be a ten-month project was now in its fifteenth month. But another few weeks of bug fixing would see it finally finished, and we all agreed it was going to be nice not to have our managers riding us to work sixty-hour weeks anymore.

On Tuesday management announced that they were pulling the plug on the project. It was too far over budget, and apparently the executives didn’t believe us about being almost done. So the last year and a half of my work got flushed down the drain because some pointy-headed boss wanted to cover his ass. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.

On Wednesday they announced that the whole team was being laid off. The company had decided to outsource future development to some outfit in India that was already happily making impossible promises about future costs and delivery dates. Most likely they’d just bill lots of hours and deliver crappy code for as long as the company was dumb enough to keep paying. But whatever happened, it wasn’t my problem anymore.

I had a month of severance pay coming, which was one nice thing about being a senior developer instead of one of the junior guys. But the layoff was effective immediately, and security was on hand to oversee the whole team as we packed up our cubicles and turned over our company laptops before being escorted out of the building. Wouldn’t want some disgruntled employee doing something nasty to the network, after all. It was barely afternoon when I found myself unexpectedly on the road home, wondering what I was going to tell Amanda.

I needn’t have bothered. I opened the door of my little suburban home to find my wife of three years bent over the couch being enthusiastically serviced by some guy I didn’t know. Needless to say, there ensued a great deal of shouting.

You might think that a woman would be ashamed to be caught cheating like that, but Amanda’s rationalization skills proved equal to the occasion. While stud-boy made his retreat she loudly proclaimed that her actions were all my fault because I worked too much, didn’t spend enough money on her and generally failed to deliver happiness to her on a silver platter.

I actually had to leave the room so I wouldn’t punch the bitch. But that turned out to be a bad idea, since it gave her a minute to call the police and give them some sob story about a domestic disturbance. In our enlightened state the police take such calls very seriously - the current policy is that the male on the scene is automatically arrested regardless of circumstances, just in case he turns out to be a spouse abuser or something. So the last I saw of Amanda was her smug expression as they hauled me off for a night in jail.

Yeah, that was a lot of fun. Who ends up in an overnight holding cell these days? Violent drunks, vandals who were probably gang members, some pimp who was beating a hooker in public, a random assortment of drugged up kids and insane street people. Great company. It’s a good thing the cops take your valuables before they lock you up, or I’d have been mugged for sure. As it was I managed to emerge the next day with nothing but a couple of bruises and an expanded vocabulary.

But I couldn’t go home, because the restraining order was served before I even got out of the building.

Surprised? I certainly was. I always thought you needed some sort of finding of imminent danger to get one of those things. But no, apparently my being arrested on a domestic disturbance call is enough to get the judge to rubber-stamp the application. Good thing I’d had my wallet on me when I was arrested, or I’d have really been in trouble.

I managed to find a lawyer and get an appointment for the following day, since things were obviously going to get messy at this point. But the news wasn’t getting any better. He told me Amanda would almost certainly get the house, which I’d almost finished paying for, along with half our assets and five or six years of spousal support. Oh, and add in another twenty or thirty grand for legal expenses. Good thing we didn’t have kids.

I was halfway back to the motel from that meeting when some asshole in a pickup truck blew through a red light and broadsided me.

So Friday night found me lying in a hospital bed with a broken arm, two broken ribs, a concussion and more bruises than a professional boxer after a tough match. They were probably going to let me go in the morning, but my car was totaled and so was my phone. I was desperately trying to think of someone whose phone number I could remember, and who might not actually believe the stories Amanda was apparently spreading about what a violent douchebag I was, when things suddenly got even more surreal.

“Well, you certainly don’t look like much. I suppose I’ll have to throw in some instant healing if we can make a deal. Will you bargain with me, Daniel Black?”

The voice was female, cool and controlled with an undercurrent of sarcastic black humor. I looked up, and felt my jaw drop.

You know how the actresses they cast to play badass babes in action movies never quite pull it off? How no matter how hard they try, most of them tend to look like pretty girls playing at being tough?

My visitor could’ve showed them how it’s done.

She was a tall, statuesque woman of Mediterranean complexion and unearthly beauty, with dark hair and eyes like pools of living shadow. She carried herself with the casual confidence of someone who knows they’re the most dangerous thing in the building, an impression that was further enhanced by  the fact that her outfit seemed to consist entirely of black leather and knives.

I would’ve wondered how she got them past hospital security if not for the fact that she was translucent, about 6 inches tall, and floating in the air above my bed.

For a split second I wondered if I was losing it. But no, people crazy enough to have detailed hallucinations aren’t normally lucid enough to wonder about their own sanity. Besides, assuming things are real is generally a lot safer than assuming they aren’t.

I closed my mouth, and took a deep breath.

“That would be nice. What are we bargaining about?”

She sighed. “Those idiot Aesir have finally started Ragnarok on a world a few octaves down from this one, and my last living worshipper is in trouble. I need someone to rescue the silly girl so she can grow up and make some converts, and my divinations tell me you’re the best option I can reach in time. Will you bargain with me? I need a yes or no on that one, please. Rules of magic.”

“Um, sure. Yes. But why me? I’m not exactly a mighty-thewed warrior here.”

“I despise warriors,” she sniffed. “Give me a wizard or a clever rogue any day of the week. That’s why I’m looking here. There’s a quirk of the relationship between worlds that will allow me to grant you sorcerous powers during the journey if you agree, without any great cost to myself. So that’s my first offer to you. Healing for your injuries, and as much magical power as you can seize for yourself, in return for protecting my worshipper Cerise for as long as she remains my only worshipper.”

This was so unreal. But as far as I could tell it was actually happening. I tried to think. What do you ask for when a mysterious woman offers to pay you for a mission to a fantasy world?

“What kind of magic are we talking about?” I asked cautiously. “And who are you, anyway?”

“I am Hecate. But don’t be too quick to judge me by my reputation. The victors write the histories, and what do you think the people of Afghanistan or Ukraine will say about America in a hundred years? I’m a nightmare to my enemies, but my own people have no cause to fear me.”

“As for the magic… damn, you have no magic at all on this world? But a million speculations, so at least there’s something to work with. Right? A ‘sorcery’ is an instinctive command of any one thing that you can conceptualize as an element. When I drag you through the interspace the energies there will fill you and be channeled by your thoughts, giving you whatever sorcery you focus on. Depending on how quick your wits are you should have time to grab three or four elements at a much higher level than human sorcerers normally get.”

“Now quickly, I need an answer. Cerise and her coven-mate are under attack, and we’re running out of time.”

I hesitated. “Maybe. You said Ragnarok. How do we survive the end of the world?”

“Hah! It’s the end of the Aesir, not the world. Flee the northlands and find a hiding place in the south, retreat to the faerie realms, leave the world, hell you could join Loki’s army if you want. A world in chaos is full of opportunity for a man with power. But if you need another carrot, we can shorten the term of your agreement. Protect Cerise for a year and a day, and we will bargain again if she still needs your help. Do we have an agreement?”

I looked around at the hospital room, and thought about what I had to look forward to in the life I was living now. Then I thought about a world full of people in danger, and two witches I didn’t know who were probably about to be eaten by orcs or something.

“What the hell. I’ll do it.”

She let out a sigh of relief. “Excellent! Thank you, Daniel. Do your work well, and I may have other offers for you in the future. Now, let’s get this show on the road before it’s too late. Just focus on the elements you want, one at a time. No one has ever done this for someone from a world like yours, so I’m counting on you to munchkin the hell out of it. But you’re dropping right into combat, so don’t forget to take something you can fight with!”

I opened my mouth to ask for more details on that, but the room dissolved around me before I could speak. Then I was tumbling through a roaring technicolor maelstrom, and a shock like  lightning jolted through me.

“Focus!” Hecate’s voice sounded urgently in my ear. “Now! You have to give the power an outlet, or it’ll tear you apart.”

Fear is a great motivator. I gathered my wits and tried to concentrate. An element. I needed an element. An easy one to start with. Earth.

Cold, solid stone and warm, fertile earth. The essence of endurance, but it could be shaped in so many ways. Understanding blossomed from nowhere, along with a power unlike anything I’d felt before. It was instinctive, as easy as breathing, and it grew rapidly as I concentrated. Crystallizing around the concept of ‘Earth’ as I understood it, manifesting new applications as they flickered through my subconscious.

But a mighty earth mage with no other abilities would be a tad limited, and I didn’t know how long I had to do this. I couldn’t even think about anything else for more than a split second without risking diverting the process to some other element that might prove useless. Fortunately I’ve played more than my share of fantasy role-playing games, so I wasn't starting from scratch figuring this out. If this was the character creation screen of a new computer game, what would I look for?

Flesh.

Because I wasn’t about to get stuck in a fantasy world without some kind of magical healing, and that was the best way I could see to conceptualize it as an element. I was afraid for a moment that it wouldn’t work, but whatever force was behind this process was happy to reduce the dizzying complexity of living organisms to an elemental representation just as it had the quantum-mechanical complexity of solid matter a moment ago. Viewed as an element flesh could be created or shaped just like stone, but it was transformations I was really after. Dying to healthy, poisoned to purified, diseased to... well, minus one type of microorganism, since removing them all would be bad.

The fact that I know a bit about biology seemed to help the process along, forming a scaffolding on which magic-born abilities and senses could anchor themselves. There was no time to be methodical about it, so I frantically wracked my brain for every type of physical affliction, enhancement or transformation I’d ever heard of. A lot of the crazy stuff didn’t stick, but I could feel all sorts of odd bits and pieces accreting here and there.

“Halfway there!” Hecate’s voice warned me.

No more of that, then. What next?

Force. A wonderfully flexible concept, if you think of it as a way of controlling kinetic energy. Force fields and force blades. Telekinesis fields. Levitation and flight. A solid basis for battle magic, with endless utility applications.

Fire. Just for a moment, because I’ve read enough Norse mythology to know that Ragnarok is supposed to be preceded by Fimbulwinter, and I’d feel really stupid if I ended up freezing to death. Enough to ignite flammables and conjure balls of fire, maybe a few other minor tricks. Good enough.

Then it was time for a real exploit.

My last element was mana. The stuff magic is made of. A fundamental force of nature, obviously unknown to modern physics, but there must be some relationship to the Standard Model there or I wouldn’t be able to exist in the same universe as Hecate. Understanding blossomed as I focused on the concept. The nature of magic, its relationship to the other fundamental forces, how spells work, why they wear off, how to embed them permanently into objects. More insights and abilities coalesced faster than I could pay attention to them, just like with the other elements.

Then it was over, and I found myself sprawled across a hard stone floor.

“Thank you, Lady Hecate!” A female voice said excitedly. “I hope you're ready for a fight, Champion. I don’t think Avilla can hold off the goblins much longer, let alone the troll.”

I picked myself up and looked around, to find that I was apparently in a cellar. There was a stone altar covered with candles and mystic bric-a-brac next to me, and an elaborate pentagram inscribed in the floor not far away. But a good third of the room was taken up by a pile of boxes, a row of shelves covered with jars, and a forest of strange objects hanging from the ceiling that I realized after a moment were mostly strings of vegetables.

I was being addressed by a slender teenage girl with a long mane of coal-black hair, and a face that could easily have graced the cover of a fashion magazine. She wore a simple wool dress that was stained liberally with blood, and held a long silver knife in her left hand.

“You must be Cerise,” I said, realizing as I did that I wasn’t speaking English. Well, I’d think about that later.

“That’s me. Wait, why are you naked?”

I looked down and confirmed that, yes, apparently my hospital gown hadn’t made the trip. On the good side, at least my injuries seem to be gone as well. Even the cast and bandages had disappeared.

“Blame Hecate,” I shrugged. “She said you were under attack?”

She nodded impatiently. “Yes, but please save my coven-sister too. She’s been upstairs trying to distract them while I did the summoning ritual.”

There was an amazing commotion going on overhead. I could hear high-pitched voices screaming and shouting, heavy thumps and the sound of breaking wood, a bewildering array of footsteps running around the wooden floor above us, and a roar from something big and angry.

Oh, and I smelled smoke. A lot of it.

“Stay behind me,” I told her. “I’ll do what I can.”

I rushed up the narrow wooden stairs, fumbling for my magic. Fortunately using it was as easy as I’d hoped, taking no more effort than moving an arm I hadn’t had before. I threw a force shield around myself just in time, as I found myself entering the kitchen of a cozy little house that was rapidly being reduced to broken debris.

There were ugly little green guys that had to be goblins everywhere, fighting a pitched battle against an army of animated kitchen utensils and furnishings that obviously didn’t appreciate their presence. The window over the sink, which I was surprised to see was glass, had been smashed open to admit a steady stream of the creatures Their entry was contested by a platoon of gingerbread men armed with knives and forks, but the goblins seemed to be getting the better of their opponents.

A huge hole had been smashed in the inner wall of the kitchen, revealing a living room where an animated couch and several armchairs were gamely trying to prevent a hulking mass of green muscle from cornering a buxom young blonde who I assumed must be the other witch. Another swarm of gingerbread men ran around the troll’s shoulders, stabbing and hacking at it to little effect.

Oh, and half of the kitchen was on fire. Apparently the troll had gotten angry at the oven at some point, and there’d been a fire lit at the time. The flames had already spread to both the floor and ceiling, so the whole house would probably go soon.

One of the goblins stabbed me with its spear while I was still taking in the scene, so it was a good thing I’d put up that force field. Its weapon just slid off the barrier, although a slight tug at my magic told me there was a limit to how many attacks I could repel like that. Better make sure they didn’t get the chance to find a way past my defenses.

I projected an invisible blade of force from one outstretched finger, and flicked it down to cut the goblin in half. The result was every bit as gory as a hardcore slasher movie, and my stomach clenched. I did my best to ignore it as I strode into the room.

Two more goblins met their end in quick succession, before they realized I had an invisible weapon. After that they switched to dodging, although the constant interference from the house’s enchanted defenders hampered their movements badly. Several arrows bounced off my shield, and I grabbed one goblin who stayed still for too long and tossed him into the fire.

“Avilla! Over here!” Cerise called urgently from behind me. “Cavalry’s here!”

The goblins bounced around the room like green monkeys, and one of them tried to dart around me to get at her. But I threw up a barrier to halt its progress in midair, and then Cerise flicked something that looked like a writhing blob of shadows at it. It went down screaming and clutching itself.

Avilla stumbled, and an overstuffed chair leaped over her to intercept a blow from the troll’s massive club. The impact reduced the chair to kindling, but it gave her a moment to scramble across the room and get behind me. Then I was face to face with the troll.

The thing was built like a tank, its hunched back brushing the ceiling two feet above my head. Judging from the hole in the side of the house behind it and the general devastation around me I had no doubt it could crack my shield in short order if I gave it the chance.

I threw a force blade at it as it raised its club, but the invisible projectile just left a shallow gash across its chest. I dodged left as the club came down, and slashed awkwardly at its arm with another force blade.

It roared, and brought the club around in a lightning-fast blow that sent me careening through an end table and into the wall. Wood and brick crumbled around me, and my mana level sank alarmingly.

Ok, so it wasn’t clumsy. I threw a spray of pointed force bolts at it as I stumbled back to my feet, hoping to keep it at bay while I figured out how to kill it. But the thing just bared its teeth and charged at me.

I jumped this time, flinging myself against the ceiling with a burst of force magic in the hope that it wouldn’t expect such a maneuver. Sure enough the club smashed into the wall instead of me, but then I found my face inches away from a mouth big enough to bite off my whole head in one gulp.

I breathed fire into the troll’s face.

That actually discouraged it. It stumbled back, dropping the club to claw at its face. I hit it with another ball of fire, and dropped to the floor just in time to avoid a blind swing of its clawed fists. That put me at eye level with something that might actually be vulnerable, so I stabbed a blade of force into its oversized privates.

This time its roar was more in pain than rage. The hand over its face came down to  clutch at the wound, and for a few seconds it actually stood still. Unfortunately three goblins chose that moment to jump me all at once, beating wildly at my shield with little swords and axes as they clung to me. I tripped and went down in a heap, and more goblins piled on.

Something struck the magic of my shield, clawing at it and trying to pull it apart. It wasn’t terribly strong, but it was yet another distraction I didn’t have time for. I reached for fire again, surrounding both hands in balls of flame that I waved frantically at my attackers. Several of them caught fire, which sent them running around the room in a panic. But there were too many of them, and I could feel my shield wavering as the attacking magic ate away at it.

Fuck this. Time to kick it up a notch.

I let go of the shield, knowing it would take a few seconds to dissolve, and focused all my concentrating on forming a ball of whirling saw blades just outside of it. The elaborate force construct took far more effort than a simple blade, and was slower to form.

But I was rewarded by a chorus of shrieks and screams, and a shower of blood raining through the gaps in my failing shield. In a matter of seconds the goblins who’d been trying to dogpile me were reduced to shredded meat. The wooden floor beneath me and the post behind me came apart as well, and the house groaned ominously.

I levitated myself before I could fall through to the cellar, and looked around. Most of the room was ablaze now, and the troll was staggering towards the hole it had made coming in.

“Oh, no you don’t.”

I launched myself towards it, hoping my sphere of blades would deal with it as effectively as the goblins. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that easy, as the troll’s flesh proved considerably tougher than wood. Instead the thing’s right shoulder and part of its back were badly shredded, but my spell collapsed as the unexpected resistance drained it of power faster than I could supply more.

I lurched away, noting that it was damned cold outside the house. The night was lit by the glow of burning timber, and there were more goblins lurking about the yard and garden. Beyond that the plot was surrounded on all sides by dense forest, which could easily be hiding hundreds of the little buggers.

An arrow grazed my side, and I threw up another shield with a curse. At least now I had some room to work with, but how was I going to take out that many goblins?

Obviously I wasn’t. But maybe intimidation would work instead.

I dropped back to the ground in front of the troll, and saw that just as I’d feared its wounds were already closing. It had left its club back inside, but when it saw me it growled angrily and ripped a beam out of the porch to replace the lost weapon. The house groaned again, and the beast rushed towards me.

As it stepped off the porch I turned the ground between us into mud six feet deep.

The troll’s first step sunk a foot into the sucking muck, and tripped it. It went down face-first with a tremendous splash, and immediately began thrashing about trying to get a handhold to climb out. I gave it a few seconds to get good and stuck, and then turned the mud into stone.

A couple of arrows bounced off my shield, but I ignored them.

The troll strained, but now it was pinned with both arms and two thirds of its body stuck in a solid mass of rock. I walked up to its head, and conjured a sledgehammer made entirely of stone that probably weighed forty pounds. I used a bit of force magic to augment my muscles as I lifted it over my head, and brought it down.

The first blow cracked the troll’s skull, but it took two more to properly cave it in. I wasn’t sure if even that would be enough, so I pried it open and roasted the tiny brain inside with a sustained jet of flame.

Then I turned to regard the goblins who’d been plinking arrows at me, and raised the gore-streaked hammer.

“Who’s next?” I growled.

They ran.

“Fuck, yeah! Look at the little bastards go. I like your style, Champion.”

I turned to find a pair of battered and bruised young witches regarding me from the doorway of the burning house. Cerise had a goblin arrow stuck in her shoulder, and Avilla was bleeding from several nasty gashes on her arms, but they were both on their feet. Cerise had acquired a second silver knife from somewhere, while Avilla held a  bloody meat cleaver in one hand and clutched a massive tome against her substantial chest.

Cerise was wide-eyed and flushed, giving me a half-crazed look I couldn’t quite read. Avilla, on the other hand, wore a fierce expression of defiance that somehow reminded me of a kitten. She was so adorable I just wanted to bundle her up and keep her safe forever, and never mind the bloody meat cleaver.

“You’re not bad yourself,” I replied wearily. “My name’s Daniel, by the way. Daniel Black.”

“Well met, Daniel of the Blacks. May we shed oceans of blood together.”

O-kaaay.

“Thank you for saving us, Mr. Black,” Avilla put in. “But I have to ask what Cerise offered for your help? Should I be prepared for a ravishing?”

She seemed more amused than worried, so I chuckled.

“I think the ravishing had better wait until we aren’t going to be interrupted by another monster attack,” I said dryly. “Besides, the house is on fire.”

She turned to look up at it, and nodded gravely. “Poor thing. It was granny’s home, but it was always nice to me. I tried to stop the shamans from killing it, but between the four of them and the troll it was just too much. I don’t suppose you can put out the fire?

I glanced around at the snow-covered clearing, and then eyed the blazing roof. “I think the house is done for regardless, but a chance to salvage supplies would be good. Let me see what I can do.”

Quenching fires was normally a simple task, easily within even my minimal command of fire magic. But this was too big to put out all at once, and house fires can be tricky. I took a deep breath, made sure my shield was stable, and stepped past them into a living room that was rapidly filling up with smoke.

I put out the floor and burning furniture easily enough, but as I worked on the walls the floor began smoldering again. Was the basement on fire too?

I cut away a circular section of floor with a force blade and stepped back, carefully holding the disk of wood in place until I was well away from the hole. Sure enough, tongues of flame leaped up around the edges when I moved it.

So I had to drop into the basement, put that out, and then gradually work my way up. It took fifteen minutes before I got all the fires out, and by the time I stumbled back out the door I was hacking coughing from the smoke despite having heal myself twice. I collapsed next to the girls, and took a deep breath.

“Are you alright?” Avilla asked mildly. Her arms were bandaged now, and she was carefully extracting the barbed arrow from Cerise’s shoulder. I couldn’t help but notice how adroitly she wielded the little knife she was using for the task. Cerise looked a little pale, but she was enduring the treatment as stoically as anyone could have.

Avila paused to hand me a spare cloak, and I gratefully covered myself up. It wasn’t enough, but it ought to keep me from getting frostbite in uncomfortable places for the moment.

“Yeah, I’m just running low on mana,” I reassured her. “Need to catch my breath a minute and let my lungs heal. But the fire’s out, so as soon as the smoke clears you two can go back in and collect whatever you need.

She set the arrowhead aside and paused. “You have healing sorcery? Should I be letting you do this? I was just going to sterilize it and sew it shut.”

“Hmm. Let me take a look at it.”

I leaned over and put my hand over the wound, reaching out with new senses. Yes, I could shape the wound closed easily enough. That didn’t completely repair the damage, but with proper encouragement it would be good as new in a few hours. Interestingly I noted that there was already some sort of innate magic working to heal the girl’s wounds, or at least... hmmm... was it just making sure they wouldn’t scar? Interesting.

“Your magic is warm,” Cerise murmured. “Kind of naughty, running all through me like that. Feel anything you like?”

“Ahem. Yes, I think you’ll be fine now. Avilla, how about you?”

“I’ll be alright,” she said a little nervously. “Anyway, don’t we have other things to worry about? What are we going to do?”

Was she worried about me discovering some secret if I used healing on her? Well, whatever. She was right, so I could let her keep her secrets for the moment.

“Well, I promised Hecate I’d protect Cerise here for a year and a day, and that covers starving and freezing to death as well as monster attacks. She also told me this is the beginning of Ragnarok, so I think we’d better assume the goblins will be back with friends.”

They both grimaced. “I was afraid it was something like that,” Avilla commented. “It never snows this early in the year, and it’s been coming down for a week now.”

I frowned. “Do you two have anywhere to go?

“My mentor died of old age three years ago,” Cerise said. “She and Avilla’s granny were good friends, so I’ve been staying here ever since. I don’t really know anyone else. Witches aren’t exactly popular with the mundanes, you know.”

“I’ve never even left the woods,” Avilla admitted. “Granny wouldn’t let me go past the yard unless I was running errands with her, and after... after she died, we’ve just been trying to avoid notice. I know there’s a village a few miles down the path, but I don’t know if it would be any safer than here.”

Cerise snorted. “Hah. Tyler’s Grove doesn’t even have a palisade, let alone a real wall, and the sheriff and a few retired armsmen are the only people there who can fight worth a damn. Besides, I saw smoke from that direction yesterday. They probably got hit before we did.”

I sighed. “Well, we need information at the very least, and big guys with swords are always handy to have around when something is trying to eat you. Is there a castle or walled settlement anywhere in the area?”

“Lanrest has a wall,” she said after a moment’s thought. “That’s about thirty miles down the road from Tyler’s Grove, though. It could be a rough trip, especially if the weather keeps getting worse.”

“Will we be any safer with people than monsters?” Avilla asked doubtfully. “Worshipping the old gods will get us burned alive if anyone finds out.”

“Well, obviously we won’t tell anyone you two are witches,” I pointed out. “But I assume you have wizards or sorcerers or something like that here?”

“A few sorcerers, and every kingdom has at least one guild for wizards,” Cerise nodded.

“Ok. How about we say I’m a traveling wizard, and you two are my apprentices? Any leader with a brain is going to want all the magical help he can get in a situation like this. With any luck we can find a tough group to join up with or a castle that wants a healer on hand.”

“I like that idea,” Cerise agreed. “No one is going to wonder why a wizard your age has a couple of sexy young girls with him, and then they’ll ignore us completely.”

Avilla brightened. “Good point. Oh, and if people notice anything strange about us we’ll just imply that our ‘master’ uses us for experiments.”

“Hey now, don’t go making me out to be an evil nutjob,” I put in. “Desperate people will overlook a lot, but if they think I’m a danger to their own daughters they’re liable to do something about it.”

They two witches shared a look at that, and broke into giggles.

“If they only knew,” Cerise chuckled, slipping her good arm around Avilla’s waist. “We’re the ones their daughters are in danger from.”

“Better they don’t find out,” Avilla chided, leaning into her. “At least, not until after we’ve infected them with our wicked ways.”

Ah, so that’s how it was. Well, they were certainly cute together.

“Heh. Well, it sounds like we have a plan. So we need gear for hiking in snow and camping in the open, enough food to last a week or so, and whatever supplies you two need for your magic. Plus any portable valuables you can lay hands on, of course.

The both nodded, and rose to their feet.

“Right. Come on Cerise, our brave protector can keep watch while we pack.”

Chapter 2

The shakes hit me right after the girls went inside.

I sat down gingerly on the front steps of the ruined house, and put my head between my knees. I’d been in fights before, but not like this. Growing up in the bad part of town will teach you to look out for yourself, but there’s a big different between a couple of bored gang members looking for someone to beat up and a pack of goblins trying to carve you up with swords. Not to mention the troll.

I’d almost died. Damn it, what was I thinking when I said yes?

I forced down a wave of nausea, and focused on breathing evenly.

Yeah, I almost died. I gave in to a momentary impulse to go play hero, and now I was stuck with the job. Like it or not, this was my life now.

The nausea passed, leaving me weak and tired.

I sat up, and looked out into the darkness. A few flakes of snow were falling from the dark sky, and the cold was beginning to seep through my borrowed cloak. My feet were going numb. The shadows under the trees were impenetrable, and I wondered what was out there watching me. Goblins? Trolls? Worse? I didn’t even know what the possibilities were.

Avilla and Cerise were working some kind of magic, calling a stiff wind that blew through the house and carried the worst of the smoke away.

Right. You’re a wizard now, Daniel. You got awesome magical powers to go with the deadly danger. Better make the most of them, or you won’t live long.

A life spent hunched over a keyboard in a cubicle had left me badly out of shape for adventuring, and somehow I suspected reality wasn’t going to work like the computer RPGs I’d played. But I was good at being a power-gaming munchkin, so it was worth a shot.

It took about ten minutes of sorting through the new instincts I’d gained to confirm that my first idea for improving the situation was possible, and another hour of fumbling about to actually make it work. It was easy enough to conjure up a little disk of obsidian and hang it on a length of twine to create a makeshift amulet, but after that it got tricky. I wanted a solution to the mana supply problem first, but it seemed that my spiffy new abilities didn’t come with an index.

So instead of just knowing what options were at my disposal, I had to come up with an idea and then see if I could do it. Tapping ley lines wasn’t an option, assuming such things even exist. Sucking the residual mana out of the house would work, but that wouldn’t help once we left and I was hoping for a more permanent solution. Besides, given the state of the building I was afraid it would collapse if I depleted whatever structural reinforcement was still active.

One of my favorite abusive spell research ideas in pen-and-paper RPGs was always tapping the kinetic energy of the Earth’s rotation to generate mana. No luck with that here. Which wasn’t surprising, actually - it was hard to make that work in a way that didn’t violate conservation of angular momentum. Hmm.

Of course, the idea that finally worked was no less mind-boggling. Mana is a form of energy, if an exotic one. Matter and energy are different forms of the same thing. Transforming matter into mana required a very complex spell with high energy requirements, and it wasn’t especially fast. But by the time I thought of it I’d recovered enough to pull it off, using the mass of my little amulet as the source of matter.

How much energy? E=mc^2, baby. The flow rate wasn’t especially high, but my little amulet would provide a steady supply of energy for centuries before it ate itself.

Figuring out how to lock the spell down as a permanent enchantment took another hour or so, and I eventually had to punt and use my instinctive ability to control my own magic to handle turning it on and off as needed. The meta-magic aspect of my mana element was enough of a grounding that I was sure I could work out a proper way of embedding on/off controls in an enchantment, but I’d probably need an afternoon of trial and effort to get there. No time for that now, obviously.

Avilla came out with a set of clothes for me while I was working, and waited with a faint smile while I awkwardly dressed myself. No zippers or Velcro, of course, just lots of buttons in odd places. But that was fine. I just counted myself lucky she was offering pants and a shirt instead of a toga or kilt or something.

Then I got to the shoes, and frowned as a though occurred to me.

“You just happened to have shoes in my size lying around?”

“Of course not, Daniel. I adjusted them. I may not be much use in a fight, but I’m good at domestic magic. Did I get the size right?”

I tried them on, and wriggled my toes. “Yeah, looks like it. That’s pretty slick.”

She smiled prettily at the compliment, and I had to remind myself she was taken. And probably a lesbian, unless her joke earlier was meant as an offer. Damn, but she was cute.

She went back inside to pack, and I shook my head. Hadn’t I had enough woman troubles for one week? Focus on not dying.

It took the witches hours to get ready to leave, but the reasons why went a long way towards reassuring me that they were just a couple of young women with unusual abilities rather than some kind of monster in disguise. They washed up and changed and fixed their hair first, and spent a good while fussing over each other and debating what they should wear. When they finally got down to packing they spent forever agonizing over what to take and what to leave, and it was pretty obvious to me that neither of them had ever done something like this before.

I didn’t want to leave until dawn anyway, so I didn’t worry about it. The time they spent dithering was just more time I could spend getting ready.

Once my amulet was finished I spent some time pacing and thinking, while I got used to the feel of drawing energy from it. My personal supply of magic worked more like physical fatigue than the mana bar in a computer game, and I got the feeling I could damage myself if I tried to use too much magic to quickly. The fight with the troll had been pushing my limits, and it might take a day or two to completely recover from that.

But my artificial power source was more like a machine. It could feed me energy forever, and drawing on it let me work magic without tiring myself. There was still some mental fatigue involved in channeling the energy, but I could go for hours before that started to get to me. So what was the next most important problem we were going to face that I could fix with magic?

Well, that was obvious.

Enchanting a cloak to shed warmth was far less complicated than my mana exploit, but my understanding of fire magic was a lot weaker. It took quite a bit of experimentation to get the right intensity to make the garment comfortably warm without being too hot, and by then the first light of dawn was starting to creep in through the hole in the wall.

The girls came trooping down the stairs at that point with a rather ambitious-looking pile of belongings. A bulging pack for each of them, of an odd design that didn’t look terribly comfortable to my eye. A short pole with several sacks hung from it, which I guessed they meant to carry between them. Another, larger pack that Avilla set down in front of me.

“Can you check the weight on that?” She asked reasonably. “I’m trying to save as many of granny’s implements as I can, but I wasn’t sure how much you can carry.”

I picked it up, and mentally revised my estimate of the girl’s strength. It had to weigh sixty pounds, and she’d carried it over in one hand with no obvious effort. Avilla was a bit more solidly built than Cerise, but she was more statuesque than amazonian. There was no way she had enough muscle to pull that off naturally, so it had to be some kind of magic.

I hefted the pack for a moment, and slung it on my back. Ouch.

“That’s going to get heavy after a few miles of road. I take it you were hoping to load me up with more?”

She bit her lip, and nodded uncertainly. I sighed.

“Look, Avilla, I know it’s hard to leave things behind. But we can’t weigh ourselves down too much or it’ll get us killed. For all we know we could run into an army of trolls a mile down the road. How fast do you think you and Cerise are going to be able to run carrying all that?”

I nodded at the pile they’d accumulated on the kitchen table.

“Um... not very fast?” She looked crestfallen. “I’m sorry, Daniel. It’s just, I’m a hearth witch. I’m almost powerless once I step past my threshold, and if I can’t even cook and sew properly what use am I?”

Well, that was a fair point. But I was trying to encourage her here, not make her even more worried.

“You’ll have a home again someday, Avilla. But we have to keep you in one piece until we find a place to rebuild. Tell you what. Make a pile of the things you can’t bear to lose that are too heavy to carry easily, and I’ll seal them up in a stone vault under the house. That way the goblins won’t find them, and we can come back for them someday.

Her face lit up like she’d just gotten a stay of execution. “Really? You mean it? Thank you, Daniel!”

She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. Then she spun and ran back into the kitchen, babbling excitedly to Cerise about reorganizing the bags. I just stood there stunned.

Wow, that girl could kiss. Her lips tasted of honey and cinnamon, and that wasn’t poetic license. It must be some kind of magic, but whatever it was it was damned effective. The warmth of her lips on mine lingered for long moments, and the memory of her generous bust pressed against my chest kept replaying itself over and over in my mind’s eye.

Cerise gave me an amused look over her girlfriend’s shoulder. I shrugged, and smiled back. What was I going to do, pretend it hadn’t happened? Besides, I was pretty sure it didn’t mean anything. Avilla was just a touchy-feely sort of person.

The sun was fully up when we finally set out, but not by much. It was shaping up to be a clear day, with a cold wind blowing out of the north and the temperature hovering somewhere just below freezing. Not the best weather for travel, and all of us were a bit beat up from the fight. But I was determined to put some miles behind us before the goblins tried again. With any luck they’d give up on us once we left the area.

“We’ll see what state the village is in, and then decide how hard we need to push,” I told the girls. “It would be nice to stop early and get some rest, but the important thing is making sure we move far enough to break contact. If we have to we can find a spot to hole up and recover tomorrow, but that won’t work if the goblins are tracking us.”

Cerise eyed me speculatively. “You sound like you’ve done this before.”

Sure, kid. Twenty years of computer games, mostly RPGs but some RTS and first-person shooters for variety. Give me a  controller and I’ll be right at home. Only this was real life, not a game.

But she didn’t need to hear that. She had to be terrified enough already. I certainly was, and I had a lot more magic to work with than she seemed to.

I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage. “This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve spent the last few years doing academic work, and I’m having to adapt to some big changes in the power set I’ve got access to, but I can manage.”

She and Avilla exchanged a look. “That explains it. You seemed a little out of shape for a guy with the skills Lady Hecate mentioned.”

“Oh? What did she say about me, anyway? I never had a chance to ask her why she picked me.”

Cerise gave me a look like I’d just asked why water was wet. “Who else would she pick? I mean, she said her divinations didn’t get all the details, but how many guys can say they’ve slain... oh, what was that list again? A few dozen dragons, a bunch of demon lords, the King of Liches, the Riftlords, the Blade Queen of the Devouring Swarm - not that I know what half of that even means, but it sure sounds impressive. I’ve never heard of a hero who made such a career out of traveling to distant worlds to save them.”

I stopped in mid-stride, staring off into the distance. Good god. She thought my video game exploits were real?

No. Hecate had known perfectly well I didn’t have magical powers. She must have had a reason for talking me up to Cerise, then.

“Daniel? Is everything alright?” Avilla asked in concern.

“Yeah. Sure. I was just surprised, that’s all.”

“The Goddess has that effect on people,” Cerise smirked. “So, think you can stop Ragnarok?”

“Ahem. Let’s not get carried away there, Cerise. Judging from last night the monsters here are pretty tough, and I don’t have a boatload of mystic artifacts or an army of heroes at my back. Which reminds me, if I’m going to pull off this ‘traveling wizard’ act there are a few things I need to know...”

That diverted them from my supposed accomplishments for a bit, at least. Cerise chatted amiably about her land’s society and local customs, filling in the details I’d need for my charade with a skill that spoke of formal training. I tried to focus on memorizing her lessons, and building up a plausible backstory.

But inside I was sweating bullets. Talk about having high expectations to meet!

Several hours passed, and we made decent progress as the sun rose higher. Then around mid-morning it was Avilla’s turn to suddenly stop for no apparent reason.

Cerise immediately froze, and began scanning the trees around us. We were on a little game trail with a thicket on one side and a dense stand of trees on the other, and about a million places for enemies to hide all around us.

“Avilla?” Cerise asked. “What is it, sweetie?”

“The woods,” she replied, her eyes still out of focus. “It’s the goblin shamans. They’re doing something to the spirit of the wood. I can feel the blood of their sacrifices seeping through the trees...” She trailed off, and stood there swaying for a moment. Then she snapped back to herself.

“We have to go,” she said urgently. “Now! They’re waking the trees.”

Cerise went wide-eyed, and turned to plunge on down the trail briskly. We both moved to follow. But it was already too late.

Twenty yards down the trail Cerise ducked under a low-hanging branch, and it whipped down to flail at her. She stumbled back, clutching her head, and a bush beside the path grabbed her.

“Cerise!” Avilla’s butcher knife was back in her hand, but I doubted that would get the job done.

“Stand back,” I told her, and formed a three-foot force blade extending from my fingertip. I hacked the bush apart with a few quick strokes, and Cerise tore herself free. But by then Avilla was struggling with a clump of vines that dropped from the tree over her head.

I cut her free too, and we ran.

From there every step was a battle. The branches flailed at us, leaving us battered and bruised before we’d gone half a mile. Vines and bushes grabbed at us, and I found myself constantly hacking away with the force blade. Roots shifted underfoot, rising up to trip us whenever we were distracted by another assailant.

Then the path vanished entirely, and we realized the trees themselves were moving to block our flight. I pulled the girls close and shredded everything around us in a whirlwind of spinning blades, and looked up to take a bearing on the sun.

“That way!” I pointed. An ancient-looking oak stood directly in our path.

“How are we going to get through?” Cerise panted.

“Like this,” I said grimly. I pulled deep on my magic, and the ground beneath the oak moved to shove it aside. It fell with a tremendous crash of breaking wood, and the rest of the trees seemed to draw back. But Cerise looked skeptical.

“You can’t possibly do that to every tree that gets in our way,” she objected.

“Watch me,” I growled, and stalked forward. “Stay behind me, and stick close.”

I hacked and smashed a path straight through the forest, leaving a trail wide enough to protect my charges from the hostile plant life. My amulet replenished my mana almost as fast as I was using it, and for a few minutes I thought I’d beaten the trap. It might be a little slow, and I’d need a rest break at some point, but we could get through like this.

Then a flight of goblin arrows came hissing out of the woods behind us. The girls were both hit, Avilla in a leg and Cerise in the side, and several arrows planted themselves in our packs.

“Damn it!”

I threw a storm of force blades into the undergrowth behind us, and a high-pitched scream said I’d hit something. But I couldn’t see the little nuisances at any distance, not with all this cover to hide behind.

“Run!” Avilla cried urgently, darting past me. “Only half a mile to the edge!”

I followed her, throwing out more blades to fend off a renewed attack from the trees. “You won’t make it!” I argued. “Not with those wounds.”

“Cerise has demonic vitality,” Avilla informed me.

“Avilla’s body is spell-wrought,” Cerise countered. “One arrow won’t stop us, but ten will. Move! We can outrun goblins.”

I ran.

It was a mad, nightmare race. With no time to clear a path we had to weave our way between the trees, fending off lashing branches and grasping underbrush again. More goblins were moving to intercept us, and every time we thought we’d lost them another flight of arrows would pelt us from a new direction.

They were smaller projectiles than a human bow would launch, with a lot less force behind them, and that was the only thing that saved us. Sometimes I got a force wall up in time, but more often than not another arrow would lodge itself in one of our number. I took one in the arm and another in the chest, and had to waste precious seconds ripping the second one free and stopping the bleeding. The witches gasped out protective charms as they ran, but even so they were starting to look like pincushions. Poor Avilla even had one sticking out of her breast, which had to hurt like hell.

Finally we smashed through yet another thicket, and found ourselves at the edge of a wide cleared space. I threw up a barrier behind us as soon as the lack of cover registered on my weary mind, and we all stumbled forward. Two heartbeats later another volley of arrows rattled off my shield.

There was a cluster of ruins that might once have been a village a few hundred yards from the edge of the forest. The buildings had been burned, recently enough that thin trails of smoke still rose here and there. There were moving figures between us and the ruins, and for one heart-stopping moment I thought we’d been herded into another band of monsters.

Then I realized they were human.

There was a line of carts and wagons drawn up in an open field next to the ruins, with several groups of people gathered around them. Several were already shouting and pointing in our direction. Most were civilians, a crowd of men and women in ragged clothes clutching bundles of belongings. But a good percentage of them were soldiers, dressed in chain mail and bearing a varied assortment of spears, swords and bows.

“Keep running,” I gasped out, and stumbled to a stop. They girls took my advice, making a beeline for the hoped-for safety of the guards while I turned to face the way we’d come.

They might just take us all in out of the goodness of their hearts, but I wasn’t counting on it. Soldiers weren’t going to turn away a pair of cute young girls, but I’d better make an impression.

A half-dozen goblins burst from the trees and stopped, looking around wildly for a second as they took in the scene. I threw a hail of force blades downrange with a dramatic gesture and completely unnecessary incantation. Two of the little monsters went down, one decapitated and the other cut clean in half, and the others retreated into the trees. A few arrows rained down around me, several bouncing off my shield.

I exchanged fire with the creatures for a few seconds, but that didn’t seem to be getting us anywhere. A couple of the soldiers snapped off shots of their own, and a squad of them began cautiously approaching me with their shields raised. Then the lumbering form of a troll emerged from the woods, and they decided maybe it would be wiser to watch from a distance.

An especially wrinkly goblin wearing a feathered headdress and about a dozen amulets sat on its shoulder, waving a length of carved bone at me menacingly.

“You no stop Gug!” The creature shouted proudly. “Spirits of earth protect! Gug, smash puny human!”

More goblins appeared along the edge of the woods, capering and cheering.

I cracked my knuckles, and conjured a ball of flame in one hand. “Come and get it, ugly.”

The troll grinned, exposing far too many teeth, and charged me.

I stood watching as nonchalantly as I could manage, trying desperately to pretend this was just another raid. I could see the bubble of protective magic around the troll, and my previous tactics weren’t going to work. A gaggle of invisible spirits stood ready to oppose any earth spells I attempted, and the troll was warded against fire. A second ward confused me for a moment, until I realized it was a protection against physical attacks. It wasn’t terribly strong, but it would turn light blows aside and blunt the force of heavy ones a bit. All in all it was a pretty impressive setup.

Too bad for the goblin he was up against me. When the troll was maybe twenty feet away I conjured an invisible force wall right in front of him, with a thin spike of force two feet long projecting out of it at chest level. The troll’s own momentum impaled it on the spike a heartbeat later.

The shaman’s eyes went wide as I strolled up to the confused troll, still maintaining the wall and spike.

“No way!” He exclaimed. “Die! Die die die die!”

He hurled a flurry of little balls of lightning at me with the wand, but they just bounced off the force wall. I put a hand on my side of the barrier, right over the spike.

“Oh, yes,” I said with a nasty grin. Then I fed power into the spike, making it grow into a forest of blades that forced their way out in all directions. The troll’s body came apart in a shower of gore, and the shaman fell into the blades. He didn’t fare any better.

I turned my gaze on the edge of the woods, and the goblins there fell back in a panic. In moments they were gone.

Wearily I let the spell drop, and set to work digging the arrow out of my arm.

There was a rattle of chain mail nearby, and a man in armor stepped up beside me. “That was impressive work, sir.”

I shrugged. “Usually I make my way as a healer, but it seems I have a knack for that sort of thing. Daniel Black, wandering adept.”

According to Cerise that meant I was a formally trained wizard, but not an official member of any of the various factions that vied for control of the magical world here. Such men were rare but not completely unheard of, and they tended to be sought after by nobles who wanted magical services without too many strings attached.

“Marcus Rain, Captain of the 5th Margold foot.”

He offered his hand, and I shook it with as firm a grip as I could muster. “Well met, Captain. An interesting group you have there. I take it you’re out collecting survivors?”

He nodded grimly. “We were dispatched to suppress a string of goblin attacks, but then our priest told us the Golden City itself is beset and the monsters aren’t going to stop coming. A troll got him the next day, more’s the pity. We’ve been fighting a slow retreat ever since.”

“Well, I’m afraid that agrees with my own information. It looks like this is Ragnarok, and things are going to get a lot worse before there’s any hope of getting better.”

He nodded. “I was afraid of that. It looks like they’ve already gotten behind us, so the only thing to do is pull back to town with whoever we can save. You’re welcome to join us, if you like. We don’t have a court wizard, and I’m sure the Baron would want to consult with you.”

“Yes, that seems wise,” I agreed. “I can’t keep fending off these attacks by myself forever. Ah, these are my apprentices, Cerise and Avilla.”

The girls had drifted back over now that the fighting was done. They were moving a lot more gingerly now, and I wasn’t sure if they’d been running on adrenaline before or if they were faking it for the captain’s benefit.

At any rate, they both curtsied prettily. The captain looked them both up and down with a frankness that would have gotten him slapped back in America, and a hint of a smile crossed his weathered face. “‘Apprentices’, eh? Yeah, they look pretty magical alright. Don’t worry, girls, I run a tight outfit here. None of my men are going to bother you, and if one of the refugees gets stupid just scream and we’ll take care of it.”

Cerise molded herself against my side like we’d been lovers for years, and nodded gravely. “Thank you, sir.”

Avilla laid a tentative hand on my arm, and looked up at me with repressed tears in her eyes. “Master Black? The numbness spell is wearing off. Can you... um... the arrow?”

God, I knew she was acting and I still wanted to sweep her into my arms and reassure her. But I’d gathered from Cerise that this place was about as brutal and anti-egalitarian as you’d expect from a preindustrial feudal regime, so showing too much concern would just draw attention to her.

“Of course I’m going to take care of it, silly girl. I certainly don’t want it to scar. Captain, I assume you don’t intend to move out for a bit?”

He glanced at the sun. “Take another hour or so to finish searching the ruins. I don’t suppose you could take a look at some of the men too?”

“Certainly,” I assured him. “But that will take time. I can mend most wounds in a matter of hours, but I can’t do it while walking.”

He studied the little caravan for a moment, and nodded decisively. “Not a problem, sir. We’ll set you up in the back of one of the big wagons. That’ll give you room to work, and a bit of shelter from the snow. I just hope the weather holds.”

I followed his gaze, and found dark clouds on the horizon to the north.

“So do I, captain. So do I.”

In the Norse sagas Ragnarok was supposed to be preceded by the Fimbulwinter - thirty years of bitter cold, without a single day of warmth. Was that really what was going to happen, or was Hecate’s choice of words just a coincidence? Hopefully the latter, because food was one thing I couldn’t just conjure up.

The wagon wasn’t much to look at. Just a big box on wheels, with a wooden frame supporting a canvas roof and sides. The front and back had flaps that could be laced shut, but even so its value as shelter was pretty modest. It was full of hay bales and barrels of beer when we arrived, but Captain Rain called over a squad of his troops and had most of the hay cleared out in a matter of minutes. They left a single layer of bales covering the floor of the wagon, as well as a couple of barrels, but that gave us plenty of room.

We settled ourselves on the hay with a collective sigh of relief.

“We made it,” Avilla declared.

“I have to say, I thought we were goners for a while there,” Cerise admitted.

“My list of critical magic items to make is growing a lot faster than I have time to work on it,” I said. “I hate being caught off guard like that.”

Cerise chuckled. “If that was being caught off guard I can’t wait to see a fight you’re ready for. You were totally badass cutting your way through the woods, and the way you handled that troll! I got wet just watching it.”

“Gore whore,” Avilla teased. “You’re just a slut for power, aren’t you?”

“You know it, honeydew,” Cerise agreed smugly.

“Well, I’m glad you’re coping so well, but I’m not a pain slut like you. Daniel, can you please take a look at this?”

I turned to find that she’d drawn the canvas closed, and shrugged her dress off to bare herself from the waist up. I just about swallowed my tongue. I’ve never seen such a perfect hourglass figure, and those magnificent breasts of hers could have belonged to a comic book character. Her golden-brown skin was smooth and unblemished, her large dark nipples perfectly placed and exactly symmetrical.

There was a short, wickedly barbed arrow sticking out of one of them, and a trickle of pale fluid still leaking from the wound. That brought me back to Earth.

“Of course, Avilla. I do have to touch it, though,” I warned her.

“Just be gentle, please. It’s very sore.”

I nodded, and laid my hand lightly on her breast. Closing my eyes I reached with my body sense, feeling for the wound. But something wasn’t right. Not at all. There was flesh under my hand, but it wasn’t remotely human. There was no meat or blood, just.... I strained, trying to identify it... sugar, cinnamon, honey, mead, and a host of strange fluids that shimmered with magic.

“Whoa,” I murmured. “Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what Avilla is made of. So that’s what Cerise meant by ‘spell-wrought’.”

I opened my eyes to find her looking up at me with fear in her eyes.

“Can your power heal a creature like me?” She asked pleadingly.

I took her face gently between my hands, and looked into her eyes. “Avilla, you aren’t a ‘creature’. You’re a woman. A remarkably beautiful and resourceful young woman who just happens to also be a magical creation. But if the people who live in this land are too ignorant to understand that I’ll be happy to keep your secret. And yes, I can heal you.”

Her smile was bright enough to light the world. But I made a mental note to find out what her story was soon. If she’d just been transformed somehow that was one thing, but if there were people in this land who could actually create sapient beings I needed to know details.

“Thank you,” she breathed. “I didn’t think you’d understand.”

I smiled reassuringly. “I do, sweetie. Cerise, why don’t you hold her while I do this? As sensitive as she is, I’m afraid it’s going to hurt a bit.”

“Good idea.” The pale, slender witch shot me a grateful look, and scooted over to sit beside her girlfriend with both arms firmly around her. “Let’s get this done.”

I put my hand back on her breast, and focused again. It was a bit different than working on myself, and at first the magic that filled her body seemed to resist my influence. But then Avilla sighed, forcing herself to relax, and the resistance dissolved. The tender flesh around the wound throbbed with pain, but it responded sluggishly to my prodding. In a few minutes I convinced it to let go of the arrow, so I could remove the barbed point without doing any more damage. Then I closed the wound, and started a flow of vitality to encourage healing.

Her body drank it up like a sponge. Suddenly her magic welcomed me eagerly, greedily searching for more of the energy I was providing. Thinking that perhaps she’d been running low for some reason I expanded the flow, letting the fringes of it wash across her whole upper torso as I concentrated the majority of the energy on the wound.

An odd sound from Avilla almost distracted me, but I managed to keep most of my attention on what I was doing.

“You alright?” I asked.

“Oh, yes,” she sighed breathlessly. “That feels so nice. The pain is almost gone. Please, don’t stop.”

Cerise chuckled indulgently. “Mana slut. You can’t get enough of it, can you?”

“I can’t help it, Cerise,” Avilla replied defensively. “You know I have trouble... keeping... charged... oh please, Daniel, tell me you can do this again?”

Her body was soaking up my magic like a sponge now, and I could feel her arousal blossoming into full force.

“I can,” I told her. “But I’m starting to think you should be asking your girlfriend’s permission. This is like a drug for you, isn’t it?”

“Maybe.”

“Yeah, she gets totally stoned if you feed her too much at once,” Cerise put in. “You’d better ease off until you get the other arrows out.”

“Meanie,” Avilla pouted. “I never get to have all the magic I can hold.”

“That’s because you can hold enough magic to levitate a mountain, honeydew,” Cerise replied proudly. “No matter how much I stuff you you’re still going to want more, and you get so silly you can’t hold up your end of a power tap before long.”

I smiled at their familiar bickering, and busied myself extracting the rest of the arrows. By the time I was finished Avilla was comically tipsy, and was sloppily trying to make out with Cerise. I calmed her down a little by having the two switch places, and spent another twenty minutes or so healing Cerise.

“So, what’s your secret?” I asked as I worked. “You started out human, but I can feel you’ve done something odd to yourself.”

“Um.... it shouldn’t interfere with healing,” she said hesitantly.

“She steals power from demons,” Avilla explained conspiratorially.

“Hey!” Cerise cried indignantly. “Avilla! Don’t give away my mysteries!”

“You did it to me,” the buxom blonde replied, sounding a little put out about it. “Besides, it’s kind of cool. Ever since she got a piece of that succubus she’s been insatiable.”

I laughed. “Alright, Avilla, that’s enough of that. I don’t need to hear details about your sex life.”

“Thank you!” Cerise snapped.

“I can imagine it just fine,” I went on cheerfully.

Avilla giggled. Cerise sputtered. It kept them both distracted enough for me to finally finish.

Alas, then I had to earn my keep. Wounded soldiers and sick villagers weren’t nearly as much fun to work on as my witches, but it was just as well. Another hour or two of that teasing banter and I was liable to do something that would get me knifed in the dark by one or the other of the adorable little psychos.

Chapter 3

The caravan set out not long after I finished healing Cerise, but I was far too busy to spare any attention for the scenery.

A lot of the soldiers were injured to a greater or lesser degree, and they lined up to see what the mysterious wizard could do for them. The first few were cautious enough to make me wonder how many charlatans there were in this field, but after I healed a cracked rib and a couple of infected arrow wounds word got around that I was the real deal. After that I had to recruit the girls’ help to screen them and keep the line organized, or I wouldn’t have been able to get anything done.

“First priority is anyone who looks like they might die if they have to wait,” I told them. “Then soldiers who can walk on their own, but are hurt bad enough to keep them from fighting properly. After that I’ll take serious injuries, but minor ones will have to wait for tomorrow.”

“So, keep them alive, keep us all defended, and then go from most serious to least? Got it,” Cerise said confidently. “Better let me handle that, though. Avilla’s a sucker for a sob story.”

Avilla pouted at that.

“I’ll take your word for it,” I replied diplomatically. “Avilla, can you scrounge up a knife and see if you can find some rags and a source of water? I can heat it myself, but a lot of these old injuries are going to need cleaning.”

“Oh!, Yes, I can do that,” she chirped happily, and ran off to take care of it.

My next patient had a nasty compound fracture of the upper arm and shoulder, courtesy of a troll’s club. I coaxed the shattered bones back together, stamped out the infection, closed up the wounds where broken bones had punctured skin and reconnected severed tendons. I let him go with a caution that the bones would remain delicate for several days, and advised the sergeant who’d shown up to observe to keep him on light duty if it was possible.

On close inspection the soldiers were a bit of a historical anomaly. Most of them wore chain hauberks of a standardized design, and much of their other equipment was also identical. Heavy black boots, dark green cloaks and pot helms were standard, while the sergeants had more elaborate helms with nose and cheek guards. A lot of them carried long spears with narrow points that were obviously designed for piercing armor, while the rest bore a mix of swords, axes and what I was pretty sure were compound bows.

That was odd. In feudal societies fighting men usually had to supply their own equipment, so that level of standardization was rare. But then, so was the fact that the unit was called the ‘5th Margold’ and not ‘Rain’s Company’, or something like that. Somehow this world had apparently evolved relatively modern military organizations without abandoning feudalism.

I resolved to keep my eyes open and try not to make assumptions until I knew more about this strange society.

My next patient was a peasant farmer who’d come down with the flue, which was potentially lethal under these conditions. Then an assortment of wounded soldiers - cracked bones, nasty gashes and puncture wounds, and a paralyzed arm that turned out to be the result of some goblin shaman’s curse rather than a physical injury. The spell was easily removed, which seemed to particularly impress the men.

I was starting to wonder if any of the troops guarding the caravan were actually healthy. The sergeant nodded when I commented on it.

“It’s been tough fighting, sir wizard,” the grizzled veteran said. “The worst I’ve ever seen. We were near two hundred when we set out, but not a day’s gone by when we didn’t lose a man or six. Three times we’ve had a whole patrol, a dozen or more men, just vanish with no survivors.”

I frowned. “I wouldn’t think goblins would be that effective against trained soldiers, unless you were chasing them through the woods. Those little bows of theirs can’t be much use against armor, and their marksmanship isn’t that great.”

“Not your first campaign, is it sir? No, the goblins can’t stand against us in the open field. They raid us instead, always popping out of the woods to plink a few arrows and curses at whoever they can get a beat on and then running off into the woods. Can’t follow them without running into traps and ambushes, and every now and then they get someone. It wears on a man, even if our archers do make them pay for it.”

“But what’s bad is the real monsters. We keep running into trolls, sometimes alone but usually with goblins. Worse things, too. An ogre, felwolves, even a beast the captain says was a manticore. We turned back when the scouts reported giant tracks.”

Yeah, that made more sense. I’d seen myself how tough trolls were. If giants were even bigger they’d be bad news to a group like this.

It was twilight by then, and the sky was mostly overcast. A few flakes of snow drifted down on us.

“The captain’ll be calling camp any time now,” the sergeant observed. “I’d best get the men ready. But if’n you don’t mind me saying so, I figure you’ve done enough for one day. There’s no sense in you wearing yourself out over bumps and bruises when we might have a man take an arrow in the throat before dawn.”

“Fair enough, sergeant. What’s your name, by the way?”

“Thomas, sir.”

A call from up ahead interrupted us, and he hurried away with another respectful nod. I had to admit, after my years as a corporate drone I could get used to that kind of treatment.

The caravan stopped in an open field beside the road, which had apparently been used for that purpose many times before. The men circled the wagons to form an improvised barricade between the camp and the surrounding woods, and a work party began cutting wood and setting up a bonfire while smaller groups corralled the animals and hung canvas awnings from the inner side of the wagons. The peasants huddled together miserably, a few of the more industrious ones claiming one or another of the little firepits that dotted the field and casting about for wood to burn.

I was distracted from my observations by a crackling and glow of firelight beside my wagon, and turned to find that Avilla had somehow managed to get a fire going in the few minutes we’d been stationary. She hung a little pot full of snow over the blaze as I watched, and smiled up at me.

“I think I’m getting the hang of starting fires, master,” she declared. “I’ll have a nice, warm stew ready in a half hour or so.”

She said it so naturally I had to remind myself it was just a charade. ‘Master’ was a normal term of respect for an apprentice speaking to her teacher, but I’d gathered that this land was pretty medieval in its attitudes about things like civil rights. A master was supposed to support and train his apprentices, but he was also responsible for their discipline and I doubted they had many options if he decided to be brutal about it. An ordinary craftsman would have to worry about the opinions of his neighbors and the local lord, but one who traveled didn’t even have that minimal constraint. Let alone a wizard.

It was the kind of place where any attractive female who took an apprenticeship would  expect servicing her master to be part of the job, hence the constant assumptions along those lines from everyone around us. I was starting to wonder why the girls had been so willing to go along with a plan that essentially involved pretending to be my personal concubines. But then again, the fact that Captain Rain had felt the need to reassure them he wasn’t going to let his men casually rape them was also pretty telling. Pretending they were already taken might be the only way they could avoid having some asshole decide to ‘claim’ them.

Ah, well. When in Rome, at least act Roman enough that you don’t stand out too much. Low-tech societies tend to be xenophobic too, and the last thing I wanted was to create a situation where I’d end up making enemies of the local humans. The monsters were bad enough.

So I just nodded, trying to look like I was used to having a beautiful girl waiting on me hand and foot. “Good. Do you need anything?”

“We’ll manage, sir.”

Cerise shot me a grin. “You know Avilla and her cooking, master. Give her a couple of days and she’ll be baking cookies over an open fire somehow.”

Avilla swatted her arm. “Hush, you! Find me the ladle, and then peel a few of those potatoes.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Avilla settled in to preparing our meal with the casual skill of an experienced chef, with Cerise smoothly adopting the role of assistant. I left them to it, and set about making a circuit of the camp to see what I could learn about our hosts.

There were only about a hundred of the soldiers. Their weary faces and ragged gear told the story of a hard-fought campaign that they knew they were losing, but they saw to their tasks with the disciplined efficiency of veterans. After fifty percent casualties that was pretty damned amazing, and my respect for Captain Rain rose several notches. Not many officers could hold a unit together under circumstances like these.

The civilians, on the other hand, were shell-shocked refugees who might have stepped right out of a charity advertisement. They were a fair-skinned, dark-haired people, a bit short but not as tiny as medieval peasants had been back on Earth. The typical clothing was essentially a sack of rough cloth with holes for arms and legs, although here and there I saw a proper dress or something resembling pants.  Shoes were a rarity, with most of the refugees, just wrapping their feet with rags, and I wondered how many frostbite cases I’d get before we reached our destination.

There weren’t nearly as many children in the crowd as I would have expected, especially considering the large family sizes that were normal for preindustrial societies. Lots of teenagers and older kids, but very few toddlers or infants. There were also noticeably fewer adult men than women, and all of the survivors clutched at improvised weapons. Mostly farm implements, like scythes and hoes, but a few had hunting bows or improvised spears.

The implications were grim. These were the people who’d fought their way free of a long string of disasters, and anyone who couldn’t keep up hadn’t made it this far.

On the good side, there was a small herd of sheep and cattle with them and most of the wagons seemed to be loaded with food. At least we weren’t going to starve anytime soon, and arriving at a besieged settlement with stores in tow was a good way to get invited inside the walls. The wagons themselves were a bit run down, however, and my thoughts quickly turned to options for repairing or replacing them. I couldn’t shape wood, and stone would be too heavy to make a wagon out of, but there ought to be something I could do.

Captain Rain found me still musing on the subject some minutes later, and pulled me aside.

“Not to be too demanding after all your good work this afternoon, but I wanted to see if you can do anything about the security of the camp,” he said in a low voice. “The goblins like to try to sneak in and cut men’s throats in the dark, and sometimes they bring trolls.”

I considered the problem for a moment, eying the layout of the camp. Yeah, the shadows cast by the wagons would make it hard to keep watch, and the tree line wasn’t that far away. Come to think of it, weren’t medieval people usually night-blind from some kind of vitamin deficiency?

“That’s a tricky problem,” I told him. “I could set a ward around the camp to detect motion and sound an alarm, but we’d get a lot of false alarms from wandering animals. I can shape earth, but building a wall and ditch substantial enough to slow down trolls would be quite a project. Hmm. What about setting traps? I could turn some patches of ground around the camp into stone spikes, like a field of caltrops. One goblin might sneak past, but if a bunch of them try it some of them are bound to hit a patch.”

His eyes glinted in the firelight. “I like the sound of that. The little bastards always pitch a fit when they get hurt, and trolls are worse. Alright, I’ll detail a squad to escort you while you set it up. How long will that take?”

“Maybe twenty minutes.”

He nodded. “Thank you. I appreciate the consideration you’ve been showing the men, sir. Most wizards would put up a lot of fuss about ‘wasting’ their time and magic on common folk.”

“Yes, well, I try to be more practical than that. For all I know the soldier I save today may be guarding my back tomorrow. But I’d better get this done before it gets completely dark.”

I was surprised how nervous it made me to leave the circle of wagons as the sun set, with shadows already pooling under the trees where anything might be lurking. But sergeant Thomas showed up momentarily with a half-dozen burly fighting men in tow, and they seemed to know their business. It took a few minutes longer than expected, but I got a nice irregular ring of traps laid in just as the last sliver of sun dipped below the trees.

Then I was back to my own little camp, to enjoy my first taste of Avilla’s cooking. She greeted me with a cheery smile, handing me a wooden bowl of dark stew along with a generous hunk of bread. I wondered for a moment how she’d managed to produce it so fast, since the recipes I’d seen for such things always took hours.

Then I took my first bite. I paused to stare at the spoon.

“How is it?” She asked nervously. Cerise rolled her eyes, but was too busy wolfing down her own portion to comment.

“Well,” I said consideringly, “If my wizard gig ever falls through we can always get you a job as some king’s personal chef.” I suddenly suspected this was what she’d meant when she said she was a ‘hearth witch’, but there were too many ears around us to ask about that now.

She giggled. “Oh, master, you’re such a flatterer.”

I might have replied, but I was too hungry for banter with a meal like this waiting for me. By the time the three of us were done there was no need to clean the bowls, because every particle of food was gone.

By then it was snowing lightly, and the wind had picked up a bit. The girls retreated into the covered space of the wagon, re-packing their bags and beginning to unroll the blankets we’d brought along to serve as bedrolls.

I was bone tired, and most of me wanted nothing more than to crawl into the wagon and go to sleep. But events were moving too fast for that.

“I’ve got a few things to take care of before bed,” I told them. “I’ll be along in a bit, but don’t bother waiting up for me.”

“Seriously?” Cerise gave me a surprised look. “I’m about to pass out, and I haven’t done anything today compared to you.”

Avilla cuddled up behind her, and slipped a hand under her blouse with a giggle. “Aw, is my poor little kitten all wilted? Maybe I can perk you up.”

Cerise squeaked in surprise, but made no effort to get away. I chuckled, and resolved to give the young lovers some time to themselves.

“I’m sure you’ll manage, Avilla. Give her a few licks for me while you’re at it.”

“Hey!”

I left Cerise blushing and stammering in Avilla’s arms, and went off to find a spot to work. Sorcery didn’t seem to require much in the way of materials or rituals, but I still didn’t want anyone getting too good a look at what I was about to attempt. Not to mention that being interrupted might not be entirely safe.

Fortunately the majority of the camp was already bedding down for the night, leaving just a few guards up and about. I suppose peasants would be used to going to bed with the sun in a place like this, and there wasn’t much to do in the dark anyway. I saw a few couples sharing blankets here and there, their activities studiously ignored by their neighbors.

It was cold, but my cloak was as warm as an electric blanket. With the hood up I wasn’t especially recognizable either, and no one bothered me as I made a slow circuit of the camp. I sorted out the details in my head, digging through the instinctive skills that had been dumped into my mind looking for any options that I’d missed. There was some interesting stuff there, but most of it either wasn’t relevant or would take far too much time.

Finally I settled myself against a wagon wheel, and turned my new senses inward.

So far I’d been using my flesh element entirely for healing, and I started out by continuing that trend. The trickle of power from my amulet was far larger than the energy output of a human body, and it took only a few minutes to wash away most of the physical fatigue left by the long day’s exertions. The mental fatigue was another matter, but I’d be able to sleep soon enough.

Once that was done I dug deeper, reaching for the flesh-element analogue of the shaping ability I’d already applied to stone.

Living tissue can’t just be sculpted like clay, of course. There are millions of little details that have to be carefully managed through any change in physical form, from the placement of nerves and blood vessels to the alignment of muscle fibers and attachment points of tendons. Not to mention the delicate complexity of the matrix of individual cells, which can’t just be stretched or compressed much without killing them.

As a result shaping flesh was a slow process, more a matter of coaxing the body to grow in the desired manner while augmenting its natural abilities with magic. I could see that the subject’s genetics still played an important role in the process, although my own will could exert considerable influence. It was also a very energy-intensive process, and my little power tap would be a real limiting factor if I ever tried something ambitious.

Fortunately, tonight I was just after one of the easier transformations. A career as a desk jockey had left me in poor shape for marching in snow or fighting off monsters, and I could imagine dozens of ways that lack could get me or the girls killed. We’d been lucky so far, but I couldn’t count on that to continue. So my first attempt at a physical transformation was a shaping to make myself stronger.

The shaping mimicked the effects of actual exercise, only a few thousand times faster. Every muscle in my body twitched violently, vibrating with energy as a dull burn suffused them. I added a secondary flow to keep the fatigue under control, grimacing as the diversion of energy slowed the transformation. But it was just as well, as a ripple of growth forced me to juggle a dozen more complexities all at once.

Where was the extra mass coming from, anyway? I had a dim sense that it was being conjured from some external source, just like with the hammer I’d made in my first battle. But beyond that I had no idea, and I certainly didn’t have time to worry about it now.

My muscles grew in slow fits and starts, as I struggled to counteract all the unpleasant side effects a too-fast change created in the rest of my body. But gradually I got the hang of it, and the process began to smooth out. A constant rate of change made everything easier, and for the better part of an hour I sat and coaxed the transformation along.

I wasn’t going for the huge bulging muscles of a weightlifter, of course. Aside from being too obvious a change, it wasn’t optimal for my situation. I needed the strong legs and aerobic endurance of a marathon runner, in case we needed to outrun danger. The rock-hard physique of a serious martial artist, to protect my internal organs from blows I didn’t see coming. The strong arms and back of a laborer, in case I needed to carry an injured civilian while my limited supply of magic was in use. Conditioning, and more conditioning, and yet more conditioning.

Finally I reached the limits of what I could do. I opened my eyes to find that the camp was still and quiet, and the snow was falling harder now. A wave of exhaustion washed over me, and suddenly finding my own wagon again seemed like an enormous undertaking. I was too tired to stand up, let alone walk anywhere.

I pulled the hood of my cloak down over my face, and let my eyes drift closed again. The magical warmth would protect me from the snow, and the girls would probably enjoy their privacy anyway. I was asleep in moments.

Some time later a small but very strong hand shook me awake. I blinked my eyes open to find Avilla’s face inches from my nose.

“Daniel? Are you alright?” She asked worriedly.

“Yeah. Just tired. Rough casting.” I mumbled.

Her expression firmed. “Right. Let’s get you to bed before you catch your death of cold.”

She slipped under my arm and lifted me to my feet despite my feeble protests, and dragged me off across the camp. I was still so tired the world seemed to sway like the deck of a ship, and I found myself leaning heavily on her. She took my weight without protest, though at one point she paused to wrap my cloak around us both.

Then she gasped softly. “It’s so warm! How did you... fire magic?”

“Mmm hmmm.” Her hair smelled nice. Like baking cookies on a warm spring day.

“I suppose you weren’t going to freeze, then,” she observed. “But I still can’t have my heroic protector sleeping alone on the hard ground. Come on, almost there.”

Soon I was foggily clambering into the back of a wagon. Avilla stopped us when we were half inside, and I frowned in confusion as she bent over me. But she was just taking off my shoes. She left them next to her own just inside the covered space, and deftly laced the canvas flaps shut again.

“Avilla?” Cerise asked sleepily.

“I’m here, kitten,” Avilla replied softly. “Go back to sleep.”

“M‘kay. C’mere.”

A slender hand snaked out from the pile of blankets to grab my arm, and pulled me down. A moment later I found myself on my side half under the blankets, with the little witch curled up against my chest.

“Mmm, muscles. Yum.”

She was a very naked little witch. I froze, my sleep-addled mind having no idea how to react.

Avilla giggled softly, and slipped in behind me. Oh, my. She’d been naked under her cloak?

“Um,” I said intelligently.

“Put your arm around her,” Avilla advised quietly. “She doesn’t have so many nightmares if she’s being held.”

I obediently let my arm fall to encircle the sleeping girl. She gave a little sigh, and buried her face in my chest.

“There you go. Goodnight, Daniel.” Avilla reached around me to stroke Cerise’s hair, and then left it there as she relaxed against my back.

I decided I’d leave the thinking for later. “Goodnight, Avilla.”

Chapter 4

I woke to the crack of splintering timber, and an ear-splitting howl right above my head.

A massive weight landed on my chest as my eyes flew open. Avilla’s startled yelp in my ear reminded me where I was, but my face was covered with canvas and it was too dark to see.

The weight shifted, and I felt my ribs creak. I pushed, blindly but with the full power of my force element, and it lifted. The canvas flew away from my face, and I found myself looking up at a giant wolf.

It had a man in its jaws, and as I pushed myself upright I saw it shake him like a dog with a rabbit. Then it dropped him, and turned its gaze on me.

Avilla scrambled behind me with a whimper, and I knew I had to hold its attention. I threw a ball of fire at its face, and jumped off the wagon.

Sure enough it followed, spinning in place to snap at me with teeth the size of swords. I gathered a burst of force magic and jumped, pushing off to send myself sailing high over the beast’s head. The long seconds of hang time gave me a chance to send a flurry of force blades raining down on it, but they didn’t penetrate deep enough to have much effect. The beast was easily the size of an elephant, and I was going to need something with more punch than that to deal with it.

The rest of the camp was in complete confusion. More giant wolves were rampaging among the refugees, killing men and panicking the livestock. On the other side of the camp a giant who must have been twenty feet tall stood laughing and laying about with an enormous spear.

After that I was too busy for sightseeing. The damned wolf was smart enough to see where I was going to land, and coming down without going splat was tricky enough that I barely managed to fend it off. Its jaws closed on the force bubble protecting me and began to squeeze, sending blue sparks dancing through the air around me as the spell threatened to collapse.

Then it yelped in surprise and jumped back. Cerise rolled out from under it with a bloody dagger in each hand, still as naked as when I’d come to bed. The wolf lashed out at her with a paw, and she nimbly ducked under the blow.

I dove forward while it was distracted. Its chin flashed by above me, and then my line of sight was clear. I conjured another force blade, this one six feet long instead of my usual two or three, and slashed it across the wolf’s throat.

It cut deep into the monster’s flesh with only a faint tug of resistance. A torrent of steaming blood gushed out of the wound, drenching me thoroughly. The wolf abruptly stopped trying to kill us in favor of getting away, but it only made it three steps before collapsing in a heap. The snow around it rapidly began to turn red.

I rushed over to Cerise. “Are you alright?”

She licked the blood dripping from her dagger. “Hell, yeah. That was awesome, Daniel. Let’s kill some more of these guys.”

“Look out!”

The panicked cry from one of the cowering villagers warned me that our victory hadn’t gone unnoticed. Two more wolves were headed our way, and the giant had drawn a hand axe from his belt. I turned around just in time to see him throw it at me.

Time seemed to stand still as the glittering mass of steel spun through the air towards me, the complex interplay of forces that guided its path announcing that the giant’s aim was true. It would spin three more times as it sailed through the air, then smash edge-on into my chest. With the force of a hundred pounds or so of flying steel concentrated on the tiny surface area of its edge it would cut through my shield like tissue paper.

I stepped into the spot my sorcerous instincts pointed to, two feet forward and a foot to the left, and held out a hand bolstered by telekinetic strength. The shaft of the axe slammed into my palm, and my hand closed around it. I let the impact of the blow spin me around in nearly a full circle, adding my own power to the movement. Then I released it again, and watched it sail through the darkness to sink into the chest of the wolf on the left. The beast went down with a howl of agony.

The wolf on the right checked, and eyed me warily.

“Come on then, monsters!” I shouted. “Who dies next?”

The giant roared, and charged me. The wolf circled right, watching for an opening.

“Oh, crap,” Cerise muttered behind me.

“Take cover,” I advised her, and counter-charged.

It was insane, but I figured being unpredictable was my best shot at surviving this. I let my force bubble drop, knowing it wouldn’t do any good against a weapon the size of the giant’s spear anyway, and desperately wracked my brain. Jump? No, he’d probably seen me do it to the wolf, and he’d just stab me in mid-air. The force spike trick? No, he was wearing chain mail, and steel links that size would be stronger than my force constructs. Earth trickery?

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

He was almost close enough to stab me now, so I turned the ground around us into a quagmire of mud. The first few inches came out frozen, which was a pleasant surprise since it meant I didn’t immediately sink.

The giant wasn’t so lucky. His tremendous weight cracked the frozen surface instantly, and he plunged knee-deep before he knew what was happening. I jumped away with a burst of force magic as he started to struggle, and rapidly circled around the trap.

The giant shouted something in what I assumed must be his own language, but he couldn’t turn fast enough with the goop impeding his movements. I laid a horizontal force wall over the muck to use as a path, circling quickly to get behind him, and then ran in close to ram a slender lance of force between the links of his armor and into his right kidney.

He howled in pain. I made the end of the lance grow into a spinning blade for an instant, thoroughly mangling the tissue inside. Then I released the spell, and a spray of searing blue blood gushed from the wound.

I staggered back, gasping at the sudden cold, and nearly got eaten by another wolf. I barely evaded its snapping jaws, and rolled under it. From that position making a sharp spire of stone erupt from the ground to impale it seemed like the logical course.

The wolf’s blood was hot, and I found myself almost grateful for the dousing I got. Unfortunately one of its paws caught me as I was trying to get out from under it. I went flying, and struck something that was harder than my skull.

For a few minutes all I could do was lie there in a daze, but eventually I managed to get my eyes to focus. I found myself lying in the smashed remains of a wagon, with what felt like half a dozen broken bones. Avilla was crouched over me wrapped in a blanket, with a concerned look in her eyes.

“Can you hear me, Daniel?”

“Yeah,” I grated. “Crap. That one hurt. Gonna need a few minutes to fix everything.”

She gave a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I was afraid they’d killed you.”

Cerise appeared next to her, and crouched to stab her daggers into the ground before wrapping herself in a blood-stained blanket. “Nah, Daniel’s tougher than that. The frost giant died, and the wolves that can still move ran off. Go ahead and fix yourself up, we’ll keep an eye on things.”

“Thanks.”

I turned my attention inward. Three broken ribs took some effort to knit back together, and then I had a crushed shoulder to deal with. Fortunately the bones hadn’t severed any arteries when they broke, or I might not have lived long enough to wake up.

I made a mental note to come up with better defensive measures soon, and focused on the task at hand. Eventually I got the shoulder put back together, although I’d have to be careful with it for a few days. Then the frostbite where the giant’s blood had struck me, and a nasty laceration along my chest where one of the wolf’s claws had apparently caught me.

Too bad I couldn’t repair my shirt as easily. I only had one spare, and I had a feeling it was only going to get colder.

Finally I opened my eyes again. Apparently it had been a while, because Cerise was dressed now and Avilla was nowhere in sight. The slender witch was arguing rather heatedly with a group of soldiers. About a dozen of them, all gathered in a nervous clump with bulging packs on their backs.

“A little thing like you won’t last long out here without protection,” one of the soldiers was saying. “Maybe the wizard will wake up, and maybe he won’t. Either way he’s not going to be in any shape to take care of you girls.”

“You have no idea what our master is capable of,” Cerise sniffed. “If you guys want to run off in a panic I can’t stop you, but we’re safer with him even if there wasn’t a soldier left in the camp.”

“Come on, Rolf, quit dicking around,” one of the men grumbled. “Just throw the little bitch over your shoulder and let’s go. She’ll come around after we fuck her a few times.”

“Shut up, Hroldir,” the leader said gruffly.

“Yeah,” Cerise chuckled darkly. “You don’t steal a wizard’s property. When he first took us our master bound our wills to his so we’d serve him faithfully forever, and laid dark curses on us to make sure any other man who touches us will die screaming. Not to mention we aren’t just his pet bedtoys, we’re sorceresses. If you mess with us we’ll be cursing you and screwing up your shit forever.”

Hroldir gave Rolf a stubborn look, but the group’s leader ignored him. “Now look, missy, there’s no need to take that tone. Some of the men may be thinking with their dicks, but if the wizard dies on us you’ll be glad enough there’s someone willing to take you in. I wouldn’t even be giving you the chance if I hadn’t seen you and the crazy blonde come running out of the Witchwood full of goblin arrows. No way any of these civilian girls could keep up on a forced march.”

“Now we can carry your master for a bit if you think he can be moved, but that giant’s buddies could be here any minute. So you need to tell your friend to put down the cleaver and grab her pack right fucking now, or we’re leaving all three of you here to die.”

“We’re not the ones in danger of that here,” I interrupted.

The men gasped, and I was amused to note that a couple of the ones between me and Hroldir exchanged nervous glances and discretely stepped out of the line of fire.

“What’s going on?” I said sharply. “Where’s Captain Rain?”

There were grim looks at that.

“He’s fucked up bad, sir wizard,” Rolf explained. “A felwolf bit half his arm off, and then the damned giant stepped on him. One of the boys got a rope around the arm, and maybe you could save him if you had time. But he’s got so much shit broken he’ll die for sure if we try to move him, and if we don’t get our asses in gear here we’re all goners.”

I frowned, and took Cerise’s offered hand to pull myself to my feet. “What’s the hurry?”

I glanced around, noting that there were a lot fewer people in the camp than there had been yesterday. The remaining villagers were all huddled in a miserable-looking mass next to the one intact wagon, along with a handful of soldiers. A few people were tending the wounded or policing the camp, and I caught a flash of Avilla’s blonde mane atop one of the dead wolves. But most of them were just huddled under their blankets looking terrified.

Then I realized the sun was up. It must have risen while I was healing myself, but I was sure that hadn’t taken more than a half hour or so. I felt a prickle of disquiet as I realized the attack had come during what the military calls ‘morning nautical twilight’ - the same timing modern special forces groups prefer for surprise attacks. It might just be a coincidence, but I suddenly had a bad feeling about the general competence level of those giants.

Rolf’s response didn’t help.

“The stories all say giants live in big tribes, just like human barbarians. You saw what one frost giant and his pet wolves did to us, sir. There’s no way we can fight a whole squad of his buddies at once.”

“Or a frost drake,” one of the men put in. “Some of them are supposed to have those too.”

Rolf nodded. “Yeah. If we keep on like we have been we’re all going to die. We’ve got to drop the dead weight and make straight for Lanrest. It’s only twenty-five miles, we can be there by midmorning tomorrow if we make a forced march of it.”

I frowned. “So you’re just abandoning the civilians?”

He shrugged. “No way they can keep up. If we bring them they’ll just end up strung out all down the road like a big monster buffet. That’d be like a giant sign behind us pointing out where we are. But it looked like you and your girls can keep up, so you’re welcome to come with us.”

I was so shocked I just stared at him for a moment. Apparently Captain Rain really had been the only thing holding this unit together.

“Shall I go tell Avilla to skip the wolf steaks, master?” Cerise asked quietly.

My gaze flicked automatically to Avilla, as I realized that’s what she was doing with the wolf corpse. Then it fell to the hopeless mass of peasants, and the handful of soldiers left to guard them.

“No,” I said firmly. “These cowards can abandon their comrades and their honor if they want, but we aren’t going to. Show me to the wounded.”

A growl of anger went up from the mob of deserters, and hands went to weapons. I called up a force bubble, and let it bleed a haze of shimmering blue sparkles into the frigid air.

“Try it. There won’t be enough left of you to bury.”

Rolf raised his hand. “Easy, boys! We didn’t come over here to pick a fight with no wizard. If he wants to be a damned fool and die that’s his business. Let’s move.”

I waited until they were well out of reach, and then spun and stalked towards the survivors. Cerise trotted along behind me.

“Are you sure that was the right move, Daniel?” She asked quietly. “I’d feel kind of bad about leaving these people, but I don’t want to die for them either. It’s not like we owe them anything.”

“They’re human beings,” I said shortly. “I’m not leaving anyone to die as long as I have a choice about it. Avilla! Can you make enough of that for everyone?”

The pretty blonde started at my call, and smiled down at me. “If that’s what you want, master. There’s certainly more meat on these beasts than we can hope to eat. But it will take time.”

Something in the sky behind her caught my attention. There were dark clouds rolling down from the north, much closer than the ones we’d seen yesterday. It was far too cold for rain, so that meant more snow. Possibly even a blizzard. Lovely.

“That’s fine,” I told her after a moment. “I’ll need an hour or two to stabilize the wounded before we can move, and we won’t be going very far.”

She nodded, and returned to butchering the giant beast.

I found Sergeant Thomas talking quietly with the men that were left, which was something of a relief. Trying to organize this group by myself would have been quite a challenge.

“Sergeant,” I nodded. “Glad to see you made it.”

He took in my appearance, and shook his head. “You look like hell, sir wizard. I take it you’re staying, then?”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can’t see abandoning all these people. How bad is it?”

He lowered his voice a bit. “We’re pretty fucked, sir. We lost a lot of men in that battle, either dead or run off into the woods. We’ve only eight men fit to fight, there’s thirty or so refugees left that didn’t die or run off, and those felwolves scattered all the animals. We’ve got a dozen wounded too bad to walk on their own, and no way to pull the only wagon that isn’t smashed. Even if we leave them behind the rest of this bunch’ll be lucky to make five or six miles a day, and  I don’t see us going more than a day or two without another attack.”

I frowned. “I was afraid of that. Well, it looks like there’s a blizzard coming in, and even if the cold doesn’t bother frost giants I doubt they can see through falling snow. So we’re going to collect what supplies we can and hole up maybe half a mile from here, just far enough that no one’s likely to find us before the weather clears. You collect supplies and get everyone organized while I do what I can to keep the wounded from dying on us. When we find a good spot I’ll work some magic to make a shelter and keep it warm.”

He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “Sounds like a plan, sir. Any chance you can save the Captain?”

“I’ll try, Thomas. Just show me where he is.”

Captain Rain was a grisly sight. Apparently he’d been popular with the refugees, because a few of the peasant women had gotten a little fire going next to him and were carefully tending his wounds when we arrived. But most of his right arm was missing, and there were bubbles of blood on his lips.

One of the women looked up, and hope blossomed on her face.

“Lord wizard!” She said pleadingly. “Are you here to save him?”

“I’m going to try,” I told her. I knelt next to him, and laid a hand on his forehead to feel out his injuries.

It was bad. His chest had been crushed by the giant, and the broken ribs had punctured both lungs. They were filling with blood, which he had precious little of left after losing the arm. Frostbite was already setting in on his feet, and he had a concussion on top of everything else.

“Damn,” I muttered. “Sergeant, I’m going to need a half hour or so just to get him stable enough to move, and even then we’ll need a stretcher. You said there are some other serious cases too?”

“Yes sir. The worst is Dorgen, he got bit by a wolf and survived somehow. Then there’s a stab wound from that giant’s spear, and a lot of bad gashes and broken bones.”

“I see. Figure a couple of hours for me to get them ready to move, then. Avilla’s making wolf steak for everyone, so at least we’ll be well fed. We’ll set out as soon as everyone’s eaten.”

“Yes, sir. I hope we have that long. Not much left to stop another attack with those damned deserters gone.”

“Can’t be helped, sergeant. Maybe you could arm some of the peasants?”

He considered that. “Better than nothing, I suppose. I’ll see to it.”

He turned to go.

The woman who had spoken before tentatively put her hand on my arm. “You can save him, my lord?”

“I think so. If the monsters leave us alone long enough.”

She blinked back tears. “Bless you, milord!”

One of the others, a pretty girl who might have been fourteen, smiled happily. “See, Vasha? I knew we shouldn’t give up.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t,” I told them. “He wouldn’t have lasted this long otherwise. But I’d better get to work now.”

It was an exhausting two hours. My amulet might recharge my mana, but working magic continuously for long periods was still a strain. The knowledge that I didn’t have the time or energy to fully heal any of my patients was an added complication, because it meant that I couldn’t just flood them with healing energy and let it do what it wanted. Instead I had to focus in on specific trouble spots, forcing the magic to heal only what I wanted it to and leave everything else alone.

Shifting Captain Rain’s broken ribs back into place and fixing his damaged lungs took most of the time I’d estimated. Then I had to deal with the shock, blood loss and hypothermia, all of which were systemic issues that were almost impossible to touch without half my energy flow bleeding off into his other injuries. At least the concussion wasn’t a bad one. I had a headache by the time I was done, and it wasn’t as solid a job as I would have liked.

“Keep him warm, and try to get a little water into him if he wakes up,” I directed. “And be very careful when you move him. I’ve got his ribs back in place but they aren’t properly healed. They’ll snap like twigs if they take a blow.”

“We’ll treat him like spun glass, milord,” Vasha assured me gratefully.

I left them to it, and Cerise led me off to the next patient. Apparently she’d been making herself useful getting the triage organized while I was busy.

“Is she his wife or something?” I wondered once we were out of earshot.

“Concubine,” Cerise corrected. “I think she’s a favorite camp follower he decided to take on permanently, or something like that. The others are peasant girls she picked out for him from the refugees,”

I stopped dead. “Wait, what? The little redhead can’t be over fourteen.”

“Yeah, so? What else is a girl who’s lost her family going to do to try to make sure someone takes care of her?”

I took a deep breath, and reminded myself this wasn’t America. Fourteen was barely young enough to cause gossip in most cultures, and the idea that there’s something wrong with trading sex for protection is a modern invention. But it still didn’t feel right.

“As long as they’re doing it voluntarily,” I grumbled.

Cerise shrugged. “Doesn’t look like any of them have been beaten lately. What more can you ask for?”

I shook my head sadly. Then we reached my next patient, and it was time to focus on healing again.

None of the others were as bad off as the captain, but they were pretty bad. By the time I was reasonably confident none of them going to suddenly drop dead on us I was exhausted again, and my headache had grown to near-migraine proportions. Only three really critical cases, but a dozen others had needed bones set or bleeding stopped before they could hope to move any distance.

Finally I stepped back from setting a broken leg, and someone held a plate full of sizzling meat under my nose.

“That’s the last of them, Daniel,” Avilla was saying. “Please, rest for a minute, and eat something.”

I blinked stupidly at her for a moment, and realized that if I was having this much trouble focusing I probably wasn’t good for much. “Ok.”

I found an overturned crate to sit on, and reached for the plate. But Avilla deftly avoided my hands.

“Nope! We’re doing this right for you, so I need to hold the plate. Cerise?”

The slender witch swept her dark hair back into a ponytail with a few deft movements, and drew her daggers again. “Ready. The old Artemic-style ritual, right?”

The blonde nodded happily. “Right. I was surprised Daniel wanted to share with everyone, but I suppose they’ll need the strength. Ok, I’m ready.”

She closed her eyes, and started chanting under her breath. Cerise cut off a bit of the steak, speared it on the tip of a dagger, and held it up to my lips.

I frowned, and opened my mouth to ask what they were up to. But Cerise just shoved the meat in with a smile.

“Eat,” she ordered. “We know what we’re doing.”

Well, hell. I was hungry enough to eat a horse, and I was learning to trust them. I ate.

The slab of meat Avilla had brought me was huge, but she’d somehow managed to sear it to medium-rare perfection with nothing to work with but a campfire. It was a bit chewy and didn’t taste much like beef, but I didn’t really care. By the time I was done my headache was receding, and I was starting to feel marginally human again.

“Thanks. I needed that.”

Avilla smiled. “I’m glad you liked it. That’s the last of the heart, of course, but I expect we’ll be having wolf flank for a week.”

“At least it’s cold enough to keep the meat from spoiling,” I pointed out. “So, what was that spell you were doing?”

Cerise gave her a smug look. “Told you.”

Avilla flushed in embarrassment. “Oh, you!  I’m sorry, I thought you knew. A little magic to claim the strength of a fallen foe by eating its heart. Usually it just restores vitality and gives you a little temporary extra strength, but with a felwolf I thought we might get a more lasting effect. So, you weren’t trying to make the refugees cold resistant?”

“Um, no, I had no idea you could do that kind of thing,” I admitted. “But it’s not a bad idea. They’re going to need all the help they can get to survive this trip.”

“That’s why I didn’t say anything when I figured it out,” Cerise put in.

“Normally I’d complain that you should explain things like that in advance, but I suppose I was pretty busy,” I mused. “Ugh, what a morning. How are you two doing?”

“A little bruised from the fight, but I’m mostly healed already.”

“Same here,” Avilla agreed. “I think you took most of that felwolf’s weight when it stepped on us. But we need to get you out of those filthy clothes before you catch something.”

“Don’t remind me,” I groaned. “I feel like I took a bath in wolf blood, but there’s not much point in changing if there’s no way to wash up first. I’m afraid this outfit’s going to be a total loss, too.”

“Oh, not at all,” Avilla said brightly. “Just give me a basin of warm water to work with, and I’ll have it clean and patched up in no time. I’m good at that kind of thing.”

“Well, that’s good to know. I’ll see what I can come up with when we stop.”

Thomas came by then to let me know the group was about ready to move, which cut the conversation short. I looked around to find the peasants gathering their bundles of goods, a few of the young men clutching unfamiliar spears. They seemed a bit less beaten down than they had in the wake of the morning ambush, but it was still a pretty ragged group. The remaining soldiers weren’t much better, for that matter.

I walked over to them and they fell silent, all eyes turning to me. Were they expecting a speech or something? Oh, well. I checked the sky, and noted that the dark clouds were noticeably closer.

“I’m not big on speeches, so I’ll make this short,” I told them. “I’m sure most of you have noticed there’s a storm coming, but we don’t want to still be sitting here when that frost giant’s buddies come looking for him. Does anyone know the woods around here?”

They milled about for a bit, but finally one of the young men nervously put a hand up.

“This is Lord Brent’s hunting range, milord. Ain’t no one lives there, but I’ve been in some... ah, watching fer poachers, y’see...”

“I’m sure,” I chuckled. “Well, honestly I wouldn’t care if you were one of the poachers. I’m not one of your local nobles, and we’ve got more important things to worry about. What’s your name?”

“Gronir, milord.”

“I’m not a lord, Gronir. Alright, I need you to find us a spot to camp maybe a half-mile or so into the woods from here, preferably close to water. Think you can do that?”

“Yessir,” he nodded. “But sir, cold ain’t gonna stop them giants. Won’t they see our fires?”

“I doubt they can find their way through a blizzard any more than we could a rainstorm. But just in case I’m going to make us an underground shelter to hole up in, and the snow will cover our tracks soon enough. We’ll stay there until the storm blows over and I get all the wounded healed enough to travel, and then we’ll make for town. Any questions?”

One of the older men stood, leaning on a staff. “I’m Hrodir, sir. I was headman of Shiner’s Grove before... well, before. Sir, everyone’s been talking about making for Lanrest like its safe and all, but what if it isn’t?”

Most of the others frowned at that, and it was pretty obvious they didn’t want to think about it. But it was a good point.

“I’ve never visited Lanrest myself, so I can’t speak to its defenses. Sergeant?”

Thomas shook his head. “Depends, sir. The town’s got a good moat and a fifteen foot curtain wall, and the local knights will all be gathering there. They’ll hold off goblins and even trolls easy enough, but giants? Depends on if a big enough band decides to attack the place.”

“I see. Do you have a better idea, Hroldir?”

He looked uncertain. “Not really, sir. Some of the mountain villages are set up where giants couldn’t get at them, but they’d be easy pickings for goblins or rock trolls. There’s supposed to be big cities downriver a ways, and stout castles, but that’s a long trip.”

“Hmm. Well, it never hurts to have a backup plan. Find out who else has ideas along those lines, and we’ll all talk it through while we’re waiting out the storm. But my bet is there aren’t that many giants, and they’ll be busy raiding easier targets for at least a week or two. With any luck I’ll have plenty of time to meet with whoever is in charge in Lanrest and arrange some nasty surprises for them before they show up there.”

There were grim smiles all around at that, and a couple of the young men laughed.

“Hell, yeah,” one of them said. “The wizard can handle them giants.”

“That’s the spirit. Alright folks, let’s move.”

It was only fall, and most of the trees and bushes still had their leaves. Between that and the snow covering their branches visibility was short, which made me a bit nervous about goblin ambushes. But nothing bothered us as we made our way into the woods, picking our way through a maze of game trails.

Gronir took the lead with a bow in hand, and a couple of soldiers with spears right behind him. I placed myself next in line after them, on the theory that if we did encounter trouble it was more likely to come from ahead than behind. Cerise stayed at my side, her sharp eyes constantly searching the underbrush, but Avilla dropped back to chat with the peasant women as we traveled.

There was enough overhead cover that most of the trails had only an inch or two of snow, although there were deeper drifts here and there under the trees. The landscape was uneven, rising and falling in random folds that hinted we were near hill country. But we made decent time, and it was barely an hour before we found ourselves at the top of a ravine overlooking a small frozen river.

“Here we go, sir,” Gronir announced. “That’s the Babbleflow down there. It’s mostly too deep to ford, so there should be water under the ice. We just need to find a spot where  we can get down the slope.”

The ravine was maybe ten feet deep, with steep sides but a good bit of more level ground along the banks of the river. Most likely it flooded a lot in spring, but that was hardly going to be a problem now. I nodded.

“This will work. The sharp drop is actually perfect, so don’t worry about finding a stretch that’s climbable. Sergeant, set sentries and get everyone organized for a wait, will you? I’ll let you know when the shelter is ready.”

“Yes, sir. No fires, I assume?”

I shook my head. “It won’t be that long.”

Using my earth magic to make something was actually a nice distraction from my worries. It was the work of a few minutes to cut a steep little ramp down the face of the cliff, just wide enough for people to pass single file. The ground didn’t feel entirely stable, but with a little more concentration I found that I could reach into the loose earth and fuse it together into something more like sandstone. That was solid enough to handle a lot more weight that we were going to put on it, but I was careful to leave a layer of soil covering the stone so it wouldn’t be too obvious.

Then I walked down the trail, and took a look at the cliff face. I wanted an inconspicuous shelter, so going underground seemed like the best option. I put a hand on the near-vertical surface, and closed my eyes.

Loose soil, with gravel and small stones underneath. Normally it wouldn’t be stable enough to excavate, but that worked in our favor. No one who knew the area would be expecting it.

I fused the dirt into an arch of stone, a foot thick and just big enough to act as the roof of a doorway. I added walls to support the arch, and then banished the dirt inside.

“Neat,” Cerise commented, and I realized she was watching me intently. “So that’s earth sorcery?”

I nodded, and stepped into the empty space under the arch. “Yep. It’s surprisingly easy, although I have to be careful to get the engineering right. Don’t want a cave-in.”

She winced. “Yeah, that would suck. I’ll let you work, then.”

Repeating the process a few times gave me a little entry hall leading eight feet into the cliff, which was probably deep enough. I was getting a feel for the technique by then, and the results seemed more than strong enough.

The next step was an underground hall at right angles to the entrance. This one was bigger, about eight feet wide and seven high at the top of the arched ceiling. I did it in sections, but kept going until I had a good forty feet of it. That would still be a little crowded for a group this size, but it was workable.

Ventilation might be an issue, so I cut a few windows leading outside into the wall. A foot tall and a few inches wide, they would have made good arrow slits if not for the two 90-degree bends that ensured light and sound from the inside wouldn’t leak out too much.

Of course, that let in the cold along with fresh air. So next came a platform built out from one wall of the room, with a large flat surface of conjured stone. Enchanting that to radiate heat equivalent to a fire was fairly simple, since I wasn’t trying to make the effect adjustable in any way. That gave us a heater and cooking surface, with no light or oxygen consumption.

At the opposite end from the entrance I narrowed the hall to form a doorway, with a little eight by eight room on the other side. If we were going to be sitting in place for a day I needed to see what else I could magic up to improve our odds of survival, and I’d need a little space for that.

I emerged to find that the wind had picked up, and snow was starting to fall. Avilla was standing just outside the entrance, chatting amiably with a clump of peasant girls who had blankets over their heads and piles of bundled goods at their feet. As usual Cerise was standing guard, although she seemed to be amused by the conversation.

“Alright, girls, everyone can come on in. Watch out for the hot stone on the platform, don’t want anyone burning themselves.”

“Good timing, Master Black,” Avilla commented. “We’ve just enough time to get settled before the storm gets bad. Come on, girls, let’s see what we have to work with.”

They all swept by in a cloud of smiles and giggles, and I turned a bemused look on Cerise.

“Honeydew’s taking charge,” she grinned back. “She started talking recipes and sewing on the walk over, and now these village girls all think she’s the goddess of domestic perfection.”

“Huh. Well, it’s a big improvement on huddling in a clearing waiting to die. Keep an eye on them while I get the rest of the group moving, will you?”

“Sure. Better hurry, though.”

A flurry of snow descended on us, briefly turning the world white before clearing again.

“Yeah, I think you’re right.” I turned and hurried up the path, calling for Thomas.

Chapter 5

It took some time to check on the wounded and get everyone settled in, and more to figure out a viable design for a stone door. By the time I was done with that the snow was coming down in dense flurries, and visibility was just about zero.

“Good thing you have earth magic,” Avilla observed. “I’d hate to be out in that.”

“That’s why I picked it,” I answered. I took one last look at the storm, and pushed the heavy door closed.

“You had a choice? Someday I’m going to have to get the whole story on that.” Avilla grinned, and grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up.”

She dragged me down the hall to the private room I’d made at the end, where a couple of men were just setting down a pot full of steaming water under the supervision of Cerise and a couple of the village girls.

“Hot water?” I asked.

“We melted snow on that magic stove thing,” she explained with a smile, and shooed the men out before closing the door. “Now, strip.”

I shrugged off my bloodstained cloak, and started unbuttoning my shirt. “Bit of an audience, don’t you think?”

“We’re auditioning, milord,” one of the girls said as she took my bloodstained cloak. “Miss Avilla said you might like a maid or two. I- oh, my!”

She stared at the cloak in her hand with wide eyes. Avilla chuckled.

“It’s enchanted,” she explained. “Very cozy.”

The other girl eyed my bare chest, and licked her lips. “I bet.”

At that point I realized that the girls Avilla had picked, a redhead and a brunette, were both rather attractive. They were also just old enough not to make me feel too guilty for noticing that fact, and the way they were eying me made it clear that the feeling was mutual. Was she trying to set me up?

I directed a raised eyebrow at Avilla. “Auditions?”

“Mmm hmmm. Trust me, master. Finding the right people for your household could be tricky, but it’s important. You’ll need someone to handle all the ordinary details so you can concentrate on your magic.”

Avilla fetched a bowl of hot water and a handful of wet rags, and set to work cleaning the dried blood and gore off my chest. I noticed that it was coming off a lot easier than I would have expected, but that was probably just another aspect of her magic.

“Hard-working maids who won’t blabber about your business would be a good start,” Cerise put it. “Might want to recruit some guards, too.”

“I have an uncle in the Lanrest garrison, milord” the brunette offered. “I’m sure he could suggest some good men there.”

They had my shoes off by then, and were working on my pants. I tried very hard to concentrate on the conversation, and not the feel of Avilla’s soft hands on my skin.

“What are your names, girls?”

“I’m Beri, milord,” the brunette answered. “She’s Tina.”

The redhead nodded shyly, not meeting my eyes.

“Hmm. Avilla has a valid point, but have you two thought this through? Working for a wizard isn’t going to be easy. You’ll be constantly surrounded by all sorts of strange magic, and wizards always have secrets. After a certain point you won’t be able to back out.”

They finished pulling my pants down, and turned away. Tina busied herself arranging the soiled clothing in a pile next to the pot. Beri turned back to me, carefully keeping her eyes on my face.

“We know, sir,” she said hesitantly. “Tina heard what Cerise said to those deserters, and we figure you’ll do the same to us sooner or later. But we’ve seen you fight, and heal people, and... please forgive me if this is impertinent, milord, but you seem like a man who takes care of what’s his.”

“He is,” Avilla said firmly. “I’d be dead three times over if he didn’t keep risking his life to protect me.

Beri nodded. “Exactly. Milord, in the last week Tina and I have lost everything we had, and the rumors say this is only the beginning. I’m sure when we get to Lanrest every girl with an ounce of sense will be trying to get your attention, but please, give us a chance. We’ll work hard, and keep our mouths shut, and do whatever else you might require of us.”

Her gaze flicked to Avilla and then Cerise as she said the last part, and I wondered how much she’d put together. The witches certainly weren’t advertising their relationship, but that kind of thing can be surprisingly hard to hide. Had she guessed?

I tried to keep my face impassive as I thought that one through. I wasn’t actually going to make the pair of them run some gauntlet of obscure perversions to earn their keep, of course. But the fact that Beri was willing to go that far actually said good things about her. She was perceptive enough to realize just how bad her situation was, smart enough to recognize potential salvation, and practical enough to do whatever it took to convince a powerful stranger to save her. A girl like that could be handy to have around, as long as she was on our side.

By then they were both helping Avilla with the cleaning, which only added to my distraction. A guy could get used to that kind of thing.

“I notice Tina hasn’t said anything,” I commented. “Why is that?”

“She’s just shy,” Beri began, but Tina put a hand on her arm.

“I’m not all smart and stuff like Beri, milord,” Tina said hesitantly. “I asked her to talk for me. We’ve been friends forever, y’see. But I listen good, and I can work really hard. Um, an my boobs are still growing, an the sheriff always said my blow jobs were the best in the village?”

I sighed, and patted her on the head. “I can make a girl’s boobs grow as big as I want, Tina. I‘m good with that kind of thing. Ah, is it common for local sheriffs to expect that kind of service form village girls around here?”

“Of course,” Beri replied matter-of-factly. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“Lovely. Alright, girls, I’ll go along with Avilla’s audition idea. Do a good job between here and Lanrest, and I’ll consider keeping you on permanently.

“Thank you, milord!” They both curtsied enthusiastically.

I chuckled. “You’re welcome, girls. But I’m not actually a lord, so you’re going to have to stop calling me that. Just ‘sir’ will do.”

Really, I was tempted to tell them to call me by name in private. But just because Americans have a pathological aversion to class distinctions doesn’t mean the rest of the universe agrees, and I was pretty sure violating the local customs that much would just cause trouble. They were probably going to be confused enough when I didn’t beat them or force them to have sex with me.

“Done!” Avilla announced happily.

I looked down to discover she was kneeling at my feet, having just finished washing the blood off of them. The top two buttons of her dress had come undone at some point, and the position afforded me a breathtaking view of her cleavage. I looked away quickly.

“Great. Where’s that other change of clothes, then?”

Cerise chuckled, and pulled a bundle of cloth out of one of the bags. “Here you go. Still worried about an attack?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I suppose I could fight naked if I had to, but it would be rather embarrassing.”

Well, it was a better excuse that ‘I’m trying really hard not to get an erection while your girlfriend is sitting at eye level with my dick’. That would really be embarrassing. Not to mention hazardous, if Cerise decided to get jealous and backstabby with those knives of hers.

I looked up from pulling a fresh pair of pants on to find Avilla pouting at me.

“What?”

But she just sighed, and turned to the pot of water. “Nothing, master. I’d better get these clean before the water cools.”

“You’re the expert. Alright, time to get some work done. As often as you girls end up in nothing else I’d better put warmth enchantments on your cloaks first.”

Neither had complained much about the cold, but their eyes lit up at that.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on little projects like that, while the storm raged on outside. After the girls were taken care of I made a few extra warmth cloaks to share among the wounded, and did another round of healing. Then I sat down to do some more experimenting.

It was easy enough to levitate a little disk of stone above my hand, but enchanting it to fly around was surprisingly tricky. After some experimentation I realized that the control problems were basically the same as trying to make an aircraft fly solely on vectored thrust, which is the kind of complicated problem I could easily spend days or even weeks trying to solve. Since I was looking for a faster way to transport the refugees that didn’t seem very practical, although I resolved to come back the problem in the future. Being able to fly would be amazingly useful.

I played around with other ideas for a bit, looking for one that might work. Stone golems pulling stone wagons? Amulets enchanted to ‘heal’ fatigue continuously? Levitation spells on the baggage? Most approaches turned out to be impractical on examination, either because they’d require too much enchantment time or because they needed an effect my sorcery didn’t want to provide.

Eventually I decided to let that problem stew for a bit, and turned my thoughts to weapons and armor. So far I’d been pushed way too hard in all of our fights, and I could easily have lost one. Any real power gamer will tell you that if the outcome of a fight is in doubt when it starts you’ve already screwed up, so I was determined to find a better way to deal with giant monsters.

Force fields had proved invaluable so far, but keeping one running often took more concentration or mana than I could spare. Force blades were devastating at close range, but their lack of mass made them a lot less useful at a distance. I needed substantial improvements on both, and a bigger mana supply, and a way to make myself more durable, and some defenses against being surprised, and...

I reigned myself in before the list could get too long. One problem at a time, Daniel.

Some experimenting with the power tap enchantment I’d come up with revealed that the rate it generated mana was determined by the size of the object it was tied to. So my tiny little amulet might last for centuries, but its energy output was relatively modest. If I wanted a real power source I’d need something bigger.

Fortunately that was an easy problem to fix. I could conjure stone easily, and with a constant power source metals were possible as well. So my new amulet was a thick bronze disk about three inches in diameter, suspended from a braided rope of copper threads. I took the time to work out a proper on/off switch for this one, as well as a remote cutoff just in case an enemy got hold of it one day. It weighed a couple of pounds, enough to be a bit uncomfortable, but I’d live. The extra weight meant it delivered more than ten times the energy of the original version, and there were all kinds of things I could do with that.

For starters, I could enchant it to surround the wearer with a force shield on command so I wouldn’t have to do that myself. I carefully constructed a substantial energy reservoir to hold the shield up against any sudden flurry of blows, and took advantage of the hefty power supply to make the barrier considerably stronger than the ones I’d been using as well. With that running I might actually make it through the next fight without getting covered in blood.

But I couldn’t count on it withstanding every attack, so the next function I build in was automatic healing. There was no way to make it especially intelligent about how it dealt with complicated injuries, but it was surprisingly straightforward to have it just indiscriminately dump healing energy into the wearer. The result should look like natural healing sped up by a factor of a few hundred, which ought to make even really serious injuries survivable.

I had a thousand other ideas, but my crafting was interrupted by dinner.

That was a communal affair for the whole group, although I was surprised to note that Avilla seemed to be running things. She stood at the hot stone surrounded by a clump of peasant women, who seemed happy enough to follow her directions even if most of them were older than she was. The younger ones passed around plates of flatbread and bowls of a surprisingly Asian-looking vegetable stir fry, although I doubt sliced wolf flank was a common ingredient even in China. A couple of the older women stood by the improvised stove slicing vegetables and filling bowls, while Avilla merrily cooked and gave directions at the same time.

There was no table, of course, but Beri led me to an empty stretch of floor she and Tina had apparently staked out for me. Cerise brought me food with a little grin that said she was amused at playing servant, or perhaps it was just the way her girlfriend was taking charge again.

“I see Avilla has things in hand here,” I commented.

“Looks like it.” She shook her head. “Don’t let her fool you. She acts all meek and innocent, but when she decides she wants something she always makes it happen.”

“She’s a good woman,” Sergeant Thomas put in from where he was sitting a few feet away. “Brave, a good cook, and a real beauty. If she wasn’t taken already some noble’d snatch her right up when we get to town.”

“When’s that like to be?” Another voice put in, and I turned to find that old Hrodir had made his way over to join us. “If we’re still headed to Lanrest we’ll be out of supplies before we make it, unless you mean us to eat monsters.”

I was too busy eating to answer for a moment. Damn, but Avilla could cook. Most of the vegetables were unfamiliar, but if I closed my eyes I could almost imagine I was back on Earth in some fancy Asian restaurant.

But these people needed leadership, and Captain Rain was still in no shape to give it. As crowded as the room was quite a few of the refugees could hear our conversation, and I had no doubt they’d pass on anything interesting they overheard. Time to get my game face back on.

“The wolves seem pretty tasty, actually,” I observed. “I’m sure I can hunt down another one if need be, and turnabout is fair play.”

Several of the young men laughed at that, and one of them made some comment about getting a taste for wolf heart. The bravado was encouraging, but what surprised me was the feral grins from some of the young women. Maybe the local villagers were made of sterner stuff than I’d thought?

Hmm. Or maybe Avilla’s magic was having more of an effect that anticipated. That could be useful.

“As for our destination, I’m open to suggestions,” I went on. “I’m not crazy about spending a week walking through the woods fighting off every troll and goblin in the area, so I’m looking into some magic to help us all travel faster.”

One of the older men shook his head. “Ain’t nothin good ever comes of common folk messing with dark forces,” he grumbled.

“Ah, shut it, Jed,” another one exclaimed. “The wizard knows what he’s doing.”

Judging from the expressions that was a contentious issue. Several men had nodded knowingly at Jed’s comment, and now others were looking angry.

“No, he has a point,” I interrupted before an argument could get going. Startled faces turned to me, and I went on. “Magic is a dangerous tool, especially if you can’t see the power you’re working with. It’s like a blacksmith trying to use an invisible flame - even if you’re careful you’re going to get burned sooner or later. Normally I’d advise you all to stay well away from it, unless one of you had natural talent and wanted to spend a few years training to master it.”

“But with the woods full of monsters and the weather getting worse, magical dangers are the least of your problems right now. If we keep on the way we have been we’re going to keep losing people, and the slower we move the worse it will be. So unless you think you’re lucky enough to walk from here to Lanrest on your own without getting eaten, you’re going to have to risk it. I’ll do my best to make this as safe for you all as I can, but you’d better listen close when my apprentices and I are giving directions or you never know what might happen.”

Hrodir nodded. “You’ve been a godsend so far, sir wizard. We’ll trust you to see us through.”

That seemed to settle the issue, at least for most of the group. Unfortunately the conversation then turned to the topic of our destination and its likely safety, or lack thereof.

No one in the group had a map, so I had to struggle to piece together a mental picture of this land’s geography as the older villagers discussed the various towns and castles they’d heard of. I quickly gathered that the reputations of the local lords were a bigger factor in their minds than the defenses of their settlements, for reasons that would never have occurred to me.

“Baron Stein might take us all in if we make it to Lanrest,” Hrodir explained when I brought it up. “But then again he might not. He’s not the sort of lord who forgives taxes during a famine, if you take my meaning. Like as not he’ll decide we’re just more mouths to feed, unless he figures he’s got a use for us.”

“Yeah, but no one else has any obligation to us at all,” Gronir pointed out.

Hrodir shrugged. “Fair enough. But it ain’t like they’re going to be checking close about what village we came from, is it?”

I chuckled. “Well, I’ll say one thing. I can see a lot of lords might panic and shut everyone out of their towns, especially if they aren’t stocked for a siege and their priests are warning them about what’s coming. But a man who reacts like that only a week into a crisis isn’t going to hold his people together for long. Panic spreads, and once his vassals start looking out for themselves instead of pulling together their defenses will fall apart quick.  I’m not interested in getting my own people caught in a mess like that, so if that’s what we find at Lanrest I’ll be moving on with you.”

Most of the group seemed shocked at that, but Hrodir just nodded. “I thought you might see it that way, sir.”

“I, ah, that’d put us in a bad spot, sir,” Sergeant Thomas said hesitantly. “The company was in service to Baron Stein, y’see.”

“Hmm. Are you his vassals, or some kind of mercenary outfit?”

“Oh, that’s kinda complicated, sir. We’re technically part of the Margold garrison, that’s a big free city down on the coast. But the city fathers don’t like payin fer troops to sit around the barracks causing trouble, so they hire us out to the country nobles. We get half pay from Margold, an make up the rest on mercenary contracts. So I’d hate to abandon these folk, but breaking a contract don’t sit right neither.”

I scratched my chin. “Fair enough. I’ll point out that I could make a good argument the ‘5th Marigold Foot’ doesn’t exist anymore, but that’s going to be up to your captain. I expect he’ll be well enough to make decisions by then, even if he isn’t back on his feet yet.”

“That’s good to know, sir.”

After that it was all pointless wrangling over questions we couldn’t resolve. The light dimmed quickly as the discussion dragged on, and the women collected the bowls and utensils and washed up.

None of the women joined the conversation, not even Avilla or Cerise. Apparently women were supposed to be seen and not heard around here, at least when the men were talking. It was quite odd to see such a large group meekly complying with an informal rule like that, but if they minded they certainly didn’t show it.

I did notice that some of the older women would pause to whisper in a husband or son’s ear now and then, and these incidents were often followed a few minutes later by a new question or a change of opinion. But they were discreet about it, and I probably wouldn’t have noticed if I wasn’t still concentrating on figuring out the local customs.

At length it started getting hard to see, and the discussion broke up as the refugees went to bed. Sergeant Thomas went off to set up a watch schedule, and Cerise sauntered over to collect me.

“Bedtime, master,” she murmured suggestively. “Unless you’re going to stay up all night working magic in the dark and exhaust yourself again.”

“I could come up with a way to make light if I wanted to,” I pointed out. “But I suppose it would keep you awake.”

“Mmm hmmm. Come on, you. Avilla’s got her little minions all set up to make sure we have some privacy. If you disappoint her again she’ll never stop pouting.”

I frowned as we passed through the door to the private chamber I’d made. The maids had apparently set up their bedrolls right next to the door, and were waiting there to close it behind us.

“Wait, what’s Avilla disappointed about?” I asked Cerise as we passed through the door.

Cerise rolled her eyes. “You can’t be that oblivious. Is this that weird age thing again?”

“Age thing? What age thing?”

The door closed behind us with a solid thump, and the million background noises of the refugees were abruptly cut off.

“You know, where you were all put off because one of the captain’s girls is only fourteen? I guess that’s supposed to be to be too young where you’re from?”

“Well, yes,” I replied hesitantly. “But what does that have to do with Avilla?”

“Nothing,” the girl in question put in. “I’m at least twenty, no matter how you count it.”

I turned to face her as she sat up from the nest of blankets she’d been lying in, and gulped.

A single candle lit the tiny room, revealing a breathtaking expanse of flawless feminine curves. Her breasts rode high and firm despite their impressive size, shifting slightly with her breathing. A cascade of golden silk spilled down across them, framing their magnificence while hiding absolutely nothing. Good god. She was even more beautiful than I’d thought.

“Well, that’s a relief,” Cerise said wryly. “I was starting to worry you were gay.”

I realized I was staring, and tore my gaze away. “Um, what… urp.”

I was just in time to see Cerise finish unbuttoning her dress, and shrug it off her shoulders to whisper down into a pool at her feet. She wore nothing underneath, and while her lithe body might not catch the eye as firmly as Avilla’s sumptuous curves it had its own undeniable appeal.

“Ah, girls? I thought you two were…”

“Lesbians?” Cerise prompted. “Nah, that would be way too limiting. Hedonism is a big part of my craft.”

“I still say you’re just a natural sex fiend,” Avilla teased.

“Maybe.” Cerise leaned against me, and slipped one hand up under my shirt. “So, Daniel, ever been with two witches at once before?”

“Ah, no? You know, girls, I thought you were just getting into that ‘apprentice’ act.”

“Does that mean we can’t properly thank our hero?” Avilla asked. “We’d both be dead three times over now if not for you, Daniel. Let us finally show you our gratitude.”

“Yeah.” Cerise took my head in her hands, and met my gaze with eyes that were suddenly full of emotion. “Thank you, Daniel. Thank you for saving my Avilla so many times, when you know you didn’t have to. I’ll never forget.”

She rose onto her tiptoes to kiss me, and the world went away. When our lips touched I could somehow feel her emotions as clearly as my own. Awe, gratitude, lust, anticipation, curiosity, mischief - the combination made my head spin. Our tongues dueled for a brief eternity, until a new sensation finally penetrated my addled brain.

I broke the kiss and looked down, to find that my pants were around my ankles and Avilla was kneeling before me. Her soft hand stroked my length, and she looked up at me eagerly.

“Thank you for answering Lady Hecate’s call, Daniel,” she purred. “Thank you for protecting my brave Cerise, when even her fierceness wasn’t enough. Thank you for saving me even when your bargain didn’t demand it. Thank you.”

Then she ran her tongue up the underside of my organ, and her eyes lit up.

“Oh, it’s so tasty! Yum!”

She swallowed two-thirds of my length before I could blink. I groaned, and Cerise giggled as she eased me down onto the blankets.

“Damn, honeydew, I thought you wanted to start slow?”

Avilla reluctantly released me. “I changed my mind. Oh, Cerise, this is what that stupid craving I could never satisfy was about. This taste! This is what I’ve been needing.”

She swallowed me again, and I swear her tongue was trying to touch every part of me at the same time. But enthusiastic or not she obviously had no idea what she was doing.

Cerise slithered down to lie beside her in my lap. “Figures. Here, let me show you how to do that.”

I opened my mouth as Avilla made room for her friend, and then shut it again. Part of me wanted to make some lame protest about how they didn’t have to do this, and I was just trying to do the right thing by taking care of them. But what kind of moron would try to discourage a pair of sexy vixens who were in the middle of giving him a team blowjob?

“See, you want to bob your head some, like this.”

Cerise demonstrated the basic technique with more skill than Amanda had ever bothered to learn, and I found myself groaning again. They went back and forth for a few minutes, with Cerise offering pointers and Avilla diligently applying everything she was being taught.

Then Avilla got the hang of it, and Cerise decided to slip a little further down and give my aching balls some attention. I didn’t last long after that.

Most women pull away at that point, but Avilla was positively eager to taste the fruits of her labor. She moaned and cooed like she was the one having an orgasm, and for all I knew maybe she was. Her eager attention certainly prolonged my own climax, but such things can’t last forever. Finally I collapsed back onto the blankets with a satisfied sigh, and her lips reluctantly released me.

“That was wonderful!” She enthused. “I love the way you taste. Can we do it again?”

Cerise laughed, and mussed her hair. “Guys can’t just go all night, silly. Give him a few minutes to recover, and then we’ll see about introducing you to sex with a man.”

“If it’s better than that, I think I’m going to die,” Avilla declared breathlessly.

“Well, someone is easy to please,” I commented.

Avilla bit her lip, and gave me a sheepish look. “Maybe.”

“Totally,” Cerise corrected. “I swear, sometimes you can get off from a sultry look. So what do you think, Daniel? Can you get it up again for the boob goddess?”

She cupped her girlfriend’s breasts as she spoke. Avilla’s eyelids fluttered, and her fat brown nipples instantly popped back to attention. I sat up, and gave each of them a long, thorough taste-test. Apparently they were pretty sensitive, because by the time I was done Avilla was panting and squirming in Cerise’s arms.

“Definitely not a problem. But what about you? We can’t have our sexy stabby girl getting jealous here.”

She grinned at me. “I sacrificed my jealousy for arcane power when I was twelve, Daniel. I just want my girl’s first time with a man to be a good one.”

“Sacrificed… Cerise, you’re completely nuts, you know that?”

“But I’m a fun kind of nuts,” she said smugly. She leaned back against the wall behind her, pulling Avilla with her. Her dainty hands gave the buxom girl’s breasts a firm squeeze, and then wandered up to roll her nipples.

“Oh! Oh, please!” Avilla pleaded, her eyes screwed shut.

“Soon,” Cerise assured her. “We popped honeydew’s cherry years ago, so you can dive right in whenever you’re ready, Daniel. I’ll just keep on like this until them. If I do her nipples right all she can do is lie there and make these cute little noises, but it isn’t quite enough to get her over the top.”

Yeah, with a scene like that I was ready to go again already.

This time I managed to last a bit longer, but it wasn’t easy. Avilla had a hair trigger alright, and when the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen is having earthshaking multiple orgasms underneath you it’s hard not to follow suite. I varied my pace, recited times tables in my head, pictured naked fat guys, anything I could think of to put off the inevitable. But even so I doubt I lasted ten minutes.

Afterwards Avilla and I curled up together in a panting heap. I was just coming back to Earth enough to notice that Avilla smelled more like honey and spices than a sweaty human when Cerise made a discovery of her own.

“Hey, up again already? I’m impressed, Daniel. I didn’t think I was going to get a turn.”

Huh. I rarely went more than once, and never three times in a row. But she was right, I felt ready for another round. I’d already gotten my breath back too, and the fatigue was fading away.

Wait. I was still wearing my new amulet. Did it think being spent was an injury it needed to fix? Well, that was an interesting discovery. Obviously I needed to put the theory to the test, and conduct a detailed investigation. For science.

Chapter 6

I woke to find myself sandwiched between two sleeping witches. Avilla was cuddled against my right side, her head on my shoulder and one arm draped over my chest. Cerise was curled up in a ball to my left, her face buried against my side, with my arm around her.

I blinked at them stupidly for a few moments, before memories of the previous night’s activities caught up with me. Two girls. Two beautiful, eager, playful and rather kinky girls. Who were witches, and seriously involved with each other.

Part of me wanted to thank Hecate for bringing me here, but another part was already worried about just how badly this could go wrong. Less than a week since I got burned by Amanda, and these two were more dangerous than she could ever hope to be.

Of course, they also hadn’t made any demands of me. Maybe this was intended as a one-time thing? Or they just wanted to experiment with a man? Or maybe it was just a reaction to the stress and danger of the last few days? I’d read that was supposed to be pretty common.

I always overanalyze these things. Maybe I should just quit worrying and go with it?

A faint odor of cooking meat wafted by, and Avilla twitched. A frown crossed her face, and then her eyes flew open.

“Breakfast!” She exclaimed. “Oh my, I overslept!”

She sat up abruptly, and fumbled for her dress. A moment later she was stumbling towards the door, mumbling something about cooking under her breath as she smoothed down her skirt. She wrenched the heavy door open, and marched off to the hot stone.

“Beri, what are you doing? The wolf flank isn’t going to sear properly unless you put oil on it first. Gudrin, don’t let that batter sit so close to the heat or the hotcakes will come out all rubbery. Oh, why are you two trying to cook by yourselves anyway? Is Mother Savina up?”

I heard a chuckle, and looked down to see Cerise directing an affectionate gaze towards the door.

“Is she always like that?” I asked.

“Pretty much. I gave up trying to surprise her with breakfast in bed years ago. She won’t even let me make her birthday cakes. She can’t stand it when people who aren’t magically perfect at it try to cook.”

“Guess it’s a good thing I never wanted to be a chef,” I observed.

“Yeah, you’ve got other talents. Was that some kind of magic last night, or are you just the god of fucking me into a coma?”

Her tone was light, but the way she hugged me was pretty possessive. I couldn’t help but feel smug.

“I do have a bit more experience than you two,” I pointed out. “I’m thirty-six, and you’re… what, maybe twenty?”

“Nineteen,” she told me.

I nodded. “Right. But honesty compels me to admit it was mostly magic. I put a general-purpose healing enchantment on this amulet, and it turns out to be kind of indiscriminate about what it considers an injury.”

She laughed. “Well, I’m not complaining. I haven’t been fucked like that since the time I screwed up an incubus binding, and I really needed it. I had no idea how wound up I was getting.”

“Screwed up an incubus binding?” I shook my head. “You must have a lot of interesting stories, Cerise.”

“Yep. Keep making me feel like this and I might even share some.”

She shifted to rest her head on my shoulder, her lithe body pressed firmly against my side, and sighed contentedly. I let my hand rest on her firm behind, and tried not to smirk.

“Want to get in a little quickie before breakfast?”

She smiled. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m fucked out. Tonight, maybe? If I can feel my legs by then?”

“Deal,” I chuckled.

I listened to the sounds of cooking for a few minutes. It sounded like the camp was starting to wake up, although it felt like it was still pretty early. Oh yeah, peasants. They were probably used to rising with the sun.

Still, this might be a chance to get some answers. I reached out with my force magic, and pushed the door closed.

“So, last night Avilla said something about cravings?” I began.

Cerise glanced at the door, and then nodded.

“Yeah, that’s probably the essence of Aphrodite talking. Avilla only has a few drops of it in her, but having your soul made from even a tiny fraction of a sex goddess’ slut-bomb aspect will have a big effect on you. Ever since our first time together Avilla can’t stand to go more than a few days without going down on me, and I guess she’s going to be the same with guys now that she’s had a taste.”

She shook her head. “Granny Havsen was a real piece of work, let me tell you. Spent half her life figuring out how to make an immortal body for herself, and didn’t care how many of them she killed in the process. Avilla was her big success, but she still has a lot of weird quirks we’ve had to figure out.”

“Sounds like a classic fairy tale evil witch,” I said. “I take it she didn’t die of natural causes?”

“Nope. She was getting ready to put her big plan into effect, and that was going to end with her pulling a body switch on Avilla. So I locked the crazy bitch in her own oven and roasted her.” Cerise paused, and gave me a nasty grin. “She screamed for a long time, but I just piled more wood on the fire. No one hurts my girl and gets away with it.”

I imagined the scene, and suppressed a shudder. “She had an oven big enough to hold a person?”

Cerise nodded. “She used to catch travelers and bake out their essences for her spellwork.”

“Nasty. Do you two do anything like that?”

She hesitated.

“I kill things for power,” she admitted. “But only monsters. I could do it to people too, but to be honest I’ve always been afraid I’d turn into a monster myself if I went down that road.”

“Hmm. How about Avilla?”

Cerise raised an eyebrow. “Can you really see that?”

“I’ve seen the way she holds that meat cleaver,” I pointed out. “I think she’s perfectly capable of killing someone if she thinks it needs to be done.”

“Oh. Guess we didn’t fool you as much as I though, huh? But no, she doesn’t do that. Doesn’t want to be like her granny.”

“Fair enough. So, does she have any other special needs I should know about?”

“Mana,” Cerise answered. “We’ve been doing rituals every couple of weeks to keep her power up, but if it gets too low she gets wicked horny and starts draining it through sex just like a succubus. She needs some weird stuff in her food, too. Sugar, honey, some particular spices. Obviously she takes care of that part herself, but it could be a problem if this winter really lasts for years. I don’t think she can survive on just meat like we can.”

“Oh, and we should both keep a close eye on her for a few days. Sometimes when we figure out how to satisfy one of these cravings there are side effects. Nothing dangerous, but she might get weird mood swings or start stalking you looking for more or something.”

I chuckled. “I think I could handle that one. But yeah, I’ll keep an eye out.”

We lay there in silence for a moment.

“Thank you,” she said softly. “For being so decent about all this. When I called on the goddess I was afraid she’d end up tying me to some demon or monster or something. But you’ve been really good to us both.”

“You make that pretty easy,” I pointed out.

“I guess. You know, Avilla’s really worried about convincing you to keep protecting her. But you’ve already decided to do that, haven’t you?”

I nodded. “I like Avilla. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”

“Good. It’s been really hard, being responsible for protecting her. Not that she’s as helpless as she acts, but her magic isn’t much use in a fight. I’ve pushed myself pretty hard trying to get stronger. A lot harder than I should have, really. But I was stuck being the man for her.”

She sighed, and hugged me again. “You have no idea how good it feels to have someone to rely on.”

I brushed my fingers through her hair, and she rubbed her cheek against my hand.

“I won’t let anything happen to you, either,” I told her. “You’re a little nuts, but it’s a fun kind of crazy. I like having you watching my back.”

“Really? Most guys would be afraid I’d stab them.”

“Are you going to?” I asked her seriously.

She blinked. “I don’t want to,” she said hesitantly. “But some of the stuff I’ve picked up… don’t trust me too much, Daniel. Not until we can figure out how to get it back under control, anyway.”

“Fair enough. I’ll put ‘make Cerise’s secret dark side my bitch’ on the to-do list.”

She gave me a wide-eyed stare, and then broke down into giggles.

“Make… your bitch… thank you, goddess! Fuck, nothing fazes you, does it? You get a blowjob for that one.” She pushed the sheet down, her hand fumbling for me.

Sadly, someone chose that moment to interrupt us. The heavy door shifted slightly, and Beri peeked around the edge.

She got an eyeful, and blushed.

“Eep!” She ducked back around the door. “Sorry! I’m sorry! Miss Avilla wanted me to tell you breakfast is  ready, and the sergeant is waiting to speak to you.”

Cerise sighed. “Maybe having servants isn’t such a good idea.”

“I don’t know, Miss Cerise. It sounded to me like you and Miss Avilla need reinforcements, or soon you won’t be able to walk.”

I chuckled, and sat up. “Well, that’s one way to inflate my ego. Where’d my clothes end up?”

Breakfast was strips of wolf meat wrapped in hotcakes, with cheese and a touch of butter. It was mouthwatering as usual, and I reflected that I was going to get seriously spoiled if Avilla ever got a real kitchen to work with.

The snow had stopped some hours before, so once I was fed I headed outside to work a little miracle. Cerise followed me curiously, and Thomas detailed a couple of men to stand watch for me while I worked. I made my way down the bank of the frozen river until I found a decent stretch of flat ground to work on. There was now a good eight or ten inches of snow on the ground, enough to be a noticeable impediment to travel on foot.

“So what are you going to do, master?” Cerise asked eagerly. “Bind a troop of elementals to carry us all to Lanrest? Summon a dragon, and fly us there?”

“You’ll see,” I answered. “Gronir, I remember someone mentioning that Lanrest is on a river. Is this it?”

“No, milord,” the hunter answered. “But the Babbleflow runs into the Summerfall a few miles down. I guess we could follow that to Lanrest, but the way the river bends all around it’s a lot longer trip than the road.”

“Hmm. Let me check a few things.”

I called up my magic, blending three elements to create a simple stone disk enchanted to hover a few feet off the ground. This was the same repulsion effect I’d used to float a stone in my hand the day before, and it looked like it had just the properties I needed. The repulsion fell off sharply with distance, so the stone floated gently a few feet off the ground. Pushing down met with a springy resistance, as the stone was forced closer to the ground and the repulsion strengthened.

I let go, and it bobbed up and down for a few moments before coming to rest at the same height as before. Push down an edge, and it tried to right itself. Push sideways, and it glided silently across the ground like a hovercraft. Perfect.

“So, you’re making floating disk things for the baggage?” Cerise frowned thoughtfully.

“Nope. Wouldn’t be good enough,” I pointed out. “We’d still be walking, and even if I made enough disks for all the old and wounded the rest of us would be slowed down pushing them. But you’re getting there.”

I concentrated, and the disk grew. This was a tricky bit of work, conjuring more stone and extending the enchantment to cover it, but as long as I took it slow I could do it. I made it self-powered so it wouldn’t be a drain on my amulet’s energy, and slowly expanded the disk into a rectangular shape about the size of a bus. Then I added a stone lip two feet high and a couple of inches thick around the edges, just to make sure no one would fall off. The floor of the thing was nearly four feet off the ground, so I shaped some dirt into an earth ramp leading up to one side of it.

“Neat. Ok, I can see it’s big enough to hold everyone if we’re friendly,” Cerise commented. “But how does it move?”

“Magic,” I replied. She rolled her eyes, and I grinned. Being mysterious was turning out to be fun.

Looking around, I spotted Sergeant Thomas. I’d been working for about an hour, and I suppose he was getting a little anxious.

“All ready, Sergeant,” I told him. “Get everyone organized, and bring them over here. We’re going to ride into town in style.”

I climbed up the ramp and stepped into the floating vehicle. Considering the thickness of the stone the thing had to weigh tons, and my own weight barely affected it. Cerise ran lightly up after me, and eagerly jumped in.

“Are we going to fly?” She asked eagerly.

I chuckled. “No, this is as high as it goes. Free fight is way too tricky for me to try it with this many people involved.”

Her eyes gleamed. “Does that mean you can do it by yourself? Or maybe, with one person?”

“Yeah, if I ever get a few days to work on it I’m pretty sure I can build a flight spell. Are you volunteering to try it out?”

She nodded, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “A lot of demons can fly. I have dreams about it sometimes, and it’s awesome. If you can give me that kind of magic I’ll owe you some serious ‘thank you’ time.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Why don’t you see if Avilla needs any help?”

The refugees were a bit dubious about boarding a floating rock with no visible means of support, but a few brave souls crept up the ramp and cautiously took seats. Then Avilla trooped up with the maids in tow, and a couple of the soldiers followed her in, and we hit some sort of critical mass. Ten minutes later I had a fully loaded hover-barge.

“Everyone, get settled in as best you can,” I directed. “You’re going to be here awhile. This thing is more stable than a boat, but it’s still a good idea not to move around too much. We’re going to be going pretty fast, and I don’t want anyone to fall off. Gronir, I want you up near the front where you can help with directions if we need it. Is everyone here?”

Nods, whispers and speculative looks. I glanced at Thomas, and he nodded.

“Took a head count, sir. No one’s missing.”

“Good. Let’s see what kind of time we can make.”

I pushed off with a bit of force magic, and the floating barge drifted slowly forward. I steered carefully, mindful of the substantial mass of the vehicle. It was like guiding a boat, only worse. With no water to sink a rudder into the only way to change direction was to shift the vector of the thrust I was applying, and even with my new amulet pushing this many tons of vehicle and refugees around took time. So I kept our speed down to a slow walk as I maneuvered us down the river bank.

After the first couple of bends I was starting to get a feel for it, and eased our pace up a little. Then we reached a spot where the ravine narrowed, and I had to steer us over the frozen river.

The thin ice beneath us shattered almost instantly, producing an alarming racket, and a spray of water sheeted out in all directions. The passengers murmured uneasily as the vehicle sank a few inches, and began to bob slightly. But the repulsion field worked on water as well as dirt, and the spray of displaced water was all moving away from us. Good thing, since getting wet in freezing temperatures is dangerous.

“We’re fine,” I announced loudly. “The noise is just the weight of the barge crushing the ice under us.”

The passengers settled down in a few minutes, although the noise was still a bit unnerving. I pushed our speed up a little more, wanting to make sure we wouldn’t be in one place long enough for anything to hear us and come investigate. We were up to running speed now, which was fast enough that I had to pay close attention to steer us around the tighter bends.

A thought struck me.

“Gronir, there aren’t any falls on this river, are there?”

“Waterfalls, milord? Ain’t heard of none. Don’t reckon there could be. There’s boatmen on the river, in summer at least.”

“Good.” The thought of taking this thing over a sudden drop of any size was enough to give me chills. If it flipped over anyone it landed on would be crushed, and it certainly wasn’t going to float. I resolved to keep a close eye on where we were going.

Avilla and Cerise were settled in just behind me, wrapped in their warmth cloaks and chatting amiably. An occasional glance back revealed that the rest of the group was huddled under blankets in clumps of two or three, but they seemed to be holding up alright. The sky was still overcast, and I hoped we could finish this run before it started snowing again.

Then we passed around another bend in the river, and found ourselves face to face with a band of goblins who were camped out on the bank.

A hue and cry arose, but fortunately they were as surprised as we were. A couple of goblins with bows to hand let fly in our general direction, but one hit the parapet and the other somehow managed to miss us entirely. Several wolves howled, and a troll scrambled to its feet and stared stupidly at us. I threw up a force dome to protect us from further arrows, and gave the barge an extra push.

“Ready spears!” Sergeant Thomas bellowed, and the men scrambled for their weapons. A few more arrows bounced off my shield as we began to pass the camp, and for a moment I thought that would be it.

Then the troll suddenly realized there were humans on the strange floating object, and lumbered out over the ice to intercept us. Stupid thing. I attached an invisible blade of force to the front of the barge just before we struck.

The troll actually tried to grab hold and stop us, but our momentum was far too great for even its strength. The barge floated relentlessly forward, driving the force blade right through the monster’s body and cutting it in half. It collapsed, and we passed over it with a thump.

Then the goblin camp was behind us, but the commotion of howling wolves and blowing horns we’d left in our wake had to be audible for miles. A dozen goblins scrambled to the backs of wolves and came bounding down the riverbank after us, catching up quickly.

Thomas cursed.

“Our archers don’t have room to use their bows,” he complained. “They’re liable to get pitched off this thing anyway if they stand up to try it.”

“I can keep their arrows from reaching us,” I told him. “But it’s distracting. What we really need is… ah, finally, some good luck.”

The river we’d been following flowed into a larger water course, and this one was both wider and less winding than the one we’d be trapped in.

“Hold on, everyone!” I called loudly, and gave the barge a harder push.

Our acceleration was worse than an overloaded semi lumbering up a steep hill, but it was still more than my passengers were used to. A babble of voices rose up behind me as our speed crept slowly up to match that of the wolves, and kept rising. The faint breeze became a stiff wind of biting cold, and I pulled my cloak tighter.

Cerise leaned forward, wind whipping at her cloak as she gripped the parapet with both hands, and whooped excitedly.

“This is awesome!” She exclaimed. “Look at those silly wolves run. You can’t catch us, smelly monsters! Our wizard is way too smart for you.”

She whooped again, and a half-dozen voices joined in.

I glanced back to find that while most of the refugees were huddled miserably against the harsh wind of our passage, a number of them were reacting more like teenagers on a joyride. I caught one of the young men bending over to moon the goblins, and even several women were jeering and waving goodbye.

Avilla noticed my surprise, and leaned over to talk in my ear. “The wolf heart, remember? Now we know who it worked on.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Is it permanent?”

She nodded. “If they want it to be. Most people will reject the wolf nature and lose the benefit in a day or two, but those that accept it will keep the power. Not that it’s going to amount to much with as many ways as it was split, but a little extra bravery and vitality can go a long way.”

“Can we go faster?” Cerise interrupted breathlessly.

I shook my head. “Not unless you want to go splat when we hit that bend in the river up there. I have to wrestle this thing around by brute force, and that takes time.”

She turned to stare at me. “Wait, what? Are you saying your force element is so strong you can just push this thing around?”

I nodded.

A heartbeat later she’d somehow managed to slip under my cloak and plaster herself against me.

“Loki’s balls, that’s hot!” She purred into my ear. “I so want to fuck you right now.”

I rolled my eyes. “So much for being worn out.”

Avilla was close enough to hear. She giggled. “Not now, kitten. Be a good girl, and let Daniel concentrate on steering.”

“Do I have to?”

Avilla giggled again. “Come here, silly thing.”

She held her cloak open, and Cerise reluctantly let me go and settled into her girlfriend’s lap. I wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or disappointed, but it was probably for the best. I turned my attention back to our surroundings, and tried to keep an eye out for danger.

“Thomas, keep an eye on our passengers for me. We need to keep everyone sitting down, or someone’s bound to fall overboard. If they land in open water and slip under the ice we’d never find them in time.”

He nodded. “Yessir. Umar, Valdrin, the wizard says to sit down!”

It took him a few minutes to get things back under control, and by then the goblins were far behind us. I noticed Avilla handing Cerise’s warmth cloak to Beri out of the corner of my eye, but thought nothing of it. We flew through one long, lazy curve of river and down a mile or so of straightaway, and I let the barge slow a bit. No need to take chances.

An odd sound drew my attention back to Cerise, and I saw that she was hidden up to the neck by Avilla’s cloak. She was also flushed, squirming and biting her lip.

“Avilla? What are you up to?”

“I’m just making sure Cerise doesn’t distract you, master,” the hearth witch said piously. “I know how excitable she can be.”

“Right. Insatiable is more like it. Just keep in mind we could be attacked by something else at any moment.”

“Not helping,” Cerise whimpered. “Danger does it for me too.”

Somehow I resisted the urge to facepalm. Those two could be a lot of fun, but they definitely needed a keeper.

Some time later a column of smoke came into view ahead, which dampened the mood considerably. But at least it turned out to be another village rather than Lanrest. We eyed the smoking ruins as we passed, and I slowed the barge so we could take a good look at the scene.

“Doesn’t look like giants,” Thomas commented. “The buildings aren’t smashed.”

I frowned. “Good. But it doesn’t look like goblins either. They like burning things, and most of the buildings here are intact.”

He nodded. “Yessir. Looks like some cookfires got left untended after an attack, and set some of the buildings on fire. Weird thing is, if you look close it ain’t just doors that are smashed open. Some windows here and there, and I see a couple spots where it looks like something just tore through a wall. Berserkers with axes might leave that kind of mess.”

Cerise sat up, and eyed the ground suddenly. “Does anyone see tracks? Weird-looking ones?”

Gronir pointed. “There, by the river bank. Never seen nothing like that. Looks like a buncha giant chickens or something.”

It took me a moment to find the tracks. They were pretty odd alright. A couple of feet across, with three long pointed toes. Crap. I’d seen pictures of prints like that before.

“We need to get out of here,” Cerise breathed.

I nodded, and gave the barge a firm push. It was hard to judge distances without pacing it off, but the tracks looked to have something like a five or six foot stride. If the ice was thick enough to support a troll it would probably hold something that size too, and a whole pack of them would be bad news.

“What is it, sweetie?” Avilla asked quietly.

Then there was movement between two of the houses, and a long lean shape eased into view.

“Ungols,” Cerise replied.

It looked a lot like the velociraptors from Jurassic Park, but the thing was easily the size of a horse. Its hide was white and grey, perfect for blending into the snow-covered terrain.

It slunk forward slowly as we pulled away, watching us closely. But apparently it didn’t like the way the ice constantly cracked under the barge as it moved, because it didn’t approach.

I glanced about quickly, and spotted another one on a rock on the other side of the river. As silent as they were I couldn’t shake the feeling that there were more of them lurking about that I hadn’t spotted. On closer examination it was obvious that they weren’t actually velociraptors - their heads were longer and narrower, their forepaws were tipped with long blades instead of normal claws, and their hide was decorated with spines and ridges that had an oddly metallic look. But the general body plan was similar, and I’d certainly hate to be a normal human confronting them on foot.

Our speed rose gradually, but the tense silence lasted until we left the ruined village well behind. Then a babble of nervous voices erupted from the refugees.

“What do you know about Ungols?” I asked Cerise quietly.

“They’re Cthonic beasts from the Stygian Abyss, out beyond Tarterus,” she replied. “Supposedly even tougher than they look, and smart too. But they shouldn’t be here. The path to their realm has been sealed since before Olympus fell. I read something once about a few of them being stuck elsewhere, enslaved to… um… I think it was some group of wizards in Muspelheim, but I could be remembering that wrong. But the Sons of Muspel are basically fire demons, so if they were here it wouldn’t be so cold.”

Well, the implications of that were obvious.

“Are there a lot of sealed places full of monsters like that?”

“Yeah. No one knows how many, because the gods don’t like to talk about it and mortal wizards who go poking around don’t usually live long. But Tarterus is some kind of nexus for portals to worlds full of monsters.”

Avilla nodded. “That’s why the Olympians used it as a prison. They sealed the doors to the Planes of Terror and bound the Titans in front of them, so they’d only need to watch one place.”

“Hmm. Well, maybe we’ll get lucky and most of the monsters will eat each other instead of coming here.”

The girls exchanged nervous looks. “We can hope.”

The rest of the trip was deceptively peaceful. We passed mile after mile of snow-covered field and forest, the former gradually becoming more common as we neared the town. We were moving generally south-east, and the land was becoming flatter. At one point a castle was visible in the distance, still flying a banner, but that was the only sign of civilization.

At length a walled settlement came into sight before us. A sigh of relief went through the refugees as we approached, and it became clear that the place was still held by humans. There were guards on the walls, flags flying, and even a group of wagons approaching an open but heavily guarded gate not far from the river bank.

But I noted that the walls weren’t all that high, the moat was frozen, and the gates were made of wood. I could see a dozen ways for the monsters we’d been fighting to break in if the defenders ever relaxed their guard, and it wasn’t that big a town. Maybe a few thousand people, if it was as crowded as I expected. I was going to have my work cut out for me if we wanted to hold the place for long.

The river bank was steep enough that I wasn’t eager to try getting the barge up it, but there were docks where the town met the river. I slowed us to walking speed and carefully maneuvered towards them, looking for an empty spot. There were buildings beyond the docks, and I saw people shouting and pointing at us as we approached. A clatter of chainmail announced the arrival of troops as I carefully pulled up alongside a wooden dock, which proved to be at about the right height for us to disembark.

“People!” Someone shouted in amazement. “There’s people on it!”

“Halt!” A nearer voice ordered. “Announce yourselves, strangers.”

I climbed to my feet to find a dozen or so armored men clustered at the end of the dock, armed with a motley assortment of spears, swords and bows. The man addressing us was the best geared of the lot, with a pot helm and steel greaves to go with his chain hauberk.

“Daniel Black, traveling adept,” I called. “These are survivors from the 5th Margold Foot, along with some of your local villagers. May we disembark?”

“A wizard, eh? Come on ashore then, sir. I’m sure the Baron will want to talk to you. What kind of infernal contraption is that thing?”

He sounded pretty dubious about it, but I suppose for all he knew it was going to start eating his men or something.

“Just a bit of earth magic,” I reassured him. “It won’t do anything unless I’m controlling it. We ran into a frost giant and a pack of felwolves about twenty miles upriver, and the injured weren’t going to make it here on foot.”

“Damn. We saw a giant the other day, those things are huge. How’d you get away?”

“The wizard killed it, and the felwolves too,” Sergeant Thomas interrupted. “We wouldn’t have made it back without him.”

“Thomas!” The man called, obviously recognizing him. “Glad you made it. We’re going to need every man the way things are going. Ah, the Captain?”

Thomas gestured at the litter two of his men were carefully raising onto the dock. “He’s hurt bad, but the wizard patched him up. Says he’ll be up and around in a few days.”

“Hmm. I’d keep a guard on him if I were you. Alright, sir wizard, if you’ll follow me? You have servants? Bring’em along. We’d best get this sorted quick.”

“Alright. Let’s just tie a rope to this thing so the wind doesn’t blow it away.”

I added a couple of loops to the parapet of the hover-barge, so we could tie it off to the dock as the rest of my party unloaded. Then Avilla motioned Beri and Tina over, and we set out following the soldier who still hadn’t bothered to introduce himself. Avilla positioned herself a step behind me to my right, with the maids immediately behind her and Cerise bringing up the rear. I shot her a questioning glance as we crossed the dock and started into town, and she responded by looking nervously around and then back at me.

So, she didn’t entirely trust the situation either? Good to know.

The buildings along the river seemed mostly empty, but the reason for that became apparent when we came to a wall separating the docks from the rest of the town. Beyond that the place was packed, a bustling crowd filling the streets despite the cold. We made our way down narrow, winding cobblestone roads between two-story buildings set so close together they often shared walls. An eye-watering stench rose up around us despite the chill, and it was abundantly obvious that to the locals the streets doubled as makeshift sewers. Lovely.

A square keep stood in the middle of town, surrounded by a small plaza that was mostly full of wagons and improvised shelters. There were campfires everywhere, surrounded by clumps of half-frozen refugees. I picked out a few soldiers here and there as we walked, but no one who looked like an officer.

The main gates of the keep were closed, but a smaller door set into one of them stood open and unguarded. Inside was a small entryway, leading into a fairly large hall. Long wooden tables and chairs were stacked against the walls, but the middle of the room was currently clear and mostly empty. A few men in better armor than the regular soldiers stood clustered around a throne at the far end of the room, apparently in the middle of a discussion. A gaggle of servants surrounded them, rushing here and there on various errands or just standing ready near their masters.

There was a stir as we entered, and our escort took us right up to the throne as the men eyed us curiously.

“Milord Baron? This here’s Daniel the Black, a wandering adept. He’s responsible for the commotion down at the docks. Rode in on some kinda giant stone horse with a bunch of refugees, and some more of those cowards from the 5th Margold.”

Baron Stein was a heavyset man of middle age, with the look of a former athlete starting to go soft around the middle. He scowled at me like he’d caught me pissing in his cereal. Then his gaze wandered to the girls, and fixed covetously on Avilla.

“Damned wizards, always causing trouble,” he growled. “As if we don’t have enough mouths to feed already. I suppose you think I’m going to hire you?”

I hid my annoyance, and just raised an eyebrow. “I can do any number of useful-”

“Spare me the sales pitch. We’ll find a cot for you, but there’s no room for the baggage. Get rid of the peasants, and keep that witchy-looking bitch on a tight leash or I’ll hang you both. Erica, take the blonde upstairs and get her cleaned up. I’ll see if she’s a decent fuck tonight.”

Chapter 7

“Like hell you will,” I growled. “Avilla is mine, and I’ll kill any man who touches her. If this is how you do things in this shithole we’re leaving.”

I threw up a force wall around my whole party, not trusting these damned savages not to rush us. But the Baron just laughed.

“Finally, a man with some balls! What can you do that isn’t a parlor trick, then?”

I considered him for a long moment before answering.

“I can make heat without fuel, heal mortal wounds, raise fortifications and kill giants in single combat,” I said evenly. “What does your settlement have to offer me?”

“Food, gold and someone to stand guard while you sleep,” he answered immediately. “How long to raise the town wall enough to stand off giants?”

“Frost giants? That would take a forty foot curtain wall, minimum, with a thick earth fill or enough buttressing so they can’t just knock it over. About a week for that, and then we’d need to come up with something to kill them with.”

He nodded sternly. “That’ll do. I’ll pay twenty crowns for the wall, and find a room for you in the keep until it’s done. Deal?”

“Make it twenty-five. You won’t find another wizard who can do that.”

“Done. Someone find this man a room. Get started today on it – I don’t like the reports I’m getting from my scouts.”

I held my silence as we were led upstairs, and servants hurriedly removed someone’s belongings from a modest third-floor room with an arrow slit for a window. As they left I turned to the girls, noting their shocked and strained expressions.

Then I shut the heavy wooden door, and barred it.

“Avilla-” I began, only to be interrupted when she threw herself into my arms.

“Thank you, Daniel!”

Well, no need to apologize for talking about her like that, apparently. I’d been a little shocked at the surge of possessiveness the Baron’s pronouncement had evoked, but if she didn’t object I wasn’t going to worry about it right now.

“No problem, Avilla. I’m not going to let some random asshole kidnap and rape you no matter how important he thinks he is.”

She hid her face against my chest and nodded. “Thank you. What are we going to do?”

“We’re not staying here, that’s for damned sure. I don’t care if he was serious or just testing me, anyone who thinks like that can’t be trusted to lead a settlement in a crisis. But we can’t leave right away. We need money and supplies before we can move on, and I need to do a lot more enchantment work.”

“I’ll go ahead and give him his wall,” I decided. “That gives us a week to get ready, and then we can move on after I get paid. Or after I take it out of his hide if he tries to cheat me.”

Cerise nodded. “That works. But I don’t trust this place.”

“Neither do I,” I agreed. “Alright, from now on no one goes anywhere alone. Look out for each other, and get my attention if there’s a problem. Cerise, honest evaluation. How well can you fight soldiers?”

The young witch considered that. “I’m not completely sure. I can move faster than normal people, and my curses go right through armor. But those guys are a lot stronger than I am, and I don’t have anything like your wards. Best guess? As long as I take them off guard I can probably handle two or three soldiers at once, but that’s about my limit.”

“Alright, we can work with that. Beri, you said you have an uncle in the town guard? I need you to get in touch with him, find out his impression of the Baron and get an idea what’s been going on lately in town, and let him know I’m looking to hire a half-dozen good fighters. Find out where Captain Rain is set up too. It doesn’t sound like he’s going to get a good reception, so we may be able to work with him. Cerise, can you go with her?”

She looked at Avilla, who nodded. “I’ll be fine, love. I’m upset, but not hurt.”

“Alright, then. Um, Daniel, soldiers usually aren’t shy about throwing their weight around and knights are worse. If something happens, how much do I need to let them get away with?”

I sighed. This was probably inevitable.

“Handle it like you did with the deserters. Try to keep your head down and avoid trouble, and if that doesn’t work tell them you belong to a scary wizard who’ll torture them to death in front of their families and sell their souls to dark powers if they touch you. If that still isn’t enough, do whatever it takes to get yourself and Beri back to me in one piece. I’ll back you up.”

“Got it. Thanks, Daniel.”

They left.

I went to the window, and spent a few minutes gazing out over the town as I tried to organize my thoughts. I’d been hoping to take refuge here, but that didn’t seem like a good idea now. The more I learned about this society, the less impressed I was. Maybe if we found a bigger settlement, with several different factions of nobles? Then they’d have to have some basic rules of civilized behavior, at least when it came to dealing with each other. If we could dress like nobles, and throw around some casual displays of magic… yeah, that might work.

A disgusted sound from Avilla drew my attention.

“Ew. There are lice in this bed, and bedbugs too. Don’t these people know how to wash their blankets?”

“Um, that’s a lot of work, Miss Avilla,” Tina said tentatively. “Especially in winter, when you have to build a fire and heat the water first. Besides, they’ll just hide in the mattress and come back out when we’re done.”

Right. The joys of medieval life. Though it was interesting that Avilla felt the same way I did about it. I suppose being a hearth witch living in a magic house made it easy to have higher standards.

“Hmph. I can drive them out, but they’ll just go into the walls if I can’t get the rooms around us as well. I suppose we have to use chamber pots too, and I can’t imagine how horrible the food will be. Daniel, are you sure we can’t just camp out somewhere?”

I started to tell her no and paused, with a glimmer of an idea building. I’d already seen that working with stone could be amazingly fast, and it was still early afternoon. I just might be able to swing this.

“I’ve got a better idea,” I told her. “Both of you bring your things, and follow me.”

I threw the door open and headed back downstairs, headed for the great hall. I found Sergeant Thomas and Captain Rain there, the latter still in a stretcher, being chewed out by an irate baron.

“-have known better than to waste good coin on mercenaries.” Baron Stein was saying. “A useless bunch of shopkeepers and tradesmen. If we weren’t besieged I’d send you all packing… what?”

He rounded angrily on me.

“I’m going to get started on the wall,” I said blandly. “I’ll need a squad of men to watch my back while I’m distracted with magic, since I’ll have to stand outside the wall for most of this.”

He put his hands on his hips. “What, you think I have nothing better for my men to do than babysit you?”

I shrugged. “How about the useless shopkeepers and tradesmen? All they need to do is keep watch and sound an alarm if something tries to sneak up on me.”

“Fine,” he growled. “Keep them out of my sight, and maybe I’ll forget to wonder why I’m paying them.”

“Very well, Baron. By your leave, then.”

I nodded, and turned to go. The little group of soldiers followed, and I paused in the courtyard outside the keep.

“I don’t suppose you’re interested in a more reasonable employer?” I asked.

“I don’t think that would go over well,” Captain Rain replied glumly. “Besides, I didn’t see any bags full of gold in your luggage.”

“A few days of selling magic items will change that,” I pointed out. “Just think about it. If you want to make it home I’m probably your best bet. In the meantime I’ve got a construction project to start on.”

I had him send a man back to my room to wait on Beri and Cerise, to let them know where to find me. Then I took four more as guards, and headed back to the docks.

I’d noticed before that the town wall didn’t actually go all the way down to the waterline. Instead the low mound most of the town was built on ended about twenty yards from the river, and the wall followed the top of the mound. I figured that was probably because the architects had wanted the wall to completely enclose the town, but had to leave the actual shoreline clear for docks and what looked like a small boatyard. The gap was small enough that archers on the wall could cover the whole area during the day, but it would be easy enough for monsters to slip in at night and attack the dockside district.

It also left me a conveniently situated stretch of unclaimed land.

I paced off the distance from the corner of the wall to the river, thinking it through. Upgrading the existing defenses would actually be more trouble than working from scratch, so I started my work fifteen paces out from the line of the town wall.

First I dug a hole down to bedrock, which turned out to be about twenty feet down here. Then I started conjuring stone at the bottom of the hole. I had to be careful not to do too much at once, but I found that a steady flow of a couple dozen cubic feet per second was just within the power budget of my new amulet. Hard-packed earth was several times easier, which was a simple way to fill the space that wasn’t going to be load-bearing. Soon I was back above ground level, and working my way out toward the river.

Things got tricky there, since I wanted my work to project well out into the water but I needed to be fairly close to the section I was working on. I solved that by dropping rocks and dirt through the ice and fusing it together to make a cofferdam, then scooping the water out with telekinesis. That took most of an hour, but gave me a relatively dry hole where I could excavate and then build back up with stone.

I built up a solid circular foundation forty feet across, about half of it projecting into the river. Ten feet above the waterline I turned that into a tower instead of just a solid mass of rock and earth, which got a little tricky. Stone was my only construction material, and it doesn’t have the tensile strength to support long horizontal surfaces. I ended up putting a big stone column with a spiral staircase around it at the middle of the tower, and each floor was basically one big doughnut-shaped room with an arched ceiling. After some thought I added four internal walls, each a good four feet thick, to break up the space and provide extra bracing.

When I’d thrown up three floors like that I went back down to the bottom, and put in a stairway on the side of the wall facing the town that led up to a stone door on the first floor. It was heavy stone, and its position well off the ground would make it hard to bring any sort of siege engine to bear on it.

Then I led the girls in. Tina stared at everything with wide eyes, and looked at me like she thought I might be a god in disguise or something. But Avilla got the idea.

“Is this for us?” She asked eagerly.

“That’s right. I’ll put a cistern on the roof and drop a couple of pipes to the kitchen and bath, maybe put in a magic stove and some eternal torches for light. Look around and think about how to arrange things, would you? I want to finish the tower before dark, but then I can come back and spend an hour or two making the place comfortable before bed.”

“This is wonderful, Daniel!” She smiled. “Thank you! Could you make us a stove first, and  put a warmth spell on Tina’s cloak? Then we can make some progress on settling in while you work.”

I blinked, and noticed for the first time the way Tina was huddling against Avilla and shivering. Poor girl.

“Oh, damn. Sorry about that, Tina. It’s easy to forget how cold it is out here when I don’t feel most of it myself. Come here.”

She obediently hurried over, and I threw my cloak open and wrapped it around her. She stiffened for a moment, and then relaxed against me.

“Warm. Thank you, sir.”

“No problem. Hold still for a few minutes, and I’ll make yours do the same thing.”

It was getting easier with practice, but it still took a good fifteen minutes of intense concentration to set the enchantment. When I finished I found that Tina had her face buried against my chest, and my shirt was a little damp.

“Tina? You alright?”

She shook herself. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, I’m just so scared all the time. This is the first time I’ve felt safe in days.”

I hugged her gently. “I can imagine. This is hard enough for me, and I can fight.”

Avilla moved in to pat her on the back. “It’s alright, Tina. Did you see how thick the walls on this tower are? Even a giant couldn’t break in.”

“Yeah, and that’s just the start,” I said reassuringly. “When we leave we’re going to be a lot better protected than before. But I need to get back to work now.”

Tina reluctantly let me go, and wiped her face. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry, sir. I’m ready to work now.”

It was another hour or so before Cerise and Beri showed up. By then I’d put in a little stub of curtain wall, a mass of packed earth faced with stone twenty feet thick and twice that high, and was working on finishing up the tower roof. Being a bit of a military history buff I was tempted to get elaborate there, but since we were mainly worried about giants an overhanging battlement with murder holes would probably just be a liability. Instead I settled for simple crenellations, the classic pattern you see on most pictures of European castles, but about a foot thicker than normal. I was putting in the last stretch when Cerise popped her head out of the stairwell.

“Daniel? Wow, this place is huge. Did you decide to stay in Lanrest after all?”

I shook my head. “No, this is just what it takes to stand up to twenty-foot giants. It’s actually a little on the small side still, but I think it’ll get the job done. How did things go?”

She grimaced. “This place really is a shithole. The Baron lets his knights do whatever they want to people, and there’s no town watch or anything. Warning them off is working so far, but I swear if one more guy grabs my ass I’m going to knife him.”

I could imagine. From what I’d seen the local women tended to be stooped and  worn-looking, and covered themselves from head to toe in shapeless dresses and shawls of rough cloth. Cerise was pretty enough to be a model back home, and the way she carried herself screamed ‘hot babe on the prowl’. She’d stand out like a beacon here.

“I couldn’t blame you,” I replied. “Maybe having an armed escort will convince people to keep their distance?”

“I hope so. Anyway, recruiting here should be easy. They closed the granary this morning, and there’s a group of knights shutting down food vendors in the market and taking their stock right now. The smart people are all worried about what they’re going to eat once their pantries run bare.”

“Typical,” I sighed. “At this rate they’ll be going house to house taking people’s food and hanging ‘hoarders’ soon. Well, we’d be better off traveling with a decent-size party anyway. You know anything about being a merchant?”

She gave me a puzzled look. “Not much. Mom used to send me to market sometimes when I was a kid, so I’m not hopeless at bargaining. But I don’t know anything about taxes or trade routes, and the one time someone tried to explain investment loans to me I was totally lost. Compound interest is about my limit when it comes to figures, and that’s pushing it.”

I chuckled. “I’m pretty sure just knowing that there is such a thing puts you ahead of most people. Anyway, I just need you to figure out a way to sell some magic to whoever has money around here. Warmth cloaks, magic stoves, maybe some ever-burning torches. We need to raise money so we can buy supplies before we have to leave again, not to mention paying all these people we’re trying to hire.”

“Do retainers get money where you’re from? Weird. It doesn’t work that way here.”

Oh, right. Medieval economies used a lot of barter, didn’t they? “Oh?”

“Yeah, usually servants just get upkeep. That means food, shelter, clothing and whatever tools they need to do their work, plus a few pennies at the end of the year if you feel generous. Soldiers get a little money, maybe a few pennies a month, and a rich lord might pay his favorite servants a little, but mostly it’s just upkeep.”

“I see. Ok, I can work with that. What about apprentices?”

She grinned. “Same deal, but how you keep them reflects on you even more than with personal retainers. Sexy sorceress apprentices should definitely rate nice dresses and spending money, and a good boning a couple of times a day.”

I laughed. “Oh, is that part of your daily essentials? Three meals, a warm bed and an orgasm?”

“More like five or six with me,” she admitted cheerfully. “Because I’m such a slut. Avilla would probably be happy with fresh ‘cream’ every morning, but you know how obsessed with food she is.”

“Heh. I can live with that. Though honestly, you don’t strike me as a ‘fancy dresses’ kind of girl. More like tight leather and lots of bare skin, with a bloody dagger in each hand.”

She twined her arms around my neck, and went up on tiptoes to kiss me. “Aw, you say the sweetest things.”

“No doubt. Can you handle the bartering, then? Get with Avilla about what we need, and get whatever use you can out of Beri’s contacts?”

She rubbed her nose against my chin like an affectionate cat. “Sure. I’m not a professional, but I shouldn’t get robbed too badly. One cloak would probably cover the essentials, so it shouldn’t be hard. Do I get some extra ‘upkeep’ out of it?”

“Hmm. Tempting.” I kissed her, letting my hands fall to her tight behind and pull her close. She practically purred, rubbing her lithe body against me. I could feel the heat blossom inside her, just like last night. But this time the effect was less overwhelming, and I retained enough wits to wonder what caused it. Some interaction of my flesh sorcery and her own magic? That was an aspect of my new powers I hadn’t explored much yet.

Experimentally, I reached out with the magical senses I’d gained in my journey to this world. Her body pulsed with life, a warm glowing weave of magic in a dizzying array of flavors. Most of it was tightly contained within a shroud of concealment, but other parts were reaching out to touch my own aura. A warm mist of trust and affection, surrounding a dozen sharp-tipped tendrils carrying stronger emotions….

Wait a minute. Was she casting a love spell on me?

I reached out with my flesh magic, and lit up every pleasure sensor in her body at once. She yelped, and collapsed against me as her legs gave out.

“Minx,” I teased her. “If you play like that, I’m going to play back. I bet I can make it so you get wet every time you look at me.”

“Okay,” she panted. “Fuck, that was intense. Do me again?”

I chuckled. “Maybe later. But no using mind control spells on me, or I’m going to get pissed off.”

She pouted. “I was only playing, Daniel. Like I told you this morning, sometimes I can’t help it. Besides, you have magic like that too. Don’t you want to play with me?”

“Mind control isn’t a game,” I frowned.

She rolled her eyes. “When did you turn into such a grouch? I thought we were going to have fun together?”

I sighed. “I’m not rejecting you, Cerise. Just… look, I need to finish this while there’s still enough light to see. Can we talk about it later?”

She frowned at me. “I’m not sure what talking has to do with anything, but I guess I should let you work. After dinner?”

“After dinner,” I agreed.

She stepped back, gave me an oddly confused look, and then went back inside.

I finished up the tower roof with a heavy door to block access to the stairwell, and a large water tank with a warmth enchantment. It would be nice to make that fill itself somehow, but for now I walked down to the river on a stairway made of force walls and collected a few hundred pounds of ice. It would take a while to melt, but that gave me time to run a pipe down  the central column with an outlet in the second-floor room where Avilla had set up her kitchen.

She gave me a brilliant smile when I showed her the water tap.

“That’s amazing, Daniel! Did you think of this just for me?”

I shrugged. “It’s a common setup back home. Besides, it’s entirely selfish. A smart man keeps the cook happy, after all.”

“Oh, you!” She giggled happily. “Thank you. Um, I told Captain Rain our guard detail could set up in the room with the door, downstairs. Is that alright? I was thinking we’d sleep in the room next to the kitchen, here.”

“That’s fine,” I agreed. “I’ve got a little surprise planned for the back room on the bottom floor, unless you need it for something?”

She shook her head. “No, not really. With no windows it’s too dark in there for anything but storage, and you said we won’t be here long. That reminds me, dinner will be ready soon.”

“Alright, let me just finish up here.”

I ran the pipe down another floor, and split it to provide water for a crude shower and a large bathtub. Drains were easy, since I could just shape the stone to form small pipes leading outside. They were only a couple of inches across, but I put in nice thick stone grates just to make sure we wouldn’t get snake monsters crawling in through them or something. Then I washed my hands, and headed upstairs for dinner.

It was a pasta dish this time, with a nice cream sauce and side of steamed vegetables. I wasn’t going to ask how Avilla had managed that with nothing but a magic hot plate and the utensils in her backpack. Tina went on for a bit about what an amazing cook Avilla was, while Beri was more subdued.

“My uncle offered to arrange a marriage for me,” she explained when I asked if something was wrong. “Apparently one of the Baron’s knights is looking for a young wife, and they know each other. I wasn’t sure what to tell him.”

“We’ll discuss it,” Avilla put in before I could reply. “He isn’t pushing for an immediate ceremony, is he?”

Beri shook her head. “No, I explained the situation. But the offer won’t be good for long. I don’t mean to presume, Miss Avilla.”

“We’ll discuss it,” she repeated. “So, Daniel, I believe you said something about another surprise? Maybe we could have a look while the girls clean up here?”

“Sure.”

Whatever Avilla actually wanted to get me alone for, the bath completely derailed her train of thought.

“The water’s warm!” She exclaimed, holding a hand under the stream from the shower. “And, you just turn the knob and wait for the tub to fill? No carrying buckets of water back and forth? Marry me, Daniel!”

“The tub’s big enough to share,” Cerise observed eagerly. “Start it filling, and I’ll go fetch towels and a change of clothes.”

“Shower first,” I told her. “The idea is you get clean there, and then you can soak in the tub for as long as you want.”

“What a wonderful idea,” Avilla enthused. “Alright, we can have our discussion in the bath. Just close the door when you get back, Cerise, and ask Tina to make sure no one tries to listen at it. That girl’s too honest to hide anything.”

“Discussion?” I asked.

“Please. What do you think of the maids so far?”

“Ah. Tina reminds me of a lost puppy, to be honest. Desperate to please, but doesn’t know what to do. Beri is smarter, which might make her more useful, but she’s already looking for angles to play.”

“That’s more or less what I thought,” Avilla replied. “I’m not sure about Beri yet, but I think we should keep Tina. She’s a hard worker, and I think she’ll be very loyal. A little insecure, but she’ll get over that with time. Is she pretty enough for your taste?”

I raised an eyebrow. “That’s not exactly a requirement, is it?”

Avilla looked at me blankly for a moment, and shook her head. “Your land must be a very strange place, Daniel. Do I really need to explain this?”

I sighed, and sat on the edge of the tub. “No, I get it. I just don’t know that I want to do things that way. Back home it’s actually against the law to hire a woman because she’s decorative, let alone tell her that sleeping with you is part of the job.”

“That’s nuts,” Cerise interjected from the doorway. “What, do you have a really ugly queen who’s trying to get revenge on all the pretty girls?”

She set a bundle of cloth down on the floor, and pulled the door shut with a thump. The room was plunged into twilight, lit only by the candle-sized magic flames I’d set in fixtures on the walls.

“It’s a republic, actually. Everyone over eighteen gets to vote on who represents their district, and the council of representatives makes all the laws. There’s also a president who commands the military when we’re at war, but he’s elected by popular vote too.

“Weird.” Cerise made a face. She slipped her dress off, and stepped into the shower.

I shrugged. “My ancestors were obsessed with preventing tyranny. It worked pretty well on that front for the first century or so, though lately it seems like we’ve just discovered how to create one where no one is in charge.”

“That’s interesting,” Avilla said. “But how does republican government lead to oppressing pretty girls?”

“Oppressing? Wow, talk about culture clash. It’s supposed to be about keeping them from being oppressed, actually. Why should a woman have to sleep with her boss to get a job?”

“Who else would she want?” Avilla asked seriously. “A woman in that position obviously doesn’t have a husband to care for her, so who better than the man who has authority over her?”

“Not to mention that every girl knows a guy who’s fucking you will treat you better than one who isn’t,” Cerise put in. “There’s nothing like a good blowjob to make sure the boss is happy with you.”

I shook my head. “Women really think that way here? What if they’ve got someone they like, or they’re just trying to get by?”

Cerise stepped out of the shower, and Avilla took her place.

“How would that even happen?” The dark-haired witch asked curiously. “I mean, if you’ve got a husband lined up and something happened to your family you’d go live with him, right? If you’re a widow or can’t find a husband you’d probably end up being a whore, or maybe a nanny or a seamstress if you’re really lucky. The only way a girl could end up working for a guy is if she’s his servant, and that’s a lifetime deal unless you screw it up.”

I thought about that for a minute. In a medieval economy there isn’t much of a job market, and without modern technology most of the jobs that did exist would involve a lot of heavy manual labor. In a world without affirmative action laws no one would hire a woman for something like that. Besides, this was the kind of society where most women went straight from their parent’s house to their husband’s, and never needed to support themselves.

There were bound to be exceptions, and it would suck to be one of them. But how many societies give a damn about people who don’t follow their expected script in life?

“I think I see what you’re getting at,” I sighed. “But this isn’t exactly a normal situation. There are probably hundreds of young women in this town who’ve had their lives shattered.”

“Yeah, but you can only take in a few of them and they all know it,” she pointed out. “Seriously, Daniel, those girls are both worried sick that you’re going to replace them with someone better. The only way they’re ever going to feel secure is if you give them something to hold onto. Not that it’s a big deal to me either way, but keeping them worried doesn’t seem like your style.”

I sighed. “I suppose I see your point. It just doesn’t come naturally to me. Back home anyone who did that would be a total sleazebag.”

Avilla stepped out of the shower, and laid her hand on my chest. “Do you trust me?”

Somehow I managed to look at her face, and not the water droplets clinging to her breasts. “Um, yeah.”

“Then trust me to arrange things. I’m already picking our staff, so you needn’t violate your taboos by asking them uncomfortable questions. Just do what comes naturally if one of them offers something you desire, and I’ll make sure things work out. Fair enough?”

“Sure. I guess.”

Her smile took my breath away. “Good. Why don’t you get cleaned up and join us?”

I did. Half the reason I’d built the bath was because I was already getting sick of being filthy all the time, and the tub was easily big enough for three. When I was done I settled into the warm water with a sigh.

“This is great,” Cerise said dreamily.

“I could stay in here all night,” Avilla agreed. She paused, and bit her lip.

I raised an eyebrow. “Something wrong?”

“No,” she replied hesitantly. “At least, I hope not. Well, normally I’d be subtle about this, and let things develop at their own pace. But your customs are so different from ours that I’m afraid we’ll have some terrible misunderstanding if we aren’t blunt, and I don’t want to risk it. I am very aware that you have no obligations to me.”

I frowned. “I’m not going to abandon you to the monsters, Avilla. I like you, and you’re important to Cerise, and besides all that I don’t want to lose anyone if I have a choice. You know, you don’t have to buy my protection.”

Cerise frowned at me, but Avilla just nodded. “I understand. May I be equally to the point?”

I shrugged. “Sure.”

She shifted across the tub, and settled carefully onto my lap with her knees beside my hips. Her eyes met mine from a few inches away.

“Daniel, I appreciate very much how careful you’ve been not to get between Cerise and I. But we both want a man in our lives, and you don’t seem nearly as interested as I’d hoped. Is there some reason you don’t find us appealing?”

“What? No! Are you kidding me? Avilla, you’re both beautiful. You’re like some kind of domestic porn goddess, and Cerise has the badass babe thing down cold.”

“Then what is it?”

I sighed. “It’s complicated. Partly I was worried about the same thing you were, misunderstandings caused by the culture gap, and I didn’t want to do anything that might hurt one of you. But mostly I’m just not looking for a relationship. I’d just found out my wife was cheating on me a few days before Hecate’s call, and I suppose I’m not quite over it.”

“You have a wife?” Cerise asked, startled. “But I didn’t sense any… oh, right. Had a wife, I guess. Wow, she must have been an idiot.”

Avilla chewed her bottom lip consideringly. It was so adorable it was all I could do not to kiss her.

“Well, that makes this difficult. I’m sorry, Daniel, and I don’t mean to press you. But I think we’d best be clear about things. Cerise, are we agreed?”

Cerise moved to sit next to me, and nodded. “Yeah. I’m no good at this, and I really don’t want things to get screwed up. We need to go all-in.”

“This sounds ominous,” I commented.

Avilla shook her head. “Maybe. But if you have doubts about our trustworthiness it may help. You know Cerise and I are coven-sisters, right? Well, we can’t form a proper coven with just the two of us. The high rituals all call for at least three members, if not five. Even our personal magics are terribly imbalanced right now. Cerise needs an anchor who can resist her succubus charms, or she’ll never be able to fully master the power she’s claimed. My domestic magic needs a mate to serve as a focus, and there’s enough of a fertility aspect to it that it won’t work properly with another woman.”

“Not unless I use that incubus transformation,” Cerise observed.

Avilla blushed brightly. “If you do that without an anchor you’ll lose yourself, kitten. I’d lose dominance sooner or later, and you’d eat me, and then we’d both be lost. Beside, why spend all that effort on desperate mystic perversions when we’ve been lucky enough to find a man who can do the job?”

“So, you want me to join your coven?” I said slowly.

Avilla shook her head. “No, Daniel. We want you to lead our coven.”

“You always know what to do,” Cerise pointed out. “You can kick ass like a god, too. We need you.”

“Our aspects compliment yours,” Avilla went on. “I’m nurture and support, Cerise is infiltration and assassination. We can be strong together. If you fear betrayal, we can make fidelity a part of our coven-bond. That, and mutual trust and affection.”

“This sounds like a permanent commitment,” I observed.

Avilla nodded hesitantly. “Yes. Eventually. The best coven-bonds can’t be undone. We don’t expect you to make a decision right now, Daniel. But please consider it.”

“We’ll make it worth your while,” Cerise added slyly, sliding over to press her breasts into my side. Her hand began to wander down my belly, but Avilla took it and put it on my shoulder.

“Down, kitten. You’ll get your attention soon.” She smiled indulgently.

I chuckled. “She does do a good sex kitten act, doesn’t she?”

“Oh, it’s no act,” Avilla corrected. “Silly kitten thought a succubus would be an easy target for her first power theft ritual, and she’s been insatiable ever since. Keeping her occupied is a terrible distraction, especially since I’m so easy to seduce. I can’t count the number of times I’ve lost a whole day because she didn’t want to get out of bed. Maybe that’s something else you could help us with?”

“Yeah. You two are unbelievably tempting, you know that?”

They both giggled happily.

I shook my head. “This is a lot to take in. Cerise, is that what you were up to earlier? Checking to see if I could counter your mind control powers?”

“Partly,” she admitted. “But I really do like to play like that. What do you have against enchantment, anyway? It’s not like I was going to do anything you wouldn’t like.”

I frowned. “You’re asking for an awful lot of trust from someone you’ve only known a few days. For that matter, the same goes for this coven bond thing. I’m surprised you want to jump into something like that so fast.”

“In a less desperate situation we might be more cautious,” Avilla admitted. “But the way things are going, I don’t think we have the luxury of being indecisive. Besides, it’s been a very eventful three days. We’ve already seen most of the important things. You’re a bold leader of men with more than enough power to protect us, yet you’re not ashamed to ask a woman for advice. You’re considerate to a fault, but you don’t allow others to take advantage of you.”

“You fuck like a god,” Cerise put in cheerily.

Avilla smiled slyly. “Oh, yes. We aren’t going to find a better man. But Daniel, we can offer as much as we ask. A coven-bond can include almost any vow, and once taken it becomes unbreakable. Do you wish us to never desire another man? To always hunger for your touch? To submit to your guidance in all things? Ask anything you like of us, Daniel. You may be surprised at how far we’re willing to go, and how little we ask in return.”

Her beautiful face was inches from mine, her firm breasts brushing against my chest, and the memory of what the three of us had done just last night threatened to overwhelm me. It was so tempting to simply say yes, to whatever this vision of loveliness might ask of me.

But I’d been married long enough to know better than to make major decisions in this kind of situation. Amanda had done the same thing, offering a blow job out of the blue and pausing in the middle of it to propose vacation plans or a new car or whatever else she might want at the moment.

So instead I hugged Avilla against my chest, and sighed.

“I’ll think about it,” I told her. “I’ll want to know a lot more about what’s involved in a coven-bond and how they work.”

“Of course,” she agreed.

“If there are unbreakable vows involved I want us to think very carefully about what to include,” I went on. “Something that sounds fine at first glance could easily end up making us all miserable twenty years from now.”

“I’ve got a bunch of notes we can look over,” Cerise agreed. “I’ve been trying to work out ideas for years.”

“Thank you, Daniel,” Avilla breathed. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way to make this work.”

Then she kissed me, and the time for conversation was over.

Chapter 8

In the cold light of day, I was sure there had to be a catch.

Seriously, two beautiful young women volunteering to share a guy? Let alone the thing with the maids, and all the ‘please tell us what to do’ vibes I was getting from them.

It was too good to be true. They wanted something from me, and they were trying to dazzle and distract me to keep me from noticing the catch until it was too late. It was the only explanation that made sense.

Unfortunately, my own ignorance made it impossible to guess what the truth was. Maybe this ‘coven bond’ ritual was actually going to turn out to be a mind control spell, or some kind of sacrifice. Maybe they had a way to steal my magic if I consented. There were a thousand possibilities.

Or maybe they were just desperately scared, and were trying to make sure I didn’t abandon them. That was the kicker. Just because they were trying to manipulate me didn’t meant it was for nefarious purposes. Hell, they might even like me as much as I did them, in which case it would be damned stupid to throw this away just because I couldn’t let go of my suspicions.

So I resolved to keep my eyes open, learn fast, and play along until I figured things out. At this point that was really all I could do.

At least I finally had some time to prepare. I’d sandbagged more than a little on my construction time estimate, but I still needed to spend most of each day working on the wall. I wanted to make sure the Baron would have no excuse to interrupt my work or short me on my payment, and besides I was a little nervous that the giants would make a move before I was finished. The town had been attacked several times by goblins, trolls and other lesser threats, so it was only a matter of time.

The first day I spent part of the morning making the rounds of the injured who’d been under my care, speeding along their healing and making sure they’d all make a full recovery.  They were happy enough about that, and more than a few of them made inquiries about whether I was hiring. Not having time to organize that myself, I sent most of them to see Avilla.

She’d been shocked when I told her I was putting her in charge of organizing the group I wanted, but she was happy enough when I explained my reasoning.

“We can’t afford to take a bunch of extra people, and I figure this is like setting up a minor noble’s household. I’ve got no idea what we actually need in the way of domestic staff, but I’m sure you can handle that side of it. We’re also going to need laborers to move supplies around, teamsters to drive whatever I come up with for transport, probably a blacksmith and some other craftsmen to support the troops and keep all our gear in order. Keep the group as small as you can, but I expect we’ll end up with a dozen soldiers and at least that many support staff.”

“More, if we want to be self-sufficient,” she replied, already considering the problem. “What about families? The best craftsmen will mostly be married, won’t they?”

“Probably. We’ll take them, of course. But try to keep the total number of people down, especially children. Travel is going to be dangerous no matter how well we prepare, and I’d rather not have a bunch of little kids in the line of fire.”

I spent an hour enchanting warmth cloaks for Cerise to sell, and confirmed in the process that I was getting faster at it. It was a pretty simple enchantment, and practice made a big difference. The last cloak took me barely ten minutes to make, and I was actually optimistic about improving on that time. With any luck I’d be able to equip my whole group with them before it was time to leave.

Unfortunately working on the wall didn’t get any easier. My limit there was more a matter of power than skill, at least when it came to conjuring up thousands of cubic feet of earth and stone. The second tower went up a bit faster than the first, but the fact that I wasn’t bothering to do anything fancy with the interior was a lot of that. I put on exterior doors of stone, but the inside was just five identical floors of one big room each.

Things got more complicated when I got to the road I’d noticed running parallel to the river. Obviously that called for a gatehouse, but how was I going to make a gate out of stone? Mechanical engineering wasn’t my specialty, and it would be awful easy to end up making the gates so heavy they’d be impossible to move.

Putting in the foundation for a pair of towers with a gatehouse between them was easy enough, but I was still mulling over the gate problem when I heard Beri’s voice call down from the top of the wall.

“Master Black? Are you down there?”

“I’m here!” I called. “Wait where you are, I’ll be right up.”

I carefully levitated myself up the face of the wall, and found Beri waiting at the top. She was wearing one of the new warmth cloaks, which seemed sensible enough, and awkwardly holding something to her chest.

She gave a startled squeak, and backed away for a moment before she recognized me.

“Oh! Sorry, sir, I didn’t realize that was you for a moment. Miss Avilla sent me with lunch. Unless you were coming back to the tower?”

“No, I need to make as much progress as I can today. What have you got there?”

She smiled. “It’s pretty clever. She made minced meat rolls, but they would have gone cold long before I could get them to you in this weather. So Miss Avilla collected stones from the river and heated them on the stove. Then we filled the bottom of a pot with them, put the rolls on top, and wrapped it in towels so I could carry it without getting burned.”

She set the pot down as she explained, and spread a blanket in the lee of the parapet so we could sit out of the wind. Then she produced a small decanter of water, and a cup.

I shook my head. “That girl is a miracle worker with this domestic stuff, isn’t she? Well, you may as well have a seat. How are you doing?”

She seemed a bit surprised at the question, but recovered quickly. “Well enough, sir. I’ve been helping Miss Cerise run errands all morning. We’ve traded off two of the cloaks already, and we’ve been procuring all sorts of supplies for Miss Avilla. Mind you, no one wants to part with food.”

“I’m not surprised,” I sighed. “I suppose we’ll have to do something creative to stock up for the trip. Bribe an official with magic items, or maybe go find a lost granary to recover. I notice the Baron has salvage teams going out to the surrounding farms already.”

“Yes, sir. Um, do we really have to leave?” She looked out over the frozen landscape around the town. “That seems awful dangerous.”

“We’re going to be in danger no matter what we do,” I pointed out. “Don’t worry, we’ll be a lot better prepared this time. We won’t be on foot, and I’ve got some ideas for magic weapons to discourage any monsters that try to bother us.”

“If you say so, sir. I’ll miss the tower, though. I wish we could just close the doors and stay behind those walls until this is all over. The thought of going out there again...”

She huddled in on herself, clearly terrified at the idea. Poor girl. I suppose I couldn’t blame her for that. I put a comforting arm around her, and she curled up against me.

“Tina and I are lucky you came along when you did,” she said softly.

There wasn’t much I could say to that, so I occupied myself with eating. The food was excellent as usual, but hungry as I was it didn’t last long.

“Master Black?” Beri asked. “Does it take a special talent to learn magic? Or can anyone do it?”

“Are you interested?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. The stories all say bad things happen to people who tamper with dark forces. But I can’t help thinking that if Miss Cerise ran into some terrible monster in a dark alley, the monster would run away screaming. I’d give a lot to be like that.”

“Hmm. Well, there’s more than one kind of magic,” I said, repeating what Cerise had told me just a few days before. “Some you have to be born with, but others anyone can learn if they’re willing to put in the work. Unfortunately it takes years to get to where you can do anything impressive. Cerise and Avilla have both been practicing since they were children, and they’re just starting to blossom.”

“I see.” She shifted, her hand slipping under my cloak to rest on my chest. “I suppose I’ll just have to stay close, then. Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?”

Was she trying to flirt with me? Well, this was  hardly the place for that.

I let her go, and set the lid back on the pot. “No, I’m good. I’d better get back to work now.”

Conjuring metal took easily a hundred times more energy than stone, but in the end it was the only feasible solution. I hung each leaf of the gate on an iron post set deep into the stone, with a counterweight that would be hidden inside the wall. That let me build each door out of a framework of iron bars several inches thick, covered with a two-inch facing of iron plate studded liberally with spikes. The inner surface got a much thinner layer of iron plate, and I was able to fuse all of it together into a single seamless mass with a bit of effort. The whole thing took a couple of hours to build, including the iron beams that could be dropped across the inside of the gate to hold it shut. But the end result was light enough for a couple of men to open and close, albeit with difficulty.

A few men from the current gate garrison wandered out for a look while I was working on it, and their sergeant offered some shrewd advice on details like where to put vision slits and the door into the gatehouse. I ended up installing a portcullis, along with quite a few arrow slits and murder holes covering the approach to the gate.

They also pointed out some of the practical problems inherent in living in such a structure, which convinced me to go ahead and install fireplaces on each floor and a few privies in discreet locations. It was far from ideal, but that way they’d be able to get by if I never got a chance to put in magical heating or plumbing.

Later that afternoon, once I’d finally finished the gatehouse and started on the next stretch of wall, I got my next visitor. This time it was a burly fellow with graying hair and a scraggly beard, carrying a weathered-looking spear and bundled up in a coat and cloak that seemed quite well-used. He was accompanied by a couple of younger men, also armed with spears, but from the way they focused on surveying the snow-covered fields around us I surmised they were here as his bodyguards.

I was raising a new stretch of wall when I noticed them, and dropped back to ground level to see what they wanted. As the older man approached I noted that he wore a large silver amulet outside his cloak, bearing an odd knotwork symbol that looked sort of like three overlapping crescent moons.

“Any idea who that is?” I asked the leader of my current bodyguard squad. What was his name, again? I’ve never been good with names, and there was so much coming and going it was getting hard to keep track.

“That’s Holger Drakebane,” the soldier explained in a low tone. “He’s the High Priest of the temple here in Lanrest.”

Sadly there was no time for further questions.

“Ho there, wizard! I’d like a word with you.”

Well, that was different. What was the proper form of address for a high priest, anyway? Heck if I know, and guessing wrong would look pretty strange. I’d have to wing it.

“Ho yourself, priest! I suppose I can spare a few minutes from the wall. What brings you all the way out here?”

He pulled up in surprise, and for a moment I thought he was going to take offense. But then he laughed.

“‘Priest’, indeed! That’ll show me. Holger is the name. I understand you go by Daniel the Black?”

“Close enough,” I replied. “Black is actually just my family name, but people keep trying to make it into a title. What can I do for you?”

“It’s more a matter of what will you do, and whether you ought to. I’ve been hearing some disturbing rumors about your apprentices, and the scale of this wall project is a bit disquieting as well. But perhaps we should discuss this privately? I know how you wizards are about protecting your secrets.”

“Good idea. How about the top of the wall, then?”

“That would work”, he nodded.

I’d been keeping the face of the wall where I was doing construction pretty vertical, since it was a lot easier to start a new section and just stand on it as I grew it to full height than it would be to walk back and forth along an incline. That meant there was no easy way for anyone else to reach the top unless they wanted to go all the way down to the gatehouse and climb the stairs there. So I led Holger over to the workface and conjured stone under both our feet, sending us smoothly up the side like a slow-moving elevator. In a matter of minutes we were halfway up.

“An interesting technique,” Holger observed mildly. “I don’t sense any elementals at work, but no human could power spells on this scale for any length of time. That would require a pact with demons, or worse. But drawing so heavily on such bargains always gives them away.”

I shook my head. “Bargaining with anything that doesn’t like humans is a fool’s game. Everyone makes mistakes, and the first one will kill you. No, I found an entirely novel source of power for my magic. Without giving too much away, you might say that I’m tapping into the substance of the world itself to power my spells.”

He frowned. “That seems phenomenally dangerous.”

“There’s a reason I haven’t revealed the technique to anyone. The world is far too big to be harmed by a single wizard doing this, but if it became commonplace there could be problems. Normally I’d have spent a lot longer studying things before putting it to any large-scale use, but events have forced my hand.”

“None of us expected Ragnarok to come so soon,” he agreed. “Loki has barely been free for a year, and the sages all expected he would spend generations preparing his forces. But that’s neither here nor there. Will this technique of yours affect the fertility of the earth? Could it disturb the dead, or make crops unwholesome?”

“No, it doesn’t operate on that level. It affects the actual substance of the stone under our feet, not the spiritual aspects of the land. I can’t even begin to deplete the amount of energy available - what I’m doing here is like dipping a cup in the ocean. The main hazard would be if something goes wrong with my energy tap. In that case it could release a huge amount of uncontrolled magic, probably manifesting as intense heat and invisible destructive forces. Obviously I’m confident I’ve solved those issues or I wouldn’t be risking myself, but it’s one of the reasons I try not to have too many people nearby when I’m working large-scale magic.”

All of which was more or less true. I was pretty sure my amulet was safe as long as it was intact, but if the enchantment were damaged somehow it could easily start leaking radiation or even explode. At some point I needed to find a way to lock my power source inside an armored box to protect it, but until then I was trying not to expose any more people to such possibilities than I had to.

“I see,” he mused. “Well, desperate times call for desperate measures, and you seem to have it in hand. But that wasn’t my major concern. Your apprentices have been telling some disturbing tales about their situation, and it’s causing talk.”

I sighed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I let them spread a few rumors to encourage random armsmen to keep their hands to themselves, but Cerise gets carried away with it. That girl loves to make it sound like she’s a demon bound to a dark wizard or something.”

“Not surprising, considering her nature,” he observed. “I can smell the taint of darkness on her soul from halfway across town. She’s a witch, isn’t she?”

Crap.

I turned to look out over the frozen fields surrounding the town. “She’s a teenage girl who’s willing to risking her life to protect innocent civilians from monsters. Isn’t that what matters now?”

“That’s a valid point,” he conceded. “One could even argue it fits with Odin’s command for all men to set aside their grievances and fight together against the traitor’s hordes. But at the same time you can’t expect a leopard to change its spots. Given half a chance she’ll be sacrificing young men to her fell goddess, and enchanting innocent maidens into submitting to her cult’s perversions. I suppose binding a pretty young witch might seem less dangerous than trapping a demon or elemental, but I assure you that is not the case. How confident are you that whatever leash you have her on will hold?”

That was not exactly the tack I was expecting him to take. Apparently he believed Cerise’s little story about being bound? I’d thought they just killed witches here, but it sounded like maybe slavery was considered a viable option too.

What lovely people.

“Sure enough that I let her out of my sight,” I said slowly. “Did you have some specific recommendation?”

“To be honest, I’d like to recommend handing her over to the church for a proper execution,” he replied grimly. “Whatever power she wields is born of blood sacrifice, Daniel. Can you let her claim more victims in good conscience?”

“She’s under my protection,” I said stiffly. “Also, it turns out that monsters are valid sacrifices.”

That surprised him. His brow furrowed in thought.

“I see,” he said slowly. “Turning darkness against darkness? That’s more devious of you than I’d expected. But with time she will become what she preys on, and no simple binding will be reliable on such a protean creature. If you insist on taking the chance, you should at least impose the Riven Covenants on her.”

“Hmm. You’re really concerned about this?”

He nodded firmly. “Yes. I can’t stress this enough. Witches who practice freely are inevitably consumed by their own power, Daniel. I can see that the girl has some affection for you, but you can’t expect that to hold when tested. She might turn on you last, but she will turn.”

“Well, I suppose that isn’t exactly my field of expertise,” I allowed. Did I dare admit that I didn’t know what this covenant thing was?

“Indeed. The Church, however, has considerable experience in these matters. I’m told you arrived with little baggage, so I assume you don’t have a proper library?”

“Unfortunately no,” I admitted.

“Well, I have a copy of In Tauro de Maleficis I can loan you, for reference purposes. It’s a translation into the vernacular, but it should still work well enough. Can I have your assurance you’ll take action quickly?”

I nodded reluctantly. “Yes, I do see your point. But I’m going to have to brush up on a few things before I move on this. I assume you can have it delivered discretely?”

“Of course. No need to forewarn the witch. Well, I’m glad we have an agreement. If you’ll excuse me I have another appointment soon.”

He headed off down the wall rather than asking for a lift to ground level. A sign he wasn’t as comfortable with magic as he acted? Or perhaps just a reluctance to put himself in someone else’s power after making demands?

I watched him go thoughtfully. For obvious reasons my knee-jerk reaction to priests who wanted to persecute witches wasn’t very favorable, but in this world magic was actually real. For all I knew Hecate really was an evil goddess, and based on her own comments Cerise had a habit of playing with fire. I didn’t think I’d actually use whatever spells were in this book, but it could be informative reading.

Besides, pretending to cooperate for a week seemed less likely to make me a new enemy than just refusing outright.

I worked until nearly sunset, finishing another tower and a good stretch of curtain wall beyond it. My guard squad changed shifts sometime during the afternoon, and one of the men in the new squad did a fairly neat job of manufacturing an opportunity to pass me a small book bound in worn leather.

Which meant my guard detail was infiltrated with people willing to do favors for Holger. One more thing to worry about, as if there wasn’t enough on my plate already. I made a note to check with Avilla about how the recruiting was going, and switch to having my own people watch my back as soon as possible.

By the time I started to make my way back to my temporary home my brain was aching from channeling magic all day. I trudged wearily down the length of the wall I’d built, my cloak pulled tight against the wind. My face was a bit numb despite the warmth of the enchanted garment, and I can only imagine how frozen my escorts must have been. Maybe I should put in some kind of overhead cover, or a passageway through the wall itself?

I was still turning over possibilities in my mind when I opened the door to my tower, and was interrupted by shouting from below.

“Now what?

I shook my head and hurried down the stairs with the six men of my escort trailing along behind me. I noted in passing that no one had been guarding the door, which didn’t do much to allay my growing concern. Had a monster gotten in somehow? I could make out Avilla’s voice now, along with a bunch of angry men.

I reached the bottom floor, and circled around to the storage area that took up a quarter of the floor to find it was full of shouting people. There was a small pile of sacks and boxes against a wall, which Cerise was standing over with her knives out. A rotund and rather foppish-looking young man surrounded by four guards was shouting at Avilla, who glared back at him murderously. Gronir and another man I vaguely remembered as one of the refugees were standing beside her clutching their spears, obviously ready to defend her if the interlopers made a move. A couple of Captain Rain’s men stood back from the whole mess, looking like they had no idea what to do.

“Hey!”

No one heard my shout. Damn it. I made a tiny bubble of force overhead, and grew it into a thick disk that covered half the room’s ceiling. Then I canceled the spell. The thunderclap of displaced air shook the room, and shut everyone up momentarily.

“Everyone, shut up! Avilla, what’s going on here?”

As I’d suspected, she recovered from her shock faster than the men at arms. “We caught these people trying to steal our supplies, Master Black.”

The fop flushed. “Now see here, wench! I’m Lanrest’s duly appointed tax farmer, and you’d better adjust your tone if you expect to live in this town. My uncle doesn’t suffer rebels in his lands.”

“She’s not a subject of your Baron,” I said firmly, striding into the room to put my hand on Avilla’s shoulder. “She’s the apprentice and personal retainer of a traveling wizard who happens to be saving your sorry asses from the giants right now. Do you have any proof of who you are?”

I glanced around the room, and found that my escorts had joined the spectators by the door instead of moving to back me up. One of them nodded.

“That’s him, sir,” he confirmed. “Squire Cezary, the Baron’s nephew.”

“There, you see?” The idiot said self-importantly. “Now get your people out of my way. My uncle has declared an emergency tax of a thousand silver pennies on the town, and after this fiasco I’m taking a hefty share of it right here.”

He stepped forward confidently, and ran face-first into the invisible barrier I’d conjured in front of him.

“Ow! My nose!”

“Go bother the peasants, junior. I’m not falling for that.”

He glared at me and clutched his nose. “You can’t do that! That’s assaulting a noble, with magic no less! My uncle will hang you for this!”

I snorted. “Your uncle needs me to build a real wall around his town so you don’t all get killed when the giants get around to you. Cerise, you’ve been reading up on customs around here. Do you know anything about this?”

She gave me a puzzled glance, but then understanding blossomed.

“No, master. I know a lot of the nobles in this part of the kingdom use tax farmers to collect from their towns instead of trying to do something complicated like licensing or property taxes. But I’ve never heard of something as crazy as sending a tax farmer after a noble’s party. If he’d pulled this on a visiting baron it would probably start a war.”

Cezary sputtered. “Noble! I don’t see any livery on these servants, and you haven’t a single real man-at-arms. You’re just a jumped-up hedge wizard with delusions of grandeur. If you know what’s good for you you’ll stop putting on airs and start showing some deference for your betters.”

“Betters!” Avilla fumed. “Our wizard is worth a hundred of you, you worm!”

He scowled. “That’s it, I’m out of patience. I’m assessing a two hundred silver fine for obstruction of my duties, payable immediately. I suppose your so-called apprentices would fetch that on the open market, if you don’t have the coin-”

He self-important demands were cut off when I slammed him into the wall with a burst of force magic. His men went for their swords, and I did the same thing to them. They hit the stone in a cacophony of rattling steel, and found themselves pinned a foot off the ground.

I released Cezary, and stalked across the room to punch him in the gut while he was trying to regain his balance. He folded over nicely, but I wasn’t satisfied with that. I grabbed his arm, spun him around, and planted a kick in his ass that sent him sprawling on the stone floor at Avilla’s feet. Another burst of force magic flipped him over, and pinned him to the floor on his back.

I walked over and put my boot on the middle of his chest, and pushed. He choked, and scrabbled at the floor.

“You’re a complete dumbass, aren’t you Cezary? Well, let me see if I can explain this in small words. Your job is robbing your uncle’s subjects to fill his coffers. I’m not one of your uncle’s subjects. So you can take your crooked tax laws and bogus fines and fuck off.  If I catch you bothering my girls again I’m going to break both your knees so you’ll never walk right again, and then I’ll let them have you. What would you do with this brainless wonder, girls?”

Avilla stepped up next to me with her butcher knife in hand, and started to sharpen it. “We need soap and candles, master, and he has plenty of fat. I’ll cut it all out and render it down.”

Cerise glided across the room to lean against my other side, and the light seemed to dim. “I need more vellum for my grimoire, master. Can I flay his skin off and cure it? He’s got so much, I could make twenty pages easily.”

Avilla held up a finger. “Oh yes, I need bone meal too. Not much, those little bones from his fingers should be enough.”

“Mmm. And if you lay a finger on Avilla?” Cerise knelt to look into the man’s eyes. “I’ll cut your eyes out and sacrifice them to Lord Sargoras, so you’ll see nothing but the Realm of Madness for the rest of your life. I’ll put a curse on you that makes your balls swell to the size of melons and drives you mad with lust, but makes it so anything that touches your dick feels like broken glass. I’ll-”

I put my hand on her shoulder. “He’s already pissed himself, Cerise. I think he gets the idea. Now get out.”

I released his men and shoved him at them. The whole group retreated hurriedly, the soldiers at least being smart enough not to make any more trouble. They half-carried him up the stairs and out the door.

I kept an eye on them until they were gone, then rounded on Rain’s men. “You! What the hell are you here for if you’re just going to stand around and watch?”

“But sir,” their sergeant protested, “they’re the Baron’s men. We can’t go getting in no fight with them. Not unless we get the Captain’s say-so.”

“Then what use are you? Out. I’ll talk to your Captain in the morning.”

I barred the door myself, and leaned against it with a sigh.

“Damn it. It’s just one thing after another. Gronir, did Avilla hire you?”

“Ah, yessir,” the woodsman answered nervously.

“Well, good job backing her up. That’s exactly what I want from you. Is everyone alright?”

There were nods all around. Then Avilla’s eyes went wide.

“Oh no! Dinner!”

Chapter 9

              I wasn’t terribly surprised to receive an urgent summons to appear before the Baron the next day. His men were pounding on my door before the sun was even up, although apparently the household was already stirring by then.

I’d been up late into the night working on a better version of the hover-barge, just in case we had to leave town in a hurry. So I was still soundly asleep when Beri came up to tell me we had company.

“Gronir isn’t opening the door for them,” she reassured me. “But they say the Baron wants you in the keep right away.”

I rubbed my eyes. There was still one naked girl lying next to me, and it was awfully tempting to just roll over and go back to sleep. But that would be a bad move.

“Alright, I’m up,” I grumbled. “Tell them I’m on my way down.”

I sat up, and Cerise made a sleepy little protest and cuddled up against me. I sighed, and extracted myself from her grip as gently as I could manage.

Avilla appeared at the doorway while I was pulling on my shirt, looking worried and wringing her hands. “Daniel? What are we going to do?”

“Keep the tower locked up, and put someone on watch. Be careful not to let anyone in unless you’re sure there aren’t any soldiers ready to rush the door. But try not to worry too much, that’s just a precaution. I don’t think the Baron is actually going to try anything.”

“What’s going on?” Cerise asked sleepily. She sat up and stretched, which had the effect of completely distracted us both from the conversation for a moment.

“Slugabed,” Avilla groused, but she was smiling.

I shook my head, and pulled my shoes on. “Time to see the Baron. You stay here and keep an eye on things.”

Cerise frowned. “The Baron? But what if he decides to take offense? You’ll be all alone.”

I shook my head. “He needs the wall I’m building too much for that. I think he’ll wait until it’s done. Besides, if something does happen I’d rather have you here making sure Avilla is safe. I fight better if I don’t have to worry about where I’m throwing my spells.”

“We should really figure out how to fight together,” she complained. “But I guess now isn’t the time. Should we keep working on hiring?”

I nodded. “Yes. I want us to be ready to leave the instant I get paid. But don’t risk going into town until I’ve got a better feel for the situation.”

“Sure thing,” Cerise agreed. “Good luck.”

“Stay safe,” Avilla added.

I gave them both a reassuring hug, and headed for the door.

I was a bit more concerned that I let on. I’d given Cezary a bit of a beating, and in retrospect that wasn’t such a smart idea. When did I become so violent, anyway?

Maybe that wolf heart was affecting me?

Or maybe it was just that I could finally strike back at injustice without being locked up for it. I’d spent so many years knuckling under to an increasingly crushing burden of stupid, nonsensical rules that there was no way to fight. Arguing with an employer just gets you fired, and arguing with the government is a good way to land in jail. But here politics was a matter of individuals and personalities rather than impersonal bureaucracies and leaderless ideological trends.

It had felt awfully good to just punch that idiot instead of having to listen to him talk. But did I really want to make a habit of that kind of thing?

There were only four soldiers, and they were cautious but respectful. So they probably weren’t going to try anything, but I kept my shield up just in case.

A light sprinkle of snow was falling, settling onto roofs that already carried a heavy load of the stuff. There was only a thin dusting of white on the streets, but I could see deep drifts beginning to develop in corners and along the sides of buildings. The streets were still full of activity now, but another blizzard or two would probably leave most of the town snowed in.

How hard would that be to prevent? Put roofs over the narrower streets, maybe. Fuse the cobblestones of the wider roads together, and enchant them to radiate enough heat to melt the snow. Or would the runoff just freeze into ice sheets before it found its way outside the walls?

I reminded myself I wasn’t going to be here that long, and turned my attention back to the people.

There were a lot of soldiers in the streets, hurrying about in groups of a dozen or more. Most of them weren’t nearly as well equipped as the 5th Margold, however. Lots of light chain shirts instead of proper hauberks, and half the spearmen wore leather armor instead of mail. Some groups wore relatively standardized equipment, with various insignia embroidered on cloaks or armbands. But others had the motley assortment of personal gear I’d have expected of medieval troops, where each man spent his own money to buy whatever equipment he thought he might need.

The townspeople who were out and about seemed reasonably prosperous as far as I could tell. At least, their clothes were a lot better than what I’d seen on the peasant refugees, and most of them wore actual shoes instead of just wrapping their feet in rags. But they kept their heads down, cringing nervously out of the way whenever a troop of soldiers passed by, and I noticed that none of them were armed.

The fear in their eyes made me wish there was something more I could do for them, but it was the refugees who were the worst off. They were everywhere, huddled in clumps wherever they could find a little shelter from the weather. In narrow alleys, under porches, in disused corners of the winding streets. Their ragged clothes and rough blankets were little protection against the cold, and most of them looked like they hadn’t eaten in days.

My escort ignored them, and they kept their distance. But I wondered how many of them would still be alive in a week.

Baron Stein’s keep was bustling with activity. Laborers carried an endless stream of barrels and sacks into the keep under the watchful eyes of his soldiers, while work parties came and went constantly. Apparently the Baron meant to keep all the supplies that could possibly fit in his own cellars, where he could keep an eye on them.

That wouldn’t have bothered me, except that there was no one dispensing food to those refugees.

I was led across the great hall and up a stairway to the second floor, then along one of the balconies overlooking the hall to an open doorway flanked by a pair of guards. Inside was a meeting room dominated by a large rectangular table, with twenty or so men crowded into it. I recognized Baron Stein, Holger Drakebane, Captain Rain and a couple of the men who’d been clustered around the Baron during my brief audience the day before.

“-stand at fourteen months’ normal rations for the town and garrison, my lord,” one of the older soldiers was saying. “But we’ve now emptied all the farms within easy reach of the town, and at this rate the roads will be impassible in another week. We might gain another month or two by emptying the villages a bit further out, but we’ve little word on what we’d be facing.”

“Well, now that our wizard has finally joined us maybe he’ll have a thought or two on that,” the Baron replied sourly. “The war council meets here at dawn every third day, Daniel. Don’t be late again.”

I blinked in surprise. I’d expected shouting and threats, not an invite to the executive planning meetings. Did Stein not care what I’d done to his cousin? Or was there something more going on here?

I gathered my wits, and responded. “I’m afraid your invitation only reached me this morning, milord, but I’ll certainly strive to be punctual in the future. I don’t have any detailed intelligence on the disposition of enemy forces, however. There was a pack of Ungols lurking in the next village upriver yesterday, and there seem to be goblins and trolls everywhere.”

“The giants are working their way down from the north,” Captain Rain put in. “If we send scavenging parties south we should be able to avoid them for a few more days.”

“That works for now, but what about when they do get here?” The Baron objected. “We need a lot more grain, or we’ll be putting most of those refugees to the sword when they start to riot. How do we get more food?”

I looked the room over as the men struggled with that one. There was only one empty place at the table, a rickety-looking stool all the way down at the foot where I’d be scrunched against a wall. Petty revenge? Well, letting him make me look unimportant was probably a bad idea, but I couldn’t just claim a better spot at this point. There were messengers and servants standing back against the walls to either side of the table, so I didn’t want to look like one of them either. I needed some subtle way of making myself look different.

There was a crude map drawn on the wall to the left of the table, so I stepped into the middle of the open space to the right where I could pretend to be looking across the table at it. Then I reached into my cloak, and pulled out a heavy staff made of polished granite that I conjured up on the spot. I set the butt of the heavy implement down on the floor and adopted my best Wise Old Wizard pose as the conversation ground to a halt.

“Felwolves are edible,” I pointed out as the men eyed me in surprise. “One of them could probably feed the whole town for a day or two, and the giants keep a lot of them around. Every time they attack the town they’ll be giving us more provisions.”

“Can we even hold the town against them?” One of the men I didn’t know asked nervously. “They’ll be here before that new wall of yours is finished, and the old one won’t keep them out.”

“Grow some balls, Erland!” The Baron growled. “If some raiding band bothers us we’ll run them off! Holger and I hunted drakes together, I think we can handle a few mangy giants. Hell, even our wizard might join in.”

I nodded. “Of course. Ballistae should work on them as well, if you have any, and massed arrow fire would be worth a try. If you’re really worried you could start setting stakes in the moat before it fills with snow. If you make them the right size that should work even better on giants than it does human troops.”

Another man scratched his head in puzzlement. “Why’s that?”

Was I really going to try to explain the square-cube law to these people? Well, maybe in simple terms.

“The same reason a cat can jump out of a tree and walk off unhurt, where a horse that fell the same distance would probably break its neck. The bigger a creature is the more anything that uses its own weight as a weapon will hurt it.”

“It’s not worth the labor,” Stein objected. “But the ballistae are a thought. Nels, have your boys take down the ones by the river gate and move them over to the other side of town. We can shift the others as the new wall gets built, until we’ve got one on every tower in the gap.”

One of the knights nodded. “Will do, milord. I don’t suppose you can do anything about the weather, sir wizard? All these damned blizzards are slowing the work down a lot.”

I shook my head. “I’m afraid weather magic isn’t one of my talents. If something critical comes up I can hold a spell over a small area to keep the wind and snow off, but I imagine finishing the wall is more urgent for now.”

Stein grunted. “Let’s get back on track. Alvar, you’ll shift the scavenging parties south until the next meeting. Erland, finish checking the shops and refugees for food hoards. Holger, how’s your business looking?”

The High Priest stood.

“There’s some good news, at least. I’ve received word that the Red Conclave is assembling in Kozalin, and is preparing a grand working to turn back the weather. Also, Prince Casper is visiting the embassies of the fair folk there to propose alliances, and the Queen of the Seelie Court has been receptive to the idea. That’s particularly significant because the fair folk stand outside of prophecy.”

A murmur went around the room at that, and Holger smiled grimly.

“Indeed. So don’t give up hope, men. The rise of mortal magic was never predicted in the old sagas, and with this alliance there’s every chance we can break this unnatural winter before the Traitor God’s forces can unveil the path to the Bifrost. We need but hold fast for a few weeks, and then the tables will be turned.”

Yeah, like it was going to be that easy to stop an alliance of evil gods. But I kept my mouth shut, because it was obvious the men needed something to hope for. It was amazing how much the moon of the room lifted at that simple pronouncement.

“That’s good to hear,” Baron Stein put in. “Can we expect reinforcements?”

The priest shook his head. “Not quickly. The Griffon Knights are going to be scouting and lending aid to key points, but I think we’re a bit too far north for them to reach us. The king is urging all fortified settlements to simply hold out for now, and give the wizards time to do their work.”

“That we can do,” Stein nodded. “My town isn’t going to fall to a bunch of Odin-cursed monsters. Greger, you’ve been at loose ends since you got into town. I want you to open up the west barracks and recruit yourself an oversized company of militia from the refugees. Make sure you get the young ones, and issue them spears from the war stock.”

An older knight with a touch of grey at his temples blinked in surprise. “I can do that, milord. But militia won’t be worth much against trolls or giants, even if I mix in my men to stiffen them a bit.”

“Ah, that’s not the point. It’ll keep them out of mischief, and if the best of the refugees are all in the militia the rest won’t be able to cause so much trouble. When we do get a real attack we can throw them into the worst of it as a distraction, and then we’ll have that many less troublemakers to worry about.”

Greger nodded in understanding. A younger man leaned in to ask, “Have you made a decision about the camp wench question, milord?”

“Yes. I’ll allow it, but I want all of you to enforce strict limits. Only one girl per five men, and they can draft refugees but not townsfolk. Sergeants can keep one of their own, and they’re in charge of settling disputes if the men can’t agree on who they want. I suppose we’ll have to let them keep their wenches in the barracks or they’ll freeze to death, but no sweet-talking the men into letting anyone else in. We’re crowded enough as it is.”

My, what classy people. I tried to keep my expression blank as I listened, but it wasn’t easy. I was seriously tempted to just kill everyone in the room and take over the town.

But that wouldn’t work. Their men wouldn’t follow me, especially after something like that, and it’s not like I had any idea how to run a medieval town anyway. All I could do at this point was make the place defensible enough that the giants couldn’t just kill them all.

That, and take a few of the refugees with me when I left this madhouse.

On the good side, at least the meeting didn’t last much longer. Unlike pretty much every modern manager I’d ever worked with Baron Stein had no hesitation about making decisions, and his men didn’t feel the need to have an extended discussion about every little detail. The whole thing probably didn’t last more than half an hour from the point I walked in the room.

The Baron gestured for me to stay as his men began clearing out. I suppressed a sigh, and remained standing until the door closed. He spent a moment looking over a list of stores one of the men had left him, and then looked up at me coldly.

“You’re not staying here.”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on it.”

He nodded. “Next time you have a problem with one of my men, bring it to me.”

“Fair enough,” I agreed.

“Then go finish that wall. Time is getting short.”

I left, a bit relieved that the matter had been laid to rest so easily. I suppose when you live in a place where life is cheap and brutality is commonplace that sort of thing doesn’t seem so bad.

Or maybe he was planning to kill me after the wall was done. Better make sure he didn’t get the chance.

I’d intended to intercept Captain Rain after the meeting, but instead found that the High Priest was waiting for me on the balcony.

“Good morning, Magus Black. May I trouble you for a few moments of your time?”

I nodded, grateful I’d remembered to quiz Cerise about forms of address last night. “Certainly, your Reverence. What can I do for you?”

“Well, first I wanted to make sure you received my package?”

He stated towards the stairs, and I followed. There were servants scurrying about everywhere, but they practically threw themselves out of the way as we passed by.

“Yes, I did,” I confirmed. “Although if I’m pushing to finish the wall quickly it will probably be a couple of days before I can put it to use.”

“Hmm. What do you plan to do once the wall is finished?”

I sighed. “I don’t think the Baron and I are going to get along in the long run. I expect I’ll move on to another settlement. Maybe I’ll see if there’s anything I can do to assist the Red Conclave.”

He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Indeed, that very topic has been discussed. I’m sure you guessed that my presentation was… shall we say, presenting the news in the most favorable possible light? There have been weather-workings before, but nothing on this scale.”

“I did wonder about that,” I agreed.

“Well, obviously no one expects you to share your secrets. But I sent of a summary of our conversation last night, and this morning I received an inquiry about whether your method could supply power to a circle.”

I frowned. “That was fast. Well, in theory I probably could. But I haven’t actually tested that kind of application yet, and a mistake could be disastrous. I’d need to spend at least a few days working through the issues with someone who’s willing to play test subject.”

I also wasn’t eager to trust a bunch of strangers with an unrestricted power tap, especially after the last few days. Considering how much energy is involved in large-scale weather I wasn’t optimistic about them accomplishing anything with it anyway. Nothing I could build was going to have the energy output to warm up an entire country.

“That’s unfortunate. Still, if you choose to move on to Kozalin I expect you’ll have a friendly reception from the Conclave. Once you’ve taken care of that other issue we discussed I’ll also pass word on that to my superiors, so you’ll have no trouble from the Church.”

Yeah, and if I didn’t he’d tell everyone Cerise was a witch. Damn it, I hadn’t counted on the priests here having some kind of magical communication system. Now I was going to need a new disguise, or a way to fool him into thinking I’d done a binding.

Well, one problem at a time.

“I’ll think about it,” I told him. “I’ll help to the extent I can, but conditions right now don’t make travel easy.”

He grimaced. “Yes, I suppose you have a point. Well, I’d better let you get to work. But do let me know when you come to a decision.”

We parted ways at the doors of the keep. He made for the temple, which was located near the wall on the opposite side of town from the river. I started for my tower, but thought better of it and decided to find Captain Rain instead.

His surviving men turned out to be using a little waterfront tavern as a barracks. The owner of the place had died some days ago in a goblin attack, but the building itself was intact and the main room had more than enough space to quarter the surviving members of the shattered unit.

Captain Rain was using the living quarters upstairs, while his little group of concubines ran the kitchen with the help of what I suspected were more camp followers. There were a lot more men about than I’d expected, though.

“We left a few men in Lanrest when we first set out,” Rain explained when I asked about it. “For the first few days we were sending the wounded back to town as well, and there are a few men who thought the camp had been wiped out in that giant attack and made their way back on foot. We’ve got seventeen men who can fight, and another twenty-odd wounded.”

“Any sign of Rolf and his band of deserters?” I asked.

“Not a hint. That’s just as well, though. I’d have to hang them, but with our losses the men are in no mood for that.”

“I suppose not,” I agreed. “So, I take it the Baron still isn’t too happy with you?”

Considering that the tavern was outside the town wall, odds were they wouldn’t go more than a few days before something snuck in to attack them in the middle of the night. That couldn’t be an accident.

“We’re on shit duty,” he confirmed. “I asked about moving the men into one of those new towers you’re building, but he said he was reserving the space for his own retainers.”

“You could always jump ship,” I suggested. “I’m leaving as soon as the wall is done, and I could use some professional soldiers.”

He shook his head. “I wish I could, but our contract runs for another month. Besides, the Baron wouldn’t allow a body of troops that aren’t under his control to stay here. If I break the contract he’ll run us out of town before sunset.”

“If you stay here another month he’s going to get you killed,” I pointed out. “You heard him plotting to thin out the refugees, and those are his own people. The closer you get to the end of your contract the less he’s going to trust you. He’ll send you to scout for giants, or collect food from ruined villages, or whatever it takes to make sure none of you are alive by then.”

“No Margold company has broken a contract in seventy years,” he said stubbornly. “I’m not going to be the first. If he orders us to do something suicidal then he’s in breach of the contract, and we can pull out. But unless he does we’re stuck.”

I sighed. “I’m sorry to hear that. I suppose your loyalty speaks well of you, but it’s damned inconvenient for me. Ah, well. Are you still supposed to be providing my escort?”

“Yes, and I can spot you a couple of guards for your tower too. Just don’t expect us to turn on our employer.”

“I get the picture. Go ahead and send them over, then. I’ll be starting on the wall in a bit.”

Rather than walk back to my tower, I swung by the docks and moved the hover-barge. I still didn’t trust the situation, and I wanted the thing close at hand just in case. I reshaped the embankment next to my tower into a dock just big enough to hold it, and resolved to come back and finish the improvements I’d been planning sometime soon. It needed a roof, and some kind of heating system, and manual controls so I didn’t have to steer it myself. Of course, controls would also mean someone could steal it.

One of the refuge girls peeked curiously over the side of the stairs as I parked the barge. What was her name again? Gudrin, that was it.

“Good morning, milord,” she said cheerfully, her breath misting in the chill air. “Are we going to be leaving on that thing, then?”

I almost reminded her I wasn’t a lord. But no, that was a bad habit. It was becoming increasingly clear that if I wanted to be able to protect my people I was going to have to pass myself off as a noble. Better to just refrain from commenting on that topic until I had a chance to come up with a plausible story.

“It looks that way,” I told her. “I take it you’re joining us, then?”

She did a little curtsey. “If you’ll have me, milord. Miss Avilla said most of the mercenaries for hire are single, and she wanted a few reliable girls on hand to keep the numbers in balance. Although I’m not sure what I think about this ‘wolf-touched’ business.”

I chuckled. “She actually explained that, did she?”

“Hrodir was asking her some pointed questions, milord,” she explained. “It seems her magic works better on some folk than others? She said I’m so open a couple more wolf hearts would probably have me sprouting fur and getting an urge to go hunting.”

“You don’t seem too put off by the idea,” I observed.

She shrugged. “It’s a bit unsettling, to be honest. But you’ve taken good care of us so far, milord. I’ll trust that you know best how to keep us all alive, and try not to worry overmuch.”

“I see Avilla is picking good people,” I smiled. “Don’t worry, if we do any major enchantment I’ll ask for volunteers and explain the risks first. I take it you’re on lookout duty?”

“That’s right, milord. We’ve a lot of people coming and going, and it’s hard to get a good enough view from inside. But there’s plenty of open space between here and the town, so if I see soldiers coming I can scurry back inside and help Gronir bar the door long before they could reach the stairs.”

I was halfway up the steps myself by then, so I paused to look her over. She was wearing one of the warmth cloaks I’d enchanted the day before, but her face was bare and her feet were wrapped in rags. With the temperature well below freezing that seemed a little inadequate.

“It’s a good plan, but find someone to take turns with,” I told her. “You’ll get frostbite if you stay out here too long.”

She nodded. “All taken care of, milord. Beri is going to spell me until lunch, while the men are busy moving furniture and getting guard shifts organized. Then they’ll take over and we’ll be working inside.”

Two steps inside the tower I was intercepted by a blonde-haired missile.

“Daniel! Are you alright? Are we in trouble? What happened with the Baron? I saw you brought the windboat, do we need to leave?”

I stopped the manic flow of questions by kissing her. Ah, honey and cinnamon, with a hint of cherries this morning.

“We’re fine, sweetie,” I said reassuringly. “The Baron’s not happy, but he’s not going to make an issue of it publicly. I think you can even go shopping as long as you take a couple of guards with you.”

She smiled in relief. “Oh, good. I suppose I was worried about nothing, then.”

I shook my head. “No, it’s good to be cautious. Actually, I want us to make a point of keeping up better security in the tower from now on. Keep guards on the doors whenever they’re open, and make sure anyone who goes into town has an escort. Cezary may try to get revenge somehow, so let’s not give him any openings.”

“Can we count on Rain’s men for that?” Cerise asked from the stairwell.

“Better not. They take their contract with the Baron pretty seriously. I don’t think they’re going to end up coming with us, either, so we may need to hire more men than originally planned.”

Avilla frowned. “That’s too bad. He seems like a good captain. Well, we have three town guards, a couple of hunters and a veteran mercenary now. Should we go for a dozen fighting men, or more?”

I considered the size of the hover-barge, and the volume of supplies I’d like to have room for. “I think twelve will do. I don’t want to make things too crowded. Oh, and we definitely need gloves and good boots for everyone if we can manage it.”

“Of course. And liveried clothing, and proper bedding, and tents… oh, unless you’re going to do something about shelter?”

“I’m going to put walls and a roof on the hover-barge tonight. Beyond that, we’ll see how much time I have. How are we doing on money?”

Cerise grimaced. “Everything costs three or four times what it should, now. But those cloaks are selling really well. If you’ve got time to make a couple more I think that’ll cover all the essentials.”

“Alright, I’ll knock a couple out right now. Then I’d better get to work. The new wall doesn’t protect enough of the town to do us much good yet, and I’m getting nervous about those giants.”

It was a dreary, overcast day. The snow never quite stopped falling completely, and every so often we’d get a flurry that dropped visibility to nearly zero until it passed. Eventually I realized my toes were going numb, and had to stop to put a warmth enchantment on my boots before I could go on.

The men in my escort worked in short shifts, four men watching the fields around me nervously for thirty or forty minutes at a time while the other four huddled around a warmth stone I’d set up in the nearest tower. A group of the Baron’s men were moving into the gatehouse I’d built yesterday, but the rest of the new construction was still empty aside from a few sentries on the wall.

The first time a flurry forced me to stop work I was terribly tempted to pack it in for the day, and spend the afternoon improving my weapons or preparing for the trip to come. But then I remembered the faces of the townspeople, and the refugees huddled together against the cold.

I might not be able to save them. But I had to try.

I built two more towers that day, and another gatehouse on a road that was more or less perpendicular to the river. I was tempted not to bother with that, but there was enough traffic through the existing gate that I decided I’d better not block it. Besides, the gatehouse could easily quarter a hundred men.

Maybe I’d spend a day building shelters for the refugees, when I was done with the wall?

I kept going until the light began to fail, and Cerise came to fetch me for dinner. After a full day of heavy spellcasting I barely had the energy to wolf down my food, and stumble off to bed.

Chapter 10

I was awakened the next morning by a leisurely blowjob.

I groaned happily, still only half awake, and palmed one of the soft breasts pressing against my thigh. Much more than a handful. In my limited experience Avilla’s blowjobs were usually fast, hungry affairs, but she was taking her time this morning. Nuzzling, sucking, stroking, swirling her tongue around the tip...

“Oh god! You’re getting good at that, Avilla.”

She giggled, and came up for air just as I realized that hadn’t been Avilla’s voice.

“Good morning, milord,” Tina said brightly. “Miss Avilla sent me to wake you.”

The smiling redhead rose a bit, her heavy breasts dangling and swaying enticingly. I found myself cupping them in my hands, and she sighed happily.

“You like them, milord?”

“Hell, yes. But is this really what Avilla meant?”

Her brow furrowed in consternation. “I think so, milord. She reminded me to swallow an everything. Oh! Did y’want to have my virginity this morning, milord?”

I swallowed heavily. Wow, I really wasn’t used to the way these people thought.

“I, ah… I think we should make that a special occasion, Tina. A girl only gets one first time, right?”

She beamed. “You’re so kind, milord! I’ll be looking forward to it. Are you gonna do my boobs too? You said you could make’em really big.

I chuckled. “I suppose I can. Hold still for a minute.”

I closed my eyes and focused on my magical senses. Growth was a simple form of flesh sorcery, much easier than some of the healing I’d been doing. Hmm. Her breasts didn’t seem to be very sensitive, but that was easy to fix.

“Oh!” She gasped. “That feels good, milord.”

“That’s the idea, Tina. Think that’s enough?”

“I get to pick? Oh, more please, milord!”

I kneaded her soft breasts, drawing a series of gasps and sighs from the lovely young redhead as I tuned her nerve endings to an exquisite level of sensitivity. By the time I was satisfied with that she was about two cup sizes bigger, which was getting pretty impressive. She looked down at herself in dazed wonder.

“There we go. How’s that?”

“Oh, my lord!” She breathed. “It’s… they’re…”

She abruptly ducked down and took my organ back into her mouth. Now it was my turn to groan again. She bobbed her head energetically, thoroughly coating me with saliva, then pulled away. By the time I caught my breath she had my length nestled into her newly expanded cleavage.

“Fuck ma big boobies, milord!” She pleaded.

How could I say no to that?

Avilla gave me an impish grin when I finally made it into the kitchen for breakfast. I mussed her hair, and gave her a squeeze and a kiss.

“Devious wench,” I teased. “Are you going to make a habit of setting me up like that?”

“I’m just making sure everyone in the household is happy,” she smiled back. “You were going to hesitate and agonize over it and leave her worrying about her place for who knows how long. Now she knows you’re going to keep her, and you know that she’s perfectly happy being in your bed.”

“You’re pretty perceptive,” I admitted.

“Thank you. It’s a part of my art I haven’t had the chance to practice as much as I’d like, so I’m glad I got it right. That reminds me, would you mind loaning me some magic before you go out, like you did when you healed me? Now that I have a stock of ingredients I’d like to work on some things.”

I shrugged. “Sure. You know, I still don’t really know what you can do?”

I sat at a table that had appeared since the last time I’d been in the room, noting that I seemed to be the only one around. It was fairly early, but I still wasn’t used to rising at dawn the way everyone else here did. Probably Cerise and Beri had already had breakfast and headed off into town to run errands.

Avilla retrieved a bowl of batter and started pouring hotcakes.

“Oh, a lot of different things. Most of it isn’t all that impressive, but it’s useful to have. Anything to do with keeping a home is part of my domain, so things like cleaning and organizing are easy for me. I sew almost as well as I cook, and once I properly claim a house again I can hold dominion over the little elemental spirits that live there. I’m good at keeping my own garden, for herbs and such, but that doesn’t work outside my own land.”

“Hmm. What’s involved in claiming a home? Is that something you can set up and take down as we travel?”

She winced. “That sounds unpleasant. I have to put a lot of myself into a place to claim it, blood and magic both. I could probably do something like that if I had to, but I think I’d hurt myself. My magic would be damaged, at least. I’d much rather wait and do it right.”

“Fair enough. What does that entail?”

“Well, that gets back to what I was telling you the other night about needing a partner. I can get by with a series of rituals to work myself into a building, but that takes days to build even a weak claim and it’s always a bit fragile. Hearth magic is wifely magic, you know, so it works best if I have a man involved. Your magic for strength and protection, mine for nurturing and healing, mingling our power to lay a claim with sex and surrender…”

She set the hotcakes down in front of me with a naughty grin, bending low enough to give me a good view down her dress in the process.

“If we do it right I’ll become my home, like a dryad with her tree. As strong as you are your magic will be in everything I do, making me more powerful than I ever dreamed I could be. It’ll be like having your own personal house-nymph. Won’t that be fun?” She teased.

I chuckled. “I think I’d better watch it or you girls are going to make me die of exhaustion.”

She giggled, and went back to the stove. “I wouldn’t worry about that, Daniel. Everything I cook is at least a little bit magic, and I like you being more man than I can handle.  If your magic ever flags mine will be right there to fill in the gaps.”

I paused with a bite halfway to my mouth. “You put magic viagra in this?”

“Oh, there’s hardly anything in it today. Some encouragement for good health and general hardiness, maybe a little extra manliness if I’m lucky. I don’t have the ingredients or the kitchen for any serious work, but I do what I can. Make me an oven and give me a few days to get situated, and then maybe I can manage something noticeable.”

“Oh.” I considered that. “So it’s like the thing with the wolf steaks? That’s interesting. Just promise me you aren’t going to start playing games with it like Cerise.”

“I have more sense than that, Daniel,” she said seriously. “If I abused your trust in this how would I ever get it back? Right now everything I’m doing is meant to help us all survive until we can find a new home. If there’s ever a time when we’re safe there are some games I might like to play, but I’d talk to you about it first.”

“Games?”

“Games. Harmless recipes that sound like they might be fun. For instance, there’s a sauce that’s supposed to make a man’s seed… ah, overwhelmingly copious?”

She blushed prettily at my raised eyebrow, and ducked her head. “Ahem. Granny collected all sorts of unusual recipes. Things that make a girl wonder what it would be like.”

“But you’ll need to have things in a better place with Cerise first. Please be strong for her, Daniel. She can’t help playing, but she needs someone who can take her in hand and keep her grounded. She’s always been a bit wild, but this last year I’ve seen her starting to lose herself bit by bit.”

“Yeah, I was afraid of that. How can I help?”

She chewed her bottom lip cutely. “If we complete the coven bond it will help immensely, but I think you’re right not to rush that. We only get one chance at it, so we need to do it right. If she takes a turn for the worse there are some rituals we could try to help stabilize her, but they tend to be dangerous and costly to her power.”

“No, I think the best course is to avoid magic for now. You’ve been wonderful to her so far, you just need to stop holding back. Demons are made to serve a master, and her stolen power needs to be tamed before she can command it properly.”

I considered that for a moment.

“I think I get it,” I said. “Normally I’d hesitate, but Cerise likes power games anyway, doesn’t she?”

Avilla blushed faintly, and nodded. “Oh, yes. The things she’s made me do... well. You’re a worldly man. I’m sure you can imagine. Just remember, we want her to be a witch who controls the powers of a succubus, not the other way around.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I nodded. “Well, let’s get you charged up.”

I scooted my chair back, and she settled into my lap. Her dress seemed to unbutton itself, and fell to gather about her waist.

“I’m ready,” she said breathlessly.

I chuckled, and started feeding her magic. “For future reference, holding hands would work just fine.”

“I know,” she said, taking my hands and moving them to her breasts. “But this is where my magic is stored. So it only makes sense to watch them carefully, in case you give me too much.”

              Her magic eagerly embraced mine, drinking in the donation of power like some exotic desert flower greeting a rainstorm. I had far more energy available that the last time we’d done this, but I didn’t know how much she could handle so I expanded the flow gradually.

“Ah, so that’s how it is,” I teased. “You make excuses about needing power for practical projects, but you really just want to find out how much you can hold.”

“Y-yes,” she admitted. Her hands on my shoulders were trembling now, and her pupils were huge. “Oh, Daniel. Please, please don’t stop this time. I don’t care if I’m a mess afterwards. Your magic is so warm. Please, fill me up. Stuff me until I can’t take any more.”

“Heh. Are we still talking about magic here?”

Her eyes lit up. “Oh! Yes, that’s a wonderful idea! Take me right here on the kitchen table while you fill me with your magic.”

I increased the mana flow, and watched the cascade of reactions within her body. Her back arched, pressing her breasts into my hands as a soft moan escaped her lips. The faster I gave it to her the more erotic the experience seemed to become, and from what I was sensing her storage capacity was immense. This could be fun.

By the time I worked my way up to my maximum flow rate Avilla was stoned out of her mind, babbling a happy stream of incoherent nonsense as I worked my tool in and out of her warm, gooey center. She seemed to be climaxing more or less continuously, but that didn’t stop her from wrapping those long, golden-brown legs around my waist and fucking me back with delirious enthusiasm. I had to reinforce my self-control with magic to keep things from ending prematurely, but even then I couldn’t last forever.

When I was done I gathered her back into my lap and held her until the trembling passed. Her beasts were tight and swollen now, her nipples so hypersensitive that a casual tug was enough to make her squeak and twitch as another sharp little climax cascaded through her tender flesh. But the fog gradually cleared from her eyes, and after a few minutes she twined her arms around my neck and kissed me tenderly.

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“You’re welcome. You alright now?”

“Yes! Oh, Daniel, I love you so much right now. Ask anything you wish of me, I’m yours.”

I shook my head with a grin. “Ah, the mating cry of the well-fucked woman. You say that now, but you’ll be back to spending all my money and ordering the servants around in a few hours.”

She giggled. “Maybe. I guess you’ll have to fill me again whenever you want me breathlessly swooning for you. The rest of the time I’ll just be your practical, hard-working house-nymph. Such a hard life you lead.”

“Yeah, it’s a rough job but somebody has to do it. Speaking of which, that wall isn’t going to build itself.”

Tearing myself away from that vision of buxom blonde beauty wasn’t easy. It was so tempting to just stay there and make love to her all morning. Maybe get her help giving Tina a special first time, and then pounce on Cerise when she got back from whatever errand she was on. With the near-infinite endurance my amulet gave me it would be easy to get carried away.

But if I went down that road we’d all be dead in a matter of weeks. So instead I pried myself away, and went to work.

There were men patrolling the top of the wall now, and troops moving into several of the new towers. They were glad enough to get out of the overcrowded barracks in town, although the exposed position of the new construction left them a little nervous. Since the new wall didn’t connect to the old one it would be easy for monsters to sneak into the empty ground between the two fortifications at night, and stage ambushes or try to break into the towers.

But there was no way to reach the top of the wall without going up through a tower, and their exterior doors were heavy masses of stone mounted on pivots set into the wall. Nothing small enough to fit through the doorway was going to break in overnight, so as long as they didn’t get careless they shouldn’t have much to worry about.

Besides, it was a temporary problem.

By lunchtime I’d extended the wall well around the curve of the town, although of course the tops of the new defenses towered over all of the original construction. Still, it was good enough that after Beri delivered lunch I felt I could afford to take a few breaks. So once she was safely gone again I retreated to the top floor of a newly-built tower and pulled out the book Holger had sent me.

No, I wasn’t planning to put some kind of slavery spell on the witches. But with both of them warning me about Cerise’s problems I’d be a fool not to look into my options. Maybe there would be something here I could use?

It was slow going at first. Like most hand-written books it was short, barely a hundred pages of neat calligraphy. But the language was dense and obscure, full of unfamiliar references and poetic turns of phrase. I would have been completely lost if not for the grounding provided by my mana sorcery, and even then making sense of it wasn’t easy.

I spent most of the afternoon alternating between projects, snatching twenty or thirty minutes at a time to read in between throwing up new walls and towers. It wasn’t the most efficient way to do things, but it gave me time to mull over each chapter’s contents.

There was a lot of talk about souls and spirits, which I tentatively decided were probably real in this magical world. There was also a fair amount of stuff I would have dismissed as standard medieval bullshit back home, but here I had to stop and think about it. Did biology run on some kind of elemental magic here? Was it actually meaningful to talk about non-sentient forces like magic being innately good or evil? Was it plausible to think of corruption as a literal force that drags anyone who deviates from divinely mandated moral principles down into utter depravity?

Fortunately I had the right forms of magic to check some of these ideas.

A careful self-examination confirmed my previous impression that magical forces were an addition to normal biology, not a replacement for it. Living things had a natural magical field that acted as a sort of life force, affecting and sometimes enhancing physical processes. But I still had organs, cells and biochemistry, and so did the various people I’d healed.

Similarly, my understanding of magic made it pretty obvious that it was a force of nature rather than a living thing. But this world was swarming with tiny, invisible elemental spirits that were basically made of magic, and they seemed to have at least animal levels of intelligence. So it was entirely possible that when Cerise stole power from a magical creature she was ingesting fragments of its personality too. That wasn’t exactly the same thing as the ‘white’ and ‘black’ magic the book talked about, but it was close enough to explain why people would believe in such things.

As the afternoon wore on I gradually began to see how these bindings could work. At first I’d thought it was a matter of imposing commands on the victim, but the human mind is far too complex and malleable for that to be practical. Even if you invented a spell to let you perceive the subject’s mind, how would you ever pin down what the individual parts did in enough detail to accomplish anything? You’d need some kind of mind control sorcery to make that work, and I got the distinct impression that there wasn’t any such thing.

So instead, binding rituals always involved making the subject consent to some sort of verbal or written agreement. A basic binding simply compelled the victim to avoid any action she believed would constitute a violation of the agreement. More complex versions could force actions or even changes in mental state, which I found rather chilling. The victim’s own magic was the power source for such a binding, so the more powerful she was the more complete it could be.

With that foundation laid, the second half of the book was a dissertation on how to word a binding to enslave a witch in the most abject servitude imaginable, and how to torture her into agreeing to the binding.

After a few pages of that I was sorely tempted to march into town and level the temple. Maybe try out some of their own torture techniques on the priests, and see what they thought of them. A gang rape would be hard to organize, but the hot pokers and thumbscrews would be easy to duplicate.

              I kept reading, though.

              It had struck me that the Church’s witch-binding techniques sounded like they had a lot in common with the coven-bonds the witches themselves used, and there were a lot of potentially important observations in between the stomach-turning passages about the best ways to torture a young woman without marring her appearance too badly.

              The major loophole in these binding techniques, which the author returned to time and time again, was that a binding’s meaning is interpreted by the mind of the subject. A witch bound to tell the truth can still be mistaken. A delusional witch will still be crazy after she’s bound. More subtly, a quick-witted victim can choose how to interpret any ambiguity in her bindings.

              That was an enormous problem with verbal bindings, because the fallible nature of human memory meant details would inevitably be lost or distorted over time. Make a homicidal witch swear to ‘never do harm of any sort to anyone’ today, and she’ll eventually convince herself that only applies to physical harm. Make the vow more complex, and that just gives her more details to mix up and build loopholes out of.

              Written contracts could be far more complex, but had the drawback that the binding was anchored in the physical document. A binding you can break just by burning a piece of paper isn’t very reliable, unless you can be very certain the paper is well protected.

              The solution the church of Odin had come up with involved a standard set of bindings known as the Riven Covenants, which were chiseled into stone tablets and stored in some secret location. A clever bit of sympathetic magic allowed anyone with a sliver of stone from one of the tablets to bind victims to abide by their contents, despite having never seen them.

              The last few pages of In Tauro de Maleficis claimed to be a copy of the text of the Riven Covenants. The contents looked like they’d do an exceptionally thorough job of making the victim into a devoted slave of her binder, but of course there was no way to check their accuracy. For all I knew the actual text on those tablets was completely different, and I wasn’t about to bind someone just to see how they acted afterwards.

              I was considering whether to add finding those tablets and destroying them to my to-do list when a distant rumble and crash distracted me. A cacophony of faint shouts and scream rose up as I hurried to the top of the tower where I’d been taking my last break of the day.

I reached the parapet to find a pall of smoke hanging over the town. From my vantage point I could see a wide gap in the old town wall, and dozens of figures rushing across the snow-covered fields beyond. The setting sun cast long, weirdly-distorted shadows across the mob, and for a moment I couldn’t tell what they were. Large figures and small ones, some on two legs and others on four.

Then the breeze blew some of the dust away, and I picked out a goblin mounted on wolf-back. Beside him a troll lumbered through the snow, waving a huge club studded with spikes over its head.

There were hundreds of them, and the lead elements were already halfway to the breach.

“Damn it,” I growled. “Don’t these guys ever give up?”

There was no time to descend to ground level and make my way through the crowded streets of the town. By the time I reached the fight that way there’d be a few hundred goblins and half a dozen trolls inside the town, and I had no idea if there were enough troops in the garrison to drive a force like that back out.

I vaulted over the parapet, pushed off from the side of the tower, and threw myself into the air with a burst of force magic.

I still hadn’t figured out how to fly properly, but I had more than enough power to throw myself around. I pushed again, sailing high into the air over the town. Activating my force field muted the wind in my face, but the sudden change in aerodynamics sent me into a spin.

I straightened out, found myself far too close to an approaching rooftop and pushed off again. Up, arching high over a clump of three-story buildings. A sideways push to correct the beggining of a tumble. A flex of my flesh magic to suppress a sudden flash of nausea.

Up again, and now I could see the breach clearly. A thirty-foot section of the old town wall had simply collapsed, crushing the buildings built against it and throwing the townspeople into confusion. A band of goblins wearing white cloaks were standing in the rubble, shooting arrows into the crowd of fleeing civilians. Sappers? Some kind of goblin commandos?

Another push, angling for the center of the breach. If I could throw up an obstacle before the main force arrived maybe we could keep them out of the town. I could hear horns blowing and bells ringing all over the settlement now.

One of the white-coated goblins spotted me as I fell towards them. He shouted, pointing and dancing around, and the others turned their heads skyward. A rain of arrows rose to meet me, but my new shield was far stronger than the one I’d used before. Goblin arrows weren’t going to do anything to it.

None of them missed.

The first few arrows rattled off my shield just as I’d expected, raising little showers of blue sparks as they were thrown away. But these projectiles were magical, imbued with all sorts of minor spell effects. Bursts of flame and electricity flashed uselessly against the barrier, but speed and penetration effects took a heavier toll on my amulet’s energy reserve. One carried a dispelling effect that attacked the magic of my barrier directly, while another struck with such force that it started me spinning again.

Then four shamans raised their little bone staves, and hurled dark blobs that trailed streamers of sickly green smoke at me.

I managed to dodge one, but the second went right through my barrier and grazed my leg. Agony flared through me as the immaterial spell ate into my flesh like acid, and for a crucial second I was too distracted to dodge. Another curse smashed into my side.

I screamed.

I hit the ground moving far too fast.

My shield stopped first, but I’d intentionally designed it not to transmit impacts to me. So an instant later I slammed into the inside of the barrier, still tumbling from those last seconds of uncontrolled fall. I hit a solid mass of stone, flipped over it and plowed face-first into a cavity in the rubble. For a moment I hovered on the edge of unconsciousness.

But my amulet was still around my neck, mindlessly trying to heal all my damage at once. With that help I somehow managed to cling to consciousness. With a groan, I tried to move.

My right arm was a mass of pain, and my hand didn’t want to work. My face was covered in blood, and my front teeth were missing. Worse, I couldn’t feel my legs at all.

I managed to shift a little, so I could turn my head and see out of the hole I was in. The flash of pain from my arm nearly made me pass out again. Definitely broken.

An arrow smacked into my depleted shield with a flash of green smoke. Goblin voices gabbled at each other in their own language, and then a shaman cautiously peered over the edge of the hole.

His eyes met mine, and a toothy grin split his wrinkled face.

“We got you now, flying man,” he said. “No more running and killing of goblins for you. Spirits of earth, crush!”

The stones beneath me shifted, and began to move.

Chapter 11

The shifting stones pressed against my shield, raising showers of blue sparks. It was holding for the moment, but I knew now they had non-physical spells. I groped for my flesh sorcery, trying to focus enough to shut out the pain so I could try to escape.

A silver knife opened the shaman’s throat, sending a spray of bright red blood arcing over me. A lithe form vaulted the rock he’d been standing on, and slid down my shield to land next to me.

“Daniel!” Cerise gasped. “Shit, you’re fucked up. What can I do?”

“Keep… off me…” I gasped. It was hard to breath, and my voice wasn’t working right.

More goblins were coming into view now. One loosed an arrow at her, but she sidestepped it neatly. “You got it. Fading light, flee from my presence! Devouring night, make my shadow your home!”

The dim light of twilight suddenly faded to pitch darkness. I heard the frantic jabbering of goblins, and more arrows whistled through the air. Then a goblin shrieked in pain.

“I can keep them busy for a few minutes,” Cerise’s voice whispered in my ear. “But the shamans will tear down my shadows pretty quick and then I’m fucked. So work fast.”

“’kay.”

I gathered my focus again, and managed to get a pain block in place. With that done I was able to levitate myself without passing out from the pain, and get all my body parts arranged more or less the way they were supposed to be. Damn, that was a bad landing.

Priorities.

I had broken ribs, and one of them punctured a lung. That was why I couldn’t breathe right. Okay, push the ribs back into place, clear my lung and stop the bleeding. No time for anything more. Why couldn’t I feel my legs?

My spine was severed down near my waist. Damn. I needed mobility, and I levitating myself took too much concentration. I couldn’t fight and move at the same time that way. Alright, I’d have to try to fix it.

Cerise yelped in pain, and the impenetrable blackness around me faded to something more like a moonless night. Now I could make out vague outlines moving around me, and an occasional flash of magic.

Was that a faint tingling in my toes, or just my imagination? Damn it, this was taking too long!

Sounds of combat were springing up all around me now. Screams and shouts and the ringing of steel against steel. A wolf howled nearby, and the bellowing roar of a troll echoed it. An impact glanced off my shield, which still wasn’t back to full strength. Why not?

Oh. Maybe putting defense and healing on the same item wasn’t such a smart idea. The amulet was mindlessly dumping almost all of its energy into the healing spell, trying to fix everything that was wrong with me and leaving only a tiny trickle to recharge the shield. I’d have to change that later, assuming I was still alive.

Finally, sensation returned to my legs. My broken bones weren’t really healed, but they were set firmly enough that I could move without causing more damage. That would have to do for now. I set myself down, and stood on wobbly legs.

“Done!” I announced. “Let’s get out of here.”

Three arrows hit my shield immediately. They didn’t penetrate, but the barrier wavered ominously. Damn it, where was Cerise? I couldn’t throw any ranged attacks or I might hit her.

“Turn left and walk a little,” Cerise said from behind me. “I’ve got your back.”

“Got it.” I turned, and hobbled forward through the darkness.

A large shape loomed in front of me. I extended an eight-foot force blade from my left hand and swept it across the shadowy bulk. It collapsed with an agonized animal sound, and I stepped around it.

Another dark shape, but this one was just a wall. Heavy stone, thicker than I was tall. Right, the town wall. This must be one end of the breach.

“Can’t hold the darkness much longer,” Cerise warned.

I nodded, and put my back to the wall. With my amulet’s energy flow mostly tied up I couldn’t afford to waste magic on anything big, but shifting some of the broken stone beneath our feat to give us cover wasn’t too hard.

“Alright, let it go,” I said.

The darkness faded to twilight. Cerise stood beside me, breathing heavily from the fight, with a nasty gash on one arm and bloodstains all over her knee-length dress.

In front of us the breach was full of monsters. Hundreds of goblins, about half of them on wolfback, were pouring into the town. Here and there a troll strode through the rushing crowd of smaller monsters, roaring and looking for enemies. A handful of archers on the wall above rained arrows down into the mass, but it wasn’t nearly enough.

I threw a volley of force blades into the press, and a whole group of goblins fell in a spray of blood and severed body parts. But they could see us now, and the nearest goblins immediately rushed us.

I manifested an eight-foot blade of force from my left hand and swept it across their ranks. Goblins and wolves fell, cut in half by the invisible blade. But there were too many of them, moving too fast.

A javelin bounced off my shield. I swept my blade back and forth, cutting down more attackers. A goblin leaped off his dying mount with swords like meat cleavers in both hands, but Cerise knocked him out of the air with a curse. Arrows fell around us, and a ball of sparks arced over our attackers to detonate on my shield.

It collapsed.

A troll lumbered into range, raising a broken-off tree trunk high over its head. I stabbed it in the groin with my force blade, and it dropped the improvised club to clutch at itself. More goblins poured around it into melee range, stabbing at me with spears. Cerise gutted one that got too close, and I cut down more with another sweep of my hand.

There were too many of them. I turned the ground in front of us to mud to buy us a moment’s respite, and grabbed Cerise.

“Hold on!” I told her, and threw us both into the air.

My previous experiment in flying hadn’t worked out so well, but this time I wasn’t going any further than the top of the wall. Cerise gasped in surprise as we left the ground, then whooped and clutched at me.

“We’re flying!” She yelled.

“More like falling in the wrong direction,” I corrected. A second push up, a wobble to keep us from hitting the wall, and then we were above the level of the parapet. I glanced down to see startled guardsmen looking up at us.

Down in the breach two more trolls were headed for the spot where we’d been fighting, and the first one was getting back up. Yeah, that would have ended badly.

I managed an awkward landing on top of the wall, and put Cerise down. She leaned against me in a way that would have been a lot more appealing if not for my broken ribs, and kissed me.

“We’ve got to do that again,” she said excitedly. “Only next time try not to crash in the middle of a horde of monsters.”

“Good advice,” I said dryly. “Watch the ribs. I take it you were out in the town?”

She nodded, and gave me a suddenly worried look. “Are you going to be alright? You looked really bad, but I figured it would be like the fight with the giant.”

“It will be, but I can’t afford to spend an hour healing right now. Thanks for the save, by the way. I don’t think I would have made it out of there on my own.”

“I still owe you two more,” she grinned. “So, how do we save the town? Or do we need to pack up and get the hell out?”

“There aren’t enough of them to sack the town,” I pointed out. “There must be three or four thousand people crammed in here, and one on one a civilian with an improvised weapon is probably about as dangerous as your average goblin. But they’ll kill a lot of people, especially with those trolls.”

“It’s not just that, sir wizard,” one of the soldiers put in. “Goblins love setting fires. If they get out of control they could burn the town.”

“Oh. Damn.”

I desperately needed to sit down and fix my amulet’s enchantment. If I could just throttle it so it would only spend half its power flow on healing me that would leave plenty to keep the shield up and recharge my own reserves. But a change like that could easily take twenty minutes, and by then the outcome of this fight would probably be decided.

What could I do with what I had?

There was a tiny trickle of free power for me to use. My shield was back up, and at this rate it could probably take a hit from a goblin weapon every now and then. But a troll or a flurry of hits would collapse it.

My personal reserves were still mostly full, but I’d have to limit myself to small spells or I’d run dry fast. So force blades and balls of fire, but no big area-effect spells. Well, it was too late for that anyway. The last of the attacking force was already moving through the breach and into the streets of the town.

They’d caught us by surprise, and the Baron’s men were still trying to mobilize. I was pretty sure they’d push the goblins back out of town when they got organized, but until then there was nothing stopping them from rampaging through the streets killing people and setting things on fire.

Alright then.

“You men, make sure the wall is secure and see what damage you can do from up here. Cerise, follow me. Let’s see if we can rally a defense.”

I hurried down the wall as best I could. I was still limping, but at least I could walk more or less normally now. Every passing minute was the equivalent of several days of natural healing for me, and it was starting to add up.

There was a street running parallel to the wall, and I kept an eye on it as we moved. At first there were goblins on wolfback running everywhere, along with the bodies of dead civilians. But the ones who’d gotten into town first were busy looting the buildings nearest the breach, and only a few had gotten as far as setting them on fire.

Further down the goblins were still beating at doors and windows, trying to break into homes and shops whose owners had gotten enough warning to bar their doors. Beyond that there were still people in the street, some of them fighting while others ran for their lives. I searched frantically, looking for a possible center of resistance.

There. An open-air smithy, where a cluster of burly men were laying into the goblins with hammers and iron bars. An older man and three younger ones, probably his sons. Some of the goblins had already detoured around them looking for easier prey, but not too many.

I opened my shield and pulled Cerise against me. “We’re jumping again.”

She sheathed one of her knives and wrapped her arm around my waist. “Ready!”

I stepped off the wall, and threw us across the street. A few seconds of frantic maneuvering dropped us lightly in the middle of the goblins, between a snarling wolf and a shaman who’d just started to wave his staff and chant. Cerise stabbed him before our feet even touched the cobblestones.

I cut the wolf in half with a force blade. Cerise cut the shaman’s throat just to be sure, and flicked a blob of darkness into the back of a goblin who was trying to stab one of the blacksmiths. Then there was way too much happening for me to keep track of it all.

I slashed madly with my force blade, hacking up goblins and trying to dodge their little swords and spears. A snarling wolf leaped at me, and I cut it in half. But the body kept going, smashing into my shield and sending me stumbling back.

A sword bounced off my side in a shower of blue sparks, and my shield failed again. I cut a goblin’s arm off and kicked another one away. A spear sank into my side an instant before my blade found its wielder. I gasped, and send a flurry of blades flying through the air.

Several goblins went down in pieces, and the rest fell back.

“Holy bells. What happened to your shield, master?” Cerise was at my side in an instant, carefully extracting the spear. Fortunately goblins aren’t all that strong, so it hadn’t penetrated far enough to perforate my intestines. The bleeding stopped almost immediately, but it was one more injury slowing me down.

“It’s going to be weak until I finish healing,” I told her, and turned to the smiths.

“Thanks for the save, sir wizard,” the older one said. “You look like hell. You need to come in and sit down for a bit?”

I shook my head. “After we’ve beaten off this attack. Gather your neighbors, quick. We’ll stop them here.”

I stepped into the middle of the street, and started shaping the cobblestones beneath my feet. A proper wall capable of stopping trolls would take more energy than I could spare, but we didn’t need anything that ambitious. Instead I made the stones grow long spikes, turning a stretch of road into a field of caltrops. Then I stepped back a few feet, and started making a low barricade of earth.

A couple of the blacksmith’s sons quickly joined me, setting tables and workbenches on their sides atop the dirt. We had a chest-high obstacle laid across half the street in minutes, and more men began to gather.

They weren’t much to look at. Frightened peasants dressed in rags, clutching worn-looking scythes and hoes. Townsmen, a little better dressed and not quite as thin, armed with improvised truncheons and the occasional kitchen implement. One man with a spear, another with what was probably a hunting bow. Not a single scrap of armor among them.

But even the puniest man was twice the size of a goblin. They could hold, as long as they didn’t have to deal with a troll or one of the more powerful shamans. If they had the determination to stand together and fight, instead of running.

The roar of a troll drew my attention back to our enemies just in time to see them charge. Another pack of wolf-riders flanked the lumbering troll, with a dozen or so goblins on foot bringing up the rear.

Alright, time to show these men they could fight back.

“Kill the goblins!” I shouted. “The troll is mine.”

The charging monsters hit the field of spike stones, and faltered. Some of the wolves balked, while others stepped on spikes and began howling and thrashing in pain. A few, either lucky or smart, managed to avoid the spikes and make it to the wall.

The troll’s huge feet came down on several of the spikes. The creature stumbled, looking down in confusion, and I struck.

I’d been thinking for days about how to kill trolls more effectively. Thrown force blades just didn’t have the momentum to do more than annoy one, and getting within melee range of something that dangerous was a stupid risk. My more ambitious ideas weren’t practical right now, but one of the smaller ones might work.

While the troll was distracted I carved off a chunk of one of the overturned tables making up the barricade, layered it with force and fire magic, and launched it at the monster’s chest.

The creature’s flesh was tougher than wood, but a charge of cutting force magic meant the projectile penetrated a few inches and stuck instead of bouncing off. Then the fire spell went off, and the wood ignited.

The troll stumbled back with a howl of pain, now more confused than ever. The magic fire burned much hotter than normal, quickly consuming the sliver of wood. But just as I’d hoped, the troll’s flesh caught fire.

It clawed awkwardly at the wound, and managed to dig out what was left of the projectile. But by then it was too late. I concentrated my meager fire magic on encouraging the flame, making it spread faster, burn hotter, consume its fuel more quickly than normal.

A goblin arrow struck my reformed shield and glanced off. I ignored it, hunkering down behind the barricade while I fed the flames.

The burning troll turned and tried to flee. In its panic it managed to step on one goblin and set a couple of others on fire, and the whole attack dissolved in confusion. Half of the goblins fled, while the rest found themselves caught between the men defending the barricade and their burning ally.

Cerise vaulted over the barricade and danced through the group, her silver knives gleaming in the firelight. One, two, three goblins died in as many seconds, bright sprays of arterial blood arcing through the air as they fell. Her nimble feet easily avoided the spikes, and as she dove back over the barricade I saw that the cut on her arm had healed.

The troll stumbled in circles for a few moments, its arms waving uselessly, and then collapsed.

A ragged cheer rose from the defenders. There were a couple dozen of them now, and a group of women were already carrying another table out of a nearby house to finish the barricade. The blacksmith clapped me on the back.

“That was a fine sight, sir wizard,” he said. “What do we do now?”

“Hold them here. What’s your name?”

“Oskar, sir. Oskar Smith.”

“Good to meet you, Oskar. I’m Daniel Black. I need to go rally the people and get barricades set up on other streets so they can’t circle around us, so I’m leaving you in charge here. Gather more men, and hold the line until the garrison shows up.”

“Yessir,” he nodded. “But what if another troll attacks?”

“Cerise!” I called.

She slipped through the crowd like a ghost to appear before me, her dark eyes gleaming. Her dress was ripped and stained, exposing pale patches of  flawless skin beneath. She’d discarded her cloak of concealment, and her power sang hungrily beneath her skin.

“Yes, Daniel?” She purred.

“You getting enough from ganking goblins to keep you going?”

She smiled nastily. “Oh, yeah. As long as they can’t dogpile me I can go all night.”

“Good, you may need to. I’m going to go set up more barricades. I need you to stay here for now, and make sure this one holds. They don’t have that many trolls, but if another one shows up here you get to kill it.”

“Alone?” She gulped, suddenly less confident.

“We’ll help, miss,” Oskar said confidently. “But clubs and knives won’t keep a troll down.

She looked him up and down, and licked her lips. “You can help me anytime. Alright, Oskar, if you guys can distract a troll I can make it die. Will you be back soon, Daniel?”

“Depends on how fast the garrison musters,” I told her. “Hold out as long as you can. If things start looking hopeless and I’m not back yet, head for the tower. You can hole up there if you need to.”

“You got it,” she smiled. “The way you charged up Avilla we can call plenty of help if we need to.”

“If you have to,” I nodded. “Stay safe.”

I turned and limped off down the street. Going airborne was too dangerous, so I’d have to do this like a normal person.

Distant screams and shouts filled the deepening gloom. Most of the buildings I passed were locked up tight, and there were a handful of bodies in the street. Goblins who’d gotten too far ahead of the main group, and the civilians they’d cut down before someone was brave enough to fight back.

Most of the buildings were built right up against each other, sharing walls and covering whole blocks in a single solid mass. The ground floors were mostly brick, with heavy wooden doors and stout shutters over the windows. A troll could try to smash its way through, but it would probably just bring a building down on top of itself. So most likely the invaders would be limited to moving along the streets.

The cobblestone road emptied out into a small plaza crowded with refugees, most of them huddled under blankets around several small fires. Several men armed with farm implements watched my approach.

“Everyone arm yourselves!” I called. “A goblin raiding party is inside the walls.”

The crowd stirred, and a few of the younger men stepped forward uncertainly.

“What should we do?” One of them asked.

“You men, come with me,” I said to the ones who’d already been armed. “The rest of you, send a party back down this street. We’ve thrown up a barricade, but we need more men to defend it.”

“Who are you?” One of the older men asked, eying my bloodstained clothes.

“I’m the wizard, Daniel the Black. I’m going to break this damned goblin tribe, but I can’t be everywhere at once. I need you to keep the little runts away from your women and children while I kill their leaders. Now get moving, we don’t have time for arguments. Roust out the neighbors, and get them to help.”

His eyes went wide. “Yessir, lord wizard,” he stammered. “Ah, Jerzy, Adrianna, you two start knocking on doors…”

              I left him to it, and headed out of the plaza with a half-dozen farmers in tow. There was a street leading almost directly away from the wall, so I took that and followed it for a bit until we hit an intersection.

              There I found another troll caving in the front of a building while a dozen goblins capered and jeered around it. I interrupted the party with a flurry of force blades.

              Half the goblins went down in pieces, and the troll turned from its work to growl at me. My companions flinched.

              “I’ve got the troll,” I told them. “Finish the goblins.”

              Time for troll-killing method number two. Hopefully this would work, because my shield wasn’t going to stop more than one hit from the thing.

              I threw another force blade, cutting a shallow gash across the troll’s chest. “Come on, ugly! You’re too stupid to fight me!”

              As expected, it roared and charged.

              I extended a lance of force from my left hand, an eight foot tube of invisible energy narrowing to a point at the end, and jogged towards it. I saw a flicker of confusion in the brute’s eyes as we closed with each other, and it glanced at my outthrust hand.

              I turned a small patch of road under its feet into mud.

              It stumbled, suddenly too distracted to wonder what I was up to. I plunged my force lance home, and our combined momentum drove the magical construct deep into the troll’s chest. But I didn’t know if being stabbed through the heart would be enough to kill it, so I dissolved the end of the lance and sent a blast of flame roaring through it into the wound.

              The troll started to fall, and I certainly wasn’t going to hold up its weight in my current condition. I dropped the lance and backed away. A glance around showed a couple of goblins fighting the peasants and the rest turning to flee. Excellent.

              I took a minute to decapitate the troll, and then followed the fleeing goblins back towards the breach.

              This time it took a bit more work to get some resistance organized. The goblins had had more time to work, leaving the street littered with bodies. Several buildings on this road had been smashed open and their occupants killed, while others the goblins had simply set on fire.

              I put out a couple of buildings, killed another group of goblins, and recruited a few more townspeople before we reached the next intersection. There we found a couple of abandoned carts, and rolled them across the street leading back towards the breach to make an improvised barricade. I conjured enough dirt to fill the space beneath them, so the goblins on foot couldn’t just crawl under them and attack the defenders, and paused to take stock.

              I was still badly injured, but ten minutes of healing had made a noticeable difference. I was moving a little more easily, and my broken bones no longer felt like they were going to pop lose if I moved too fast. My right arm was still useless, but I could probably run a little if I had to.

              My scratch force included nearly twenty men, most of them townspeople and all armed with improvised weapons. More were starting to emerge from nearby houses as they realized someone was fighting back effectively, and there weren’t any more trolls in sight.

              Good enough. I picked the most assertive-looking man in the crowd and put him in charge, and headed off to find the next street we needed to block.

              By now I was starting to wonder where the garrison was. I know it takes time for men to throw their armor on and get organized, but surely the Baron kept some of his men ready to fight? Maybe not enough to stop the attack cold, but shouldn’t there be some sign of the town’s defenders?

              I found one group of them around the next corner. A couple dozen men, including a few knights along with the regular soldiers, were locked in a desperate melee with two trolls and a whole lot of goblins. The battle filled an intersection between two narrow streets, and one of the adjacent buildings was already on fire.

              “Damn it,” I muttered. “I need these guys alive. Back into the fight, I guess.”

              There was a wrecked wagon partly blocking my approach, apparently smashed by one of the trolls. I cut off a hefty sliver of wood and set the same fire and force spells on it I’d used a few minutes ago. Unfortunately I didn’t have a clear line of fire through the confused melee, and if I waited for a clear shot we were going to be down half a dozen men first.

              So I checked my shield strength, and jumped over the mass of swordsmen around the troll. It was facing away from me, and I landed in the middle of its broad back with a thump that made my knees ache.

              I rammed the wooden spike home, and jumped away as it caught fire. The troll roared in pain, and a guy with an axe ducked under its club and laid its belly open. Good, a couple of seconds of distraction and it would be too late to pull the spike out. But where was I going to land?

              I almost came down in the middle of a clump of swordsmen and goblins, but threw myself back up and sideways at the last second. Where? Ah, a clear spot on the edge of the fight. I pushed again, angling towards my chosen landing spot with half my attention while the rest was focused on burning that troll.

              The other troll’s club swatted me out of the air, and through a brick wall.

              Fresh pain flared up, and my shield collapsed. I sat up with a groan, seeing double for a moment before my vision cleared. Crap, that was a bad sign.

              I was lying on the floor of some kind of shop, half-buried in broken bricks and smashed wood. A couple of goblins peeked through the hole in the wall in front of me with wide eyes. One of them saw me, and snickered. The other raised his bow with a nasty grin.

              I threw a force blade at them, and the snickering one lost his head. But the one with the bow ducked aside.

              Damn it, I’d lost focus on that fire spell.

              I threw up a fresh shield spell using my personal reserves, and hobbled back out of the building. As expected a goblin arrow hit me the instant I exposed myself, but I just tossed a flurry of force blades back and headed for the fight.

              If I thought things were confused before, now they were a dozen times worse. The troll I’d hit was running around in circles with half its back on fire, randomly stepping on goblins and knocking men down. Several goblins were trying to smother the fire with their cloaks, jabbering furiously in their native tongue.

              The other troll was storming towards me with blood in its eye. One of the soldiers took advantage of its distraction to ram his spear into its side, but the troll just batted him away with a sweep of its club and lumbered on.

              Well, at least it gave me a clear line of fire. I conjured a force lance, and rushed it.

              A couple of arrows rattled off my shield, draining a little mana but doing no damage. Then something less tangible hit me, and a moment of intense vertigo made me stumble.

              It was a spell. Some kind of goblin curse. I could see the magic of it, and hurriedly tore it away. But I was on my knees now, the troll towering over me with its club raised to smash me into the pavement. No momentum from either of us to carry a thrust into its vitals.

              I dropped the lance, and tried to dive between the thing’s legs. But I was too slow, or the troll was too fast. It smashed me back with a knee to the face, and then brought the club down.

              I threw myself aside with a burst of force magic, and hacked at its arm with a blade of force. The blade cut deep into the tendons of its forearm, and it dropped the club. I followed up with a little ball of fire thrown at its face. But it blocked the flame, and kicked me away. My shield flickered, and an arrow sank into my shoulder before I could throw it back up. Damn, I wasn’t going to last long at this rate.

              The troll bent to pick up its club with its good hand, but one of the soldiers rushed up behind it and sank his axe into its calf. It stumbled, tried to kick him with its other foot and fell flat on its face.

              I rushed in with a fresh force blade and hacked at the monster’s neck. More soldiers jumped in to attack it as well, and for a moment it seemed that would be it.

              The troll rose to its knees with a roar, and batted me away to land in the broken wagon. This time I didn’t bother restoring my shield, I just grabbed up a chunk of wood and stumbled back into the fray.

              The axeman had gotten both of the troll’s Achilles tendons, and it was too stupid to realize why it couldn’t stand anymore. It fell to its knees again as I reached it, and I plunged the length of wood into a wound in its side. It went in nearly a foot, and then I set it blazing and stumbled back.

              The other troll smashed me into the street.

              Only the fact that it had lost its club saved me from a shattered skull. It loomed over me, back still smoldering, and bared its teeth at me.

              “Hrug eat puny wizard,” it growled. It picked me up by my broken arm, and opened its mouth.

              I formed a force lance, rammed it through the roof of the thing’s mouth, and sent fire rushing into the wound.

              For a second it just froze, and I wondered if the lance had gone deep enough to do any damage. Then the troll’s eyes exploded, and jets of flame burst from its eye sockets. Hah, let’s see it survive that.

Its hand went slack, and I fell back onto the cobblestone. Then the troll’s burning corpse fell on me.

I must have blacked out for a moment. When consciousness returned I was still buried under the hulking brute, but I could hear movement all around me.

“Weigh them down with those timbers. Quickly now! You, and you, light the torches from that building. All of them! We’ve got to burn them to ash or they’ll be back at us in an hour.”

I tried to groan, but all that escaped was a weak gurgle. Too much weight on me. My ribs had broken again. I tried to push the body off, but I didn’t have the strength to do more than shift it. Not enough magic left.

“It moved!” Someone shouted.

“Impossible!” Another voice argued. “Look, it ain’t got no brains right now.”

“Wait, the wizard!” Someone else put in. “I think he was under it.”

“Gotta be dead,” the second voice countered.

“I’ll check,” said the main who’d been giving orders. “You men, get that timber under its shoulder and lift.”

There were a few moments of cursing and straining, and the weight on my chest moved. One side of the troll’s body lifted a few inches off the pavement, giving me a view of booted feet and a burning building in the background.

“Hold it steady, boys,” the commander ordered. Then a face appeared. One of the knights I’d seen with the Baron when I first arrived in Lanrest.

I tried to talk, but all I could do was gurgle. There was blood on my lips, and more in my lungs. I needed to get out from under this thing, and let my amulet work for an hour or two.

He smiled grimly.

“You look like shit, wizard,” he said quietly. “You going to magic your way out of this one?”

I shook my head weakly. “G… ouw… hlll…”

He drew a dagger from a sheath on his forearm, and laid it against my throat.

“Nah, see, I’m Sir Zenon Broz. Cezary is my cousin, and I’m not real happy about you kicking his ass and humiliating him in front of his men. So you know what?”

He drew the blade across my throat.

“Fuck you, wizard. You’re freaky magic isn’t getting you out of this one. Maybe you can heal like a troll, but I bet you’ll burn like one too.”

He backed away.

I clutched weakly at my magic, trying desperately to close the gaping wound in my throat. My blood ran out over the cobblestones, fast, too fast…

“He’s gone,” I heard Zenon say. “Died right in front of me. Put it down, boys, and let’s get these things burning.”

Too fast. The last dregs of strength fled from my battered body, and everything went dark.

Chapter 12

              Someone was crying.

              My head rested on something warm and soft. Every now and then a teardrop hit my cheek. But the rest of me was cold, so cold. I was numb to the bone.

              I tried to open my eyes, but nothing happened.

              “We have to go, Tina.”

              It was Beri’s voice. Low and full of worry.

              “She’s right, girl. There’s nothing we can do now. Our getting eaten won’t help him.”

              A male voice, vaguely familiar. The blacksmith?

              Tina sniffed. “We’re all gonna die without him, Oskar. He was our only hope.”

              “Maybe,” Beri admitted. “But we have to try. Come on, now.”

              I tried to speak, but nothing worked. Not the faintest twitch from my limbs. What happened?

              A muffled gasp drew my attention.

              “Beri! He’s breathing!”

              “What? But, that’s impossible Tina. No one could survive that. Besides, I checked.”

              “Put your hand here!” Tina insisted. “Feel that? He… oh, gods. His heart just started beating.”

              I couldn’t feel anything below my neck but the cold. But I heard Beri’s gasp.

              “You’re right. I… I don’t understand. Oh, I wish Miss Avilla was here! She’d know what to do.”

              “We take him with us,” Tina said fiercely. “He’s gonna get better, just like he always does. Come on…”

              Something jostled me, and darkness descended again.

              The next time I woke I was lying under a thin blanket, with a warm body pressing against my side. Soft, generous curves, and a small but calloused hand resting on my chest. Tina?

              “I’m not taking any chances, Beri,” Tina was saying urgently. “I was touching him when he started getting better. What if that’s how his magic works?”

              Beri sighed. “I still say that’s silly, Tina. How would touching you make him heal from… from that. Besides, you need to eat.”

              “Take my place, then,”  Tina said stubbornly.

              Hey, I could feel my body again. I tried to open my eyes, but still got nothing. Was it that dark, or was I blind? I shifted, and opened my mouth.

              “Guuuh.” Well, that didn’t work out like I intended.

              “He’s awake!” Tina gasped.

              “I can hardly believe it. Milord, we’re safe for now. What can we do to help?”

              “Wa’er,” I managed.

              “Of course. Tina, prop him up a little. Gods, those burns must hurt terribly. Here you go, milord. Drink slow, now, so you don’t choke.”

              I managed a few sips of water, feeling absurdly clumsy as I managed to dribble half of it down my chin. Beri just wiped it away and tried again. The water seemed to help, and the clumsiness quickly passed.

              “Thanks,” I said. “No pain. Got it blocked.”

              “That’s a mercy,” Beri told me. “You were burned nearly to a crisp when we found you, and then mostly frozen. I thought for sure you were dead. That was just after dawn, and you’ve been healing all morning.”

              “It’s kind of neat to watch,” Tina put in. “Are you gonna get all better?”

              I felt terribly weak, but my amulet was still tirelessly working away. “Should,” I answered. “Few hours? Where are we?”

              Because I could hear the distinctive sound of people walking on wooden floors somewhere nearby, and that didn’t make sense. If the girls had decided to hole up shouldn’t we be in the tower?

              “We’re hiding at Oskar’s place,” Beri explained. “The blacksmith you recruited? It’s a good thing you did, because we never would have made it this far without him.”

              I was getting a bad feeling about this.

              “Avilla? Cerise?”

              Beri sighed.

              “Cerise led Oskar’s group back to the tower around midnight. We’d been up with Miss Avilla watching from the windows, and things were looking pretty bad by then. A lot of the town was on fire, and the Baron’s men mostly pulled back into the keep. They both got pretty worried when they found out no one knew where you were.”

              “They argued a bit,” she went on. “Miss Cerise was looking really scary, all covered in blood with her shadow moving on its own. She wanted to summon a demon to drive the goblins out of town, but Miss Avilla talked her down. Told her she was being reckless, and… um… distracted her.”

              Tina giggled. “She kissed her senseless, and dragged her down to the bath to get clean. They were in there for an hour.”

              Beri sighed. “Yeah. That. Anyway, they talked for a while, and when you still didn’t come back they decided to do something to find you. Some kind of ritual. Miss Avilla said it wasn’t too dangerous, but we mustn’t interrupt them.”

              “But the Baron’s men interrupted them,” Tina said.

              “They came in through the door up on the wall,” Beri explained. “Some of Captain Rain’s men were supposed to be guarding it, but they let them in. That priest was leading them. I was guarding the door, but I couldn’t stop a whole troop of soldiers. They burst in and caught your apprentices in the middle of their ritual, and the priest did something that made it go wild on them. Then the soldiers rushed them.”

              She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. He had them in chains before any of the men came upstairs. Gronir and a couple of the others wanted to fight them anyway, but there were too many of them. It would have been suicide.”

              “They took them to the keep,” Tina said. “But you’ll rescue them, right? You won’t let that evil baron have Miss Avilla?”

              Damn it. Not again. Was there anyone in this town I could safely turn my back on? Avilla being in the Baron’s hands was bad enough, but Holger already knew Cerise was a witch. If Avilla used magic to defend herself they’d realize what she was, assuming they hadn’t already figured it out. And that meant… 

              “Hell, no,” I said. “Um, book?”

              “The one you had on you?” Beri asked. “It didn’t burn, somehow. I suppose that must be more magic? The cover is a little singed, but that’s all. I’ve got it right here.”

              She paused.

              “Um, I’m sorry if this is out of line, milord. But, Miss Avilla and Miss Cerise, is that really how you bound them?”

              I tried shaking my head, and found that I had just enough strength to manage it. “No. That’s what the priest will do to them.”

              “Oh.”

              Her tone of voice made it pretty clear that she’d read the last few chapters. I almost wished I hadn’t.

              “How long have they been in the keep?” I asked.

              “Maybe half a day? We were just having a late lunch, milord. Shall I bring you some?”

              My stomach growled loudly.

              “Yeah,” I said.

              It was a somber meal. I could feel my strength returning, but it was a slow process. Far too slow. I had no idea what was happening to my girls, and all I could do was lie here and worry.

              But I was already paying the price for rushing in too fast once. I couldn’t afford to make that mistake again. Getting myself killed in a reckless rescue attempt wasn’t going to help anyone.

              The maids helped me to sit up, and Tina positioned herself behind me to help keep me propped up while Beri fed me.

              “So, why are my eyes bandaged?” I asked as we ate.

              “They were burned off,” Tina told me. “I figured we’d best keep them clean. Was that right?”

              Okay then. Apparently Tina had a stronger stomach than I’d thought.

              “Can’t hurt. This amulet I’m wearing will heal just about anything, but I’m not sure it can handle removing debris from a wound.”

              Tina hesitated. “Um… debwhat?”

              “I mean, if I got something stuck in a wound it might not heal right. So yeah, bandages are probably a good idea until everything grows back.”

              She sighed in relief. “Good. Ma taught me what to do about cuts and bruises, but I never saw anything like this.”

              “You did good, Tina,” I reassured her. “Really, both of you did. I think my magic was just barely keeping me alive, and if you hadn’t come along the cold would have finished me off eventually.”

              “Thank you, milord,” Beri said.

              “Beri, you saved my life. You can call me Daniel if you want. You too, Tina.”

              Tina gasped. “Really? For really real? I’ve never said a lord’s name before.”

              I patted her knee. “Really, Tina. We’re not as formal back where I’m from.”

              “Does this mean I get to stay on, Daniel?” Beri asked cautiously. “Because I got the feeling Miss Avilla was easing me out.”

              “Yes, Beri. You save my life, you get my protection. For what it’s worth.”

              “It’s worth a lot, sir. You just push too hard, trying to save everyone. If you’d just picked a spot to fort up nothing would ever break in.”

              “I can’t conjure up food out of nothing, so we’d eventually have to come out. But I think you’re right about one thing. I’ve been working too hard to save everyone in sight, instead of concentrating on my own people first. I need to start making sure we’re secure before I go trying to save a whole town.”

              “Maybe you should save a town where the Lord doesn’t want to steal Miss Avilla?” Tina offered diffidently.

              I sighed. “Out of the mouths of babes. Yeah, I probably should. But first I have to figure out how we’re going to get out of here. Who’s still with us?”

              “The Baron’s men kicked everyone out of the tower,” Beri answered. “Hrodir and Gronir took most of your people and blended in with one of the refugee groups, just in case. Oskar has a big mob of people here manning the barricades, but I’m not sure how many of them would help.”

              “Barricades?” I asked.

              “Oh, the town is in bad shape, Daniel. The goblin are holding three or four blocks near the hole in the wall, but that’s not the worst of it. Something killed the watch on the river gate last night, and smashed the gate to bits. There’s monsters roaming the streets eating people, and even the Baron’s men only come out in force.”

              “I see. So basically, the only reason the town is still here is that there are too many people for the monsters to eat in one day?”

              “I’m afraid so,” Beri agreed. “I think we’re more or less safe for now. Oskar’s people have the street barricaded in both directions, and there’s a hundred men here ready to fight. But not many of them have real weapons, and we’ll run out of food in a few days.”

              “One way or another, it won’t be that long. Do you think he’ll help us?”

              “Yes. He’s worried about his family, and no one has much loyalty for the Baron after the coward decided to spend the day hiding in his keep instead of fighting to save the town. If he thinks you can protect his people he’ll fight for you.”

“Alright, that’s something. I’m starting to feel vaguely human again, so let’s get this bandage off and see how my eyes are.”

              “Right away, milord Daniel,” Tina said eagerly.

The two of them unwound a length of cloth from around my head, and I blinked at the sudden light. Everything was a bright blur, but that was better than nothing. One of them examined my face closely, while the other looked away.

“How do I look?”

“This is neat!” Tina said. “I can see the burns shrinking. You look kind of funny with no hair, though.”

“It’s pretty bad,” Beri told me. “Most of your skin is still missing. Sorry, it’s just… really disturbing.”

“I understand. Alright, I need to get myself fixed before I can do anything else. Beri, I’ll need to meet with Oskar and whoever else is in charge around here, say, an hour before sunset? Gronir too it that’s possible, but if you can’t find a way to get word to him we’ll cope. I don’t want anyone to get killed trying to play messenger.”

“Also, see if you can find someone who knows the layout of the keep. If I’m going to pull off a rescue I need to be able to find the girls before someone thinks to use them as hostages.”

“Got it,” Beri said. “I’ll just let Oskar think you’re resting until then, so he doesn’t bother you. Do you need to be alone to work your magic?”

“No, I just need to concentrate. You and Tina can watch if you’re curious, just don’t try to talk to me while I’m working. Although there might not be much to see.”

Tina settled her arms around me, and rested her cheek against my back. “You can hardly sit up without help, milord. I’ll just stay like this until you’re healed.”

Beri smiled. “You do that. I’ll go get things organized.”

Weak as I was, my first priority was fixing myself. My amulet was mindlessly trying to heal everything that was wrong with me at once, and being absurdly inefficient about it. It would eventually get the job done, but I couldn’t afford to spend half a day in bed while it wasted most of its energy repeatedly fixing symptoms instead of the real problems.

I focused my concentration, and delicately disconnected the healing function from the power tap. A wave of weakness passed through me as I lost the artificial boost to my vitality, but now I could actually use the amulet’s energy output again. So, priorities.

I replaced my burned-off skin first, and then turned my attention to the considerable damage my internal organs had suffered. It was slow going at first, and I kept having to divert energy to keep my abused body from going into shock and dying.

It was disturbing to realize how close I’d come. If my amulet had fallen off, or been damaged by the fire, or if they’d piled a bit more wood on that troll, I probably wouldn’t be here. I resolved not to make that mistake again. I couldn’t afford to get myself killed in a vain attempt to save everyone. I had too many people depending on me.

My weakness ebbed as I worked through the more critical repairs, and soon I began to feel like I’d survive even without additional magic. I was still emaciated, most of my body mass presumably burned away while I was unconscious, and I had far too many fractured bones to do anything but lean into Tina’s warm embrace and be thankful for the pain block. But it was a start.

I tackled those fractures next, carefully fusing the bones back together one at a time. Another pass, replacing scars with healthy tissue and washing away the poisons flooding my bloodstream. Then I was free to tackle rebuilding my muscles, replaying the same shaping I’d done in the refugee camp just a few days ago.

That extra durability had probably saved my life. But even a sturdy human was still pretty fragile against the threats I faced, and it almost hadn’t been enough. Could I do better?

Well, I could make my bones stronger. Not invulnerable, but strong enough that they wouldn’t keep breaking so easily.

My flesh sorcery held other options as well, but nothing that suited my circumstances. Trying to magically enhance my strength or durability would take days, and was tricky enough I was leery about trying it out for the first time on myself. If I made a mistake there I might not get a chance to fix it.

Besides, my other sorceries were a lot more suited to direct combat. I’d made a serious mistake with my amulet, but I had time to fix that now. Split the energy feed so half of it went directly to me for spellcasting, and the other half went first to maintaining my shield with only the remainder used for healing. It was more complicated than the original design, but easily doable.

There, that would give me the power and heavy shielding I’d meant to have, and as long as I wasn’t stupid enough to cripple myself at the start of a big fight the reduction in healing wasn’t likely to ever matter.

What else could I learn from my last fight?

I needed a defense against non-physical attacks. Some kind of meta-magical ward or barrier to block curses like those shamans had been throwing at me. Well, that was complicated. Trying to block every possible kind of spell would be a big project, especially if I got into esoteric stuff like sympathetic magic or Avilla’s enchanted food. But a shield against simple projectile spells? That was doable. A moderately complex barrier effect anchored to a ring would work well enough in a fight, although there were several obvious ways around it.

Of course, the biggest lesson was that I was focusing too much on defense. If I’d been able to hit the goblin army with a decent area-effect attack while I was in flight the whole battle would have gone differently. But I was still relying on my ability to put attack spells together on the fly for all my offensive power, and that took too much concentration. In a real fight I never had time to put together anything fancy.

So do it in advance.

Fire was highly effective against most targets, but I didn’t have enough fire sorcery to do anything more complicated than creating heat within a few feet of my hands. Force was lethal at melee ranges, but their lack of inertia meant that thrown force blades had limited penetration. Earth magic was nice for battlefield control, but not so good at doing direct damage. But if I combined all three there were a lot of possibilities.

Conjuring pebbles was easy. Throwing them was easy. Instant gun, except that the accuracy would be terrible. I wasn’t exactly doing precision machining with my spells, and I wasn’t much of a marksman to start with. Besides, a bullet wouldn’t stop a troll.

A hot enough bullet might set it on fire, and I could make things very hot indeed. But the collateral damage from using a weapon like that in town would be huge.

I really needed two different weapons, one for close quarters like inside the keep and another for open-field engagements. Something highly lethal but tightly controlled, and something else that could hit a large area. But I really only had time to build one weapon this afternoon, so I’d have to go with close quarters.

I was still working on refinements when Beri returned, but the prototype would probably get the job done.

“What’s that?” she asked curiously, eying the oddly shaped chunk of stone in my hand.

I smiled grimly. “A very nasty surprise for anyone who gets in my way. How are things going?”

“We got a message to Hrodir,” she said. “There are some groups on the streets again, trading supplies and the like. One of them was happy enough to carry a message for a bit of silver. Oh, I don’t know if I mentioned? I’ve got Miss Avilla’s coin purse on me, so we’ve a good bit of silver if we need it. Miss Cerise was doing a good business selling those cloaks.”

“Good, we’ll probably need it. Let’s get this meeting organized, then.”

We gathered in Oskar’s cellar, which was surprisingly empty since the Baron’s men had confiscated his stores a couple of days ago. It was surprising how many familiar faces there were in the group of desperate men and women. Oskar and his sons, Hrodir, Gronir, even Vasha.

I blinked in surprise at Captain Rain’s… mistress? Head concubine? I wasn’t even sure what to call the man’s arrangement.

“How did you end up here?” I asked her.

“No one who saw you fight the giant believes that you’re really dead, lord wizard,” she answered. “Marcus sent me to try to find you, and make peace.”

I frowned at her. “Captain Rain isn’t exactly in my good books right now.”

“Would you have him betray his employer, lord wizard? Could you ever trust a man who was capable of such treachery? The company is under contract with the Baron for another month, and so far he’s upheld his end of the agreement.”

“But the contract ends if the Baron dies,” she added suggestively.

I raised an eyebrow. “Does it? Is Captain Rain offering to help with that?”

She shook her head. “No treachery, lord wizard. But Baron Stein doesn’t trust the company, so he’s assigned us to guard the granary down near the waterfront instead of helping to man the keep. If things work out the way Marcus expects, we’ll be well supplied and ready to accept a new contract.”

I paused to study her for a moment. She’d been an attractive woman when she was younger, although age was beginning to wear on her now. Her dress was simple but clean, she’d found time to put her hair up in a fairly elaborate arrangement held together by hairpins, and her manner seemed confident at first glance.

But her dress was the same one she’d worn the day of the giant attack. The hem was short where she’d ripped off a length to try to bandage her man’s wounds, and one sleeve had a hole in it just the size a goblin arrow would make. She shivered slightly in the cold air of the cellar, and that was far warmer than outside.

I remembered suddenly the way a life of backbreaking labor and limited food prematurely ages people from the Third World. If she looked thirty to my eyes, she couldn’t really be older than… what, twenty-five? Maybe less.

“Why did Captain Rain send you, instead of one of his men?” I asked.

“He has to account for his men,” she answered. “But the Baron wouldn’t think to wonder what a camp follower is up to. You didn’t seem the kind to be insulted by speaking with a woman, and… well, even if you blame the company for what happened I thought you probably wouldn’t take it out on me.”

              I sighed. “You’re right about that. No, I understand the Captain’s position. You realize I’m not sure we can hold the town at this point?”

              She nodded. “Should we start collecting wagons, lord wizard?”

              I considered that.

              “No. Too much chance of drawing attention. Tell the Captain I advise him to sit tight and gather supplies. Once the Baron is dealt with we can negotiate a contract, and then take stock of the situation. If we do pull out we’ll use magical transport, like how we got here.”

              She heaved a sigh of relief, and only then did I realize how tense she’d been.

“Thank you, milord! You have no idea how good it will be to have an employer who knows what he’s about. The company won’t let you down.”

              “It will be good to have some professional backup,” I told her. “Now you’d better get back before it gets dark. I’m not sure what all is in the town right now-”

              “Ungols,” she interrupted. “Maybe the same pack we saw on the way here. They took the river gate and ate their fill, then vanished. Markus thinks they’re just lurking somewhere inside the walls, waiting until they get hungry again.”

              “Yeah, I was afraid of that. Do you have an escort?”

              She nodded. “I hired a couple of laborers. They were planning to go house to house selling pilfered supplies, and they’ve got cudgels.”

              Something about the way she said that sounded odd. “You really think a couple of townsmen with clubs can fight off an ungol?”

              “I think,” she said wearily. “That they’re both loaded down with goods to sell, and I can run much faster than they can.”

              Okay then. Someone has a good instinct for zombie apocalypse rules.

              “Fair enough. Good luck, then. I’ll see you in a few hours.”

              She left, and I turned to the rest of the group.

              “Oskar. You and the girls saved my ass out there. Thank you. If we can’t hold the town, there’s a place for you and your family with my group.”

              He nodded gravely. “That’s good to hear, milord. This business with the Baron doesn’t seem like to help with that, but it’s a fight he started. Damned shame he couldn’t wait till the new wall was done.”

              “It is,” I agreed. “I’m afraid the whole town’s going to pay the price. I can’t let this go, but I don’t think his men will follow me once I finish it. I suppose I could try to leave enough of them alive to hold the town, but they haven’t been doing well with that so far.”

              He shook his head. “Wouldn’t ask you to go that far, milord. Me and mine, we’re with you. But I hope you’re not going to ask my little militia to go up against the Baron’s men?”

              “No, a pitched battle isn’t the way to go here. I doubt your men would do well against soldiers even if they’re willing to try, and that would probably get the girls killed. I’ll need to be more subtle than that. So, what do we know?”

              The men exchanged glances.

              “Miss Cerise is being held at the temple,” Gronir said. “There’s a bunch of men at arms guarding the place now, and at least a couple of knights. I snuck down there to see if I could get her out, but they’ve got the place locked up tight.”

              “That’s not good,” I said grimly. “Holger must be trying to force her to swear to this Riven Covenants thing. I hope she’s been holding out.”

              “Covenants, milord?” Hroldir asked.

              I sighed. It was time to come clean.

              “Cerise is a witch,” I told him. “The scary kind that uses black magic to steal power from sacrifices. She’s been sacrificing monsters for power and using it to kill more monsters. The priest here has a way to enslave her with magic, but he has to torture her into submitting to it.”

              There was a stir at that, and some of Oskar’s men looked uncertain. Old Hroldir frowned.

              “That girl won’t break easy, but you’d best hurry.”

              “Ah, milord?” Oskar said hesitantly. “Not to question your judgment, but I’ve seen that girl fight. You do have some kinda leash on her, right? Not… torture, but something?”

              “Oh, he bound them with sex magic,” Tina said brightly. “I’m so jealous, I hope he does me an Beri soon.”

              I facepalmed.

              The sad thing was, the men seemed to buy it. A couple of them nodded seriously, and I saw more than one speculative expression.

              “Tina!” Beri hissed. “Don’t go blabbing when the menfolk are talking.”

              “Ahem. I’ll keep that in mind, Tina. Leaving aside the details, I’m confident Cerise and Avilla are both loyal. But Cerise is a reckless girl, and she’s risking her soul if she pushes her magic too far. So do come to me if you ever have concerns about that, and I’ll take care of it. Now, what about Avilla?”

              “The Baron took her to the keep,” Oskar said. “Poor girl was practically in tears. I asked around, and found a chambermaid who worked there until a few months ago. Boy, go ahead and bring in Daria.”

              The chambermaid wasn’t much to look at. Probably early twenties, with a scraggly mop of brown hair and a face covered with acne scars. Her clothes were as rough as any other commoner I’d seed in this land, but unlike Vasha her dress fell to her calves and she had a cloak on over it. She looked around nervously as one of Oskar’s sons escorted her down the steps, and her eyes went wide when she saw me.

              “The wizard!” She breathed. “But they said you were dead.”

              “I got better,” I said mildly. “You know the layout of the keep, right?”

              “Yes, lord wizard,” she said nervously. “Worked there for six years, until the steward got it in his head I was the one stealing the silverware.”

              “Hmm. What have you been doing since? I don’t imagine anyone else in town would hire you after that.”

              “I, ah… I get by, milord. But what does a great wizard lord want with a nobody like me?”

              So she was the one doing the stealing, and she’d managed to hide enough of her gains to live on. At least for a bit. Well, it wasn’t my business.

              “I need to know where the Baron would keep a woman that he’s kidnapped, and plans to have his way with.”

              She blinked in surprise.

              “He didn’t. Miss Goldenhair of the vast bosoms?”

              “He did,” I said tightly.

              “Hel take the lackwitted son of a poxy goat,” she spat. “Aren’t the monsters enough trouble for him?”

              “Do you have an answer for me?” I asked.

              She hesitated.

              “I do, lord. But… am I going to be cursed or beaten if I ask for payment? I’m not too greedy, but if I’m to betray my lord to you…”

              I raised an eyebrow. “Yes? You want silver? Gold?”

              She shook her head. “Protection, lord wizard. A place in your household. Then it won’t be my lord I’m betraying, will it?”

              I didn’t say anything for a long moment. She licked her lips, and shuffled nervously. But she held her silence.

              “Daria,” I said slowly. “In my land, we consider that there are two kinds of thief. There’s the kind that steals from everyone around her for her own benefit, and there’s the kind who spies and steals for her lord or her clan. The second kind are respected, and the best ones get treated like knights. But the first kind? They’re scum, because no one can ever trust them.”

              “Which kind of thief are you, Daria?”

              She took a step back, her mouth opening to deny the charge, but something in my expression stopped her. She studied me thoughtfully for a long moment, and hung her head.

              “Truly, lord wizard?” she said softly. “I’ve never heard of a place like that.”

              “Truly,” I said.

              “I’ve never had a family, not since I was a little girl. Or a lord who bothered to notice my existence, or anything else to belong to. But they say a man will march into hell and back for the respect of his brothers. I figure a woman is no different. I can be the second kind for you, milord.”

              “Then we have a deal, and I’ll trust you until you give me a reason not to. Assuming you have good information for me.”

              “The fourth floor,” she replied. “On the north face of the keep. That’s where he keeps his little conquests…”

Chapter 13

              The sun was nearing the horizon as I made my way through the empty streets of Lanrest towards Baron Stein’s keep. The three-story buildings that crowded the town cast the narrow streets into shadow, and the gloom in the alleyways was already near-impenetrable. Here and there a furtive band of townspeople scurried for shelter, clutching at improvised weapons and eying the shadows nervously.

              It was snowing again, in sporadic flurries that presaged the impending arrival of another snowstorm. The cold pierced the rough homespun weave of my borrowed clothes easily, and I found myself wishing I’d taken the time to spin warmth enchantments on everything instead of just my cloak. But I was on a deadline.

              Twice now I’d come across huge bloody stains in the snow that covered the street. A third of the town had been reduced to a maze of smashed and burned-out buildings in the goblin raid, and now everything was falling apart. My route took me across half the town, but not once did I see a soldier.

              Even the plaza around the Baron’s keep was largely deserted. A group of refugees huddled miserably among the stalls of what had once been a small open-air market, tending fires that burned scavenged wood. But the keep was buttoned up tight, with no sign of guards or sentries outside.

              That would make my job easier. No doubt there were men peering out arrow slits somewhere up there, but they wouldn’t have a very clear view. One more peasant wandering through the snow wasn’t likely to draw much attention.

              I started across the plaza as if I were simply headed for one of the streets on the opposite side, and waited for a snow flurry. One came as I was passing fairly near to the keep, reducing visibility to a few dozen feet. I turned and sprinted for it.

              I fetched up against the grey stone of the fort’s wall just as the snow cleared again. Naturally there weren’t any ground-floor windows or arrow slits, so no one inside would be able to see me now. I glanced around to get my bearings, and began to circle the keep.

              According to Daria the baron had a habit of kidnapping pretty commoners to serve in his bedchambers, but he tended to follow a regular pattern with them. A normal girl would spend the afternoon being prettied up by his servants while they talked up his amazing sexual prowess and fed her a line about how she’d inevitably submit eventually so she might as well not resist at all. It sounded hackneyed to me, but I suppose that would actually work with a lot of impressionable young peasant girls.

              Avilla’s treatment had likely been a lot harsher. They had to suspect that she was more dangerous than she looked, considering her association with me and Cerise. But the Baron must be busy as hell trying to salvage something from his disintegrating fief, so with any luck he hadn’t had time to get down to business yet.  Daria said he normally retired around sunset, so I might still be in time to stop the inevitable.

              I paused to lean against the wall and wrestle my emotions back under control. Knowing that Avilla of all people was going to be raped by some medieval asshole because I was too fucking careless to protect her properly…

              But an enraged rampage would probably get her killed. I had to play this smart. For Avilla, and Cerise, and all the other people who were counting on me. No more mistakes.

              Another flurry of snow hit, along with a sudden blast of wind. I negated half my weight with a careful, continuous application of force magic, and started up the side of the tower.

              The keep was generations old, and the primitive mortar holding the weathered stones together was badly eroded. There were plenty of handholds, and I’d done a bit of recreational rock climbing in my day. Nothing serious, but the weight reduction made it a lot easier.

              The cold stone soon had me wishing for gloves. But my healing amulet would protect me from frostbite, and a little numbness was nothing. I pushed on until I reached the fourth floor, counted three arrow slits over from the east corner, and cautiously eased over for a look inside.

              I found a small room, dimly lit by a couple of candles. Most of the space was filled by a pair of beds, a wardrobe and a little table with a couple of chairs around it. The walls directly ahead of me and to my right were wood, but to the left was just a heavy curtain. According to Daria the Baron’s bedchambers would be on the other side.

              In the soft light I could make out three unhappy-looking girls huddling together on one of the beds. But no sign of Avilla, damn it.

              A loud smack of leather against flesh echoed through the curtain, and all three girls flinched. A male voice on the other side of the curtain was saying something, but I couldn’t make it out over the wind. Never mind, I got the picture.

              I reached into the stonework with my earth sorcery, and shaped the arrow slit into a doorway.

              It took the Baron’s mistresses a few seconds to notice, and they just gaped in astonishment for several more. By the time they came to their senses I was already stepping into the room.

              One of them screamed. The second one immediately joined in. The third clawed her way out from under the blankets and ran for the door, heedless of the fact that all she had on was a thin shift.

              I ignored them in favor of ripping the curtain away.

              The Baron’s bedchamber was considerably larger than the one his mistresses shared. A large four-poster bed stood in the middle of the room, with an overhead canopy and curtains that were currently drawn back. There was other furniture – a writing desk, a couple of wardrobes, an armor stand supporting a suit of plate mail, a small fireplace with a fire going – but I dismissed it all as unimportant.

              In a broad empty space at the foot of the bed Avilla hung from a set of iron shackles, with a cloth gag in her mouth. The chain had been pulled up so she had to stand on tiptoe, and she was naked despite the coolness of the room. Her back and butt were covered by a mass of angry red marks, and there were tears running down her cheeks.

              Baron Stein stood behind her, still fully clothed, with a heavy leather belt in his hand. His eyes went wide when he saw me, and he dropped the belt to reach for his sword.

              I strode forward and punched him in the face.

              He staggered back, with blood spurting from his nose.

“You’re supposed to be dead!” He protested.

“No real wizard ever let that stop him,” I growled. “Draw your sword, little man. We’ll see how it does against mine.”

The door to the mistress’ chamber flew open, and a pair of armored men stormed in. But I was ready for this fight. I pulled out the stone handle I’d spent half the afternoon enchanting, and activated it.

A bar of tightly contained flame three feet long shot out from the hilt, so hot that it burned violet instead of orange. Hidden within the glow more than a hundred little force constructs materialized, each shaped like a miniature buzz saw and spinning so fast the teeth broke the sound barrier. The high-pitched howl of the counter-rotating blades filled the room, and I stepped forward to swing at them.

Their blades bounced harmlessly off my shield. But my weapon chewed through swords, armor and men with equal ease, spraying fragments of hot steel and shattered bone everywhere. With one blow I cut the closer guard nearly in half, reducing his chest to a ruin of smoking meat, and destroyed the other one’s sword. He’d barely managed to check his headlong run into the room when my second swing took off his head.

I felt a sharp pain, and looked down to find the Baron’s sword protruding from my chest. But, my shield had been up?

“Damned wizard. You think I wouldn’t be ready to deal with your kind?”

Stein stepped back, pulling his sword free. Now that I was paying attention, I could see the hard shell of enchantment that protected his blade from all other magical effects. The spell that formed my shield couldn’t affect it, and I didn’t have any other defense against a physical attack.

I swayed, and everything went fuzzy. I could hear more screams and shouting nearby. The Baron wouldn’t be alone for long, damn it. But I kept my grip on my weapon, and somewhat to my surprise I wasn’t passing out. Guess there’s an advantage to a healing item that continuously cures all the symptoms caused by your injuries.

“You’ll have to do better than that,” I said grimly.

Stein’s eyes narrowed. “Cut off the head, then. Or just hack off your limbs, and burn the body. That’s an impressive weapon, but I can see you’re no swordsman. Tell me how to command your pretty little golem, and I’ll let you walk away.”

“Golem?” I asked in astonishment.

He nodded at Avilla. “No wizard would build a masterpiece like that thing just to fuck it, though I don’t doubt it’s a hell of a lay. It’s an assassin, isn’t it? Send it to smile and flirt and look innocent until a man drops his guard, and then it turns into a monster and kills him. It doesn’t even know, does it? Tell me the command words.”

There were booted feet pounding across the floor, along with a jingle of mail and more shouting. No time to play games.

“Idiot,” I snorted. I raised my weapon as if I were about to attack, and then send a wave of force out to slam into Stein.

It parted around his sword, but the fringes of it caught him anyway and bounced him off the wall. Another telekinetic blow caught him in mid-air and slammed him into the ceiling. He lost his grip on the magic sword, and it went clattering across the floor. I released him, and turned to throw a flurry of force blades at the men trying to enter the room.

That sent them stumbling back, which gave me a moment to seal the doorway with a mass of stone. The floor creaked a bit at the addition of what was probably a couple of tons of weight, but it held.

I turned back to find Stein diving for his sword. I knocked him across the room again, and then slammed him into the room’s outer wall and made the stone grow bands around his wrists and ankles.

Then I turned to Avilla.

She stared at me in shock. I’d been standing between her and the guardsmen when I’d tried out my new weapon, protecting her from the spray of fragments with my shield. But she’d gotten a good look at everything.

I wrapped her in a protective shield, and severed the chain holding up her shackles. Glowing bits of iron sprayed the room, and the bed began to smolder.

I dropped both shields, and caught Avilla as she started to fall. She collapsed against me with a muffled sob. I held her awkwardly with one arm for a moment, trying not to touch the marks where she’d been beaten. Finally I decided I’d better turn off my fancy new weapon, so I could have a hand free to remove her gag.

“I’m sorry,” she gasped as soon as it was off. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, oh Daniel I’m such a useless slut. You should just leave me behind.”

“What? Oh, hell no. What do you have to apologize for, Avilla? I’m the one who screwed up and let you get captured.”

“I’m so weak,” she sobbed. “I should have been strong, like you or Cerise, but I just gave up.  I was ready to do anything if he’d just stop beating me.”

I soothed away her pain in a wash of magic, and held her close.

“Shhh, it’s alright, Avilla. It’s ok. You thought I was dead, and everything was hopeless. Didn’t you?”

She nodded, her face buried against my chest.

“Where were you? I thought… did I do something…?”

She sounded so lost.

“One of this asshole’s men stabbed me in the back and left me under a burning troll.”

“What?!” She pulled away, suddenly furious. “They betrayed you?”

I nodded. “Some knight who was a relative of that tax farmer. I don’t know if the Baron put him up to it or not, and right now I don’t really care.”

There was a muffled thump at the doorway, and the stone shook slightly. Avilla glanced at it, and back to me.

“You’re really not mad at me?” She asked meekly.

I shook my head. “Of course not. I’ll never abandon you, Avilla. You’re safe with me.”

“Hah!” Baron Stein barked. “Uppity book-sniffer. The might of the gods is more than your unnatural magic can match. We’ll see how high and mighty you are when Holger sends your other bitch to kill you.”

“Will we, now?”

I plucked the dagger from his belt and pulled it across the room to slap into my palm. Then I handed it to Avilla.

“Here’s your chance at payback, if you want it.”

A louder thump shook my improvised barricade. They’d found something solid to use as a battering ram.

“But you’d better hurry,” I went on.

Avilla looked down at the dagger in her hand, and up at the Baron. For a moment she hesitated, and I thought she was going to pass. But then her eyes went dark, and her grip tightened.

“Beat me, will you? You think you can  steal me and break me and make me yours? I don’t belong to you, you bastard.”

She stepped close, and ran the blade along his cheek.

“My love binds demons and eats their hearts, Baron. You’re lucky she isn’t here, or she’d sacrifice you to one. All I can do is this.”

She brought the knife down his other cheek, leaving another shallow cut.

“Oh, and I’m not some stupid assassin golem. The most powerful hearth witch in the north created me, and she wanted me to seduce a prince. She made me soft and sweet and beautiful, so I could win his heart and bind it with true love. Then she was going to take over my body, and enjoy an endless life of luxury.”

She leaned in to whisper in his ear. “All you had to do was make me think Daniel was dead, and treat me decently. I was made to fall in love. But instead you tried to beat me into submission.”

She lowered the knife, and stabbed him in the belly. He grunted.

“Gut wounds are nasty, aren’t they?” She said conversationally. “Sometimes they’re clean, but sometimes they fester. Especially when a hearth witch wants them too. Nasty things gather, burrow and breed. So mote it be.”

She stepped back and smiled at him. “There now. You could take weeks to die, but it’ll get you in the end. Should I leave him like this, Daniel?”

“Wait!” Stein gasped. “I… I can pay you! Thirty crowns, and weapons for your men.”

I rolled my eyes. “Never leave an enemy alive. That one’s on the Evil Overlord list.”

“You keep a list, Daniel?” She turned back to her victim with gleaming eyes. “That’s my man. That’s who I belong to. Not some ignorant noble who thinks he can steal me away with treachery and pain.”

“Forty crowns!” He pleaded. “Please! You won’t get far without money.”

She stabbed him again, lower this time. He groaned, and struggled uselessly against his bonds.

“Keep your money, pig. You’ll never touch me again.”

The knife fell again, this time into his thigh. A red stain began to spread rapidly down his leg. She stepped back.

“I just wish I had more time to pay you back. But this will have to do.”

She plunged the dagger into his eye. He screamed, thrashing and twitching for a long moment, and then went still.

A crack appeared in my barricade, but I repaired it with a wave of my hand. I dissolved the stone manacles, letting the Baron’s body fall to the floor, and hugged Avilla from behind.

“Better?”

She sagged against me. “I think so. Can we go now?”

“Sure. One last thing.”

I pulled out a heavy chest of iron-bound wood I’d noticed in the corner, and cut the lock off with my new weapon. Avilla huddled behind me and stared at it.

“What is that thing?” She asked. “I’ve never seen such a powerful weapon.”

“I haven’t decided what to call it yet,” I told her. “I just finished making it an hour ago.”

“An implement like that deserves a proper name. Storm-Biter? Thunder-tooth? No, those are too fancy. He wants something simple and brutal. Grinder. That’s it.”

I chuckled. “Grinder, huh? Sounds about right. Oh, good.”

Sure enough, the chest was full of little bags of money. I grabbed a sheet from the bed to make an improvised sack, and dumped it all in. Then I handed it to Avilla.

“Here, you keep track of that.”

“Alright,” she agreed. “Um, I don’t suppose you brought me clothes?”

“Nope. Couldn’t get my hands on a backpack in time, and the way I got in I didn’t have a free hand to carry anything. Hold still.”

I pulled the blanket off the bed, and wrapped it around her. Then I swept her up in a bridal carry.

“There. Milady witch need not walk to her wardrobe, for I shall gallantly carry her to safety.”

Avilla blushed prettily.

“Why thank you, my noble lord. Please, let us away.”

“At once, milady.”

I gathered a burst of magic, and blew out the side of the tower.

The hole was only seven or eight feet across, but the stone and timber around us groaned ominously. Before anything could decide to collapse I stepped to the opening and leaped out into empty space.

Avilla shrieked and buried her face against me. But I’d reworked my amulet’s force shield to handle falls more intelligently, and it cushioned our impact easily before shrinking back to let my feet touch the pavement. A moment later I was off and running.

Sure enough, several arrows landed around us as I crossed the plaza. One even hit, smacking into my shield with far more force than the little goblin arrows I was used to dealing with. But one arrow was nowhere near enough to penetrate, and in moments I was out of the plaza and pelting down a dark street.

“That was terrifying,” Avilla complained.

“I’ve got you, sweetie,” I reassured her. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

She rested her cheek against my shoulder. “I know. I’m just not good with heights. But thank you for the rescue.”

She was silent for a moment, watching as I bounded down the street. I was pushing myself with force magic, turning every step into a six-foot leap. The snow was coming down harder now, and I couldn’t afford to get snowed in somewhere.

“Where’s Cerise?” She asked quietly.

“The town priest has her,” I admitted. “I think he wants to bind her. Hopefully the fact that I have his copy of In Tauro de Maleficis is slowing him down.”

She blinked up at me in worried confusion. “You do? What are you doing with something like that?”

“He spotted Cerise. He’s been trying to talk me into binding her, as if I’d do something like that. I figured it would be easier to play along for a few days than argue and make another enemy, so he lent me the book.”

I rounded a corner, and was forced to slow down a bit by the gathering darkness. The sun was well below the horizon now, and the overcast sky blocked out any light from the moon or stars. Soon the only illumination would be the faint gleam of firelight leaking out around the shutters and doorways of the buildings that were still inhabited.

Avilla chewed her lower lip, and studied me with a concerned expression. “If you say so, Daniel. But you do know you don’t need anything like that with me, don’t you?”

“Avilla, my people would consider that kind of binding evil even without the rape and torture parts. I wouldn’t even consider it. I only bothered to read the book because I was hoping to find something we could use to help Cerise with her control problems if things go badly.”

“Oh.”

She worked an arm free of the blanket, and reached up to hug me.

“I’m sorry, Daniel. I shouldn’t have doubted you. Did you find anything?

I shook my head. “Nothing concrete, but it gave me some ideas. I’ll need to talk to her about the details of what she’s struggling with. You can’t bind yourself to be sane, but I can think of other possibilities that might help. Not giving in to a specific compulsion, or making rules for herself that she can’t break in a moment of weakness. I’m not sure it’s a good idea, but it’s an option we can fall back on if she decides she needs it.”

“That makes sense. But what if-”

I froze, and covered her mouth with my hand. She stopped talking instantly, and turned slowly to follow my gaze.

There was a frost giant standing at the breach in the wall.

I’d just turned a corner onto the street where Oscar’s smithy was located, and we were barely two blocks from the breech. Hopefully the gloom and the snow would hide us, but I carefully eased back behind the corner of the nearest building to be safe.

The giant wore chainmail and held a huge spear in one hand, just like the one I’d fought before. As I watched a second giant stepped up to peer over the town wall. He surveyed the rooftops of the town, and said something to his companion.

“Can you understand them?” I asked Avilla.

She nodded hesitantly. “I speak a bit of Jotun, but it’s hard to hear from here. Something about a meeting? Oh, my!”

A dark shape faded into view, perched atop the wall not twenty feet from the giants. In the gloom I could only make out a silhouette, but the sleek outline of an ungol was unmistakable.

To my surprise it hissed something at the giants that sounded suspiciously like speech.

“It says its pack claims the town,” Avilla translated. “The giant thinks that’s funny. He says… oh, dear. They’re only scouts.”

“I was afraid of that.”

The giant rumbled something else, and stepped back from the wall. The ungol hissed a final comment, and faded back into invisibility.

“He said the ungols can feel free to hunt all they like tonight, but his clan will sack the town at dawn. I don’t understand, Daniel. Ungols are terrible foes. They’re demons of shadow and frost, terribly strong and almost impossible to kill. A whole pack of them could fight an army, easily. But the giant wasn’t afraid of it at all.”

I frowned, and carefully set her down. She squeaked in protest as her bare feet met the snow, but I was pretty sure we’d already made too much noise. I held her close, carefully keeping one arm around her so my shield would continue surrounding us both, and eased Grinder out of my pocket.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I told her. Then I raised my voice just a bit.

“Ungol. We aren’t going to be easy prey.”

Something slammed into my back with the force of a speeding car, straining my shield and sending me crashing to my knees. But my shield held, and I thumbed Grinder to life. The harsh glare of plasma abruptly lit the street, revealing the ungol leaping back out of reach. Damn, that thing was fast.

It’s mouth gaped wide, baring dozens of gleaming teeth, and a cloud of white mist poured out to engulf us. Numbing cold instantly froze the exposed skin of my face and seeped inwards.

I pointed Grinder at the beast and activated the weapon’s ranged attack, sending a jet of superheated plasma washing out in its direction. It leaped away, landing well out of my weapon’s intentionally short projection range. But the supernatural cold faded.

“Pretty claw,” it hissed.

I nodded. “I’ve got more where that came from.”

“Worldwalker. Sorcerer. Naughty Hecate, breaking Zeus’ rules.”

Avilla rose awkwardly to her knees. “Mighty one, we are not-”

“Food does not speak!” It interrupted angrily.

She cringed.

“What rules?” I asked.

It regarded me for a moment, utterly motionless. Then its tail lashed.

“It asks questions. Sacrifice?” It nodded in Avilla’s direction.

“No,” I said carefully.

“Rude,” the demon pronounced. “Run, prey. Hide and fight. Play with food. We kill you last.”

It turned, and bounded off down the street. Its pebbly hide lightened to match the snow, and in seconds it faded from view.

Avilla stood, and threw herself trembling into my arms.

“Daniel? What are we going to do?”

My face tingled painfully with healing frostbite. I licked my lips, and gazed off into the darkness.

“We’re going to rescue Cerise,” I told her. “Then we’re going to get our people together, and get the fuck out of this place before whatever the frost giants think is going to beat those things shows up.”

A wall of snow descended on us as the oncoming storm struck. For a moment the street was completely hidden, and all I could hear was the roar of the wind. The temperature dropped noticeably in the space of a minute, and Avilla huddled against me shivering.

But then the first blast eased, and I could make out the nearer buildings again.

“We’re going to travel in this?” Avilla asked incredulously.

“Giants would never find the town in this,” I pointed out. “They’ll strike after the storm clears. But we can’t let the weather pin us down. Come on.”

I carefully took my bearings on the three buildings that were close enough to see, gathered Avilla back into my arms, and set off for Oscar’s smithy.

Chapter 14

              “Split the money up between you. I don’t want anyone too loaded down by the weight. The same goes for whatever other supplies you end up carrying. You may need to drop it and run at some point, and if it comes to that don’t hesitate. I can always get more gold, but if you die I can’t bring you back.”

              Beri and Tina paused in the middle of counting my ill-gotten loot to stare at me.

              “Really, milord?” Beri asked. “But there’s, um, a lot of gold here. Enough to buy a whole village full of girls prettier than us.”

              “I don’t care about that, Beri,” I told her. “You girls have stuck with me through everything, and as far as I’m concerned you’re both worth your weight in gold. So stay sharp, keep the men between you and danger, and don’t hesitate to drop everything if you need to.”

              Avilla straightened her borrowed dress, and smiled at them. “You see, girls? I could have told you he isn’t planning to trade up. Besides, I suspect he could make you  as pretty as he likes. Couldn’t you, Daniel?”

              Could I? I was no artist. But beauty is mostly just good health, and that was easy. Clear skin, healthy hair, symmetrical features…

              “I suppose I could,” I agreed. “But that’s not exactly a priority right now, is it?”

              “It’s very reassuring, milord,” Beri said, her eyes suddenly bright with unshed tears. “I’ve been so worried about the future. I know I can’t hold a candle to your apprentices, and most men wouldn’t hesitate to replace me the moment they found someone better. But if you… you’d really…?”

              I sighed. “Yes. Beri, what you look like doesn’t matter to me. What counts is who you are, and so far you’ve impressed me there. You’re clever, sensible, loyal, determined and brave enough to cope with situations that would send most girls into a blind panic. Keep that up and you’re welcome to stay with me as long as you want.”

              She choked, and threw herself into my arms. “Thank you, milord!”

              I patted her back awkwardly. Avilla and Tina both seemed pleased, so I suppose I’d count this as a step forward.

              Daria stuck her head in the room. “The men are ready in the kitchen, milord.”

              “Good. Let’s get moving, then.”

              Oscar, Hroldir and Gronir listened in growing concern as I explained the situation.

              “We can’t fight giants,” Oscar said heavily. “Even counting your people we’ve only got forty men, and barely half of us have proper weapons.”

              “The 5th Margold’s got maybe half that,” Gronir said.

              Hroldir frowned. “They’re better armed, and they won’t be caught napping this time. I reckon we could fight off a giant or two if we were all together. But I don’t know about these demon things.”

              “They’re a problem,” I agreed. “If we get into a fight with them we’ll lose a lot of good men, and I’m not sure normal weapons will even hurt them.”

              “Not easily,” Avilla put in. “Their hide is tougher than plate armor, and they’re demons. But their bodies are material, so enough solid blows might drive one off.”

              The men all started and looked at her oddly. After a moment I realized they were surprised that she’d spoken up, and were wondering if I was going to chastise her.

              Well, I didn’t have time for an extended lecture on their society’s screwed up view of gender roles right now. But I needed to address the issue somehow.

              “Avilla knows more than I do about monsters,” I told them. “If she can tell us anything useful we’re going to listen.”

              Hroldir looked a little uncertain at that, but Oscar and Gronir just nodded.

              “As you say, milord. So what do we do?” Oscar asked.

              “I suspect the ungols will be hunting again right now. What do you think, Avilla?”

              She nodded. “Probably. In the old stories they’d claim a territory and hunt down everyone in it over a period of days, or perhaps a week or two for a major city. A pack can devour hundreds of men in a single day, and the more they eat the stronger they get. I imagine they’ll try to get in as much feasting as they can before the giants come.”

              The men blanched at her casual explanation.

              “In that case anyone who goes outside right now is at risk of becoming a meal for the things. Our best strategy is to stay put for an hour or so, until they’ve had a chance to gorge themselves. Go ahead and get everyone packed and ready to move, but try not to make noise. They’ve got keen senses, and too much activity might draw their attention.”

              “Make sure you concentrate on essential supplies. Weapons, warm clothing and food come first. Tools and valuables get second priority, and anything else is just extra weight. Ty to plan out an inconspicuous route to the granary, and make sure everyone knows where you’re going.”

              “Are you still going to rescue Cerise?” Oscar asked.

              “Yeah. If I’m not back in an hour I want you to leave without me. I’ll meet you at the granary, and we can plan our next move there.”

              “I’m coming with you,” Avilla said firmly.

              “Damn right you are,” I agreed. “Are you armed?”

              “I… um… yes. You’re not going to argue?” She pulled a heavy butcher knife from her sleeve, and reluctantly handed it over when I reached for it.

I had no intention of letting her out of my sight until we were out of this mess. Two or three ungols would go through Oscar’s men like a hot knife through butter, and it wouldn’t surprise me if the one we’d talked to made a point of trying to kill her. But I wasn’t going to say that.

              “I’m not going to tell you that you can’t help rescue the woman you love,” I told her.

“Daniel!” She gasped, glancing nervously at the men.

I shrugged. “Time to stop hiding, Avilla. I don’t mind, and if anyone who works for me has a problem with it they’ll just have to learn to keep their mouths shut.”

Oscar shrugged. “I had a cousin who was like that. It happens.”

Gronir grinned. “I reckon us survivors knew it already, milord. It’s obvious just seein them look at each other.”

I chuckled. “It is, isn’t it? Anyway, I might need you. You know how to handle yourself, and there will probably be magic to deal with. So yes, you’re with me. Hang on a minute.”

              I focused my attention on the knife, layering a simple blade of force along the edge. I didn’t have time for a real enchantment, but this would last a few hours.

              “There,” I handed it back to her. “That edge will cut stone and steel now, so be careful with it. Do you need anything else?”

              She waved vaguely at the kitchen. “I’ve already gathered what I could that might be useful. I’m ready.”

              “Good work. Questions, anyone?”

              “You sure you don’t want a few of the boys to come with you?” Oscar asked.

              I reluctantly shook my head. “No, the more people we have involved the more things can go wrong. We need to get to Cerise before they get any bright ideas about using her as a hostage, and that means we need to be stealthy.”

              “Anything else? No? Then let’s move.”

              The street was pitch black when we crept out the smithy’s back door. I stood still for a moment, waiting for my eyes to adjust, and wondered if I could manage infrared vision.

              Sadly, the answer was no. Maybe low-light vision, like a cat, but that could take hours and it probably wouldn’t work right for Avilla.

              “I can’t see a thing,” she whispered. “Can you?”

              I drew Grinder and activated it, illuminating the street with its harsh violet glare. Was that a long, sinuous shape easing back out of sight on that rooftop down the street? Or was it just my imagination?

              “We’re going to have to use lights,” I reluctantly concluded. “Damn, that’s going to make this harder. Here.”

              I conjured a short baton of stone, and stuck a small flame to the end. Dimmer than a normal torch, so hopefully the light wouldn’t carry too far. There was a good chance no one would be standing watch anyway in this storm.

              I handed the makeshift light to Avilla. “That should be enough to find our way. But stay close to me, it’ll go out if you get too far away.”

              “How far is too far?” She asked nervously.

              “Not sure. Maybe twenty or thirty paces?” I deactivated my weapon and started slowly down the street, peering cautiously through the falling snow. It was coming down pretty heavily, but my shield kept it from actually touching me.

              “Oh. That’s not so bad, then.”

              I’d made Avilla a warmth cloak, and her borrowed dress was heavy wool. But I couldn’t fight if I was carrying her, and letting her walk beside me put her outside my shield. Would a lurking ungol notice that the snow was touching her, and decide that was a good opportunity to attack? Or would they see that I was still holding my weapon, and decide I was trying to lure them into an ambush?

              Great. Now I was playing mind games with demons.

              I pulled Avilla into the lee of a building, and spent a few precious moments throwing a shield around her. Yet another thing drawing on my mana supply, and one solid blow would break the spell. But it made her look as protected as I was.

              She accepted the protection with a grateful smile. “Ah, thank you. The way my cloak melts the snow I was starting to get wet there.”

              “No problem. Now, let’s think about how to do this. There are guards at the temple. They’re probably all indoors now, which means the doors and windows will all be closed and barred.”

              Avilla frowned thoughtfully as we crept down the street. “They know what I look like, so I can’t just go first and distract them. I’m still bursting with that power you gave me, so I can work bit of direct magic. But the only sleep spell I know is foiled by cold iron, and they’ll be wearing armor.”

              “Hmm. Guess it’s up to me, then.”

              I pressed on in silence for a few minutes, wracking my brain for ideas. How would I tackle this if it were a quest in an RPG? One with no save points or resurrections, and a killer GM. Oh, and there was no rulebook to consult.

              Something conservative, then. But still, something a bunch of feudal quasi-Vikings wouldn’t think to prepare for.

              By the time the temple came into view I had a few ideas, but the layout ruled out some of them. It was a big stone building, a bit like a medieval church only not as tall. Stone steps at the front led up to a pair of heavy wooden doors carved with images I couldn’t quite make out in the darkness. Along the sides were rows of high, narrow shutters that I assumed must cover windows. I could see faint traces of magic clinging to the building, and considerably more radiating from the ground it stood on.

              Holy ground?

              That could make this more complicated, depending on what it did. Best to delay contact for as long as possible.

              “Can you find her?” I asked Avilla.

              “Yes, we have more than enough of a bond for that. But I’ll need a minute, and depending on what wards the priest has they might react.”

              “We can work with that.” I took Avilla’s shield down, and picked her up.

              “Hold on, and try to stay quiet,” I told her. “We’re going airborne.”

              She gulped, and closed her eyes. “O-okay.”

              I jumped.

              I was getting better with force-boosted leaps. My first jump took us to the roof of one of the three-story tenements facing the little plaza that held the temple. I didn’t linger on the windswept roof, not knowing if the wooden shingles would hold our weight for any length of time.

              My second jump took us across the plaza. The wind immediately grabbed us and pushed, throwing me off course. I pushed back, squinting through the blowing snow at the looming shape of our destination. Up, up, rising above the steeply-sloped roof. There was no steeple, but a taller structure that was probably a bell tower rose from the far end.

              A hard push in that direction, and Avilla squeaked fearfully in my arms. No doors or roof hatches that I could see, even as we closed the distance. But the roof looked like slate, so it ought to hold our weight.

              I landed us as gently as I could manage in the gusting wind, on a sloped expanse of roof tiles just upslope of the bell tower. My shield expanded at the last moment to cushion our landing, and nearly pitched us right off into space. I held us in place with one last, frantic force push, and my feet settled to touch the steep surface.

              I dropped to my knees, and set Avilla down.

              She opened her eyes, and plastered herself against the tiles.

              “Eep! Where are we, Daniel?”

              “The roof of the temple. Would they use the main chamber for this kind of ritual?”

              She visibly gathered her wits, and shook her head.

              “No, he’ll have a ritual chamber. Behind the alter, or maybe in a cellar. Probably a cellar, actually. I’ve never seen a temple to the Aesir before, but Cerise told me they like to do their dark deeds underground.”

              “Alright. One thing at a time, then.”

              I reached into the roof tiles with my magic, and confirmed that they still counted as Earth to my sorcery. Good. It took only a few seconds to shape a section of tiles together into a solid mass, with handholds rising from the outer surface for us both to hang onto.

              That would keep us from getting blown off or falling through while I did the rest.

              Raising a force dome over us to block out the snow and wind took a little more effort, since I wanted to be sure it would last a good while after I took my attention off of it. The roar of the wind faded as the barrier of magic absorbed most of its force, and the snow no longer reached our patch of roof.

              “I’m putting out your torch now,” I warned Avilla.

              “What are we doing up here?” She asked.

              “Attacking from an unexpected direction. Stay quiet, I’m going to cut a hole in the roof and take a look at what we’re up against.”

              I had to carefully brush away the snow that clung to the roof first, since a puff of falling flakes might well draw attention. But after that it was trivial to cut through the heavy tile and the wood beneath with a force blade, and lift out a small section of the roof.

              Below us a single long room ran most of the length of the building. A few torches in brackets on the walls provided dim illumination, just enough to pick out the major features of the room.

There were no pews, just a wide open space with a wooden floor. A large statue stood at the end opposite the doors, depicting a bearded man with an eyepatch holding a spear in one hand, with ravens sitting on his shoulders. That would be Odin, I suppose.

              At the statue’s feet stood an alter that was considerably less ceremonial than the ones in Catholic churches. It was a slab of weathered stone a bit longer than a man’s height, with a mass of runes and vaguely Celtic-looking knotwork carved into its sides. But what grabbed my attention were the gleaming manacles sitting atop neatly coiled lengths of chain at each corner.

              Lovely. There really weren’t any good gods in this world, were there?

              In the dim torchlight I could see a dozen men sleeping in bedrolls in the middle of the room, and three more awake and playing some kind of card game. There was a door behind the alter, with another man leaning against the wall next to it. They were all pretty normal-looking men at arms, wearing chainmail shirts and armed with a variety of spears, swords and axes.

              Tricky.

              I put the section of roof back in place, and told Avilla what I’d seen.

              “Could we go around them?” She asked. “The door must lead to the inner sanctum and the priests’ quarters. If we move further down the roof we could come in through that and search for the way down to the cellar.”

              I rubbed my chin. “Maybe. But if we’re sneaking through a maze of little rooms it would be easy to blunder into someone, and have them shout before we can react. Let me take another look at this.”

              I lifted the roof patch again, and studied the layout. The roof was supported by an open framework of heavy timber, which included thick horizontal crossbeams running the width of the room. Easily big enough to walk on, although getting from one to another would take magic. The guy by the door looked like he’d managed to fall asleep standing up, and the room had several shadowy corners where it might be possible to float down to the floor without being spotted.

              Avilla’s head appeared next to me for a moment, but then she squeezed her eyes shut and pulled away. Damn, she really did have trouble with heights.

              I shifted to put my lips at her ear. “Just stay here for a few minutes. I’ve got this.”

              She nodded.

              I slipped through the hole, most of my weight suspended on a vector of force magic, and dropped onto one of the crossbeams. It was already creaking faintly as the wind outside buffeted the roof, and my own meager weight made no impression on it at all.

              I froze for a long minute, watching the men below. But no one reacted. From where they sat in the torchlight the roof would be lost in shadow, and there was more than enough background noise to cover any little sounds I might make.

              Carefully, I threw up an invisible bridge of force between the beam I crouched on and the next one over. I crossed it on hands and knees, moving slowly so as not to draw the eye. Still no one looked up.

              Several nerve-wracking minutes later I was directly above the card game. The players were intent on their cards, apparently still oblivious to my presence. Was this actually going to work?

              Thankful that my magic was largely devoid of special effects, I conjured up a small disk of stone and layered a set of spells on it. Effects I’d done before, but this wasn’t going to be a stable enchantment. Just a hasty set of single-use spells held together by conditional triggers. It only needed to work once.

              When I was finished I waited for a few minutes until they dealt a new hand, and dropped it into the middle of the group while they were all busily studying their cards.

              The magic grenade fell silently through the gloom, nearly striking the floor before the levitation spell caught it. A set of eight-foot force blades sprung out along the edges as it rebounded, and the disk began to spin furiously. In the blink of an eye it bounced back up to head height, then wobbled up and down for a few seconds before the magic failed and it settled to the floor.

              The effect on the sentries was roughly comparable to dropping them in a blender. Blood and gore went everywhere, and I had to close my eyes for a moment. Turns out even the really hardcore slasher movies aren’t as bad as the real thing.

              But they died so fast the only noise was the soft whir of the force blades, and a series of thumps as body parts fell to the floor. One of the sleeping men mumbled and rolled over, but aside from that there was no reaction.

              Not trusting my good luck, I disposed of the other sentry quickly and returned to the roof. Avilla was watching with wide eyes.

              “You make the most terrifying weapons, Daniel. I’m glad you’re on our side.”

              I smiled grimly. “Thanks. Can you locate Cerise now?”

              “Now? But, what about the rest of those men?”

              “They’re not much threat to us asleep, and I’d rather not kill them if I don’t have to. The way the floor is built I think the cellar is just dug out directly under it, like your house. So if you can tell where Cerise is we can go right through it, grab her and run before they have a chance to react.”

              “Well, if you’re sure.”

              Unlike my sorcery, Avilla’s witchcraft involved a bit of a ritual element. She pricked herself with a little paring knife, squeezed a few drops of the golden fluid she used for blood into a small wooden bowl she produced from somewhere, and sprinkled in a few pinches of crushed herbs while chanting under her breath. Then she dipped a sewing needle in the mixture, and threaded it with a hair plucked from her own head.

              She held it up, and the needle swung as if magnetized to point at a spot not far from the alter.

              “There,” she pointed. “I think you’re right, we’re much closer than I expected.”

              “Keep that going, then, and hold on. I’ll get us down there, and see if I can get a look at what we’re getting into.”

              I took her in my arms again, noting in passing how natural that was starting to feel, and dropped through the hole. Avilla buried her face in my shoulder, her eyes screwed shut, but she managed not to make any noise. We landed lightly a few steps from where her needle was pointing.

              The instant my feet touched the floor the hollow boom of a gong echoed through the temple, and a wave of hostile magic tried to smother my defenses. Avilla’s locator spell flickered out like a candle in a storm, and my levitation collapsed almost as fast.

              “Ah, shit.”

              My shield barely wavered before a fresh rush of power from my amulet stabilized it. My power source was far too strong for the temple wards to cancel out, but there was no telling what effect they’d have on normal spells

              The soldiers were already sitting up and looking around, trying to find the source of the noise. Guess I should have killed them after all.

              I drew Grinder, and set Avilla down. She grimaced as her bare feet touched the floor, and a burst of smoke rose up around her. She stomped her foot and shouted angrily in what sounded like Greek, and a flash of golden light drove the temple’s magic away from her.

              “There,” she pointed. “Hurry! I don’t know how long I can hold the wards at bay.”

Grinder chewed through the heavy boards of the floor with little regard for the magic that infused the wood. There were two layers of heavy planks nailed to a grid of beams, easily a foot thick all told. But it didn’t slow me down much. I carved a handhold first, then cut a generous chunk free of the floor and boosted my strength so I could heave it out of the way.

Bright firelight shone up through the hole, but there was no time to let our eyes adjust. The soldiers were grabbing up weapons and turning towards us now, and I doubted my force blades would carry far with the magic of the wards opposing them. So I grabbed Avilla, and dropped through the hole.

We landed on something big, with leathery hide and far too many muscles. It bucked violently, sending us flying sideways to smack against a wall of lighting. I heard Avilla scream, and found myself tumbling onto hard stone with all my muscles convulsing.

I heard frantic shouts and chanting, but for a few seconds my wits were too scrambled to make sense of anything. Something solid struck my shield, and was thrown back with a frustrated snarl. Complex spells wove through the air around me, hostile forces fighting one another.

I shook my head, and sat up slowly.

“Well, that was an unexpected bit of excitement,” Holger’s voice said mildly. “It seems that the tales of your demise were a bit exaggerated, Daniel. We’ll have to take care of that soon.”

The middle-aged priest was standing barely three paces from me, surrounded by a group of priests and flunkies. All of them were armed, mostly with long spears bearing elaborate runic decorations, and none of them looked happy to see me.

The room behind them looked like a cross between a high school chemistry lab and a medieval monastery. There were tables bearing elaborate arrays of glassware, shelves crowded with jars and vials, and here and there large books chained to reading stands or stacked in stone niches in the walls. A handful of nervous-looking soldiers stood back against the walls, observing the proceedings from a safe distance.

Unfortunately a swirling barrier of dense magic stood in the air between us, rising from a geometric design inscribed in the polished granite of the floor. A circle enclosed by a triangle enclosed by another circle, all heavily decorated with runes.

Behind me Avilla was sprawled on the floor, with a demonic-looking creature looming over her. It was built something like a gorilla, but it was as big as a horse and sported four arms and a tail. Its black and red hide resembled a lizard’s, and it’s protruding snout hung open to reveal a mouth full of sharp teeth. But the massive, erect phallus rising from between its legs left little doubt about what it wanted to do with my companion.

Blocking its path was a much smaller figure that seemed equally demonic at first glance. Her pale skin gleamed like ivory in the firelight, her nakedness revealing an eye-catching beauty that could almost have been human. But a sinewy tail lashed the air behind her, and her waist-length mane of ebony hair floated in the air around her on a swirling vortex of black magic.

Then I looked closer, and realized it was Cerise.

Her slim hands had curled into claws, her eyes glowed red with infernal magic, and she was dripping blood from half a dozen wounds. But she gripped her silver daggers tightly, and stood crouched protectively over Avilla’s prone form.

“Stupid wizard,” she hissed at me. “Not to bring honeylove into trap!”

“Yes, that could have gone better,” I admitted.

Holger chuckled dryly. “Indeed. Well, we were able to switch to a dome configuration before the demon escaped, so no harm done. I’m afraid you’ll be observing this little experiment from an uncomfortably close distance, but perhaps that’s for the best.”

“Oh really? What is this, anyway? I have to admit, it’s not what I was expecting.”

“It’s a bit of an experiment,” he explained. “I couldn’t bind Cerise conventionally, since you had my only fragment of the Covenant Stone. But the temple here in Lanrest has six demons that we’ve kept bound since time immemorial, and your pet murder witch can’t help but feed on her kills. The more of their essence she absorbs the more firmly their bindings apply to her as well, and a woman is far more pliable than a demon. She’s already become fairly  biddable.”

Cerise tossed her head angrily, exposing the horns that now sprouted from her forehead. “Stupid priest. Too much demon. Go mad, eat your heart!”

“With the whole weight of our temple’s wards preventing you from harming any member of the priesthood? I think not, young lady.”

The demon took one long step back from Cerise, and glanced at me. Apparently it didn’t like what it saw, because it bared its teeth at me and growled.

I ignored it in favor of looking around the interior of the prison. Grinder was lying on the floor not far from where I’d landed. The blade had deactivated when it left my hand, a safety feature I’d installed to keep it from being used against me.

“I suppose that’s kind of clever,” I remarked as I eased my way around the edge of the warded zone. “But what makes you think I’m just going to sit around and let you do it, Holger? Any demon Cerise could fight, I can kill easily.”

              The priest favored me with a thin smile. “I think you’ll find that we’re prepared for your heathen tricks, Daniel. You can’t reach outside the circle for power, and the floor is quite thoroughly sealed against earth magic. Perhaps you can beat one demon, but your personal magic will soon be exhausted. As you can see, your golem and your blade have already failed.”

              “Of course, that’s assuming that your own apprentice doesn’t kill you first. She’s already fed on three of our prisoners, and I’m afraid she’s becoming rather unbalanced.”

              I scooped up Grinder, and glanced at Avilla. She was still sprawled motionless on the floor, but from my new position I could see that she was still breathing. One blue eye was half open, watching me intently, and the oppressive pressure of the temple wards was nowhere near enough to crush the bonfire of magic that blazed in her heart.

              Cerise caught the look, and cautiously reached back to touch Avilla with her bare foot. Something passed between them, a flicker of personal magic I couldn’t quite read. But I thought I caught a hint of relief pass over Cerise’s features before she scowled at me.

              “You fucked up,” she hissed. “Fix it.”

              “I will. Last chance to back down, Holger. You’ve got a pack of ungols roaming the town, and a clan of frost giants planning to attack at dawn.”

              He frowned. “Do we? I hope you’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for it, Daniel. Still, I suppose we’d best not draw this out. Rathrenwisthet of the Devouring Horde, I charge you to kill that wizard.”

              The hulking demon snarled, and rushed me.

              I flicked Grinder back on, and braced myself with force magic. The brute slammed into my shield, sending me sliding back a foot despite my spell, and clawed frantically with all four arms.

              I swung Grinder, and it tried to block instead of dodging. The violet blade chewed through hide and flesh and the bones beneath with a snarling shriek, spraying mangled bits of demon everywhere.

              The beast staggered back, clutching at the cauterized stump where it’s upper-right hand had been. Cerise took advantage of the distraction to leap lightly onto its back, planting both of her daggers into its heavily muscled neck. They didn’t penetrate very far, but there was a spray of black ichor from the cuts.

              I lunged forward, and brought Grinder down on its knee. The demon’s flesh was tough as stone and its bones were even harder, but the blow penetrated halfway through before my blade stuck.

              A flailing paw backhanded me across the enclosure, and I bounced off the containment dome. Lighting seared my back, and my cloak caught fire. But I was only stunned for a moment.

              A snatch of chanted Greek and a flash of golden light announced Avilla’s entry into the fray. The oppressive pressure of the temple wards vanished.

              “Odin’s merciless gaze,” Holger breathed. “Quickly brothers, bring the fifth vessel!”

              I sprang back to my feet, reaching with force magic, and Grinder’s hilt smacked into my palm. Cerise was back on the ground, frantically dodging around the demon as it stumbled awkwardly in circles trying to get a grip on her. She dived over its tail and rolled gracefully under a clawed hand, her knives leaving thin trails of blood on the monster’s hide as she moved.

              I raised my weapon, and sent a jet of violet plasma into its face.

              It roared. Two misshapen hands rose to cover its eyes, too late to save them from the flames. I rushed in and brought Grinder down on its damaged knee again, and this time the blade sheered clear through.

              The demon toppled forward, nearly crushing Cerise as it crashed to the ground. She darted out from under it and jumped onto its back as it fell. Her gleaming daggers plunged into its hide where a man would have kept his kidneys.

              I brought Grinder down again, this time on the demon’s neck. Bone, flesh and the stone floor beneath were all gouged away in an instant. The demon’s head rolled across the floor, and its body gave one final convulsion and went still.

              But the priests had been busy, carrying a heavy iron vessel across the room and raising it to press the mouth of the container against the side of the dome. As the first demon fell the vessel’s lead stopper fell off, and a foul-smelling black mist poured into the space where we were trapped.

              Cerise’s eyes narrowed. “No body? Fuck. Corruption demon. How kill?”

              I frowned. “Fire, maybe?”

              Avilla stepped up beside me. “A dirt monster?” She asked, amused. “I think I can handle this one. Με την ευλογία της Εστίας, θα σας καθαρίσω!”

              A golden glow lit the room, and the demon disintegrated with a shriek like an overheated tea kettle.

              Cerise gazed at her admiringly. “Mine!”

              “Yeah, good job Avilla,” I said with a smile. But if the demon could get in that way…

              I put a blast of plasma into the mouth of the iron vessel. It burned through the last remnants of the demon and filled the metal container, heating it cherry-red in seconds. The priests holding it screamed and stumbled back, dropping it in the process. Sadly the vessel rolled away, and the opening in the containment field closed almost instantly.

              Holger was staring at us, all traces of his former blasé demeanor gone.

              “Who are you people?” He demanded. “No mortal wizard has such strength, but no familiar or bound spirit could enter the circle. Where are you getting all this power?”

              I raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seriously think I’m going to explain, do you? Step back, girls, this is going to be messy.”

              I strode to the edge of the barrier, and brought Grinder down on the floor.

              The enchanted stone offered no more resistance than the body of the demon I’d just hacked apart. Grinder had no point, but it could cut anything. Down, across and around in a wide arc, coming up under the carved symbols of the circle.

              I could hear Holger chanting something, but I ignored it. This was working. My blade came up through the floor, chewing the complex symbols of the diagram to bits in a storm of broken stone. The magic of the circle wavered, and collapsed in a shower of sparks. Excellent.              I looked up triumphantly just as Holger leveled his spear, and a bolt of lightning leaped from the tip to slam into my chest.

              Being electrocuted was really starting to get old.

              A second bolt struck me before I could recover, and then a third. There was shouting and screaming, and a smell of bacon and burnt hair filled the room. Wait, was that me? Faces loomed over me, spears frantically stabbing, but physical blows couldn’t reach me.

              Enough awareness returned for me to sit up.

              A confused melee filled the basement. Cerise dodged through the crowd of priests and soldiers, stabbing with her knives while her tail and hair tripped and strangled her opponents. Avilla was hiding in a corner, behind a dazed-looking soldier who was clumsily trying to defend her from a pair of priests. Two more priests were chanting over their spears and trying to stab me, and not having much luck. Their blows damaged the fabric of my shield spell, draining off huge gouts of magic with every hit, but even together they were barely outpacing my amulet’s recharge rate. If they’d had a few hours to work at it they might have gotten through, but that wasn’t going to happen.

              I’d lost Grinder again, but a simple force blade cut them both in half.

              “The wizard lives!” Someone shouted. “Run for your lives!”

              “No!” Holger called. “Have faith, broth-urk!”

              Cerise carved his throat out. The men around her all stepped back in shock, and she paused to lick the blood off the blade.

              “Murdered by my hand, darkness claim your soul,” she crooned. “Tasty priest. Next?”

              They ran.

              Cerise cut down one more fleeing priest, and then pulled back and turned towards Avilla just in time to see her behead her former guardian with her enchanted butcher knife. I threw a couple of force blades into the remaining priests, but let the soldiers go.

              Avilla released her spell, and the wards pressed down on us again. But they were noticeably weaker than before. Maybe the deaths of most of the priests had eroded them?

              Avilla was weaker too. She’d burned through a lot of the power I’d given her, but a glance reassured me she wasn’t in any danger. I was a bit beat up, but I’d be healed in an hour. Cerise, however…

              She tangled her hand in Avilla’s hair, and kissed her thoroughly. Avilla sagged bonelessly into her arms, surrendering instantly to the moment. They were both so beautiful I couldn’t help but stare.

              Cerise was draining Avilla’s energy.

              I shook my head, and brushed away the strands of glamor that were trying to enthrall me. Cerise was more demon than human now, and they’d both been worried about her self-control even before this happened. She might not be able to stop.

              Avilla certainly wasn’t going to muster the will to stop her. The curvaceous blonde moaned raggedly into the kiss when Cerise’s tail probed up under her skirt. A moment later I heard cloth ripping, and a scrap of fabric fluttered to the floor.

              I stepped closer, and put my hands on their shoulders.

              “Cerise?” I said. “I hate to interrupt, but there’s an army of frost giants we have to escape from.”

              She broke the kiss, and looked up at me dazedly.

              “Daniel?”

              Her eyes found mine, hugely dilated and full of hunger. I lost myself in their depths. She pressed her sleek curves against me, her firm breasts pressed against my chest. The scent of her desire made my head spin. What was I doing?

              “Daniel,” she purred. Her arms rose to twine about my neck, and she pulled me down to meet her lips.

Chapter 15

              I was lost in an embrace I had no desire to escape. Thrusting endlessly into her slick heat. Trapped by the inhuman strength of the smooth, sleek limbs wrapped around me. My life force poured out of me like a river, an endless banquet that my lover eagerly devoured.

              I vaguely remembered being on the bottom at first. A helpless victim, unable to do anything but thrust and give and explode in one climax after another. But that had been a long time ago. As she’d drained me her hunger had gradually become less frantic, her control dissolving into rapturous bliss. At some point her ruthless plundering of my energy had become my equally ruthless conquest of her eager young body.

              There was a hand on my back. A female voice, chanting words I couldn’t understand. I wiped the sweat from my brow, and slowed.

              “Avilla?”

              “Daniel! Goodness, I was starting to wonder if you were coming back. My counterspell is working, then?”

              Cerise ground herself against me. Her hot core milked at me, what felt like a dozen silken fingers stroking and squeezing my length. I groaned, and found myself thrusting harder again. Fuck, I was about to…

              I erupted inside her, for what felt like the hundredth time. She matched me with a delighted wail, and I nearly lost myself again. She was so beautiful. Her dizzying scent, her breathy moans, the play of smooth muscle under silken skin as she writhed against me. Her face, so expressive and so utterly lost in the ecstasy of our shared pleasure. She was intoxicating.

              “Bind her quickly, Daniel,” Avilla breathed in my ear. Her magnificent breasts pressed into my back, and only the fact that she was still clothed let me resist the fantasy that immediately presented itself.

              Bind Cerise?

              The fog cleared a little, and I really looked at my lover. Yes, she was beautiful, but there was precious little humanity left in her. The cute little horns that had sprouted from her forehead were much bigger now, curling around her temples before rising into vertical points. Her eyes were pools of absolute darkness, windows into a soul overflowing with demonic power. Her skin was a flawless expanse of ivory that glowed with a hypnotic inner light, and her parted lips revealed prominent fangs amid a mouth full of disturbingly sharp teeth.

              I had vague memories of her biting me, drinking my blood, ripping a chunk of flesh from my shoulder and devouring it while she held me down and savagely fucked me. No, she had long since lost any semblance of self-control.

              Was there even anything left of Cerise in there? Or was this beauty just a mindless amalgamation of the demons she’d drained?

              Her eyes drifted open, and she looked up at me adoringly.

              “Fuck me more, Daniel,” she purred. “Fuck me forever.”

              Something shifted inside her, and then what felt like dozens of slick tongues were slithering around my organ. I tried to pull away, but her strong legs drew me easily back in.

              “Focus, Daniel!” Avilla insisted.

              Cerise’s gaze drifted past me, and her eyes lit up with delight. “Honeydew!”

              Cerise reached up to grasp her arms, trapping her in her position pressed against my back, and Avilla squeaked in surprise. Then she moaned raggedly into my ear.

              “Oh, goddess! Her tail! I can’t… no, not there! Hurry, Daniel! She… she knows all my spots…”

              Avilla shuddered, and bit my shoulder. Cerise gave me a smug look. “My Honeydew.”

              I nodded. “Your Honeydew.”

              I thrust, and lit up every pleasure sensor in her finely tuned body with my flesh magic.

              Her whole body clenched convulsively. Her eyes rolled back, and I could feel the instant orgasm that shattered her thoughts.

But the way Avilla writhed against my back made it clear that her tail was running on autopilot, and I wasn’t getting any more help from that quarter. The buxom witch was so easy Cerise could reduce her to dazed incoherence with her fingers in moments, and that was without seductive demonic sex powers. I was on my own now.

Only one option, then. I spun a binding around her, my meta-magical sorcery easily translating the theory I’d read into practice.

              “My Cerise,” I growled in her ear.

              “Yes!” She agreed instantly, any thought of resistance long since dissolved by the pleasures we’d shared. She was more lost than I’d been. Was it even possible to bring her back?

              “My brave, clever, loyal Cerise,” I murmured in her ear, punctuating each statement with a thrust of my hips and another flash of blinding pleasure.

              “Yes, yes, yes!” She wailed, climaxing again with each thrust. Her magic embraced mine eagerly, happily accepting the compulsion. The huge mass of stolen power she’d absorbed from me churned and shifted in response, still almost as much mine as it was hers.

              “Demanding and playful,” I went on. “Beautiful and deadly. A mighty witch, always in command of your stolen power.”

              She gasped, staring sightlessly up into space as her skin beaded with sudden sweat. She balanced trembling on the verge of another titanic orgasm as conflicting forces battled within her. I could see the moment when some part of her realized what was happening, and threw what will she could still muster into the balance.

              “Yes!” She gasped.

              The deadlock broke. All the power she’d taken from me flowed easily into a new pattern, and crashed down upon the tangled knots of half-absorbed darkness. Shadows chased each other across her skin, and for a moment her hair lashed out in a blind attempt to strangle me.

              Then it fell limp. Cerise lay there panting for a moment, as the magic that filled her settled into its new configuration. When she finally opened her eyes the unnatural darkness was gone.

              “You bound me to be myself?” She murmured.

              “Yeah,” I replied. “Do you need anything else, before I seal it?”

              A crooked smile stole across her lips. “Let’s go with: ‘But all my sexy powers are yours to command when you want.’ So I can relax and let go sometimes without having to worry about what I’ll do.”

              I chuckled. “Done.”

              She squirmed against me as the final binding settled over her. “That’s so hot. Make me agree, Daniel.”

              “Naughty wench.”

              I started thrusting again, but this time I didn’t hit her quite so hard with the flesh magic. She gasped, thrashed, her claws digging into the shredded remains of my shirt as her tight channel began to work my tool again.

              “Say it!” I ordered roughly.

              Her eyes screwed shut, and her head thrashed from side to side. She was almost there, but I wasn’t letting her reach her peak.

              “Ah! Fuck! S-sneaky bastard! I… y-yes! Fuck, yes! Make me your bitch, Daniel.”

              I let her find her release, and found myself abruptly driven over the edge as well by the impossible sensations emanating from her hot core. I collapsed on top of her, panting for breath.

              “Agreed, and sealed till we both recant,” I gasped, completing the weave that would make the binding self-sustaining. “Fuck, you’re a handful.”

              She snuggled into me with a smug grin. “Damn right I am, and don’t you forget it.”

              A soft whimper reminded me that we weren’t alone.

              “Can someone… please… finish me?” Avilla pleaded from somewhere behind me.

              Our eyes met, and we both laughed. I moved aside, and Cerise rolled onto hands and knees.

              “Come here, Honeydew,” she said, her affectionate tone completely at odds with her still rather demonic appearance. “Kitten has a new toy for you. I’m sure Daniel can give us a few minutes.”

              “Yeah, I think if I come one more time my brain’s going to melt and run out my ears,” I admitted.

              “Same here,” Cerise agreed, to my surprise. “But I can’t leave my girl hanging.” She pounced on the curvy blonde, and began kissing her thoroughly.

              I turned away with a smile. I wanted to tell them not to take too long, but I didn’t quite have the heart to interrupt their reunion.

              The bodies on the floor brought me back to reality. Seven men and a demon had left huge pools of blood spreading across most of the floor, but it had long since dried. The remains of my clothes were caked with dried blood, and so were my hands. How long had we spent mindlessly rutting among the bodies?

              A glance showed that Cerise was spotless. Either blood didn’t stick to her anymore, or… well, best not to go there for now.

              I busied myself examining the books and arcane materials spread about the room. I found Grinder on the floor under a worktable, and Avilla’s giant recipe book occupied a high stone podium. A lot of the other books seemed to be religious in nature, but not all of them.

              There was also a scholarly survey of major spellcasting styles, which looked like interesting reading. One shelf held several books on summoning and binding rituals, along with a catalog of magical creatures and the realms they were believed to hail from. One of the larger tomes looked like a book on air magic and weather control, which could certainly be useful.

              I’d just cut the chain off that one and stacked it with the rest when the girls joined me. Cerise was looking quite pleased with herself, and Avilla was adorably mussed. I hugged them both.

              “Think we can get away with stealing that priest’s bed until morning?” Cerise asked hopefully.

              Avilla giggled. “I wish. But we have to go.”

              “Yeah,” I confirmed. “Too many monsters gathering. The town may not be here come dawn. Speaking of which, either of you know what time it is?”

              They both shook their heads.

              “Damn. Then we’d better not waste time. We need clothes, and I suppose we can spare a few minutes to loot this place if there’s anything else you want. Cerise, we’re supposed to be meeting Oskar’s militia and the people you and Avilla had recruited over at the granary by the harbor, which is where what’s left of the 5th Margold is set up.”

              “Those bastards?” She protested. “They didn’t lift a finger when we needed them. Don’t tell me we’re hooking up with them.”

              “They were in service to the Baron,” I pointed out. “Captain Rain takes that seriously, but now that the Baron’s dead he wants to sign on with me instead. Considering how much loyalty he was willing to give that idiot in the name of a contract, I think it’s a good deal.”

              “I guess. Wait, the Baron’s dead?” She pouted. “Aww. I wanted to kill him. No one gets to paw my girl like that and get away with it.”

              “I took care of it,” Avilla told her. “Daniel pinned him to a wall for me so I could take my time.”

              “Oh. Well, as long as you’re satisfied. That’s the important thing.”

              I interrupted before the heated look they were sharing could lead to another makeout session. “Cerise, are you stuck like that or can you make yourself look a little more human?”

              “Hmm. Let me try.”

              She closed her eyes, and after a moment the aura of power that still lingered about her faded. Her horns vanished, and her claws shrank and flattened until they could almost be mistaken for fingernails. Her tail remained, although it seemed a little shorter than before.

              “That’ll do,” I nodded approvingly. “We’re done hiding what we are from our own people, but we’ll have an easier time meeting strangers if you can look relatively normal. I take it you’re stuck with the tail?”

              “I can’t hide it with magic,” she said mischievously. “But if it’s important I’ve got other options.”

              She curled the slender appendage up to slip the end inside herself with a naughty grin. Then she flushed, and her eyes fluttered. Somehow she managed to slide a foot or more of tail into her hidden depths, leaving the remainder tucked neatly out of the way.

              “Whew,” she said. “There. Give me a skirt and no one will suspect a thing. Plus if I get bored I can just give myself a little thri-ooooohfuck! Wow. You’re right, honeydew. This thing is wicked hot.”

              I facepalmed.

Avilla giggled. “Told you. Careful or you might end up addicted to yourself.”

“Cute,” I sighed. “But you can play with yourself later. Right now we need to focus. We all need fresh clothes again, and if there’s anything else you girls want to steal from this place now’s the time. We won’t be coming back.”

Cerise extracted her tail with a long, sensuous wriggle, and grinned at me. “Sure thing, Daniel. Totally serious now.”

Avilla smiled at her demented partner indulgently. “I could fix our clothes, Daniel. But my power is running low, and doing that instantly in this place would pretty well drain me.”

“That’s easily fixed,” I pointed out. I put my hand on her shoulder, and poured a modest stream of magic into her body. As usual she sucked it up like a sponge.

“Warn me if you start feeling high,” I told her. “We all need to keep our wits sharp right now. But I should be able to give you enough for that kind of spellcasting without a problem.”

The girls shared one of those looks that was probably a whole conversation. Avilla sighed, and left her lover’s arms to snuggle up against me.

“Thank you, Daniel. You have no idea how good this feels. But I have to ask, where are you getting all this power? Cerise stole enough life force from you to kill a hundred men, and the maids told me you’d barely finished healing yourself when you left to rescue me. Is it wise to push yourself any further?”

“I suppose it is about time I let you two in on that,” I mused. “I think I mentioned once that one of the elemental sorceries I gained when Hecate brought to this world is magic itself?”

They both nodded. “Yeah, but I still don’t see how all of magic can be an element,” Cerise said.

“It’s not ‘every kind of magic’, it’s ‘the stuff that spells are made of’. Which is an odd way to think about things, I know. But understanding what spells are made of, how that stuff behaves and where it ultimately comes from, lets me do some crazy things. Like this.”

I fished my amulet out from under the remnants of my shirt, and held it up.

“This thing is enchanted to put a barrier against physical attacks around me when I want it to, and it automatically heals me whenever I get injured. That last part has saved my life a few times now, because it works even if I’m not in any condition to think about it. But the most important thing it does is act as a power source.”

Avilla nodded. “I thought you must have something like that. But what does it draw on?”

“Itself.”

I grinned at their puzzled looks, and went on. “One of the most important discoveries that we’ve made back on my home world is that mater and energy are different forms of the same thing, and if you understand them well enough you can change things from one form to another. Some transformations are a lot harder than others, but stuff like turning motion into lightning or lightning into heat and light is easy.”

“But turning matter into energy is where things get interesting, because transforming a grain of sand directly into heat would reduce this whole town to a puddle of molten rock. Anything solid has fantastic amounts of power bound up in its structure. So when I used my metamagic sorcery to create an enchantment that gradually transforms solid matter into raw magic…”

“An unlimited source of power?” Avilla breathed.

“Effectively,” I agreed. “It’ll eventually eat itself, but that will take a few centuries. There’s also a limit on how fast it can generate magic, but with this amulet that’s high enough that it usually isn’t an issue. Other than that, yeah.”

“I want one,” Cerise pleaded. “Please, Daniel? I’ll be really grateful.”

I chuckled, and mussed her hair. “It’s on my list. I have to work out how to make it so you can control the power feed, or it’ll force-feed you power until you explode or something. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this fiasco, it’s that I need to stop trying to do everything myself. The first chance I get I’m going to gear you two up.”

That got excited smiles from both of them.

“Just remember to keep this a secret,” I warned them. “We don’t need every wizard within a thousand miles converging on us to find out how it works.”

“Of course,” Avilla said seriously.

“This is the kind of thing you take to your grave,” Cerise agreed. “Not a word to anyone, unless we talk it through and agree.”

“Good. Now why don’t you find some clothes to steal while Avilla works her magic? I expect the guards have all fled by now, but from what I remember of that fight I don’t think you’d have any trouble with a straggler.”

“You got that right,” she grinned.

“Come to think of it, weren’t you supposed to be bound not to attack them? How did you get around that one?”

“That half-assed thing? A binding I didn’t agree to can’t hold me for long, Daniel. I was already wiggling out of it, but when the circle went down my girl here popped it off me easy as pie.”

Avilla leaned against her affectionately. “It wasn’t that easy. But we’ve put a lot of work into being able to free each other from hostile magic, and I still had a lot of the power you gave me. I even managed to charm a guard, and I didn’t think I was anywhere near being able to pull that off.”

“Makes sense. Well, good work, both of you. We make a good team.”

“We do, don’t we?” Cerise agreed. “Alright, quick looting run. Be back soon.”

Sure enough, we found that Avilla could handle a constant power feed just fine as long as I didn’t get carried away with it. We found a basin and washed away the blood, and then she produced a needle and thread and sewed my clothes back together so finely they looked like new when she was done.

It was odd watching her work. At first glance it looked like she wasn’t even using magic, but somehow everything went far faster than normal. Rips that should have taken an hour of painstaking work to repair were closed in moments, and everything fit back together perfectly despite the fact that I knew there should have been missing pieces.

              But I didn’t have time to just sit and watch. I didn’t know when the next time we’d have a moment of peace might be, so I took the time to lay a warmth enchantment on Avilla’s dress. Cerise returned around then, and I repeated the process on one of the cloaks she’d found while Avilla altered a shirt and a pair of pants to fit her.

              I noted that she somehow managed to make the stolen clothes fit Cerise like a second skin, but I wasn’t complaining.

              Aside from books there wasn’t much of interest in the temple. A few coins on the bodies and in the priests’ rooms, and a small chest in what I presumed was Holger’s office that held a few bags full of copper and silver coins. It was small potatoes compared to what we’d taken from the Baron’s keep, but we took it all regardless. No telling when we might find ourselves needing it.

              Then we set out into the snow.

              The storm had blown over while we were otherwise occupied. A steady sprinkle of snow was still falling, but the wind had died down considerably and I could actually see the whole plaza in front of the church. Unfortunately, that was partly because of the burning buildings.

              Distant shouts and screams rose up all around us. Less than a block away one of the streets was blocked by a knot of townsmen fighting a group of goblins on wolf-back next to a pair of burning buildings. Further away I heard the roar of a troll, and the sound of something being smashed.

              “Damn. Cerise, are you up for a real fight?”

              “My legs are a little wobbly,” she admitted. “But I can manage, as long as it doesn’t last too long.”

              “Alright. I’ll take point. You watch my back, and keep Avilla safe. But if we run into ungols I’ll probably need your help. The damned things are so fast I have trouble landing a hit on them, but I think you can match them now.”

              “Ungols? Fuck. I’ll do what I can.”

              The new goblin attack seemed to be centered on the breech in the wall, but the river side of the town was far from untouched. We passed one house after another with doors and windows smashed open, and bloodstains scattered at random. The ungols had been busy.

              How many people had died while I was under Cerise’s spell?

              I shook my head. I couldn’t save them all regardless. There were too many monsters, too much ground to cover, too many targets who couldn’t fight back effectively if I was busy somewhere else. Maybe if I’d gotten here a few days earlier, or if things had gone differently during the first goblin attack.

              Or maybe not. I still didn’t know how the goblins had punched that hole in the town wall. For all I knew the same method would have worked on the new wall I’d been building. There were far too few people in Lanrest who could fight at all, and none who could stand up to the real threats.

              The sound of battle somewhere ahead of us drew my attention. We were almost there, but someone was having a hell of a fight.

              I turned a corner, and my fears were confirmed.

              The granary was a cluster of two-story buildings surrounded by a low wall, and someone had blocked the entrance with a pair of overturned wagons. But there was a desperate battle taking place in the courtyard beyond. A few dozen soldiers and armed townsmen, against at least two ungols.

              I checked, and glanced at my companions. How to do this?

              “Get me to the crowd,” Avilla suggested. “I can use them for cover, and then you two can concentrate on the monsters.”

              “Good idea,” I agreed. “Full speed, then. Ready, Cerise?”

              I scooped Avilla up in my arms. Cerise closed her eyes for a moment, and then her horns were back. Her green eyes glowed faintly in the darkness.

              “Ready,” she agreed. “One more push.”

              I charged.

              With bursts of force magic turning each step into a giant leap I tore down the street with the speed of a galloping horse. Cerise easily kept pace beside me, her long legs matching me stride for stride. We crossed the length of the dark street in moments, and leaped over the barricade into the chaos of the torch-lit courtyard.

              Two steps into the melee a blur of motion tried to pounce on Cerise. She ducked, grabbed with her tail as her knives came out, and tumbled across the cobblestones locked blade to claw with her attacker. They both moved blindingly fast, and for a moment I couldn’t tell who was winning.

              I set Avilla down amid a clump of startled townsmen, and activated Grinder. The shriek of tortured plasma cut through the noise of battle like an air raid siren, and the ungols reacted instantly.

              The one fighting Cerise broke off and backed away, dripping blood from half a dozen shallow wounds. A second one put its head down and barreled through the crowd, sending grown men flying as it knocked them aside. A third jumped down from the roof of a building, landing in the rapidly clearing space around the first. All three watched me warily.

              Cerise rejoined me. She had a huge bruise on her cheek and a bloody nose, but otherwise seemed unhurt.

              “Fuck, those things are tough,” she complained. “My athame’s can barely scratch them.”

              “Lord wizard!” Captain Rain exclaimed, hurrying through the crowd to join me. “Thank the gods you came! How do we fight these things?”

              “You don’t,” I told him. “Keep the men back. We’ll handle them.”

              The middle ungol opened its mouth, letting its black tongue loll out.

              “Wizard too slow,” it hissed mockingly. “Can’t catch. Watch food die.”

              There were at least a dozen bodies on the ground. My people, killed by these… things.

              “Oh, you think so?” I growled. “We’ll see. Cerise?”

              “Yeah, boss?”

              I reached into the enchantment in my hand, and suppressed the automatic shutoff. Then I handed her Grinder.

              “Try this instead.”

              Her eyes went wide. “Fuck yeah! Let’s see you assholes shrug off this baby.”

              She tossed one of her knives in the air, caught it with her prehensile tail, and took the offered weapon. Then she turned to rush the ungols.

              I followed her, and projected a roof of force above our heads.

              Sure enough, the creatures tried to use their incredible agility to evade her. They smacked into the force wall a heartbeat after it formed, sending them tumbling back to the ground. They recovered in seconds, but by then she was on top of them.

              Grinder flashed and snarled, and a long tail went flying. The white mist of their breath weapons enveloped her, and for an instant her own shadowy aura stood out in stark relief as it shed their magic. A spray of crimson blood showered across the snow, but a larger shower of black ichor followed it.

              I turned the wall into a dome, trapping us all together inside.

              A flurry of impacts buffeted both the dome and my shield, but all failed to penetrate. Huge jaws clamped shut around me, lifting me off my feet like a dog preparing to shake a squirrel.

              I rammed a force blade down the thing’s throat.

              It dropped me and backed away, bleeding black ichor from the wound. I tried making the ground under its feet grab it, but it ripped its way free with overwhelming strength.

              But that distracted it long enough for Cerise to come bouncing over it and drag Grinder right through its body. It staggered, cut nearly in half, and I turned my attention back to maintaining the dome.

              From there it was over in seconds. When the last ungol fell Cerise loped its head off, took a few seconds to make sure of her kills, and then limped back over to. Her left arm was a mangled ruin, half her tail was just gone, and she was bleeding from more cuts than I wanted to think about. But she was grinning like a lunatic.

              God, she was beautiful.

              “Three less demons in the world,” she reported happily. “Am I the baddest bitch ever, or what?”

              “You’re amazing, Cerise. Now let me heal that before you bleed out.”

Epilogue

              We left Lanrest the same way we arrived.

              It took barely half an hour to put walls and a roof on the hover-barge, and expand it a little to accommodate our larger party. After the ungol attack there weren’t nearly as many of us, anyway. The demons had killed a lot of men, and they’d taken a particular delight in carving a path through them to kill any children they could find.

              The river was frozen solid now, and our vessel glided silently over the ice as we left the town behind. That was a good thing, because it meant the giant shapes approaching the burning town hadn’t noticed us. I wouldn’t have seen them either, if not for the light of burning buildings leaking out through the breach in the wall.

              There had been something else among the giants. A vast shape that made them look like children, creeping across the fields on four legs with its wings folded against is scaled back.

              Somehow I wasn’t surprised to find that there were dragons in this world.

The weather closed in again as we cruised downriver, the light snow building rapidly into a howling blizzard again. Inconvenient as it was I was glad for the cover. But the timing seemed odd. Had someone ringed the town in storms to prevent anyone from escaping?

              There was no way to be sure. But as I squinted into the icy blast, it certainly seemed that there were faint glimmers of magic permeating the falling snowflakes.

              “What now, sir?” Captain Rain asked from beside me.

              I glanced back at the huddled mass of refugees crowded into the barge behind me, and considered.

              “Let’s get another mile or two down the river, and I’ll stop for a bit. I need to set things up so someone else can drive this thing, and come up with a way to keep everyone warm. The walls and roof help, but with this wind it’s not enough.

              “And after that?” Oskar asked. He and a plump woman I assumed was his wife were huddled under a blanket near the front of the barge.

              “That depends. Markus, can you think of anywhere in this kingdom that could weather an attack by giants?”

              He frowned. “Not Margold. Not if they’re serious about it. No one builds walls that strong.”

              “What about Kozalin?” Oskar asked. “They’ve got the Red Conclave there, and the Griffon Knights, and three High Temples. It’s not walls we need to look for, it’s men with the strength to hold them.”

              “You may be right,” Marcus mused. “It’s a major city, and I’d lay odds either the King or his heir will be there. The elves have an embassy there too, if I remember right. But it’s a long trip.”

              “We can cover a lot of ground if we need to,” I said. “The Baron had gotten news from there. The Conclave is trying to do something about the weather, and there are enough elite forces there that they’ve got the luxury of trying to help other settlements. Do you know how to get there?”

              Markus nodded, and patted the leather satchel at his hip. “I have maps.”

              “Good. Kozalin it is, then.”

              I turned my attention back to the snow in front of me. Visibility was poor, but the sun was finally rising. As long as I was careful, I could steer a course through the storm.