Author: E. William Brown
Date: 2015-11-06T18:00:00+00:00
Keywords: Fantasy; Adult; Romance
Description: Gaea's favored children have put her ancient plan to cleanse the Earth of humans into motion, and Kozalin stands high on their list of targets. Uncertain alliances, scheming gods and an implacable foe will push Daniel to his limits. How far will the wizard from Earth go, to protect his family? Warning: This novel contains graphic violence, explicit sex, unconventional opinions and a protagonist who has no interest in being normal. Read at your own risk. **

Extermination

A Daniel Black Novel

By E. William Brown

Copyright 2015 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

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 1

“The temperature in here will always stay the same,” I explained. “But the rain and light are controlled by these levers. The one on the left turns off the lights, like this.”

I grasped the heavy iron lever and pulled it up. The huge room was plunged into darkness, relieved only by a few weak lights around the doors and control panel that remained on. The long rows of support pillars cast serried ranks of shadows across the bar dirt of the floor, and the far end of the room was lost in shadow. I’d done it this way to ensure that anyone caught in the room when the lights went out would be able to find their way to the door, but the effect was unexpectedly eerie. The maze of pipes and fixtures on the twelve-foot ceiling were just a mass of shadows now, and after so many weeks of fighting I immediately found myself thinking about how easy it would be for something to hide up there.

Most of my audience gasped in surprise, but at least no one panicked. That was a good sign.

I turned the lights back on, and reached for the other lever. “This one makes it rain. There’s a little dry area here by the doors, but it should cover the rest of the room pretty evenly.”

I threw the switch, and a light drizzle began to fall from the sprinkler system on the ceiling. The farmers in the audience just stared, but both dryads stepped out into the warm rain and spread their arms.

“I’m never going to get used to this, milord,” the taller of the two dryads said. Her name was Ilona, if I remembered right.

“I can feel Lady Elin’s power in the water,” Gabi, the other dryad, added. “She’s very kind to us.”

I smiled. “Yes, she is. But let’s not turn the field to mud just yet.”

I turned off the rain, and turned to the old man who stood at the head of the little group of former peasants. Hrodir had been the headman of his village before Fimbulwinter, and he was by far the best person I had available to take charge of this project.

“So, you’ve got about half an acre of land in each of these chambers. Elin and I only have four of them finished right now, but I expect we’ll get the other twenty set up over the next few weeks. I’ll leave it up to you to organize who works which plot and what they should plant. The soil is a couple of feet deep, so I imagine it should work for most of your normal crops. Just keep in mind that with the dryads blessing the fields you’re going to be pulling in a harvest every few weeks instead of just once or twice a year.”

We’d warned the men up front that they’d be working closely with the dryads on this project, and the volunteers were all relatively young and unmarried. But even so, there was as much fear as lust in the looks they gave the naked nature spirits.

“There, ah, ain’t no blood sacrifices or nothing in makin’ that happen, right?” One of them asked nervously.

Ilona laughed. “We only feed our trees the blood of enemies, silly. Fertility rites are a different kind of magic, and not one I’ve ever seen a man object to.”

“I don’t know, sister,” Gabi said. “There are only six of them. They might not have the stamina to handle us both. Especially not if we bless the fields morning and night, like we were talking about.”

It took the men a moment to realize what the dryads were getting at, and even then they didn’t seem to know whether to be intrigued or terrified.

The dryads were quite attractive, if a little odd looking. They both had brown skin, about the same shade as the bark of their trees, and their long hair was green like their leaves. Their lean, athletic bodies had more than enough curves to catch a man’s eye, and with their deceptively young-looking features they could have passed as human teenagers if not for their odd coloration. But they were nature spirits, and contrary to what Disney might tell you nature isn’t about cute little furry critters singing songs and living in harmony together. The average dryad was about as tame as a wolf, and considerably more dangerous.

They also had a strong sense of loyalty, though, and they were every bit as lusty as the legends made them out to be. I figured the farmers would get along with them just fine, once they got used to each other.

“I can always find more men if you need them,” I said. “Now, half of every harvest goes to me, as rent. That’s what we’re going to be feeding our troops with soon, so be sure you plant a decent variety of crops. The rest is split evenly between you and the dryads, although since they don’t need to eat I expect they’ll end up selling most of theirs.”

“How do we do that, exactly?” Gabi asked. “I mean, I think I sort of get this human idea of buying and selling things, but it all sounds very complicated. I don’t have a clue how we’d actually do it.”

“You may want to get the men here to help you with that,” I told her. “They’ve all done it before, and considering how high food prices are these days they should be able to get you good deals. Everyone, I want you all to remember that this project is a partnership between dryads and humans. Odd as it may seem we’re all on the same side here, and we need to work together if we’re going to survive.”

“That means no cheating the girls just because they can’t count money,” Hrodir put in. “You boys are lucky sons of bitches to be here, and anyone who screws things up won’t be for long. Right, milord?”

I nodded firmly. “Yes. This is one of the most important jobs on the island, and anyone who doesn’t pull their weight won’t keep it for long. If you can’t handle the work we may just shift you back to the general labor pool, but if you cause trouble Hrodir is going to boot you right off the island.”

That was a likely death sentence these days, for a man with no connections or special skills. I was hoping the threat would be enough to prevent trouble, but Hrodir had predicted we’d have to follow through on it at least once. Maybe he was right, but I couldn’t see a better alternative.

“What about the dryads, milord wizard?” One of the braver farmers asked. “They aren’t under Hrodir, are they?”

“No, the dryad groves are like villages,” I told him. “Each one has their own leader. But Pelagia has agreed to be in charge of making sure all the dryads involved in the farms do their jobs and don’t get up to any mischief.”

Ilona shuddered. “No one is going to cross the Mistress of Bloody Thorns, milord. Besides, you men have nothing to fear from us. We’re very grateful to the lord wizard, for giving us a place here. None of us want to mess this up.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” I said. “But misunderstandings happen, and I know men and dryads don’t usually work together. So men, if you have a problem with one of the dryads take it to Hrodir, and he’ll talk to Pelagia and work things out. Dryads, if you have a problem with one of the men bring it to Pelagia and she’ll see that it gets fixed. Now, any other questions?”

There were a few, but nothing of any substance. After a few more minutes of discussion I left Hrodir to take the men up the long elevator ride to their quarters on the top floor. That had originally been a giant attic space, but I’d turned part of it into a set of private rooms for the farmers. It was easily big enough to house the entire staff for the farming complex now, under conditions that would seem downright luxurious to the former peasants.

Of course, six men was only the beginning. Hrodir was already planning a trip to the nearest refugee shelter to look for more, and considering the volume of food we hoped to produce we’d probably end up with dozens of them. But indoor farming with magical assistance was an exotic enough venture that we’d both felt it was best to start small, and bring in new workers a few at a time.

I found Elin resting near the entrance to Pelagia’s grove, with a group of exotic nature spirits waiting on her hand and foot. She was usually too embarrassed to let them do more than bring her fresh fruit, but apparently she’d made the mistake of letting one of the nymphs give her a foot rub this morning. Now she was sprawled bonelessly across the lush grass that had sprung up beneath one of the dryad trees, with her head in the lap of a dryad who was feeding her orange slices while two nymphs collaborated on what must have been a pretty amazing massage.

I could tell that because Elin’s skirt was up around her waist, and she wasn’t objecting to the hands on her thighs despite the fact that they had an audience. But they’d probably end up trying to seduce her if I gave them the chance, and she’d be terribly embarrassed however that turned out. So I decided I’d better come to her rescue.

Wait, oranges? Where the heck did they get oranges? Aren’t those a new world plant?

My moment of confusion gave the hamadryad who’d been watching the show a chance to intercept me, with another nymph and a couple of dryads in tow. They all mobbed me in a group hug.

“Welcome, lord wizard!” The hamadryad said, just quietly enough not to disturb Elin. “What can we do for our savior today? Do you have time to stay for a bit?”

She looked like a taller, curvier, slightly older version of the dryads, which I found sexy as hell. Especially when she was molding herself against my chest, twining her arms around my neck and giving me a look that said she was mine for the taking.

The nymph was even worse, with her lush figure and supernatural aura of sexual allure. She trapped my right arm between her mountainous breasts, and went up on tiptoes to kiss my cheek.

“Please say yes,” she said softly. “We still want to properly thank you for our new home.”

The dryads finished my encirclement, running their hands over me eagerly.

A month ago I wouldn’t have had a prayer of resisting them. But being involved with Cerise and Avilla had done a lot to build up my tolerance for feminine charms. So instead of drawing the hamadryad into the kiss she was practically begging for, I somehow managed to keep my head.

“I’m afraid I came to fetch Elin for a meeting,” I said.

The nymph pouted, and the hamadryad actually looked a little hurt. She bit her lip.

“Have we displeased you in some way, milord?”

“How could you have displeased me, when I don’t even know your name? No, I’m just very busy. Keeping this place safe is a lot of work, and I do have my own coven to keep happy.”

“Invite them all, if you’d like,” she suggested. “The hospitality of the Red Thorn Grove is justly famous in certain circles. See how gently we’ve handled Lady Elin, when she’s barely awakened to her own passions? We’d be happy for the chance to treat your ladies well, my lord.”

I had to admit, getting Elin to relax that much was an impressive feat. She was usually wound pretty tight, and anything that hinted of sexuality tended to make her pull back into her shell. She was so used to thinking of herself as a hideous monster that she had trouble letting anyone touch her, even within the coven. But here she was, apparently enjoying herself.

“We’ll see,” I temporized. “But right now I’m here for Elin.”

“Of course.” She stepped back, and hesitated for a moment. “Milord? My name is Nomiki.”

“I’m Xenia,” the nymph said, suddenly grinning. “And the girls here are Carla and Hela. So now you know our names, and you can ask for us next time you visit.”

“Or send for us,” Nomiki added, not missing a trick.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

I walked quietly to where Elin was lying, and knelt beside her on the grass that had sprung up in the last couple of days. Her little court of lecherous nature spirits all looked disappointed at my arrival, but none of them said anything. I bent, and gently kissed her.

“Mmwah?”

Her eyes opened, and she blinked up at me uncertainly. Then they drifted closed again, and she languorously returned the kiss.

“Mm, Daniel.”

I chuckled. “Having a good time, sweetie? I hate to interrupt, but it’s almost time for the staff meeting. Not to mention lunch.”

She seemed to suddenly realize what a compromising position I’d found her in, and blushed faintly. “Um. This isn’t… I mean, I wasn’t… oh, drat. They got me, didn’t they?”

The nymphs giggled.

“Did you enjoy your massage, milady?” One of them asked. “See, we told you that we can control ourselves. We won’t do anything you don’t want us to.”

“Come back anytime,” the other one added. “It’s fun to have a challenge to work on.”

“A challenge? What do you mean, a challenge?” Elin squeaked indignantly.

“Why, you get so tense that it’s a challenge to get you to relax,” the first nymph said innocently.

“They may tease a lot, but they’re also serious about the offer,” Nomiki said. “You’re welcome to call any of us up to your rooms whenever you get yourself all knotted up like that. Massage is one of the special skills our grove has long sought to perfect. It would be very nice to have someone new to practice on.”

“I have to admit, that was heavenly,” Elin said. “Perhaps I will. If you really don’t mind?”

They all assured her that they’d be delighted, and I certainly wasn’t going to object. Although I resolved to have a private word with Pelagia about it, and make sure they weren’t just setting up a seduction ploy. A little pampering would be good for Elin, as long as they didn’t end up pushing her into things she wasn’t ready for.

Elin sat up, and then frowned. “Um, Daniel? My legs don’t seem to want to work.”

“That must have been some massage,” I observed, and scooped her up into a bridal carry. She squeaked in surprise, and threw her arms around my neck.

“Daniel! I didn’t mean for you to carry me!”

“I like carrying you,” I told her. “It’s not like you weigh anything. You just relax, and let me know when you can wiggle your toes again.”

She giggled, and leaned against me. “Oh, you! Fine, carry me then. You’re probably cheating with force magic, anyway.”

She relaxed against me, and started kissing my neck as I carried her out of the dryad habitat. That was one of her little signals that she was feeling amorous, and I reflected that it was too bad we didn’t have more time. But if we delayed any longer we’d end up being late, and I wasn’t going to be the asshole boss who made everyone else sit around waiting for him.

Elin settled against me with a little happy sound, and her eyes drifted closed again. I took the chance to surreptitiously study her as I walked. She was still in the form she’d discovered just after Mara’s half-hearted assassination attempt, which was a lot more appealing than the hybrid shape she’d been stuck in for most of her life. But some of the changes she’d had me make were reverting.

Her mother was an undine, and the water faeries are a bit uncanny to human eyes. Her faerie shape’s natural appearance was painfully thin, with pale blue-white skin and a host of other non-human features. I’d turned her scraggly hair into a thick, lustrous mane of deep green silk, and that change was holding fine. The same went for her teeth, which had been rather unpleasantly shark-like before I changed them.

But now her pale white skin had regained a subtle tinge of blue, and her eyes were a little bigger than normal. The little fins on her elbows were coming back, along with the webbing between her fingers. She still had the womanly curves I’d shaped with my flesh sorcery, but she’d definitely lost a few pounds somewhere.

“Any luck with Pelagia?” I asked.

The ancient nymph seemed to be quite powerful in her own style of magic, and her grove was full of exotic magical beings. Elin had hoped one of them would be able to teach her how to control her fledgling shapeshifting abilities.

She sighed. “Bad news, I’m afraid. She said shapeshifters normally have only two forms, and it’s quite important that they learn to control the change when their abilities first develop. Otherwise they often have difficulties such as becoming trapped in a transitional form, or having the attributes of their various forms mix uncontrollably. The fact that I was able to find my separate forms after being stuck for so long is a good sign, but there’s no one in any of the groves who can properly teach me.”

“So it’s faerie or nothing, then?”

“I’m afraid so,” she admitted. “I think we could manage on our own, as long as you’re willing to keep changing me back when my form drifts. But I can’t shake the feeling that there’s some important principle of my power that I’m missing. I don’t understand why some changes stick while others don’t, and I don’t know if I can find the answer on my own. Perhaps the Conclave’s library will hold some clues.”

“Or perhaps we should talk to a faerie?” I suggested.

“How could I ever trust them?” She countered. “They tricked me into locking myself in that disgusting shape, and left me to be raised by those cold-blooded bastards in the Conclave. Considering what the faerie think of humans, that would be like you leaving a child with a pack of wild dogs. At best they’ll feed me half-truths meant to trick me into crippling myself. At worst they might try to kill me now that I’m not a child, and we have enough enemies as it is.”

“What about your mother?” I asked.

She went quiet.

“I can’t imagine what it must have been like for her,” she finally said. “Being kidnapped by a monster, and forced to bear its children? I never really blamed her, when I thought she’d wanted to be rid of me.”

“And now that you remember what really happened?” I prompted.

She clenched her fists. “In the Summer Court everything is about appearance. Keeping the child of her rapist to raise would have destroyed her, and I don’t know that having her monstrous daughter show up on her doorstep a decade latter is any improvement. I’m glad that the coven binding broke the glamour her brothers used to cloud my memory, but I don’t think I can bring my troubles to her.”

“If appearances are what matter, you don’t exactly look like a monster,” I pointed out.

She chewed her lip thoughtfully. “That’s a fair point. If I could appear at her door with a fair face and the power of a worthy heir, it might actually bolster her reputation. Her blood overcoming the taint of a monster, you see. But I’d have to be confident in my control of my form to pull that off, so it’s a bit of a chicken and egg problem. Besides, if I go there I might encounter one of her brothers, and then I’d have to kill him.”

“Heh. Not going to forgive them?”

“They bound my glamour so I wouldn’t be able to hide my appearance!” She exclaimed. “Then they sent me to live in a castle made of cold iron, just in case the binding didn’t hold! Being a faerie child in a human citadel was bad enough, but if I’d been able to look pretty people would have overlooked it. Being a hideous beast on top of that? I’m going to kill them someday.”

“I’ll help you,” I said seriously.

We came to the double doors leading out of the habitat, and I set Elin down so I could wrestle one of the heavy sheets of iron out of the way. I’d made them sturdy enough that it would take siege engines to batter them open, just in case enemies ever got onto the island. Elin smoothed down her skirt and pulled up the hood of her warmth cloak in preparation for venturing outside.

I retrieved a heavy blanket from where I’d left it in the corner, and draped it around both of us. It had a warmth enchantment of its own, which let me put an arm around Elin without worrying about frostbite. Then I pushed the door open, and we stepped out into the teeth of a howling blizzard.

Three days ago Hel had sent an army of undead to attack Kozalin, in support of her half-sister Mara’s plan to destroy a mystic artifact hidden in the temple here. We’d smashed the army, and while Mara’s raid on the temple had succeeded she had departed immediately afterward. But the snow had started a few hours later, and it was still coming down hard. I was a bit worried about what that meant for the city, since there hadn’t been time to clean up all the enemy stragglers after we broke their last stand in the Temple District. Even subzero temperatures wouldn’t do much to an animated corpse, and there was no telling what mischief the survivors might have gotten up to with most of the city’s defenders trapped indoors. My own troops couldn’t even get into the city, since I’d been forced to blow up the causeway connecting my island to the mainland in order to keep an army away from my gates.

There wasn’t much I could do about it until the weather broke, so I’d concentrated on my own problems. I couldn’t afford to let every blizzard completely shut down my operations, especially since this sort of thing was becoming depressingly common. So I’d been forced to spend some time making another round of improvements to the island.

We had to fight against the wind as we crossed the wide gap I’d left between the dryad habitat and the nearest covered walkway. Elin stumbled and leaned against me, her slender faerie form too light to resist the buffeting. I held her up and anchored myself with force magic until we were across, wondering for the hundredth time if I should enclose that route.

But leaving it the way it was ensured that the refugees we’d taken in during the battle on the docks wouldn’t accidentally wander into the building and encounter the dryads, and that was rather important. Word of their presence would get out eventually, but I wanted to be a lot better established before anyone showed up at my gate to ask what they were doing here.

Once we were across the gap the trip was a lot more pleasant. I’d built a roof over the little street that ran between the buildings on the western side of my island, made of conjured iron with large quartz skylights at regular intervals. There were gaps here and there where snow could still get in, but they were small enough that there wasn’t much wind. The self-warming enchantments on the road and buildings actually kept the temperature a bit above freezing, and there was a steady flow of foot traffic along the road.

The buildings were all built of granite, with thick gray walls and heavy doors designed to resist being broken into by any monsters that might somehow find their way onto the island. One thing I learned from watching zombie movies is that a shell defense isn’t good enough. If you’re facing a real threat you need multiple lines of defense, so you don’t lose everything to one mistake.

The traffic increased as we approached the square tower that had been the first structure on my new island fortress, and passed inside. The keep was built like a lot of smaller office buildings, with a big open atrium in the middle and a skylight in the roof. Six floors of balconies encircled the atrium, with a stairway zig-zagging up one side and an elevator on the other. A few of my braver citizens had started to actually use the elevator, but most of them stuck to the stairs.

We took the elevator, and arrived quickly at the coven’s shared living quarters on the fourth floor. A pair of uniformed maids were waiting at the door to take the blanket, and offer us mugs of hot tea before ushering us back to the dining room where the daily staff meeting was held.

It used to be every other day, but there were too many things going on these days. I made a mental note that I needed to figure out a way to delegate more, but it wasn’t the first time I’d had that thought.

Avilla and Cerise were already there, of course, and the rest of the group wasn’t long in arriving. One amusing side effect of the fact that we met over lunch, and no one wanted to miss out on Avilla’s cooking.

Oskar and Gronir arrived together, already discussing something about sentry schedules. Oskar was a huge man, a blacksmith I’d recruited back in Lanrest after he threw together a spontaneous militia force to resist a goblin attack. He was still the leader of the island’s garrison, which I hoped to turn into a more professional force sometime soon. Gronir was almost as tall, with a runner’s build and a perpetual sly grin. Originally a poacher who’d been with a group of peasants I rescued, these days he was the leader of the little band of refugees who’d used Avilla’s magic to turn themselves into wolf people. The wolfen, as they’d decided to call themselves, had proved themselves amazingly useful in the days since then.

Next was Captain Marcus Rain, the leader of my actual military forces. Which currently amounted to the survivors of his original infantry company, a couple dozen professional soldiers we’d recruited since then, and a hundred or so recruits currently undergoing training. Not the most impressive force around, but the armored vehicles and magic weapons I’d been making gave them a lot more punch than any normal unit.

Elin still wasn’t used to being included in these meetings, but since she was more or less recovered from her recent ordeals I’d offloaded some work by putting her in charge of our people’s medical care. Her healing magic wasn’t quite as universally effective as mine, but there was simply no way I could make time to treat any significant number of people.

“So, Marcus, how are the new guns working out?” I asked as Avilla took her seat.

“Well enough, I suppose. The force blades will come in handy when our lines get overrun, that’s for certain. But I’d advise against adding anything else to the standard model. A trigger, a safety and the bayonet switch makes for about as many complications as some of our recruits can handle.”

“Fair enough,” I allowed. “We can always make anything else I come up with a separate piece of equipment, and that way you can control who gets it.”

Replacing all the guns I’d already issued had been a bit painful, but it was a necessary evil. The old version was powered by an enchantment that converted the matter of the gun’s stock directly to mana, and that wasn’t something I wanted too many people to get a good look at. If all my men carried one it would only be a matter of time before my enemies started getting samples. I wasn’t sure if it was possible to reverse-engineer the enchantment without at least a basic understanding of nuclear physics, but I didn’t want to take chances.

Besides which, it was also very difficult to build. I’d been experimenting with enchantments that made magic items recently, but that sort of thing worked best for low-powered items. Doing it with the matter to mana effect was only barely possible, and it resulted in a temperamental enchantment factory that needed constant maintenance to function. My prototype could turn out a few dozen guns in an afternoon, but only if I was there to run it.

To improve on that I’d taken the opportunity of being snowed in to sit down and work out a better process for making power sources. It turned out that iron was actually about the worst possible material to put the matter conversion enchantment on, which made sense when I thought about it. Iron atoms have the highest binding energy per nucleon of any atom, so of course they’d have the lowest energy yield. My new standard was to put the enchantment on a sixty-pound cylinder of granite, which produce five times as much energy as the same mass of iron. Not only was this a superior energy source, it was also big enough to be hard to steal.

Then I’d built an enchantment factory with a socket for the power source, and designed it to link the guns it made to the power source that was slotted into it instead of making them self-powered. The power links would stretch for several miles, which ought to be more than enough for operations in and around the island. So I could keep the power source under lock and key most of the time, and if I ever needed to send troops into the field we could load their power source into one of the armored skimmers to keep it nearby. While I was reworking the enchantments I’d also added a force bayonet to the design of the guns, with a switch to turn the blade on and off. Unlike my own force constructs, I’d designed the blade to glow slightly, so that it would be obvious if it was turned on.

As a result, the new guns ended up with a complex but low-energy set of enchantments that could be replicated without any particular wear and tear on the factory enchantment. So I could now just turn it on and leave it to run for hours at a time, creating about fifteen weapons an hour indefinitely. In the last couple of days I’d produced two hundred guns, enough to equip everyone on the island who had even a vague idea of how to use one. Yay for mass production.

“Well, the farming program is off to a decent start,” I announced. “We should have a better idea of what the crop yields are going to look like in a couple of weeks. But as soon as the storm breaks Hrodir is going to need an escort into town to look for more recruits.”

“Does that mean you’ve decided to repair the causeway?” Oskar asked.

“Yes, that’s probably going to be my next project. I’m thinking I’ll elevate it to the same level as the gates, put walls and a roof on it, and then build a watchtower down on the shore with a heavy gate and portcullis. That way the next time there’s trouble in town we can maintain a secure line of retreat without endangering the keep.”

“It’s a start,” Cerise said. “But I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m not happy with our setup. Hel’s troops were right behind us when we retreated into the keep, and if you hadn’t been here to blow up the causeway they would have gotten in among us before we could close the gates. If they’d overrun our position there wouldn’t have been anything between them and Avilla but a few flights of stairs. For that matter, if we’d spent another twenty minutes hunting Mara we wouldn’t have been here to stop those undead that came out of the water. We could have lost everyone there. We need to do a better job of protecting our people than that.”

“That’s a fair point,” I admitted. “You’re right, that was a problem. How do we fix it?”

“We move all our noncombatants onto the island,” she answered. “Use the keep just for soldiers, and redesign the lower levels so an attacking force has more trouble getting through from the outer gate to the inner one.”

Avilla frowned. “But Cerise, I’ve only just gotten my kitchen properly set up and sanctified. You want me to move again?”

“I want you living right in the middle of the island, with at least two big walls and three or four sets of heavy gates between you and the monsters,” Cerise replied. “Do you realize how easy it would be for something like an ungol or a shade to get into the tower? The wards we’ve started on will help, but you know you’re supposed to put your residence at the center of your warding scheme. Not out here on the edge. I know it’s a pain, sweetie, but I don’t want to come home from a fight someday and find out you were killed in a surprise attack.”

“I suppose you have a point,” Avilla admitted. “The keep isn’t really designed to keep things private, either. I’m a little worried where we’re going to put dangerous things that we need to keep people away from. But still, that’s going to hurt. Unless we can come up with some way to move my claim, instead of abandoning it and building another one.”

“That would be tricky,” I mused. I’d never spent much time studying the web of magic that infused her kitchen, but it was pretty complicated. Although, come to think of it, maybe there was a better way to tackle that one.

“Well, I share Cerise’s concern,” Marcus put in. “Although I’ll also say that we don’t have nearly enough manpower to properly defend the island. We need at least two hundred men just to maintain solid watches and put reserve squads where they might be needed. If you want a good defense in depth with ample reserves you can double that.”

I winced. “I don’t know where we’d find that many men we can trust. Cerise, I don’t suppose you’ve had any word on what other groups we should expect?”

She shook her head. “I won’t get that kind of information unless we really need the advance warning for some reason. Although… hey, is it just me, or has the wind stopped?”

“No, you’re right,” Gronir said. “Maybe this storm is finally over.”

I stood, and opened the wooden shutters on the room’s only window. Sure enough the wind had died down, and the air was clearing. There was still a light dusting of snow falling, but even that was rapidly thinning out.

I frowned.

“That was awfully abrupt. You know, I’m pretty sure the enemy has been controlling these storms ever since the Conclave’s weather circle was killed. Why would they arrange for us to be snowed in for three days, and then suddenly clear away the storm?”

There were frowns all around the table now.

“I don’t know,” Oskar said slowly. “But I don’t like it.”

Elin rose from her seat, and peered out the window. “Nor do I. Look, Daniel, they didn’t just let the storm fade. There’s a stiff wind from the east blowing the clouds away, and the sky in that direction is completely clear. You can actually see the edge of the storm receding to the west.”

“That army of ape men was assembling to the east,” Marcus pointed out. “Perhaps-”

A horn blew in the distance. Then another, and another.

“Enemy at the gates,” Marcus translated the signal. “Damn it all. They used the storm to blind us, so they could approach unseen and catch us napping.”

Chapter 2

It took nearly twenty minutes for my men to arm themselves and man their positions on the walls. Marcus alternated between scowls at the men and apologetic glances towards me as he struggled to get his forces into position, while Oskar was too busy to even think about how their performance compared to a properly-drilled garrison. Fortunately the island didn’t seem to be under attack, but I made sure the mortars were ready just in case.

That was the only improvement to the island’s defenses that I’d managed to set up during the storm, but I’d done it right. I’d built two fortified bunkers atop the wall at opposite ends of the island, with a pair of mortars in each of them. The firing positions didn’t have a roof, of course, but they had thick stone walls and large windows of fused quartz so the crews could observe the effect of their fire from under cover. Below each firing position was a magazine where we’d stored a few hundred rounds of ready ammunition, which I figured was more than enough to stop any attempt to storm my walls. I’d also managed to solve the safety issues, so the mortar bombs were now just inert pieces of metal until they were activated by being dropped into a mortar.

Unfortunately the crews were refugees who’d never even fired their weapons, and had only the vaguest idea how to use them. I’d hoped to spend a few days drilling them before they saw their first battle, so I was relieved that we apparently weren’t going to need them.

When our men were finally in position Marcus, Oskar, Cerise and I all gathered on the roof of the keep. From that height we could see over the walls that fronted Kozalin’s harbor, and make out hints of what was happening on the far side of the city.

“From the signals we’re hearing, I think there’s a substantial army assaulting the walls,” Marcus said as he squinted into the distance. “The garrison is calling in reinforcements as fast as they can, but I don’t imagine they had time to get the walls fully manned before it started.”

“I can see people fighting on the wall in several places,” Cerise said. “Look, there are fires burning in the Trade District. That doesn’t seem like a good sign.”

I frowned. “I can’t imagine how they’d have gotten inside the walls that fast. Siege engines using incendiary ammunition, maybe?”

Marcus shook his head. “Light siege engines wouldn’t be able to loft a shot over the wall, and it takes hours to set up the heavy ones. It could be battle magic, but I don’t see why they’d waste it on that. As much snow as there is on the roofs there’s no hope of getting a fire to spread.”

“I think I’m going to have to check this out,” I said reluctantly.

“Probably best to put in an appearance,” he agreed. “We don’t want the prince to think you’re not going to contribute to the defense of the city.”

“You’re not going alone,” Cerise declared.

I frowned. “Are you sure you’re up to this?”

Three days ago we’d fought an undead dragon together, and she’d stolen so much power from the thing that she’d sprouted wings and scales. She’d spent the last two nights doing long rituals to rebalance her magic, and sacrifice the power she couldn’t handle to her goddess. She was pretty much back to her normal appearance now, but she looked exhausted.

“I can handle a scouting mission, and a couple of short fights,” she insisted. “If it turns into a long slugging match you can send me back here with orders for the men. But I don’t want you out there with no one to watch your back when we don’t know what’s happening.”

“Fair enough,” I conceded. I certainly wouldn’t mind having her along. My magical defenses were a lot better than hers, but underneath it all I was just a squishy human. Cerise, on the other hand, had the physical vitality of a demon and a solid set of personal wards against non-physical threats. We were pretty much perfect for bailing each other out of trouble.

I studied the remnants of the causeway for a moment. The stone was badly cratered, and two long stretches had been completely obliterated. We weren’t going to get any vehicles over that. But I didn’t want to pull any troops away from the defense of the island anyway.

“We’ll take your bike,” I told Cerise. “Just the two of us. We can leave through the water gate, and find a boat ramp to get off the river and into the city. If the Conclave is sending reinforcements to the walls they shouldn’t be hard to find.”

She nodded. “Sounds like fun. But I want to have Corinna bring her war band over here and help guard the keep until we get back. Just in case the enemy has a way to get over walls.”

“That’s fine. I don’t think they’ll be needed, but better safe than sorry. Marcus, if you need us to come back fire off one of the mortars. The noise should be noticeable from anywhere in the city, I’d think.”

Cerise’s bike was a recent gift, basically a flying motorcycle that hovered a few feet off the ground on a levitation spell. It was just big enough for two people, and had a top speed somewhere well north of a hundred miles per hour. Cerise had fallen in love with it instantly, of course.

She gunned the thruster as we cleared the iron portcullis that guarded the water gate, and sent us shooting out over the still water of the harbor. I held on tight behind her, and wrapped my force field around us both.

“Hey, you made the wind go away!” She protested.

“Just making sure we can’t get ambushed easily,” I told her.

“Like anything could hit us at this speed? You worry too much, old man.”

“That’s because you never worry at all, crazy girl,” I told her. “I have to do enough of it for both of us.”

“Better you than me,” she retorted. “Okay, there’s a ramp we can use. Hold on!”

I discreetly grabbed hold of the bike with a bit of force magic, just in case. But Cerise drove with the same preternatural skill she displayed in any physical ability, slowing just enough to stay in control as we cleared the ramp and flew halfway across the wide cleared space beyond. A moment later we were back on the ground, already braking and turning onto the street that paralleled the water front.

The harbor gate was still open, although a platoon of spearmen stood ready to close it at the first sign of danger. Unfortunately they didn’t know any more than we did about what was happening. We left them on guard and sped across the Temple District towards the commotion.

Nervous citizens peered out their windows at us as we passed. This part of the city had already seen one major battle, and they weren’t eager for another one. Most of the buildings were intact, but here and there we passed a fire-gutted ruin or a structure with doors and windows smashed in. Signs of the battles that had already been fought here.

At least the streets hadn’t been packed with refugees, like when I first arrived in Kozalin. The death toll among the civilians would have been a lot higher if we hadn’t gotten them into shelters before Hel’s attack.

We passed through another gate guarded by a nervous platoon of the city garrison, and entered the Trade District. Here there was less damage, but there were sounds of fighting close at hand.

“Head for the noise?” Cerise asked. “Or do you want to look around for a command post?”

“Considering how my last conversation with the prince went, I’d say it’s better to avoid him for now. Head for the noise.”

The commotion grew louder as we neared it, and I frowned. The shouts and clash of metal were familiar, but there was a lot of other noise. Deep-throated bellows from something I didn’t recognize, and the occasional tremendous crashing sound. What was going on?

Then we came around a corner, and found ourselves face to face with the enemy. Cerise turned the bike sideways and skidded to a stop as we both stared.

A block away the street was filled with a mass of huge, gray-skinned creatures lumbering towards us on four legs. Their heads were covered with bony armor, with a short horn rising up from the snout and two longer, lance-like horns projecting forward above the eyes. There was a group of hairy humanoids waving spears and javelins perched atop each of the creatures, which were considerably bigger than elephants.

They spotted us immediately, and the front rank broke into a charge amid a chorus of howls and jeering.

“Oh, crap!” Cerise exclaimed.

She spun the bike around, and headed back the way we’d come. But I was still staring numbly at the enemy.

“That’s a triceratops,” I muttered.

“A what?”

“Dinosaurs. They have frickin’ dinosaur cavalry.”

Cerise snickered. “Are you jealous?”

“Yes!”

Our pursuers lumbered around the corner behind us. One of them tried to corner a little too fast, and ended up sliding across the packed snow into a shop that faced the road. The front of the brick and wood structure promptly collapsed, but the dinosaur pulled itself free of the falling debris without any apparent injury. So that’s what those crashing sounds were.

Damn. They had to be killing a lot of civilians that way, and most people would have a fire going in their homes. That explained the smoke, at least.

We could easily outrun them on the bike, but that’s not what we were here for.

“Get a couple of blocks ahead and then stop,” I ordered.

“You got it, Daniel. How are we killing these things? There’s too much light for me to shadow step, and my gun isn’t going to do much to an animal that big.”

“Pick off the riders,” I told her. “I’ll handle the dinosaurs.”

How was I going to do that? Well, first things first. I eyeballed the distance, and tossed my earth talisman down the street to land between us and the enemy. It immediately sprouted into a barricade of sharp iron spikes, spreading at my direction to fill the width of the street. Making it tall enough to physically stop a triceratops would take more time than I had, but I was pretty sure the beasts wouldn’t try to walk across something like that. If they did it would cut their feet up badly enough to cripple them, just like caltrops against normal cavalry.

Then I drew my revolver, set it for explosive rounds, and opened fire.

On that setting the bullets that my weapon fired were enchanted to conjure up a chunk of magma from the earth’s core when they struck something. The white-hot nickel-iron immediately exploded as it found itself no longer subjected to millions of atmospheres of pressure, flinging superheated metal everywhere with the force of a small bomb. It took a little less than a second for the enchantment factory in my weapon to create a new round, so I just held the trigger down and peppered them with a continuous stream of attacks.

The first blast struck the bony frill protecting the lead dinosaur’s neck, blowing a large hole in it and sending molten metal lancing into its back. It bellowed in pain, and charged at us. The second shot caught it right between the eyes, and then I lowered my aim and hit one of its forelegs with the third. It collapsed, throwing half its riders forward into the street.

The dinosaur next to it shied away from the crash, and then continued its turn right into a building when I shifted my fire in its direction. A couple more shots into its side and the beast went down, half-buried under a mass of broken wood and brick.

With the street mostly blocked by writhing dinosaurs their comrades had to slow down and work their way through instead of just charging us. I walked my fire back and forth across their formation, and it quickly dissolved into complete chaos.

Cerise pulled her gun from where she’d had it stowed, strapped to the side of the bike, and opened fire on the riders. As usual she picked them off with the inhuman accuracy of a Hollywood sniper, the big .50-caliber rounds blowing heads apart and punching gaping holes through their leather armor. At this rate we’d have the street cleared in no time.

Then a group of hairy forms dropped off the roofs to land around us.

A couple of them bounced off my force field, with a drain on my energy reserves that was far larger than it should have been. Another landed on the street next to us, and laid into my shield with an axe made of some glassy red substance. His first blow drained a gout of magic out of my barrier to strengthen the weapon’s enchantment.

Cerise flicked a blob of shadowy energy at him, and he dropped the axe to stagger back with a scream and clutch at his eyes.

“I love having unlimited power,” she commented with a grin. “I’ve got these guys.”

I laid down a barrage of force blades around our position before turning back to the dinosaur cavalry, hoping to take out this distraction quickly. They proved a little too durable for that, the blades slicing armor and inflicting deep wounds but failing to actually sever limbs. They continued beating on my shield, their crimson weapons shifting forms with every few blows. They tried axes, clubs, spears and even something like a morning star, ignoring their injuries as they tried to find a weakness in my defense.

But my amulet held deep reserves of mana to counter exactly this sort of attack, and it would take them several minutes to exhaust its energy and break the shield. Minutes they didn’t have, with Cerise standing safely behind my barrier laying down a barrage of black magic.

Her shadow rose from the ground to coil around her body, and she threw out a clinging mist that ate into their flesh like acid. Their shadows animated, catching at their feet and crawling up their bodies to strangle them. She threw more curses, blobs of dark magic that struck their targets in the face and crawled into their eyes. Or ate them, possibly. I wasn’t watching very closely, but the first guy she’d hit wasn’t moving anymore.

Most troops would have run away by that point, but these guys were in some kind of berserker rage. They howled in frustration, and tore into the barrier with frenzied intensity. But they didn’t seem to have a counter for Cerise’s curses, so I kept my attention on the remains of the cavalry force long enough to finish them off.

Another few dozen explosive rounds and the ones I could see were all dead. They’d never even gotten close to us, and by then Cerise had dealt with her opponents as well.

“We should do it like that more often,” she grinned. “It was pretty funny watching them try to get at me. I guess these guys must be those andregi the wizards were talking about.”

I took a moment to study the bodies. I’d heard the andregi described as ape-men, but really they looked more like Neanderthals to me. Over six feet tall, which was a lot bigger than the local humans, with barrel chests and heavily muscled limbs. Their legs seemed a little shorter than normal, and of course they were so hairy you could almost call it fur. They had heavy brow ridges, big square jaws and no facial hair at all, which was an odd-looking combination. Something about the shape of their skulls was different, too. Wider than a human, with lower foreheads that had a pronounced slope to them.

Their equipment was interesting. Elaborate leather armor that provided full-body coverage, but no shoes. Leather helmets, and long leather cloaks that looked thick enough to double as another layer of armor. Dinosaur hide, maybe? Whatever it was, the workmanship was quite good.

They had a lot of magic about them, too. Necklaces of beads, runes sewn onto their armor, bone ear and nose piercings, all anchoring a host of weak but useful charms. Little spells of protection and enhancement, and a much stronger one that seemed to be some kind of berserker curse. No wonder they’d just kept attacking, even when it was obviously hopeless.

The odd thing, though, was that none of them had a scrap of metal. All of their weapons were that glossy red stuff, which was heavily enchanted.

“Guess so,” I said. “Any idea what those weapons are made of?”

Cerise bent and poked at one thoughtfully. The enchantments had been bound to their wielders, and were starting to come apart now that they were dead. The stuff started to soften, the angular shapes of the fallen weapons slumping towards the ground.

“Oh! I get it. They’re made of blood.”

I blinked. “Seriously?”

I touched an axe that was rapidly becoming a puddle. Yep, blood. Still alive until recently, too.

“Seriously. Kind of an interesting technique, actually. They must have some big ritual where they bleed themselves to make their weapons, and then they’d have to feed them periodically. But it gives them a handy store of extra vitality, and I bet they can steal power from enemies they kill. Absorb their blood to heal themselves, maybe copy their powers, stuff like that. Good thing they didn’t know how to do much with the magic they were stealing, or I’d have had to work a lot harder to kill them.”

“Lovely. I hate competent foes,” I complained. “Why couldn’t they just be a bunch of dumb savages with sticks and stone axes?”

She snickered. “Aw, now what fun would it be to kill wimpy guys like that? This way we get a challenge.”

Our investigation was interrupted then by the arrival of a squad of Conclave war golems. They were one of the big models, standing twelve feet tall and probably weighing as much as a dinosaur. They had a hunchbacked appearance, with a seat on top for their commander, and their arms ended in huge maces and axe blades instead of hands. Only a few of them had riders, but I recognized the heavily armored figure on the lead golem.

“Daniel Black!” He called. “Just the man we need. I wasn’t sure you were still alive.”

“It’ll take more than an army of undead to finish me off, Leo,” I replied. “Do you know what’s happening?”

“The enemy came marching in right behind the storm, and caught the garrison with their pants down. A couple of their giant beasts smashed one of the gates open before anyone could get organized, and got into the city. The only good thing is they’re marching down the highway in a single column, so they aren’t arriving all that fast. But we need that gate sealed quickly, or we’ll end up losing the whole Trade District.”

“I take it that’s where I come in? Well, lead the way. I can throw a wall across a gate easily enough.”

“Assuming we can reach it,” he pointed out. “They’ve got several companies inside the wall already, and dozens of those giant beasts.”

“We’ll find a way,” I replied confidently.

We mounted up again, but barely made it two blocks closer to the wall before encountering more of the enemy. This time it was a company or so of infantry armed with normal-looking spears and bows, cutting their way through a few dozen men at arms who had tried to slow their advance. Leo led his golems right into the melee, the hulking iron shapes easily smashing their way through the enemy. But the lines were too confused for me to risk any of my ranged attacks.

“Time to stash the bike, I think,” Cerise said. “We can’t ride it through that kind of mess, and we both fight better on foot.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right.” I dismounted, and approached the melee cautiously. There was a swirling red mist creeping up the sides of one of the golems, and a swarm of insects pestering another one’s rider. These guys had all sorts of magical tricks, didn’t they?

Leo pointed his sword, and a bolt of sickly green energy erupted from it to sweep through the enemy troops. The red mist dissipated, revealing a golem that was now pitted with rust and corrosion. Not enough to seriously affect such a large mass of metal, but ordinary armor would have been eaten through in that length of time.

Then the golem rider the insects were attacking screamed, and fell off his mount.

“Should I go looking for their mages?” Cerise asked.

“Not yet,” I decided. “Let me draw their fire, and then you can pick them off when they expose themselves.”

I drew Grinder, and thumbed it to life. A blade of violet plasma sprung from the stone hilt, filled with spinning blades of force shaped like buzz saws. A shriek like a jet engine split the air, and I strode into the fight.

It was completely unfair. Their spears and arrows couldn’t penetrate my force field, let alone the additional layers of protection beneath it. But Grinder cut through their wooden weapons and leather armor as easily as the flesh and bone underneath.

I stepped between two militiamen to stab an ape man in the face, and his head blew apart in a spray of charred gore. A step forward, and a sweep of my arm cut another one in half despite his attempt to block with a spear shaft. Grinder growled like a giant wood chipper as I swung it back and forth, cutting a path through the enemy. I’d have been covered in gore if not for my force field, and more than once I saw an enemy I hadn’t hit flinch back from the carnage.

They fell back before me, and I triggered a plasma jet. The violet beam was hotter than the surface of the sun, and dense enough to sear through flesh in seconds. More ape men fell, their chests and faces burned away to expose the bones and organs beneath. The beam played across the leg of a war golem for a moment, leaving the iron surface glowing faintly with heat.

Then a swarm of insects was swirling around me, finding their way in through the gaps in my force field. I crushed some of them with force magic, but a couple of the wasp-like creatures managed to sting me.

“Ow! Fuck, that hurts. Ah, damn it, I think their venom is lethal.”

Not that it would actually kill me, with my amulet constantly healing me. But it wasn’t a lot of fun, and too many stings in a short time period might knock me out. That would be bad. I sealed off most of the openings in my force field, and conjured fire to try to fend off the swarm.

“I see him,” Cerise announced from behind me, and leaped.

She was in full demon form now, with her whipcord tail and long horns fully visible as she drew on her stolen reserves of demonic power. Her foot came down on an ape man’s head, knocking him down as she pushed off to sail over the crowd. She landed somewhere in the middle of the enemy, and the insects suddenly lost interest in me.

I resumed cutting my way through the andregi formation. If I could get to that fallen golem pilot I might still be able to save him before the venom killed him.

That was our pattern for the next half hour. We encountered one enemy force after another, enough to make it clear that there must be a thousand or more inside the wall by now. Every group had at least one or two mages and several of the guys with blood weapons, and they often found some clever way to get a hit in on me despite my layers of magical defenses. But none of them could stand up to the sheer brute force of my magic, or stop Cerise when she went darting through the press after a target. A hit or two was all they ever got before they died, and that wasn’t nearly enough to overcome my magical healing.

Leo’s command didn’t fare as well. The war wizard was actually in better shape than I was, his enchanted armor proving impervious to everything that the enemy threw at him. But the other golem pilots in his command weren’t nearly as well protected, and the golems themselves took steady damage. By the time we came within sight of the gate he was down to two heavily damaged golems, and we’d been forced to leave all of his men behind with the garrison troops.

The situation at the gate didn’t look promising.

A dome of crimson energy shielded the little plaza around the broken gate, deflecting arrows and the occasional bolt of lightning from the city’s defenders. What looked like a giant mutant tyrannosaurus covered in blood armor stood guard inside the dome, surrounded by dozens of ape men with blood weapons. They had mages there too, at least twenty of them, and a handful of especially big ape men who had armor made of blood in addition to their weapons. They had obviously secured the gatehouse, as the roof and wall overlooking the plaza were packed with archers.

Oh, and a fresh troop of triceratops cavalry was pouring in through the gates.

Experimentally, I tried lobbing a couple of explosive rounds at the dome. They didn’t even go off. As far as I could tell the projectiles just disintegrated when they struck the barrier.

“Any ideas?” I asked my companions.

Cerise leaned against my back, and I could feel her panting. “Dunno, but I can’t keep this up much longer. You were right, Daniel, I’m still weak from stabilizing myself. Your amulet keeps me from running out of mana, but my head’s getting too fuzzy for a serious fight.”

I put my hand on hers, and sent some healing her way. It wasn’t perfect, but I could banish her fatigue well enough to get her through one more fight.

“We need something big to crack the dome,” Leo analyzed. “Then a heavy assault spell for that large beast. It will probably take a dragon slayer to put it down, and we’ll need to lay down a heavy spell barrage on the rest of the enemy at the same time. I have one decent barrage prepared, but I’m afraid the rest of that is beyond me.”

“I don’t have anything on me that will crack the dome,” I admitted. “I don’t think we want to try walking through it, either. I’m sure it would do something nasty to us. Any chance of reinforcements?”

He shook his head. “The High Adepts are preparing to lay down a grand bombardment on the army, but they’re counting on us to seal the gate. The other golem squads will be driving back the enemy, and by now the nobles should have enough manpower mobilized to mount a counteroffensive. But we’re the heavy hitters here.”

“Damn.” I studied the enemy position for a moment, thinking furiously.

“What about the attack you deployed at the docks?” Leo suggested.

I shook my head. “That requires line of sight from my island. What if we back off and come at them underground? I can tunnel under that dome in a couple of minutes, and then we’ll be in among their mages.”

“Just the three of us? We’d be overwhelmed. Maybe if we can round up some elite knights, and another adept or two.”

Our planning was interrupted by a tremendous crash of thunder. The biggest bolt of lightning I’d ever seen struck down from the overcast sky to smash the dome, and for a moment all I could see was the afterimage. I blinked the spots away, glad that my amulet healed flash blindness just like anything else, and regained my vision just in time to see movement above the enemy position.

The red dome was gone.

A squadron of winged horses swooped low over the plaza, and dark shapes fell from them as they passed. Men. Big men in heavy armor, who didn’t seem bothered by a six-story fall. Most of them landed among the enemy mages, and began laying into them with axes and swords. The biggest of them held a long spear point-down as he fell, and drove it into the head of the giant tyrannosaurus as he landed.

The monster roared in pain, and fell. This was our opening.

“Follow me!” I shouted, and bounded down the road on a rush of force magic. Cerise followed at my heels, although Leo wasn’t quite fast enough to keep up. That was fine, these magical paratrooper guys were keeping the enemy plenty busy.

I opened up on the triceratops cavalry with explosive rounds, and ignited Grinder again. Then I was in among them.

I cut through a clump of spearmen, barely slowing my pace, and jumped onto the head of a dying triceratops. From there I had a clear shot to fire a couple of explosive rounds into the mass of troops that packed the gateway. Another force-boosted leap took me over a clump of enemies, and close enough to throw up a wall of force blocking the opening in the wall. The steady flow of enemy reinforcements immediately stumbled to a halt.

I landed among another group of enemies, and laid into them with Grinder. Cerise appeared at my back with her silver blades flashing, and together we made short work of them. The moment we were no longer in melee I expanded my force shield into a dome around us both, and sent my earth talisman flying towards the gate. It sprouted into a thicket of iron spikes just behind the force wall, and began growing to block the gateway.

All around us was a furious melee. Cries of “For Asgard!” filled the air, along with the shouts of the ape men and the roars of their beasts. Whoever these newcomers were, they were damned tough. But the ape men who’d been guarding the gates seemed to be the elite of their army, and they were deploying a lot of magic.

I’d barely made that observation when a bolt of blue energy slammed into my shield, and it fell apart. Ape men with armor and weapons made of blood rushed Cerise and I from all directions, and then we were fighting back to back.

I was unhappy to discover that their blood armor actually offered some resistance to Grinder’s blade, and my rather minimal swordsmanship was no match for professionals. I was stabbed twice in as many seconds, but fortunately the blows just bounced off my coat. I swept a plasma jet over my opponents, and smiled grimly. Their weapons and armor boiled away like butter under a blowtorch, and they weren’t nimble enough to dodge the cone of destruction.

The force barrier I’d thrown across the gateway collapsed, but the iron barricade was four feet high and growing quickly. A few bold troops scaled it to get into the city, but that was a lot slower than marching through in formation. I played Grinder’s beam across the iron bars briefly, making them too hot to touch, and then glanced back to check on Cerise.

She’d finished off the enemies who’d tried to melee with her, but she’d picked up a nasty cut on her left arm and now she was trading spells with a group of mages. One of our allies was too close to them for anything big to be safe, so I switched my revolver to normal ammunition and started shooting them.

That was quite effective. One of the fringe benefits of force sorcery was an instinctive understanding of movement that greatly improved my marksmanship, and at this range I didn’t miss very often. The spells these guys used to protect themselves from arrows weren’t strong enough to work against large-caliber bullets, and three of them dropped in short order. The fourth was being strangled by his own shadow while desperately trying to fend off the curses Cerise flung at him, so I left him to her tender mercy and went on to the next target.

The fight wound down pretty quickly after that. The enemy still couldn’t find an attack that would penetrate Leo’s enchanted plate armor, and his glowing blade disintegrated everything it touched. Whenever a group of enemies tried to get organized I’d break them up with explosive rounds, and Cerise cut down anyone who tried to get close to me.

But it was the big guy leading the paratroopers who really made the outcome inevitable. He had to be seven feet tall, built like an Olympic weightlifter and swinging a four-foot bar of steel like it weighed nothing. He cut his way through the ranks of the enemy with supernatural skill, killing one leader after another while laughing at their efforts to stop him. His blade lopped off heads and arms with ease, shattering blood weapons into clouds of fragments whenever it struck them. Even the best of the enemy champions could barely slow him down, and I think that was what broke their morale in the end.

Finally a troop of mounted knights arrived to reinforce our position, and the garrison began to recapture the wall above us. Then the giant strode across the plaza to offer his hand with a huge grin.

“Well met, sir wizard!” He boomed. “I am Brand, son of Vali, and I commend your fighting spirit!”

“Daniel Black, wandering adept,” I replied, taking his hand reluctantly. Damn, this guy had a grip like a steel vice.

“The foreign wizard?” He replied knowingly. “Good, you can introduce me around. I need to speak to Prince Caspar at once.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. Fear not, heroes, for the Allfather has sent me here to save this city.”

Chapter 3

Well, crap.

I frantically wracked my memory, trying to remember why the name Vali sounded vaguely familiar. From the look of his magic I was pretty sure Brand was a demigod, like Mara. If that was the case knowing his parentage could tell me a lot about him, but I’d never been an expert on mythology. I knew the big names in the Norse pantheon, but not the obscure ones. Damn it, times like this really made me miss the internet.

Brand’s gaze fell on Cerise, and he frowned. “What is that doing here?”

Cerise sheathed her daggers, which had to take guts considering that the Aesir were her mortal enemies. “I am bound to Master Black,” she said evenly.

He looked her up and down, taking in the sleek curves that her tight costume showed off. “Hah! Well, I can’t blame a man for taking risks over a prize like you. Riven Covenant?”

She smiled slyly. “My master is smarter than that. Only he can command me, and I can’t be claimed or traded away.”

I put an arm around her shoulders, which incidentally allowed me to reform my force shield around us both. “Yeah, you’ve probably noticed my magic is a little different from what the wizards around here use. But don’t worry, my little badass bitch isn’t going to wiggle free of her bindings. Are you, Cerise?”

“Fuck no, Master,” she purred. “Being bound to you is the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t ever want it undone.”

Brand chuckled. “It sounds like your magic is getting the job done. Alright, just don’t let her cause trouble.”

“No killing Aesir worshippers,” Cerise recited plaintively. “Only steal power from monsters. Don’t desecrate temples, don’t curse people and don’t summon anything without specific permission.”

I patted her on the head. “It’s for your own good, Cerise. So, what were you saying about saving the city?”

Leo came over about then, which made for another round of introductions. I gave a mental sigh of relief at the distraction. Brand seemed to be buying the act, but I made a note to keep Cerise away from him in the future. There was no telling how good his arcane senses might be, and if he realized that the magic between Cerise and I was a coven bond rather than a slavery binding there would be hell to pay.

Brand took charge of the situation as easily as breathing, and the garrison troops never thought to question his orders. He led a quick clearing action to retake the gatehouse while I set up a more permanent barrier to replace the destroyed gate. Since there was an army just outside the walls I settled for blocking the opening with a thick wall of stone, rather than trying to build a new set of gates while under enemy fire.

“So, any idea who this guy is?” I asked Cerise as I worked.

She shrugged. “Vaguely. Vali has six sons, and I think he’s somewhere in the middle. Only a couple hundred years old, but he’s dangerous. Vali is basically a divine assassin. The kind of guy who works out what your powers are and sets the perfect ambush to kill you, instead of just walking up and punching you in the face like Thor would. There’s a story that Vali’s sons were being trained as generals, to lead humanity against Loki’s monsters when Ragnarok comes.”

“So he may be sticking around? Great. The thing with the prince was bad enough.”

“Hey, you knew what you were getting into when you hooked up with us,” she replied.

“I suppose. Well, with any luck he’ll focus on killing the enemy instead of hassling us.”

We might be able to take him, if push came to shove. But him and his band of heroes? Doubtful, and that wasn't even considering that he’d have the rest of the city at his back if it came to that. So I’d better make damn sure it didn’t.

“How about his men? They don’t exactly look like normal people.”

“Einherjar. Most of the warriors in Valhalla just stagnate, farting around on the training fields during the day and fucking their way through the serving wenches at night. But some of them get pretty scary with hundreds of years of daily practice, and start turning into something more than just skilled warriors. The young Aesir choose the best of them for their personal war bands.”

Right. Note to self, if I have to fight one of those guys use lots of firepower.

Once the gatehouse was cleared Brand left one of his men in command to make sure the enemy didn’t break in again, and we set off in search of the local authorities. Things still seemed to be pretty confused, but we eventually found Prince Caspar on the roof of a tower just a few blocks away.

He was up there with a group of nobles observing the enemy with his own eyes, instead of sitting back in a command post where messengers could actually find him. Considering the size of the city that seemed like poor planning to me, but then again I’m not exactly a general. Maybe there was a reason they didn’t do things like that in this era?

It was interesting to watch people’s reactions when Brand announced himself. I’d expected a bit of skepticism, but everyone in the prince’s command group bought his story immediately. They mostly seemed in awe of him, although the prince was a little annoyed at his announcement of his mission.

“I believe we have the defense of the city well in hand, Exalted One,” he said stiffly. “These savages caught us off guard with their weather tricks, but I’m informed that the Conclave is preparing to unleash a grand working on them.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Brand said easily. “But take a good look at what we’re facing.”

He stepped to the parapet, and looked out over the forces assembling outside the wall. It was an intimidating sight, to be honest. There were several thousand andregi forming up just outside of bowshot, and more of them stretched out along the road all the way to the horizon. There had to be tens of thousands of them, enough that they outnumbered Kozalin’s defenders by a comfortable margin.

I picked out a formation of triceratops cavalry, and a trio of tyrannosauruses surrounded by a swarm of handlers. None of the dinosaurs were going to be a threat to the wall, but the gates were another story. The ones I’d seen were all made of wood, and an animal that big could easily smash its way through. I could probably keep them away from one gate, but if they attacked several locations at once that would be a problem.

Companies of infantry were lining up between the cavalry. Burly ape men in leather armor, with big shields and bundles of javelins on their backs. Most of them carried axes as their main weapon, but about one in ten seemed to have one of those blood weapons. They were obviously organizing for an assault, although not a conventional one. The ones with blood weapons were turning them into something like a pair of giant claws, while the rest prepared long lengths of knotted rope. Were they planning to just scale the wall, and drop ropes for their buddies to climb?

A dozen enemies trying that would be laughable, but a thousand was another story. Bows aren’t nearly as good at killing people as guns, and as far as I knew the city garrison didn’t have anything impressive in the way of magical weapons. So most of the enemy would survive a charge to the base of the wall, and I’d seen how easily they scaled normal buildings.

If the enemy got in among the garrison that would go badly for us. They were substantially bigger and stronger than humans, and that’s a big advantage in melee combat. A group of them was probably worth two or three times their number of regular troops, although the superior equipment of our knights would probably tip the balance the other way where they got involved.

Of course, that wasn’t even counting the enemy mages. From what I’d seen an army this size would have hundreds of them, and while they weren’t as powerful as the Conclave’s wizards they were still a serious threat to normal troops. Their insect swarms and poisonous fogs were perfect for attacking a fortified position, and the spells of decay they’d used on Leo’s golems would deal with both armored knights and closed doors. Yeah, I could see why Steelbinder had decided to pull out the big guns instead of fighting these guys normally.

“Gaea has been planning the extermination of humanity for ages,” Brand said. “Spells that war wizards have been using for hundreds of years are not going to catch her by surprise. Do you see that altar, between the two giant beasts?”

Maybe half a mile down the road a pair of four-legged dinosaurs trudged through the snow with a large object suspended between them. I didn’t recognize the species. They were huge, even bigger than a triceratops, with short necks and a back covered in bony armor. But their tails didn’t end in the big spikes of a stegosaurus, or the bony mace of an ankylosaur. Some related species?

The wooden platform between them was like a miniature castle, with a dozen or so ape men stuffed inside. A few warriors, but most of them wore elaborate headdresses of feathers and were busy chanting around what looked like a stone altar. There was a bloody human body laid out on the altar, but it didn’t seem to be moving.

“I see it,” Prince Caspar said, squinting into the distance. “No doubt these creatures are working more of their foul magic. Is that how these giant lizards are moving in the cold, instead of going dormant?”

“They aren’t actually lizards, Your Highness,” I said. “They’re dinosaurs. Primordial beasts that died out on Earth long before the rise of man. I assume someone must have preserved them in another realm, or perhaps Gaea recreated them. They actually have more in common with birds than lizards, and it looks like they’re warm-blooded.”

Fighting the things had settled a lot of old debates about the nature of dinosaurs for me. The ones I’d seen were active, fast-moving creatures that were surprisingly agile for their size, although still a bit ponderous compared to mammals. The ape men had draped blankets over the ones they rode, so they weren’t completely immune to the cold. But they certainly displayed none of the sluggishness you’d expect of an ectotherm in these conditions. I still wasn’t sure how intelligent they were, but the fact that the enemy had managed to train them argued that they were smarter than lizards too.

Brand gave me a bemused look. “Yes, that’s right. Gaea’s domain is full of the creatures, and her children use them as beasts of burden. They don’t like the cold, but it isn’t going to kill them fast enough to do us any good. No, the altars that each army carries have a different purpose.”

There was a deep rumble from the direction of the Iron Citadel. I turned to look, and saw a black cloud rising from one of the towers of the Conclave’s fortress. Flashes of sullen red glowed from within the roiling cloud, which spread towards us with startling speed.

“Gaea’s children sacrifice men on their foul altars,” Brand shouted over the growing roar. “In return, she grants them protection from the works of human wizards.”

The cloud passed overhead like a dark river, headed towards the enemy position. But its rushing advance suddenly stopped halfway to their lines, the dark clouds piling up along the perimeter of an invisible dome. A concerned muttering spread through the men around me.

“Fear not, men of valor. For today, the gods are with you!”

Brand raised his spear, and a titanic bolt of lightning speared down from the heavens. The protective dome over the enemy army was outlined for a split second by the actinic glare, before it collapsed. The flash was blinding, and the men around me all shouted and covered their eyes.

I blinked the spots away, and saw that the altar was gone. The dinosaurs that carried it had been reduced to charred corpses by the blast, and there was nothing left at all of the priests or the wooden platform in which they’d ridden.

Cerise stared at the scene with wide eyes, unaffected by the flash. She shivered, and pressed herself against my side. I think that was the first time I’d ever seen her intimidated by anything, but I couldn’t blame her. That was a hell of an attack spell, and I hadn’t even seen Brand cast anything.

Was he really that powerful? Or maybe he hadn’t done it himself. For all I knew Odin was watching this war from somewhere on high, and tossing down fire support when his people called for it.

The dark cloud poured down onto the enemy army as I watched, rolling over their lines with a rumble like a freight train. Panicked shouts and screams of pain rose from the ape men, mixed with the roars of dinosaurs.

A riderless triceratops broke from the cloud, its hide pocked with burns. Others followed, racing in all directions in a blind attempt to escape the destruction. But one after another they collapsed to the snow, with black smoke pouring from their nostrils.

A cheer rose up around me as the gathered nobles regained their vision, and saw what was happening. The black cloud moved on, following the road with unnatural precision as it engulfed the troops still marching towards the city. It left behind a sea of blackened corpses slowly sinking into a slush of half-melted snow.

“So that’s the true power of the Red Conclave,” I muttered to Cerise.

“Yeah. I think Gaea’s going to need a new army,” she replied.

The more distant enemy troops saw what was happening, and some of them tried to scatter. But the cloud of death was hundreds of yards across, and it moved as fast as a galloping horse. It carved a path of bloody destruction through the heart of the enemy army, and only the most fleet-footed of them escaped.

“Organize a pursuit,” Prince Caspar ordered. “Send all of our light cavalry companies to give chase, and the Griffon Knights to harry them from the air. Don’t let the survivors regroup within sight of our walls.”

Messengers were dispatched, and horns blew. In a matter of minutes there were griffons flying overhead, and the gates of the Military District opened to allow a stream of cavalry to emerge.

“A wise decision, Prince,” Brand said. “But today is only the first battle, and they won’t all be so easy. How many of those spells do the wizards have to unleash? Three? Four? Perhaps half a dozen, if they’ve hoarded their power tightly this past generation?”

Prince Caspar’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying there are more of them, Exalted One?”

“Gaea has opened nine passages from her hidden realm into the lands of men, and an army like that marched out of each of them. Your father is fighting off an assault on Wiersberg as we speak, and other cities will soon be under attack. Their plan is to kill every man in Europe, starting with the cities where the High Temples stand.”

Caspar clenched his fists. “It would take weeks to march an army to reinforce them in this snow, and we’d lose half our men to weather and monster attacks. Is that why they called down the Fimbulwinter? To pin us in place, and cut us off from our allies?”

“In part,” Brand answered. “Although you’d get little help from the southern kingdoms regardless. The Franks have three of Gaea’s armies to deal with, and there are Great Beasts rampaging through Greece and Italy. Naples fell to a devourer just last night, and the army of demons it breeds will be a lot harder to stop than these monkeys.”

Brand turned, and waved towards the Iron Citadel. “But Gaea has made a fatal miscalculation. Your wizards have all the greatest works of the Bloody Archmage locked safely away in their citadel, and I believe one of them is the perfect solution for our little mobility problem. Come, let us speak with them.”

He strode off towards the Iron Citadel, the prince and his retinue trailing along behind him like flotsam caught in a tidal wave. Leo went with them, and after a moment of hesitation I decided to follow along. But I let them get a bit ahead of us.

“Bloody Archmage?” I asked Cerise quietly.

“Benito Runesage,” she clarified. “The guy that built the Iron Citadel. They say he was the greatest wizard since Aristotle. He invented a lot of modern wizardry, although some people think he was just rediscovering lost Atlantean magic. He was also a real bastard. No friend to any of the gods, and the Conclave started out as his bound slaves. He carved out a kingdom and ruled with an iron fist for about two hundred years, until one of his enemies finally managed to assassinate him and make it stick.”

“Hmm. Any chance of him coming back? Guys like that tend not to let a little thing like death keep them down.”

She smiled. “I love it when you talk like that. No, he died hundreds of years ago. If he had a way to come back from it he would have used it by now.”

“I suppose that’s probably a good thing. Why don’t you head home and let everyone know what’s going on? It looks like the fighting is over for now, and you don’t want to hang around these guys any more than you have to.”

“I guess. I feel like I’m about to pass out on my feet, anyway. But we need to see about getting you a real honor guard, okay? I don’t like leaving you alone with these people. You should have a team that goes with you to these things, in case someone tries to stab you in the back one day. Maybe a couple of wolfen and some of Corinna’s girls.”

“They’d draw attention,” I objected.

“That’s kind of the point,” she countered. “Nothing says badass wizard like a bunch of magical minions. We just need to set it up right, so people make the assumptions we want them to.”

In other words, make it look like I’d enslaved them. I really wasn’t happy with doing that kind of thing, and not just because I don’t like slavery. It would be just my luck if we made the act good enough to fool magical beings that otherwise might have become allies, but not good enough to convince the Conclave. Besides, I’d rather not make a habit of doing things that would make people lump me in with them.

But she had a point. Even Steelbinder made a habit of taking an escort whenever he left the Iron Citadel, and my defenses were a lot less thorough than his. I needed some bodyguards whose presence would actually matter if things unexpectedly went south someday. For that matter, just presenting an appearance of having powerful servants would make trouble a lot less likely.

“I’ll think about it,” I told her. “Actually, we need to get with the girls and have a strategy meeting sometime soon anyway. We’ll make that one of our topics, alright?”

“That, and moving them somewhere safer,” she said firmly. “Alright, then I’m out of here. Be safe, Daniel.”

She kissed me on the cheek, and slipped away.

Someone must have raced ahead with news, because High Adept Steelbinder was waiting for us in the entrance hall of the Iron Citadel. The hulking forms of war golems lined the walls of the chamber, and four Adepts stood with him. Three hard-faced men I vaguely remembered from the one council meeting I’d attended, and one woman I wasn’t likely to forget. Tova, the wizardess who had offered to sell me her daughters for the secret of my unlimited magical power supply.

Interestingly, High Adept Ward wasn’t present.

“Welcome to the Iron Citadel, Exalted One,” Steelbinder said. “What business does a son of Vali have with the Red Conclave?”

If Brand was put off by the cold reception he didn’t show it, but I didn’t miss the way his men and Steelbinder’s wizards were sizing each other up. Tova’s gaze skimmed over the crowd of officers and military staff behind him, and came to rest on me. One eyebrow rose fractionally.

I deliberately stepped to one side, out of the line of fire. If this came to blows for some reason I wasn’t getting involved.

But Brand just smiled. “The Allfather has need of your services, wizards. Gaea’s children have returned to bring an end to the age of man, and the works of the Runesage are the key to stopping them.”

Steelbinder frowned. “No living man can command the Skyhammer, Exalted One, and the Sleeping Giant is as dormant as ever.”

“I know. But someone here can operate the Dark Portal. You used it to send scouts into Tartarus not long ago.”

“Yes,” Steelbinder admitted reluctantly.

“Well, then. There’s your answer, Prince Caspar,” Brand said. “The portal can deliver an army anywhere in Midgard in the blink of an eye. We can use it to send reinforcements to cities that need them, and evacuate hopeless positions. More importantly, we can gather the best warriors in the realm and harry the enemy wherever they are.”

The prince scowled at Steelbinder. “You had something like this all along, and kept it secret?”

“The Dark Portal runs on souls, Caspar,” Steelbinder explained. “One death for every ten minutes of operation, more or less. How many condemned men do you have in your dungeons? Not enough to supply the city, I think.”

“Then we’ll capture our enemies, and feed them to it,” the prince declared.

“That’s the spirit,” Brand said. “This is Ragnarok, men. The time for caution and long-term planning is past. The doors of Valhalla stand open, and the Valkyrie fly in search of heroes! Those who stand with me will fight at the Allfather’s side in the final battle, and that day is fast approaching.”

The nobles looked ready to march off to battle right then and there, but not the wizards.

“I’m afraid it isn’t that easy, Caspar. We’ve tried goblins, trolls, faerie folk, even demons. The portal will only run on human souls.”

The prince hesitated. But then his gaze turned to Brand, and his expression firmed.

“Dozens of folk die every day in this city, and any man who doesn’t fall in battle simply adds to Hel’s forces,” he said. “Their deaths may as well serve some purpose.”

“Very well,” Steelbinder said gravely. “Bring us the fuel the portal needs, and we will send you wherever you wish to go. If you intend to campaign against Gaea’s children I’m sure some of our war wizards will be eager to accompany you. But the portal is only eight feet wide, and the chamber around it will only hold so many men. You’ll have to limit yourself to moving a company or two at a time, if you want to keep the option of a quick retreat open.”

Brand clapped the prince on the shoulder. “We’ll have to plan out a campaign, but I suggest we see to Wiersberg first. Two companies of heroes and wizards should be more than enough to turn the tide there. Muster your best men, Caspar, and we’ll be off to rescue your father.”

“We need to maintain a strong defense here as well,” Steelbinder pointed out. “Especially if we’re going to invite the enemy to target Kozalin like this. But the Conclave can send a squadron of war golems and six adepts to assist the King.”

“A good start,” Brand boomed. “What about you, Daniel? Those ancient magics of yours will make short work of the enemy.”

I shook my head slowly. “No. I’ll be one of the ones who stays here, to make sure the city is still standing when you return.”

Prince Caspar scowled at me. “That’s just like a wizard, turning coward at the moment of truth. You won’t be seeing Valhalla’s halls with that attitude.”

“My soul is already spoken for, Your Highness,” I told him. “I’m not going to see Valhalla regardless. But that’s beside the point. I am not going to use an artifact that’s powered by human sacrifice. I don’t care what the justification is, that would be a betrayal of my own honor.”

Caspar started to turn red. But Brand gave me a shrewd look. “So, you consider yourself a guardian of all men, do you?” He asked.

“Yes.” And women. And children, and dryads and nymphs and satyrs and anyone else who was willing to work together like sane sentient beings. But there was no way these people would get that.

Brand nodded. “I thought so. I’ve seen magic like yours a time or two, and it explains a great deal. We’ll leave you to consider Kozalin’s defense, then.”

Prince Caspar gave him an astonished look. “But, Exalted One, why…”

“Some explanations are best left unspoken, young Prince,” Brand interrupted. “Come, we have an operation to plan. Let’s have a look at this mustering chamber, and consider which of your men to bring.”

Steelbinder nodded to one of his men, who led them away into the bowels of the Citadel. Most of the crowd went with them, leaving only a handful of Steelbinder’s people behind. The canny old wizard caught my eye, and nodded me into a side chamber where we could speak for a moment without an audience.

“He thinks you’re one of those reincarnating wizards from the Atlantean age,” he told me.

“Is that what he was getting at?” I replied, trying to pretend I had some idea what he was talking about.

He nodded. “I know better. But far be it from me to instruct a godling in his mistakes. Do you have something for me?”

“Ah, the power sources. Yeah, I thought I might run into you. Here.”

I pulled a simple disk of copper out of my pocket, and handed it over. He examined it closely, and frowned.

“This isn’t a self-contained enchantment,” he pointed out.

Well, I figured he’d probably notice that. I’d wrapped it in a concealment effect to make it harder to analyze, but Steelbinder had a lot more experience than I did.

“Yeah, the more I look at the actual power source enchantment the more ways I find to make it go horribly wrong. If you want a completely self-contained version for your own use I can do that, but this is the version I’d offer to the rest of the Conclave. Obviously they only work within a few miles of the power source, but that way the dangerous part of the system can stay locked in a secure vault. It also means that if an amulet falls into enemy hands we can turn it off.”

He frowned thoughtfully. “The power source is really that dangerous?”

I shrugged. “As long as the enchantment is intact it’s perfectly safe. But if it gets damaged it’s likely to start emitting energy other than raw mana, and the output governor is one of the more fragile parts of the thing. Best case it just melts itself and stops working, but it’s more likely to start leaking deadly energies this language doesn’t have words for. Same thing if someone who doesn’t understand how it works makes an imperfect copy of one, and you know that’s going to happen if more than a handful of adepts get access to them.”

“Obscure energies, eh? Would this be one of the sorts that you can stop with a sheet of metal?” He asked.

I considered that. Did he mean radio waves, or alpha particles, or what?

I shook my head. “No, it takes several feet of dense material to stop it reliably. Stone and metal both work, and metal is actually a bit better, but a thin sheet will actually make it worse.”

“How can a thin layer of protection make an attack worse? Unless the metal actually attracts it?”

“Imagine an incredibly tiny ray of energy, with so much power behind it that it will burn right through a person and leave an invisibly small path of destroyed flesh in its wake. If one of these rays hits a sheet of metal it gets broken into multiple rays, each of which is weaker but still powerful enough to penetrate a human body. So instead of one line of damaged tissue you get several of them.”

The alpha and beta particles would be a lot easier to stop than that, of course. But I had a feeling that a damaged enchantment would spew out a lot of really energetic particles, and I wasn’t enough of an expert to figure out exactly what form they’d take. We might get beta particles and gamma rays, or it might be something more like cosmic rays. Better safe than sorry.

“I see. Then we’ll have to prepare a suitable vault for this purpose. I understand the need for proper caution, but I’m sure you realize that we’ll need to have physical possession of our power source.”

I nodded. “Yes, I expected that. I just don’t have it with me. I intentionally made it big enough to be inconvenient to carry around, just to make it harder to steal. After all the problems Mara caused I want to think very carefully about security measures.”

He sighed. “Yes. Mara. How did you discover her true nature, anyway?”

I grimaced. “We were having a rather delicate conversation when she suddenly decided she needed to kill me.”

He winced. “That sounds unpleasant. You must have excellent defenses, though. The reports I’ve heard about her battle at the temple were quite concerning.”

“Yeah, she’s a tough one,” I admitted. “I’m lucky Elin was there, actually. She came to my defense, and I think Mara didn’t want to kill her for whatever reason. It threw her off balance long enough for me to overcome my surprise and regain the initiative, and then she decided to retreat instead of fighting it out.”

“I suppose she isn’t likely to be back.”

“No, she was here for the veil anchor,” I told him. “She actually tried to convince me to sit out the battle, but you can see how that turned out. By now she’s probably off to another city.”

“Good. We have enough problems in Kozalin as it is. What about her supposed brother, Carl? Do you know what happened to him?”

“I saw him helping Mara at the temple,” I told him. “I guess he must have been an enemy agent, but I never had the chance to learn any details. I was busy trying to stop Mara at the time, and then I had the undead to deal with.”

It was a busy night,” Steelbinder agreed. “Speaking of which, I’d better see what those fools are up to before they cause another disaster.”

Chapter 4

Brand returned in triumph after a long day of fighting, and the double victory went a long way towards restoring the morale of Kozalin’s citizens. Not that they invited me to the victory celebration, or even the council of war they held the next day. I wouldn’t even have known about it if not for the fact that Captain Rain kept a sergeant posted at the war room most of the day to collect information about the city’s military situation.

Being a former programmer I was used to being frozen out of the decision making. Management is a political game that I’ve never had much stomach for, and the men who do are relentless about excluding anyone who can’t compete with them in their field. I wasn’t sure if it was worth fighting that battle or not, since I didn’t really have any interest in local politics anyway. If they wanted to ignore me that just gave me time to strengthen my position more.

The situation did, however, focus my attention on the fact that I needed more reliable sources of information. I couldn’t afford to be caught by surprise if the locals turned on me, and to avoid that I needed to know what was happening in the city. To solve that problem I turned to the people I knew had skills in that direction.

Gronir had been a poacher before Fimbulwinter fell. Daria had been a thief, and was sneaky enough to steal from her own lord and get away with it. Cerise might seem like a brawler at first glance, but I often noticed her displaying the skills of a professional spy. It wasn’t perfect, but it was what I had to work with.

I explained what I was looking for after the staff meeting one afternoon, after asking Avilla to make sure all the servants were too busy elsewhere to eavesdrop.

“I know we’re not going to have spies in the prince’s secret meetings, or anything crazy like that,” I explained. “But we need to know what’s happening in the city. The mood of the people, the morale of the soldiers, that kind of thing. If there’s a major issue that the people are talking about I want to know, so I can decide whether to get involved. If the split between the prince and the Conclave gets worse, or someone starts agitating against us, I need to hear about it before things come to blows.”

Cerise was grinning and nodding along. “Yes, I get the picture. Just a basic information gathering network, right? I’d already started on that, but I don’t have time to do it all myself.”

“I suppose this is what you meant when you told me I could be a thief in your service, milord?” Daria said.

“Agent,” Cerise corrected. “Stealing comes up once in a while, but mostly it’s just talking to people. Or killing them, but being wolfen will give you a big advantage there. Actually, I think we could bring in the whole pack on this. They have better senses than humans, and they aren’t going to get beaten up in a bar fight or knifed in a dark alley.”

“It’d be good to have something to do, if we’re not going to fight the ape men,” Gronir allowed. “I don’t want the men getting bored. But we don’t rightly know much about spying.”

Cerise waved off his concern. “All they need to do is go drinking in the right taverns and keep their ears open. I can organize that at first, until you and Daria get the hang of it. Daria, have you found any of the local fences yet?”

Daria looked a little shamefaced at that. “Um, yes. Fayvel Roth’s shipping concern deals in a lot of different goods, and he doesn’t ask questions about where things came from. But I swear I haven’t been stealing from you, milord. I just, um, picked up a few things on the trip to Kozalin.”

“I’m not worried about it, Daria. I trust you.”

She seemed a bit taken aback at that, but Cerise gave me a knowing grin.

“Yeah, we know you aren’t stupid Daria. So, want me to run this for you, Daniel?”

“That would be a huge relief, if you feel comfortable managing this kind of thing,” I told her.

“Awesome. I haven’t actually done it a lot, but I know the theory and it’s one of the things my magic is good at. Can I use the wolfen, and maybe some of Corinna’s girls now and then?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “Just remember we need the wolfen for other things too. We’ve got work parties going out to gather lumber a lot, and I don’t want them crossing the river without a couple of wolfen along to check for ambushes. Although now that I think about it, Corinna’s dryads could probably handle that too.”

“That’s what I’m thinking,” she agreed. “Split the scouting work between the two groups, so they have time for drinking and information gathering on the side. If we start pairing them up for work I bet the shortage of wolfen girls will stop being a problem, too.”

Gronir mumbled something indecipherable. Daria smiled tolerantly. “Probably so.”

“One last thing,” Cerise went on. “Can we recruit agents when a good chance comes up? I think we can get a lot of people on our side with just a few bits of help here and there. Heal a few people, promise them a place on the island if the city falls, things like that.”

I shrugged. “Sure, as long as it doesn’t take a lot of my time. Just be careful not to attract attention doing it.”

That launched Cerise on a detailed explanation of how to go about recruiting informants without getting caught at it, and by the time she was done I was convinced that she knew a lot more than I did about the subject. So I left it in her hands, and turned my attention to other things.

I’d been wanting to have a real planning meeting with my girls, but we were all so busy it was hard to find the time. Especially since there were topics I wanted to touch on that I didn’t want aired in front of the rest of my staff. My chance finally came the next evening, after the coven’s nightly spellcasting session.

Avilla and Cerise had a long list of magical wards in their respective grimoires, all of them designed to be cast by a coven. We’d begun erecting some basic protections against scrying and long-range curses during the snowstorm, but we had a long way to go before any of us would really feel that the island was secure. It was certainly a fun project to work on, though. The blending of power that was central to coven magic was a heady experience, exhilarating and intimate and often quite arousing. Casting wards didn’t call for as close a merging as the ritual that created the coven bond in the first place, but sharing emotions with four sexy women who all wanted me would have sorely tested my self-control if it wasn’t so exhausting. I could certainly see why coven members tended to be so promiscuous with each other. I’d been tempted to work out a magical solution to the fatigue issue a time or two, and I knew Tina and the witches would be game.

But our Elin wasn’t ready for anything adventurous yet.

So instead we were all lounging about in the master bedroom while we recuperated a bit. Cerise and Avilla were snuggled up together on my bed, with their clothes on the floor and a blanket hiding whatever sneaky mischief they might be getting up to with each other. Tina had draped herself across the foot of the bed, while Elin perched in one of the chairs of the little sitting area and I claimed the other.

“I can’t believe how fast these wards are going up,” Cerise was saying. “Two days for comprehensive curse barriers? That normally takes months. I’m loving this endless power thing.”

“Glad to hear it,” I chuckled. “Are the new amulets working out for everyone?”

After the attack on the city I’d finally gotten serious about equipping my coven, and the amulets were the first step of that. Each of them acted as a self-contained power source, with an automatic healing enchantment and a substantial energy battery the wearer could draw on if she needed to cast something big in a hurry. Not that they were likely to need that anytime soon, since the output of the power source was more than enough to run any normal level of spellcasting. But it was good to prepare for the future.

The healing effect had been a lot more troublesome than I’d first expected, because none of my girls were human. Each amulet had to be tuned to the specific biology of the wearer in order to work properly, and getting them to handle things like pregnancy and shapeshifting gracefully had taken some serious thought. A targeted healing spell was one thing, but there were a lot of ways an always-on healing field could have undesirable side effects. Fortunately my flesh sorcery had been up to the task.

“I love it,” Avilla said. “Yesterday I just fell asleep when we finished our work. Now I can feel the fatigue melting away.”

“Mine is helping me hold my shape, just like you hoped,” Elin told me. “I can feel it activating to restore my proper features whenever I start to change. The control interface is a bit complex, but I believe I can master it easily enough.”

“Control interface?” Cerise asked. “Mine just lets me turn the healing field and mana feed off and on. What does yours need controls for?”

“In theory I can designate what shape I wish the amulet to consider normal,” Elin explained. “It’s quite an impressive enchantment, especially since it operates entirely via intent control.”

Cerise whistled appreciatively. “Intent control? That’s some serious wizardry there.”

“Metamagic sorcery,” I explained. “I’m cheating shamelessly. If I had to figure out how to make that work on my own it would have taken years.”

“It’s not just the sorcery thing,” Tina objected. “You’re scary smart too. Anyway, mine feels really nice. I can’t do much with the magic, but I think it’s good for the baby.”

I didn’t ask how she knew. The stupendously buxom former maid didn’t know a thing about magic, but I could see that the divine blessings Bast had laid on her were being fed by her amulet now. The ancient goddess had been very grateful to Tina for agreeing to be the mother of her rebirth, and her magic was surprisingly clever about adapting to opportunities.

My own flesh magic had made Tina a catgirl, but that had been a relatively simple transformation. Some cosmetic changes, a few biological enhancements like improved senses, and a little magical boost to some of her physical abilities. Bast’s magic was working deeper changes on her, gradually turning her into a rather formidable supernatural being. She was probably going to end up with physical abilities on a par with Cerise at this rate, and there was no telling what other powers she might manifest. I think Avilla was already a little jealous of the way she could step into a ritual and instinctively weave her part of the magic without having any idea what she was doing.

I would have been more worried about the whole thing, except that so far Bast had been relentlessly benevolent in all of her dealings with us. She’d been effectively dead for several centuries, and if I hadn’t playfully tried out that catgirl transformation on Tina a week ago she could easily have stayed that way. I wasn’t sure what kind of existence ‘dead’ gods led, but considering the depth of her gratitude I suspected it was pretty bad.

“So what are we going to tackle next?” Cerise asked. “I’m thinking spirit wards, so the Conclave can’t send ghosts to spy on us.”

“I don’t know, kitten,” Avilla said. “That’s important, but I want to get some blessings and banes up soon. Especially if we’re going to keep bringing in more people. Is that going to be the plan, Daniel?”

“That’s actually something I’ve been wanting to talk to all of you about,” I told her. “We’ve been running flat out for weeks now, just trying to get into a position where we’re safe enough that we can take time to stop and catch our breath. I think we’ve finally reached that point, though. So now it’s time to take stock, and put some thought into deciding where we want to go from here.”

“What do you mean?” Tina asked, puzzled.

“I mean we need to figure out how big we want this place to get, and what we want it to be like. I promised Hecate I’d create a refuge where she could send people who need help, but there are a lot of ways to do that. Do we just want to create an impregnable fortress to live in, or are we building a city? Do we want closer ties with Kozalin, or are we going to work towards being independent? Are we going to go out and actively try to save people, or just hide behind our walls and avoid danger as much as we can? That kind of thing.”

“You’re asking us?” Elin said, surprised.

I shrugged. “I know men don’t usually ask women for advice about that kind of thing here, but frankly I think that’s stupid. I’m sure you all have ideas to contribute.”

“Not me,” Tina disagreed. “I know I don’t have a head for things like that. I just want a safe place to raise our children.”

“Children, huh? How many were you planning to have?” I asked.

“Oh, at least two or three litters,” she said lightly.

“Litters?” I choked.

The girls all giggled at that.

“Well, I am half cat now,” Tina pointed out. “Who knows how that will work?”

Elin looked her over thoughtfully. “Probably not like that. If you were going to have litters of children you’d have… um, other changes. Cats can, ah, nurse more than two kittens at a time.”

“Oh! You’re so smart, Elin. I never would have thought of that,” Tina replied.

“Well, do keep in mind that she isn’t the only one,” Avilla added. “I want a big family of my own as soon as it’s safe. I’ve got it all planned out. First a son, so the other children will all have a big brother to look out for them. Then twin girls, and another boy, and-”

Cerise put a hand over her mouth. “I don’t think Daniel needs to hear the whole plan right now, honeydew. But if we really want to make this place safe we’re going to need a lot more manpower, and I don’t know how we’re going to get it. Like Captain Rain said, we really need another two or three hundred soldiers armed with your new weapons to defend the island properly. I really wish we could get some magical backup too, but I can’t see a good way to do it. We don’t have years to spend training them.”

“Mother Hestia said we’ll have hearth witches showing up,” Avilla pointed out. “That’s a start.”

Cerise nodded. “Yes, but you really need two or three different specialties to make decent teams. Murder witches would be great, but apparently I’m the last one.”

“Unless you’re going to haunt Hel’s battlefields looking for spirits to bind,” Avilla joked.

Cerise got a thoughtful look. “You know, that might not be a bad idea. Hel has gotten her hands on a lot of us over the years, and she’s probably going to be sending them to fight the Aesir. But I doubt she’s going to spend the power to make fresh bodies for them once they fall in battle, and even dragging them all back to Hades is probably too much work when she’s busy running a war. There could be a lot of ghosts floating around where I can call them up. Familiar spirits aren’t as good as living witches, but there are other options.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “I’m not entirely clear on how the whole soul ecology thing works in this world, but I didn’t think you could raise the dead.”

She gave me a sly look. “Not real resurrection. But there are ways to get a soul back into a living body if the gods aren’t paying attention. Usually the problem is getting their soul out of Hades, which is just about impossible if the current ruler of the realm doesn’t want to let them go. But Hel has already sent one army to march on her enemies, and it’s obviously going to happen again. They’re bound to her will as long as they’re in those undead bodies she makes for them, but I bet a lot of them end up roaming free if those get destroyed.”

Tina said up, and shivered. “Cerise, do you mean there are ghosts all over Kozalin now?”

Cerise patted her on the head. “Don’t worry, cutie. We’ll keep you safe.”

Tina didn’t look very reassured. Cerise sighed, and pulled the nervous catgirl into her arms. “They can’t get into our rooms, Tina, and we’re going to ward the whole island to keep them out soon. Besides, they’re scared of me. If you see one just scream, and I’ll come eat it for you.”

“What Cerise hasn’t mentioned is that spirits can’t survive in the material world without a body,” Elin put in, getting back to the topic at hand. “An unbound spirit will fade in a few weeks, and binding it to an object only extends that to a year or two. A strong spirit can possess a living body, but I would hope we aren’t contemplating such measures.”

“We usually use animals,” Cerise suggested tentatively. “Unless Daniel is going to let us capture Aesir-lovers and banish their souls to make empty vessels.”

I snorted. “No. I guess it isn’t any worse than killing them, but if we start down that road we’ll end up at war with Kozalin. We can’t afford that.”

“Well, on a lighter note, I’ve always wanted maids,” Avilla said.

“Don’t you already have those?” I asked.

She smiled. “Just a start. I’ve always dreamed about having a big, beautiful house with a staff of well-trained maids who will happily do anything I tell them to.”

“Yeah, I know just what kind of orders you want to give,” Cerise teased.

“Well, ah, maybe,” Avilla blushed.

I chuckled. “A little wish fulfillment is fine, as long as no one is being forced to do anything they don’t want to. How does the keep measure up on the first part of that?”

“Well, it’s very impressive,” Avilla said. “Spacious, too, and the bath is simply amazing. But there’s nowhere to put a garden, and everyone can see all our comings and goings.”

“Noted. Alright, I’ll think about how to solve those problems. What else?”

“It would be wise to become as self-sufficient as possible,” Elin said. “While Kozalin has weathered every attack to date, the city wall doesn’t seem to be as much of a barrier as one might hope. Every attack takes a heavy toll in lives, and if this goes on eventually the city will be depopulated.”

“I’ve thought about that, too,” Avilla said. “But it doesn’t seem practical. We’d end up with at least a thousand people on the island, and there isn’t anywhere to put them.”

“Making the island bigger won’t help much,” Cerise said. “That would just give us longer walls to defend, and we’d end up needing even more soldiers.”

“I think I might be able to fix that problem,” I mused. “Usually a town has to have empty space between the buildings to let in light and air, but we have magical solutions to both of those problems. In theory I could turn the island into something called an arcology. Basically cover the whole island with one giant building as tall as the dryad habitats, with space for everything we need. I’d probably want to raise the walls some too, but I’ve been thinking about doing that anyway.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to just save the city?” Tina asked innocently.

I sighed. “I’d like to, sweetie. But after everything that’s happened, I don’t think the prince is going to let me.”

Avilla hung her head. “I’m so sorry, Daniel.”

Cerise and Tina both hugged her.

“It’s not your fault,” Tina said. “You were under a spell. No one blames you. Right, Daniel?”

“She’s right, Avilla. I’m not mad about it anymore. But the political situation was pretty complicated even before Brand showed up.”

“I don’t know if we could do it even if things hadn’t gotten like this,” Cerise added. “The city is too big for you to fortify the whole thing like you did the island, right Daniel?”

“Yeah, that would be a huge project. Upgrading something that’s already there is a lot harder than building from scratch, especially when the city could be attacked at any moment. I’d have to do it in a million little steps to work around all the people and make sure it’s always defensible, and it would take forever.

“I don’t dare supply too many weapons to the garrison, either. Sooner or later they’re going to figure out what we’re up to, and when that happens the only thing that will protect us is being too tough of a target to attack.”

“I understand the difficulties involved,” Elin said slowly. “But I feel very strongly that we should do what we can to save as many people as possible. How can we criticize the Conclave for their ruthless self-interest if we ourselves behave no differently? There must be something we can do.”

“I think I like Daniel’s ‘arcology’ idea,” Avilla suggested tentatively. “What if we did that, and made the island bigger whenever we run short of space? I’m sure Daniel could find some way to empower the dryads as well, so they can bestow their blessings on as much land as we need. If I’m picturing things right we could take in thousands of people.”

“I like the idea of having a huge mountain of stone between you two and the monsters,” Cerise said, snuggling back in next to Avilla.

I frowned. “With that many people we’d have a lot of spies sneaking in, and I don’t know how we’d keep them loyal. Or pay for everything.”

“There are wards for that,” Avilla said. “Subtle things, but they add up. I know one that makes those who plan treachery feel convinced that they’ve been discovered, so that they flee immediately instead of staying to cause trouble. There’s another that would make people who think poorly of our coven feel uncomfortable living within our wards, and a really good one that encourages people to form bonds of loyalty quickly and surely. If we stack up a good set of wards like that the only troublemakers who stay here for long will be the ones with powerful magic of their own.”

“I think I’ve got an idea for where we can get soldiers,” Cerise put in. “There are little towns and castles all over the kingdom that have been cut off from help, right? All we have to do is get some more vehicles built, and start rescuing groups of them. That way we can recruit the ones we want, and dump the rest of them in Kozalin for the prince to worry about.”

“I’m afraid he might just use them as sacrifices,” I grumbled.

“If he does the burden will rest on his conscience, not yours,” Elin said firmly. “On the topic of money, couldn’t you simply conjure gold? I realize the amount of power required would be fantastical, but with these power sources of yours that doesn’t seem to be an issue. Couldn’t you make a device that uses the whole output of a power stone for conjuring, and stop by to collect the gold every now and then?”

“Huh. You know, that’s a good idea,” I mused. “Yeah, I think that would work. I’m not sure how much gold we’d get, but even a few ounces a day would add up.”

Avilla shook her head wonderingly. “I can’t imagine how wealthy your homeland must be, Daniel. A few ounces of gold a day would make us richer than the king.”

Oh, right. There weren’t a lot of gold mines in ancient Europe, were there? Before the discovery of the new world even nobles mostly dealt in silver, with gold coins being a rarity.

Cerise grinned. “I like the sound of this. We get to be rich big shots, and still go out and kill things. Hey, maybe we can take out some more of Gaea’s troops while we’re at it? I’m sure they’ll take another shot at us sooner or later, so the more we can thin them out the better.”

“If we can do it without getting ourselves killed,” I said. “Between the dinosaurs and their magic they could actually be a threat to a column of skimmers if we aren’t careful, but I may be able to come up with something better than that.”

“If you continue to ‘come up’ with innovations at your current rate we shall all be riding dragons before the year is out,” Elin said, sounding a bit amused.

“Dragons the size of mountains,” Cerise added.

“Made of iron,” said Avilla.

“With giant castles on their backs,” Tina exclaimed. She sat up and threw her arms out exuberantly.

They all burst out giggling.

“I’ll see what I can do,” I said seriously. “Would my ladies prefer steeds with fiery breath, or would lightning suit you better?”

The conversation wound on a bit longer after that, but when we turned to practical details Tina lost interest and turned her attention to cuddling with the witches. Then her head disappeared under the covers, and they both started getting distracted. Before long Avilla was biting her lip and trying to pretend nothing was happening, while Cerise plastered herself against the buxom blonde’s side with a naughty grin.

When Tina started purring Elin rolled her eyes, and turned away from the bed. “Well, I don’t think we’ll be getting any more coherent planning out of them tonight.”

The words were disapproving, but longing warred with embarrassment in her expression.

“Probably not. But you’ve got to admit, they look awfully cute together.”

She couldn’t quite suppress her smile. “I suppose they do, at that. I just wish they’d learn a bit of restraint. I’m really not comfortable with such elaborate scenes of carnal excess.”

I chuckled, and rose to my feet. “Well, it’s not like we have to stay to watch.”

Elin took my hand and stood. But her eyes were glued to the scene on the bed. “I… suppose not…”

Cerise looked up from Avilla’s breasts, and turned a playful smile our way. “You don’t have to, but you can. Seriously, you can’t tell me you don’t want to touch these beauties.”

She cupped one of Avilla’s round breasts in her hand. Elin blushed, but didn’t look away.

“I, um, well… perhaps,” she admitted reluctantly. “But this is still very new to me. I’d never thought to engage in such… activities.”

I hugged the shy girl from behind, hoping to reassure her.

Cerise slipped out of bed. Her tail came last, drawing a ragged moan from Avilla’s lips, and the wetness that covered the last eight inches or so of its length left no doubt where it had been. She padded across the room to us, completely unconcerned about her nakedness.

“Elin, honey, it’s okay to be nervous,” she said gently. “We all get that you’ve got things to work through, and you’re not exactly a raging slut like me and honeydew are anyway. But don’t let that turn into a wall that keeps you out forever, okay?”

Elin’s gaze fell to the floor. “I know. It’s just… hard.”

Cerise gently cupped her cheeks in both hands, and turned her head up so she could gaze into Elin’s eyes.

“Elin,” she breathed. “Feel the bond. Feel my heart. I like you. I want you. I think you’re sexy. I will never reject you. We’re coven mates, now and forever.”

She kissed her. Softly, gently, just a delicate brush of lips. Elin gasped, and I could feel her tremble. Her hands rose uncertainly, fingertips barely grazing Cerise’s pale skin.

“Yes,” Cerise breathed. “Touch me, Elin. Explore me. Enjoy me. You don’t have to hold back anymore.”

She kissed her again, a little more firmly this time. Elin’s hands ran tentatively up her sides, and through her silken hair. Then suddenly they went around Cerise, pulling her close, and their kiss turned fiercely heated.

“You’re so beautiful,” Elin gasped, suddenly panting for breath.

“I’m yours,” Cerise murmured huskily. “It’s not just Daniel you get to enjoy, Elin. You get me too. All you have to do is let me in.”

Gently, carefully, she started kissing her way down Elin’s slender body. She’d tried this once before, after we’d cast our first coven magic together. That time Elin had begged off. But now she made no complaint as Cerise slowly unbuttoned her nightgown, showering each patch of newly exposed skin with kisses along the way. When Cerise settled gracefully to her knees and started to work her way back up Elin’s thighs I knew she’d decided she was finally ready.

It was a long time before any of us slept that night.

Chapter 5

It was another cold, dreary day when I moved Avilla’s kitchen.

That wasn’t the first change I made to the island’s layout, of course. I didn’t want to get too carried away with throwing up giant buildings before we had people to live in them, but there were a lot of things that needed to be done before I could worry about Avilla’s desire for a fancy house.

My first project was rebuilding our connection to the city. The long, exposed pier that had originally spanned the distance between my gates and Kozalin’s harbor district had seemed like a good defensive measure, but in practice it turned out to be rather vulnerable to enemies who could just come up out of the water. So when I rebuilt it I added more stone to raise it up to the level of my gates, about twelve feet above the surface of the river. Then I enclosed it with walls and a roof, and built a gatehouse at the shoreline to guard the entrance. A ramp down to street level allowed traffic to come and go easily, but a heavy portcullis in the gatehouse would allow the troops stationed there to seal the entrance quickly in an emergency.

In a traditional castle that kind of structure would have been a weak point that enemies could use to march up to my walls under cover. But magic gave me a lot of non-traditional options. I rigged the whole causeway with hidden explosive charges, so I could blow it up again at will.

That allowed us to send the refugees we’d taken in during the battle of the docks back to their homes in the city, which eased my mind a bit on our security issues. Most of them departed immediately, although there were a couple dozen who wanted to stay. I figured those were the smart ones, so I sent them Avilla’s way. She ended up hiring a lot of them, although we had to run off a few shiftless sorts who just wanted to sit around eating my food and doing nothing for as long as they could get away with it.

With the extra people out from underfoot I could afford to rearrange some of the temporary buildings I’d thrown up, a task that was made considerably easier by the fact that the enchantments I’d grown them with were still active. But planning out a new living area on the island brought me up against the fact that most of the available space was already taken up by the farming complex and the docks. After seeing the kind of battle magic a competent army could throw around I really wanted more layers of defenses between the heart of my little realm and our outer walls, but there wasn’t a lot of room to work with.

In theory I could make the island bigger, but as Cerise had pointed out that would mean longer walls that would need a bigger garrison. Besides, my island was already a bit bigger than the ten acres the prince had theoretically deeded to me. I didn’t think he was going to be sending surveyors out to measure it anytime soon, but if I got too aggressive with my expansions it might turn into another source of friction.

I mulled it over for a while, and finally decided to go with another unconventional design. I’d never seen anything like this before, but that was probably just because the stonework involved would normally be too expensive to be practical. It certainly seemed like it would work, at any rate.

So I grew my island out a bit in all directions, expanding the whole wall as I went until it was a good sixty feet thick. I added big square projections at the corners while I was at it, to serve as the foundations for towers. I used lots of iron reinforcement in the new expansions as well, making the whole thing as absurdly strong as I could manage, and carefully smoothed the outer surface into a featureless sheet of semi-polished granite that would be impossible to climb without magic.

Granite comes in a lot of colors, and my earth sorcery was perfectly happy to supply any variation that I wanted. I’d started out with a simple gray, flecked with bits of black. But some playful impulse led me to switch to a darker color for the expanded walls. Mostly black, with some grays and very dark reds mixed in. Yeah, that came out looking about right for the abode of a ‘dark wizard’.

A forty foot wall had seemed like plenty when I first arrived in Kozalin, but I’d seen a lot more of the enemy since then. So I raised it another forty feet, high enough that even the biggest of giant monsters shouldn’t be able to reach the battlements. But a flat open space sixty feet wide along the top would be too simple. I took the inner thirty feet of that space and built another mass of iron and stone forty feet tall on top of it, so that an attacker who managed to scale the outer wall would find themselves in a confined area facing another obstacle.

I left the lower fighting deck as an open space with a simple battlement along the edge, where we could mass troops or heavy equipment wherever it might be needed. The upper deck got a thick iron roof to protect against weather and aerial attacks, and an iron wall pierced by narrow windows to allow the defenders to fight from under cover. The mortar bunkers were located on the upper platform, of course, and I put in several extra bunkers and storerooms to allow for the addition of more heavy weapons in the future.

The new towers I built at the corners of the island were as big as the original keep, but massively stronger with their iron skeletons and thick stone walls. They were actually a solid mass of stone and iron up to the original wall level, forty feet above the river. Above that they had interior rooms, just one big unfinished space on each floor for now. With a total height of a hundred and sixty feet they ended up having twelve floors of interior space, enough that each of them could eventually quarter several hundred men.

That was a defense I was confident would hold against anything I could imagine attacking us. The original keep was still a weak spot, being of much lighter construction, but I couldn’t do anything about that while it was full of people. So I did a walkthrough of the new construction with Oskar and Captain Rain, explaining my ideas for what to do with the space. Then I left them to plan out how to get their men resettled, and sat down to create a little pocket paradise for my girls.

What can I say? They made me want to spoil them.

The site I selected for this first arcology block was a rectangular plot to the west of the original keep, bounded by the island’s wall on the north and the farming complex on the south. Almost four hundred feet long and about a hundred and fifty wide, it was an absurdly huge space to use for living quarters. But I had a lot of other things in mind for it as well.

Drawing on my experience with the dryad habitats, I started by throwing up a massively overbuilt framework of nickel-iron beams to support the structure. It completely filled the gap between the two existing structures, turning that whole part of the island into a single giant mass of stone and iron. Where it didn’t abut existing construction I put in an outer wall of iron two feet thick, encased in ten feet of stone. The steeply sloped roof was also of thick iron, and matching the height of the dryad habitat put it a bit over two hundred feet up. The side of the upper floors that overlooked the island’s walls was mostly just blank iron faced with more black granite, but I left a few windows and some larger openings up near the top. The very top floor of the building contained large cisterns enchanted to keep themselves full of hot or cold water, as well as lots of empty space set aside for whatever other magical infrastructure I might come up with in the future.

Not wanting to cut off foot traffic I ran a wide road right through the middle of the building’s ground floor, with magical lighting and heavy iron gates at each end that we could close if an enemy somehow got onto the island. Lining the road were empty spaces two stories tall that could be turned into shops or businesses, in various shapes and sizes. I figured there were a lot of craftsmen and merchants in Kozalin who’d jump at the chance to move their business someplace safer once we started advertising, especially if the city kept coming under attack.

I was tempted to use marble for the street-level construction, just to make it look nice. But no, keeping it clean would probably be a nightmare. So simple gray stone for the street, and the walls between the empty shop spaces.

At the back of one of the larger spaces was a door into the farming complex, so I designated that one as a future produce market and brought Hrodir down to consult on how to finish it out. We put in some storerooms and a small granary in addition to a roomy display area, and big glass windows at the front. Hrodir made plans to recruit extra men to run the store once they had something to sell, and I made sure he understood that keeping people from randomly wandering through the back door into the farming complex would be part of their job. I didn’t need random townspeople discovering the dryads, and spreading rumors that would get back to Prince Caspar.

Then it was time for the upper floors. I wanted to be able to control who got access to those areas, just in case the street level started to see a lot of shoppers coming in from Kozalin at some point. I also had in mind that we might need to impress official visitors at some point without letting them get near anything sensitive. So I turned one shop space into a fairly fancy entrance area, with a wide marble staircase leading up to the third floor.

There I roughed out a grand hall where we could hold formal events if we ever needed to, along with a complex of fancy meeting rooms for receiving official visitors. Another checkpoint with heavy iron doors separated this diplomatic area from the elevators that gave access to the upper floors. By this point I’d figured out how to enchant a proper system of call buttons, and I was able to set those up like the elevators in a modern office building in instead of the exposed platform design in the original keep. Much less scary for medieval townspeople to use, although I took a page from modern fire safety codes and build a set of stairs as well.

Most of the rest of the building I left unfinished, since we didn’t have a use for the space yet. But the fifth through seventh floors I set aside as a private space for my coven.

I’d thought about using the top floors at first, but in a world with flying monsters that wasn’t safe enough for my taste. The levels I’d picked instead were low enough to be behind the full thickness of the island’s outer wall, protected against any bombardment that might be aimed our way. An invader would have to fight their way up from the street level or down from the walls to get in, through multiple checkpoints and armored doors. No surprise attack would have a chance to get that far before we could respond.

The floor and roof of the area were even more heavily armored than the rest, just to make sure no enemy would be able to break in by tunneling through them, and the elevator stop on the fifth floor was a killing field. To get into the living area you had to pass through two sets of heavy iron doors, and the passage between them had walls lined with arrow slits and murder holes in the ceiling. The barracks and guard posts surrounding that had room for a platoon of troops to live in full time, with their own mess area and rec room, although I doubted we’d actually have that kind of manpower available anytime soon.

Inside this protected space I laid out a large garden area three floors high, with artificial sunlight and a sprinkler system just like the farming areas. The rooms of our living quarters would surround that, so they could have windows and balconies facing the garden to give them a pleasant outdoor feel. That filled about half the space, and I figured we could use the other half as our coven’s official workspace and a secure storage area for dangerous magical projects.

But first I had to move Avilla’s kitchen. That was how I found myself standing on a narrow iron bridge entirely too many floors above the ground, trying to levitate a whole frickin’ room.

It had seemed like such a clever idea three days ago. The old keep was a single huge mass of stone, with thick floors and fairly solid interior walls. So why not just cut Avilla’s kitchen free of the surrounding stonework, and move it? It was probably solid enough to survive being picked up and moved around, but I could wrap some iron bands around it to make sure. Shaping a hole in the side of the keep big enough to get it out would be a pain, but I could do it.

I’d neglected to consider how heavy the damned thing would be. Not to mention that it was a long way off the ground, and so was the spot I was trying to move it to. I’d turned my earth talisman into an iron bridge between the two points, but it was a long way down.

The worst of it was that Avilla had insisted that she needed to be inside her kitchen when it was moved, to stabilize the enchantments. So there she was inside the giant stone box that was floating along next to me, leaning over the breakfast bar to watch me with wide eyes.

“I still can’t believe you can lift my whole kitchen,” she said excitedly. “It must weigh a ton.”

“Closer to… ten,” I replied through clenched teeth. I took another step, and the bridge creaked ominously beneath me. Was it thick enough to handle this much weight? A foot of solid iron supported by narrowly-spaced pillars had seemed like plenty when I was planning this, especially since my force magic spread the weight out quite a bit. But I wasn’t a civil engineer. I checked the structural reinforcement spell, to make sure it wasn’t drawing mana. Crap, it was. Not much, but apparently I’d been a little too optimistic with the bridge design. I’d better get this done quick, then.

“Ten tons? Oh, my! I knew you were strong, Daniel, but I didn’t know you were that strong.”

I took a few more steps. The wind caught the big, flat side of the stone box and tried to push it off the bridge, but fortunately it was too heavy to move very fast. It tilted and swayed sideways a few inches, before I shifted my force magic’s grip and got it back under control.

“Careful!” Avilla said. “I’m trying to hold everything in place in here, but I’m not sure how much this spell can handle.”

I took another careful step, and frowned. “You have a spell to keep things from spilling off of shelves if the room tilts?”

“It’s for earthquakes,” she explained with a smile. “It tries to hold everything in place, and keep the roof from falling in. But I’ve never used it before, so I’m not sure what the limits are.”

I took a few more steps. The strain on the bridge rose slightly, but it stabilized at a level the reinforcement spell could handle. Good. As long as the wind didn’t get worse this should work.

“Is that why you wanted to be in there?” I asked as I carefully moved my burden along the bridge. “I’d feel a lot better about this if you were someplace safe.”

“You aren’t going to drop me, Daniel,” she said confidently.

“That’s easy for you to say. I’m the one trying to balance a giant block of stone on a windy bridge,” I grumbled.

“You’ve never failed when it counts, my love. I know you can do this.”

Well, I couldn’t very well screw it up after a line like that.

The whole trip was only a few hundred feet, but it felt like miles. The wind at this height was like a wall of icy knives, shifting unpredictably as it eddied around the towers I’d built. The bridge I walked on was uncomfortably narrow, and flexed unsettlingly as I moved my heavy load down its length.

But eventually I reached the opening I’d left in the side of the new building, and the wind died as I maneuvered my burden inside. I crossed the garden and set it carefully into place, then spent a few minutes reconnecting the plumbing lines. At least I’d gotten the measurements right on that, so there weren’t any problems.

When I finished I found Avilla standing in the empty dining room next to where her kitchen now sat. I’d put in a pair of big glass doors there, which she’d thrown open so she could look around at the bare field surrounded by incomplete construction.

“It’s very big,” she said contemplatively. “I have to admit, I’m going to feel very safe here once you close that hole. I don’t think even a dragon could break into this place.”

“That’s the idea,” I confirmed. “I’m going to have some areas on the upper floors with balconies and windows that actually lead outside, in case you get claustrophobic. But I want the place where we live and sleep to be safe from anything that could happen.”

She smiled gently. “Thank you for taking such good care of us, Daniel. It’s going to feel good to put down some roots again. Can I use part of this field for an herb garden?”

I chuckled. “Avilla, everything you’re looking at now is our coven’s private residence. You can use the whole thing for whatever you want.”

“W-what?” She looked around again, her eyes going wide. “All of this?”

“Yup. Welcome home, Avilla.”

Her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment.

“My home is a palace? I’m going to be the strongest hearth witch ever!” She exclaimed.

I laughed. “That’s the idea, sweetie.”

“Thank you thank you thank you!”

She threw her arms around me, and kissed me soundly. She might not have stopped there, except that we were interrupted.

“Hey, Daniel! Where are our new bedrooms?” Cerise called.

I looked up to find her leading a party of pale-faced laborers carrying various items of furniture, with Tina and Elin trailing along curiously behind them.

“You know, I wasn’t planning to use the bridge for that,” I said mildly.

She waved off my concern. “If it can handle the weight of a kitchen then beds and wardrobes are nothing, right? If we’re moving we might as well get it all done at once, and this is a lot easier than messing with elevators.”

“I suppose you have a point,” I admitted. The bridge had guard rails, so I wasn’t really worried about someone falling off it. It was just a scary trip for anyone who wasn’t used to heights.

“This way, then,” I said, and led them up the broad marble staircase that led to the second floor of the residence. I’d copied the arrangement Avilla had come up with in the keep, only on a larger scale. There was a large room that was intended as a lounge area at the entrance to our private wing, and then a long hall with doors along one side. Four of those led to private suites for the girls, each of which had a balcony overlooking the garden along with a bathroom and about a thousand square feet of floor space. The big glass windows and sliding glass doors on the balconies seemed to impress them, as did the sheer roominess.

“What am I going to do with all this space?” Elin exclaimed.

“Whatever you want,” I told her. “Fill it with books, set up a private workshop, whatever catches your fancy.”

“A workshop?” She gave the space another look. “I suppose that could work.”

“If you want. I’ve got another huge space set aside for a ritual chamber and whatever other magical facilities we need, mind you. There’s room there for each of us to have several spacious workrooms.”

There were a couple of extra suites, just in case we ever added more members to our coven. Then came the private bathing chamber. The girls had fallen in love with the concept of hot baths, so I’d gone all out on that. At the entrance was a changing area with a mirror and some shelves for towels and clothes. A sliding door of frosted glass led from there into a spacious shower, with enough high-volume shower heads that using it was almost like stepping into a heated waterfall. Then came the inner room, dominated by a hot tub big enough to hold all of us and more. The whole thing was done in fancy white marble, with mirrors and a glass block window on one wall to give the room an airy feel. I’d even put in an enchantment to keep the temperature warm enough for lounging around naked.

At the end of the hall another door led into my own suite, which was laid out like the others but slightly larger. Not that I had any need for more space, but I figured Avilla had her reasons for setting things up that way in the keep. She was the one with the magical household management powers, so I wasn’t going to second-guess her.

Besides, I could guess at some of it. Medieval societies put a huge emphasis on status distinctions, to the point where a man who didn’t claim as many of them as he could would generally be looked down on as some kind of spineless weakling. Cerise was independent enough not to pay much attention to that kind of social conditioning, but if I tried to dispense with these little signs of deference it would probably make the rest of the girls worry that I was losing my nerve or something. Considering how dangerous our world was the last thing I wanted to do was give them another reason to feel insecure.

The girls quickly settled on their room selections, and Avilla stepped in to help Cerise direct the workmen on where to put the furniture they were carrying. We hadn’t accumulated all that much of it yet, and with a dozen men on the job I could see the move wasn’t going to take very long.

Tina emerged from the bathing chamber, and enveloped me in an enthusiastic hug.

“I’m the luckiest girl in the world,” she declared. “When Avilla gave me a chance to be your maid, I never dreamed I’d end up living in a palace.”

“It’s quite extravagant,” Elin observed. “Not that I don’t appreciate being pampered, but don’t you think it’s a bit much? I can’t imagine what we’re going to do with so much space. You could have made it a fourth as big and it would still be far more than we can use.”

“I want to make sure we never need to move again,” I explained. “That’s really important for Avilla. I thought about being more restrained so we could use the space for other things, but when I got going I realized that my ability to build more living space is never going to be a constraint on our projects anyway. I built this arcology block in a couple of days, and it’s going to take us weeks to recruit enough people to fill it. Maybe months, and when we do fill it up there’s room on the island for another half-dozen blocks the same size.”

“I suppose you have a point,” she conceded. “But still, three huge wings around that giant garden space? There are only five of us, plus however many maids Avilla eventually acquires.”

“Ah, but you’re forgetting Tina and Avilla’s ambitions.” I gestured to the empty wing across the field. “That, my dear, is enough space for a couple dozen rebellious teenagers and all their personal hobbies. I have to admit I’m afraid those two are going to get into a contest over who can have the most children, but if they do we’ll be ready for it.”

Tina beamed up at me. “Thank you, Daniel. That’s perfect.”

Elin’s expression turned wistful “I see. Yes, that probably is a wise decision on your part. Even Cerise has expressed a certain eagerness in that regard, despite the fact that it would mean an absence from the battlefield. If they have the longevity I expect, the three of them could eventually produce quite a large family.”

Tina’s brow furrowed in concern. “Just the three of us? What about you, Elin?”

“There are already enough monsters in this world, Tina,” Elin said, sounded a bit dejected. “I see no reason why I should add to their numbers.”

Tina blinked at her uncertainly for a moment, obviously struggling to figure out what she meant. Then she got it, and frowned.

“Oh, stop it,” she said crossly. “Elin, you’re smarter than that. Cerise is more of a monster than you’ll ever be, and you don’t hear her moping around feeling sorry for herself.”

“Cerise doesn’t get hungry when she looks at children,” Elin objected.

Tina was completely unfazed. “No, she just hungers for souls. Is that supposed to be better? What have you done that’s so terrible?”

“I ate people!” Elin snapped.

Tina shrank back. “W-what?”

Elin huddled in on herself. “Father kept us in a pen together, in the swamp. Threw in things he’d caught to feed us. Animals. People. Children, sometimes. When we were hungry we’d eat anything, even each other. I remember loving the taste of living flesh, ripped straight from their struggling limbs. The little ones were the best, but usually he’d keep those for himself.”

Tina stared at her in horror.

“What changed?” I asked gently.

Elin stared at the floor, miserably hugging herself. “When the faerie lords found us they worked some sort of enchantment, to try to bring us to our senses. I was the only one they could reach. My brothers, and my sister… they were animals. Just crazed beasts, endlessly hungering. I… I don’t know what they did with them, but… the faerie have so few children, each one is a treasure beyond price, but… I think they had to put them down.”

“That’s why I can’t risk it,” she went on. “I know that if we had children they’d be more than half human, but they’d still be tainted by… that. I still don’t dare assume a grendelkin form, for fear of degenerating once more into a ravening beast. I can’t believe that a child could overcome such urges.”

“You’re afraid they’d hurt the other children,” I realized.

“Yes,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry, Daniel. But I don’t dare take the chance.”

I gathered her gently into my arms. She resisted at first, but then Tina got a determined look and joined in. Finally she gave in, and let us hug her.

“We’re not going to blame you for things that happened when you were an abused child being raised by a monster, Elin,” I reassured her.

“No!” Tina agreed. “We all love you, Elin. I’m sorry I pressed you.”

“Yeah. If you don’t want to take the chance that’s your decision. But there are a couple of things you might want to think about.”

“What? Don’t tell me your magic can fix even this,” Elin said.

“No, I’m not that good. But Bast is a mother goddess, and I bet she’d be happy to help.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea!” Tina exclaimed. “You’re right, Daniel. Only, I guess we won’t be able to ask her about it for another year.”

“Well, my second point is that we might not need magic anyway. Elin, if you did have children would you keep them locked up in a pen and throw in people for them to eat?”

“No!” She protested. “Of course not! I’d… I’d feed them, and give them clothes, and hug them, and take them hunting… no, maybe not that… play with them? Teach them magic? I… I suppose I don’t really know what to do with a child.”

“We can teach you,” Tina offered. “Avilla has magic perfect mother powers, you know. Maybe I do too now? I think that’s something Bast is giving me, and anyway I’ve helped with lots of babies.”

“There, you see? If you don’t want your children to be monsters, don’t abuse them and make them monstrous. We might need to be extra careful about supervising them and keeping them out of mischief, but that’s nothing new. Tina’s daughter is bound to be a handful, and I’m pretty sure that when Cerise gets around to having kids they’ll end up being half demon. Actually, it might be good for them to have some playmates that aren’t fragile.”

“Do you really think it could be that easy?” Elin asked uncertainly.

“It wouldn’t surprise me. Look, Elin, if you don’t want children that’s fine. I’m not going to push you to do anything you don’t want to. But it seems like you actually do, and if that’s the case I think we can make it happen. It might take some time to make sure we have everything figured out, but it’s not like we need to rush. Faerie are basically immortal, right?”

“I’m a quarter human,” she pointed out. “But yes, it’s quite likely that I shall live for centuries. That’s another thing that worries me, actually.”

“You worry way too much,” Tina said, clearly exasperated. “A great wizard like Daniel isn’t going to die of something stupid like getting old.”

“Most wizards do, Tina,” Elin said.

“Not this one,” I admitted, a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry, Elin. I should have realized that was something you’d be concerned about.”

“You’re immortal?” She asked skeptically.

“No, but I can heal old age just like any other malady,” I told her. “I’m not going to get old on you, and neither is anyone else in the coven as long as I’m around.”

Elin boggled. “You can heal old age? Just like that?”

“Yeah. Just like that.”

“See?” Tina beamed. “Have faith, Elin. Whatever happens, we can work things out.”

Elin wiped the tears from her eyes, and finally relaxed into our embrace. “I… thank you. Perhaps you are correct, Tina. I’ve spent most of my life expecting the worst, and rarely been disappointed. But ever since you came into my life, Daniel, everything has been different. Perhaps we truly can just… work things out.”

“We can, Elin,” I assured her. “I know you’ve had a long, hard road to get to this point, but things are going to be different now. Don’t be afraid to hope.”

“I’ll try, Daniel. I’ll try. I… I’m sorry I’m such a wet blanket, Tina.”

Tina rolled her eyes. “Don’t you dare start apologizing for feeling bad, Elin.”

She opened her mouth, but Tina beat her to the punch.

“And don’t apologize for apologizing, either!”

Cerise picked that moment to interrupt us with a question about how Elin wanted her furniture arranged, although from her expression I suspected the timing wasn’t an accident. She pulled Elin away with a smile and a hug, distracting her with mundane details.

Tina watched them go, and shook her head. “She really needs a lot of love, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, she does,” I agreed.

She put her arm around me, and rested her head against my chest. “Well, we’ll just have to make sure she gets it.”

We stood there in silence for a moment.

“Oh, Daniel?” She went on. “I’ve been meaning to ask. What are we going to name our daughter?”

“Name her? What do you mean? She’s Bast.”

Now Tina was giving me her exasperated look. “She’s hiding, isn’t she? We don’t want to tell the whole world that she’s back.”

“Huh. Well, now I feel stupid. You’re right, Tina. I hadn’t thought about that.”

She smiled. “That’s alright, Daniel. You keep filling your head with the big, important stuff, and I’ll keep an eye out for the little things. Besides, didn’t it sound like she wants to be our daughter for real? We’re supposed to raise her just like a normal girl, so that means we need to give her a name too. What do you think about Borghild?”

I laughed. “I think some of these Norse names sound pretty strange to my foreign ears.”

She pouted a little. “Well, it doesn’t have to be that. I was just trying to think of a good name for a goddess of battle. Um, maybe Erika? Or Brita?”

“Erika sounds nice,” I agreed.

Chapter 6

High Adept Steelbinder wasn’t terribly pleased with the delay in receiving the Conclave’s new power source, but he seemed somewhat mollified when I finally delivered it the day after moving Avilla’s kitchen.

For my part, I was happy to see that he’d apparently taken my warnings about how dangerous these things were seriously. He personally escorted me deep into a maze of windowless rooms on the Citadel’s upper floors, where High Adept Ward was waiting by a sealed iron door covered in enchantments. The old wizard grinned at me as I approached.

“So that’s the miracle stone, eh? It’s a strange enchantment, alright.”

“Oh, I layered it with misdirection and defensive effects just in case,” I told him. “But yes, the heart of it’s pretty exotic. I take it this is the vault where you’re going to keep it? I guess iron doors are a good bet for that.”

“The Conclave has better ways to protect something like this than just a locked room, Daniel. Ready, Lukas?”

Both wizards drew short wands of rose-colored crystal from within their robes, and stepped up to the door. There were thirty or so small hexagonal holes in the iron surface, each with a symbol engraved above it. They each took a moment to select one of the holes, and then inserted the wands simultaneously.

There was a deep mechanical sound from somewhere inside the door, and then it slowly swung open. On the other side was a large, open chamber where an iron dragon sat watching us.

I blinked.

No, it wasn’t alive. On second glance it had to be some kind of giant golem, but it was easily as big as the dragon Cerise and I had fought in the catacombs a week ago. Damaging a mass of iron that big would be quite a feat even if it wasn’t enchanted, and this thing was practically covered in runes anchoring a thicket of defensive wards.

“You’ll have to stay out here,” Steelbinder said. “Only High Adepts can enter the chamber without being attacked.”

“Not a problem, Your Wisdom,” I replied. “Here you go.”

The power source was a big block of granite shaped into a cylinder, just like the others I’d been making. It weighed a good sixty pounds, but Steelbinder carried it like that was nothing. He turned to step into the room, raising his staff and chanting something in Latin as he did so.

“Let’s give the man some room to work,” Ward said, drawing me away from the open door. “Old furnace belly is always a bit touchy, and he’s liable to roast strangers if they set a foot wrong.”

I let him lead me away. I’m sure they didn’t want an outsider knowing too much about how they handled that thing, and I’d seen enough to reassure me that their power stone was going to be as secure as anything could be. Given the number of checkpoints we’d passed through it was actually a lot more secure than my own vaults, although that was partly mitigated by the fact that this place had been here for centuries. Anyone who wanted to steal from the Conclave would have a lot of information to work with, while my own defenses were a completely unknown quantity.

Still, I wasn’t too worried. The fact that the Conclave was going to have a power stone at all didn’t exactly fill me with good cheer, but I was pretty sure they’d be using it primarily to kill monsters and defend the city. That, and theirs was designed to only put out a tenth as much energy as one of mine. Even that was a pretty terrifying level of magical power, but at least I could be confident of winning any future contest of magical brute force.

“So, did you bankrupt us on those amulets?” Ward asked as we moved down the corridor. “How many did Lukas end up buying from you, anyway?”

“Only three more,” I told him. “One for you, I assume, and a couple for use in rituals and enchantment work. We set the price at a hundred and twenty crowns for each amulet.”

He winced. “That’s a pretty penny. Worth it, mind you, but I can’t see any of the Adepts coming up with that kind of coin.”

“I think that was the idea, Your Wisdom. Keep things from spreading too fast, until you’re prepared to deal with whatever fallout there might be.”

“Ah, you don’t have to keep pulling that formal crap with me, Daniel. Not in private, anyway. The name’s Boris.”

“Thank you, Boris.” That was a surprise. But he waved me off.

“Bah. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that you’re no lightweight yourself. Where are you from, anyway? No one can place your style, and you’ve got some damned odd turns of phrase. ‘Fallout’, for instance.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, the translation magic does funny things with idiomatic speech. But I’m afraid that’s something I need to keep to myself. All I can say is I’m not from Europe, so I don’t have any connection with the factions and feuds in this part of the world.”

“But you’ve got some connection to those pet witches of yours,” he pointed out. “Beyond the obvious, I mean.”

“There’s a bit of a story there, yes. I wouldn’t be in Varmland right now if it weren’t for Cerise. But I’m not secretly plotting against the Aesir, or anything stupid like that. At this point I figure the wise course is to concentrate on surviving Ragnarok, and see how things work out.”

“Surviving Ragnarok is ambition enough for any man,” he said dryly. “Ah, if only I were thirty years younger. The cold is hard on these old bones, and the battles are worse.”

I considered that for a moment. On the one hand, I didn’t want to give away too many secrets. But on the other hand I needed all the allies I could get, and wizards are used to hiding things.

“Well, I’m sure a wizard of your caliber has options in that regard,” I said carefully. “But as it happens, my healing works on old age.”

That got me a raised eyebrow. “Does it, now? That’s an unusual talent. What’s the catch?”

“I can fix the symptoms of old age, but not all of the underlying causes,” I told him. “So if I take twenty years off a man’s age he’s still mortal, and he’ll age a little faster the second time around. I assume that eventually it would reach the point where my healing doesn’t work anymore, but I’m not actually old enough to have tested that.”

I was pretty sure that was drastically underselling my flesh sorcery, actually. But if word somehow got out I figured the ability to give someone an extra century of life would draw a lot less attention than the ability to keep them going indefinitely.

“Not bad,” he mused. “But actually getting younger would conflict with my bargain, so I’ll have to pass. My arrangements will kick in when I need them. I’ll just have to be patient until then.”

Steelbinder rejoined us shortly after that, and the three of us made our way back out of the vault complex. They both had meetings to get to, but I had one last question to ask before I took my leave.

“So, what’s the Conclave’s policy on selling magic weapons to the nobles?” I asked. “I’ve got some ideas for simple things that would help the garrison deal with the next monster attack more easily, but I don’t want to step on any toes.”

“Simple devices are fair game,” Steelbinder said shortly. “But don’t sell anyone a weapon designed to kill wizards. No golems or bound creatures of power, either. If a noble asks for something like that refer them to the Conclave, and we’ll vote on the request.”

“Understood. What about utility magic, like warmth cloaks or heating stones? Same principle?”

“That, and don’t hand out anything that consumes a significant amount of ambient mana,” Ward told me. “That’s not a pressing issue, but there are enough wizards in Kozalin that we have to be careful not to let it become one.”

“Indeed,” Steelbinder agreed. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a golem animation to conduct.”

“Yes, and I’m off to the basement. The city wards aren’t going to renew themselves.”

They went bustling off in different directions, leaving me to my own devices. I had a million projects of my own to get back to, but I figured I might as well spend a few minutes checking out the library while I was here. I’d gotten access to it for myself and Cerise as part of the deal with the amulets, so I should probably find out what that was worth.

I had to flag down a servant for directions, and the interior of the Iron Citadel was such a maze I actually got lost a couple of times along the way. But there were enough servants around that there was always someone to point me in the right direction, so I found it soon enough. There were a couple of guards at the entrance, but they let me pass after checking the little bronze library pass I’d been given.

Medieval libraries look nothing like modern ones.

I suppose that subconsciously I’d been expecting a huge room filled with overstuffed bookshelves, but Varmland had neither printing presses nor a magical substitute. So instead what I found was a maze of interconnected rooms dotted with tables and comfortable-looking chairs. Here and there was a niche where a few books rested, or a pedestal with a massive tome lying on it. Most of those were actually chained in place, and some even had protective wards over them.

Several attendants waited by the door, and as I looked around one of them scurried over to ask if he could be of assistance. He was a young man, maybe seventeen, wearing a neat gray robe with a symbol embroidered on the chest in the Conclave’s colors. After a moment I realized it was a stylized book. Alright, so probably some kind of librarian rather than an apprentice wizard.

“Today I just wanted to get a look at the library, and find out how you run things here,” I told him. “I expect my apprentice and I will both be paying a lot of visits in the future.”

“Of course, Your Diligence,” he replied obsequiously, giving me the honorific the Conclave’s Adepts used. “I’ll be happy to show you around. The Red Conclave has the largest collection of arcane works north of the Alps.”

“Shouldn’t that be ‘Your Wisdom’?” Another voice interrupted. “I can’t imagine an ordinary Adept disrupting the whole natural order of things as our visitor has.”

I turned to find a lovely dark-haired woman in a low-cut dress regarding me with amused interest. She certainly had the figure for an outfit like that, and I recognized her face from recent Conclave meetings.

“Hello, Tova,” I said. “Do you always torment the staff like that?”

She smiled warmly. “Only on occasion, Daniel. I must admit, I wouldn’t have expected to see you here.”

“Oh, I talked Steelbinder into making library access part of our deal,” I told her. “I expect you’ll see me visiting from time to time.”

“So you’ve come to an arrangement? I’m glad to hear it, Daniel. Perhaps I could give you the tour? I believe I know the library as well as any of our scribes.”

I shrugged. “Why not?”

I let her lead me around the library for a few minutes, explaining the organizational scheme and commenting on the quality of various works. There were a lot of writings on magic here, as well as a considerable selection of other works. The filing system was a complete pain, of course. They categorized grimoires based on the era and school of the author, for instance, which was useless unless you already knew the whole history of the development of European magic. I could see that finding anything useful was going to take some work.

But Tova hadn’t approached me just to be friendly.

“Since you have your library access already, I assume matters must be progressing quickly?” She asked as we neared the back of the library, leading up to the obvious topic of conversation.

“Yes, I delivered amulets for the High Adepts today,” I told her. “We also agreed on prices. One hundred and twenty crowns per amulet, for Adepts in good standing.”

She frowned pensively. “I see. Not many Adepts could lay their hands on that kind of money, Daniel. I don’t suppose you’d be interesting in non-monetary forms of payment?”

“Going to offer me your daughters again?” I said dryly.

I was half expecting her to try vamping me into a deal, but instead she just sighed.

“I do wish I’d been more circumspect in approaching that topic,” she said tiredly. “You know, most men would jump at an opportunity like that. Britt and Caja are the perfect blend of demonic passion with human intellect, and half the wizards in the Conclave have been sniffing around them since they turned fourteen. It was a natural assumption.”

Well, if she was going to be honest instead of playing mind games I could do the same. “How did they feel about it?”

“After you threw up that fortress overnight? You were all they could talk about for days. Then they met Cerise at one of the apprentice gatherings.”

She paused, and shook her head sadly. “Fifteen years of painstaking research and preparation. Two years of summoning rituals, desperately trying to fight off incubus addiction long enough to make the fertility magic work. Then another sixteen years raising them in the family traditions, dealing with demonic instincts and helping them forge their natural magic into a tool instead of letting it control them. I’ve invested most of my life in those girls, and until you came to Kozalin I thought I’d succeeded. But crude as she is in some respects, Cerise puts them to shame.”

“Cerise is pretty amazing,” I agreed.

“As is Avilla. She must have been quite a beauty even before she was touched by magic. Or else, you must be a true master of cosmetic spells.”

I shook my head. “Believe it or not, that’s actually what Avilla looks like. No enhancement needed.”

Tova looked away. “Now I’m truly jealous. In any event, it seems unlikely that my wiles would be sufficient to wring any great concessions from you. But perhaps there is some other bargain we could make?”

I shrugged, and leaned against a wall. “Maybe. I’m not necessarily against the idea of bartering, but right now every hour is precious. If I’m going to spend time making another power amulet, I need to get something in return that’s actually more valuable to me than any of the thousand other things I could have made instead. What do you have to offer?”

She was poised enough not to give any obvious signs of nervousness, but there was a certain unmistakable tension in the way she held herself. For whatever reason, she was really concerned about the outcome of this conversation.

“I am uncertain of exactly where your needs might lie,” she began. “Although, of course, I don’t expect that you would outline them to me. I suppose the most obvious thing I could offer would be my personal expertise. I am counted quite skilled at training young women in the art of pleasing a man, with and without magic.”

“The last thing I need is for those girls to be even more irresistible,” I chuckled. “Besides, if I wanted to go that route I already have a retainer who’d be happy to handle it. Have you heard of the Mistress of the Grove of Bloody Thorns?”

Her eyes went wide with shock for a moment, before she covered it. “Mistress Pelagia? Yes, I am familiar with her. But I had always heard that she guarded her independence quite fiercely.”

“Fimbulwinter makes for strange allies,” I pointed out. “At any rate, while that sort of thing might be fun it doesn’t keep any of us from freezing to death or being eaten by monsters. What else do you have?”

“I am one of the Conclave’s foremost experts on spells of influence, and I have accumulated a small surplus of thoroughly enchanted defensive items. I could outfit one or two people to resist virtually any form of mind magic.”

I considered that. “We’ve already got pretty good defenses in that area. I suppose it’s the sort of thing where you can’t be too careful, but then again we really aren’t facing a lot of threats of that nature.”

“Are you that sure of whatever hold you have over Pelagia?” she asked pointedly.

I shook my head. “I don’t have a hold over her, Tova. She’s an ally, not a slave, and she came to me of her own free will.”

“Really? How unusual. Are you going to make a habit of such impossibilities, Daniel?”

“Pretty much,” I admitted.

She paused to study me for a long moment.

“What is your view on binding demons?” She finally asked.

I frowned. “Relying on something that wants to kill you is generally pretty stupid, unless you’re so desperate that you don’t have another choice. You might get away with it once, but if you make a habit of it you’ll eventually make a mistake. Why?”

“I am something of an expert on the various races of demons,” she admitted. “Binding anything impressive would normally be beyond my power, but access to one of your amulets would change that. Your point about the innate hostility of most demons is well taken, of course.”

“Most?” I asked.

“There are always exceptions. They have their own rules and hierarchies, like anyone. Their own needs and desires. Most demonic races are too monstrous for this to be of any help, of course. Summoning an ungol to kill your enemies might seem to fit its nature, but it will likely begin the slaughter with its summoner.”

“Yeah, they’re not terribly sociable. I take it you’ve found some special cases that actually work, then?”

“I have,” she admitted. “Ordinarily such summonings are too dangerous for my taste, but again that is more a matter of power than skill. I could provide you with several fairly powerful servitors in exchange for an amulet. Or even…”

She trailed off, hesitating.

“Yes?”

She studied the floor for a moment.

“You spoke of retainers. Are you recruiting, Daniel?”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Yes. But that seems like quite a leap of faith, for both of us. Why would you even consider it?”

“Perhaps the prospect of a glorious death does not enthrall me as it does the men of this city. It seems to me that you don’t intend to follow that path.”

“As a famous general of my land once said, no one ever won a war by dying gloriously for his country. You win wars by making the other guy die gloriously for his country.”

She smiled thinly. “Ambitious.”

“Always. Well, I’m going to have to think about the demon idea a bit. It sounds useful if it actually works out, but there are also a lot of risks involved. As far as the other thing…”

“Let it be, for now,” she interrupted. “I spoke in haste. There would be consequences to consider, and grave difficulties to overcome. I’m sure you have more pressing concerns.”

“Yeah, my to-do list is about a mile long,” I agreed. “Speaking of which, it’s about time I got back to work. Come visit me in a few days, and we’ll see if we can work something out on the amulet.”

“Thank you, Daniel. I shall.”

I spent the trip back to my island thinking. Would I want someone like Tova in my organization?

On the one hand a fully trained wizardess would be a godsend. Her presence would go a long way towards addressing Cerise’s desire for some magical backup, and if she could really hire a squad of reliable demon mercenaries that would be even better. Not to mention that she was bound to have a lot of cards she hadn’t shown yet.

On the other hand, recruiting one of Steelbinder’s people out from under him was sure to cause friction. Not to mention that I had no idea how trustworthy Tova would actually be. It was all too likely that she’d try to manipulate herself into a position of influence, or try some kind of clever mind control scheme, or turn out to be a spy for the Conclave. It would be hard to ever trust her.

I had some real misgivings about the whole demon summoning thing too. I could see a lot of ways for something like that to go wrong. But I didn’t really know enough about demons to evaluate the risks, so I resolved to talk to Cerise and Elin about it.

My plans for a quick conversation were derailed when a maid intercepted me at the elevators.

“My lord!” She called as I approached. “Thank goodness you’re back. Miss Avilla sent me to fetch you as soon as you arrive. You have visitors.”

“Visitors?” I asked.

She glanced around, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “Elves, milord. All fancied up like nobles. Miss Avilla said to tell you they’re the next batch? Miss Cerise is with them now, but they’re waiting to speak with you.”

“Ah. Well, I’d better see what they want, then.”

We only had one sitting room set up to receive formal visitors, so there wasn’t any question where I’d find them. Especially since Gronir was guarding the door with a couple of wolfen and one of Corinna’s warrior dryads. I nodded to him, and opened the door.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from actual elves, but this definitely wasn’t it.

The first thing that caught my eye was the ears. Long and pointed, more like anime elves than the more traditional sort, and mobile like a dog’s. That part was obvious because when I entered the room several of them started, and their ears went flat momentarily before perking back up.

Aside from that oddity they almost looked Arabic. They were a bit taller than the humans of Varmland, almost matching my own height, with sharp features and dusky skin tones. Heavy fur cloaks and coats were strewn about the room, leaving them clad in finely worked garments of leather and silk that left their arms and shoulders bare.

Four of them were obviously guards, with slender swords at their sides and intricately recurved bows in leather cases on their backs. They definitely lacked the waifish build of typical fantasy elves, though, and to my surprise two of them were women. The men were muscular and solidly built, while both women boasted exuberant curves and startlingly generous bust lines. Both sexes had waist-length hair in various dark shades of red or brown, worn in long braids decorated with little bits of jewelry.

At the table in the middle of the room a slightly older-looking elf in silk robes was drinking and playing darts with Cerise. I’m not sure where they even got the dart board, because it certainly hadn’t been there yesterday. But from the way they were laughing it was apparently a hit.

The last occupant of the room was another male elf in robes, who was standing beside the table wringing his hands and looking worried. He seemed a little younger than the others, but since they weren’t human I wasn’t sure if I could rely on that kind of impression.

“Hello, Cerise,” I said. “Having fun?”

She started, and nearly dropped the dart that she’d been about to throw. I glanced at the board, and realized that she’d been showing off. There was a dart in the bullseye, and another dart stuck to that one, and a third dart embedded in the second one. The whole assemblage was wobbling ominously, obviously about to fall off at any moment.

“Hey, Daniel!” She called, sounding just a little tipsy. “Check it out. Hecate sent us some dark elves.”

The older elf smiled tolerantly, and stood to offer me his hand.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, Cerise,” he said. “Greetings to you, Adept Black. I am Irithil Nethwillin, of the Nethwillin Trading Company.”

He had a firm but measured grip, and made a point of meeting my eyes. Interesting.

“Welcome to my sanctuary, Irithil,” I replied. “I assume Cerise has already offered you hospitality, but I’ll be happy to confirm your welcome. What can I do for the Nethwillin Trading Company?”

He smiled easily. “Straight to the point, is it? Come, share a drink or two as we discuss matters.”

“Yeah, dark elves have this whole big thing about drinking over business,” Cerise put in.

Well, it wasn’t like alcohol would do anything to me as long as I was wearing my amulet. Come to think of it, Cerise was wearing hers too. What was she drinking, that she’d managed to get buzzed? Or was she faking it?”

“I see. I suppose they have a higher alcohol tolerance than most of the races they do business with,” I observed.

The young elf looked even more nervous at that, but Irithil just smiled.

“The Adept is a perceptive man,” he said. “Oh, I should introduce my assistant Valthenis. He’s still only a student of the art of negotiation, so I hope you’ll make some allowances if he should happen to misstep.”

I waved off his concern. “No worries. Apprentices have to learn the trade somehow, right? Besides, my people are pretty informal compared to the humans in Varmland. You’d have to work pretty hard to offend me.”

I took a seat at the table, and casually brushed my fingers against Cerise’s arm. Damn, she wasn’t faking. Was that some kind of magical intoxication effect?

“That’s good to hear, Adept Black. Valthenis, pour some firewine for the Adept. The Chumash bold, I think. Nothing but the best for our host.”

Cerise leaned over to kiss my cheek, and I used the contact to probe her system in more detail. Yeah, that wine was some kind of magical intoxication potion. The enchantment was a subtle one, very hard to detect, but fortunately my mana sorcery was up to the task. I blended my magic with Cerise’s for a moment, and broke it.

She gasped, and suddenly sat up straight.

I accepted the goblet Irithil was offering, a fancy thing made of transparent crystal, and examined the contents closely.

“Impressive,” I admitted. “The enchantment is blended into the substance of the wine so subtly that it would be invisible to most people. What do you do, enchant the grapes? No, it’s more indirect than that. Modified plants? Or is the magic in the soil?”

“You have an uncommonly keen eye, lord wizard,” Irithil said carefully. “The details are a closely held secret, of course.”

“I should have known you were up to something,” Cerise groaned. “Typical dark elf.”

“I could hardly send my people to live under a foreign lord without testing his mettle,” Irithil said mildly.

I sipped the wine. It was oddly spicy, with a complex blend of flavors I couldn’t quite identify, but quite good. I broke the enchantment as it tried to affect me, and set the goblet aside.

“Just don’t try my patience,” I told him. “A test or two at the beginning of a relationship is understandable, but if it continues past the point where an agreement is reached it quickly becomes treachery.”

“The dark elves are slow to make alliances, but even slower to break one,” Irithil assured me. “Nethwillin has been especially wary of entanglements since we won our independence two thousand years ago, but the sudden advent of Fimbulwinter has caught us off guard. Our former leadership was convinced that the whole Ragnarok prophecy was an elaborate misdirection.”

“Former leadership?” I asked.

“After such a calamitous error in judgment the old clan head was naturally forced to step down,” he explained.

“Ah.” I wondered if ‘step down’ was a euphemism for some more permanent fate. Leaders rarely give up power voluntarily, and what little I knew about the dark elves didn’t suggest that they were any less ruthless than the humans in this world.

“Is that how you ended up consulting with Hecate?” Cerise asked. “Your people don’t usually have much to do with foreign gods.”

“All dealings with the gods are fraught with danger, and we rarely have need to take such risks,” Irithil replied. “But you have the right of it. Cerise, you and Avilla have been customers of Nethwillin for some years now, but how much do you know about us?”

She shrugged. “You’ll trade anything to anyone, and you don’t get involved in local conflicts. Your trading network covers all of Midgard and a lot of the other worlds, and you’re neutral to pretty much everyone. You’re good fighters with strong magic, and you’re probably rich, but there aren’t very many of you. That’s about it, really. Avilla was always the one who talked to the trader when he came by, and he never tried to trick us with magic wine. I’m not real happy about that, by the way.”

“It would only have made you more agreeable,” Irithil said in a conciliatory tone. “Surely you’ll concede that one must bargain the hardest when there is the most at stake?”

“Caveat emptor works best when you’re making one-time deals,” I pointed out. “With repeat customers you’re better off building a relationship for trustworthiness.”

“An astute point, lord wizard. As we have now established that such a relationship is a possibility, allow me to get to the point.”

“By all means.”

Irithil took a sip of the wine, and sat back in his chair.

“Nethwillin conducts trade on every continent of Midgard, and in many other worlds as well. But outsiders rightly fear our arts, and it is rare indeed for any nation to allow us more than a tiny trading outpost within their territory. Certainly none would allow us to establish a proper settlement, and this has long been a source of difficulty for us. We are essentially exiles from Svartalfheim, due to certain ancient feuds, and have no homeland to call our own.”

Cerise frowned. “Aren’t you guys like the fey and light elves when it comes to kids? You don’t have very many, so you have to do everything you can to protect them?”

“You perceive the problem,” Irithil replied. “Our solution has been to establish hidden settlements in locations that are easily reached by the hidden ways our traders walk, but are very remote by more conventional means of travel. The challenges have been considerable, as such places are generally quite inhospitable. But we have managed until recently.”

“How do you grow crops?” Cerise asked. “I thought Midgard’s sun was too bright for you guys?”

Irithil nodded. “Indeed it is. Even here in Varmland, going outdoors during a summer day feels much like hiking across a desert would to you. But the sun is weaker at more northern latitudes, and we have found various means of recruiting long-term retainers to assist with the necessary labor. Unfortunately, that solution has proved to have a critical flaw.”

“Your settlements are going to be buried in ice in a few years, aren’t they?” I said.

He sighed.

“Our largest settlement is in the mountains of northern Scandinavia. The entire valley is covered in six feet of snow, and the cold is so bitter only the beasts of Jotunheim can survive outdoors for long. Our other holdings are hidden deep in the heart of Asia, and scarcely any better off.”

Yeah, that would not be a good place to retreat to. Siberian winters are bad enough under normal conditions. Add in the influence of Fimbulwinter and they’d be giving Antarctica competition. But there was still one thing that confused me.

“I’m surprised a clan with such wide-ranging contacts couldn’t negotiate a deal with some established ally.”

“Some of our negotiators are pursuing such options,” he replied. “But neither the men of the East nor the faerie lords across the sea will allow foreigners to settle on their lands, and virtually all the powers of the West are being drawn into this war. We have no desire to save our children from one threat only to see them used as spear fodder against another one. There are any number of minor tribes we might deal with, of course, but most of them can barely preserve their own lives against the onslaught of Gaea’s children.”

“I thought it was only humans they were going to war with,” I observed.

He shrugged. “Alas, goblins and trolls are not so discriminating. Perhaps this new army from Skogheim will focus on their crusade against humans, but perhaps not. We are reluctant to make assumptions.”

“Skogheim?” I asked. “Is that the name of this hidden world the ape men are coming from?”

“Ape men?” He slowly smiled. “How appropriate. Yes. Skogheim is a world far removed from the lands of humans. Gaea appropriated it for her favored children when Zeus banished them from Midgard early in his rule, and they have dwelt there ever since. We used to trade with them now and then, but that was before they began their rampage. Why?”

“I’ve been looking for a source of intelligence on them,” I explained. “No one around here seems to know anything about them, aside from a few brief mentions in ancient documents. But let’s not get off track. You’re looking for a safe place for your people to evacuate to. That’s what this island is for, so I’d think we can come to an arrangement. How many people are we talking about?”

“That will depend on the logistical situation,” he replied. “Which is the one glaring deficiency I can see in your position. The defenses you’ve built are quite formidable, and living inside this mountain of stone would be the next best thing to being back in Svartalfheim. But the humans trapped in Kozalin will quickly strip bare every source of food in the region, and smuggling provisions past them would be a challenge even with our resources.”

I smiled. “That won’t be a problem. Come, I’ve got something to show you.”

I led him downstairs and over to the agricultural complex, where we took an elevator back up into one of the levels that was currently being worked. We stepped out of the elevator into warm sunlight, with neat rows of knee-high plants stretching off all around us.

Irithil controlled his expression well, but his guards looked around in shock.

“This is quite remarkable,” he admitted.

Ilona rose from between two rows of plants, stepping out of a patch of earth I was sure had been empty a moment ago.

“Oh, dark elves,” she observed. “This could get interesting. Are they going to be staying, my lord?”

“That’s what we’re discussing,” I told her.

The guards were staring again.

“You have dryads here? Unbound dryads, at that? How did you manage such a feat?” Irithil asked.

“They picked up their groves and came looking for shelter,” I told him. “We worked out a deal. So you see, I don’t think we’ll have a problem with food supplies.”

“You have more surprises up your sleeve than I would have guessed, Adept Black. It seems that your fortress is deceptively well situated to survive this apocalypse. So, what would the presence of a hundred or so highly capable dark elves be worth to you?”

Somehow, I resisted the urge to facepalm. I had a feeling this was going to be a long talk.

Chapter 7

To my relief no new crisis appeared the next day. Rumor had it that Brand and Prince Caspar were busy jaunting all over Europe fighting ape men and recruiting famous knights, while the Conclave’s leaders were no doubt busy putting their new power sources to use. So I finally had time to return to one of my more challenging projects.

Hovering a few feet off the ground was easy if you had enough magic. Stable, powered flight wasn’t.

Moving things around with my force magic was easy enough, but Newtonian physics still applied. If I wanted to put a spell on something to push it up hard enough to keep it in the air, I had to apply an equal amount of force pushing something else down. With the skimmers that was easy, since the ground was always close enough for my magic to reach. But at higher altitudes there was nothing for my magic to interact with but the air. A vehicle built on that principle would be like a magic helicopter, held aloft on a hurricane-force wind that would create all sorts of noise and turbulence.

That last part was a real concern, because my force magic didn’t have any inherent ability to detect which way was down. A vehicle that was being held up by magic pushing against the bottom of the hull would flip over pretty easily, and then the spell that was supposed to hold it up would just drive it into the ground. Not ideal at all.

I’d originally had the idea of using multiple lift enchantments for better stability, but even then they really needed to have some way to detect when the vehicle was tilting and adjust their thrust to compensate. That was tricky enough that there was no way I was going to pull it off quickly, so I’d decided to set it aside and make do with the skimmer effect instead. But I’d had other ideas since then.

My first flight experiment involved conjuring a simple basket of very thin iron, with a long rod tipped with a force field spell projecting from the top. When I triggered the spell a spherical force field a few inches across appeared at the end of the rod, and began to grow. That left a soft vacuum inside the force field, but my spells could easily handle a measly 14 PSI of air pressure.

Nothing happened for a minute, while the force field grew into a ball ten feet across. But as it continued to expand the breeze caught it, and the basket I was standing in shifted slightly. Then again, a little further this time.

I grinned madly as my improvised magical balloon lifted off, and rose silently into the sky.

I spent maybe an hour aloft, testing out various ideas for steering the contraption with magic. The best option seemed to be a simple tube with an adjustable force push spell on the inside, which behaved a lot like a jet engine aside from being considerably quieter. Hanging one of them off the side of the basket set it spinning madly, which nearly broke the force bubble free from its single point of connection. But once I modified the basket to connect with the force bubble at four distinct points the whole arrangement became a lot more stable, and hanging low-powered thrusters off both sides of the basket allowed me to steer.

It was slow, but not nearly as conspicuous as a normal balloon. The force field was nearly invisible, aside from the occasional faint glimmer of blue light. So even a really big model shouldn’t attract too much attention. If I patterned my designs after dirigibles I ought to be able to get some decent speed, and a lot of cargo capacity.

I landed, and went back to my new workshop to run some calculations. I hadn’t been sure how much lift I’d actually get with an arrangement like that, but based on the weight of the basket and the size of the force bubble I could now say it was somewhere in the neighborhood of one pound of lift per twenty cubic feet of force bubble. That doesn’t sound like much, until you do the math. A fifty foot bubble would easily lift several tons, and that was still on the small side compared to the big dirigibles that were built on Earth.

I’d barely started roughing out some ideas for a second prototype when Cerise caught up to me.

“You were flying!” She exclaimed as she entered my workshop.

“Yep.” I have to admit, I may have been a little smug.

“You didn’t invite me!” She went on.

I laughed. “I’m still testing out ideas, Cerise. I’m not ready to take anyone along with me yet. That thing could easily have failed while I was a thousand feet up, and my safe fall enchantment was really only designed for one person.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not helpless, Daniel. Why do you think I kept my wings?”

“Your what?”

“Oh. Um, I never actually told you, did I? Damn. Okay, well now you know. Check this out.”

She closed her eyes in concentration for a moment, and a pair of leathery wings sprouted from her back.

“Neat,” I said. “How do you do that without ripping a hole in the back of your dress?”

“Avilla figured out how to make my clothes shift with me,” she confided. “Don’t tell anyone, though. She wants to surprise Elin with it. Anyway, I can’t actually get off the ground with these but I can jump off a building and glide down just fine. So next time you’re going flying, take me with you!”

I held up my hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay, you win. I know how much you want to fly, Cerise. I just want to be sure you’ll get to enjoy the experience more than once. My people learned to fly a hundred years ago, but it took an awful lot of dead inventors before we figured out how to do it safely. This shit’s a lot more dangerous than it looks.”

She huffed. “I know! Seriously, it’s the same here. Lots of wizards have died trying to fly, and even the ones who figure it out don’t do it very often. But you’re not leaving me out of this.”

I couldn’t really blame her. But I had some serious issues to solve before I could turn my little test balloon into something useful. I had real concerns about how well a lighter than air craft would handle weather, which was a big deal with the constant storms we were getting. Not that a magical helicopter would be much better, but at least it would be able to set down quickly.

Weight was another major concern. With my magical resources the most obvious choice of structural material was nickel-iron, but that had serious problems. The stuff is extremely heavy, and not nearly as strong as proper steel. Combine that with the fact that I didn’t have a degree in aircraft engineering, and I could see that I’d end up using the majority of my lifting capacity just on a hull and internal bracing. Since the whole point of this exercise was to move large numbers of people around, that was a problem.

Maybe I could just make a bigger dirigible? But that would also make it harder to maneuver, and the bigger the force bubble got the more power it would take to maintain it. If I made one big enough I’d eventually run into power issues, and I didn’t have a good feel for where the limit would be.

What I really needed was something like aluminum, but of course that was practically nonexistent in a medieval world. I vaguely remembered that it had been discovered some centuries ago, but for a long time it had been more valuable than gold just because it’s so hard to refine. Kind of ironic, considering that aluminum ores are actually pretty common.

How hard would it be to summon?

Harder than pure iron, as it turned out. But a lot easier than copper, let alone silver or gold. Apparently it was the abundance of the element that determined how hard it was to summon, not the difficulty of refining ore. Of course, I could only summon a few ounces at a time with the power feed from my amulet, and producing enough to build anything would be tedious at that rate. But I already knew how to solve that problem.

So I set up one of the empty rooms near my workshop as an aluminum factory. I enchanted a fresh power stone just for that purpose, and hooked it up to a factory enchantment designed to use its whole energy output to conjure up ingots of aluminum. A little tinkering with chutes and force magic ensured that the ingots would end up in a large bin, and the factory would shut down if it overflowed.

It worked out even better than I’d hoped. The setup produced about a hundred pounds of aluminum per minute, which was far more than I was likely to need. That success motivated me to spend a couple of hours making a gold factory tied to the same power stone, and give it a test run.

Gold is a lot rarer than aluminum, and the results were disappointing at first glance. Tiny grains and flecks of gold formed in the summoning compartment, and trickled down the chute into the bin. Just a few grams per minute, if that.

But a few grams of gold is real money. I left it running overnight, and when I checked back in the morning the bin held a couple of pounds of gold. Yeah, just one gold factory would make enough money to fund my whole operation. At least, as long as I didn’t conjure enough of it to inflate its value away.

That was one load off my mind.

My second prototype was about the size and shape of one of the armored skimmers. I built it out of aluminum, with a much thinner hull than the armored vehicles and no turret. Four short rods projected from the top, bearing enchantments that would create a force bubble to provided lift. It also had the same levitation and movement enchantments as a skimmer, in order to cushion landings and allow it to maneuver on the ground when the force bubble was collapsed. For propulsion in the air I mounted two force thrusters on pylons along the sides, controlled by a couple of levers.

Cerise was positively gleeful when she joined me for a test flight the morning after I finished it. I took us out over the river and a couple of miles upstream, beyond easy reach of anyone who might be watching my island from the city. Then I took hold of the lever that controlled the lift cell, and slowly eased it up. A translucent force bubble formed overhead, barely visible through the panels of clear quartz I’d positioned directly above the pilot and copilot seats. For a long moment nothing visible happened, and Cerise started to fidget in her seat.

Then the river started to fall away below us. Cerise jumped up, and peered out the window with a wide grin.

“Awesome!” She declared. “This thing is so smooth, you can hardly feel it move.”

We watched the ground fall away below us. When we’d risen a few hundred feet I eased off on the lift, and found myself wishing I had an altimeter.

“Do we have to have a windshield?” Cerise asked. “It would be great to feel the wind on my face.”

“We do if we’re going to carry a compartment full of people in this thing,” I replied. “Remember how nervous the refugees were when I made that hover-barge to carry us all to Lanrest? That was only a couple of feet off the ground. If I made something like this open to the surrounding air even our own troops would probably panic.”

“I guess,” she grumbled.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” I told her. “Once I’m sure I know what I’m doing I’ll make something fun for you. Maybe a flying version of your bike? Or better yet, I bet we can figure out a way to give you enough lift to fly using your wings.”

“That would be awesome,” she agreed, mollified for now. “How does this thing work, anyway? I don’t see a spell holding us up.”

“It works just like a boat. You know why ships float, right? A block of wood weighs less than the same amount of water, so it floats on top of it?”

“Ooh, natural philosophy. Yes, I read my Archimedes. But what does that have to do with anything?”

“Air has weight too,” I told her. “Not very much, obviously, but a little. That’s why a strong wind can push things around, just like a strong current in a river.”

She gave the force bubble above us a speculative look. “What’s inside that?”

I grinned. “Nothing. I start out with a tiny little force bubble, and make it grow without letting any more air into the space inside. So how much does that giant force ball weigh?”

“Nothing?” She ventured.

“Close enough,” I agreed. “And how much would the same amount of air weigh?”

She looked around at the bare metal walls of the cabin, and chewed her lip thoughtfully. “About the same as this flying skimmer thing?”

“Exactly. It’s called an airship, by the way. Because it works like a regular ship, only in air instead of water.”

She mulled that over for a moment, and looked out the window again. “Is there a top of the air, like there’s a top of the sea?”

Now it was my turn to be surprised. “Yeah, actually there is. But we don’t want to go that high. The higher you go the thinner the air is, and it gets too thin for humans to breath long before you reach the edge of the atmosphere. Why?”

“We’re still rising,” she pointed out.

“Oh, crap.”

Achieving neutral buoyancy was a lot harder than I’d expected. We drifted gradually up and down through the air for the rest of the morning, while I experimented with the controls. The thrusters could move my prototype at a pretty decent clip despite the drag of the lift cell above us, but the steering was sluggish at best. I rearranged the control panel several times, looking for an arrangement that was easy to use, and fiddled repeatedly with the placement of the thrusters.

Cerise eagerly tried out the controls when I gave her the chance, and before long she was piloting the prototype better than I could. Considering that she’d presumably never heard about things like updrafts that surprised me.

“I can sort of feel what the wind around us is doing,” she explained when I asked. “It’s part of the magic I took from that dragon. Good thing, too, because this thing is really sluggish. I don’t suppose that’s something you can fix?”

“Probably not. There’s a different kind of flying device I know about, that’s a lot faster and handles more like your bike. But I’m not planning on building any.”

“Why not? Fast is good, right?”

I had to smile at her enthusiasm. “Other things being equal, sure. But airplanes are really unstable, which makes them hard to design and tricky to pilot. I’d end up spending a couple of weeks fiddling with designs and crashing all the time before I got something to work, and teaching normal people to operate it would be a nightmare. They also can’t carry as much weight as an airship, and they need a lot more space to land and take off. An airship can go straight up and down, but an airplane sort of needs a running start to get into the air.”

“Huh.”

She draped herself over the dashboard in front of her, and gazed thoughtfully out the window.

“Your world must be pretty amazing,” she said.

“In some ways. We’re still people, so we have war and poverty and injustice just like any other land. But America was a pretty nice place to live. Most of my inventions are really just a matter of adapting things from back home to work with the magic you have here.”

“That’s a relief. The way you’re constantly pulling stuff like this airship out of nowhere could make a girl feel pretty inadequate, you know? I’m glad you’re with us, but sometimes I feel like I’m not pulling my weight.”

I scoffed. “You? You saved our bacon against the ungols, remember? It took both of us to kill the dragon, and I probably don’t even know half the critical stuff you’re doing on the island. Managing Corinna, running the spy ring, all the work you’ve put in to bring the coven together. You’re doing great, Cerise. Don’t sell yourself short just because you don’t have few thousand geniuses to copy ideas from.”

“I guess.” She sighed. “It’s just, I see you making all these amazing things, and it makes me want to make something amazing too. Only I’m not you. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

I put my arms around her. “I can understand that. Maybe we should try a collaboration?”

She looked up at me, and smiled slyly. “So there are things you can’t do by yourself? What did you have in mind?”

“Well, I think our next step needs to be powering ourselves up to fight tougher enemies. I’ve been wanting to do something about getting you a better weapon, at the very least,” I told her. “You’re our best melee fighter, but your daggers tend not to do much against our more powerful enemies.”

“Ugh. I know. Sometimes I think I should have held off on tying them to my soul until I was strong enough to make something better, but I never would have survived so long without them. I’ve been working on adding more enchantments, but doing that the way I was taught is a slow process. I don’t know how you make things like this airship so fast.”

“Want to see if I can teach you?” I asked.

“Do you think you can? Aren’t you using sorcery?” I could hear the eagerness in her voice.

“Sorcery is what let me invent the process I use to make magic items,” I told her. “But the actual techniques are all things I could explain. I haven’t seen that much of your traditional enchantment methods, but I think a lot of the difference is just the extra work you do to avoid wasting magic. Everything is a lot easier when you can just pull more from your amulet whenever you need it.”

“I can definitely see that. Thank you, Daniel. This means a lot to me.”

“Hey, I’m happy to help. I love you, Cerise. I want you to be as strong as you can be. Besides, any excuse to spend time with you is a good one.”

She chuckled. “Just make sure we get some actual work done. You know I’m going to be all over you as soon as we blend magic.”

“What, the mighty death witch can’t practice a little self-control?” I asked.

“It’s a lot more fun when you control me,” she purred.

“Nut.”

“Yeah, and you love it. Hey, I wonder if anyone’s ever done it in an airship before?”

I should have expected that the little minx would want to join the mile high club. Well, what the hell? Extending the test flight an extra hour wasn’t going to hurt anything.

Cerise turned out to be quite good at enchantment work, which didn’t surprise me at all. There’s no way she would have survived her crazy approach to magic without buckets of talent. I spent several very pleasant hours that evening teaching her some of my simpler techniques for high-energy enchantment, and working with her on ideas for enhancing her daggers.

That was a bit tricky, since they were already so closely tied to her. Fire was deeply incompatible with her shadow magic, so we certainly weren’t going to be copying anything from Grinder’s design. Her powers were really more suited to stealthy hit-and-run tactics anyway, so anything that would give away her position was a poor fit.

On the good side, they already had substantial mana batteries built into their enchantments.

“Normally witches don’t have much raw power,” Cerise explained. “So you build your athame to store magic, and feed it what you can every day. Then you have something with real oomph to call on when you need it.”

I nodded along thoughtfully. “I see you’ve been expanding their capacity recently? That’s good. What do you think about some force magic along the edges, so you can cut things that are harder than silver?”

“Sounds like a good start,” she agreed. “I want to work in something like that strength spell you put on your buildings, too. Oh, and what about one of those monstrous projection fields like you put on Grinder? Only mine would be shadows and death, obviously.”

“Projection field? What do you mean?”

That led to an enlightening conversation, for both of us.

When I’d built Grinder I’d been thinking like a science fiction fan. It built up a cylindrical field of high-temperature plasma using a combination of fire and force magic, and the plasma jet function was just a matter of conjuring more fire and using force magic to push it out at high speeds. Naturally this made for a short-ranged weapon, since plasma disperses quickly in air.

The standard techniques Cerise knew for building attack spells used a completely different approach. They were all based around weaving a spell that does something nasty to your enemy, and then projecting it at them in one way or another. Since one of my major limitations was my inability to cast spells on anything more than a few feet away this was a topic of considerable interest to me.

Cerise knew a method of building a spell and then making it reach out to targets ten or twenty feet away, which is what she’d assumed Grinder’s plasma jet was based on. She also knew several ways to throw a spell, and make it hold together for a few seconds until it hits a target and takes effect. That basically involved anchoring the spell to itself, which was a tricky enough concept that I might not have thought of it on my own.

For her part, Cerise found the idea of using magic to create and project ordinary physical forces a little mind-boggling.

“I guess that explains the guns,” she observed. “I wondered how you came up with an idea as wacky as throwing little rocks at people to kill them.”

“Yeah, too bad it won’t work with your usual tools,” I told her.

She frowned. “Why not? I guess shadow bolts wouldn’t hurt anyone without the magic to make them solid, but blinding people at a distance could be useful.”

“Darkness isn’t a substance,” I told her. “It’s just an absence of light. So I could make a weapon that shines a bright beam of light to blind people, but a beam that gets rid of light would have to be some kind of spell projection. That kind of detail is why you have to be an expert on natural philosophy to build attack spells the way I’ve been doing it.”

I actually meant physics, of course, but ‘natural philosophy’ was the closest the local language had for a word like that.

“Huh. I guess death spells are all magic, so that wouldn’t work either. Hey, but what about that thing you do where you put spells on bullets? We could do that with my stuff, right?”

“Yes, that could be quite effective,” I agreed.

It was a fun night, and surprisingly productive too. I resolved to start doing that with all of my girls on a regular basis. There was a lot I could learn from them about how magic was done in this world, and it was a good way to learn more about what they could do.

Unfortunately I could only spare an hour or two a day for that kind of thing, because I had my own projects to deal with.

It was becoming obvious to me by then that I was never going to have time to personally finish out the interior of the arcology blocks. Making proper living space for thousands of people would require incredible amounts of detail work, especially if I started worrying about things like doors and furniture. So instead I spent a day setting things up so my people could do that for themselves. I created some simple enchantment factories that created stone bricks in various colors, with interlocking shapes like children’s building blocks. Then I set up a store down on the street level to sell them at cheap prices, and hired a refugee family to run the place.

Magic lamps were also pretty straightforward to mass produce, so I set up a second shop selling them. I’d still have to do all the plumbing work myself, but that left me in a much better position to take in the wave of new recruits I was anticipating. Now I just had to be able to go get them.

My third prototype airship was much bigger than the others, since I wanted to be able to rescue substantial groups of people with it. I spent the better part of a day assembling an aluminum hull the size of a small ship, maybe forty feet long and a third of that wide. Most of that space was one giant open cargo hold, with large double doors and a loading ramp at the back. At the front was a control room with big windows of fused quartz, and seating for four crew members. Mindful of the possibility of long voyages I put in a ladder leading to a little loft area above the bridge, where the crew could lay out bedrolls and get some sleep between shifts.

It ended up with a pretty boxy shape, but that was fine. I was more interested in maximizing cargo space than making it look cool, and rectangular shapes are a lot easier to work with than aerodynamic curves. This thing wasn’t going to be fast enough to need more than the most minimal streamlining in any event. The hold was being big enough to hold two railroad boxcars crammed in side by side, and that was the important thing.

Instead of a single force bubble for lift I set up enchantments to create four of them. When they were activated they’d expand until they touched each other, and then fit together like soap bubbles. At full size they’d form a cylindrical shape with rounded ends, fairly similar to a dirigible, with internal force walls dividing the volume into four lift cells.

Mindful of the possibility that the airship could come under attack, I also put in some extra work to make them reform automatically if one of the force fields was destroyed somehow. Growing a lift cell back to full size might take a minute or so, but with four of them I figured that it would be difficult to make the vessel crash. A determined attacker might be able to force it down, but there should always be enough lift to keep the ship upright and slow the descent to something survivable.

As an added safety measure I put a more powerful version of the skimmer enchantments on the vessel’s hull, causing it to float eight feet off the ground when they were active. That would absorb a lot of the shock of a crash, as well as allowing the vessel to maneuver on the ground when the lift cells were retracted.

But the best defense is a good offense. How would we fight back, if the ship were attacked by a dragon or a pack of enemies on flying mounts?

There, I copied my ideas from the bombers of World War II. I didn’t have proper machine guns, but I figured the semi-automatic weapons I was already producing would work well enough. A griffon rider is a lot easier to hit than an airplane, especially since he has to get pretty close to attack you with arrows or battle magic.

So I put in four firing positions along the sides of the airship, each of them basically a normal gun sticking through the hull on a pivot mount. A small compartment under the bridge contained another firing position, and a tail gunner position above the rear doors rounded out our coverage. Of course, they couldn’t hit an enemy who was above the lift cells, and the windows that allowed the gunners to see out were thin enough that they wouldn’t stand up to a lot of punishment. But I figured it was a good enough solution for a threat that might never materialize.

A more pressing issue was how to land to pick up refugees who were besieged. The lift cells on this airship were going to form a cylinder nearly three hundred feet long at full size, which was far too big to fit in the courtyard of a typical castle. In that kind of situation we’d have to land outside the walls instead, which would only be practical if we had some way to drive off a group of attackers. Fortunately I had a viable solution to that problem.

I’d already worked out how to make a factory enchantment for bouncer grenades. Now I made four more of them, attached to the bottom of the airship’s hull and controlled from the bridge. Turn them on, and we’d be dropping about twenty-five grenades per minute onto whatever was under us. A few minutes of that ought to send most enemies running for cover, and the guns and my magic would keep them at bay while the airship was on the ground.

Now all I needed was a target.

Chapter 8

The negotiations with Irithil were still dragging on. He was determined to get the best deal he possibly could for his clan, and while their long-term situation wasn’t good they apparently felt they could afford to spend a few weeks exploring their options.

The main sticking point seemed to be the issue of fealty. The Nethwillin Company was used to having complete autonomy to run their own affairs, and they weren’t eager to give that up despite my assurances that I had no problem letting them continue to live by their own customs among themselves. For my part, I felt that letting any group on my island have too much autonomy was asking for trouble. There were inevitably going to be cases where members of different refugee groups got into arguments about whose customs should apply in some particular case, and I was damned well going to have the authority to settle such disputes.

Irithil was pretty cagey about military commitments as well. Not only did he want to limit his clan’s military obligation to just helping defend the island, but even then he wanted an agreement that their troops wouldn’t be placed under anyone else’s command. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.

Our discussion about trade was rather enlightening on both sides. Irithil brought the issue up expecting that I’d have a long list of restrictions and tariffs, just like your typical medieval government. I just shook my head.

“I realize that in most countries merchants place somewhere between serfs and criminals in the social order, but that’s not how I do things. My island is a free trade zone. You can trade anything you want with anyone who wants to do business with you, and I’m not going tax or regulate it at all. There are only a handful of exceptions to that rule, and I’m not sure if you’d be in those businesses anyway.”

“What would these exceptions be?” He asked carefully.

“First, anything that’s a potential danger to the island. Unstable superweapons, magical plagues, bound demons, things like that. I’m not necessarily going to ban that kind of trade, but if you actually have something like that going on I want to know about it so we can work together to make sure it doesn’t cause problems.”

“Understandable,” he conceded. “Nethwillin does some trade in bound creatures, but only those that we have the strength to put down should they somehow break free. I feel confident that we can agree on suitable precautions.”

“Good. That brings me to point two, which is that I’m not a big fan of slavery.”

He frowned. “An unusual sentiment. How, exactly, do you define slavery? Nethwillin has a significant number of hereditary retainers. For that matter, what about bound creatures?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I know that gets complicated. My core principle is that I’m not going to allow anyone to force a citizen of my realm into involuntary servitude. I’ll allow demon binding, because honestly who cares what happens to demons? But in the case of other sentient races I’m a lot more likely to say no than yes. As far as your retainers, well, do they have the option to leave?”

“I don’t believe the issue has ever arisen,” he said smoothly. “We are quite thorough about raising them to take pride in their service, and of course there are several loyalty effects at work. We do treat them quite well, if that makes a difference.”

Great, ethical mind controllers. Why was I bothering to talk to these guys again? But no, I was probably being unfair. Outright mind control is hard to do, and tends to have a lot of side effects. They were probably relying on clever applications of more limited kinds of influence, just like Avilla’s little suggestions. That was a lot more of a moral gray area.

“Is there ever a point where you could reasonably say they chose to enter your service? Can they leave if they feel the terms of their service have been violated?”

“In theory they could refuse to take the oath when they reach their majority,” he replied. “Few would wish to do so, of course, and it would leave them with no means of support and a substantial debt to the clan. Your second question implies a system considerably less sophisticated than ours, however. All members of the clan are bound by their own oaths, which include among their obligations the proper treatment of our retainers.”

“Lovely. Well, as long as it’s mutual and everyone gets into it voluntarily I suppose I won’t make an issue of it. I am going to make a standing offer to buy out the debts of anyone who doesn’t want to take the oath, though.”

“Our retainers are a treasure the clan has worked for several centuries to perfect, lord wizard. To attempt to steal them so blatantly is a bit insulting.”

Oh, boy.

Fortunately, Irithil and I didn’t meet every day. He had to send messages home periodically to get instructions from his mysterious clan head, which gave me time to save who weren’t a complete pain in the ass.

My staff was apparently getting used to my penchant for magical invention, because they hardly batted an eye when I announced my plan to start airlifting in refugees. Cerise had even had the forethought to have Captain Rain’s men start assembling a list of potential targets. Coming up with eight men to crew the airship took some doing, as overstretched as we already were. But we had a slow trickle of recruits coming in from Kozalin now, thanks to Cerise’s nascent spy network. There were a few people in the city who had both useful skills and a willingness to risk working for a ‘dark wizard’, and thanks to her efforts we were starting to find some of them.

I was caught a little off guard when Oskar asked me what the new airship was named.

Cerise snickered at my expression. “You didn’t even think of that, did you? Do people not name things where you’re from?”

“He still hasn’t named the island, or the fortress,” Elin observed.

Cerise waved her off. “Obviously it’s the Black Citadel, on Black Island. So, the Black Ship? Or maybe you’ll name it after your favorite girl?”

Avilla frowned at her. “Be nice, kitten. You might not feel jealousy, but the rest of us could get hurt feelings over that.”

I cleared my throat. “The airship’s name is Intrepid. Now if we could get back to organizing this little trip?”

We lifted bright and early the next day. It was only the second time I’d taken the Intrepid up, and in any normal situation we would have spent at least a week on training flights before attempting a real mission. But there wasn’t time to do things normally. Besides, I didn’t actually know enough about running an airship to teach classes on it. So instead we were all going to have to learn on the job.

I had Cerise on the controls so I could supervise, and I let her practice maneuvering the airship for a couple of hours as we sailed around near Kozalin. A pair of Griffon Knights made a detour to check us out at one point, but they veered off once they spotted the insignia on the side of the ship. I guess that was one good thing about having a personal coat of arms.

It was about the only thing that went smoothly.

I’d tried to solve the problem with keeping a steady altitude by building a crude altimeter, really just a mercury barometer, and tying it to an enchantment that would automatically adjust the airship’s lift. But it didn’t work quite right, and I spent half the time we were in the air trying to puzzle out what was wrong with it.

That was the most complex problem, but hardly the only one. The boarding ramp proved a little too short, and getting it extended when the ship was floating six feet off the ground was a tricky exercise that took three men. Closing the rear doors was also a problem, since they opened out instead of in. There were serious ergonomic issues with some of the gunnery positions, and the guy Cerise was trying to explain the pilot’s controls to clearly had no idea what she was talking about. If the Intrepid had been a conventional dirigible the whole trip would have been a disaster.

But I was able to fix the mechanical problems one by one, and of course the enchantments that moved the ship weren’t dependent on the crew. Eventually we started to get our act together, and I made the call to go ahead and set course for Varo.

According to our information Varo was a small coastal settlement forty miles north of Kozalin, basically a fishing village with a keep and a stone wall. The Griffon Knights reported that they’d fought off several assaults by bands of goblins, but suffered heavy casualties in the process. At this point their position was getting rather precarious, but evacuating them by conventional means wasn’t feasible. Between the weather and the monsters trying to march a group of refugees to safety overland would just get them all killed, and the settlement’s little harbor was too exposed to monster attacks for any merchant vessel to risk a visit.

If I were the prince I’d have commandeered a squadron of ships to sail around evacuating places like that, but he had other priorities.

The trip took barely an hour, but as I’d half expected we arrived to find the place under siege again. I had Cerise make a slow circuit of the area while I peered out the windows, studying the situation.

Half the village had been burned at some point, and the gates had been smashed and then replaced with an improvised barricade. The wall around the village wasn’t much to look at, maybe twelve or fifteen feet tall and only a few feet thick. The keep was a modest four-story affair, maybe twenty feet square. Defensible, but not big enough to house a lot of people for any length of time.

There were a few dozen men on the walls, armed with a motley assortment of bows, spears and farming implements. Facing them were half a dozen trolls and about a hundred goblins, who were peppering the defenders with arrows and thrown boulders from behind portable sections of wooden wall. Interesting. I hadn’t realized goblins were sophisticated enough to come up with something like that.

The village was so choked with snow that the inhabitants had been forced to shovel out trenches in it to get around, but at least that meant there was little chance of the goblins getting another fire started. Still, they had more than enough force to wipe out the defenders if they managed to get inside. Good thing we’d arrived when we did.

“Bring us down to about two hundred feet, and make a low pass over the goblin lines,” I told Cerise.

“Sure thing, boss. I can’t wait to see how the grenades work.”

I smiled at her enthusiasm, and bent over the chin gunner’s position. “We’re getting ready to make a pass over the goblins,” I called down. “You can open fire as soon as you have a good angle, but be careful that your shots don’t go off in the direction of the village. I don’t want us accidentally shooting the people we’re trying to rescue.”

“Aye aye, milord,” the gunner called back cheerfully.

I ducked back into the main compartment and repeated the instructions, including the emphasis on not shooting towards the village. By the time I was done with that we were swooping down towards the enemy lines.

I pulled the lever that activated the grenade factories, and immediately found myself lamenting the Intrepid’s lack of a bombardier position. There were no windows in the airship’s belly, so I couldn’t tell what effect we were having. A few faint sounds rose up from somewhere below, but I couldn’t tell if they were screams or war cries.

Cerise circled around for another pass, and I saw a wide furrow of churned snow crossing the enemy position. It looked like most of the grenades had missed, but here and there I saw mangled wood and red stains on the snow.

“Damn, I think the wind was blowing the grenades off course. Can you bring us by again, only a little upwind of them this time?”

“Sure,” Cerise said confidently. “Only, you sure you don’t want to just hop out and take care of them ourselves? I don’t see anything down there that could stop us.”

“No. One of us would have to stay here to fly the ship, and something could always go wrong. There’s no need to take any chances. We’re going to practice the American way of war here, and just bomb the fuck out of them until they give up.”

Our accuracy gradually improved as we got the hang of it, and more and more splashes of red dotted the snow. After three more passes the goblins broke, and tried to flee back to their camp. We followed, making a couple more bombing runs and then slowing to drop a denser shower of grenades onto their encampment. Finally they gave up, and scattered in all directions. We never came within reach of their shaman’s spells, let alone the little bows the goblins relied on.

Once the field was clear of living enemies I had Cerise land us well away from the village, and then retract the lift cells and drive up to within shouting distance of the wall. I’d added a hatch in the side of the bridge earlier, so I was able to climb out and hail the defenders without messing with the rear doors.

“That were a mighty fine sight, milord,” one of the men on the wall called as I exited the airship. “Who do we have to thank, for running off them mangy goat fuckers?”

“I’m Adept Daniel Black, a foreign wizard working with the Red Conclave. Any of you boys want a ride back to Kozalin? I’m here to evacuate the town, if you’re ready to pull out.”

“Thank the gods,” he replied. “We thought we wuz goners, lord wizard.”

Another man appeared at the wall. This one wore a battered-looking suit of plate mail, with a ripped surcoat bearing the same arms as the pennant fluttering from the keep’s flagpole.

“Your Diligence? I’m Sir Kai Ottosen, the fief holder here. Has Prince Caspar finally arranged our rescue, then?”

“No, the prince is busy fighting these ape men that are rampaging across the kingdom. I’m here on my own. I figured as long as I’ve got this fancy flying ship I may as well put it to good use. But I’m sure the prince would be happy to have more loyal vassals at his side.”

“What about my people?” He asked with a frown. Well, points to him, then.

“Kozalin is already overrun with refugees,” I admitted. “But I just put up another shelter, so there’s space for them. I can lift out some supplies as well as your people, so they won’t be starting over from nothing. Or they can come work for me. I’ve got a brand new fortress right next to Kozalin that needs a garrison, craftsmen, servants and even farmers.”

“Farmers? In this weather?”

I smiled. “Magic, obviously.”

He considered that for a long moment, before finally nodded.

“Very well, Your Diligence. Can you bring that thing a little closer to the gate? This is going to take some doing.”

His prediction proved accurate. I helped his men take the barricade apart, and with some careful maneuvering we were able to back the Intrepid up to the opening and lower the ramp to the snow right outside the settlement. But it was still a good walk from their granary to my airship’s cargo hold, and there was too much snow in the streets to get a cart through.

Sir Ottosen cautiously trooped up the ramp as a work party arrived with the first few sacks of grain, and looked around.

“How much weight can your vessel fly with, Your Diligence?” He asked.

“You can pretty much cram the hold full,” I told him. “She’ll lift a good thirty tons with no problem, and we’re not going to fit anywhere near that much in here with people taking up most of the space. It’s early enough in the day that we can make more than one trip if we need to, unless we end up spending hours on the loading.”

“I see. Yes, I’ve heard that the Griffon Knights can fly thirty miles in an hour, and Kozalin isn’t much further than that. Perhaps you could take the ill and infirm first, along with the livestock? By the time you return we’ll have had a chance to shift most of our supplies nearer the gate, where we can load them quickly.”

Livestock? I hadn’t even thought about that, but it made sense. Horses were probably the most valuable asset these people had, and the rest of their animals were easily portable food.

It ended up taking three trips. The first load was a few cows, lots of chickens and pigs, several horses, a swarm of children and a few older women sent along to keep them under control. They were variously elated and terrified by the flight, leaning towards the latter whenever the animals moved around enough to make the airship list noticeably. I ended up spending half the trip in the cargo area, directing the men who were supposed to be gunners in their efforts to keep the weight evenly distributed. I was definitely going to need to find a loadmaster for these trips.

We made good time back to the island, and I had Cerise land inside the walls so we could unload our passengers directly into the ground floor of the arcology block. I figured the large, empty spaces along the road would make decent holding pens for the animals, and keep the refugees out of the weather until they were all assembled.

By the time we returned the locals had a couple of cartloads worth of grain ready to load, packed into everything from burlap sacks to dozens of giant baskets. There were a lot of bundles of household goods, too. Piles of vegetables wrapped in blankets, bundles of clothes, stacks of farming implements and other hand tools. A hundred or so women piled into the cargo compartment along with the goods, many of them with small children in tow. The hull creaked a bit as we loaded them in, and I noticed a slight strain on the Intrepid’s structural reinforcement spell when we lifted off. Not enough to be dangerous over such a short trip, but apparently I needed to strengthen the frame a little if we were going to carry loads this heavy.

The villagers all stared around in amazement as they disembarked, and I heard more than a few murmured discussions about the merits of living in such a place. This time Avilla was on hand with a work party to help unload the cargo, and she started working the crowd before we were half done.

“No, there aren’t any blood sacrifices here. Our wizard raised the island with earth magic.”

“I’m one of his mistresses, silly, and the other three are just as pretty. He doesn’t need to diddle the serving girls.”

“Yes, it’s always this warm inside. We have running water and indoor privies as well, so you hardly even need to go out in the cold.”

“We need more seamstresses to make uniforms for the soldiers, and cooks and assistants for the kitchens. Maids, too, but I’m very picky about who I accept for those positions.”

“Yes, the wizard makes marvelous magic weapons for his soldiers. He has a professional captain training up a new company right now, and they have room for another twenty men or so.”

“The farms? Yes, they need men, but if you have a husband you’ll want him to join the garrison or work in the armory instead. If he goes to work the farms he’ll be happy enough, but you’ll hardly ever see him.”

I smiled. It sounded like that part of the plan was going well enough. Although I found myself a little unhappy at hearing Avilla describe herself as my mistress. She meant more to me than that.

Avilla worked herself out of the crowd to visit me on the bridge as we prepared to depart again.

“This is taking more work than I expected,” she noted. “What do you think of the villagers?”

“They’re good people,” I told her. “I counted maybe forty men left in the village, and well over a hundred women. It’s pretty obvious how that happened.”

She shook her head. “Is it like that everywhere? At this rate we’ll have to make the men marry two or three girls each, because there just aren’t enough to go around.”

“It’s a problem,” I agreed. “But better that than the reverse. If I ever find a settlement where the men outnumber the women I’ll know they’re not worth saving.”

She smiled, and kissed my cheek. “You’re a good man, Daniel. Hurry back to us, now. It’s getting late, and you said it isn’t safe to fly after dark.”

It was a close thing. I’d hoped to make it a fast trip, but Sir Ottosen had a lot more cargo to load. Sacks and baskets and all sorts of improvised containers full of grain. His household goods, and those of his retainers. More bundles of vegetables wrapped in blankets and cloaks. Spare weapons, and big bundles of arrows tied together with twine.

“We can’t afford to waste anything,” he said when I commented on the arrangements. “Even so, we’ve barely managed to salvage half the contents of the granary. But the carts are useless, and there’s nothing else to put it in.”

“Oh. Well, I think I can help you with that.”

It was simple enough to throw together a big basket of force floating on a skimmer field, and then Ottosen’s men just shoveled the rest of the grain into it. Once I got it back to the airship I spent a few minutes stabilizing the spell enough to last through the flight, and the men all trooped on board. I noticed that there were a few women among them, obviously sticking close to their men, and a couple of badly wounded men were carried aboard on stretchers.

“Is that everyone?” I asked Ottosen, eying the sun. “It’s going to be dark soon, so this is the last trip.”

He took a head count, swore, and stormed off to look for a missing man. That took a good ten minutes, during which a couple of teenage boys dragged a reluctant pig up the ramp and an old woman arrived being led by a young girl. This was not giving me a good feeling.

“Cerise? Would you mind making a quick circuit of the village? The way people keep straggling in has me worried we’re going to leave someone behind.”

“Sure thing, Daniel. What if someone doesn’t want to come?”

I sighed. “They’ll die if they stay, but I suppose that’s their choice. Just make sure they know this is their last chance to get onboard.”

Sure enough, Cerise turned up a couple more peasants who’d been hiding in their homes for some stupid reason or other. Then Ottosen returned with a chastened-looking man-at-arms in tow, and a rather pretty young girl trailing along behind them. Ottosen spun to growl at her when they reached the ramp.

“Off with you, you damned witch!” He shouted. “Your little stunt nearly cost me one of my men. You can stay and greet the goblins for all I care.”

She paled, and stumbled back.

“That isn’t your call, Sir Ottosen,” I said firmly. “This is my ship, and I’m not leaving anyone behind.”

His hand went to his sword. “No man of mine would be fool enough to risk being left to the goblins just for a chance to dip his wick, Your Diligence. She was bewitching him.”

I raised an eyebrow. “So your theory is she wanted to get herself stranded? That doesn’t sound very plausible. Come here girl, I’m not going to let anyone hurt you. What’s your name?”

The peasant girl hesitantly crept up the ramp. “Mari, milord. I meant no harm, really I didn’t. I only wanted him to take me with him. I… I like Jacob, milord. He’d make a good husband.”

At first I’d assumed that Ottosen was just being an intolerant jackass, but on a closer look I realized that Mari actually did have magic. A faint, wispy aura, barely worth mentioning compared to Avilla or Cerise. But her attempt at a veil of concealment was equally flimsy, and barely did anything to impede my senses.

Cerise came bouncing up the ramp as Ottosen was denouncing Mari’s witchcraft and loudly proclaiming that she was no longer welcome among his people. She took in the situation at a glance, and swept the girl up in her arms.

“Sweet! We’ll take her, then. Trust me, we know just what to do with an apprentice hearth witch.”

Mari squeaked in protest. “What are you doing? Put me down!”

“Nope. I’m carrying you off to my evil lair of dark wickedness, cutie,” Cerise declared firmly. She marched across the crowded cargo hold and disappeared through the hatch that led to the bridge.

I chuckled.

“Problem solved,” I said. “Don’t worry, she won’t be causing trouble for you anymore. Now, is that everyone? We need to get in the air before it gets any closer to sundown.”

Ottosen threw a befuddled look towards the bridge, and shook his head. “Yes, that’s everyone. What… who was that? What does she plan to do with her?”

“That was my apprentice, Cerise,” I told him. “She thinks witches are cute. Probably wants the girl to cook for her or something. Anyway, what do you care? You were going to leave her to die, remember?”

“Yes, I suppose you’re right. Very well then, she’s your responsibility.”

I watched the crew pull up the ramp and close the cargo doors, and double-checked the latch myself before heading for the bridge. I arrived to find Cerise already in the pilot’s seat, with Mari standing next to her looking around in wonder.

“I’d be honored to serve such an important coven,” the girl was saying. “Thank you for giving me this chance, ma’am.”

“That was fast,” I observed.

Cerise turned to grin back at me. “Hey, you know I wanted some backup. Mari’s pretty green, but I’m sure Avilla can get her whipped into shape.”

Mari blushed faintly. “Thank you for your kindness, ma’am.”

“Aww, isn’t she cute? Was I ever that young?”

“I doubt you have more than two or three years on her, Cerise,” I pointed out. “But she’s right, Mari. My coven has a lot of responsibilities to deal with, and we can use all the help we can get.”

“So you’re the warlock of the coven, milord?” She asked. “I was just telling Miss Cerise, I’d be happy to pledge my fealty for a safe spot of floor to sleep on and a crust of bread now and then.”

“We take better care of our people than that,” I told her. “But what exactly was the deal with that guard?”

She gave me a crestfallen look. “I really didn’t mean to make us late, milord. I was just worried about how I’d get by as a penniless refugee in a big city, especially without a kitchen. I was trying to convince Jacob to at least take me in as a mistress. Only, mum always said that the kind of convincing you do on your knees doesn’t take long at all, but he was lasting forever. I suppose I must need practice.”

“Sweetie, if a guy that age lasts more than a few minutes with a girl that looks like you it doesn’t mean there’s a problem,” Cerise said knowingly. “It sounds like you picked a good one. Or were you feeding him manliness recipes?”

She flushed. “Um, well, I had to get his attention somehow. I know that’s clumsy, but mum never had a chance to show me how to do it right.”

Cerise cackled madly. “Fuck, you’re so precious! Don’t worry, Mari. I’m sure we can find someone to finish your education. Avilla might even take you on as an apprentice if you impress her.”

“I think that’s a conversation for later,” I pointed out. “It’s about time we got underway, here. Take us up, Cerise, and set course for home.”

The sun was nearing the horizon when we finally reached the island, and I gave a mental sigh of relief. I could probably improvise some way to set the airship down in the dark without crashing, but we didn’t need to be taking risks like that with a load of refugees on board. I’d have to be more careful about the time on future runs.

Chapter 9

The Intrepid’s first rescue mission had turned up a number of serious flaws in her design, so of course I set out to fix them the next morning.

Varo was pretty typical of the places I hoped to visit, so the biggest problem was simply that she wasn’t big enough. There was a limit to how much I could do to address that problem without rebuilding the whole ship from scratch, but I could lengthen the hull a bit. Another twenty feet of length made the cargo hold a lot roomier, and I was able to fiddle with the lift cell enchantments to give the ship another fifteen or twenty tons of maximum buoyancy. That would have let us do the Varo op in two trips instead of three, which was a lot less of a problem. I strengthened the airship’s frame a good bit while I was at it, hopefully fixing that problem with heavy loads.

The other issues were more complex. First I had to modify the ship to land on skids instead of just resting on her belly, so I could make the bottom of the ship something other than a flat expanse of featureless aluminum. With that done I was able to expand the chin gunner’s position into a larger bubble of aluminum and fused quartz projecting down a few feet from the rest of the hull. I moved the bomb controls there, thinking a bombardier sitting behind the gunner might actually be able to see what he was aiming at.

Packing a hundred or more people into a confined space with no sanitary facilities had also proved to be a bad idea, especially when most of them were peasants with little concept of privacy or basic sanitation. I’d figured out how to make a magical flush toilet during my work on the keep, but of course refugees would have no idea how to use such a thing. Aggravating. I didn’t want to waste a lot of space on bathrooms, but I didn’t want to be cleaning human waste off the deck after every trip either. Livestock were bad enough.

In the end I settled for putting in a little washroom next to the bridge, and a slightly larger privy right across from it. I was just finishing that up when Beri came rushing out across the snow-covered field where I’d parked the ship.

“Milord!” She gasped. “Come quickly, please. Miss Cerise needs you in her sanctuary.”

The poor girl looked terrified. “What’s wrong, Beri?”

She opened her mouth, and then abruptly shut it and looked around wildly. “I, um, she’s in no danger, milord. But it’s important. Very, very important. Please, come as quickly as you can.”

I frowned. “Alright, let’s go see what she wants.”

Beri wasn’t exactly a track star, so rather than let her lead me back towards the palace I scooped her up in my arms and ran. She gasped, but had the wit to keep still when I started using force magic to lengthen my stride. I covered ground pretty quickly that way, but it was still a good run to the entrance of the arcology block.

Halfway there Beri took a deep breath, and managed to relax a little. Then she rested her head on my shoulder, and gave a little sigh.

“I am so jealous of Tina sometimes,” she muttered.

“That’s what you think about in the middle of an emergency?” I chided.

She chuckled ruefully. “Sorry, milord. I can’t help it. You’re really sexy when you’re being all masterful, even if you’ve never been interested in me. Not that I’m complaining! I know how lucky I am to be training under Cerise.”

“Huh. You looked pretty scared a minute ago,” I probed.

“I was frightened quite out of my wits, milord. But you’re here. Everything will work out fine, I’m sure of it.”

My fishing for clues about what was going on was interrupted at the stairwell, where I found Irithil and his delegation waiting for me.

“Adept Black!” He called. “I must speak with you at once.”

I stumbled to a stop. “Now?”

“It’s a matter of life and death, Your Diligence. Not just adults, but children.”

Right. Children are a really big deal to elves. I looked down at Beri. “What about your crisis?”

“No one is dying right now,” she said. “But you really, really don’t want to keep her waiting, my lord.”

I set her down, and sighed. “Fine. Walk with me, Irithil. What’s going on?”

He wrung his hands as I stalked up the entrance stairs towards the elevator bank. “It’s our settlement in Scandinavia, Your Diligence. I’ve just received an urgent sending, although I can’t imagine how it got through. They’re besieged by a horde of winter wraiths. They’re trapped inside the wards now, and they can’t get out.”

I frowned. “Sounds bad, but what do you want me to do about it?”

The elevator arrived, and we all filed in. It was a close fit, and I somehow ended up sandwiched between those sexy elven swordswomen. Who were both giving me pleading looks now, and pressing their impressive busts against my arms. Damn, these guys didn’t miss a trick.

“Your Diligence, the clan’s children are in that settlement. I’ve been instructed to agree to your terms, if you can somehow arrange for their rescue. My lord informs me that he has been in contact with a certain goddess who intimated that this was possible. Perhaps with your flying wonder?”

“You want me to take a prototype that’s barely been tested and fly it hundreds of miles into the far north during Fimbulwinter? I can think of less painful ways to commit suicide. What the hell is a winter wraith, anyway?”

“A form of elemental frost spirit. Intangible, and they feed by sucking out the life force of travelers. They’re normally quite rare, because they can only breed in the cold of the polar ice caps. But this unnatural winter has brought that cold down to latitudes where there are human settlements for them to feed on, and simple walls of wood won’t keep them out.”

“What kills them?” I asked. “Heat? Dispels?”

“Intense heat is quite effective,” Irithil agreed. “But few mages can summon that in any great quantity under the conditions where winter wraiths dwell. My people could easily deal with a small hunting pack, but an army like this is unprecedented.”

The elevator reached its destination, and I pushed my way past the elves to get out. They followed along behind me as I walked to the doors of my residence area, where a wolfen and one of Corinna’s warrior dryads were standing guard.

“Please, sir,” one of the elf women said. “My little nephew is in Yinthalos. Name your price, and I’ll gladly pay it.”

“All of us will,” the other one added. “There is no one else we can turn to, save those whose price would destroy our clan. There has to be something we can offer you.”

“First I have to figure out if it’s actually possible,” I pointed out. “But whatever I do about that is going to take time, and I’m told I have something urgent to deal with. Wait here, and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

I made my way inside, noting for the hundredth time that I needed to figure out a way to put a heavier guard on those doors. Gudrin and Alanna were both good fighters, but they wouldn’t have a prayer of stopping something like an ungol. Or these winter wraiths. Would our spirit wards keep them out, or did we need to add yet another layer to the island’s defenses?

Those thoughts kept me busy as I crossed the expanse of bare dirt that was supposed to become Avilla’s garden, and made my way back into the maze of passages where I’d been setting up magical facilities for the coven. Cerise had a generous chamber set up as a chapel to Hecate there, where she worked most of her personal rituals.

“What am I walking into here?” I asked Beri. “Something you didn’t want to talk about when we were outdoors? A ritual gone wrong?”

“Not… wrong, milord,” Beri replied nervously. “Just, um, very unexpected. You should really just go on in.”

It occurred to me then that Cerise was perfectly capable of arranging all this as the setup for some kinky bedroom scene. Was I going to walk in to find her tied up and waiting for ‘rescue’, or something? No, Beri would be a lot more embarrassed if it was something like that. Instead she seemed genuinely nervous. But then why was she being so evasive?

Ah, well. I was already here. I opened the door, and stepped into the chapel.

A few candles provided a dim light, illuminating the stone altar I’d shaped to Cerise’s specifications. Two figures stood before it, outlined in the candlelight. The shorter one was obviously Cerise, with her demonic features in full view and her wings spread wide. The other stood several inches taller, although her hooded cloak hid her features from this angle.

The taller woman seemed to hold Cerise spellbound, one hand cupping her cheek while she gazed into her eyes. But my arrival broke the moment. The hand fell away, and Cerise returned to herself with a little gasp.

“Welcome, my champion,” she said warmly. “Do close the door, Beri.”

That voice was unmistakable. I stepped out of the way, and Beri awkwardly tried to bow and close the door at the same time.

“Hecate,” I said. “This is unexpected. Um, welcome. I do hope our enemies can’t get in the way you did?”

“I was invited,” she replied. “Beri, come. You may kneel at my feet. Listen, and be instructed.”

That seemed a little out of character from my previous meetings with the dark goddess. Beri did as she was told, of course, rushing so much she probably skinned her knees on the floor. Hecate smiled faintly, and rested her hand on the girl’s head.

Beri’s eyes rolled up, and she went limp.

“There now,” Hecate said. “She’s a promising girl, but a bit too silly still to be given deep secrets. In this state she’ll hear only what I wish, and awaken too dazed to question the details.”

“So that’s how it works,” Cerise said, sounding a little dazed herself. “I always wondered.”

“And that presence of mind is why you survived those early summoning mishaps, when you decided you couldn’t afford to wait on the safer methods of building power,” Hecate pointed out. “You’re a silly thing yourself sometimes, but you have great potential.”

Hecate mussed her hair affectionately, but Cerise didn’t complain. If anything she was basking in the attention.

“She’s pretty amazing,” I said honestly. “Sometimes I think she’s protecting me as much as the other way around. But I don’t imagine you risked a personal appearance just to chat. Is there something we need to do for you?”

“You may be surprised, Daniel. I believe you’ve actually managed to construct a place where Asgard’s watchdog cannot spy on me, and that is a rare thing. I may well visit again, especially if Pelagia is going to keep hosting revels in my name. Which reminds me, I expect my champion to attend the next one. You’re far too reticent about enjoying the fruits of your labors.”

“I’m not sure I’d survive attending something like that, ma’am,” I protested. “Besides, I have enough trouble finding time to give my coven-mates the attention they deserve.”

She sighed. “You still need to learn to trust me, Daniel. I am spinning a thousand threads of fate at once right now, and I don’t have time to explain everything in detail. You’ve barely scratched the surface of the synergies between your magic and that of the groves, and if you’re going to discover the rest you need to get past this hesitance of yours. Why are you afraid of Pelagia?”

“Um…”

“Is it her mastery of subtle influence? Cerise, tell Daniel what would happen if Pelagia bent her magic to controlling him.”

Cerise snickered. “Daniel, you’re Hecate’s champion, and Pelagia has barely been accepted as a priestess. If she tried something like that her magic would backlash threefold. Besides, don’t you remember how she pledged fealty? ‘I submit myself to your will’ is a hell of an oath from someone who can’t break her word, and she gave it freely. You weren’t seriously worried she was going to start some kind of trouble, were you?”

“I, ah, guess I should have talked to you about it.”

“Indeed,” Hecate said. “More, you should trust that out of the thousands of voices entreating me for salvation I would not send you one inclined to treachery. Demetrios and Pelagia are as trustworthy as anyone you could find in this land, and while Corinna was an unexpected addition I see that Cerise has her well in hand. Clan Nethwillin is a more complex case, but if you handle them properly they too will be loyal.”

“The dark elves? Wait, you’re the reason their sending got through, aren’t you?”

She smiled. “At last, he begins to think. Yes, Daniel. The head of their clan is finally desperate enough to agree to a favorable bargain, and their presence here will solve more problems than I have time to list. I know it won’t be easy, but I need you to make this happen.”

That shut my mouth. I thought furiously for a long moment. Could I do this? The Intrepid could only make about forty miles per hour, and that was without a headwind. So, call it a twenty hour flight if nothing went wrong. What was likely to go wrong?

“The weather is the biggest challenge,” I said slowly. “I can’t fly through a blizzard, and if we have to land and wait one out their wards may not hold long enough for us to get there.”

“The weather moves at Loki’s bidding,” Hecate told me. “Right now he seems intent on battering Britannia, to drive the Summer Court’s servants out of Midgard. You have a clear path to Yinthalos, and I can hide your ship from his gaze on the trip north. But be warned, I expect he won’t take kindly to this rescue. I’m not sure what grudge he has against Nethwillin, but he’s sent a tribe of frost giants to help the winter wraiths break their defenses.”

“So we kill their asses, nab the elves and ride the storm back south,” Cerise said confidently. “Sounds like fun.”

“That ‘ride the storm’ part sounds like slamming into a mountainside at seventy miles per hour,” I corrected. “You might survive that, but the Intrepid won’t. We at least need a way to see through the storm.”

“Nethwillin’s mages can do that,” Hecate said. “Lend them your power, and they might even hold a storm at bay. At best Loki might not even hear of your intervention until you’ve returned home, and at worst you can land and wait out his rage. You can handle anyone he would risk sending to stop you, so he won’t bother going that far. Will you do this for me, Daniel?”

“Alright. I’m not happy about it, but I’ll do it.”

“Great deeds bring great rewards,” she said cryptically. Then she released Beri, and clapped her hands. “Excellent. Well, I’m sure you have many preparations to make if you’re going to take flight today, so I’ll leave you to them. Beri, show me this marvelous bath that Cerise has been so happy about. It’s been ages since I was able to indulge in such luxuries.”

She dragged the dazed girl out the door. I stood there looking after her for a moment, and shook my head.

“Well, I hope no one is using the bath right now.”

Cerise giggled. “I don’t know, could be funny. Can you imagine the look on Elin’s face? Just lying there soaking in the tub, and a goddess casually walks in and joins her? Her head would explode.”

I shook my head. “Not something I pictured when I was building the place. Well, damn. I guess we have to do this crazy thing. Let’s go tell the girls, and put our heads together on how to organize the expedition.”

Their reaction wasn’t quite what I expected. Tina just nodded trustingly, and said she’d be waiting for us when we got home. But Avilla was seriously upset.

“You can’t keep doing things like this, Daniel. We need you here. I need you here,” she protested, clearly on the verge of tears.

Cerise hugged her. “I’m sorry, Avilla. Hecate called on us herself. It’s not like we can just say no.”

“She did?” Avilla sniffed.

“Yeah. You, um, might want to stay out of the bath for a while too. I think maybe I went on a little too long about how awesome it is.”

Avilla frowned in confusion. “What do you mean? Did she do something to it?”

“No, she just decided she wanted to see it for herself,” I said. “Look, I’m sorry, sweetie. I know you worry. But things like this are going to happen.”

“I know. I just, I thought I’d have more time. I’ve been so busy I’ve barely had a chance to see to the house, and I haven’t made any special meals or baked any servants or even brewed up any elixirs to speak of, and now you have to fly halfway across the world without any blessings at all, and I feel like a horrible failure of a witch and it’s all my fault.”

She burst into tears, and buried her face in Cerise’s chest. I hugged her from behind, pinning her between myself and Cerise. After a moment Tina joined in, taking her hand and awkwardly patting her hair.

“We’ll be fine, honeydew,” Cerise insisted. “You’ll see. We’ll come back safe and sound, just like always. I won’t even let Daniel get himself blown up this time.”

“But what about next time?” Avilla sobbed.

“Next time will be different,” I said firmly. “Avilla, have I been putting too much work on you? I didn’t mean to keep you so busy managing things that you wouldn’t have time for your magic.”

“There’s no one else to do it,” she protested.

“We can find someone,” Elin disagreed. “Despite his appearance Demetrios is quite a learned man, and Pelagia certainly manages her grove deftly enough. Or perhaps one of these elves, or a merchant from Kozalin? You don’t have to do everything yourself, Avilla.”

“That’s right,” I confirmed. “We can get you help, or even get someone else to be castellan if you don’t want the job.”

“I don’t,” she admitted. “I was so flattered when you gave it to me, and I didn’t want to disappoint you. But it’s always so stressful, having to make so many decisions about things I hardly know anything about, and it eats up my whole day. I want to have time to make our home special, and grow my art, and do everything I can to make sure that when you two go out to fight you’ll come back safe. I’m a witch at heart, not a noble.”

“Then we’ll make that happen,” I said firmly. “I promise. We have to leave in a hurry, but when we get back that will be one of the first things I do. Alright?”

“Alright.” She sniffed, and hung her head. “I’m sorry for going on like this.”

“We all worry,” Tina told her. “It’s only natural.”

“Well, you’re going to have one less thing to worry about this time,” Elin said. “Daniel, I should come with you. Someone is bound to need healing before this is over, and you won’t have time to do it. I’ll stay inside the ship where it’s safe, but you need backup.”

I hesitated.

“She’s right,” Cerise said. “I’d take some of the dryads too, if they could handle flying. We’ll want more than just the ship’s crew, though. Maybe the wolfen, or a squad of Rain’s men?”

I was a little surprised that Avilla didn’t tear up again at the idea of Elin going into danger, but if anything she seemed relieved. I suppose she wasn’t nearly as close with the faerie girl as she was with Cerise and I. Which might be a problem in the long run, but today it made things easier.

“We can’t afford to weigh the ship down too much,” I pointed out. “It can only lift so much, and we don’t know how many people we’ll need to rescue. But Elin, you’re right, we could use the backup. You can come, and go ahead and talk to Gronir about bringing a couple of wolfen along. Only two, though. While you do that I’m going to go tell Irithil about this. Maybe he can give me a better idea of what we’re getting into.”

His information proved more fragmentary than I would have liked, but he was at least able to lay one fear to rest.

“There aren’t as many people in Yinthalos as there were in that human village you rescued,” he told me. “I don’t have an exact count, but it should come to about forty clan members and a bit over a hundred retainers. The treasures stored there are likely too numerous to fit in your ship, but most of that is simply wealth that we can leave behind.”

“Good. We’ll take what we can, but we may not have a lot of time to load up the ship. I’ll need someone to come with me, to make sure we can find the place.”

“I shall do so myself,” he declared. “I understand space will be at a premium, so my guards will remain here with Valthenis. Unless you expect to have room?”

I considered that.

“Bring one of them, just in case. Go ahead and get ready, we need to be airborne as soon as possible. I’m going to back the ship up to the gates again while we get everything loaded.”

I was already dressed for battle, since going outdoors always meant being exposed to possible attack. I took the ship for a quick spin to make sure I hadn’t screwed up anything serious with my recent modifications, and then landed and fetched a few ingots of aluminum to bring along in case I needed to repair something. By then the crew had arrived, and I put them to work assembling enough supplies to last us all for a week. Again, just in case.

How was I going to fight these wraiths?

Another consultation with Irithil convinced me that the warmth enchantment on the ship’s hull would kill any wraith that tried to slip through it. Room temperature was lethally hot to these creatures, and they weren’t likely to even try to get inside a magically heated enclosure. But they had some magic of their own, enough to put out candles and even small fires from a safe distance if they had a moment to work at it. So confronting them in the open could be tricky.

Flamers were the obvious answer to that, but I still hadn’t gotten around to making a factory for them. I did have a spare power stone, though, so I loaded it into the hold. I’d have to rectify my little oversight on the trip north.

What about giants? Frost giants were twenty feet tall, and the one I’d encountered before was armed and armored a lot like the human soldiers in this world. I had no idea how well guns and force grenades would work on them, but I was pretty sure Cerise and I could take apart a small group easily enough. It didn’t sound like we were likely to encounter an army, but if we did I could just drop a big bomb on them.

That was probably as much planning as I could do at this point.

Elin came hurrying out with Daria and Embla, all of them carrying bedrolls and hastily-filled packs. The wolfen girls had guns and flamers in addition to their usual bows and force swords, so I suppose she must have filled them in. The fact that Gronir had sent two of the pack’s three women on this trip surprised me for a moment, until I realized that they were the smallest members of the group. Guess they were taking my concerns about weight seriously, although that was probably going a little overboard.

Daria jogged up to me, grinning with excitement. “I hear we’re going flying, milord? This sounds like fun.”

“Not afraid of being way up in the air?” I asked. That had been a major problem with my effort to find a crew, and most of the men we’d assigned to the ship were still nervous about it.

She laughed. “I can’t wait to see what the world looks like to a bird, milord. This is going to be great! What do you think, Embla?”

“I’m so excited! How fast does this thing go? Is there someplace we can feel the wind?” The curvy little wolf girl bounced eagerly on her toes, craning her neck in an effort to take in everything at once.

I had a mental image of them both sticking their heads out the windows like dogs in a car, and couldn’t help but laugh.

“No, if there were any openings some idiot would manage to fall out every time we do a rescue lift,” I told them. “But I’m sure we’ll have plenty of other excitement for you two. Head through that door to the bridge, and you’ll find a ladder up to the sleeping compartment. You can stow your bedrolls there. This is going to be a long flight, so I expect we’ll end up sleeping in shifts.”

“I thought we couldn’t fly at night?” Elin asked.

“We can’t land at night,” I corrected. “We can fly just fine, although getting lost could be a problem. We’ll have to see if the elves can help with that.”

Irithil arrived a few minutes later. He’d changed into a suit of the same exotically-crafted light armor that his guards wore, with a sword at one hip and several wands at the other. Yeah, I’d thought he was a mage of some sort.

He and the man he’d brought with him both had oddly-designed packs on their backs, so I waved them towards the far end of the hold. “You can put your gear up there, away from the door. I’m afraid it’s going to be a long trip, although if you have a way to navigate at night that will get us there a lot faster.”

Irithil nodded. “I can find true north, and as long as the clouds aren’t too thick we’ll both be able to see well enough to take in the lay of the land. We’ve never flown before, but I’ve seen the world through the eyes of a bird often enough to find my way.”

He set down his pack, and bent to study one of the exposed beams that made up the airship’s frame. Then his eyes went wide.

“Is this mithril, Your Diligence? Yes, I see that it is. But the whole vessel? It must weigh tons. How did you persuade the dwarves to part with such a treasure?”

Huh. So the dwarves in this world knew how to smelt aluminum?

“I didn’t,” I told him. “Aluminum is one of the most common elements in the Earth’s crust. It’s a bit difficult to separate from the rocks it’s bound into, but earth magic is good at that kind of thing. I made an artifact that conjures ingots of the stuff.”

If anything, he looked even more impressed. “That is rare magic indeed. I do hope you’re careful about selling it, though. If you flood the market the dwarves will have assassins after you in no time.”

“They can get in line,” I grumbled. “But no, I’ve got other ways to make money. Selling conjured iron in Kozalin, charging rent on space on my island, even conjuring gold if I need to.”

“Conjuring gold?” He frowned. “I’d thought only a god could muster such power. Although there are hidden pitfalls to such an endeavor that have nothing to do with magic.”

“I know how inflation works,” I reassured him. “I’m not going to conjure enough to affect Kozalin’s economy. Ah, here’s our pilot.”

Cerise trotted up the ramp with a bedroll and a bundle of gear slung over one shoulder, looking breathless and suspiciously mussed. She kissed me, and her lips tasted of honey and cinnamon. Avilla.

“Get a good farewell in?” I teased. I was actually a little miffed that she’d gotten the sexy goodbye while I had to get everything organized. But I got to take Cerise with me, so what did I have to complain about?

“You know it,” she grinned. “Are we ready to go?”

“Everyone is here,” I confirmed. “Let me do a final check while you stow your gear, and then we can close the doors and get moving.”

We lifted just past noon, rising into an overcast sky with a hint of snow on the breeze. A thousand feet up Cerise turned Intrepid’s prow north, and ran the thrusters up to full power. At the navigation table behind the pilot’s seat Irithil unrolled the map he’d brought, a beautifully illustrated document like something out of a museum. Well, except that the shapes of the continents were actually correct, so apparently the dark elves were better cartographers than colonial era Europeans.

“The location of Yinthalos isn’t marked, of course,” he told me. “Occasionally one of these maps will be lost somehow, and we don’t want our enemies to find us easily. Ah, our maps depict the world based on measured distance rather than travel time…”

“Didn’t have to tell me that,” I said. “I’ve seen both kinds, and I recognize the shape of the coastlines. You said you were hidden in a mountain valley? Just how far north do we have to go, anyway?”

He took another look at the map, carefully checking landmarks, and slowly ran his finger up the line of mountains that form the spine of the Scandinavian Peninsula. And up. And further up. It finally came to rest most of the way up the Norwegian coast, well past the northernmost of the string of lakes that took the place of the Baltic Sea in this world.

“Eleven hundred miles?” I said grimly. “Fuck me. Hecate, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Chapter 10

The flight over Varmland was a sobering reminder of just how few people had survived the first month of Fimbulwinter.

The landscape was dotted with the remains of abandoned villages. Half of them had been burned by goblin raiders before the landscape was completely choked in snow, and the creatures seemed to be systematically demolishing the rest. Roadside inns and isolated farmhouses had likewise been overrun, and from a thousand feet up the emptiness of the landscape was almost eerie.

Here and there a town or castle still flew the arms of some local noble. Most of them were packed with refugees, and I wondered how long they could survive. A wise lord would have siege stores for at least a few months, but after that things would get dicey. The snow on the ground was deep enough to make travel on foot nearly impossible for humans, especially since the people here didn’t seem to use snowshoes.

On the good side, goblin activity also seemed to be declining. The little monsters could travel across snow a lot more easily than men, and the trolls that usually accompanied them had enough magical strength to fight their way through snowdrifts. But they weren’t immune to the cold, and with conditions slowly worsening a lot of them had apparently decided to go back to wherever they’d come from. That, or they’d joined up with the andregi.

We passed within sight of one army on our way north. A horde of tens of thousands of andregi was camped on the ruins of some hapless town, systematically tearing down the remaining buildings. I was tempted to make a few bombing passes over them, but the sight of winged creatures circling in the sky above the camp gave me second thoughts. The Intrepid really wasn’t designed for aerial combat, and killing a few hundred ape men wouldn’t accomplish much anyway. So instead I gave them a wide berth.

Cerise and I gave our companions a crash course in how to operate the Intrepid as we flew, just in case. As expected Elin quickly got the hang of the controls, although she lacked Cerise’s instinctive understanding of flight. Daria and Embla were intrigued but clueless, and I concluded that it would take a lot of practice before I’d be able to trust either of them with the controls.

To my surprise, Irithil took to it almost as easily as Cerise had.

“This is quite an interesting control scheme,” he commented as he adroitly guided the ship through a climbing turn. “Most wizards would have bound a spirit into the ship so that crewmen could give it orders, or else relied on pure intent control. This system of levers reminds me of the mechanical devices that the engineers of Rome used to build.”

“Well, yes,” I replied. “Intent control is almost as tricky to use as it is to enchant, so I tend to rely on mechanical controls for everything except my personal devices. I’ve made a lot of weapons that can be used by anyone with a minimal amount of training, although I may have been a little overoptimistic with the airship. I’d like to be able to train some crewmen to operate it so I can do other things, but it’s looking like that would take a long training program.”

“Perhaps that could be my clan’s contribution to our mutual defense, then?” He suggested. “All of us have at least a little talent with magic, and air is one of our most common affinities. I expect half the clan could learn to fly this vessel competently with a few hours of practice.”

“That would be helpful. I get the feeling I wouldn’t have to explain the hazards of flight to you the way I would with human commoners either.”

He gave the control panel a thoughtful look, and made a slight adjustment to the lift control. “Declining pressure and temperature at higher altitudes, layers of varying wind and weather, thunderstorms, ground fog and the treacherous nature of twilight landings. Yes, anyone who has worked with birds will be familiar with these things. I will, however, admit to being a bit mystified at what holds this craft aloft. Am I correct in thinking that the field of magic above us changes in size?”

That led to an explanation of atmospheric buoyancy that seemed to impress him, although I noted that he followed along easily enough. The wolfen girls obviously had no idea what I was talking about, and weren’t really interested anyway. Embla was too busy looking down at the ground passing by beneath us, and Daria seemed to be writing off the whole thing as wizard’s business.

Elin had figured it out all on her own a couple of days ago, the first time she saw one of my prototypes in action. Apparently some ancient Greek philosopher had actually written about the idea of a balloon, but no one had ever managed to make the idea practical.

Now she looked up from the book she’d brought with her to ask a question. “Daniel? How tightly woven are the barrier spells that make up the ship’s lift cells? Are they truly impenetrable, or will air slowly leak through them?”

I frowned. “You know, I haven’t actually had a chance to test that. We might get some leakage, especially if something solid hits the lift cells. Not enough to be dangerous, but we could gradually lose lift on a long flight like this. We’d all better keep an eye on that, just in case.”

“That’s easy to fix, right?” Cerise asked. “We’d just have to land and reform the lift cells.”

“Yeah, but to do that we need terrain that’s flat enough to land on and isn’t overrun with monsters. It shouldn’t be an issue as long as we’re paying attention, but it’s one more complication to keep an eye on.”

We conferred a little longer, until I felt comfortable that Cerise and Irithil were going to be able to fly the ship and navigate without my help. Then I excused myself, and went back to the hold to do some enchantment.

If we were going to fend off an army of frost monsters well enough to rescue a bunch of noncombatants we needed fire, and lots of it. So my first order of business was creating a factory enchantment for flamers. My men had gotten a lot of use out of the original batch of those weapons, but I’d never gotten around to designing a mass production version.

I was planning to make a lot of these things, so having them be self-powered wasn’t an option. But tying everything to a central power stone could also be problematic if I was going to have airships flying people around, so I decided to try a different approach. Flamers were a close combat weapon, and that kind of fighting rarely lasts more than a few minutes at a time. So I designed an enchantment that would collect and store ambient mana, with an internal battery that could hold enough power to run the flamer for twenty minutes or so.

Twenty minutes of continuous fire is a heck of a lot of ammunition for any weapon, so that should be more than enough. The recharge rate would be a little slow, maybe ten minutes of idle time for every minute of fire, and having too many of them in close proximity would slow that down further. But they’d start out being fully charged up by the factory, and once we got all the refugees on board it wouldn’t matter if it took a few hours for all the flamers to be ready for another battle.

Mindful of recent experience with my guns, I also put a force bayonet on the end of the weapon to deal with the occasional enemy that was willing to run through fire to get at you. I was tempted to add some more controls to adjust the intensity of the flame, and maybe try to get a longer range out of this model. But no, it was better to keep things simple. I needed a weapon any idiot could pick up and use with minimal instructions, not a complex work of art that would take months of training to master.

I was interrupted around sunset when the crew decided that the cargo hold was the only place for them to lay out their bedrolls. I arranged to have them take turns standing watches just in case something tried to sneak up on us, but letting them take turns getting some sleep seemed like a reasonable plan. The hold would be pretty dark with just the emergency lights marking the doors and control panel, but I didn’t need a lot of light for my work.

I briefly contemplated putting up some kind of partition, but anything I could make would end up being heavier than I’d like. Too bad I couldn’t conjure up curtains or something. In the end I decided it wasn’t worth spending time on, and just made a really dim light for my work area. Good soldiers can sleep through anything, so it wasn’t likely to cause them any problems.

It was some hours later when I finally had a design I was happy with. I turned on the flamer factory, watched the first couple of flamers roll out of it into the bin I’d set up to hold them, and nodded in satisfaction.

“Finished?” Elin asked.

I looked up to find that she was perched on a little stool nearby, with a book in her lap and a dim ball of light floating in the air above her hand.

“Finished with the flamer factory,” I said. “But I’ll need more than that before I feel ready for this fight. You didn’t go to bed?”

“Daria and Embla were flirting with Irithil’s bodyguard for half the evening,” she said with an exasperated sigh. “I didn’t want to be in the loft if they succeed in luring him up there, and then I got interested in my book. Besides, I wanted to speak with you about our preparations. I don’t expect that my magic will be of much use against wraiths, and a frost giant might be a bit much for me.”

“I don’t want you involved in the fighting,” I said firmly.

“Good,” she agreed. “I want nothing to do with it. But things happen in battle. Trying to keep me out of danger didn’t work out very well last time, and I’d prefer not to face that sort of situation again. Is there anything we can do to prepare for the unexpected?”

I thought about it. “Carry one of the flamers, for starters. That will deal with any wraiths that get too close. As for the giants… hmm. You got the hang of managing the enchantments on your amulet pretty quick. Come sit with me, and let’s see if we can work something out.”

She carefully put the book away and dismissed her light, and then settled herself into my lap with a shy little smile. For a moment I just hugged her, enjoying the feel of her deceptively delicate-seeming body in my arms. Too bad we didn’t have more privacy. But she was right, I needed to do something to give her better protections if she was going to be involved in an adventure like this.

Maybe a force field? But I’d need something to put it on, and she already had an amulet. Impulsively, I took a gold coin out of my belt pouch and shaped it into a ring sized for her finger.

Her breath caught. “Daniel? Is that for me? I mean, I know we’re practically… but I wasn’t expecting… you don’t have to…”

I silenced her nervous stammering with a finger to her lips. “I love you, Elin. Give me your hand.”

She held her hand up, wordlessly. I slipped the ring onto her finger, and kissed it.

“A promise,” I said. “We’re going to make it through this thing together, and one of these days we’re going to have a proper wedding.”

“Wedding?” She squeaked. “Me? B-but, what about Tina, and Cerise?”

“Every woman deserves to have a special day,” I told her. “They’ll get one too. But you’re the one who gets a ring tonight.”

Her shy little smile was the widest one I’d ever seen her wear. “Thank you, Daniel. I never expected something like this from you. I hope you realize I shall never take it off?”

“Yes, that was my insidious plan. Now, let’s see what we can put on it to keep you safe, shall we?”

The metal accepted the enchantment I impressed on it a lot more easily than anything else I’d worked with, and I wondered for a moment if maybe I should look into that. It had never occurred to me that it might matter what material I attached an enchantment to.

But no, that was an issue for later. I merged my magic with Elin’s, and showed her what I was doing as I wove a force field enchantment much like the one on my own amulet. That was the easy part. Then I started in on an intent control mechanism to let Elin control the force field, since she couldn’t do it directly with sorcery the way I did.

“Do you think this will work?” I asked as I showed her the general layout of the control scheme I was considering.

“It’s a very odd arrangement. I think I see what you’re getting at, but we don’t need to invent a whole new paradigm. Here, let me show you how a normal wizard would do that.”

She couldn’t just throw a lasting enchantment together on the fly the way I could, but she could weave a temporary spell that I could then use as a template. We spent quite a while experimenting with it, our magic merging and separating again at intervals as we worked.

By the time we finished the intimacy of shared magic was taking its toll on both of us. I couldn’t resist kissing her when we finally came up for air. Her tongue dueled eagerly with mine for long moments, before she suddenly remembered where we were. Then she pulled away, flushed with mingled embarrassment and arousal. I pulled her back into my arms, and held her close while we both struggled to get ourselves under control.

“I should test it,” she observed, groping for a distraction.

“Go ahead,” I replied.

Elin activated the ring with a thought, and shaped the force field it projected into a simple dome enclosing us both. Then it contracted into a cylinder barely big enough to hold us, and she tried making openings of various shapes and sizes. Her control was a little rough, but as far as I could see that was just a matter of practice.

“Looks like you’ve got it,” I murmured in her ear.

She shivered, and ran her hand over my chest. “Yes. This is marvelous, Daniel. How strong is it?”

Her eyes were luminous in the dimness of the cargo hold. My hand found its way up her side, to cup her pert little breast. My thumb grazed her nipple, and found it already crinkled into a hard point. She gasped.

“Strong enough to stand up to a frost giant,” I told her. “Only the best for my girl.”

Trapped in each other’s eyes, our lips were inexorably drawn back together. Elin squirmed against me, grinding on my erection. The scent of her arousal was intoxicating.

Somehow she found the strength to break the kiss, and bury her face in my chest.

“Not here,” she whispered, her breath coming in ragged gasps. “Please… the men…”

Oh, right. Yeah, I didn’t want to give anyone a show either. That was one of the reasons I’d put in that loft above the bridge, but the wolfen girls were up there now. I wouldn’t necessarily mind them getting an eyeful, but Elin was far too shy to be comfortable with something like that. Damn it, there really wasn’t any way for us to get a moment alone, was there?

“I suppose you’re right,” I said. “I don’t want to embarrass you. I guess I’ll just have to save it all up until we get home.”

“That would be wise of you. I expect that I shall be quite demanding, and then Tina will wish to welcome you home.”

“Good thing I have magic,” I pointed out.

She blushed, and buried her face in my chest. “Pervert. I can’t believe you use magic for such purposes. But I suppose I can’t pretend that I don’t enjoy it.”

She held up her hand and inspected the ring again, while playing with the force field.

“It still amazes me how you create such artifacts so casually, Daniel. Any normal wizard would need months to work such an enchantment, and would consider the result a prized possession.”

“Only the best for my girl,” I repeated. “But personally I think we can do more. It needs some kind of offensive function. Maybe a force blade, or a concussion effect? I bet we can work in some general purpose telekinesis too, and you definitely need a safe fall enchantment.”

She groaned. “Your largess shall surely be the death of me. Very well, one more enchantment before I collapse in exhaustion. Perhaps the safe fall spell?”

“Sure. You know, you could just use your amulet to banish the fatigue.”

“That hardly seems healthy.”

“That’s why I-”

She covered my mouth with her hand. “Don’t you dare tell me to just heal that too. I value my sleep far too highly to hear of such things, you slave driver. Now, show me how this works.”

It was a relatively simple enchantment, but it still took us an hour or so to assemble. By the time we were done with that she really was dead on her feet. She swayed drunkenly when she tried to stand, and ended up leaning against me.

I stroked her hair, and took a deep breath of her scent.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “Help me to bed?”

“Sure.”

I scooped her up in my arms, her slight weight no burden at all. She sighed happily, and leaned into me.

“You’re spoiling me,” she chided.

“Good.”

I opened the door to the bridge with force magic, since my hands were full. It was a bit brighter than the hold, with moonlight shining in through the windows.

“Everything alright up here?” I asked.

“It’s all under control,” Cerise assured me. “You should check out the view.”

I carefully made my way across the little room, to stand next to her at the windows.

The moon was nearing the horizon off the starboard bow, almost full and looking close enough to touch. The sky was darker than I’d ever seen it back on my Earth, dotted with a million hard pinpoints of light. There was the North Star high overhead, with the Big Dipper curling away from it. Dimmer stars I’d never seen before dotted the sky around it, and the diffuse glow of the Milky Way stretched across the sky like a giant arch in the heavens.

Far below, the snow-covered landscape shone softly in the moonlight. I could barely make out a pair of frozen lakes to port and starboard, and the dark shape of a low hill in the distance ahead.

“Pretty,” Elin mumbled.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

I stood and watched for a few minutes, just drinking in the sight.

The constellations were the same ones I’d learned as a Boy Scout back in America. The moon looked the same as well. I’d known for a while that this was some kind of alternate version of Earth, but seeing so many things that were the same made me wonder about the differences.

Why was the Baltic Sea a chain of lakes here?

Why did this world have magic, when mine clearly didn’t? Although, was I really sure there was no magic in my world? Maybe it was there, and we just had a shortage of wizards.

My metamagic sorcery provided an answer for that mystery. No, magic is made up of elementary particles that interact with normal matter. If it existed in my world some physicist pouring over the results of a particle accelerator run would have noticed it long ago.

So, there was magic on this world but not mine. Gods, too. I was pretty sure that a bunch of mythological gods running around on Earth beating each other up would have left tons of archeological evidence behind. Although that left me wondering how this world’s reality came to be my world’s legends.

The history was oddly similar as well. The Varmlanders were like Vikings who’d had a chance to carve out a nice kingdom, and then settle down and start acting like their southern neighbors. Not to mention all the passing references I’d heard to famous philosophers from classical Greece.

Come to think of it, there was another interesting question there.

“Elin?” I whispered. “How long ago did Aristotle live?”

She stirred slightly, settling herself in my arms. My only answer was a soft snore.

Cerise chuckled. “Sounds like she’s down for the count. It was, um, two thousand years ago? A little more, maybe. Why?”

I’d been assuming this was an analogue of medieval Europe. But that sounded like the date was about the same as in my world. Interesting. So there was never an industrial revolution here?

“Just thinking about parallels and differences,” I said softly. “But I think it’s time I got sleepyhead here to bed. Where did the wolfen girls end up?”

“Embla got her wish, but it turns out sound carries pretty well from the loft. Irithil chewed out his guy for being rude, but I think they ended up sneaking back to the tail gunner’s position or something. They never made it back, anyway, so it’s just Daria asleep upstairs.”

“Alright. Let me see if I can manage this.”

Obviously I wasn’t going to be climbing any ladders with a sleeping girl in my arms, but levitating myself was a trivial feat with the amount of energy I had available. I floated up slowly, keeping myself tethered to the floor and wall with magic so I wouldn’t drift around and bump into something. A little more force magic to open the hatch, and I floated up into the dark space of the loft.

The ceiling there was less than four feet high, so it was more of a crawl space than a room. But it was easily big enough for half a dozen people to stretch out and sleep. It took me a moment to pick out which blanket was Elin’s in the dim illumination spilling up from the bridge, and I made a mental note to install a night light up here.

Elin stirred as I was tucking her in, and made a little questioning noise.

I kissed her cheek. “Everything is fine, Elin. Go back to sleep.”

She latched onto my arm, pulling me down into her blankets with inhuman strength. Then she rested her head on my shoulder, and went back to sleep with a contented sigh.

I laid down beside her, and just held her.

After a few minutes there was a slight sound, and another female form brushed against my back.

“Do you want me to clear out?” Daria whispered in my ear.

I smiled. For such a ruthless opportunist Daria could be surprisingly thoughtful.

“No,” I whispered back. “She’s out for the night, and I have work to do. I think she needs someone to hold, though. Mind taking my spot?”

“Sure.” She retreated, and there was a soft sound of blankets being shifted. Then she was back. “Here, pass her over.”

Not wanting to wake her again, I used a touch of flesh magic to keep Elin soundly asleep as we moved her. We managed to shift around so she was in the wolfen girl’s arms instead of mine, although I learned in the process that Daria was naked. I froze for a moment when my hand accidentally brushed against a bare breast, but she just made a happy little sound.

“Careful there, boss. You know I’ll jump you if you give me half a chance.”

“I thought you were serious about Gronir?” I asked.

“I am,” she sighed, sounding a bit frustrated. “I just can’t help wanting a taste. You’re the boss, you know? I’m keeping myself fresh for you on this trip, just in case.”

“Uh huh. You do remember Elin and Cerise are both here?”

“Cerise has had me,” she said, sounding a bit smug about it. “She can make me her bitch with a look, milord. I bet she’d get off on putting me through my paces for you.”

Alright, now I really had to get out of here before I did something I’d regret. A good leader doesn’t go around screwing his men’s wives and girlfriends, no matter how much the women in question want you to.

Although, that was with human subordinates. The magic that had given the wolfen their powers had done all kinds of crazy things to their instincts, too. Maybe… no, bad idea. No dreaming up some stupid rationalization for fucking Gronir’s girlfriend. I had four lovers already. Shouldn’t that be more than enough for any man?

“Go back to sleep, Daria,” I told her. “We’ll talk about this some other time.”

She sighed. “Yes, sir.”

Great, now she was doing the submissive thing. Definitely time to get away from the crazy wolf girl. I carefully disentangled myself, and crept back over to the ladder. The hatch made a soft thunk as I closed it behind me, and dropped to the deck of the bridge.

Cerise giggled. “That girl’s got it bad.”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you start, too.”

Irithil diplomatically didn’t say anything, but I suddenly realized that those long ears had probably picked up the whole conversation. Great.

I stepped to the window, and looked out into the night. The moon was setting now, and an impenetrable darkness crept across the land as it sank below the horizon. Pretty as it was, I was a bit concerned about that. At this rate I wouldn’t even be able to see the ground in a few minutes, let alone hope to pick out any landmarks.

I shook my head. “How are you two navigating, anyway?”

Irithil pointed to the North Star. “The angle above the horizon tells me how far north we’ve come. Basic celestial navigation.”

“Granny taught me to use a map,” Cerise added. “It’s pretty easy as long as you pay attention. See, that river below us is the Glomma. We’re more or less following it north until we get closer to the mountains, then we’re going to come up along the eastern foothills until we get close to Yinthalos. There are lots of weird-looking lakes to use as landmarks along the way, and Irithil knows the territory pretty well.”

I looked out the window again. Nothing but stars above, and darkness below. For all I could tell we were about to plow into a mountainside.

“Guess the demon package comes with improved night vision?”

She grinned. “You bet. You should get some for yourself one of these days, Daniel. It really comes in handy.”

“I can think of safer ways to buff myself up, if I can ever spare a few days to work on it,” I replied. “Any idea what time it is?”

“Midnight was four hours ago,” Irithil answered. “I’m a bit concerned about our rate of travel, however. On this course I expect we will travel all day, and arrive at Yinthalos well after sunset. Fighting in the dark will seriously hamper you, will it not?”

“Yeah, that’s not ideal. There are things I could do to make the ship a little faster, but I don’t think I want to try making drastic changes while we’re in the air. Got any other ideas?”

“A weather working to change the winds in our favor would likely attract attention,” Irithil mused. “But there are several air spirits who owe me services. This is a large vessel, but I believe they could lend us enough speed to arrive at Yinthalos in daylight. Unfortunately that will leave me a bit tapped out for magic.”

I shrugged. “That’s fine. My magic is really good at blowing things up, and I’m preparing some nasty surprises for the enemy. Why don’t you go ahead and get that going, and let Cerise take over the flying again while you work.”

“Very well.”

They switched positions, and Irithil went to retrieve his bags. I stepped up behind Cerise, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“How are you holding up?” I asked.

“I‘m fine. I guess I should get some rest before we get into a fight, though.”

“I’ll take over flying once there’s enough light for these feeble human eyes to see by,” I told her. “Then you and Irithil can take turns catching some sleep.”

She frowned. “What about you?”

“Flesh magic,” I pointed out. “I’ll sleep on the way home. Right now I’ve got way too many things to do.”

“Gonna put a privacy spell on the loft?” She asked mischievously.

“Maybe.” That actually wasn’t a bad idea. I didn’t know any privacy spells, but it would be easy enough to lay a force field across the ceiling of the bridge and expand it into a bubble an inch thick with a vacuum on the inside. Throw a thin sheet of aluminum over it to keep air from leaking in, do the same thing to the hatch, and the loft would be pretty damned soundproof. I could probably do the whole job in half an hour.

I needed to mount some floodlights on the bottom of the airship, too. As short as the days were getting it was only a matter of time before we needed them, and they’d make a decent fallback plan if Irithil’s air magic wasn’t enough. I might be able to use flesh magic to give myself night vision too, although that was something I wanted to investigate a bit before I actually tried it.

Not to mention the biggest problem. Hecate had told me there were frost giants helping the wraiths, and I had no idea how many there were or what kind of monstrous pets they might have. We could always bomb them from the air, but I’d learned on our last trip that it can take a lot of bombing to drive off an army. Not to mention that if night fell while we were loading the ship they might just come back for another round. I had no illusions that the Intrepid’s aluminum hull would stand up to weapons wielded by twenty-foot giants.

If we were going to make this work I needed a way to deal with those giants, and I had less than twelve hours to do it. It was time to get creative.

Chapter 11

Yinthalos was hidden in a little mountain valley with no roads in or out, surrounded by miles of wilderness in every direction. The mouth of the valley was covered with forest, while at the other end a few hundred acres of land had been cleared and surrounded with stone fences.

The village itself was decidedly odd looking. It was built into a small knoll in the middle of the cleared area, in a style like nothing I’d ever seen before. The sides of the knoll had been cut away to leave nearly vertical slopes, with several narrow stairs leading up to the top. The whole top of the knoll was an elaborately terraced maze of elegant stone and wood buildings, with sunken courtyards lined with balconies and the occasional deep shaft hinting that much of the settlement was underground. The buildings had the steep roofs I’d expected this far north, and here and there a bit of fallen snow revealed that many of the walkways and courtyards were roofed in glass.

It was a beautiful place, but it looked like it had seen better days.

There was a band of giants encamped in the middle of a field a few hundred yards from the settlement, about fifty in all. A few of them were patrolling around the village, and a work party was hauling in lumber from the nearby forest. But most were clustered around a large wooden contraption that I recognized as a trebuchet.

As the Intrepid glided closer the long arm of the trebuchet swung up, launching a boulder in the direction of the village. It smashed through the roof of one of the larger structures, and the whole building swayed.

Irithil winced. “They must have been at that for some time, for the projectile wards to be completely depleted. Look, the laborer barracks and the retainer’s nursery have already collapsed.”

“What would you normally do about a problem like that?” I asked.

“Send out a stealth team to destroy the siege engine. Most likely we’d assassinate the leader of the war band as well. Unfortunately such measures aren’t feasible with so many wraiths in the fields.”

The winter wraiths were invisible to the eye at this distance, but their magic hung like an icy veil over the whole valley. No warm-blooded creature would be able to survive there for long, and body heat would no doubt draw a swarm of wraiths to feed. The spirit wards around the village were the only thing keeping the inhabitants alive, and they were obviously under stress. I didn’t know how big an energy reserve the dark elves had behind their defenses, but it couldn’t last forever.

“Well, at least they’re well away from the settlement. I don’t see anywhere on the hill with enough room to land the Intrepid, though. Once we deal with the giants your people are going to have to evacuate down those little stairs. That’s going to make it hard to get anything out except the people.”

“Oh, the stairs aren’t the only way out,” he replied. “Just back the ship up to the east face of the hill, and we can evacuate through one of the hidden exits. But how do you intend to deal with the giants?”

“Cerise?”

“Setting up our first bombing run, boss,” she replied with a feral grin. “This is going to be fun.”

“Be sure and keep us a good eight hundred feet up,” I added. “I don’t want any giant arrows stuck in my ship. Oh, and I’ve got a special present for these guys, so don’t be surprised when I open the hatch.”

“So that’s why you put that rail thing next to it. Something to hold onto?”

“Exactly. Daria, go tell the gunners they can open fire as soon as the first bomb goes off. Oh, and remind them not to fire in the direction of the town.”

The wolfen girl hurried to spread the word, and I moved to the hatch in the side of the bridge. This one opened inward, allowing an icy blast to fill the room. Elin peeked down from the loft area at the noise, and then retreated with a visible shiver.

It was so cold even the warmth enchantment on my coat wasn’t enough to cope. I could feel my healing amulet engage as my face started to freeze, and it was a good thing I was wearing gloves or I would have fumbled the bomb.

I ignored the cold as best I could, taking a firm grip on the grab bar and sticking my head out into the wind. We were coming up on the giant encampment now, and they’d finally noticed us. I could see some of them pointing and shouting, and a few were going for their bows. Those things were practically telephone poles, and I could only imagine what their arrows would do to the Intrepid’s thin hull if they hit us. Hopefully we were high enough.

I picked my target, and felt the motion sense that had come with my force sorcery engage. The device I’d made this morning was shaped like a mortar bomb, so I’d need to give it a little toss to get it into the trajectory I wanted. Right… about… now.

I activated the bomb and threw it, down and a bit to the side of the ship. It sailed off into the distance below, a dark pinpoint against a background of white snow. I pulled back so only my head was sticking out of the hatch, and took a firm hold on the grab bar with both hands.

The bomb struck the side of the trebuchet, and for the barest split second the ball of molten nickel-iron it summoned was visible. Then it exploded into a tremendous ball of fire. The Intrepid rocked violently from the concussion, and I heard a scream.

Wait, no, that was Cerise’s kid-on-a-roller-coaster shriek.

“That was awesome!” She shouted. “Do it again.”

I’d made three of those devices, each of them the rough equivalent to a five hundred pound bomb, and I made a point to expend them all on the enemy. The first one had left a smoking crater surrounded by mangled giant corpses where the trebuchet had been. By the time we came around for a second pass some of the giants were already running, but there was a group still in the camp that looked like a worthy target. They vanished in a blast that flattened the whole encampment, and set everything on fire.

By the third pass the giants were running in all directions, but we were faster than they were. I had Cerise chase down the one group that seemed somewhat organized, and dropped my last bomb in their path.

Then I pulled the hatch shut, and turned to Irithil. He was eying me like he’d suddenly discovered I was a dragon in disguise.

“So much for the giants,” I said. Did I sound smug? I couldn’t help it. I was feeling smug.

“What did you call it?” Cerise said. “Oh, yeah. The American way of war. Just fly around out of reach, and bomb the fuck out of the enemy until they give up.”

“Yeah, it’s nice when it works. Unfortunately the wraiths aren’t going to be that easy.”

We set down in a field east of the village, and backed the ship up to the cliff face as Irithil had suggested. But maneuvering the Intrepid on the ground was awkward, especially since we couldn’t see behind us from the bridge. So we ended up having to park a hundred feet or so from the cliff face, and there was no way we were going to get perfectly lined up with the secret door. We’d just have to clear a path instead.

I gathered the whole crew in the cargo bay, and handed out flamers.

“Alright, everyone, we’ve got some more excitement on the menu today. On the other side of those doors is an army of wraiths ready to suck the life out of anyone they can catch. We’ve got a whole village to evacuate today, including women and children, and these things aren’t going to get out of our way just because we ask nicely. So we’re going to send them packing.

“For those of you who are wondering about the flamers, these things are frost monsters. They can’t take the heat, and even getting close to an open flame will probably kill them. A shot from one of these babies would be like you taking a cannon round to the face. So when they try to charge us you boys just hose them down, and they’ll either back off or die.

“Just so you know, with these new flamers you can hold the trigger down for twenty minutes before it runs out of magic and needs to rest. You’ve also got a force bayonet just like the new guns, but I don’t expect that will do anything to the wraiths. If you somehow get stuck in close with one the warmth spell on your uniform will keep them out, and so will a warmth cloak. So you just need to keep them away from your face long enough for someone else to get a shot off.

“When we open the doors I want a wall of fire washing out for a few seconds, while I cast a spell to keep the wraiths out of the cargo hold. Once that’s set up I’m going to lead a party into the village to tell the elves their ride is here. Cerise, you’ll be in command of the Intrepid while I’m away. Daria and Embla will go in with Irithil and I. Elin, you’ll stay here and back up Cerise or provide medical support as needed. Cerise, I’m sure you’ll want to keep a party in the hold but don’t forget to keep watch in all directions. We don’t want to be caught by surprise if some of those giants come back for revenge.”

“Got it, boss,” Cerise said confidently.

“How are we going to get my people to the ship?” Irithil asked.

“That’s why I made so many flamers,” I replied.

I pulled out my earth talisman, and shaped it into a large floating box. Then I levitated the stack of flamers and piled them in.

“I have two hundred of these weapons, which should be more than enough to give one to everyone in the village. That should be enough firepower to discourage these things.”

He smiled thinly. “Indeed.”

By then Cerise had the crew lined up facing the cargo doors in the rear of the hold, with their flamers at the ready.

“Now remember, flamers won’t hurt our wizard,” she admonished the men. “So as soon as he gets the doors open just hose down everything in sight with fire.”

“Nice to see you’re so concerned about me, Cerise. But seriously, she’s right men. Just try not to hold a fire on the same part of the ship for too long, and back off if the metal starts glowing. Ready, now? I’ll throw the doors open on three. One.”

I stepped up next to the doors, and adjusted my force field to form an impermeable bubble around me.

“Two.”

I spread a strong warmth spell through the air inside my force bubble, and reached out to grab the bar on the doors with force magic.

“Three!”

I pulled the bar back, and threw the doors open.

A teeming horde of faint blue forms were gathered outside. The moment the doors opened they rushed in, only to be met by a solid wall of flames roaring past me. The front ranks of the mob disintegrated so fast they barely had time to shriek in agony. The ones behind them stopped, and then turned and fled.

I threw up a warmth field around the open doorway, and called for the men to cease fire.

“That was easy,” Cerise laughed.

“You caught them off guard,” Irithil pointed out. “Don’t underestimate them. The wraiths are cunning creatures, and if you give them an opening they will exploit it to the fullest. Milord, that barrier won’t hold them off for long.”

“I know, they’ll sneak up and suppress the fire magic as soon as they think they can get away with it. Give me a minute.”

I added an energy reservoir to the spell, and ran a feed to it from the power stone. That should foil any attempt to suppress or drain the magic. It was still just a temporary spell rather than a proper enchantment, but it should hold together long enough for me to scout out the situation and come up with an evacuation plan.

“That should do it,” Cerise observed. “We’ll keep a close eye on it just in case, though. If they figure out a way to break it I can just throw up a quick spirit ward and shut the doors.”

“Good. Let’s get moving, then. Girls, stick close to me. I’m running a spell that should keep the wraiths at bay, but it only covers about a ten foot radius around me.”

“Sure thing, milord,” Daria said.

“If we see wraiths can we shoot them?” Embla asked.

“Feel free. The more we can discourage them the easier this will be.

I expanded my warmth field as much as I could, reminding myself as I did that I really needed to find time to master Cerise’s techniques for using magic over longer distances. But this would do for now. I started down the ramp with the wolfen girls on my right, the elves to my left and the floating box full of flamers trailing along behind me.

The warmth field certainly made being outdoors a lot more pleasant. My first step sank into snow that must have been waist deep, but I had an easy fix for that. I pulled back, and laid down a force wall for my group to walk on. That spread our weight out enough that the wall barely made an impression on the frozen surface of the snow as we walked.

Wispy, translucent blue shapes closed in around us, but Embla and Daria made short work of the first few that tried to approach. After that they kept their distance. But there were hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Watching our every move. Waiting for us to make a mistake.

I resolved to make sure my island was thoroughly warded against these things as soon as we got home.

Halfway across the field Irithil stopped to study the buildings above us for a moment, and led us sharply off to the right of our original course. He paused again, studying the cliff face intently, and then crouched to do something to a stone that was nearly submerged in the snow.

A crack appeared in the rock, and then widened as a panel opened. A dark elf peered out at him, and there was a rapid-fire exchange in what I assumed must be elvish. Then the panel closed again.

“They’re reinforcing the spirit wards across the doors,” Irithil explained apologetically. “The wraiths have been quite energetic about pressing any opening.”

“Fair enough.”

It was a short wait. A minute later there were faint mechanical sounds from the cliff face, and then a section eight feet wide swung silently inwards. Beyond the double doors was a hallway lit by a cheery yellow glow, and a group of elves waiting to meet us.

The snow was a good four feet deep, and part of it immediately collapsed into the mouth of the tunnel. I laid a force ramp across the treacherous mass of tumbled snow, and slid down it to meet the reception committee.

“Hello, folks. I hear you need a ride?”

There were six elves waiting in the hallway. Two of them were dressed much like Irithil’s guards, in elaborately designed armor of soft leather that covered them from head to toe. If anything the designs were even fancier here, with lots of brightly colored ribbons and embroidery. They carried large, oval shields in addition to the light swords and compound bows I was familiar with.

Two more members of the group carried staves instead of swords, although they wore the same sort of armor. Obviously wizards, but I noted that their personal wards didn’t seem that much better than those of the warriors. Curious, but maybe they focused more on subtlety than raw power? Or maybe they just spent all their time enchanting gear. It certainly seemed like everything any of the elves wore or carried was magical in some way.

The leader of the group was obvious. He stood a couple of inches taller than the others, and held a rune-carved spear with some formidable enchantments on it. His personal magic was noticeably stronger than the others as well, and he wore a simple circlet of silver. Where the other elves wore their waist-length hair in a single long braid woven with ribbons and little metal ornaments, his was gathered into a loose ponytail instead.

The last member of the group was also the only female. She looked much younger that the rest, maybe sixteen or seventeen, although since she was an elf that was probably deceptive. Like the other dark elves I’d seen she was beautiful, with an impressive chest and a face that wouldn’t have been out of place on the cover of a fashion magazine. She wore her long, red hair in twin ponytails, an oddity that immediately had me wondering.

“A means of escape would be most welcome,” the leader answered. “I am Tavrin Nethwillin, Head of Clan Nethwillin and Chief Executive of the Nethwillin Trading Company. This is my daughter Sefwin, the heir to the clan. You must be Dark Hecate’s Champion, Daniel the Black.”

“That’s me,” I agreed. “She tells me you’re ready to make a deal?”

He nodded gravely. “We are. I understand that you can offer us both an evacuation and a place of refuge, but the price is our fealty?”

Part of me really wanted to offer him another option. But Hecate wanted me to trust her, and I already knew these guys played hardball in negotiations. There was probably a good reason why she’d told them that.

“Yes. But you’ll find I’m not the micromanaging type. I’ve already got three groves of dryads on the island, and I’ve set them up with their own homes where they can live however they want as long as it doesn’t affect anyone else. I’ll be happy to give you a space the size of this village where you can do the same. The fealty mostly comes in when it’s time to contribute to the common defense, or resolve a dispute between different groups.”

“That is generous of you. Irithil, you’ve seen this stronghold yourself?”

The diplomat stepped forward. “I have, my lord. An island of solid stone rising from a river kept from freezing through fire magic, ringed by walls of solid iron-reinforced stone sixty feet thick and over a hundred tall. The interior construction is still underway, but I gather the plan is to cover the entire island with an elentere two hundred feet tall. The two blocks that have been completed are fully enclosed, and solid enough to withstand a dragon attack. Enchantments provide fresh air, water and light to the interior, and Adept Black’s coven has been laying wards at a phenomenal rate. The rumors about unlimited mana are clearly true.”

“I don’t suppose that’s a secret you share with your vassals?” Sefwin asked. Her tone was casual, but the intensity in her gaze said that the question was anything but.

“I don’t intend to explain how it works to anyone until Ragnarok is over,” I said carefully. “But sharing the benefits is another matter. I’ve just finished enchanting personal mana sources for my coven, and coming up with something for my retainers is next on the list.”

She smiled hungrily. “Then I shall prove myself a worthy retainer.”

Irithil resumed his report. “I should also mention that one of the dryad groves Adept Black mentioned is the Grove of Red Thorns, and the others are the Fangs of the Black Wood and Clan Demetrios. I’ve spoken with all of their leadership, and they seem quite satisfied with their arrangement. One notable detail that was not in my initial report is that each group retains the right to withdraw from their service and leave the island at any time.”

Tavrin raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? Why not bind them more permanently, Adept Black?”

“I’m not interested in having anyone on my island who doesn’t want to be there,” I told him. “It also lets me avoid having to negotiate a lot of complex terms and conditions. As long as you’re living on my island what I say goes, but if I’m too demanding you can always leave.”

“A simple solution, but one that demands a certain degree of trust. Can we agree that any order that would negate our freedom to withdraw from your service is null and void? And that if we do exercise our right to leave the entire clan shall be free to depart with all of our belongings?”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Anything else you want to clarify?”

Tavrin was a lot more cautious than Demetrios and Pelagia had been. We spent another fifteen minutes hashing out details, most of which were things I would have thought were obvious. No, I wasn’t going to confiscate all the clan’s belongings or turn all the women into my personal concubines. No, I wasn’t going to sacrifice them to dark gods. Yes, when I called them up for service I’d let them leave enough of the adults behind to care for their children. Yes, I’d be careful not to get his clan members needlessly killed.

Honestly, it made me wonder what kind of people they’d negotiated with in the past. Not to mention making me a little nervous about the dark elves themselves. People tend to expect others to do what they’d do themselves, after all. If Hecate hadn’t sent me here herself I might well have pulled out of the negotiation and just dropped them off at the nearest settlement instead.

Finally they ran out of paranoid objections, and Tavrin agreed to the deal. Then I suddenly realized why he’d been so careful about it, because he and his heir had just given me a magically binding oath. Just like Demetrios and Pelagia, come to think of it. Did all the magical creatures in this world do that?

“I assume you must have a plan for getting our people to your ship?” Tavrin asked.

“The beginnings of one. First off, I brought presents.”

I showed him the box full of flamers, and had Embla step back outside to demonstrate. She’d been getting restless anyway with all the talking, and the wraiths were starting to close in around the open doorway.

“That will be very helpful,” Tavrin said. “But the wraiths will try to ambush us by coming up through the snow. They can’t travel long distances through the earth, but ice is another matter. We could lay out a spirit ward along the path to your ship, but that would take hours.”

Crap. I was glad he’d thought of that, because it would have been a nasty surprise.

“Alright, I can fix that. Irithil, why don’t you stay here and help plan the loading while I set this up. Girls, I’ll need you two to cover me while I work.”

Daria hefted her flamer eagerly. “We’re on it, boss. What are you going to do?”

I drew Grinder. “A little improvisation.”

Grinder’s plasma beam could melt stone, let alone snow. But clearing a path through the deep drifts raised an enormous cloud of steam, which was pretty dangerous to anyone near me. I had the wolfen girls stay well back while I cut a path a little ways out from the cliff, figuring the steam would keep wraiths at bay as well.

Then I had them follow me out to the airship, and told Cerise to engage the hover field. The Intrepid rose six feet off the snow, and with the vessel floating on an invisible cloud of magic I was able to slowly push it to where I wanted it. I ignored the occasional roar of flamers at my back, figuring Daria would let me know if a problem developed that they couldn’t handle.

Once I had the airship positioned directly in front of the tunnel I had Cerise land it again, and used earth magic to conjure a stone ramp up to the top of the snow. We dropped the Intrepid’s boarding ramp right on top of that, giving the elves an easy climb into the cargo bay. They’d only have to cross about thirty feet of open ground to get there, and I spent a few minutes widening the path I’d cut through the snow to make it harder for the wraiths to pull off an ambush.

By then the sun was nearing the horizon, and I was getting anxious about the time. Twilight would probably last a couple of hours this far north, but if we were still sitting on the ground after dark some of those giants might just come sneaking back in for a little payback.

Fortunately the elves hadn’t been idle. As soon as I was ready for them a party of warriors carrying flamers swung into action, taking up positions along the path and hosing down both snowbanks with flame. A larger party of human women and children followed along behind them, all of them wearing bulging backpacks and carrying neat bundles of belongings. Tavrin was at their lead, and waved them all to the back of the hold as he boarded the ship.

“Irithil tells me we can safely pack the hold with goods, as long as the load is evenly distributed?” He asked, looking around.

“Yes, the Intrepid can easily lift fifty tons. But we need to be loaded and out of here before the giants come back, or some irritated god drops a blizzard on our heads.”

“That won’t be a problem. Sefwin, you’re loadmaster. The mothers and older children can help you distribute the load.”

The young elf stepped out of the crowd, with a boy and girl who seemed about the same age at her sides.

“Yes, father,” she said confidently.

He nodded, and hurried back towards the tunnel. Sefwin turned to me. “Milord, can we rely on your men and that demoness to guard the doors?”

Cerise had most of the ship’s crew positioned there with flamers ready, while she came over to meet the newcomers.

“Yes. Cerise, this is Sefwin, the heir to clan Nethwillin. Sefwin, this is my coven-mate Cerise, Hecate’s High Priestess. Any problems with the ship, Cerise?”

“They keep trying to break the spells on the hull, but that’s hopeless,” Cerise informed me with a wide grin. “They might as well try to put out a bonfire with a thimble.”

“Glad to hear it. I’m going to go lay down some warmth fields along the path, and keep an eye on the wraiths.”

By the time I got back outside a party of elves was already carrying boxes out to the ship. Again, the contrast with Varo was striking. Here everything was already neatly packed into lightweight wooden boxes with labels carved into their sides, which even seemed to have standardized sizes so they’d fit neatly together in the hold. The work parties moved like they’d done this a hundred times before, using little carts to move their loads out to the ship. Six men formed a line to pass boxes up the ramp, and somehow the carts arrived at just the right interval to keep them busy without backing up.

I spent fifteen minutes laying warmth fields over the path to keep out wraiths, and the moment I’d finished that a party of hard-eyed elven women appeared to relieve the original guards. They stood watch with flamers at the ready while the men hauled cargo.

The wraiths made one serious attempt to attack the operation, a large mass of them flowing over the Intrepid and descending on the workers from above. But they had to pause for several seconds to break the warmth spell I’d thrown up, and the elves spotted their approach immediately. Two of them turned their flamers on the horde while the others kept watch, which drew my attention. I threw a wall of fire up to block their advance while I fixed the warmth spell, and the wolfen girls quickly arrived and opened up with their own flamers.

The wraiths had woven some kind of frost aura around themselves as a protection from the flames, but it couldn’t stand up to that much heat. They retreated rather than press the attack, and I considered just letting them go.

Nah, better to discourage them. I jumped to the top of the airship, and opened fire with my revolver as soon as they were a safe distance from the ship. Explosive rounds proved quite effective, the droplets of superheated nickel-iron they threw out tearing through the insubstantial wraiths even better than they did normal targets. The monsters quickly fled, spreading out as they went until they were far enough away that I decided to let them think they were out of range.

In less than an hour the elves filled the cargo bay with an even layer of boxes three feet deep. Then they laid mattresses over that, leaving a bit under six feet of headroom. Groups of humans in livery began arriving, arranging themselves in neat rows along the sides of the cargo bay. Then came the elven women, and then the men. The sun was barely halfway down when Tavrin stepped out of the hold, and waved the last of the guards inside.

“Clan Nethwillin is ready to depart, my lord,” he said formally.

I shook my head. “Damn, that was fast.”

“Nethwillin believes in being prepared,” he said. “Most of us are at least a few centuries old, so we’ve had ample time to master every skill we’re likely to need in an emergency. We started planning the evacuation as soon as Hecate told us you’d be arriving in a flying ship.”

“Well, I’m impressed,” I admitted. “I think you guys are going to be a huge asset. Cerise! We’re closing the doors now. Get ready to lift.”

Chapter 12

Sure enough, we barely made fifty miles from Yinthalos before dark clouds started to form on the horizon behind us. When the aft lookout reported them I had Cerise turn the ship so we could get a look, and frowned.

“What did you guys do to get Loki so pissed off with you?” I asked Tavrin.

“I doubt he cared about us one way or the other. Those giants were after our treasury. But they were from the Skyorn clan, which makes them distant kin of Loki’s giantess wife Angrboda. No doubt they petitioned him for aid.”

“I’m sure he’d like to smack us down after our fight with Hel’s army back in Kozalin,” Cerise commented.

“Perhaps,” Elin said diffidently. “I believe that would depend on how much Mara has told him about her adventures there. Hel only sent her forces to Kozalin to aid her half-sister, and I doubt she actually has much care for their fate. But Mara must stand quite high in her father’s favor after freeing him from his torment, and I doubt that she would want to see any of us dead.”

Cerise sighed. “I really wish I’d been able to seduce that girl when she was still undercover. Can you imagine having her in the coven?”

Tavrin choked. “You’ve met the Unraveller?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. She was in Kozalin, pretending to be a human mage while she worked out how to destroy the veil anchor there. We actually parted on decent terms, I think.”

The question was, what did she tell her father about the whole thing? Was he really trying to kill us, or just putting on a show to placate his worshippers? Or was it more complicated than that? Loki was famous for his clever plans, after all, and the fact that the ones in the myths tended to backfire on him was probably propaganda.

Well, it didn’t really matter for now. Our response would be the same regardless.

“Can you muster enough weather magic to protect the ship from that storm?” I asked Tavrin.

He gave the dark clouds another look. “Not reliably enough to make me feel confident about the safety of the children. We aren’t attuned to the airship, so we’d have to rely on air spirits to maintain a sphere of calm around it. That storm is carrying enough hostile spirits to easily break such a defense if they concentrate their efforts on it.”

“What’s involved in attuning to the airship?”

“It would require landing,” he told me. “Then we’d need four hours or so to engrave runes on the outside of the hull to guide our magic, and use those guides to establish a weather ward. With that done we could reliably protect the airship from high winds, but visibility would still be a problem.”

“If we land that storm will roll over us in less than an hour,” I observed.

“True.”

“Alright, we’ll call that plan B. Cerise, turn us south again. Tavrin, have one of your weather experts keep watch with the tail gunner, and keep us informed. I bet the storm isn’t moving that much faster than the Intrepid, especially if your people can call up some air elementals to help move the ship.”

“That much we can do.”

“Good. Then we’ll try and outrun this storm, or at least gain as much distance as we can before we have to set down.”

The sun gradually sank below the horizon as we fled south. I made a trip back to the tail gunner’s position to peer out at the clouds, and by the time the light had faded I was sure they were still gaining despite the best efforts of the elves.

Was there anything else we could do, to get just a little more speed out of this airship? Nothing came to mind. Or at least, nothing I wanted to try with a hold full of passengers.

I turned around, and studied them as I thought.

The hold was as crowded as any of the flights out of Varo, but the elves and their retainers were a lot better at making the best of the cramped conditions. They’d started by laying down mattresses atop the cargo, and in the first hour of the flight they’d hung sheets from the ceiling to subdivide the space into two rows of little compartments. A small glowing crystal was stuck to the back wall of each space, lighting them with a warm orange glow barely brighter than candlelight.

Most compartments were occupied by an elf and two or three humans, who seemed to be remarkably cozy with each other. Apparently most of the humans were personal retainers of a particular elf, and it was pretty clear that sex was part of that relationship. That didn’t sit well with my own sensibilities, but I saw enough smiles and affectionate embraces to make it hard to convince myself they were being coerced.

As Irithil had said, they were more subtle than that. How hard would it be for an immortal elf, with magic and beauty backed by centuries of experience, to seduce and beguile a teenager who’d already been indoctrinated from birth? Not hard at all, really. Teenage guys are suckers for hot women, and the girls were practically living a romance novel. Half of them were probably in love with their elves, and if there were any who resented their situation I certainly didn’t see any sign of it.

Here and there I found compartments that were an exception to the general rule. Female elves with a child as well as their servants. Pairs of human women, each with a group of children to watch. Several larger compartments in the middle of the hold, full of human men all uncomfortably piled in together.

I happened upon Sefwin sharing a compartment with the pair of elves I’d seen with her earlier. That was odd enough that I paused to look for a moment, and she noticed me.

“Is there something I can do for you, my lord?” She asked, with just a touch of nervousness in her voice.

“No, not in particular. I was just observing the arrangements, and making the obvious deductions about Nethwillin’s customs. Are you considered too young to have human retainers, or is that something to do with being the heir?”

“Oh, it’s an age thing. We’ve seen other clans become lazy and inept after leaning too heavily on servants, so our rule is that a clan member can’t adopt retainers until they’re a hundred years old. We’re supposed to master every skill we’d expect our servants to have before then, but learning and doing at the same time is a lot of work. So smart… um, teenagers would be the best translation, I think? Smart teenagers team up, to help each other out and spread the work. These are my partners, Amiya and Lashkin.”

Amiya was a pretty girl an inch shorter and a little bit younger than Sefwin, with hair that was such a dark red it was almost black. Lashkin seemed younger as well, though he was on his way to being one of the burlier elves I’d seen. They both wore their hair loose, instead of braided.

“Partners?” I asked.

“We take turns playing at master and servant with one another, my lord,” Lashkin explained.

“We study and practice together,” Amiya added, her voice soft and a bit hesitant.

Sefwin put her arms around both their waists, and hugged them. “Teen partnerships usually last until we start reaching adulthood, so we’ve got another sixty years together. Are you in need of a culture guide, my lord? I’d be happy to handle that for you.”

“I’m sure I’ll have questions now and then,” I agreed. “What’s up with the hairstyles? Braids for adults?”

She nodded. “It’s an accounting of obligations, my lord. The braid symbolizes the bonds of adulthood that all clan members share. The tokens show lovers, retainers and kin, living or dead. The clan head bears only the burden of leadership, hence the tail with a single binding. The heir shares that burden, but also owes obedience to the head.”

“So you can basically read a person’s history from the tokens in their braid. That’s interesting. Sounds like a lot of work to re-do a braid, though.”

“There’s a trick to it,” she said. “Enchantments on the tokens and ties, and a spell that makes everything weave itself together properly.”

The airship jolted suddenly. Just a spot of turbulence, but of course none of the passengers knew that. There were gasps and muttering all around, and several humans who’d been standing up at the time fell. None of the elves had any trouble with it, though.

“Is that normal, my lord?” Sefwin asked.

“Yeah, it just means we ran into a crosswind or something. Don’t worry, the Intrepid is actually a pretty tough ship. It would take a lot more than that to damage her.”

It did remind me that I had a job to do, though. I took my leave, and returned to the bridge.

For a couple of hours I actually thought we were going to make it out of the far North before the storm caught up with us. The elves were pushing their elementals as hard as they could, and sometimes it actually seemed like we were keeping up with the storm. At other times the clouds gained on us, a shadow creeping slowly across the sky to blot out the stars.

Then Irithil suddenly leaned forward to peer out the windshield, and cursed under his breath.

“There’s another storm moving in from the west ahead of us,” he pointed out.

Cerise squinted into the darkness. “Fuck. You’re right, those are storm clouds. Think we can make it around them?”

Tavrin shook his head. “It’s moving as fast as we are. We’d get caught over Lake Bothnia with nowhere to land.”

“I really need to get myself some night vision,” I grumbled. “Alright, so we’re boxed in. Anyone see a good place to set down? We need a good-size stretch of flat ground, ideally in a defensible position.”

Cerise and the two elves all studied the ground below. It was all just a shadow to me, so I’d have to rely on them for this.

“It’s forest as far as the eye can see,” Irithil said. “Loki chose this site well.”

“We could set down on one of the lakes if we have to,” Cerise pointed out. “Then Daniel could get out and clear some trees to give us a place to park. But that’s a last resort. What about that hilltop? It looks a little rocky, but there aren’t any trees and it would be hard for monsters to get at. I can’t see frost giants climbing that slope in a storm.”

“Are you certain it’s flat enough?” Irithil asked.

“Ummm…. I think so? I don’t know, I can’t really tell from here.”

“Take us down,” I decided. “We’ll hover over the hill and hit the lights. That should give us a good enough look to see if we can land on it. If it’s close I can just jump out, and do some quick stone shaping to get rid of anything that’s in the way.”

Putting lights on the bottom of the airship while it was in flight had been a bit of a challenge, but as usual the fact that I was using magic items instead of technology had made it a lot easier. I’d just put light spells on the ends of some short rods of aluminum, and then stuck them through the bottom of the hull and fused them in place. They were as bright as the big lights I’d used in the dryad habitats back home, so when Cerise brought us down over the hilltop and turned them on they lit it up pretty well.

The hilltop was mostly bare stone, scoured clean of snow by the wind. Small rocks were strewn about, and there was a large clump of boulders at one end with deep snow piled between them.

“Looks good,” Cerise said.

“Most of the slopes are too steep to climb easily, but enemies could still come up from the east,” Tavrin observed.

I considered.

“We can make it work. Cerise, set us down with the ship’s bow facing west. I’ll throw up some quick defenses before the storm hits.”

Landing turned out to be easier said than done. The wind was starting to pick up as the two storms converged on our position, and the lift cells had a huge sail area. We were buffeted about for some minutes before Cerise finally managed to swing around and come in with Intrepid’s bow facing into the wind. She left the skimmer field off, and slapped the lift bar all the way down the instant we touched ground.

The airship rocked back, the bow actually coming off the ground a few inches before it settled back. For a moment I was afraid we’d be blown over, or even carried back off the hilltop. Fortunately the lift cells shrank quickly, and the wind lost purchase. We settled firmly to the ground, and Cerise heaved a sigh of relief.

“Okay, that was way too close,” she said. “We need a better way to do that before we go flying again in this kind of weather.”

“I’d rather not fly in this kind of weather at all,” I said. “I think trying the skimmer field in this wind would be a bad idea. Let’s see if we can make things work where we are now. Elin, can you toss my cloak down?”

Elin peeked down from the loft. “Are we on the ground now? Thank goodness. Here you go, Daniel.”

I pulled the cloak on over my coat, and wrapped it around myself before opening the bridge hatch. A blast of arctic air roared in through the opening, along with a light swirl of snow.

“Leave the lights on until I get back,” I told Cerise.

“Sure thing, Daniel. But I’m coming with you. I’m getting stir crazy cooped up in here.”

“Suit yourself.”

It was even colder than I’d expected. The double layer of protection was enough to keep most of me warm enough, but my face felt like it was freezing. If it weren’t for my healing amulet I’d have frostbite in no time.

I glanced up. Half the sky was completely dark, the stars obscured by clouds. The wind was picking up as well, growing quickly into a gale. Well, that made sense. We’d been doing about fifty, and the storm had still been gaining on us.

“What are we doing out here, anyway?” Cerise asked.

I turned my attention to the terrain. We’d missed being blown off the hill by about twenty feet, and one of the Intrepid’s landing legs was resting on a pile of rocks instead of solid ground. But she was facing the right direction. I could work with this.

“I need to make sure the ship is stable,” I told her. “I think she’s too heavy to be pushed off the hill by the wind, but I’m not taking any chances.”

I crawled under the ship, and shaped the stone under each landing strut into a form-fitting hollow space several inches deep. There, that should keep us in place without preventing us from making a quick liftoff if we needed to.

Then I walked around behind the ship, and started throwing up some hasty stonework. A stone post to each side of the ship’s rear doors, connected by an overhead arch high enough not to obstruct their movement. Extend the posts into walls, with the arch growing into a roof overhead, and I had a little shelter. Good thing, since snow was already starting to fall.

“Is this to give the elves more space, or is it some kind of fort?” Cerise asked.

“Both. I’m going to put in some arrow slits, and make the stone self-warming. Can you circle back around through the bridge and get the rear doors open?”

“Sure thing.”

I extended the walls another twenty feet or so while I waited, and then closed off the end of the space I’d made. That gave me a room almost as big as the ship’s hold, and the walls were a couple of feet thick. By the time I heard the boom of the ramp falling behind me I had the first observation slit done as well.

I did a few more of them so we’d have two in each wall, and turned to find Tavrin and Cerise standing at the foot of the ramp.

“Can you set watches to keep an eye on the area?” I asked.

“Of course. Visibility will be poor, but giants aren’t known for their stealth. I think our chances of being surprised are minimal. What about frost wraiths?”

“I’m going to seal up the gaps between the stonework and the ship’s hull, and then put a warmth enchantment on the shelter. It’s not a perfect defense, but we can add spirit wards if we end up being here for more than a few hours.”

“Very well. I think it would be unwise for anyone to sleep out here, but the extra room will give our retainers a chance to stretch their legs periodically. I take it you intend to wait out the storm, and then resume our trip? What if the enemy uses it to pin us in place until his forces can catch up with us?”

“We’re almost two hundred miles from Yinthalos,” I said. “That’s a long march on foot. If the storm doesn’t break by morning we’ll put our heads together and come up with a plan. If nothing else, the Intrepid can travel overland a lot faster than an army can march. We’d just need to put up that weather ward you mentioned, and figure out a way to navigate.”

He frowned. “Alright. I do wish we had a more certain plan, though. I prefer to keep several layers of defense between the children and any danger.”

“Well, I’m open to suggestions. For what it’s worth, though, Hecate doesn’t think Loki will send anything after us. Anyone powerful enough to beat us would be important enough for Asgard to target, if they get spotted.”

“I see. Yes, until the Fenris wolf is freed I suppose Loki will be forced to move carefully.”

The elves were busy while I was setting up the warmth enchantment, and by the time I was done they had a curtain with a spirit ward on it hung across the entrance to the hold. They’d hung more of those dim light crystals on the walls as well, and there were already lookouts keeping watch at the vision slits. These guys were really starting to impress me.

I called the ship’s crew together and assigned men to stand watches on the bridge, just in case. Was there anything else I needed to do? Maybe take a look at that night vision problem, or come up with another layer of defenses for the encampment?

“Daniel?”

I blinked, and looked down to find Elin gazing at me in concern. “Huh?”

“You’re asleep on your feet, Daniel. Have you rested at all since we left for Yinthalos?”

“I’ve had a lot to do,” I replied.

She gave an exasperated sigh. “I swear, Daniel, sometimes I think you need a minder. Come to bed. Please.”

“But I-”

She silenced me with a kiss.

“Whatever it is, it can wait. Come to bed with me, my love.”

Why was I resisting this? I couldn’t remember.

“Alright, sweetie. Bed it is.”

The loft was a warm, cozy space, lit only by the dim glow of a single candle. By the time I had my boots off my eyelids were sagging, and I realized she’d been right. Elin helped me get my coat and breastplate off, and I collapsed onto a bedroll.

Elin took a few moments to change into a nightgown, despite the awkwardness of the confined space. Next time I built an airship I’d have to find room for a cabin with a ceiling more than four feet up. Then again, watching her graceful contortions was rather interesting.

She blushed a little when she felt my gaze on her.

“Do you like what you see?” She asked shyly.

“You’re beautiful,” I mumbled.

Her lips curved into a warm smile. “Thanks to you. I’ll never forget what you’ve done for me, Daniel.”

She blew out the candle, and slipped under the blankets beside me.

I was far too tired to do anything. But it felt so good to drift off to sleep with Elin nestled in my arms. I was a lucky guy.

Sometime later I half woke to a rustle of blankets, and bare breasts pressed against my back. Cerise settled herself against me with a contented sigh, and instantly fell asleep.

I drifted off again with a smile on my face. Doubly lucky.

Hours later, a tremendous crash jolted me awake. The floor bucked beneath me, and my head bounced off unyielding metal.

“The fuck?” Cerise grumbled somewhere nearby.

I tried to sit up, and my head swam. Fuck. Concussion? My amulet was already fixing it.

“Ow,” I groaned.

The ship rocked again, although not as violently. Faint shouts and clanging sounds drifted up from the direction of the hold.

“We’re under attack,” Elin said unnecessarily.

Faerie fire blossomed in her hand, lighting up the loft. Daria and Embla were here too, already scrambling for their weapons. Thankfully they’d slept in their clothes, unlike my girls and me.

“We’ll secure the bridge and find out what’s happening while you dress,” Daria volunteered.

“Fuck it, I’ll go with you,” Cerise said. Shadows rose around her, clothing her nakedness.

“Be careful,” Elin cautioned. “Daniel, are you… oh. That’s going to need healing.”

I sat up again, moving more carefully this time. “Yeah. Concussion. Just need a minute.”

Cerise nodded. “We’ll buy you some time, big guy. Come on, girls, let’s see what was stupid enough to mess with us.”

Cerise opened the hatch, and jumped down into the bridge with both wolfen girls on her heels. Damn it, it sounded like there was a pitched battle going on down there. There was cold air blowing up through the hatch, too. What the hell?

“Here,” Elin said urgently, holding out my coat.

I struggled into the enchanted armor, and fumbled for my weapons. Grinder. My earth talisman. My revolver. No time to worry about the breastplate, or get my boots on. At least my head was clearing.

“Close the hatch behind me, and get dressed before you come down,” I told Elin. “We’ll probably need you to heal.”

“Right,” she nodded. “I’ll be down in just a minute.”

A glance through the hatch showed nothing but the deck below, so I wrapped myself in a force shield and jumped through.

An enormous fist of stone intercepted me halfway to the floor, and smashed me into the back of the bridge so hard it dented the bulkhead.

The whole armored windshield at the front of the bridge was gone, torn away by what looked like some kind of stone golem. The giant construct was crouched over the front of the ship, peering in through the hole. But that wasn’t the only threat. In the darkness outside blasts of flamer fire showed the girls squared off against a bunch of short figures covered in bulky metal armor.

In the moment it took me to take in that much the golem opened its jaws, and a blast of noxious vapors roared out to surround me. I choked. My eyes burned, and I couldn’t breathe. Tear gas? Damn it, I was going to get killed at this rate.

I threw myself into the cold air rolling in from outside. Another tremendous blow caught me in midair, and sent me skipping across the ground and out into empty space. I fell, bouncing over boulders and through bushes, until I finally landed in a snowdrift.

My coat and safe fall enchantments negated the impacts, but it was disorienting as hell. I just laid there for a moment, letting my force shield collapse so I could grab a lungful of clean air while I healed my eyes.

Then I reformed it, and sat up.

The blizzard was still going full blast, cutting visibility to nearly zero. At least the steep slope told me which direction the top of the hill was in, but climbing in a gale wasn’t going to be easy. I shivered. Damn it, maybe I should have taken a minute to get fully dressed. The warmth spell on my coat wasn’t enough protection against this level of cold.

No, there was no time to worry about that. I might feel like I was freezing, but my amulet would keep the cold from doing any real damage. I needed to get my ass back in the fight.

I had to do most of the work with magic, holding myself against the rocky ground and shaping handholds as I went. It took long minutes to climb back up the hill, worrying the whole way. By the time I reached the top I was cursing under my breath. Were the girls alright? If something happened to them… well, I’d just have to make sure it didn’t. They were tough, and there isn’t much I can’t heal. They’d be alright.

I pulled myself over the edge of the hilltop, and looked around as best I could. Erratic flashes of fire lit the darkness in the distance, along with weaker glows that reminded me of Elin’s faerie fire. I could vaguely make out the bulk of the Intrepid through the blowing snow, with the hulking figures of several golems around it. Beyond that, I had no idea what was going on.

Well, killing the enemy is generally a good move. I readied my weapons, and headed for the nearest flash of fire.

I found a roasted body in the snow, and rolled it over. Bearded face, burly as hell and maybe four feet tall. I would have said dwarf, but he also had a pretty substantial pair of tusks jutting up from his lower jaw. Whatever he was, the heavy plate armor he wore hadn’t been much protection against a flamer. The metal was still hot to the touch.

A bellow and a distinctly feminine war cry drew my attention. I hurried towards the sound. A snow flurry blinded me for a moment, and then I found Daria wrestling with two more of the creatures. Her flamer lay broken in the snow, next to a bloody body with long hair.

She kicked one of her opponents in the face, rocking him back and giving her a chance to stab the other one with her force blade.

“Die, you murdering bastard,” she screamed. “Die! Die! Why won’t you die!”

Her force blade just fizzled out when it struck the creature’s armor, doing no damage at all. It must be enchanted with a protection against magic, but she was too far gone to notice. Her opponent punched her in the face with one armored fist, and his buddy was coming back in with a rope in his hands.

I thumbed Grinder to life, and rushed in to lay a wild blow across rope guy’s chest as he turned in surprise. Sure enough the saw blades fizzled and reformed instead of biting, but the plasma in my weapon’s blade left the heavy steel breastplate glowing orange with heat. He stumbled back, screaming in agony as his own armor cooked him.

I gave him a shot of the plasma jet to make sure, and turned back to find that Daria had thrown her opponent to the ground and was now beating his head against a rock.

His hand curled into a fist, and a dagger popped out of a sheath on his forearm. He stabbed her in the belly, and pulled his hand back to do it again.

“Daria!”

I threw my earth talisman at him. The lump of stone became a manacle midflight, wrapping around his wrist and pulling down to pin it to the ground.

Daria ignored her injury, and kept bashing. I had to pull her off him so I could roast him with a plasma jet. Then she threw herself against me.

“He killed Embla!” She wailed.

“The fuck he did. Her head’s still in one piece, she’s not dying on my watch. Pull yourself together, Daria.”

I stopped her bleeding, and knelt over Embla. Half the bones in the poor girl’s body were pulverized, and she wasn’t breathing. She must have gotten hit by one of the golems. But her heart was still struggling to beat.

I didn’t have time to put her broken body back together right now. I banished the broken bones that had punctured her lungs, stitched them back together and stopped the worst of the bleeding. She jerked, gasped and started breathing again.

“There, that will hold her for a few minutes. Get her to Elin, and she can keep her going until I have time to finish healing her.”

Daria stared at me. “She’s breathing? Good gods. You can raise the dead, milord?”

“No, it just takes longer than you’d think for people to finish dying,” I told her. “Do you know where Cerise went?”

She shook her head. “I can’t see a thing with all this snow. I think I heard her over that way.” She pointed towards the rear of the ship.

“I completely lost my head there, didn’t I?” She went on. “I’m sorry, my lord. I’ll do better.”

Well, I couldn’t really blame her. She was just a city girl with some magical upgrades, and no military training to speak of. But life doesn’t care how justified your mistakes are, and things were looking bad enough without Daria getting herself killed in a fit of berserker rage.

“You’ll have to, because Embla needs you,” I told her. “Stay behind me, carry her back to the ship, and make sure nothing else happens to her until Elin or I can get her healed properly. I’ve got a golem to kill.”

Easier said than done. If these guys had armor that was protected from my magic, the golems probably were too. They were too big to melt with Grinder, and they were too close to the ship for explosives. That left my earth talisman.

I formed it into a heavy iron spike four feet long, growing out of a ball of stone that probably weighed three or four tons. Enough mass that the enchantment strained to lift it all, but that was fine. I pulled deep on the mana from my amulet, grabbed the implement in a fist of force magic, and strode towards the ship.

I’m not sure what I expected to find, but this wasn’t it. Instead of fighting someone, the golem at the front of the ship was busy ripping up the bridge. Several sections of hull plate and support beams were stuffed into a giant sack slung over one of the construct’s shoulders, and it was working another length of aluminum free.

Aluminum. Mithril. It stopped to loot? Golems weren’t smart enough for that, but… was that a hatch on the construct’s back?

I raised the spike I’d made, and slammed it into the golem’s back with all the force magic I could muster. Iron struck stone with a deafening crash, and penetrated. The golem’s back caved in, shattering around the point of impact to reveal a hollow space inside.

The point lodged in the golem’s breastplate, and I immediately made it sprout a forest of spikes growing out in all directions. There was a muffled cry from somewhere inside the war machine. Then it stopped moving, and slowly toppled over.

I shrunk the talisman back to normal size, and sent a jet of plasma into the opening just to make sure. But there was no sign of Elin. There was a ragged hole where the hatch to the loft should have been, and another where the door to the hold had been ripped off. A swirling mass of that noxious gas filled the hold.

“Stay here for a minute,” I told Daria, and made my shield airtight again. She nodded, and I stepped into the cloud.

I figured no one would expect a threat to come through the cloud at this point, so I turned off Grinder and tried to move quietly. The fumes were opaque enough that it was hard to see, but the hold definitely wasn’t full of people anymore. They must have bailed out the back to get away from the gas. Hopefully my little improvised fort had held up better than the airship.

No such luck.

I emerged from the gas cloud to find that the whole structure had collapsed into mud. Obviously the work of an enemy earth mage. Some asshole had done a pretty good job of ripping the aft end of my ship apart, and the cargo ramp was missing. There were bodies on the ground, a few elves and a whole bunch of the short guys. A golem, too, that looked like it had been cut to pieces. But what caught my attention was the standoff at the far end of the mud patch.

A pair of golems stood to either side of a guy in especially heavy armor, who was holding Sefwin prisoner. She was on her knees, her wrists in shackles behind her back, and he had the blade of a massive war axe at her throat. There were another dozen or so short guys in armor nearby, forming a loose half-circle around their opponents.

Tavrin stood in the middle of the frozen mud patch with a bloody sword in his hand, bleeding from a dozen shallow wounds and looking absolutely murderous. Irithil and half a dozen other elves were with him, which made me wonder where the rest had gone. There weren’t nearly that many bodies on the ground.

Elin was standing next to him, surrounded by a furiously swirling vortex of water. She was bruised and battered, and seeing her made me want to murder every one of these little bastards. But she was on her feet, and apparently making good use of the power source I’d given her.

“-sudden moves, faerie lady,” the guy with the axe was saying. “We wouldn’t want anything to happen to the cute elf girl, would we? The Sons of Ivaldi hold the field today. You can surrender with the elves, or you can walk away, but the mithril skyship is ours.”

Chapter 13

Sons of Ivaldi? Those were the guys who’d made half the magical artifacts in Norse mythology. So they really were dwarves, then.

A couple of them had already noticed me, so there was no point trying to hide. I stepped forward with Grinder in my left hand, and my revolver in the right.

“You have until the count of three to let the girl go and back off, or I’m going to kill every one of you little bastards,” I growled.

“Daniel!” Elin gasped.

“No!” Tavrin said. “Daniel, I won’t risk her life.”

“There’s nothing he can do to her with an axe that I can’t heal,” I said coldly. “One.”

My eyes raked over the enemy formation, looking for openings. I couldn’t give these dwarves a hint that I was concerned about Sefwin, but considering the attitude the dark elves had about kids I doubt Tavrin would forgive me if anything happened to her. Two golems and a dozen dwarves was a lot of enemies to deal with, too. I needed help to pull this off.

Aha. A familiar magic was bleeding into the dwarf leader’s shadow. That’s my girl.

“One wizard against an entire clan of dwarves?” Axe guy scoffed. “Ego won’t bring you victory today. Your vassals have already fallen to our might, and my brothers are carrying them off in chains. Hurry off to Kadur Osh, and maybe you can buy them back on the slave market. Or you can stay here and die beneath the axes of the clan, and we’ll take your mithril ship anyway. Isn’t that right, boys?”

There were grim nods all around, and some of them started chanting. “Kill the wizard, kill the elves, take the mithril for ourselves.”

It was all the distraction Cerise needed.

She seemed to form from the shadows behind axe guy, with her hand already on the haft of his weapon. She wrenched it away from Sefwin’s throat with a grunt of effort.

Sefwin reacted instantly, ducking and twisting out of her captor’s grip like a greased eel. In the blink of an eye she was tumbling away from him, rolling to her feet and dashing for safety. I’d been hoping for something like this, and threw myself forward with a burst of force magic. I managed to get between her and the dwarves just as one of them threw a hand axe at her unprotected back.

The weapon passed through my force field like it wasn’t even there, and the edge sliced through even my coat to cut a nasty gash into my chest. Damn it, was everything the dwarves used immune to magic? At least it had taken most of its momentum to penetrate my barrier coat, but if one of those things hit me in the head this fight was over.

I thumbed Grinder back to life as a distraction, and opened fire on the dwarves with explosive rounds. That disorganized them nicely, and then I wasn’t the only one fighting. A wall of water rushed past me to engulf several dwarves, and a barrage of colorful spells lashed out to strike one of the golems.

The other one opened its maw and vomited out another cloud of that noxious gas they used. I stepped back, and blew the gas cloud away with a burst of force magic. I caught a glimpse of Cerise splitting the head dwarf’s skull with his own axe, but then there were three more dwarves trying to close with me behind raised shields.

An explosive round knocked them on their asses, and I played Grinder’s plasma jet over them. They screamed, and tried to scramble away for a few seconds before the heat overcame them. Then they were down, and I had a moment to see where I was needed.

Apparently I wasn’t.

Elin was floating in the middle of a ball of water twenty feet across, which had completely engulfed one of the golems and was somehow tearing it apart. Tavrin was perched on the other golem’s back with his sword buried in its head, sucking out the magic that animated the war machine. Cerise was merrily carving a bloody swath through the dwarves with their leader’s axe, putting her superhuman strength and blinding speed to good use. The rest of the elves were engaging the dwarves around the periphery of the fight, and while that was a more equal contest they were holding their own.

For a moment I thought the fight was over. Then a feathered shaft sprouted from my chest.

Agony blossomed an instant later, muted by my amulet’s automatic pain block but still as bad as anything I’d ever felt. Acid flooded my veins, a death spell attacked my tissues, and a cacophony of uncontrolled mana tried to scramble my magic.

Fortunately the jamming effect wasn’t strong enough to shut down my amulet. It flooded my body with a tidal wave of indiscriminate healing, fighting the spells that were trying to kill me. Good thing, too, because another wave of dwarves was charging in out of the darkness.

I ignored my injury for a few precious seconds, hosing down the middle of the enemy formation with explosive rounds. Once again their magical defenses proved inadequate against purely physical force, and while their armor was heavy enough to provide some protection it didn’t stop the fiery blasts from knocking them around. A half-dozen shots reduced their dense wedge formation to a disorganized mob, with most of the dwarves blown off their feet while a few others staggered forward unsupported.

The fire in my chest was spreading. I found myself on my knees, with the world starting to spin. I had to get this thing out. I groped at my chest with fingers that were starting to shake.

Sefwin knelt next to me. “The head of the bolt is sticking out of your back,” she said. “I think I can push it all the way through, and get it out.”

“Do it,” I gasped.

She set herself, and abruptly threw her slight weight behind the shaft.

“Kyaaa!”

Martial arts crossbow bolt removal? I could swear she’d actually practiced that exact move. It didn’t hurt much with the pain block on, but feeling the shaft sliding through my chest was a damned unpleasant sensation.

Sefwin ducked behind me, set her foot on my back and pulled in one fluid motion.

“Hyaaa!”

The bolt came free, and its destructive spells lost their hold on me. I focused my own healing on the wound for a moment, to stop the bleeding.

A shaped loomed above me. A dwarf with his axe raised to strike. I reached for force magic, realized it wouldn’t do any good, and fumbled for a split second.

Sefwin lunged at him, thrusting towards the eye slits in the dwarf’s helmet with a slender blade that I hadn’t even seen her pick up. He turned his attack into a block, but the move distracted him long enough for me to gather my wits. I grew my earth talisman into a basketball-sized chunk of iron, and slammed it into him.

That worked pretty well. A hundred pounds of iron was too much weight to block, and the dwarves weren’t much good at dodging. Good thing, too, because my attacker had been the first of a whole squad of them. I found myself fighting side by side with Sefwin, frantically smashing away with the talisman in an effort to keep them from closing with me.

We made a pretty good team. My talisman swerved and spun unpredictably, striking one dwarf after another with crushing force. Sefwin ducked and wove around our enemies like some kind of elven Bruce Lee, seemingly unhindered by the shackles binding her wrists together. While their armor was proof against her sword my efforts gave her plenty of openings for fancy moves. Twice, she managed to dart out and stab an enemy through his helm’s eye slits before retreating behind the cover of my talisman. Neither of those dwarves got up again.

But there were too many of them, and I had exactly zero training in any kind of melee combat. A thrown axe bit into my shoulder, and the distraction let one of them get close enough to land a blow on my side with his axe. My coat only partially blunted the force of the blow before the edge cut through, and gave me another deep cut.

A second later I slammed my talisman into him, breaking his arm and sending him sprawling. Sefwin went to finish him and almost got gutted by one of his buddies, spinning away at the last second with a shallow cut along her arm. There were too many of them for this. I needed a better tactic.

A dark blur wove through the press, and a dwarf who was about to take another swing at me lost his head in a fountain of blood. Then Cerise was standing in front of me with a bloody battle axe in each hand.

“Don’t hog all the fun, now, love,” she said lightly, and turned to attack another dwarf.

“You’re welcome to this kind of ‘fun’,” I said. “I’ll take standing at the back casting spells any day.”

“Cast away, milord,” Sefwin said, springing past me to launch a furious series of attacks on another dwarf.

Cerise laughed. “Hey, I think I like this girl.”

I ignored the byplay. Cerise could do this all night, but I’d already seen that Sefwin was a lot more fragile. One false move here and she was dead. I had to make this reprieve count.

I risked a quick glance around. The giant blob of water off to the right told me that Elin was still fighting, and to my left Tavrin was making a stand with the other elves. It didn’t look good, though. There had to be thirty or forty dwarves on the field, and one of the golems was still up and breathing gas attacks at the elves. If the wind didn’t keep blowing the stuff away they probably would have fallen already.

I needed to clear these guys out somehow, but most of my usual tricks weren’t working. Time to improvise. I called Grinder to my hand, and brought my earth talisman back to hover in front of me. It only took a few seconds to shape it into a heavy iron barrier, four feet wide and seven feet tall, with a vision slit at eye level and a small hole in the middle.

“Both of you, get behind me!” I called, and shoved Grinder through the hole. I activated the weapon again, and triggered the plasma jet as soon as both girls were out of the line of fire.

That worked like a charm. The cone of violet flame caught three of the dwarves, who immediately fell back and started screaming. I turned the shield left and right, playing the beam over the ranks of the nearer enemies to disperse them.

“Awesome!” Cerise shouted, peering around the shield. “It’s working, Daniel. Fry the little fuckers!”

“Marvelous,” Sefwin panted. “I believe… I’ll stay… right here… behind this shield.”

A crossbow bolt thunked into the barrier and stuck. Yeah, they had some kind of armor-piercing enchantment on those things. Not enough of one to punch through a plate of nickel-iron an inch thick, though.

I stepped forward, still holding the beam on. I caught several more dwarves, before a party tried to rush our flanks. I turned to drive them off our left flank with the plasma beam, while Cerise made short work of the ones on her side. I handed Cerise my revolver, and advanced again.

When Cerise started firing explosive rounds into the main group of dwarves Elin’s water ball abruptly shifted in our direction. She took up a position behind us, which left Cerise and I with a clear field of fire and no more worries about getting flanked. I pushed forward again, levitating the shield so we could move quickly, and caught another group.

The last golem went down, and the enemy’s morale finally broke. They retreated into the snow, leaving a trail of bodies behind them. Cerise kept firing until the last of them vanished in the darkness, and I turned Grinder off.

The howl of the wind seemed quiet after the din of battle.

Cerise clapped Sefwin on the back. “Good job there, girl. I didn’t think you were that badass.”

The elf girl fell to her knees. “I’m not. Sorry, I was burning life force there at the end. Ran out of mana ages ago. I think I’m going to pass out now.”

“Just rest for a minute,” Cerise told her. “Daniel will get you fixed right up.”

Elin’s water ball evaporated, and she staggered out of it to fall into my arms. She was covered in blood, and my body sense pointed out three deep stab wounds that she was struggling to heal. I immediately added my magic to hers.

“Fuck, Elin. What happened to you?” Cerise asked.

“Some crazy dwarf swam right up to me while I was distracted with the second golem, and started stabbing me. I’d be dead if not for my healing amulet.”

“Most of my people are dead,” Tavrin said grimly. “Or captured by the dwarves, which is scant improvement. This is a disaster. What will you do now, Daniel? Journey to Kadur Osh, and try to buy them back?”

“You think I’m going to give these assholes money for kidnapping our people? Fuck that. They haven’t had time to get far. First we’re going to get our people back, and then we’re going to make them pay for this.”

He shook his head. “I appreciate the sentiment, but the Sons of Ivaldi are a major clan. They must have an outpost under the hill, but I don’t see how we can assault it with such a small force. All of us are injured, we’ve exhausted our magic and I doubt we’ve faced more than a third of their garrison.”

“How long will they hold them here?” I asked.

“An hour or two, I’d guess. In theory the earth gates they use allow for instant travel between their citadels, but they can’t keep them open all the time. There must be an outpost nearby, but they would have attacked in much greater force if their gate was open.”

“The local commander got greedy?” Sefwin asked.

“Yes,” Tavrin agreed. “That’s the most likely explanation. He tried to take this ship with his own forces, so they could keep the mithril for themselves. After this battle I expect they’ll seal their doors, and have their geomancers call for help. It will take them some time to get the gate open, but once they do the clan will march an army through to claim the airship. They’ll send the prisoners through as soon as the vanguard has cleared the gate, to make sure they can’t be rescued somehow.”

“They sure are determined to get my ship,” I commented.

Tavrin raised an eyebrow. “Daniel, do you realize how much an ounce of mithril is worth? Your ship is probably the single greatest treasure in Europe.”

I sighed. “I should have painted it, or something. Well, if it takes them that long to get a gate open we’ve got a shot at this. Elin, how are you doing?”

“Better. The bleeding is stopped, and I don’t feel so weak. But I need to get to shelter soon. My water wasn’t enough of a barrier against the cold.”

“Right. The gas cloud in the ship has pretty well dissipated, so we’ll set up a healing station there. Tavrin, gather the wounded. We can save anyone who still has a heartbeat, if we can get to them in time. Probably some of the dead ones too, if their spirits haven’t departed yet. I get the worst cases, Elin gets the easier ones. Cerise, go up to the hold and help Daria get Embla back here. She got smashed up pretty bad by a golem, and we’ll need to stabilize her again. Sefwin, come with me.”

That got everyone moving.

I helped Elin into the hold, and fetched the power stone from where I’d stored it.

“Sefwin, can you pull mana from large power sources safely?”

She nodded wearily. “Of course. That’s part of my basic training. I’m fairly versed in magic, I’m just not old enough to have a deep well of power yet. It takes a century or so for an elf’s magic to fully mature.”

“Great. Draw on this to get your strength back, and then show your father so he can get everyone else to do the same.”

I was starting to get used to that astonished look.

By then Cerise was back with Embla, and then the wounded elves and humans started arriving. Elin and I worked frantically for several long minutes, trying to stabilize the critical cases so we wouldn’t lose anyone else. I restarted two hearts, dealt with severed limbs and shattered bones, and conjured gallons of blood. There was even one elven warrior who’d been beheaded in the last frantic fight, but I managed to reattach his head and get blood circulating again before he suffered more brain damage than I could fix.

There were some I couldn’t save. An elf with a crushed skull. One of my crewmen who’d had his head split open by an axe. A few Nethwillin retainers who’d been hacked apart by axemen and then trampled in the fighting. Still, that was a lot fewer deaths than I’d expected. Only five fatalities in all, compared to seventeen we were able to save.

Like I’d told Embla, it takes a lot longer than you’d think for people with fatal injuries to actually finish dying. Elin’s magic was better than a modern emergency room for dealing with trauma patients, and my flesh magic was even stronger. It was less than ten minutes before we had the last patient stabilized.

Well, for generous versions of the term. They probably wouldn’t drop dead if we left them unattended for a few minutes, but they certainly weren’t going to get better on their own. It would take at least another hour to get them all completely out of danger, but we didn’t have that much time.

I looked up to find that the elves had already gotten another sheet hung to help trap warm air in the hold. It still wasn’t exactly comfortable, but between that and the warmth spell on the hull the temperature was hovering a bit above freezing. Much better than the subzero conditions outside, and the blankets Daria and Sefwin were laying over the wounded would hopefully be enough to protect them from hypothermia.

Tavrin and the other elves who’d made it through the battle were all gathered around the power stone, drawing energy from it to replenish their reserves and prepare spells. Cerise was sitting with one arm around Elin, watching everyone else.

I noticed Sefwin was trying not to use her injured arm.

“Sefwin? Come here for a sec.”

She hurried over. “Yes? Do you need something?”

I ran my finger down her arm, and smoothed the cut away. Hmm. Exhaustion that needed fixing, and some assorted scrapes and bruises. Nothing serious enough to take any real time, though.

“Better?” I asked.

“Much better. Thank you, Daniel.”

“You’re welcome, Sefwin. Alright, planning time everyone.”

That brought Cerise and Tavrin over. I noticed Cerise was mostly healed from the fight already, and Tavrin had found time to bandage his wounds.

“Do we know where the dwarves took the prisoners?” I asked.

Tavrin nodded. “I had them followed. There’s a hidden entrance to the west, about forty yards away.”

I shook my head. “Loki played us perfectly with that second storm, didn’t he? How did they end up with so many prisoners, anyway? The gas?”

“Yes. Between the wind and snow they were able to get close enough for their geomancers to collapse the fort you raised without being observed. Then they threw gas grenades into the hold, and subdued my people as they ran out of the cloud. The humans were easy prey, and even a lot of my clansmen didn’t have the proper counterspells ready. It takes a great deal of skill to fight back when you can’t see or breathe properly, and a pair of dwarves are trying to knock you down and put shackles on your wrists.”

“I see. Well, I can’t criticize you for that. I got caught petty badly off guard too, and a golem knocked me right off the hill. By the time I climbed back up and found the ship again you were having that standoff with the dwarf.”

“That reminds me,” Sefwin interjected. “We don’t have time for ceremony, but I fully acknowledge my debt to you. You saved my life tonight, Daniel.”

I waved her off. “I think you returned the favor not five minutes later, Sefwin. Don’t worry about it.”

She smiled. “I did, didn’t I? I can’t believe you got back up after being hit with a wizard slayer bolt. Do you think we might be fatebound?”

Elin sniffed. “He saved you once, Sefwin, not three times. Let’s not get carried away here.”

“Twice,” Sefwin disagreed. “Yinthalos wasn’t going to hold out much longer. And it hasn’t even been a day yet.”

Tavrin frowned at the exchange, but didn’t say anything. I had no idea what they were talking about, of course. But Cerise seemed to be puzzled too, so for once I didn’t have to hide my ignorance.

“Someone want to fill me in on what you’re talking about?”

“Oh, it’s a tradition among some of the elder races,” Elin said. “Everyone’s destiny is a thread on the loom of fate, but sometimes two threads will be intertwined.”

“Some people are fated to do great things together,” Sefwin interjected. “Blood brothers. Lifemates. A general and his trusted lieutenant.”

“Also bitter rivals and deadly enemies,” Elin added sarcastically. “It doesn’t have to be a good destiny. The story is that you can recognize a fatebonded pair by the outlandish things that happen when they first meet. There’s a whole list of signs that are supposed to mean different things, but I wouldn’t put much stock in that. It’s not as if the Norns need to advertise their work.”

Sefwin frowned, and looked like she was about to argue.

“I guess that’s interesting,” I interrupted. “But let’s focus on the problem at hand, shall we? Elin, I think you’re going to have to stay here to take care of the patients. We’ve got an awful lot of people here who’ll die if they’re left alone for long. Any objections?”

She shook her head. “I have no desire whatsoever to see another battle tonight, Daniel.”

“Alright. Daria, I want you to stay here and watch her back. Someone needs to be on guard, and you’ve got good ears. Sefwin, you back her up. Hopefully you won’t have any more trouble.”

“You might need me to find the prisoners quickly,” she objected. “I have active blood bonds with Amiya and Lashkin right now, and that’s the only sort of link that you’ll be able to follow through dwarven wards. Father, does anyone else have a bond to follow?”

Tavrin looked like he’d just bitten into an apple, and found half a worm. He glanced at the other elves, but they all shook their heads.

“Why in the Nine Worlds do you three have blood bonds?” he asked.

She studied the floor, looking very much like a teenager caught doing something stupid. “We were simply working on our mental defenses, father.”

That didn’t reassure him. “You aren’t ready for soul magic yet, Sefwin. You’re only forty, and your partners are both a decade younger. You could lose yourself if you’re not careful.”

“Drama later,” I interrupted. “Is she right, Tavrin?”

He reluctantly nodded. “Yes. I hate to take a child into danger again…”

Sefwin’s chin came up. “I killed three dwarves tonight, father. Like it or not I’m a blooded warrior now. I won’t fail the clan.”

He sighed. “Alright.”

“Fine. Tavrin, detail one of your people to help guard the injured. The rest of us are going hunting. Can you do anything interesting with the power source?”

“Yes. We’ve already started preparing battle spells.”

“Good. You’ve got a few minutes to work on that while Cerise and I get dressed, and then we’re going to get moving.”

Cerise looked down at herself, and smirked. “Oh, yeah. Forgot I was just wearing shadows.”

I snorted, and headed for the loft. “Nut. Why aren’t you freezing?”

“Witch,” she pointed out. “Frost resistance spell, on top of magical vitality. It would have to get a lot colder than this to hurt me.”

“If it got much colder the air would freeze,” I grumbled.

I pulled on my boots, and donned the padding and breastplate that would have protected me from those damned axes. The belt with sheaths for Grinder and my revolver, and a pouch for my earth talisman. Then I could shrug the coat back on, and a warmth cloak over that.

Cerise managed to wiggle into her leather catsuit, through some process that had to involve witchcraft considering how form-fitting the thing was. I’m not sure why she bothered with the low-cut boots that went with it, considering that the soles of her feet were tougher than leather. Probably just a fashion statement.

“Ready?” I asked.

She hesitated, and gave me an uncertain look.

“I guess. We can really do this, right? Get our people back from those greedy bastards? I feel like I really fucked up tonight, letting so many of them get captured. We didn’t even manage to keep Elin out of the fight, and she’s counting on us to protect her. She’s trying to hide it, but I can tell she’s kind of freaked out about that.”

I sighed, and pulled her into a hug. She laid her head against my chest.

“I know, Cerise. I feel the same way. We weren’t careful enough, and we got caught with our pants down. But what’s done is done. All we can do now is try to fix it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Is Elin alright?”

“Yeah, she’ll be okay. She’s just really afraid that she’ll lose control of herself and turn into a monster if she starts getting into fights. I think it’s kind of silly, considering she didn’t hurt anyone the last time she went grendelkin. But you know how she is. We just need to let her ease into things a little bit at a time, until she finally figures out that she can trust herself.”

“That’s what I thought. Well, if we do this right the dwarves will be too busy to try another raid until we’re gone, and once we get home she can stay in the palace where it’s safe for as long as she wants. To be honest I’d rather not expose her to danger anyway.”

“Me neither,” Cerise said. “She’s not really cut out for battle. I guess I’m the only girl in the coven who is, and half of that’s from eating so many demons.”

“Well, whatever the reason I’m glad you’re here. Right now we have to get our people back, and I need my badass babe at my side to pull this off. Are you with me?”

“Always,” she assured me. “Okay, Daniel. If you say we can attack a dwarf fortress with a handful of elves and get away with it, I believe you. We killed a dragon together. How hard could this be?”

“That’s the spirit.”

She pulled away, and picked up the dwarven war axe she’d acquired during the fight. The giant, double-bladed weapon must have weighed fifteen pounds, but she handled it like it was weightless. She twirled it in one hand, and rested it on her shoulder.

“Let’s do this thing.”

Chapter 14

Tavrin’s crew were still casting spells when we came down, so I took the power stone with us. The storm was still blowing, but it was simple enough to throw a force dome over our party to keep the wind and snow off. I stepped into the darkness beyond the little glowlights that decorated the ship’s hold, and turned to Sefwin.

“Alright, you’re up. Which way to your partners?”

She closed her eyes in concentration, and raised her hands. A faint hint of green foxfire flickered between her palms, forming a ball with two wisps of smoky green energy trailing down and to one side.

“That way.”

“Alright. Tell me when we’re directly over them.” I set out into the snow, with Cerise at my side and everyone else trailing along behind me.

Tavrin frowned. “We aren’t going to use the entrance? I’ll grant that their defenses are bound to be formidable, but surely tunneling in will be worse? Their settlement will be solidly warded.”

I gave him a grim smile. “Yeah, that’s not going to do them any good. You guys just sit back and get ready for a fight. I’ll take care of getting us in.”

This was almost like those fantasy role-playing games I used to play back in college. Fight your way down through a vast underground maze of monsters and traps to find the lost treasure, or rescue the fair princess. I always thought it was stupid to play it straight with that kind of scenario. I used to drive Dungeon Masters nuts with my penchant for lateral solutions. Why fight the monsters when we could just scry the princess’s location and teleport in to get her? Or divert a river to drown the orc horde, or undermine the caldera of the volcano that overlooked the Evil Overlord’s tower, or… well, there was always something. Those games usually have so much magic available that it’s impossible to defend against every possibility.

I might not have a huge laundry list of poorly thought out spells to choose from here, but I had the options I really needed. When we finally reached a spot where Sefwin’s tracking spell pointed straight down, I backed off a little and conjured a big iron disk for us all to stand on. That got a levitation spell, and a force field tied to the power stone.

“Alright, everyone stand on the disk. We’re going to ride it down, so don’t be surprised when it starts moving.”

As the elves cautiously boarded the floating construct I conjured a long iron rod, and laid a hasty version of the wizard staff spell on it. Then I tapped it against the ground, and focused my earth sorcery.

In a thirty-foot circle around us the ground began to vanish, the earth and stone banished by my magic. I struggled to keep the effect even, giving my disk a relatively flat surface to hover over as we sank quickly into the hill. Twenty feet. Forty. Sixty. Eighty.

A hundred feet down we hit a ward that blocked my spell. Our descent stopped momentarily, and Tavrin nodded.

“You see? The dwarves are adept at earth magic. They wouldn’t overlook such an obvious method of assault.”

The magic was more like the enchantments I’d woven into some of my earth magic than the wards over Kozalin. Instead of a thin shell of defensive magic the protection was actually infused into the stone.

“Think they’re ready for this?” I asked. I pulled deep on my amulet’s power, and slammed a dispelling into the ward.

It was a tough enchantment, but I had a lot of power at my disposal. The spell shattered the protections over several cubic feet of stone, and then I banished it. Interesting. Unlike my island there was no giant energy reserve behind the protections, and no regrowth function trying to repair the damage. There was bound to be some kind of alarm, though.

Tavrin looked at the crater I’d made in the stone, and back at the power stone. “I see. Yes, I suppose having such an enormous energy source frees you from many of the usual constraints. I take it you’re going to set up some kind of continuous attack?”

“Exactly.”

I only needed to do this once, so I didn’t bother with making a permanent enchantment. I just conjured up a stone disk, with long iron bars extending out from it towards the edges of the shaft, and started slapping spells on it. A link to the power stone to run it. A high-powered directional dispelling and a cheap stone banishment. Wait, no, the dispelling would interfere with the banishment too. Alright, make them alternate. A few seconds of dispelling, then a second of banishment, and so on. Both fields would be about the size of the shaft I’d started digging.

Having that thing below us would break the disk’s levitation field, too. Alright, add on another bit of force magic that would grip the sides of the shaft to hold the disk in place, and move it up or down. I’d have to manage that manually, but no big deal.

I anchored the disk in place, and triggered the digging device.

The dispel blew away the wards on several feet of stone, which the device immediately banished. It fell, rattling against the new floor of the shaft, but its shape ensured that it couldn’t flip over or otherwise shift around much. Dispel, banish, fall. The whole cycle only took a few seconds, and burrowed through several feet of stone.

“Impressive,” Tavrin said.

Cerise leaned into me. “He’s always doing stuff like this. Hold on to your hats, everyone. The elevator to Tartarus is going down!”

I lowered the disk.

A hundred feet further down the wards grew noticeably stronger, and the digger’s progress slowed a bit. Then it broke through into a passage full of water, which immediately rushed out to cover the bottom of the shaft. That would have been a nasty trap if we were normal miners. I halted our descent, and watched until the water level started to fall. That took longer than I’d expected, so there must have been a pretty substantial network of water-filled tunnels.

“Are the prisoners still in the same spot?” I asked.

Sefwin checked, and shook her head. “They must know we’re coming. They’ve started moving them away, but they aren’t traveling very fast.”

“Perfect. We’ll just give them their own defense back as a little present, then.”

There was a muffled ‘whump!’ from somewhere below, and the water roiled violently. But it kept descending.

“Looks like this is getting the job done,” Sefwin observed.

“Yeah, I guess that was some kind of mine. These guys are pretty thorough about their defenses, aren’t they?”

“They are,” Tavrin agreed. “But they’ve still been found wanting tonight. Not much further, I think.”

There was another muffled thump from below, and a darker liquid began to mix with the water. Noxious fumes rose up where it reached the surface of the pool, and I threw an air purification spell over the disk. The stuff mixed quickly with the water, though, and in a minute there was no visible trace of it.

Then the water suddenly fell away below us.

“Looks like we broke through,” I said. “Let’s say hello to the welcome party.”

I dropped us quickly down the shaft, and then my spells lost their grip as it broke out into a larger space. We dropped into a grand chamber the size of a cathedral, falling freely. I caught a glimpse of dozens of armored dwarves being inundated by rushing water. A long coffle of captives in chains wound out an open door at the far end of the hall, in the direction Sefwin had pointed earlier.

Excellent. I gave the disk a good shove in that direction as we fell. We landed hard on a group of armored dwarves, smashing them down into knee-deep water. The levitation field mostly protected us from the impact, although we were all splashed a little. My skin stung where the droplets hit, but whatever caustic agent was dissolved in it was too diluted to do much damage.

Well, a few drops didn’t do much. Being immersed in it, like a lot of the dwarves had been, was another story. I sent the disk skidding across the water towards the captives, noting with relief that most of the dwarves were too busy screaming and clawing at their eyes to do anything about us.

I was a little concerned for the captives, but they were far enough away to be relatively safe. The water level fell rapidly as it spread across the giant room, and then abruptly drained away when my digging implement cut through the floor into another level below. By the time we were halfway across the room the water was only a few inches deep. Now all we had to do was deal with the group of dwarves that were actually guarding the prisoners.

Not one of Tavrin’s elves had panicked or fallen down during our wild ride, and they launched a coordinated barrage of magic the instant I grounded the disk. A wave of shimmering light rushed out from Tavrin to wash over the prisoners and their guards, while the other elves threw balls of darkness that expanded to cover most of the hall.

Between the water and the sudden loss of visibility the dwarves were thrown completely into confusion. I opened up with my revolver, lobbing explosive rounds blindly into the darkness to maximize the chaos, and several of the elves did the same with a variety of conjuration spells I didn’t recognize.

Tavrin led the rest of his elves in a charge towards the prisoners, following behind their fast-moving wall of light. Cerise seemed uncertain for a moment, and I pointed her in that direction.

“Back them up,” I told her. “They’ll need help getting the prisoners free quickly. I’ll defend the disk, and keep these guys from getting organized.”

“You got it,” she called, and trotted after the elves.

A golem started across the hall towards us, its head rising above the darkness. I sent my earth talisman flying up to the ceiling, where it grew into a giant mass of stone and iron that strained the limits of its levitation magic. I brought it down on the golem’s head just as it emerged from the darkness. It struck with a deafening crash, reducing the construct to a pile of rubble.

The elves who’d stayed with me were still casting. Two of them were conjuring balls of acid out of thin air, and lobbing them at any dwarf that showed his face. The third called up some kind of air spirit, and sent it into the darkness to find victims to suffocate.

I glanced at Sefwin to make sure she was alright, and found that she was using some kind of telekinetic spell to hastily lay out a magic circle drawn in her own blood. Well, that was ominous.

“What’s that for?” I asked.

“The dwarves are regrouping too fast,” Sefwin replied, eyes darting around the room for a moment before returning to her work. “We’re going to need another distraction to get everyone to safety.”

I frowned, and took another look around.

Tavrin’s spell had apparently blinded the dwarves nearest the prisoners, and his group was moving with the same supernatural speed as Cerise now. They cut through the guards in a flurry of spells and flashing blades, but it was taking time.

The prisoners were all wearing wrist manacles, which were each attached to a much longer chain. Cerise’s axe would make short work of that, though, and their feet were unencumbered. They’d be ready to run for it in three or four minutes, tops.

But the flood had already drained away, and most of the dwarves I could see were picking themselves up and trying to get organized again. Two more golems were looming out of the darkness, too. Sefwin might be right.

“Don’t do anything reckless unless you have to,” I admonished her, and got back to work.

I sent the giant hammer my talisman had become back up towards the ceiling, ready to come smashing down again. Then I held the trigger down on my revolver and waved it back and forth in the general direction of the dwarven troops, while I turned my attention to the disk we’d rode down on. I expanded it, making it big enough for our whole group to stand on, and reinforced the levitation spell. Better add a parapet around the edges this time, too. Our exit would be a little tricky, but I could make it work.

Sefwin started casting something, but a fresh commotion distracted me from wondering what she was up to. One of the darkness fields went down, and a knot of chanting dwarves in gilded armor strode into the great hall surrounded by a fog of magic. I opened fire on them, but the explosive rounds failed to detonate. Damn it, I was not set up to fight guys with this much defense against magic. I could bring the hammer down on them, but what if that field around them killed its enchantment?

I switched to normal ammo, and shot the lead dwarf in the head. He fall over backwards, and I laughed. Hah. Even dwarven plate won’t stop a bullet.

His buddies all went to one knee and changed their chant. Another squad with tower shields started running up from behind, and the golems began to lumber forward. I hesitated, trying to decide which target to hit first, and a crossbow bolt from another direction punched through my force field to lodge in my breastplate.

I returned fire with a volley of explosive rounds, and brought the hammer down on the nearest golem. Once again the construct I’d targeted was reduced to rubble with a single blow, but it would take a minute to get the ponderous weapon back in position for another blow.

The elves to either side of me continued lobbing acid balls to good effect, but more and more dwarves with those tower shields were pouring into the room now. The chanting dwarves started to move forward again, under cover this time.

Sefwin finished her spell, and something terrifying erupted into being within the circle she’d drawn. A mass of flame and gleaming bone twice the height of a man, with six limbs that ended in flaming scythes and three heads with balls of fire for eyes.

“My blood and magic to slay these dwarves, until they or I am dead,” Sefwin called out. “Will you accept my bargain, Great One, or return to the Planes of Terror?”

The thing’s left and right heads turned, taking in the chaos. The middle head spoke in a hissing screech.

“Bargain accepted.”

The blood on the floor suddenly boiled away, forming a cloud of crimson smoke that the monster inhaled. Then it charged across the room at the chanting dwarves with an earsplitting hunting cry.

Three dwarves died before they could even react. The casters fell back frantically, while their guards tried to interpose themselves. It carved its way through their ranks like an ungol plowing through a group of townspeople.

“How the fuck did you summon something that powerful?” I asked.

Sefwin rested her hand on the power stone, and smiled wearily.

“Limitless power. There’s no need to assemble twenty mages to split the cost when I have this. It thinks I’ll either run out of magic to enforce the bargain, or die of blood loss and get my soul stolen. But I can hold the summoning for days with a source like this, and I know you can keep me alive. You will save my life, won’t you Daniel?”

Now that she’d turned to face me I could see that her right arm was cut open from elbow to wrist, and blood was streaming out only to evaporate on contact with the air.

I snorted. “You’re as crazy as Cerise.”

I put my hand on her shoulder, and poured healing into her. The wound itself was tied to her summoning spell somehow, and didn’t want to close. But I could restore the lost blood easily enough. Good thing, too, because she’d been uncomfortably close to passing out.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed, Sefwin? The blood loss almost got you there.”

“I had more safety margin than you did when you dropped us all into this chamber,” she retorted. “I can read the tide of battle, Daniel. Don’t chide me for doing what was necessary to save my people.”

I gave her another quick shot of healing, and turned to lay down some more covering fire. Whatever that thing Sefwin had summoned was, it was wreaking havoc. Crossbows and magic had no effect on it, and the few axemen brave enough to close with the monster barely got in a blow or two before its flaming blades cut them apart. They were going to have a hell of a time stopping it.

Then the rescue party finally returned. The prisoners first, bruised and battered and still hampered by their manacles. The elves had weathered their brief imprisonment better than the humans, many of whom had to be helped along. I was relieved to see the rest of the airship crew among the group.

“Sefwin! What were you thinking?” Lashkin and Amiya embraced the clan heir, but they seemed even less thrilled with her antics than I was.

“We were in danger of being overrun,” she replied. “I had to keep them off balance long enough for us to get out of here.”

Tavrin stepped onto the disk with a scowl. “That was reckless, daughter.”

“That was awesome!” Cerise disagreed, bouncing onto the disk to clap her on the shoulder. “Way to work the angles, Sefwin. Is everyone on board?”

“Everyone who lives. We’d best depart before they get the waygate open.”

An explosion rocked the room. I looked up to see the giant demon thing climbing back to its feet, with one of its arms blown off and a smoking hole in its chest. Across the hall a team of dwarves was reloading… was that a bazooka?

Whooosh!

A trail of flame leaped across the room, and another explosion knocked the monster back down. Fuck. It really was a rocket launcher.

“Yeah, we’re done here. Hang on, everyone!”

I activated the overcharged levitation spell, and it threw the disk high into the air. High enough for my force magic to reach the ceiling, and pull us the rest of the way up. I called my earth talisman back, turning it into a floating barrier between us and that rocket team, and pulled us across the ceiling towards the breech. Then the spells on the disk engaged with the sides of the shaft, and sent us hurtling up towards the surface.

We emerged into the teeth of the storm, and once again the arctic cold hit me like a physical blow. Even with the force dome blocking the wind my face was instantly burning, and I could feel my amulet’s healing kick in. It was worse for the prisoners, especially the children.

I gave Sefwin another shot of healing, and pulled her under my warmth cloak. She kept her wounded arm on the power stone, but leaned into me gratefully.

“Fire spells!” Tavrin called, conjuring a tongue of flame in his hand. Several of the other elves did the same, and I noticed a couple of them handing out flamers to the elves we’d just rescued. Funny, I hadn’t even noticed them carrying the weapons. In a moment our group was ringed in fire, and the temperature rose to a more tolerable level.

“Sefwin, how long did you summon that Deathlord for?” Tavrin asked gravely.

“Until either it or the dwarves that were in the hall are dead,” she replied. “Please keep healing me, Daniel. The drain gets worse as it takes damage, and it draws on my life to keep its hold on this plane.”

“I’ve got you, Sefwin,” I assured her. “I can feel the blood drain, but I can keep up with it. Can you dismiss it?”

She shook her head. “I only had time for the most basic summoning. Sorry, but we’ll have to let it run its course. Are we returning to the ship, Daniel, or do you have some other way for us to leave?”

“Whatever we’re going to do, we need to move quickly,” Tavrin said. “We need to be long gone before they can organize a pursuit.”

“We’ll have to use the ship somehow,” I said. “But I’ll have to repair it first, and getting it ready to move in this kind of weather is going to take time. I think I need to get us some more breathing room.”

“Oh, boy,” Cerise said. “That’s the look you got just before you unleashed the mortars for the first time. What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to kill all of the dwarves, and destroy the waygate,” I said. “Tavrin, can you get everyone back to the ship?”

“Certainly.”

“Do that, then. Sefwin, you stay here so I can keep you healed, and once we’re done you can use that tracking spell to lead us back to the ship. There’s no way I’d be able to find it in this weather. I’d probably just wander in circles until I froze solid.”

“Thawing out would suck,” Cerise commented. “Do you need me to stay here? If there’s going to be a show I don’t want to miss it, but I kind of want to check on Elin.”

“Go ahead. There won’t be anything interesting to see up here.”

Tavrin got the party moving. He turned back as he stepped off the disk.

“Take good care of my daughter, Daniel.”

“I will,” I told him. “I promise.”

“Father! You sound like you’re giving me away as a bride,” Sefwin complained.

“Well, depending on how you read the portents…”

“Don’t be absurd! How would that even work? Besides, I’ve only saved him once and even that was arguable. He’s clearly my Destined Mentor.”

“The Norns delight in confounding those who presume to read the threads of fate,” Tavrin replied serenely.

He turned, and vanished into the blowing snow without another word. I tried to focus on healing the slender elf-girl in my arms, and ignore how good she felt there. Why the heck was Tavrin suddenly joking about something like that, anyway?

“He can be so difficult,” Sefwin said. “I’m sure he’s only teasing me as revenge for making him worry, but it’s impossible to read him when he gets like that.”

“I figured,” I told her. “But I have to ask, what do you mean, ‘how would that work?’”

“Oh. Um. That’s a bit embarrassing. I have an obligation to produce at least two children, to continue the clan. Preferably more. It’s so hard for us to have children in this world, and our lives are a lot more dangerous than we’d prefer.”

“Oh? I suppose that makes sense, but I still don’t get it.”

She huffed. “I don’t know what fanciful tales you’ve been reading, Daniel, but there’s no such thing as a half-elf. I need to marry a proper elven man someday if I’m ever to have children. Most women of my clan marry early in their second century, just so they can start trying for a family as soon as possible. Although now that I think about it, I suppose humans don’t live long enough for that to be an issue.”

“I will,” I said hurriedly, before she could talk herself into anything. “I can heal old age as easily as anything else.”

“Oh? Well, good. We can’t have you dying on us before the clan is properly reestablished.”

We stood there in silence for a moment.

“You know, I’m pretty sure I can fix that fertility problem,” I said.

Her breath caught. “You can get an elf with child?”

“What? No, I… well, yeah, I could probably do that too. But what I meant was, I could make it easier for all the women in your clan to have children, so you wouldn’t have to worry about it so much.”

She shook her head. “It isn’t just a matter of fertility magic. The ambient mana in this world is so weak we can barely survive here, and…”

She stopped.

“And?” I prompted.

“This stone has enough power to create a place that’s like Svartalfheim,” she breathed. “You’re right, that could change everything. But can it maintain such a taxing spell? And if it can, would you really gift us such a priceless treasure?”

“Yes, to both. It’ll last a couple of centuries under that kind of load, and I can make another one in an hour. I’d be a pretty shitty lord if I didn’t do something that important for you, when it’s so easy for me.”

She didn’t reply at first. I went back to healing her, and waiting for her summoning to run its course. At least, until my body sense informed me that there were tears running down her cheeks.

“Sefwin?”

“T-thank you!”

“Hey, thank me when it’s actually done and we know it works.”

She shook her head. “I know better than to doubt. You’ll do it, and it will work, and my people will finally have a home again after two thousand years of exile. Thank you, my lord. I swear to you, you will not have cause to regret taking us in.”

“Well, that’s good-”

“Oh!” Her sudden cry interrupted me. Something about her felt different, suddenly. What? Wait, her arm was healing now.

“The fight ended?” I asked.

“Yes. Finally. I was starting to wonder if I’d have the strength to keep the mana tap going. I’ve never channeled such power before.”

I healed her arm, and restored the last of her lost blood.

“I’m sure it won’t be the last time. But let’s try to make sure you don’t need to take so many chances from now on, okay? Now, keep watch for a few minutes while I work.”

My final present to the dwarves was a chunk of solid nickel-iron the size of a bowling ball, with another set of quick and dirty enchantments. A link to the power stone. A solid force field protecting the ball, with a power reserve backing it up to ensure sudden blows wouldn’t collapse it easily. A familiar conjuration spell, on a somewhat larger scale than normal. The whole assembly wouldn’t run for more than a few hours before the spells broke down, but it wasn’t going to survive that long anyway.

I set the conjuration to start on a five-second delay, and dropped it into the hole.

“That should take care of those assholes,” I said. “Come on, let’s get back to the ship.”

A deep roar echoed up the hole, along with a bright flash of light. Sefwin stepped away from the opening, her eyes going wide.

“Daniel? What does that thing do?”

“It conjures lava. Well, molten metal from the core of the Earth, if you want to get technical. A few hundred pounds a second will generate a standing explosion powerful enough to kill anything that tries to get close, and the force field on the device will keep it from being destroyed. At least, it should survive until it ends up submerged in liquid iron and melts itself.”

She stared at me for a long moment.

“Come on, Sefwin. Let’s get back to the ship. I don’t think we have to worry about the dwarves attacking us again anytime soon.”

“No, I think they’ll be too busy dying for that. You don’t believe in half measures, do you?”

“Nope.”

I picked up the power stone, and set off into the storm. It was a miserable walk, although at least I didn’t have to worry about getting lost with Sefwin pointing the way.

My weary mind was already on the next step. Conjure more aluminum, and repair the Intrepid. Maybe use some iron here and there to speed things up, since conjuring aluminum is a slow process. Repair the controls, and make sure the dwarves didn’t sabotage anything else. Make another round of the wounded to make sure no one else was going to die.

Then what?

Flying in a blizzard was still a stupid idea, but I could modify the levitation spell so it would hold the ship at a fixed altitude and keep the wind from blowing it away. Headlights so we could see where we were driving. Maybe put a force field projecting forward to block the falling snow, so it wouldn’t obstruct our view? Something to get us through forested terrain, too, unless we could find a waterway to follow.

So many complications. This trip was just one damned thing after another. I was really looking forward to getting home.

Yeah. Home. Tina would greet me with that innocent smile of hers. Avilla would whip up some amazing meal in five minutes flat. Then I could stumble off to bed, and sleep for about a week.

Chapter 15

Kozalin was under siege.

A column of smoke in the distance had warned me that something was wrong well before we’d come within sight of the city. But we were barely a mile from the walls now, and the tiny black dots swarming in the fields outside had long since resolved into an army of ape men.

“I count forty-two thousand andregi, and perhaps three thousand thunder beasts,” Tavrin said gravely.

There were five camps spaced at intervals around the city, each protected by a dome of magic much like the one that the first army had employed. Maybe half the enemy were there, or manning the siege engines I could see lobbing rocks at the city. The rest were currently assaulting the walls of the Trade District.

Kozalin still had something like twenty thousand troops manning its defenses, and even odds are generally bad news when you’re trying to assault a fortified position. But the enemy were tougher than humans, and had a lot of magic on the field. Groups of elite ape men who climbed the wall to attack the defenders. Giant dinosaurs swathed in leather armor, that tried to batter their way through. Groups of minor mages who conjured clouds of insects or corrosive gas to sweep sections of the wall clear for their assault. They hadn’t managed to get into the city, but there was fighting on the wall in several places.

“Do we bomb them?” Cerise asked.

“Not with a hold full of refugees on board.”

The Griffon Knights were out in force today, fighting an air battle against a swarm of ape men riding giant pterodactyls. I couldn’t tell who was winning, but I had no interest in getting the Intrepid snarled up in that furball.

“There’s no need to risk our involvement,” Tavrin agreed. “The city will hold today. The attack on the wall is already beginning to lose momentum, and the air battle is a stalemate. Give it another hour, and both sides will retreat for the day to lick their wounds.”

“What about those guys?” Cerise asked, leaning over the control panel to point at another column of andregi marching up the road from the east.

“Look at how their advance parties are moving. They’re heading for the encampment nearest the road, and the sun will be down before they could lay out a campsite and reorganize for an assault. I expect they’ll be back tomorrow, though.”

“Makes sense,” I agreed. “Loop us around to the west, Cerise. We’ll stay over the river as we approach the island, and try to avoid the fighting.”

“Damn. Oh well, looks like we’ll have plenty of excitement later. One thing I don’t get, though. Why aren’t the mortars firing?”

I frowned. “Good question.”

Things looked normal enough on the island, not that we could see much from the air. The place looked eerily deserted after all the work I’d done to minimize the need for people to go outside. No traffic at the gate to the city, either. I’d have been concerned except that there also weren’t any signs of an attack.

Of course, the stonework would repair itself if it was damaged.

We were dropping in to land in the courtyard beside the arcology block when I finally say movement. The big gate leading into the street level swung open, and an armored skimmer floated out to take up a position to one side. A squad of troops followed it out, and lined up on the other side of the door with their guns pointed skyward.

“Guess they’ve had some trouble,” Cerise said.

“Figures.”

She adroitly dropped the airship into the courtyard, and turned it around to back the rear doors up to the gate. That would give the guards an eyeful of our own damage, since those damned dwarves had ripped the doors off the back of the ship and run off with them during our fight. I’d had to replace them with sheets of iron, and the tail gunner’s position was still a wreck.

“Stop us outside the doors,” I said. “I want to talk to whoever’s leading the guards here for a minute.”

“Sure thing, boss.”

I climbed out the bridge hatch the moment the Intrepid stopped moving, and bounced over to the infantry squad. Sergeant Thomas took his eyes off the sky at my approach.

“You’re a sight for sore eyes, milord!” He said. “The Captain was getting afeared you might not make it back.”

“Yeah, this whole trip was one damned thing after another. The ape men giving you trouble?”

He nodded. “Them flying lizard things is trouble. They’re tried us twice, dropping troops atop the walls with them, and they bombed the mortar positions with some magic crap that eats metal. Took out two of the mortars, and the Captain’s been saving the rest. Them magic folk you took in saved our asses in the second assault, milord. I never seen no one fight like Demetrios.”

“Well, he’s had a few thousand years to practice his swordsmanship. The girls are alright?”

“Yessir, we took good care of the ladies. That Miss Avilla of yours is something else, kept it together and kept everyone moving in the same direction through everything. Good to have you back, though, milord.”

“Good to be back,” I replied. I eyed the gateway, and turned back to study the Intrepid.

“Let’s get this ship under cover before the enemy decides to bomb it,” I decided. “It looks like she’ll fit through the doors if we’re careful.”

He followed my gaze. “Won’t be room to get the skimmer past it, milord. I’d better get it back inside first, then.”

Of course, the Intrepid had a regrettable lack of rear-view mirrors. I ended up having to disengage the anchor spell and push it around with my own force magic to get it lined up right, but fifteen minutes later the ship was safely parked in the street. Sergeant Thomas got his squad to close and bar the gates while Cerise and I headed back to open the ship’s cargo doors, and I conjured an iron ramp so the elves could debark more easily. Tavrin and Sefwin were just following us out into the street when a redheaded missile collided with me.

“Daniel! You’re back! You’re safe! I was so scared but I knew you were alive and you’re home now thank the goddesses and everything’s going to be alright because you’ll fix everything and I’ve missed you so much welcome home.”

I kissed her, which stopped the babbling. God, I’d missed my girls. Had it really only been a week? It seemed like so much longer.

“Hello, Tina. I’m happy to see you, too.”

She was wearing a new dress, a pretty one with a lot of ruffles that made her look young and carefree. And pregnant. She was really starting to show now, but it only made her look more radiant to my eyes.

I realized she hadn’t been the only one to approach us, and turned to find Avilla and Cerise lost in each other’s arms. Pelagia had arrived with them, and was watching the byplay with a surprisingly gentle smile on her lips.

Tina giggled. “I think they might need a room. Oh! Welcome home, Elin.”

Tina abandoned my arms to sweep up the ramp and give Elin a warm hug. Then the witches finally came up for air, and we traded off again. These five-way greetings involved a lot of hugs and kisses, didn’t they? Not that I was objecting.

“I’m guessing this is the rest of your coven, Daniel?” Sefwin asked.

“Yeah. This is Avilla, and the cute redhead with the big smile is Tina. Girls, this is Sefwin, and that’s Tavrin. Tavrin is the head of Clan Nethwillin, and Sefwin is his heir. Avilla, where can we put up forty-odd dark elves and a hundred human retainers until I have a chance to build them a proper home?”

Avilla bit her lip, and looked at Pelagia. The elder nymph smiled easily. “We set up a temporary residence for them on the ninth floor, my lord. Nothing fancy, since you weren’t here to do the stonework. But it’s warm and safe, and I had a work party build a few walls out of those conjured bricks so it isn’t all one big room. That’s an ingenious scheme, by the way. If you can make a device that conjures doors to go along with the brickmakers we’ll be able to finish out whole floors without having to bother you.”

I shrugged. “I copied the idea from someone else, but I’m glad it’s working out. So, you’ve been helping Avilla organize things?”

She looked down, and her hand played nervously with a lock of her long hair. “Yes. I hope that’s alright?”

“Of course,” I said firmly. “I appreciate your willingness to help out. I’ve got some things I need to talk to you about later, but for right now can you help Tavrin get his people settled in?”

“I’ll be happy to take care of it, my lord.”

Tavrin shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m listening to the Mistress of Bloody Thorns call a human ‘my lord’.”

She smiled mysteriously. “Time changes all things, Tavrin. Daniel is not the first man I have acknowledged as my lord, though I doubt my youthful misadventures are recorded in your histories. Now, shall I show you what we have to work with?”

Tavrin nodded, and immediately started organizing a work party with his typical preternatural skill. I turned back to the girls, and noted that Daria and Embla had joined us.

“How are you doing, Embla?” I asked.

“Much better, milord. Lady Elin finished healing me up a few hours ago. Thank you very much for saving me, both of you.”

“I was just doing my job, Embla,” Elin protested.

“Maybe, but I’m still very grateful. I’d do anything to thank you,” she purred suggestively.

Elin blushed. “I, um, that’s quite alright, Embla.”

The wolfen girl grinned. “I can’t believe you’re still so shy, milady. If I was as pretty as you I’d be taking advantage. Well, I suppose we should let Gronir know that we’re back.”

“I suppose,” Daria said sourly. “Come on, then. Unless you need us for something else, Daniel?”

“No, you go ahead. I’m sure I’m going to be busy talking to people for the rest of the day.”

Tina watched her go with a puzzled frown. “What’s got her all upset?”

I sighed. “She spent half the trip trying to seduce me, and I kept putting her off.”

“I still say you should hit that,” Cerise put in. “Those wolfen girls are wild in the sack.”

“But she’s with Gronir,” Tina protested.

“If she doesn’t care, why should we?” Cerise replied.

“Because he cares,” I said firmly.

“Exactly,” Avilla agreed. “Why don’t we all go back upstairs? We have a staff meeting in an hour, so you can all bathe and rest for a bit before you have to deal with anything else.”

“A hot bath sounds great,” Cerise agreed. “You definitely need to fit in some kind of bathing room on the next airship, Daniel.”

“How about we let the dark elves run the airships?” I suggested. “They seem to be good at it, and that way we can just stay home.”

“Aw, but I like flying.”

“Then we’ll just have to put our heads together and figure out how to get your wings to work properly, won’t we?”

“Sold!” She announced eagerly.

After a week on the airship a hot shower was heavenly. Cerise and Elin both rushed through it so they could go soak in the tub, but I spent quite a while in the spray just letting the hot water run down my body. Despite my magic I was exhausted. Maybe I could find time for a quick nap before this meeting?

No, an hour wasn’t long enough. No rest for the weary.

I emerged from the shower to find Cerise missing, and Tina soaking in the tub with Elin. Her artless smile warmed my heart, and I noticed she was still going out of her way to make the shy girl feel welcome. If we were a sentai team, her power would definitely be Heart.

“Come join us, Daniel.”

I hesitated. “I need to get ready for this meeting soon.”

“You’ve got time,” Tina insisted. “Avilla laid out fresh clothes for you in the changing room, before she dragged Cerise off to welcome her home.”

“So that’s where she went. I’m surprised they bothered to leave the room.”

“I’m sure she didn’t want to make Elin uncomfortable,” Tina explained.

“Ah.” I sank into the deep water with a groan. They had the water jets on, so it was just like a hot tub.

Tina giggled. “See? You made the magic tub, you get to enjoy it too. Hecate wants you to make her one.”

Now there was an image. Probably not wise to dwell on it, though. “Does she, now?”

“Mmm hmm. She looked just like that.”

“You watched her bathe?” Elin said incredulously.

“I just came in to ask if she needed anything,” Tina said defensively. “She was in here for hours after you left. Poor Avilla was a wreck, worrying about if she was going to stay for dinner. Besides, she likes me. She said I’m a cute kitten.”

“She got that right.”

Tina was in as close to a pure human shape as she could get at the moment, with just the cat ears and tail revealing that she was no longer human. But my gaze was drawn to her mountainous breasts floating in the water, bobbing up and down with the currents. Damn, had they gotten even bigger somehow?

“See something you like?” Tina shifted, sitting up and leaning forward a little. The movement brought the upper slopes of her breasts out of the water, and her pink nipples bobbed just below the surface. My reaction was inevitable.

“Um,” I said intelligently.

Elin chuckled. “I’d say so. Hey, Tina, want to see a neat trick?”

“Sure?”

Elin slipped under the water. A moment later I felt her hands on my thighs, and warm lips wrapped around my erection.

“Wow. She, ah, she’s getting over that shyness thing,” I said.

“Good.” Tina scooted around to sit next to me, and kissed me.

When we came up for air Elin was still at it. Tina looked down in surprise. “How long can she hold her breath?”

“She can breathe water,” I groaned. Damn, but she was starting to get good at that too.

“Really? Neat! Then I know just how to help.” Tina stood up, and buried my face between her breasts.

Needless to say, I was feeling a lot more relaxed when I walked into the dining room for this staff meeting. Elin took her place with a smug little grin, and accepted a cup of tea from the maid who materialized at her elbow.

Cerise and Avilla were already there, holding hands and looking adorably mussed. The fact that Avilla was letting the maids serve the meal instead of running around supervising everything told me a lot about how much they’d missed each other.

“Have a good time?” Elin asked Cerise.

“I so needed that,” she replied.

Gronir arrived just then, which cut the byplay short. Pelagia was next, followed by Demetrios, and then Markus and Oskar came trailing in.

“I see you’ve been delegating,” I said to Avilla.

She looked away. “I needed help. People and supplies I can manage, but I had no idea what to do about a siege.”

“You did the right thing, sweetie,” I reassured her. “So, what did I miss?”

Markus took the lead.

“The army of ape men arrived two days after you left, milord. They showed up ready to deal with the wizards this time, but we broke their initial attack with the mortars. That made us a target for their fliers, and since then they’ve made a habit of bombing the island whenever we poke our noses outdoors. They drop these giant seeds that explode into clouds of poison gas, and the stuff is devilishly effective. It corrodes metal on contact, and it can linger for hours. We lost six good men to their first attack, and it would have been worse if not for Mistress Pelagia’s healing.”

“We still have three wounded who need attention from you or Lady Elin,” Pelagia said. “We can heal the milder cases of exposure, but there’s only so much we can do about scarred lungs.”

Elin grimaced. “That will have to be Daniel, then. My healing won’t touch that sort of injury either.”

“Noted,” I said. “I understand they tried an airborne attack as well?”

Markus nodded. “Yes, in concert with their second attempt to storm Kozalin. It didn’t work out well for them. They only have a few lizards big enough to carry passengers, so the assault force was only a dozen of them. Tough bastards, but nothing we couldn’t handle. They weren’t proof against bullets, and Demetrios and Corinna made short work of the ones that got inside. After that they focused their efforts on the city, and left us alone.”

“I’m still trying to understand their strategy there,” Demetrios put in. “They’ve been getting five or six thousand reinforcements every day, but they’ve thrown away a lot of that manpower making repeated attacks on the city instead of building up for a coordinated push. I’d think they were in a desperate hurry, except that they’ve been keeping a large force in reserve instead of throwing everything they have into the assaults.”

“Whatever their motives, they’re making headway,” Markus pointed out. “The garrison is taking heavy casualties. Morale is shaky already, and it will only get worse if they can keep up the pressure. I’d give them good odds of breaking through into the city on the next assault, although I expect the wizards will route them back out again if that happens.”

“I take it you’ve still got a man posted in the war room?” I asked.

“Yes. Oh, and everyone has been asking after you. There’s a council of war every morning at dawn, and they’ll want you there tomorrow.”

I sighed. “So much for catching up on sleep. Alright, send a messenger to let them know I’ll be there. On the topic of enemy tactics, the dark elves have actually had some contact with the andregi before. I’ll have to see if they can offer us any insight.”

“So you’ve negotiated an agreement with Clan Nethwillin?” Demetrios asked. “I’ve had dealings with them before, and they’re a sneaky bunch. How reliable do you think they are?”

“As reliable as we are,” Pelagia answered him. “They’ve offered their fealty, and adopted Hecate as their patron deity.”

“Nethwillin is going to honor a god? They must have been desperate indeed,” Demetrios said.

“They were. My lord, would it be impertinent of me to suggest that they could be quite useful? Perhaps even deserving of a high office or two?”

“Yeah, I’d noticed,” I said. “It’s about time for a reorg anyway. We’ve been going flat out just trying to hold things together, but we’re finally starting to get enough people to handle the things that need doing. Demetrios, I take it you have experience with military affairs?”

“I’ve led more units than I care to remember,” he agreed. “Everything from scouts and raiders to heavy infantry. My boys are pretty decent officers as well, if we ever have enough troops to need them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. What about you, Pelagia?”

“I can’t contest Demetrios’ credentials as a military leader, but I have my own talents. I’ve been a queen twice, and an advisor to countless kings and princes. I’d count myself adept at any task of leadership or intrigue. Although I must admit that my kind have no head for numbers, and I’ve never managed to overcome that failing.”

Damn. I’d been hoping to have her take over for Avilla as castellan, but if she was basically innumerate that wouldn’t work. Managing accounts and supplies was a critical part of that job.

“I see. Well, as I said, I’m planning to shuffle some appointments around and add a new post or two over the next couple of days. So I’d like each of you to let me know in private if you think there’s a job you’re more suited to than the one you’re doing now.”

There were nods all around, and a couple of speculative looks.

“Now, about this siege,” I went on. “We don’t have the manpower to put troops on Kozalin’s walls, but I think we can find a way to contribute. I’ll need to come up with something for air defense first, to put a stop to the bombing. Marcus, how are we fixed for mortar ammunition?”

“Not bad,” he replied. “We used up everything we had on hand in the first attack, but your ladies were able to work that artifact that makes it. I’ve had it running around the clock for a couple of days now, filling some of those storerooms beneath the mortar positions. I’d guess we have about ten thousand rounds on hand now.”

“Good. Those wards over the enemy encampments will stop mortar rounds from working, but once we have air cover we can start bombarding their troops during assaults. That should put a dent in their numbers.”

“That it will,” he agreed. “But it will force them to turn their attention back to us, as well.”

“That’s why we won’t start firing on them again until we’re ready for them. What else could they try to silence the guns? Commando raids? I think we can prepare for that.”

“Strategic magic,” Cerise suggested. “We need to finish our wards against that kind of thing. As many mages as this army has, they’ve probably got something nasty they could throw at us.”

“Assassins,” Demetrios said. “Gaea has no respect for the rules of war. The andregi don’t seem to have much talent for subtlety, but let’s not forget that the goblins are out there. Goblin heroes excel at stealthy infiltration, poisoning and assassination.”

“Weather,” Pelagia added. “A light snow to obscure our vision, or high winds to throw off our aim. Feints and illusions to lure us into wasting ammunition. Mobile wards, once they realize why we aren’t attacking their camps. Night attacks, both real and feigned. Covered trenches to protect the troops as they approach the walls. Tunnels under the walls. Blinding spells aimed at our positions.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You sure you’re not good at military leadership, Pelagia? That was a long list for ten seconds of thought.”

“Yes, well, that’s my problem. I think of all the clever things the enemy could do to counter any plan I consider, and become paralyzed with indecision. I’ve learned through painful experience that it’s better to leave such decisions to a bolder heart than my own.”

“I see. Well, at least you know your own weaknesses. Not many leaders do.”

She smiled at me. “Thank you, my lord.”

“You’re welcome. Now we’d better get our wards in order, and put some thought into tightening up security before we start making the enemy desperate to kill us. If they figure out a defense I can always come up with something else to use on them, but I don’t want us getting caught off guard by a counter attack. We can’t afford to take a lot of casualties.”

“Speaking of casualties, I’d like to visit the wounded in the city tomorrow and do what I can for them,” Elin said.

I considered that. It was the right thing to do, and it might bolster our reputation with the locals as well. But I wasn’t going to take any chances with Elin.

“Alright, but I want you to take a strong escort. Marcus, what do you have the skimmers doing?”

“Nothing critical, milord. I could send one into town with her, and send a couple of extra men with it.”

I shook my head. “That’s not a big enough party for good security. Four men, two wolfen and one of Corinna’s dryads.”

“Daniel, I’m not helpless,” Elin protested.

“I know that, Elin. But the city isn’t secure, and I don’t want you getting knifed in the back while you’re concentrating on healing someone. Maybe I’m just paranoid, but I remember the way those dwarven weapons went through our shields.”

She sighed. “Alright, Daniel. If it will make you feel better. I do want to be safe.”

“Good.” I paused to think for a moment. “Alright, commandos and assassins. What can we do to keep them out?”

I could already tell this was going to be a long night. But a little lost sleep was a small price to pay, if it kept my people safe.

Especially my girls. Having Elin fall into my arms covered in blood was bad enough. I was not going to see the same thing happen to Tina.

Chapter 16

“Where have you been?”

As usual these days the prince looked like he’d rather punch me than talk to me.

“I got an urgent call for help from some allies,” I said mildly. “Considering the forces assembled here, I figured the defenses could spare one wizard for a few days.”

“We need those mortars of yours back in operation immediately,” he growled.

I shrugged. “I’ll need a day to make repairs, and put up some air defense so they can’t just bomb them again. But all that’s going to do is buy us a few days until they figure out how to conduct an assault under fire. Tavrin, tell the prince what you told me about the andregi preparations for Fimbulwinter.”

Tavrin’s presence had drawn a lot of surprised looks from the nobles and officers gathered for the planning meeting, and even High Adept Steelbinder seemed shocked. Brand didn’t, which I found interesting. Apparently Asgard had good intelligence about what was going on in the mortal world, and more importantly an effective way of getting information to their operatives in the field.

“The andregi have been systematically preparing to rise up and destroy humanity for fifteen hundred years,” Tavrin related calmly. “Every four years they hold a series of contests to select twenty thousand of their most capable shamans and warriors, who are then entombed in the Halls of Slumber until the time of the Cleansing is at hand. I’d estimate that the complex currently has eight million troops in stasis, along with everything they need to carry out several weeks of active campaigning. Mounts, pack animals, shelters, food and water, even sacrificial victims for the shamans.”

“Impossible!” One of the nobles muttered.

“No, just expensive,” I said. “But theocracies can do things like that when their gods command it. So we should probably be figuring out how to keep them from getting here, because they aren’t going to run out of bodies to throw at us anytime soon.”

“No,” Brand said firmly.

Everyone else looked at him with various degrees of surprise. He stood, and slowly looked around at the assembled leaders. The whole group of nobles and wizards fell silent, and once again I marveled at how easily the demigod’s sheer presence could dominate a room.

“Men, this is not a normal war. This is Ragnarok. We aren’t just fighting for our homes and families this time. If the enemy wins he will cast down the Golden City itself, burn the halls of Valhalla and kill the Valkyrie, and devour even the souls of the heroic dead. Then there will be no one left to stop him when he sends his monsters to hunt down every surviving human in Midgard, and murder them all. This is a war, not of conquest, but of extermination.

“But Gaea has made a critical mistake in attacking humanity now. Eight million ape men all assembled in one place would be a formidable force, perhaps even enough to tip the balance against us when the gods do battle on the Golden Fields. If Gaea had simply awakened all of her forces and sent them to follow the giants into battle there would be little the armies of men could do about it, and the outcome would be out of your hands.

“Instead she is sending them here, to Midgard, to attack your homes and fortresses in a dozen places at once. Instead of eight million apes you face only forty thousand, and they throw themselves against your walls instead of meeting you in the open field. What does it matter, if every day a fresh batch marches to the slaughter?

“Men, this is your chance to make the enemy bleed. Every man who falls in defense of Kozalin will rise again in Valhalla. Every ape you kill now is one less that you’ll have to face in the final battle. So let them come. We will break their assault today. We will break it again tomorrow. We will kill them until the walls of Kozalin are drenched in blood, and then rise to kill them again before the gates of Valhalla. Are you with me?”

A rousing cheer shook the room.

“That’s the spirit! We’re going to give the enemy a hell of a bad day today. Steelbinder, set up those new fire golems of yours behind the breach with a couple of Adepts in support, and give the apes a good roasting when they try to break through. Caspar, I want you to lead your band of heroes through the Dark Portal and raid one of the enemy camps at the height of the assault. Let them think about how they’re going to stop us from doing that again whenever we like. Generals, I’ll be leading the defense of the Trade District walls personally today.”

“Which camp?” The prince asked.

“Stay away from the big one with the statue of Gaea,” Brand advised. “Their general is there, and I’m told he’s one of Gaea’s sons. Take your pick of the others, but make it a fast raid. Get in, do as much damage as you can, and get out before they can mass enough troops to stop you.”

Prince Caspar nodded. “We’ll kill any ape foolish enough to stand against us.”

“Glad to hear it. Daniel, I need you to come out to the Trade District after dark tonight and repair the breach they’ve made in the wall. You can do that, right?”

I nodded. “Easily.”

“You aren’t keyed to the city wards,” Steelbinder put in. “I’ll send an Adept out to integrate the new construction as you work.”

“Make the new wall something bigger and harder to assault than the old one,” Brand added. “That will give them another hit to morale, and then we’ll unleash the mortars in a couple of days. I assume you’re going to have more surprises for the enemy after that, Daniel?”

I nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

“Start with air defenses,” he advised. “The Griffon Knights are getting slowly whittled down. But bring anything new to me first, so we can plan the best time to reveal it. Remember, the objective here is to lure the enemy into bleeding themselves white against our defenses. We don’t want to scare them off.”

I frowned. “Alright.”

“Oh, and Edvin? I hear you have an announcement?”

The new Archpriest of Kozalin was surprisingly young for such a high position. Early thirties, maybe, with no gray at all in his beard. But the older priests had all died in Mara’s attack on the temple, and he was the most senior guy left. He stood, and nervously bowed to Brand.

“Yes, Exalted One. The Allfather has decreed that any woman wishing to follow her man to Valhalla may now do so. When a soldier falls in battle his lover may go to the High Temple, and step through the Door of Devotion to be reunited with him.”

One of the generals chuckled. “Is Valhalla running short on serving wenches? Or are we getting ready to repopulate Midgard after the war is over?”

“The latter, I think,” Brand said. “But it will ease the supply situation a bit, as well. Now, the enemy is starting to muster their troops, so let’s get moving. They’ll be trying the walls again in a couple of hours.”

The meeting room cleared out quickly at that, with most of those present following Brand out the door. Steelbinder lingered for a moment.

“Interesting allies you have,” he said. “Clan Nethwillin?”

“That’s them,” I confirmed.

“A useful contact, I suppose. The Conclave needs two more amulets made. When can you have them ready?”

At thirty minutes each that wasn’t a huge time investment.

“Tomorrow morning? I can bring them to the meeting.”

“That will do. Until tomorrow, then.”

He left, and I followed him out. The pair of wolfen I’d brought as escorts fell into place behind me, but Tavrin and I remained silent until we made it back to the transport. Brand was using a council chamber in Brokefang Keep for his daily planning meetings, and the place was so packed with soldiers and servants that it was impossible to talk without being overheard.

The armored skimmer we’d arrived in was still parked in the outer courtyard. I opened the door to find Sergeant Thomas lecturing the pair of warrior dryads we’d brought along as part of my escort.

“-were hunting a dangerous beast? This is the same thing, girls. You can do as you like when you’re safe at home, with stout walls between you and the enemy. But out here we could be attacked at any moment, and we’d better not be distracted when it happens. Understand?”

“Yes, sergeant,” they chorused. Their tone was suitably chastened, but there was a note of hunger in the looks they were giving him. Especially Euthalia, who I remembered being one of Corinna’s more devious warriors.

“Trouble, sergeant?” I asked as we boarded the transport.

“It’s handled, milord. Ready to head home?”

“Yes, let’s get moving. It’s going to be a busy day.”

The sergeant nodded, and turned to poke his head into the driver’s compartment. The dryads exchanged a look, and played a quick round of rock, paper, scissors. Euthalia won, and did a silent fist pump.

Sergeant Thomas turned back around, and they both adopted innocent expressions. He eyed them suspiciously for a moment.

“I don’t want to know,” he decided. “We’re on our way, milord.”

I elected to take a seat, and ignore the whole thing. It was none of my business who Corinna’s dryads decided to seduce, as long as no one let it get in the way of doing their jobs. I had more important things to worry about.

“What do you think of this demigod’s strategy?” Tavrin asked cautiously.

I sighed. “I think he’s asking to get a lot of people killed. He obviously doesn’t care about that, though. He’s expecting everyone to die no matter what, so the civilians are inconsequential as far as he’s concerned. Personally I’d rather we look for a way to cut them off at the source.”

“That would be difficult,” he pointed out. “Skogheim is an earth realm, and Gaea can easily open new paths from there to any cave or crevice in Midgard.”

“Hmm. I suppose that would make an attack on the Halls of Slumber suicide,” I said.

Tavrin leaned back in his seat, and thought for a long moment before answering.

“There would be a risk of Gaea appearing in person to protect it,” he finally said. “In Skogheim she would be at the height of her power, so a direct confrontation would lead to disaster. But she is not known for her subtlety. If she were distracted somehow it might just be possible to conduct a raid using the Dark Portal.”

“I’m not going to have anything to do with using that thing,” I objected. “Sacrificing souls is evil no matter what your goal is. Besides, the scale doesn’t work. This complex would have to be huge to hold that many suspended animation chambers, and if they have any brains at all they’ll have a lot of their best people guarding it. A small raiding party isn’t going to do much damage before it’s forced to retreat.”

“Not even with your destructive devices?” He probed.

“I doubt it. They look impressive, but they’re easy to shut down for anyone who understands earth sorcery. After what happened with the dwarves I’m going to assume the enemy will take note, and figure out how to counter them.”

“I suppose that’s the wise assumption,” he conceded. “Well, we certainly aren’t going to march an army through the hidden ways of earth without attracting Gaea’s gaze. A spy could get in with a trading party, but that has the same problem as the portal raiders.”

“Trading party? That’s right, you guys have done business with the andregi before. Do you think you could still get away with that?”

“Yes, we could easily impersonate traders from another clan,” he assured me. “The andregi are not subtle enough to spot such a deception.”

“Interesting. I’ll have to think about that. On another topic, how tied up is your manpower on dealing with your own problems? You’ve probably noticed that I’ve got a desperate shortage of trained people, and so far your clan members have been amazingly capable at everything I’ve seen them do. I’m thinking about having you take over running the airship, among other things.”

“We could do that,” he agreed. “The war has forced me to shut down most of our trading network, and that’s going to leave half the clan at loose ends. How secure do you think the island is going to be? I’d like to relocate our Asian settlements as soon as possible, but we’ve generally avoided putting all our eggs in one basket.”

“I intend to make the island into a fortress that’s impossible to storm,” I told him. “We just need more manpower, and a couple more weeks to build up the defenses. You and Pelagia are both getting power stones in the next few days, by the way. I’m sure you can put that kind of power to good use.”

“Indeed we can. In that case I think the airship idea is a good one. Although perhaps we should paint it, and hide the fact that it’s made of mithril?”

“Oh, I have a different idea on that. I’ll show you when we get home.”

It was a short drive. I made a detour to my workshop complex to pick up a factory device, and made my way up to the dark elves’ floor. There I appropriated the smallest of the dozen rooms Pelagia had set up for the refugees, and set up the device. Sefwin wandered over to watch as I did so, along with a couple of other elves I didn’t recognize.

“That’s a really odd looking enchantment,” Sefwin observed. “What does it do?”

I turned it on. “Watch.”

The elves all took a step back when it activated, no doubt noticing the massive power draw. Well, that confirmed that being able to sense magic was pretty much a universal ability for elves, which I’d begun to suspect.

A thin rod of silvery metal appeared in the compartment on the side of the factory stone, and began to grow. The elves looked on curiously for a moment, obviously not getting it. Then someone gasped.

“Is that mithril?”

I grinned. “Yep. This is how I built the Intrepid. It conjures a ten-pound bar of mithril in about half a minute, and you can leave it running continuously if you want to. Tavrin, I’m still feeling a bit peeved with the dwarves over attacking us, and I bet you are too. Storming their fortresses looking for revenge doesn’t seem like a smart idea, so instead how would you like to crash the world mithril market?”

His lips slowly curved into a cold smile. “Economic warfare? What an excellent idea. Yes, I think this will get the job done quite nicely. We’ll start by selling to the dwarves through intermediaries, at a price calculated to suggest that someone is desperately liquidating a hidden treasure reserve. Then, when they get suspicious, we suddenly flood the hidden markets with fresh lots of mithril at a third of the usual price. They’ll try to buy it all up to maintain their monopoly, but we can just keep selling more until they run out of gold.”

“There’s nothing a dwarf loves more than gold,” Sefwin said. “This is going to hit them where it hurts. Do we get a commission?”

I chuckled. “This is a joint venture, Sefwin. Nethwillin gets half the take, I get the other half, and we all end up rich while our enemies lose their shirts.”

“You are a generous man, Daniel,” Tavrin said. “You do realize we’re likely to sucker them out of twenty or thirty tons of gold before the market collapses?”

“I figured. I’ve got plenty of ways to make money, so I can afford to be generous. Just don’t crash the economy here in Kozalin when you start spending it,” I told him.

“We won’t,” he assured me. “The money will certainly make our resettlement easier, but I don’t imagine we’ll be spending much of it here.”

Well, that was one issue dealt with. Now I just had to make good on my promise of defending the island.

The air defense problem was the most critical one, but resolving it was pretty straightforward. The guns we already had were almost good enough for shooting down flying animals, they just needed a few refinements.

So I put in a few hours in my lab that morning, building a new factory stone for something that would get the job done. The heart of it was a large gun, about .75 caliber, with a four-foot barrel and an extra enchantment that made every 5th bullet come out glowing red hot. I had to put a cooling spell on the barrel to make sure that wouldn’t cause problems during sustained fire, but it was an easy way to make tracer rounds.

One round per second was a pretty low rate of fire for an antiaircraft weapon, of course. So I also came up with a frame that four guns could be mounted on, with a single trigger and a big sight in the middle. I copied that part from the design they used on naval antiaircraft guns back in WWII, which seemed simple and reasonably effective. Thinking about that led me to add a metal shield to the frame, to give the gunner some cover.

Of course, creating the mounting frame involved a bit of enchantment and a bunch of finicky metal shaping. So I followed up by building a factory stone to make those too.

With factories for both components of the system I was able to make quad-mount AA guns in whatever quantity I wanted, although I still had to assemble and install them myself. I mounted four of them around each of the mortar bunkers, on heavy iron swivel mounts sunk deep into the stone. Then I built a small bunker on top the arcology block, with four more guns. No sense in letting the enemy just land on our roof whenever they wanted.

Marcus approved of the solution, and immediately suggested putting them on skimmers as well. Not a bad idea, since they were basically machine guns. But I still didn’t have a way to mass-produce vehicles, so that would have to wait until I had a little spare time.

Oskar seemed to get the idea, and promised to find some men from the garrison to man the rooftop bunker. But then he broached an unexpected topic.

“I think it’s about time I stepped down from running the garrison, milord,” he said hesitantly.

“Really? I haven’t had any complaints about your performance, Oskar.”

“Maybe not, milord, but I’m not too proud to admit I’m out of my depth. I’m a blacksmith by trade, not a soldier. I was happy to hold things together back when Marcus was our only real officer, but things have changed. It’d be better for everyone to have a seasoned expert in charge of the island’s defense.”

“Fair enough,” I conceded. “Who are you thinking of? Demetrios?”

“He’d do,” Oskar agreed. “Or Tavrin. Hell, any of the elves could do it. Those guards Irithil left back here were happy enough to pitch in, and they know their stuff. Turns out every one of them does forty years serving the clan as a soldier and another twenty as an officer, just to make sure they can handle themselves on the battlefield.”

That did sound like Nethwillin.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I’d be happy just running the forge, milord. The way Marcus keeps bringing on more men there’s plenty of work to be done there.”

“Well, alright then. You’ve got a good point. I’ll see what I can do.”

There were several conversations like that one as the day went on. Avilla reminded me that she wanted out of the castellan job, so she could focus on magic. Cerise confided that she was having fun with the spy stuff, but she didn’t have time to keep up with it properly. Marcus mentioned the need to properly organize our growing assortment of military forces, and set up a formal chain of command. Gronir complained that his wolfen were being pulled off in too many different directions, and by the way he had a whole group of volunteers who wanted to join the pack if we ever killed some more felwolves.

I was becoming a manager. Ugh! I’d never wanted that kind of job. I’ve always preferred to spend my time actually doing things, but here I was holding meetings and dealing with personnel issues. I was sorely tempted to blow it all off in favor of spending more time in my workshop.

But no, I couldn’t do that. I’d put myself in charge of this group, and now everyone was depending on me to make things work. So instead I listened, thought, and tried to come up with solutions without letting it interfere with anything essential.

Two power amulets for Steelbinder. I needed all the alliances I could find, so getting that done on time was essential. Speaking of alliances, I really needed to have someone working on more of those. I had no idea who the noble factions in the city were, and weren’t there supposed to be embassies here? I’d never have time to look into that at this rate.

The repair job for Brand was essential, too. I couldn’t afford to make an enemy of him, so I grabbed an escort and dragged myself out to the wall at sunset despite the inconvenience. I arrived to find several hundred laborers clearing away piles of charred corpses under the gaze of a familiar wizard.

“Good evening, Leo. Looks like you’ve had a busy day here.”

His visor was up, so I could see his grim smile. “Yes, we gave those apes a nasty surprise today. They thought this breach would be our downfall, but the Conclave is more than a match for a bunch of unwashed animals. They overran the barricades three times today, but each time we lured them into a trap and burned them down.”

The breach in the wall was easily a hundred feet wide, with an improvised barricade of timber and broken rubble stretched across it. Not exactly the stoutest fortification, especially against dinosaur cavalry.

“Yeah, I hear you’ve got fire breathing golems now. Why not just put them on the barricade, though?”

“That would expose the golem handlers to attack,” he explained. “The enemy is determined to kill every spellcaster they can spot, and most of our golem handlers are only apprentices. They don’t have a lot of defense against enemy spells, and we can’t afford to lose any more of them. Better to let the garrison hold their attention, and wipe them out whenever they think they’re making progress.”

Oh. Right. Why would the wizards care how many normal men die on the barricades?

“I hear you’re going to repair the wall?” He went on. “We’ve almost got the bodies cleared away, and then you can get started.”

“Good. What about the wards?”

He waved to a stack of crates between a pair of especially big golems. “The Conclave keeps a reserve supply of wardstones. I’ll need to place two of them in the foundation of the new wall, and another pair at the level of the parapets. Beyond that it’s your show, just don’t put any enchantments on your stonework that could affect the spread of the wards.”

“I’m not putting any enchantments at all on this,” I told him.

I didn’t do anything too fancy with it, but in light of Brand’s suggestion I did make the new section of wall a bit more imposing than the original. I dug a hole down to bedrock for the foundation, and built up a wall twenty feet thick. The outer surface was polished granite, like most of my fortifications, and I made it fifty feet tall instead of forty. Stairs at each end led down to the old wall on either side, and the extra thickness gave me room to put a roofed shelter behind the parapet.

The whole job took a couple of hours, so everyone was long since asleep by the time I got home. Then I had to be up at the crack of dawn for Brand’s daily meeting. That was going to get old fast.

But a couple more private meetings when I got back gave me the information I needed to finish planning my reorg. So I told Avilla to move our own daily meeting to lunch, and invite a few extra people. Avilla frowned and fretted over the disruption, but she made it happen.

The dining room was crowded with practically everyone I knew by name on the island in attendance, but if my plans worked this would be the last time we had to do this. I let everyone enjoy their food for a bit while they reported on progress in their various departments. Then I made my announcement.

“I said a couple of days ago that I was going to be making some changes. We’ve grown quite a bit since we first arrived in Kozalin, and that’s a good thing in most respects. But an organization that was thrown together on the fly to manage a hundred people doesn’t work for five hundred, and we’re well past that mark now. It’s about time we adopted an organizational structure that can handle our current needs. We also have a lot of new people with skills we critically need, so we’re going to put them to work.

“First off, Avilla is going to be stepping down as castellan so that she can focus on her work as part of the coven. Avilla has done a great job of holding things together, and I don’t want anyone to think this is a slight against her abilities. She just has too many jobs right now, and this is the one that it made the most sense to hand off to someone else.

“The new castellan of Black Island will be Tavrin, the head of Clan Nethwillin. Tavrin has about a bazillion years of experience as a manager, merchant, accountant and everything else involved in this job, so I’m sure he won’t have any trouble with it.”

I’d spoken with him in advance, of course, so the announcement didn’t take him by surprise.

“Only three centuries, actually,” Tavrin said. “But yes, I feel confident that I can handle it. I take it this is a civilian office?”

“Yes, you’re going to be far too busy to worry about running the garrison on top of everything else. As castellan you’ll be responsible for purchasing and stockpiling supplies, renting out space in the street levels to suitable tenants, managing the farming operations, recruiting craftsmen and other personnel for our internal operations, and managing the treasury. Feel free to hire people to supervise parts of that for you as necessary. I’m also going to need you to organize our handling of the refugees our rescue operations bring in, once we get the Intrepid flying again and finish collecting your own people.”

“Very well. Avilla, I’d like to speak with you after the meeting if you have time.”

“Of course,” Avilla said with a relieved smile.

“Next,” I said, “A proper military organization. As our most experienced officer, I’m placing Demetrios in overall command of all of our forces. Demetrios, it looks like Varmland doesn’t really use any ranks above captain aside from general, and your responsibilities are going to extend to more than just command of troops anyway. So it may sound a little pretentious, but your title is going to be Minister of War.”

“Our troops are worth a couple thousand of anyone else’s, easy,” Cerise pointed out. “I think it fits.”

“Fair enough. Demetrios, one of the first things I want you to do is figure out how to turn this random mishmash of little fighting bands we’ve accumulated into some kind of regular military structure. At this point we’ve got humans, wolfen, dryads, dark elves and a whole bunch of individuals with various unique abilities, but hardly any of us have any practice working together. We need to sort out our forces into a permanent garrison, a substantial expeditionary force, and an air force to operate the Intrepid and any other airships I end up building. We also need to keep running the training program that Marcus started, and if possible expand it. We’re going to continue recruiting new troops from a number of sources, but once we have them we’ll need to get them up to speed on our weapons and doctrine.”

“Sounds like I’m going to be busy,” Demetrios observed. “Who are my officers?”

“Oskar has decided to step down from his post as garrison commander to take over running the forge,” I said. “Marcus will remain in command of the expeditionary force. I think you’ll find that the elves are our best option for crewing the Intrepid, and I suspect Tavrin can suggest a captain for the ship.”

“I have several names in mind,” Tavrin confirmed.

“You two can figure that one out, then. I’m also giving you authority to create new units and appoint officers as needed. We’ve got the talent to create some interesting recon and raiding teams if we want them, but I don’t have time to give that topic the consideration it deserves so I’m going to have to leave it in your hands.”

“Very busy,” Demetrios said.

“Aren’t we all? Next order of business is diplomacy and espionage. To my mind those are two sides of the same coin, and while Cerise has done some preliminary work developing information sources in Kozalin we haven’t been able to give them the attention they need. In order to address that, I’m appointing Pelagia my Minister of Diplomacy.”

“An interesting title,” Pelagia mused. “I shall, of course, be happy to serve.”

“Good. You seem to be well known in certain circles, and we need to take advantage of that. On the diplomacy side, find us some allies and recruit us some more manpower. A few more bands of trained fighters would do wonders for our security situation, and a sympathetic noble or two would be very useful. On the espionage side, we need to know what’s happening in Kozalin and how to work the situation to ensure the locals don’t turn on us.”

“Aw, does this mean I have to turn over my network?” Cerise said.

“Cerise, if you want to play agent sometimes to keep your hand in that’s between you and Pelagia. But you’re usually with me on all these adventures I get dragged into, and being a spymaster requires actually being here. Besides, don’t you have an acolyte to train and enchanting to work on?”

“Yeah, you’re right,” she said. “I was having fun with the undercover stuff, but I should really be spending more time training my little acolytes.”

“You have more than one now?”

She grinned. “Three, and a couple of elves are interested.”

Well, that should make Hecate happy.

“Finally, our discussions about assassins and commando raids have convinced me that it’s time to improve our security. From now on I want everyone in this room to make a point of bringing a team of bodyguards along whenever you leave the island, and I want to set up more thorough security for key locations like the treasury and my residence. I think military officers can arrange their own escorts easily enough, but for everyone else I want to put together a security team staffed by people from all of our various magical groups.

That got me some perplexed looks from around the table, although the older attendees seemed to get it.

“You’re forming a palace guard?” Marcus said.

I shook my head. “That’s probably what other people will see, but palace guards tend to be ceremonial units whose main skill is polishing their armor. The Secret Service is going to be staffed with people who can fight, and also have magic or enhanced senses they can use to spot threats that ordinary people might miss. Depending on the situation they may wear armor and act as obvious guards, or they may disguise themselves as servants. It’s a tricky set of skills, halfway between a soldier and a spy, and making this organization effective is going to take a lot of experimentation and creativity. Sefwin, I’d like you to lead it.”

“Me?” Sefwin sputtered. “But, Daniel, I’m only forty!”

“That’s four years older than me,” I pointed out. “Being a blooded warrior means you’re technically an adult by Nethwillin’s customs, right?”

“Well, yes, but I still have so much to learn.”

“Think of it as on the job training,” I said. “Feel free to get an older clan member to coach you, if you want. But you’ve impressed me, and this is something important you can do without exposing yourself to any great danger. I think the odds of a serious assassination attempt are actually pretty low, but I’ll sleep better knowing someone capable is putting serious effort into making sure it doesn’t happen. Will you do it?”

“I, well, yes.” She paused, and took a deep breath. “This is very unexpected, Daniel. Thank you for this opportunity. I’ll try not to disappoint you.”

Chapter 17

The mortars caught the enemy completely off guard.

You’d think they would have known that with the return of the Intrepid my weapons would inevitably get repaired, but when the first barrage of mortar rounds sailed over Kozalin to land in the middle of their formation they just blindly continued their charge towards the city wall. They didn’t even have a new tactic to use on the city, just another repeat of the methods they’d been using daily for the last week.

My walls were so tall that from the mortar bunker I could see right over the city. Bright explosions flashed all over the field, cutting down densely packed troops by the dozen. Dinosaurs panicked at the noise, stampeding in all directions. Soldiers and equipment caught fire, chaos spread, and the attack ground to a halt before it even reached the city walls.

All that from four mortars with green crews and lousy accuracy.

We kept firing, and eventually a hundred or so pterodactyl riders rose from one of the camps to wing their way towards my island. The Griffon Knights stayed on the ground, forewarned of my plans. I wasn’t thrilled about relying completely on a new invention, but having them in the air would only make things harder. I knew better than to expect perfect aim or expert target discrimination from my men.

The machine guns around the mortar bunkers started firing while the enemy were still half a mile away. Glowing tracers flashed out into the sky, guiding my gunners as they adjusted their aim. The machine guns had a higher muzzle velocity than the weapons my infantry carried, and combined with the bigger bullets that gave them an impressive range. They weren’t terribly accurate, but with infinite ammunition they didn’t need to be.

A pterodactyl suddenly pitched to one side, and fell out of the sky. A minute later another one followed it, and then another. As they drew closer the air defense bunker atop the arcology tower opened up, and their casualties mounted. Pterodactyls rained down from the sky in droves, until their riders finally balked. They broke off the attack, and fled back towards their camp.

Barely half of them made it home, so I decided that would do for now. They might get a few bombs through if they tried a more determined attack, but one or two bombs wouldn’t accomplish much. If they started assembling a giant force of air cavalry I’d have plenty of time to notice, and set up more machine guns.

Until then, I had a million other things to do. My schedule had a bit more free time after my last round of delegation, but it was all going into construction and enchantment work.

Repairing the Intrepid was straightforward, if a bit time consuming. While I was at it, I replaced the old guns with the new quad-mount machine guns, so it would be able to defend itself from air cavalry. It was still vulnerable to being grounded by foul weather, but I added a force dome enchantment and better structural reinforcement spells so it would at least be harder to attack on the ground. That was good enough for Demetrios, who had the ship crewed and back doing rescue ops the day after I finished. Naturally their first objective was going to be the Nethwillin settlements in Central Asia, but with a crew of elves and Irithil as her new captain they could organize that on their own.

Then I decided to finally do something about my annoying shortage of wolfen. Not only were they more useful than ordinary humans, but I figured anyone willing to get turned into one wasn’t likely to freak out and go crying to the church when they found out what all was living on my island.

The problem, of course, was that Avilla had accidentally made the first wolfen by repeatedly feeding them felwolf steak in a magical ritual designed to steal power from the monsters. Since I didn’t have a herd of giant wolves handy we weren’t going to be able to repeat that process on any large scale.

In theory my flesh magic might be powerful enough to turn people into wolfen, except that I didn’t have a template for that transformation. The purely physical part of the change I could have copied from one of the wolfen, but the magical aspect was an important part of what made them so useful. Not just strength and cold resistance, but that fearless animal ferocity they all showed.

Was there a way to create a template my magic could follow? After the Intrepid was back in action I pulled Cerise and Avilla into the lab to discuss the problem.

“Now that I have a proper kitchen I could make a much stronger recipe,” Avilla suggested. “I think I could do four or five whole transformations from each felwolf you kill.”

“They won’t all take,” Cerise pointed out. “We’d have to come up with a way to pick out people who are compatible with the wolf nature.”

“Not to mention that if we start hunting felwolves on a regular basis the enemy will notice, and set a trap for us,” I pointed out. “Cerise, how similar is your power theft to Avilla’s ritual?”

“Eh, it’s kind of a weak version of what I do. I’m actually eating part of their essence, so I get a really strong effect. She’s just gathering some of the residue that’s left in the body. Why?”

“I’m trying to figure out a way to apply my flesh magic to the problem,” I explained. “If there was a way to sort of package up the essence of what makes a wolfen, I think I might be able to copy it.”

“Magical powers fall under the domain of flesh sorcery?” Avilla asked skeptically.

“It works with catgirls,” I pointed out. “I think the mana sorcery is involved in making that work.”

Avilla frowned thoughtfully. “You mean like Tina? I thought her powers all came from Bast.”

“The really impressive stuff does, but not all of it. The template that came with my sorcery includes keen senses, superhuman reflexes, regeneration and enough strength to arm wrestle a troll.”

“Hey, if the cat thing is that badass why don’t you just use it instead?” Cerise suggested.

“Because for some reason it turns the subject into a girl regardless of their original gender. I don’t think we’re going to find a lot of soldiers who want to be turned into cute, bouncy young women.”

My witches both giggled.

“I don’t know, there are all kinds of strange people in the world,” Cerise suggested.

“No one would admit to something like that,” Avilla objected. “Too bad, it’s a funny image. Um, what about girls?”

“How many women would be willing to become warriors? Even if we got volunteers, how much training would they need? I’m looking for ways to enhance our soldiers here, and that doesn’t seem like a very promising approach. Or did you just want to make all the maids look like Tina?”

“That would be a little much,” Avilla admitted.

“I don’t know, I think she might enjoy having more people like her around,” Cerise said. “Besides, Bast is going to want priestesses. I bet she’d like having a whole tribe of catgirls.”

“I’ll think about it,” I said. “But we’re getting sidetracked.”

Cerise pouted. “I guess. Well, I think I could make a weapon that does the power theft magic and just stores the energy it gets. Would that give you what you need?”

“Maybe. I’d have to take a look at what you end up with, and see if my sorcery can make sense of it.”

“Wait, how are you going to even find a felwolf?” Avilla asked. “You can’t just go wandering around out in the snow with that army camped on our doorstep. That’s too dangerous, even for you two.”

“Guess we’ll have to get my flight working first,” Cerise suggested.

“That’s not a bad idea,” I agreed.

“What? No! Cerise, what are you going to do, carry Daniel? That can’t be safe.” Avilla protested.

“I was actually thinking of copying the flight magic,” I told her. “Avilla, sweetie, you’re worrying too much. I’m not going to do anything crazy here.”

Cerise sighed, and pulled Avilla into her arms. “He’s right, Avilla. We’re home safe now, and Hecate isn’t sending us orders to do anything else crazy. We’re not gonna go run off and get ourselves killed.”

“Promise?”

“I promise, sweetie,” I said gently. “Relax, okay?”

Cerise started kissing the side of her neck. I took her hands in mine, and kissed her forehead. After a moment she relented, and relaxed into our shared embrace.

“I’m sorry. I should trust you both more than that. I’ve just been so worried. You’re really going to stay at home, at least for a few weeks? That’s all I need to finish the blessings I’m working on.”

“That’s why I’m trying to make it so our people can do everything that needs doing,” I assured her. “If Cerise and I do go out it will only be for a few hours, and only if we figure out a way to do it safely.”

Cerise smiled, and started unbuttoning Avilla’s dress. “I think our girl needs more reassurance than just some words, Daniel. How about we remind her how much we love her?”

It was a good while before I got back to work that afternoon.

Cerise’s suggestion turned out to be a good one, though. The flight magic she’d stolen from that dragon worked on a completely different principle than my force sorcery. Watching the field of magic that formed around her wings when she tried to fly gave me a lot of ideas. We spent several hours in the garden the next morning, experimenting with various improvised attempts at flight buffs while she bounced around flapping her wings.

They generated a lot more lift than they should have, because each one projected a field of magic that grabbed hold of the air around it and effectively doubled her wingspan. Her flight muscles were fantastically strong, too. Not surprising, considering the blend of demonic and draconic attributes empowering them.

Watching them work proved a lot more distracting than I’d anticipated, though. When she manifested her wings the flight muscles wrapped around her rib cage to her sternum, and most of the actual muscle ended up in front. When she flapped her wings her breasts swelled and rose, shifting with the motion of those big muscles underneath them. It was pretty damned eye-catching, especially once Cerise realized what was happening and started teasing me on purpose.

“See something interesting?” She grinned.

“Wench. Don’t you ever get enough?”

“Of you looking at me like that? Fuck, no. You don’t think it’s weird, then? I was kind of embarrassed when I first realized what was happening.”

“I suppose some people would think it was strange,” I admitted. “But it looks pretty hot to me. Kind of reminds me of this stripper I saw once who could make her breasts bounce using just her pectoral muscles.”

“Stripper? What’s that?”

“Dancers who put on a show that involves taking off their clothes while they prance around on a stage,” I explained. “For money, obviously.”

She grinned. “Sounds fun. I love how decadent your country is, Daniel. Too bad I’ll never be able to see it. So, are we gonna figure out this flight thing, or am I just showing off my sexy boobs?”

I laughed. “I’d tell you to turn around, but you’re just as distracting from any angle. Okay, seriously, it just caught me by surprise. Let’s give this another try.”

Once we got back to work I realized that there was something else going on with Cerise’s flight magic. Part of her weight was being negated when she tried to fly, by a really odd knot of magic that looked more like a banishment than anything else. No, not one banishment. Two of them, with targets that weren’t really compatible.

“I think I see what your problem is,” I told her after I’d studied the interaction for a bit.

“Really? Sweet! Enlighten me, oh wise and benevolent wizard.”

“Oh, boy. What are you buttering me up for now?”

She bounced impatiently, drawing my gaze back to her barely restrained breasts. Where was she getting all these skintight outfits, anyway?

“I want to fly, silly! Now come on, tell me already.”

“Alright, alright. It looks like you’ve got two different kinds of magic trying to reduce your weight so you can get yourself off the ground, but they’re interfering with each other. I’m not quite sure how applying a banishment to your weight is supposed to work, but having two different enchantments playing tug-of-war with it certainly isn’t going to accomplish anything.”

“Huh. Yeah, that makes sense. Hang on a minute, let me see if I can suppress the demon part of that.”

I have to admit, watching Cerise manipulate her internal magic was pretty impressive. It only took her about a half hour of meditation to identify the part that was causing the conflict, and suppress it. With that done she was able to make some impressive wing-assisted leaps, although she still had trouble actually getting airborne. Then I just copied the lift enchantment onto a ring for her.

Suddenly, she had no trouble at all with her takeoffs. In a matter of minutes she was swooping gleefully around the garden area, laughing like a maniac. Her first attempt at a loop ended in disaster, but she was far too tough to be hurt by a little tumble onto dirt. She just launched herself back into the air, and tried again.

Tina wandered out onto her balcony, attracted by the noise. She did a double take when she saw Cerise flying. Then she clapped her hands, bouncing up and down excitedly.

“Cerise! You’re flying,” she shouted.

“I know! It’s awesome!” Cerise answered. She alighted on the railing next to Tina for a moment, gave her a quick but enthusiastic hug, and took off again.

Tina beamed. “I’m so happy for you. Daniel, did you do something?”

“A little,” I replied.

“You fixed my wings!” Cerise landed in front of me, and threw herself into my arms. “Fuck, I love you! You are so getting lucky tonight. Are you going to try it?”

“I’m not eager to try growing wings,” I said. “I think I can come up with a viable alternative, but it’s going to take some work. What about you? Is the ring good, or do we need to add some refinements? Maybe a variable strength lift field instead of just an on/off switch?”

She got a thoughtful look.

“A controllable field would be better, yeah. But I don’t want to depend on a ring to be able to fly. Do you think we could put the enchantment directly on me? Or maybe just strengthen that aspect of my flight magic?”

Well, that was an interesting idea. I had to stop and think about it for a minute. I could see what needed to be done. Normally a person’s magic would resist any outside force attempting to change it, but this was Cerise.

I gave her a skeptical look. “You want me to change your personal magic? That isn’t going to be easy.”

She met my eyes, and opened herself to our coven bond. “We can do it, Daniel. I just have to open myself up completely, and then relax and let you work. Right?”

Yeah, like that was a small thing.

“What are you doing now?” Tina’s curious voice interrupted from right beside me.

“Daniel’s about to ram his massive sorcerous power deep into my soul, and reshape my magic to fix the problem with my flight magic,” Cerise purred.

Tina’s breath caught. “Oh, my! That sounds exciting. Can I watch?”

“It’s not as dramatic as she makes it sound, Tina. You really get off on that kind of thing, don’t you?”

Tina blushed. “You know I do, Daniel.

“She’s not the only one,” Cerise said. “I keep hoping you’ll get the hint.”

It was hard not to, with the coven bond wide open. Cerise’s darker desires still made me a little uncomfortable, and her fascination with power exchange was rather different than Tina’s reflexive submissiveness. But was there really any harm in giving her what she wanted?

Not that I could see. But if we were going to play that way, I should put in the effort to do it right.

“We aren’t going to do it here on the lawn,” I said firmly. “It could take some time, and I don’t want to be interrupted. I’ve been meaning to set up one of the empty labs for transformation experiments anyway.”

“Okay,” Cerise said slowly, clearly wondering where I was going with this.

“It’s going to be delicate work,” I went on. “There’s no telling what kind of phantom sensations it might cause, either. I’ll need to restrain you so you don’t thrash around too much. As strong as you are, I’ll need to build a heavy iron cross to attach the chains to.”

Her eyes lit up. “Chains?”

I nodded. “Definitely a nine-point restraint setup. Wrists and ankles wouldn’t cut for you.”

“Nine-point restraint?” Her breath was coming faster now.

“Ankles, thighs, wrists, shoulders, neck,” I explained, touching each point in turn. “I’d better do something with that naughty tail of yours, too.”

Tina looked a little confused, but also quite intrigued. “Can I help?”

I looked down at her and smiled. “Well, Tina, Cerise is going to be completely helpless for a couple of hours while I work on her magic, and it’s very important that she not resist. Do you think you can make her feel… cooperative?”

She licked her lips. “I can do that.”

“Hours?” Cerise squeaked. Her thighs pressed together, and she squirmed in place.

“Hours,” I confirmed. I waited a couple seconds, and then went on. “After lunch.”

Avilla had just stepped out the breakfast room door to call us in. She smiled when she saw I’d already noticed her, and I started in her direction.

“What? Wait, no, you can’t stop now!” Cerise whined, reluctantly trailing along behind me.

“You don’t want to miss one of Avilla’s lunches, do you?” I asked innocently.

“That would be terrible,” Tina agreed. Either she was completely oblivious to Cerise’s distress, or she was a better actress than I’d thought. “She works really hard to make everything perfect for us.”

“But-”

I gave her firm behind a light swat. “No buts, pet. Come along, now. We’ll play with you later.”

She gasped. For a second I was afraid I’d gone too far. The sharp spike of pure joy that erupted across the coven bond ended that worry, though. She molded herself against my side, and snaked an arm around my waist.

“Promise?”

“Promise,” I assured her.

I gave Avilla a kiss on the way in, and went to take my place at the head of the table. A new table, with a polished surface of dark wood and decorative carvings on the legs. The chairs were new, too, and a lot more comfortable than the crude pieces the carpenters had thrown together during our first few days in the keep.

I’d noticed a lot of subtle changes like that in the last couple of days, since Avilla had retired from her former duties as castellan. Rugs appearing in high-traffic areas. A couple of paintings on the walls. A supply of big, soft white towels in the bathing area. It was nice, watching this cavernous maze of stone I’d thrown together gradually turn into a home.

Elin was already at the table, wearing a fluffy house robe with her hair still damp from the bath. She had her nose buried in a book, as usual, but she looked up with a smile as we came in.

“Hey, Elin. Enjoying being home?”

“Immensely. I’ve finally caught up on healing all of our people, and today I intend to take full advantage of this decadent paradise you and Avilla have created. I shall lounge about all day without bothering to properly dress, repeatedly stuff myself with delicious food, and soak in hot baths until I wrinkle into a prune.”

“But Elin, you don’t get wrinkles in the tub,” Tina pointed out.

“Precisely,” she replied. “If I go missing for a few days you shall know where to find me.”

“Good thing we aren’t having a staff meeting today,” I observed. “What are you reading?”

Her eyes returned to the book, and I’m pretty sure she was reading again when she answered.

“Benito’s Commentaries on the Philosophers. The Runesage had a fascinating perspective on the insights and shortcomings of the Greek classics. I’m in the middle of his deconstruction of the Sophists, and it’s really quite devastating.”

“No doubt. I don’t remember seeing that one before, though.”

“I, ah, may have made a stop at a bookseller or two while I was out healing the other day. I hope that’s alright? I understand we’re about to become rich beyond the dreams of avarice, so I didn’t think you’d mind.”

“She had to get two guys to help carry the books in from the skimmer,” Cerise put in.

I chuckled. “Sounds like we have similar book-buying habits, Elin. No, it’s fine. I’m sure we can afford it.”

Avilla came in with a big tureen of soup, and rolled her eyes. “Really, Elin? Do I have to make a rule about no books at the table?”

“Oh, I’m sorry Avilla. I suppose that was a bit rude of me. I was just passing the time until everyone arrived, and I got a bit caught up. It shan’t happen again.”

She closed the book, and got up to carefully place it on a side table against the wall.

“‘Shan’t?’ What a funny word,” Tina said.

“Elin’s all edumacated,” Cerise said sagely.

“She’s really smart,” Tina agreed guilelessly. “What’s a Sophist, anyway?”

“A long time ago there were a bunch of really smart guys who tried to figure out all the secrets of the universe with their huge brains,” Cerise explained. “Only they disagreed on all kinds of stuff, so each of the famous ones founded his own school to teach the answers he thought were right. The Sophists were one of those schools.”

“Oh. Were they wizards?”

“That’s right. They were the guys who invented wizardry, actually. They did a bunch of really famous stuff, so smart people are always reading about them. Only, they always end up arguing about the same things the ancient schools did. A lot of their arguments were about things that no one really understands, even today.”

“Oh.” Tina seemed to pause, thinking about that. Then she beamed at Cerise. “Thank you, Cerise. You’re really good at explaining things. I think I even understood that.”

“She is, isn’t she?” Elin agreed. “Oh, this looks lovely, Avilla. Thank you for the meal.”

From what I’d seen lunch in Varmland was usually pretty basic. Cold cuts and chunks of bread, or these funny open-faced sandwich things. But Avilla was never satisfied with simple meals. Today she’d made a hearty potato soup topped with cheese and spices, and the maids were setting out baskets of fresh bread sticks and bowls of salad. The last one carried a covered platter that turned out to be full of little bite-sized cuts of steak wrapped in bacon.

I noticed the maids looked different today, too. They had new uniforms, not too different from the old ones but a lot nicer looking. Black dresses with white aprons, a bit tight across the chest and cut scandalously short by local standards. The new version was a finer cloth, with a bit of lace decorating the short sleeves and the hem of the knee-length skirt. They moved differently, too. More confident, skillfully coordinating without getting in each other’s way. That, and their smiles seemed more genuine.

“I see you’ve been putting your newfound scheduling freedom to good use,” I told Avilla. “How are things going?”

“Wonderful,” she said happily, taking her place next to me. “I know things have been awfully slapdash around here until now, but I promise it’s going to get better.”

“I don’t have any complaints,” I said.

“You haven’t lived with her while she had all her magic set up and working,” Cerise said knowingly. “She’s going to knock your socks off.”

She took a bite out of a breadstick. “Mmm, that’s my girl’s special recipe alright. What are you starting with, honeydew? This doesn’t feel like your health and healing blend.”

“We hardly need that with the amulets Daniel made us,” Avilla pointed out. “I’m focusing on might, both physical and magical, and working in protections against different kinds of hostile magic around the edges. Give it a week and you won’t have to worry about subtle curses like that magic wine the elves gave you anymore.”

“I’m just happy you cook for us,” Tina said. “Everything you make is so good! I feel guilty about not helping out with the work, but I know I can’t compete with you in the kitchen.”

Avilla’s smile was a little smug. “Don’t worry about it, Tina. I love cooking, especially now that I’m not running around all day like a chicken with its head cut off. I’m sure you’ll find something else you can do to help out. Looking after the children, if nothing else.”

“I can do that,” Tina agreed.

I paused with a spoonful of soup halfway to my mouth. “Children? Plural?”

“Not just yet,” Avilla assured me. “Goodness, the look on your face just then was priceless.”

“I guess that was silly of me,” I admitted. “It’s not like it’s going to happen by accident.”

“Of course not. But speaking of children, I would like to start thinking about plans. Maybe once you’ve finished the Black Citadel, and we have enough men and magic weapons that we aren’t worried about being attacked?”

I swallowed. “You’re serious about this?”

She leaned towards me, putting her hand on my chest and gazing up at me through hooded eyes. “Yes, Daniel. I want children. I want your children. I want to be smart about arranging things properly, so I can take good care of them. But I don’t want to wait any longer than I have to. Will you give me a child soon, Daniel?”

“I, um, wow.”

“Oh, do let the poor man eat,” Elin interrupted. “There’s no need to ambush him with the decision.”

“Thank you, Elin,” I said.

“The Yule feast would be an auspicious time,” she went on. “A new beginning amidst the destruction of the old world. I’m sure this mighty erection of stone and iron will be suitably vast by then.”

“Dibs on the spring equinox,” Cerise said. “Unless you want to share it, Elin? Actually that would be perfect. Give my little demon brat a faerie playmate the same age to grow up with?”

“Spring equinox?” Elin repeated, sounding flustered. “I’m still not sure it would be safe, Cerise.”

“Oh!” Tina said. “I completely forgot. I asked Bast about it, Elin.”

“She answers your prayers?” Elin said uncertainly. She glanced at Tina’s baby bump. “But she’s… how does that work?”

Tina shrugged, unconcerned. “She’s a goddess. She said she gave you the good kind of motherhood blessing, not the dinky one. Oh, and you shouldn’t doubt her so much, or she might get ticked off.”

“The good kind?” Elin said uncertainly.

“That’s right. The mother of victory is personally watching out for you, Elin. Nothing bad is going to happen with your babies. So stop worrying and pick a date.”

Chapter 18

Cerise and I spent the following afternoon hunting felwolves.

With her flight magic properly adjusted she was light as a feather when she wanted to be. She flew in eager loops around me during my own test flight, trying progressively more acrobatic maneuvers as she got comfortable with her new maneuverability. I’d boosted her speed with force magic while I was working on her, and the extra thrust made her as agile as a hummingbird.

I’d spent most of the morning designing and building my own flight enchantment, which required a rather different design since I had no intention of grafting a set of wings onto my back. While I could probably make functional wings using my flesh sorcery I was sure it would take days to work out all the details, and come with all sorts of inconvenient drawbacks. Replicating the complex mix of biology and magic that Cerise’s body now ran on would be even harder, and I wasn’t eager to experiment with turning myself into a demon. She had divine magic helping her manage the side effects of her transformation, but I didn’t.

So instead I copied that weight-negation trick, and did everything else with pure force magic. That required some complex adjustments of the lift field to make it handle every situation properly. Near the ground it could just work like the hover field on a skimmer, but at any significant altitude the spell would have to grab onto air around me and push it away to create thrust. The weight negation meant it could hold me up with a stiff breeze instead of a hurricane, but I still had to arrange the field so it didn’t have any annoying side effects.

I didn’t want it throwing another flier around if they got too close to me, or pushing away people or objects I was carrying. The weight negation needed to be adjustable too, to account for the possibility of cargo. Turning my force field into an automatic windscreen seemed like a sensible measure, but then I had to worry about its aerodynamics. Not to mention mine. Most shapes will tumble or spin when you push them through the air at high speeds, and I wasn’t an aerospace engineer. Although I did have perfectly vectored thrust, which would make correcting problems a lot easier than in a plane.

There were so many details to work out. I kept my first few test flights low and slow, and stopped to make adjustments every few minutes. Even so I had cause to be thankful for my safe fall enchantment a couple of times. I spent some hours working out bugs before I felt safe enough to climb to a few hundred feet and play tag with Cerise.

She evaded me with laughing ease, of course.

“You’re too slow!” She called, pulling a wingover that somehow took her under me and back up to tap me on the shoulder before I could blink. “Tag, you’re still it.”

I spun, but she was already darting away.

“Your wings bite the air better than my levitation,” I complained. “This is like skating on ice for me, when you’ve actually got traction.”

“Yeah, yeah, boring wizard talk. I’m just a better flyer than you.”

“True,” I admitted. “You’re a natural. How fast do you think you can go?”

“I dunno. Race you to the far end of the harbor!”

She was off like a shot. I went after her immediately, dumping more power into thrust than I’d dared try so far. A slight wobble built up as my airspeed rose, but the new force field shape seemed to be working.

Cerise glanced back and saw me gaining on her. With a grin she flexed her wings, and shot forward even faster. I increased my thrust until I was gaining again.

The busy harbor flew by beneath us. Sailors looked up from their work to gawk as we flashed past. Cerise dropped a hundred feet towards the water, picking up even more speed as she wove between a pair of tall sailing ships. I stayed high, pushing more energy into my spells and keeping to a straight line. If I tried any sudden turns at this speed I’d end up tumbling into the river for sure.

I shot past the far edge of the harbor doing well over a hundred miles per hour, with Cerise hot on my heels. My flight carried me past the city wall a moment later, just as I was starting to slow.

“You’re fast, but I’m faster,” I called as I drifted to a halt.

Cerise slammed into me with a giddy shriek, wrapped her long legs around my waist and kissed me fiercely. Her lips were hungry and demanding, her lean body warm and strong and so vibrantly alive. I tangled my hands in her windblown hair, and kissed her back.

Finally, she broke away.

“That was awesome!” She crowed. “I can fly even faster than my bike. But you still outran me. How do you go so fast?”

“Try folding your wings, and just push yourself as hard as you can. The tricky part is doing it without sending yourself into a tumble. If you use your wings to stabilize yourself the drag will slow you down.”

“I get it. The push part of the magic is that strong? I guess it must be, if you can fly with just that. Let me give it a shot.”

She let go of me, and darted straight up at a pretty good clip. I followed at a more leisurely pace, keeping an eye on our surroundings. There were some enemy air cavalry on patrol a couple of miles away, but they didn’t seem eager to fly over and attack us. Probably because we were still in range of the air defense guns on the island.

Cerise did a complex roll that ended with her level again, headed out across the river. Her wings extended, and flapped a few times as she got up to a good cruising speed. Then she pulled them in, and flared the force magic that I’d woven into her last night.

I followed along a few hundred yards above and behind her, keeping half an eye on our surroundings as I watched her experiment. Once again, she displayed a supernatural talent for physical skills. She spent a few minutes experimenting, folding her wings in and angling them in various ways, but unlike my own fumbling efforts she never spun out into a crash.

We crossed both the river and the forest on the south bank, leaving Kozalin behind. Her speed rose in fits and starts as she got used to this new method of flying, but it wasn’t long before I was struggling to keep up. Then she suddenly hit her stride, and rocketed away from me at a speed I didn’t dare try to emulate. I was already pushing two hundred miles per hour, and the way she was pulling away from me she had to be well over two fifty.

I slowed down a little, and watched her go. The sky was overcast, and I was a little concerned about losing sight of her. Once again I was reminded that I really needed to come up with a magical substitute for radios. Not that I had any real concerns about her ability to take care of herself out here, but Avilla would worry herself sick if either of us returned home alone.

Fortunately Cerise realized the problem before she got more than a couple of miles away. She made a long, lazy turn above the snow-covered plains, and looped back to join me. I went into a hover as she approached.

“What’s wrong, slowpoke? Can’t keep up?” She called.

“That thing you just did where you figured out how to perfectly manage your wings at every speed in a couple of minutes? I’m going to need the rest of the day to do that.”

“What, really? But it’s easy.”

“Only for you,” I told her. “Hey, be glad I’m not a normal wizard. At least my sorcery lets me adjust my flight enchantment in a few minutes instead of days.”

“Months,” she corrected. “A normal wizard would have to use a big gold amulet with runes etched into it to shape the enchantment, and it would take months to build something that complicated with normal techniques. Then they’d have to melt it down and start all over every time they had to make a change. Having enough power to just burn magic into the metal like you do is an incredible shortcut.”

“Well, try to remember that what you do with physical skills is just as incredible. Mind playing lookout for me while I do some more test runs? I don’t have to get everything perfect today, but I want to get to where I’m confident I can outrun anything I might meet up here.”

She smiled. “Sure, I can watch your clumsy butt wander all over the sky. Just try not to crash again or I’m going to laugh at you.”

She did, too.

My safe fall enchantment made an excellent defense against crashing, so I wasn’t actually hurt by my mishaps. But I was glad Avilla wasn’t out here to see me flailing around. She’d probably have a heart attack.

Half a dozen crashes later I’d worked out a scheme involving vectored thrust and little fins on my force field that seemed to work well. Unlike my first try, which had sent me spinning violently. Or my second, which had seemed perfect until I tried to turn and suddenly spun out of control. Or my third, or fourth, or… ugh. At least I was getting better at handling vertigo. Sometimes I even managed to recover from a tumble before I hit the ground.

I wearily pulled myself out of the smashed remains of a tree, and realized I’d actually gotten a couple of bruises this time. I’d been steadily edging up to progressively higher speeds, but if I was reaching the limits of my crash protection it was probably time to call it quits for the day.

Cerise flitted down to hover over me with a huge smile on her face. “You alright there, old man? Ready for a break?”

“Yeah, I think I’m about done with flight experiments for the day. I’ll just have to concede the aerial speed demon title to you.”

“Well, I am the only demon here. But if you’re up for a little hunting, I saw some tracks a minute ago that might be felwolves.”

That surprised me. “Really? I wasn’t expecting to find one this close to Kozalin.”

She rolled her eyes. “Daniel, we’ve been working our way south this whole time. Kozalin is probably a hundred miles behind us. Didn’t you notice that we’re getting into hill country here?”

“I was a little preoccupied,” I admitted. I rose into the air, and looked around. Sure enough, we’d made our way into a region of rolling hills quite different from the flat plains around Kozalin. I was going to have to be more careful about that. Fast flight was a convenient way to travel, but it would be easy to get completely lost if I didn’t pay attention.

“Have you had a chance to enchant that tool you were talking about?” I asked.

Cerise pulled a long, pointed blade from behind her back. “My little sample sticker? Got it right here. Thanks for sharing those secrets of fast enchanting, by the way. Even with unlimited power it would have taken me a week to make this the old way.”

“How long did it actually take you?” I asked, curious.

“Oh, I just whipped it up this morning while you were making your flight ring,” she replied, trying to sound casual. The gleam in her eye gave her away, though, and she couldn’t hold up the facade. “It’s so fucking cool to be able to do shit like that. I’ve got all kinds of neat implements in the works now. I’m getting so strong it’s scary.”

“Our enemies should be scared,” I agreed. “I’m glad things are coming together for you, love. Well, sure, let’s see if we can find ourselves a felwolf. I’ve heard that spotting things from the air can be surprisingly hard, but considering how big those things are you’d think they’d be bad at hiding.”

“Don’t worry, boss. I’ll find them.”

We kept our altitude down to a few hundred feet as we backtracked to where Cerise had spotted the tracks, moving slowly and pausing now and then to look over each valley we crossed. There were a lot of wooded patches on the slopes of the hills, but it looked to me like most of the flatter areas had been farmland.

Had been.

There were little villages everywhere, but they were just ruins now. The burned-out husks of wooden buildings, blanketed in deep snow. Rows of broken wagons along the roads. A country inn at a crossroads, with one whole side of the main building caved in. Everywhere we went we found nothing but devastation. There was no sign of any surviving humans, just one destroyed settlement after another.

Cerise stopped over the remains of a small castle built atop a hill, and studied it thoughtfully.

“Looks like a giant attack,” she said. “See how that whole tower is collapsed, and the wall around it? Trolls couldn’t do that, and a dragon would have burned everything.”

I nodded. “I think you’re right. This is recent, too. The snow in the courtyard is only a few inches deep.”

The courtyard must have been crammed with refugees. Now there was only a tangle of ripped canvas and broken tent poles covered in a thin layer of snow. And bodies. Dozens of lumps that were obviously bodies, lying still beneath the snow.

There should have been hundreds, for a place this size. But the felwolves would have been hungry.

“I’m really starting to hate monsters,” I said quietly.

“Yeah. Daniel? Can I borrow Grinder?”

“Sure.” I took the weapon from my belt, and handed it to her. “What for?”

She pointed, across the hill and down the valley on the other side. There was a rocky slope there, between two stands of trees.

“I think I see their camp.”

I looked again, and realized that what I’d mistaken for boulders were actually tents. Huge, round things that stood almost as tall as the trees.

I looked again at the ruined castle, and felt a grim smile settle onto my face.

“Let’s go pay them a visit, shall we?”

The first time I’d fought a giant in this world I’d almost died, and Cerise had barely been able to distract one of the felwolves it had been using like hunting dogs. But we’d come a long way since then. I drew my revolver as we flew towards the camp, counting tents. Nine of them, it looked like, and a half-dozen shaggy lumps that were definitely felwolves lying around them. Only one giant was visible, standing motionless near the top of a steep slope where he’d have a clear view of the valley below.

Were the rest of them off somewhere? No, they’d have taken the felwolves with them. Probably sleeping, then. That would make sense if they were making their attacks at night.

The guard didn’t seem to be looking up. Convenient. Shouting might draw his attention, but we didn’t need an elaborate plan for this. I pointed at Cerise, and then at a group of felwolves sleeping in a pile.

She nodded, and drew that long blade again. I took up a position directly above the camp, and waited. Cerise gave me a savage little grin, and folded her wings.

She hit hard, slamming her blade into a sleeping felwolf’s eye with all the momentum of her dive behind it. The monster let out a howl of shocked agony, but before its fellows could do more than open their eyes I heard Grinder ignite with a shriek of tortured air.

I shot the sentry in the back with an explosive round.

The explosion shredded the back of his chainmail hauberk, and sent lumps of superheated metal tearing through his body. He staggered forward one step, and then collapsed with a scream. I shot him again to make sure he wasn’t getting up, and then turned my attention to the tents.

Lacking any specific targets I just held the trigger down, and walked my fire back and forth over the shelters. The explosions blew them apart easily. Burning fragments of wood and leather flew through the air, and shouts of alarm rose all over the camp. In moments the tents were all down and on fire, except for the area where Cerise was fighting.

She didn’t need my help. She tore through the felwolves with savage glee, hacking and stabbing at their massive bodies with Grinder. Her enemies were the size of elephants, but she was too fast for them. She dodged around their blows, carving off paws and cutting great wounds into faces.

A giant throwing axe smashed into my shield. With my original amulet such a concentrated blow would have gone right through the barrier, and probably cut me in half. But the shield I was using now was designed with giants in mind, and it handled the stress just fine. The axe bounced off the invisible wall, expending barely five percent of the energy reserve behind it.

I laid down another barrage of explosive rounds.

A giant dove out of one of the burning tents to roll in the snow, extinguishing his flaming cloak. Then he stood and began bellowing orders to the other survivors.

I shot him in the face. His head blew apart in a spray of gore and blue blood, showering down on the nearest giants. His headless body stood there for a moment, and slowly crumpled to the ground.

That was too much for them. Giants fled in all directions, leaving most of their gear behind. But they were too big to vanish into the woods very easily. I gunned down three more of them from behind, and then turned my attention back to Cerise.

Half the wolves were dead or dying, and the survivors were trying to run. It wasn’t doing them any good, though. Most of them were already injured, and Cerise was too fast to escape. She finished off a pair that had tried to flee together, while I turned and shot one that was limping off in the opposite direction.

The whole fight had barely lasted a minute. I took one last look around, and holstered my revolver. Grinder’s howl died, and Cerise flew up to me.

“Didn’t I see a couple more giants run off?” She asked. “We should hunt them down before they get away.”

“No, I want them to escape. Let them carry word of this attack back to their buddies. For the rest of the war they’ll all be keeping an eye on the sky, wondering if they’re next.”

“Oh. Yeah, good idea. Teach these bastards what it’s like to be afraid. I like it.”

She flew up to hand Grinder back to me. “I’ve really improved a lot, haven’t I? A month ago I would have been useless in this fight, and now look at me.”

I wanted to hug her, but she was covered in blood. Why did she look so damned sexy with splashes of red all over her face and horns?

I settled for a smile. “Yeah, look at you, kicking felwolves around like puppies. Now we just need to get you a force field, so you don’t end up taking a bath in your enemies.”

She actually pouted at that. “Aw, but I like the blood spray. I even get a regeneration boost from it. Not that I need one anymore.”

“You worry me sometimes, you know that?”

“I know, Daniel. I worry me sometimes, too. But it’s the price I pay for the power I have. As long as I don’t start going berserk I think I can handle it, and if I do mess up I trust you to reign me in. Why do you think it was so important to me, to make sure you know how to handle me?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I get it. I’m not thrilled about it, but I do understand. I’m just afraid we’ll manage to survive Ragnarok, and then find out you can’t stand to go more than a few days without killing something.”

She smiled. “Sex does it for me too, stud. If I get like that, just tie me to the bed and fuck me senseless.”

I mussed her hair. “Nut.”

She snickered. “You bet. Hey, if I have to, I can sacrifice some of my power to become more human again. But that kind of worry is for after Ragnarok.”

“I guess so. I take it you got the sample?”

She held up the bloody spike. “Right here.”

“Good. Let’s get home, then, and I’ll take a look at it.”

The flight back was surprisingly short, although it was a good thing we’d decided to end our trip when we did. There were darker clouds rolling in from the north now, and a hint of snow in the air. As we landed I made a mental note to stick close to home for now, until I came up with some way to deal with the enemy’s habit of turning the weather against us.

We ran into Tina at the entrance to the residence area, where she was having a conversation with Sefwin while a mixed group of dryads and dark elves stood around listening. They both greeted us warmly, although Tina was a bit nonplussed by Cerise’s gory appearance.

“It’s straight to the bath for you,” she announced firmly. “What did you do, go swimming in monster blood?”

“This is what happens when you stab a felwolf in the heart,” Cerise explained with a laugh.

Tina wrinkled her nose. “Well, it’s gross. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up before you start to smell.”

Sefwin watched them go with a smile.

“I have to admit, I’m a little jealous of you,” she said conversationally. “Where did you find such an amazing collection of magical beauties?”

“Hecate works in mysterious ways. I take it you’re going over security?”

“Yes. If you don’t mind, I’d like to set up this barracks area off the palace entrance as the headquarters for the Secret Service. That way we’ll be conveniently close to hand if something ever goes wrong here. I assume that was the purpose of the layout?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Are you going to have enough space, though? I wasn’t thinking about putting in training areas or an administrative office when I laid out this area.”

“I have some ideas on that, if you can spare me a few minutes,” Sefwin replied.

“Sure.”

She led me back through the heavy iron door to one side of the entrance hall, and into the open space beyond.

“Obviously the ready room should remain as it is,” she began. “But I’d like to subdivide the barracks halls into smaller rooms, with each one set up to accommodate a team of four to six. For an elite force such as you proposed I think small, close-knit teams are the best organizing principle. The storeroom at the end of the hall could be turned into a reasonable office for me, and the mess hall can double as an assembly area.

“For training areas, I was actually hoping to make use of your palace. Some of our training will need to be in emulating servants, which will mean working closely with Avilla. For sparring practice, well, I assume you’re going to want a suitable area somewhere in your palace anyway. Your children will need to be taught one day, yes? So perhaps we could work out what your needs will be in that area, and my people can staff the facility?”

“That makes sense,” I began, only to be interrupted by a faint sense of unease. I stopped, frowning.

The floor was vibrating. What could make a mass of stone and iron three feet thick vibrate?

My question was quickly answered. In a matter of seconds the vibration grew into a violent shaking, and a tremendous roar filled my ears.

“An earthquake!” Sefwin shouted incredulously. “What do we do?”

The shaking was so violent I had to take to the air to avoid being knocked off my feet. Sefwin handled it better, balancing lightly on the balls of her feet with her knees slightly bent.

I put my hand on the wall, and felt the island’s magic. There was a drain on the structural reinforcement spells, but it was minimal.

“The citadel will stand,” I assured her. “Check your people.”

“Yes, milord.” She glided across the trembling floor as easily as if it were standing still, and opened the door.

There was a final heave, bigger than the ones before, and then the earthquake ended.

I followed Sefwin out the door, and found her elves helping the dryads back to their feet. I saw a couple of bruises here and there, but no real injuries. That probably shouldn’t be a surprise, considering how tough they were.

“Stay on alert,” I told Sefwin. “Get in touch with the sentries and find out if the enemy is doing anything. I’m going to check on the girls.”

I found them all in the breakfast room. Tina and Cerise were wrapped in towels, looking quite put out as a couple of maids dried their hair. Elin had a big bruise on the side of her face, and Avilla was fussing over her. The rest of the maids were all huddled in the kitchen, looking scared.

“Are you alright, Elin? What happened?”

“My new bookshelf fell on me,” she complained. “It was rather painful, but I shall be fully healed in another minute or two. Really, there’s no need to fuss.”

I checked her anyway, of course. Yeah, massive bruising that was already mostly healed. No other injuries.

“I’m just glad you’re alright,” I said. “Is anyone else hurt?”

“I was in my kitchen,” Avilla said. “My wards handled it fine.”

“We’re okay,” Tina said. “We were in the shower, and Cerise almost fell. But I caught her before she could break the tiles.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Miss death and destruction can’t keep her balance during an earthquake?”

“Hey, I was surprised,” Cerise exclaimed. “It could happen to anyone. That was weird, though. I didn’t think they had earthquakes down in this part of the country.”

“We don’t,” Elin agreed. “I doubt that it was a natural occurrence.”

Gaea was an earth goddess, and in Norse legends Loki was supposed to be responsible for earthquakes. Enemy action was all too possible.

“Cerise, you’d better get dressed for another fight,” I decided. “Elin, we’re going to have injured people. Can you set up a healing station and take care of them?”

“Of course.”

Tina bit her lip. She was trying to put up a brave front, but she was obviously frightened. So was Avilla, for that matter.

“Are we in danger, Daniel?” Avilla asked. “Will the Black Citadel stand, if that happens again?”

Apparently I was stuck with that name now. Ah, well.

“You’ll be fine, sweetie. I built this place tougher than that. The earthquake didn’t do any damage at all to the citadel. It barely even put any strain on the reinforcement spells.”

“The palace won’t fall down?” Tina asked.

“No, sweetie. No matter how bad the ground shakes, the palace won’t fall down. But Kozalin is another story, so I’d better see what’s happening there. Cerise, why don’t you stay here and keep an eye on the girls for now?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” she said. “Come on, Tina. We’d better get dressed.”

I found Demetrios in the bunker on top of the arcology tower, peering out over Kozalin with Marcus and Gronir. There was a light snow falling now, and a lot of smoke rising from various points in the city.

“What do we know?” I asked as I stepped to another window.

Demetrios glanced up at me, and grimaced.

“Less than I’d prefer. It sounds like we came through with just a few injuries, nothing Elin can’t heal. Kozalin didn’t get off so easily, though. There are collapsed buildings all over the city, and several long stretches of the city wall are down.”

“We can’t see it from here, but judging from the signals we’re hearing it sounds like the apes are massing for an assault,” Marcus added.

I frowned. “It’s going to be dark in an hour. Damn, a night battle is going to be complete chaos.”

“I think that’s what they’re counting on,” Demetrios said. “They’re camped in the open, so if they knew the earthquake was coming it wouldn’t have done much damage to them. With the city defenses in disarray they don’t need an elaborate plan of attack, so they called up a light snow to hide their movements from us. Next they’ll send a large force to flood in through the breaches in the wall and do as much indiscriminate damage as they can.”

“They won’t beat the wizards just running around in a mob like that,” Gronir observed.

“No, they won’t,” Demetrios agreed. “Brand won’t fall to anything short of a well-coordinated assault, either. But they could easily occupy the Trade District, and a confused battle in the streets will bleed the garrison white. We need to do what we can to mitigate the damage, or the city’s defenses will fold completely over the next few attacks. Daniel, will the mortars work in this weather?”

“Easily,” I told him. “The wind will make them less accurate, but that’s not really a problem when you’re aiming at something the size of an army. Of course, we’ll need to see which direction they’re approaching from.”

“Pelagia can clear away the snow for a few minutes,” Demetrios said. “Perhaps longer, if we muster Nethwillin’s mages to support her. Once our gunners find the range it won’t matter if they lose visibility, they can just keep firing anyway. Correct?”

“Yeah, that will work. Ideally we’d catch them by surprise, though. I’ve got my flight working now, so I could head out to the wall and signal when they’re close enough to see from there.”

Demetrios studied the falling snow for a moment. “Yes, that should work. We’ve still got half a mile or so of visibility, and the snow isn’t dense enough to muffle loud sounds. If you open fire with your explosive rounds we should be able to see it from here. That will be the signal for Pelagia to part the snow so our mortars can find the range.

“But if they attack on a broad front we won’t be able to stop them all with a bombardment. Captain Rain, assemble your men at the gates and prepare to move out in the skimmers. We’ll use your firepower to stop any enemies who threaten to penetrate beyond the Trade District. I’ll send a couple of the Nethwillin mages with you for support.”

“I don’t want them out of communication,” I said. “Things can go bad really fast against an enemy with this much magic.”

“A fair point,” Demetrios agreed. “One of Pelagia’s hamadryads has mastered the art of speaking with her subordinate dryads through their trees. I can have Nomiki prepare to pass messages, and send one of her girls out with Rain’s men. Probably Hela, she’s good at keeping her head in a fight.”

“Alright, that will work,” I agreed. “I’d better get in position while you get things ready here. Once we’ve seen how the bombardment works out I’ll fly back so we can plan our next move. I’m leaving Cerise here for now, so send for her if there’s a threat to the island.”

“I certainly shall, my lord,” Demetrios said confidently. “Good luck.”

I nodded, and headed for the door. It was a tremendous relief to have someone reliable to hold down the fort while I was gone. Marcus was a competent enough officer, but I couldn’t help but remember that his command would have been slaughtered by Hel’s undead troops if I hadn’t happened to come back at just the right time. Not to mention that when I first met him his company had been cut to pieces fighting a series of monsters. He’d never made a mistake I could really blame him for, but at the same time I wasn’t willing to put my girls’ lives in his hands again.

Demetrios was another story. He knew more than I did about magical warfare, and the way he easily adapted to all the complexities of the magic I was building did a lot to put me at ease. If the enemy did pull some fancy trick to circumvent my defenses he’d catch on right away, and do something intelligent to counter them. With Cerise to back him up I wasn’t worried about anything getting through.

Kozalin, however, was another story.

Chapter 19

The earthquake had made me suspect that the enemy leader was a little more capable than he seemed. The results of the mortar attack confirmed it.

I opened fire with my revolver as soon as I spotted the first mass of triceratops cavalry looming out of the snow. I was surprised when the group I was firing at turned out to be small enough that I could actually stop it, killing several of the giant beasts and setting the leather and wood fighting platforms the others were carrying on fire. Then the weather suddenly cleared, and I could see what the enemy was up to.

I’d expected a huge mob of andregi rushing across the snow in a packed mass, which would have made a perfect target for my mortars. Instead they seemed to be staging half a dozen separate attacks on the various points where the city wall had collapsed. In each case there were a few dozen triceratops leading the charge, with several hundred infantry immediately behind them. But after that the remaining troops were a lot more spread out. Companies of about a hundred marched along in open skirmish formation, with a hundred yards or more of open ground between each group.

Normally an approach like that would have been useless, since it would just allow the defenders on the wall to fight them piecemeal. But with half the city busy dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake there weren’t nearly as many men on the walls as there should have been, and the officers were just starting to think about defensive positions on the collapsed stretches. A packed mass of dinosaurs would go right through them, and the infantry formations were easily big enough to hold a breach while reinforcements trickled in.

With only four tubes my forces couldn’t lay down fire over enough ground to stop the whole advance. I saw a heavy barrage come down on the forces headed for a breach in the Military District’s walls to the east, quickly homing in until the shells were falling among the advancing enemy. To the west another cluster of explosions descended to halt the attack on a breach near the edge of the Wizard’s Quarter. But that left the rest of the attacks to go through virtually unopposed.

Demetrios must have seen the problem, because the eastern battery quickly began walking its fire back and forth in front of the walls. But my mortars weren’t accurate enough to be very effective at that, and most of the rounds hit empty fields instead of enemy troops. Their dispersed formations filtered in around our fire, and I could see they’d already broken into the Trade District in at least two places.

Then the snows closed in again, and I lost sight of the big picture.

Things didn’t get any better after that. I flew from one fight to another, trying to use my mobility and firepower to stop the enemy advance. But it was like fighting smoke. There were never enough of the enemy in one place to stop me, and several times my intervention saved garrison positions from being overrun. But I could only be in one place at a time, and for every fight I joined there were a dozen others I couldn’t see.

Brand and his company of heroes didn’t seem to be in the fight, and the Conclave’s forces were focused mainly on protecting the Wizard’s Quarter. So that left just me, the regular troops and a few dozen knights with magic weapons to fight for the Trade District. Within an hour there were bands of ape men rampaging all over the district, killing civilians and threatening the other quarters of the city. The earthquake had left several sections of the city’s internal walls in ruins, and the garrison was forced to divert thousands of men to protect the breaches and prevent the enemy from getting into the other districts.

Here and there I saw local civilians gathering to defend their homes, just like they had in Lanrest. But the andregi were bigger, stronger and considerably tougher than a normal man. Their raiding parties easily cut down mobs of shopkeepers armed with nothing but truncheons and the occasional dagger. For that matter, even regular soldiers didn’t do especially well against them. When they clashed both sides took heavy casualties, and that was a losing proposition for our side.

Once I saw how badly things were going I flew back to my island, to confer with Demetrios while the sun sank below the horizon. By then Tavrin and Pelagia had joined him in the rooftop bunker.

“I sent Captain Rain’s force to help keep the enemy out of the Temple District,” Demetrios told me. “They’ve turned back a couple of attacks and killed hundreds of the enemy, but I don’t think it’s wise to keep them there after dark. They don’t have proper night vision, and the enemy is showing some talent at infiltration tactics. I’m thinking we pull them back to defend the island, and let Cerise take Corinna and her girls out hunting. Nethwillin can field a few squads of elite night fighters as well, and between the two groups we should be able to stall their advance for hours.”

“Any word on what everyone else is doing?” I asked.

“Brand and Prince Caspar were out leading a raid on a temple the enemy had set up on the ruins of another city,” he replied. “It sounds like the andregi were conducting mass sacrifices to empower a strategic curse, and Brand was hoping to disrupt their casting. They’re only just returning to the Iron Citadel now, and Brand hasn’t issued any orders yet. The wizards have been defending their own quarter and watching for traps.”

“This is turning into a disaster. Were they attacking at the same time every day to make us complacent?”

“Probably. I’d advise you not to get too eager about throwing yourself into battle here, either. We’ve seen that the andregi can get fairly tough, and a confused situation like this is a good opportunity to set ambushes for enemy heroes. There’s a good chance they’ve got elite hunter teams set up in the Trade Quarter by now, waiting for a good chance to take out a careless wizard.”

“Point taken,” I said. “What do you suggest, then?”

“The safest course would be to remain on the defensive and wait for Brand to organize a counterattack. Then you take Cerise and an escort of elves and dryads, and join the Conclave’s forces. That will minimize both our losses and the Conclave’s.”

“The Trade District is the most populous part of the city,” I objected. “Including refugees there are probably a hundred thousand people there, and most of them are going to die if we give the enemy time to kill them.”

He shrugged. “They aren’t our people, my lord, and I don’t think we have the forces to save them.”

“As long as the rest of the city doesn’t fall, it will actually be to our benefit,” Pelagia put in. “The survivors will be that much more desperate for safety. Not that I don’t have some sympathy for their plight, but what else can we do?”

Damn, these people were cold blooded. I suppose they had a point, too. I’d been trying to build myself a favorable reputation here, but it didn’t seem to have gotten me anything. Maybe I should try being a little more selfish?

A hundred thousand people.

No, I couldn’t do it.

“Our survival depends on the goodwill of Kozalin’s rulers,” I said. “I don’t want our people to overextend themselves and get mobbed by enemies, but we’re going to do what we can. Go ahead and organize the switch out in troops, I agree with you about the risk there. Tavrin, I want your people to take a hundred or so flamers with them to hand out wherever it looks like they’re needed.”

“Certainly,” he said.

“While you’re doing that, I’m going to throw up some quick defensive works where the wall between the Trade District and the Temple District has collapsed. I can turn the rubble into a low wall in half an hour, and that will firm up the defense quite a bit. I’ll want one of Corinna’s girls to watch my back while I work, and the rest can go hunting with Cerise.”

“They’ll enjoy that,” Pelagia said. “Perhaps you should keep Hela at your side as well, so you can receive messages?”

“Good idea. Have her join me at the front when Captain Rain’s group withdraws. Tavrin, did the Intrepid make it back while I was out this afternoon?”

“Yes, we just finished unloading her cargo an hour ago.”

“Alright, then we’re going to use her for fire support. Have Irithil position her near what’s left of the city wall, and harass the enemy reinforcements with bombs and machine gun fire as they trickle in. Have the mortars lay down barrages at odd intervals too, just to keep the enemy from feeling safe out there. If we can slow them down a bit there will be that many fewer of them ready to resist the counterattack when it comes, and the civilians will have more time to get out of the line of fire.”

“We can give it a try,” Demetrios said. “Although if the enemy is clever, using the mortars so casually will reveal that it doesn’t cost us anything to make their ammunition.”

“There’s no point in having a capability if we don’t use it when we need it,” I replied. “I’m not worried about the enemy learning too much about us, considering the rate we’re deploying new stuff. Any other suggestions?”

There weren’t, and fifteen minutes later I was back in the city. Alanna had volunteered to go with me, so I flew out with the dryad huntress in my arms.

I noticed as I set her down that her wooden armor seemed different than before. It covered her from head to toe, leaving only her face exposed to the cold night air. Shadows chased each other across the surface of the armor, pooling in her hair and around the tip of her spear. The magic had a familiar taste, and not one I associated with nature spirits.

“Has Cerise been giving you guys upgrades?” I asked.

“The High Priestess has given us all generous gifts of her power,” she confirmed. “She makes us stronger, and keeps the cold from touching us.”

“Interesting. Well, keep a sharp eye out. I’m going to be pretty distracted here.”

The garrison troops were relieved to see a wizard at work, and turning the mound of rubble they were trying to defend into a ten-foot wall with a simple parapet along the top was a fast project. I worked my way down the wall making repairs, and fending off the occasional minor attack by bands of ape men. But once again they quickly began avoiding me, while I kept hearing battles in the distance in every direction.

Cerise arrived with Corinna’s little war band, and the group ventured out to make a sweep through the streets just beyond the defenses I was building. They returned half an hour later, bloody and triumphant but with several of the dryads in need of minor healing.

“This sucks,” Cerise complained. “These guys are everywhere, but never more than a few dozen at once. We keep finding them breaking into houses to kill people.”

A few refugees had started trickling past as I worked, but not very many.

“Do what you can,” I said. “We can’t save everyone, but we aren’t the only ones fighting. How are the refugee shelters holding up?”

There were a couple dozen big iron buildings spread around the city, that I’d thrown up to house the refugees that had clogged the city’s streets when I first arrived. A couple of them were nearby, and considering the number of people they held I’d wanted to know if they were still holding out.

“Those big iron doors you put on them are keeping the apes out just fine,” she assured me. “They’ll need battering rams to break into them, or a bunch of mages conjuring that metal-eating fog they like. I think most of them will hold out just fine.”

“That’s something, at least.”

Hela came running up just then, clutching a warmth cloak around herself. “Lord wizard! There’s word from the Conclave. Their golems are preparing to advance into the Trade District, along with the prince and his knights. The garrison troops in the Temple District are supposed to advance once the wizards are engaged, and Brand wants you to move up and support them.”

“Alright, pass the word that I’ll be doing that. Let me find a sergeant, and see if he can tell us who’s in command here and where they’re set up.”

It sounded like a reasonable plan, but by the time the counterattack was actually in motion there must have been ten thousand andregi rampaging through the district. We had to advance on a broad line to cover all the major streets, which meant Cerise and I could only cover a small part of the front. Everywhere else it was just ordinary men backed by a few knights, and that was a disaster.

The enemy cavalry would charge right through our lines whenever the garrison encountered them. Clumps of enemy troops set up defensive positions on the narrower streets, while other groups advanced across the rooftops to drop down behind our lines. Enemy archers and mages launched ambushes from the upper floors of buildings they’d captured. The garrison troops kept getting stalled, locked in close-quarters combat with enemies that were tougher than they were.

Cerise and I moved constantly back and forth across the line of advance, crushing enemy positions and killing off their leaders. Even so they broke through our lines repeatedly, and the garrison commanders kept throwing in more and more reserves in an effort to keep the advance moving.

Corinna’s dryads proved considerably tougher than most of the enemy, and the raiding party Tavrin had sent out was lethally effective. But by the time the garrison ran out of reserves both groups were getting tired, and the elves were low on ammunition. I pulled the teams off the front line, and had them regroup near the garrison’s command post.

“Hela, send word that I want Elin to take a squad of bodyguards and set up a healing station here,” I said. “See if we can get fresh arrows sent up for the elves, too.”

The elven commander had taken a nasty gut wound, and I couldn’t spare fifteen minutes to properly heal him right now. I stabilized him, and then combined the dryads and elves into a single team and put Corinna in charge.

“Take a break until Elin gets here,” I told her. “Then I want you backing up the eastern side of the garrison’s line. When the enemy breaks through you get out there and kick their teeth in, then hold things together until the human troops regroup. Don’t get drawn into attacking enemy positions, and don’t spend any longer in the fight than you need to. This is going to be a long night, so we need to pace ourselves.”

“I understand, my lord. We won’t fail you.”

Fortunately the force marching in from the Wizard’s Quarter had a lot more firepower than the one I was supporting. An hour later the western end of our line linked up with a squadron of golems, and then a couple of wizards I hadn’t met before made their way around to our command post and joined me in supporting the advance. After that I was no longer worried that the whole line was going to break up and collapse if I stopped fighting for more than five minutes.

Even so, the battle dragged on for hours. For every band of enemy troops we killed another one filtered in through the gaps in the city wall. Their resistance stiffened as we fought our way block by block across the city, and no matter how I wracked my brain I couldn’t think of a way to clear them out faster. Not without blowing a hole in the city and killing thousands of civilians, at any rate. My magic just wasn’t discriminating enough for an environment like this.

Sometime around midnight I ran into High Adept Steelbinder leading a squad of heavy war golems through the streets. He threw a storm of animated steel shards into a troop of ape men blocking his path, and then did a double take when he spotted me descending from the rooftops.

“Daniel!” He called. “I see the rumors that you’ve mastered flight are true. How bad are things on your end?”

He was sitting on the back of a golem, so I went into a hover nearby.

“Bad,” I said. “The garrison has lost at least two thousand men on this front, and they’ve stripped the Harbor District bare to keep the attack going. Cerise and I have been running back and forth all night trying to bolster the line.”

“That’s about what I expected,” he replied. “I’d advise you to keep an eye on your apprentice, though. I’ve lost two adepts to ambushes tonight, and one of those was a suicide attack. They’re pushing hard to thin our ranks.”

“Thanks for the warning. We haven’t seen anything like that on this front yet, but I’ve been wondering if they’d try it. Any new orders?”

“Just push on through, and retake the city wall. I don’t know where we’ll find the men to hold it by the time we’ve paid the butcher’s bill, but Brand doesn’t seem to care about that. It’s all more souls for Valhalla to him. I understand you’ve managed to heal Elin? What would it cost the Conclave to retain her services for a day or two?”

I scowled. “Your Wisdom, I’m not going to tell her she has to heal the people who voted to throw her out in the snow.”

“You’d prefer she go on living in a fortress made of cold iron?” He said mildly. “She seems to be blossoming beyond our walls, Daniel. I hear she’s become quite adept with her glamour.”

Huh. Alright, maybe I should remember I was talking to a wizard. Who was also a politician. There was no telling what he’d been setting up before I got involved in Elin’s life.

I sighed. “I’m not going to charge for healing when we’re fighting for survival. But I can’t spare her for that long. As soon as the situation here looks stable I’ll detail a skimmer to transport the wounded, and you can send them to the island for healing.”

“That will do,” he conceded. “I’ll call in a reserve company immediately to bolster the line, if you can send that transport quickly. I have several critically wounded golem commanders, and an adept who barely survived a mage killing arrow. We can’t afford to lose skilled resources like that.”

So he had extra troops he hadn’t committed to the battle earlier? I had mixed feelings about that. A couple more squads of golems would have saved the garrison hundreds of casualties, but I didn’t know how secure the Iron Citadel was. I couldn’t be too critical when I was keeping most of my own troops in reserve as well.

I made another quick sweep down the line, taking out a group of archers on a rooftop and a cluster of cavalry getting ready for a charge as I went. Cerise was merrily hacking a group of enemy infantry to bits with that dwarven battle axe she’d picked up, but I stopped to warn her about the enemy mage hunters.

“Tell that to the Conclave guys,” she said. “If they see me they’ll just think somebody summoned a demon. We might want to do something about Elin, though.”

“Yeah, I’m sending her back to the island. Stay safe, love.”

Back at the healing station I found a cluster of dark elves and dryads on guard, and Elin crouched over Corinna’s prone form. The voluptuous nymph was covered in blood, and a one-armed dryad was kneeling in the snow next to her. I took in the bloody tourniquet around the stump of the dryad’s arm, the absence of Corinna’s wooden armor, and the huge wound in her side that Elin was struggling to close.

“Hey, m’lord,” Corinna gasped out. “Kept…. y’re elves alive. Did I… do good?”

“Don’t talk, mistress!” The dryad urged. There were frozen tears on her cheeks, but she didn’t seem to care at all about her own injuries.

I knelt next to Corinna, and put my hand on her shoulder. Damn, that was bad. An axe had cut through two ribs and into her lung, and it had been a good ten or fifteen minutes before they got her to Elin. A normal person would have been dead long since.

“You were supposed to keep yourself alive, too,” I told her.

“I’ll be… back,” she replied.

“But mistress, what if spring never comes?” The dryad sobbed. “You might never be reborn.”

“She isn’t going to die,” Elin said tightly. “Daniel, can you assist?”

Elin was pouring healing magic into Corinna’s body, causing it to regenerate at an accelerated rate. With injuries this severe that wasn’t enough to fix everything that was going wrong, though. She could keep Corinna alive on her own, but getting far enough ahead of the damage to stabilize her condition could take hours.

I joined my magic to Elin’s, and added my own healing to the mix. There were things my magic could do a lot more easily than hers. Conjuring fresh blood to replace what she’d lost. Repairing the severed artery that would have leaked it all back out onto the snow in short order, without waiting to fix everything around it at the same time. Reversing the brain damage being caused by low oxygen levels. Although Corina’s metabolism ran on magic as much as chemistry, and the damage there was almost as bad. Her natural magic had depleted itself forcing her body to stay alive, and the strain was causing a slow cascade failure.

There wasn’t time to be gentle. I fed a heavy stream of mana into her system, and reached in to help her absorb it. Metaphysical organs I didn’t have names for flickered, pulsing and swelling unsteadily. I guided the energy where it needed to go, clearing blockages and repairing broken channels along the way.

Corinna gasped, and her muscles locked up. Her body convulsed for a few seconds, before Elin wound a tendril of magic into her spine and paralyzed her. Then she went limp, and laid there panting for several long moments.

“Mistress?” The dryad said uncertainly.

“She’ll be alright,” Elin said. “Daniel had to be a little rough about replenishing her magic.”

“Oh. Thank you, my lord. I couldn’t bear to see my mistress die over my own stupid failure.”

“We’ll have her stable in another minute.” I said. “What happened?”

“It was an ambush, my lord. There was a band of andregi heroes with weapons made of blood, and mages with them. They were lying in wait for us when we came to throw back an attack that had broken through the human soldiers. One minute we were cutting them apart, and the next there were spells everywhere. Corinna ordered a retreat, and took the rearguard position. She was trusting me to protect her, but… that evil magic in their weapons sapped my strength, and I… I couldn’t hold…”

I’d thought it was kind of odd how the nymphs each had a dryad who turned into wooden armor for them to wear. But if that’s how it worked I could understand it. Dryads had a fair amount of magical power, and if they could use that to protect a wearer from blows they could easily provide better armor than steel.

The dryad started crying again. I patted her head with my free hand. “It’s going to be alright, girl. You did everything you could. It’s not your fault they had weapons made for killing wizards.”

She leaned her head against my shoulder. “I know, my lord. It just hurts so much to see my mistress so grievously wounded, when I was charged with her protection. You’ll see her fully healed, won’t you milord? She won’t be scarred, or, or crippled?”

“She’ll be perfectly fine,” I assured her. “We’ll heal her up good as new. But you feel like you’re about to fall over. Let me take a look at that arm.”

“There’s no need to trouble yourself, my lord,” she objected. “I can just return to my tree and reform, once my mistress is safely back in her grove.”

Alanna appeared at my side, and put an arm around the other dryad’s waist. “I’ll see that she’s taken care of, milord. May we have leave to take our fallen mistress home when the healing is done?”

“Yes, but not by yourselves. Elin, how are you holding up?”

“Well enough, Daniel. I’m a bit tired, but the amulet takes the edge off of that. This incident has me concerned, however.”

“Yeah, the Conclave has been having problems like this too. I want you to move back to the island, before the enemy decides to try taking you out.”

“Thank you, Daniel. To be honest, I was beginning to feel a bit exposed here.” She looked around at the little improvised shelter of tarps that the garrison had set up for her, and the injured men lying on pallets everywhere. I noted several elves among them.

“May I call up one of the skimmers to carry the wounded?” She asked.

“Yeah, good idea. I’ll have the elves and the rest of Corinna’s dryads stay with you as an escort. If you like you can have the skimmer make trips between here and the island, so you can treat wounded soldiers without having to leave again. But I’m also going to have one bring in some patients from the Conclave.”

She frowned, and looked away. “The Conclave? Well, if I must.”

I put my hand on her cheek, and gently turned her head to look at me. “Elin, it’s up to you. I’m not going to ask you to heal some asshole who used to beat you for not bowing fast enough. If they bring in someone you don’t want to help you can send them away, and I’ll back you up on that.”

“Y-you will? Thank you, Daniel. I try not to be a vindictive person, but some of the adepts… well, I’d be terribly tempted to make them heal wrong on purpose.”

“I’m sure. I don’t think it’s going to come up, though. They have healing potions for the adepts, after all. It’s mostly their retainers they need help with.”

“Very well,” she said. “But what about you? You aren’t invincible, and I don’t want a repeat of what happened to Corinna.”

“Oh, that shoe is about to be on the other foot. Alanna, if I take you back to the ambush site do you think you can track these guys down?”

“Track them, milord?” A sly look stole over the dryad’s face. “With a foot or more of snow covering the whole city? Yes, I can find them for you.”

“Good. Let me send a few orders out, and then we’re going to team up with Cerise and go hunting. Oh, and Alanna?”

I put my hands on her shoulders, and fed her power. She’d gone through quite a bit of magic during the long night, and I didn’t want her running out in the middle of a fight. Her reserves filled up in a matter of seconds, and then overflowed into some complex mechanism that seemed to feed on the excess power.

She bit her lip. Her dark eyes gleamed in the torchlight, and I felt her tremble faintly. Then her magic shifted, flowing into a different configuration that fed the incoming power into her bones and muscles. She took a deep breath, and her expression firmed.

“Warn a girl before you do that, my lord,” she chided. “A younger dryad would have passed out from such a massive gift of power.”

“I wouldn’t have given a younger dryad so much,” I said. “You looked like you could handle it. Now, let’s go hunting.”

I left the link open as we collected Cerise, curious what her magical metabolism would do with so much energy. By the time I’d explained the situation there were odd flickers of force magic running along Alanna’s skin, and a considerable amount of fire and flesh magic mingled in her muscles.

Cerise scowled when she heard what had happened to Corinna.

“We’re going to kill these fuckers, right Daniel? No one gets to hurt my sexy huntress like that.”

“Yes, we’re going after them. Alanna?”

‘This way.” She turned, and leaped to the top of one of the three-story buildings around us like it was nothing. I blinked. Dryads didn’t have super anime jumping powers, did they?

“Someone’s been boosting her pretty hard,” Cerise chuckled. “Good choice, Alanna’s the smart one of the bunch.”

She spread her wings, and took to the air. I shrugged, and followed. I could figure out the intricacies of dryad magic later. Right now I had ape men to kill.

Alanna led us on a winding path across the rooftops of the district. Sometimes the trail of footprints was obvious enough, while at other times there were so many tracks crossing back and forth that I didn’t see how she could tell where we were going. But it wasn’t long at all before we topped the peak of a high, sloped roof to find a group of ape men on the other side.

They were spread out a bit, watching the streets below like they were waiting for someone to ambush. My hand went for my revolver before I realized that the building we were on was intact, and there might still be civilians hiding inside. So instead I extended a six-foot blade of force from one index finger, and dived into them.

Alanna manifested a bow, and started loosing arrows into the group while I closed. Her arrows were tipped with force blades, and each shot went right through its target. I saw two head shots land before I reached the nearest of the enemy, and cut him in half. Not to be outdone, Cerise landed with a sweeping spin of her axe that sent severed limbs flying and dropped three enemies in a single move.

That was all the surprise we got. Two guys with axes made of blood immediately laid into me, and a javelin carrying some kind of dispel enchantment blew a big hole in my force field’s energy reserve. A swarm of insects appeared out of nowhere to engulf Cerise, and several javelins arced towards Alanna’s position.

But they were completely out of their league. I blew half my opponents off the roof with a blast of force magic, at the same time that a swirling cloud of solid shadows rose up to crush the insect swarm around Cerise and grapple her opponents. Alanna dodged one javelin, and another just bounced off her armor while her arrows cut down the ape men who’d thrown them.

I cut another axe wielder in half, and sent out a gout of flame that engulfed a couple of mages and disrupted their casting. Cerise’s axe moved continuously, in a series of sweeping arcs that sent severed heads and limbs flying in all directions. Alanna wasn’t quite as destructive, but every arrow she loosed killed another enemy. None of their attacks could hurt me, or even hit Cerise.

A few moments later we ran out of enemies.

“Ha! These guys weren’t so tough,” Cerise crowed. “We should go find some of their leaders to kill.”

“That might not be a bad idea,” I conceded. “Alanna, how are you doing?”

She bounced down the steep roof, and slid to a stop beside me. There was a thin line of red along her left forearm, but it was healing so fast it would be gone in a few more seconds.

“I’m ready to fight, master!” She chirped, practically vibrating with excitement. “Can we kill some more of these things?”

“Yeah. The garrison is getting enough reinforcements that they shouldn’t need us to babysit them anymore. Let’s see what kind of damage we can do.”

Chapter 20

The fighting dragged on for most of the night. An endless succession of attacks and ambushes, counterattacks and pursuits. Here and there the enemy would gather for a big push, and Cerise and I would smash them. But mostly they fought in small groups, using guerilla tactics to relentlessly bleed our forces while they methodically exterminated the civilians in the areas they held.

Fortunately local construction practices favored thick stone and brick, with heavy wooden doors and window shutters that all bolted securely shut. Not like the glass and particle board boxes back home, that an ape man could have gotten into with a couple of casual blows from a mace. Here it took real work to break into a home, and every squad that was battering down doors was one that wasn’t fighting the garrison.

Even so, we found thousands of bodies as we worked our way north across the district. Homes with their doors smashed open, and families who’d been dragged out into the street and slaughtered. Collapsed buildings, brought down by the earthquake or the rampaging dinosaurs that followed. The heaped corpses of citizen militias, whose desperate last stands had failed to stop the enemy.

At first it had only been a few buildings here and there, and surviving citizens would peek out their windows as the troops marched past. But by the time we reached the city wall every building we passed was a broken wreck, and the streets were choked with corpses.

I alighted atop a surviving stretch of wall, and gazed out at the enemy camps with my hands clenched into fists.

“We can’t keep fighting like this,” I said. “It’s going to get everyone killed.”

“Want to keep going, and take out their leader?” Cerise asked.

The first light of dawn was beginning to show on the horizon to the east. Across the snow-covered fields I could vaguely make out activity in the enemy camps, and movement on the road. More reinforcements marching in? They normally didn’t arrive until afternoon.

“No,” I decided. “They wouldn’t stop them, and they’re probably ready for it anyway. We need something unexpected. Something bigger than just a new tactic for the siege. With the resources they have to draw on they’ll find a counter of some kind for anything we do, and as long as they can keep inflicting losses on us they’re winning.”

“Perhaps you could brew up a pestilence to strike them all down, master?” Alanna said diffidently. “Mistress Pelagia has knowledge of such things, and I can feel that your magic is potent in power over life.”

“Maybe. I need to think about this, and talk to everyone about it. If Gaea has really spent millennia getting ready for this war you’d think she’d have a plan for everything people have actually done before.”

I looked back at the city, and frowned. “One thing seems out of place here. Why weren’t there more fires? There’s too much snow blanketing everything for a blaze to spread much, but they could have burned out a lot of the sturdier buildings if they’d just brought torches.”

“The andregi are Gaea’s pure children, master,” Alanna said. “I doubt they can comprehend the mystery of fire. That’s a chancy thing even for us dryads, who have dealt with humans for long ages. To them, it would likely be as alien and terrifying as commerce.”

I raised an eyebrow at that. “Commerce is terrifying?”

She smiled faintly. “Well, I suppose most of my sisters would only find it confusing. But civilization is a frightful thing to the creatures of wood and water, master. I can’t begin to imagine what dark art allows humans to create whole towns full of bewildering things so quickly. But I’ve been told that this mystery called commerce is at the heart of it.”

Huh. Did dryads not have the same social instincts as humans? Well, maybe there was a reason they all seemed to be innumerate. I’d wondered how someone as otherwise intelligent as Alanna could be stumped by such a simple thing.

“I think she’s right about the ape men,” Cerise put in. “I’ve been talking to the elves about them, and they don’t use metals or glass or anything else you need fire to make. They think anything too civilized is a sin against Gaea or something.”

“Interesting. I wonder if there’s a way to use that?”

My musings were interrupted by a runner summoning me to another council of war. Brand had called a gathering just a few blocks down the wall from where I was, so I took Cerise and Alanna as my escorts and went straight there instead of making a detour back to the island.

I found Brand, Prince Caspar, High Adept Steelbinder and a handful of nobles gathered on a tower roof, observing the enemy.

“This wall is indefensible,” the prince was saying. “Five major breeches, eight collapsed towers and at least one more that’s liable to go if anyone sneezes on it? It’s a lost cause. It’s going to be hard enough to hold the Military District. Why didn’t the city wards protect us from the earthquake?

”Our wards can only dampen the most minor of earthquakes, Caspar,” Steelbinder replied. “This one was far too powerful to suppress completely, although they did weaken it a bit.”

The prince shook his head in disgust. “Always an excuse. Can you at least repair the wall?”

“Wars are not won by standing on the defensive,” Brand said. “We need to throw the apes off balance. Attack their camps, maybe kill their commander. That will give the mages enough breathing room to repair the wall.”

“How does punching a mortar barrage through their wards sound?” I suggested.

Prince Caspar finally noticed my presence. He clearly wasn’t pleased to see me, but when his gaze fell on Cerise he started and took a sudden step back. That was when I realized she still had her horns out.

Brand chuckled. “Your minions keep getting stranger, Daniel. Now you’ve claimed a dryad, and plied her with empowerment rituals? You must have the stamina of a Viking.”

Steelbinder was all business. “Are you sure you can get through? They’ve invested a considerable amount of power in those wards. There are multiple layers of dispelling, missile redirection and object destruction to deal with.”

“It sounds like you’ve gotten a better look at them than I have,” I said. “Think they can stand up to repeated explosions like the ones I used on Hel’s ships, going off just outside the wards?”

“Not for long. It will shrug off the first few, but if you can keep them coming the physical wards will quickly come undone. They might be able to reinforce them with sacrifices, though.”

“Buy me two days to prepare, and I’ll be able to drop extended barrages on them at will,” I said. “They’ll have to retreat, and rebuild their camps outside my range.”

One of the nobles I didn’t know blanched. “So quickly? When did wizards gain such power?”

I shrugged. “This is Ragnarok. I brought my A game.”

“That’s the spirit,” Brand said. “Get it done, Daniel. Lukas, what can your people do about the wall? Traps, summoned monsters, something like that? Give me something to stop the next assault, and the garrison will hold until Daniel’s attack is ready.”

Steelbinder eyed the wall consideringly for a minute. Then he nodded.

“We have a suitable forbiddance prepared. My adepts can lay out the boundaries for it this morning, while they repair the ward anchors. When we trigger it the whole front will be covered by a fog bank that will eat anyone foolish enough to enter, and we can maintain it for up to twelve hours. It won’t reach the top of the wall, so troops stationed there will be safe.”

“We’ll have to man barricades across the breaches, or the enemy will know it’s a trap,” Caspar said.

“The fog won’t enter buildings, so they can withdraw to safely quickly enough from most of the positions. I can also provide illusions to cover the garrison’s movements for a few minutes during the assault.”

Caspar frowned again, but Brand clapped him on the shoulder. “I’d heard your wizards were impressive, Prince. We’ll go with that.”

The meeting broke up quickly. Cerise and I took off for the short flight home, our movements a bit sluggish despite the fatigue-banishing effects of our amulets. Alanna snuggled happily into my arms, a reminder of yet another problem.

“Alright, time to tell me what I’ve done,” I said to her as I flew.

She cocked her head. “What do you mean, master?”

“I mean you’re suddenly calling me master, and Brand thinks I’ve bound you or something. Obviously there’s some dryad lore I should have learned before I started sharing power with you.”

Her laugh was a clear, high sound, full of innocent joy despite the carnage she’d wrought through the night.

“So there are things you don’t know, after all? Well, this mystery holds no fangs for you, master. He thinks you’ve bound me because that’s normally the only way for a wizard to empower one of my kind, and even then it would take weeks of intimate rituals for the endeavor to bear any great fruit. For the rest, well, I am what I eat, and you fed me a thousand banquets at once without giving me time to digest them. Your power so fills me that it completely dominates my own, leaving me a living extension of your magic. Like a familiar spirit, almost.”

“An extension of my magic? What does that mean, exactly?”

She smiled. “You don’t want a slave, and so I retain my own will. But even so, I can feel your desires move within me. Command me as you do your talisman and you shall find me leaping to obey quite willingly.”

She paused, and bit her lip. “It’s a heady feeling, holding such power within me. I know you’re going to take it back, at least for now. But I do hope you’ll do this with me again sometime. It would be fascinating to explore what I can become with enough power.”

“It’s an interesting thought,” I admitted. “I suppose that if the power wasn’t coming from me it would just make you a stronger dryad, instead of giving you an echo of my sorceries?”

“I think so. Perhaps we could experiment?”

“Oh, Daniel loves experimenting,” Cerise commented. “Just wait till he gets you back to the lab.”

She did a wingover, and swooped down to land atop the arcology block.

Alanna shook her head. “She’s such a flirt. Don’t worry, master, I’m not going to be following you around trying to seduce you. You’ve enough women doing that, and not nearly enough time to indulge them all.”

I settled in for a landing. Alanna tensed, getting ready to jump out of my arms as soon as we were on the ground. But I had to give this a try. I reached out with my magic, looking for that connection she’d alluded to.

Oh. Damn, how had I missed that? It was so obvious. Just a thought, and she stilled. Settled back into my arms, perfectly content to stay there as long as I wanted her to. I could wiggle her fingers. I could close her eyes. I could feel the magic in her responding to my attention, eager to do anything I wanted it to.

I could feel her heart. Open, unguarded and completely trusting, in a way I couldn’t imagine any human matching. It was disturbing, but also kind of neat. If this was what having a familiar was like, I could see why mages would want one. Another thing to think about when I had time.

Right now I didn’t. I set her down, and gently disengaged the mana feed. She pouted a little, but didn’t argue.

“Thank you for an amazing experience, my lord,” she said. “I have enjoyed many a hunt, but never one like that.”

“You’re welcome, Alanna. Why don’t you go see how Corinna is doing?”

She gave me a little almost-bow. “I shall, my lord. And I shall return to give that accounting once your influence has faded, but I expect it will take several days.”

Cerise watched her go with a quizzical look. “Accounting? What was she talking about, Daniel?”

“I guess the mental connection thing works both ways. I was thinking I should check back with her once that wears off, and see how she really feels about it. I’m afraid there might be some kind of accidental mind control thing going on.”

She shrugged. “You worry too much. Trust me, if she didn’t like it you would have felt her fighting you. Come on, let’s go check on the girls.”

To my relief the island had come through the battle completely unscathed. We found Tina sitting at the breakfast bar chatting with Avilla while the hearth witch made breakfast.

“You’re back!” Tina exclaimed, and rushed to hug me. She turned to Cerise, and then did a double take and stepped back.

“Ew! Bath time for you, naughty demon. You’re so messy when you fight.”

Avilla looked out at us, and wrinkled her nose. “Oh dear. She’s right, kitten. Into the shower with you.”

“Alright, alright, I’m going. Sheesh, no love for the returning heroine here.”

Tina giggled. “We’re very happy to see you safely home, Cerise. Come on, I’ll scrub your back.”

I watched them go with a smile, and turned to Avilla. “Any trouble here?”

She came around the counter to hug me. “Welcome home, Daniel. No, they never tried to attack the island. The men have been sleeping in shifts, and Elin set up an infirmary down on the street level. The poor thing has been down there healing all night, but she won’t hear of stopping. I was just making a little something to help keep her going.”

“That sounds like Elin,” I said.

“Are we safe now? Tina and I have been too worried to sleep, but if things are over we should all try to get some rest.”

I sighed. “We’ve beaten them off for now, but they could attack again as early as this afternoon. The Conclave is setting up a forbiddance to keep them out while the garrison pulls itself together, but as usual I’m the one who has to save the day. I’m going to have to call a staff meeting to plan our next move.”

She gave me a worried frown. “Can it wait until this afternoon? Everyone is exhausted. You could at least catch a nap.”

It was a tempting prospect, but my plate was just too full.

“I can give everyone else a chance to catch a little sleep,” I decided. “I’m going to have to just work through the day, and use my magic to tough it out. Let’s schedule the meeting for lunch, and… actually, why am I telling you this? You don’t have to manage this stuff anymore. Do you know where Pelagia is?”

“She’s set up an office down on the third floor, near the reception area. I’ll have one of the maids show you where it is after you eat. Now have a seat, and let me make you something.”

“Alright.”

Having a magical gourmet chef waiting to feed me at every opportunity was never going to get old. I sat and watched her work, deftly assembling ingredients into a perfect omelet. That wasn’t even a local dish. Every now and then she’d ask me a few questions about food from my homeland, and in the last few days she’d started unveiling her attempts to replicate what I’d described. More often than not her efforts were either spot on, or different in a way that actually made them better than what I was used to.

She set her latest masterpiece in front of me, and waited eagerly. I took up my silverware, and sampled it. Perfect, of course. Light, fluffy egg, with cheese, bacon and hints of spices I couldn’t identify.

“Perfect,” I announced. “I don’t know how you do it, sweetie.”

She beamed at me. “I just want you to have something to look forward to when you come home from fighting to protect us, Daniel. You’re my hero, and I’m going to show you a lot more appreciation from now on.”

“Careful, there. If you keep that up my ego’s going to swell until it won’t fit in the door.”

“Good.” She leaned across the counter to kiss my cheek.

After that she went back to work. It took me a few minutes to realize that she was making individual breakfasts for the rest of the coven, each of them a special work of art carefully crafted for its recipient’s tastes. At the same time she was preparing several larger batches of food, some of it for Elin’s patients and the rest for Sefwin’s secret service agents. Some of that was in a rather Asian-looking style that I gathered was dark elf cooking.

“You’re going to spoil them,” I commented when I figured that out.

Avilla set down a plate of sausage and hotcakes in front of me, and I realized I was still hungry.

“Maybe I want to spoil them,” she replied. “You’ve chosen them to be our last line of defense against danger, right? I think it’s wise to make sure my guardians are as strong as I can make them. Besides, this is the kind of work I love.”

A pair of servants worked with her in the kitchen, hovering at her back like nurses assisting a surgeon. Smiling maids came and went, carrying off trays loaded with food and returning with empty dishes they handed off to another pair who were working as dishwashers. The whole operation was as organized as any commercial kitchen, which had to be more of Avilla’s magic at work.

Cerise and Tina emerged from the bath, looking relaxed and happy for once. They hadn’t bothered to put on more than light house robes, and the way they kept hugging and gazing into each other’s eyes warmed my heart.

A few minutes later Elin stumbled in, to my surprise.

“Avilla, why do I have such a sudden craving for breakfast?” She asked.

“Because you’ll work yourself to death if no one looks after you,” Avilla replied serenely. “Go wash up, dear. You’ve just enough time before your food is ready.”

Elin threw her hands up. “You’re impossible, you know that? What if I’d had an urgent patient?”

“Then you’d still be downstairs treating him, wouldn’t you? It’s only a reminder, not a compulsion. Are you really upset that I don’t want you starving yourself by accident?”

Elin flushed. “Um, well, I suppose not.”

Tina hopped up from the table, and kissed Elin on the cheek. “We love you, silly. Stop fussing and let Avilla take care of you. It’s what she does.”

“Oh, very well.”

She tried to act put upon, but she was back from the bath in two minutes flat. Considering her love of long baths she must have really been hungry. Then Avilla set a plate full of fancy-looking pastries in front of her, and her eyes lit up.

“For me?” She squeaked.

“For you,” Avilla confirmed. “I know we didn’t get off to the best start, dear, but I am trying.”

Elin stared hungrily at the sugary treats. “I know. I… thank you, Avilla. This is marvelous. How did you know I have a sweet tooth?”

She took a tentative bite. Her eyes drifted closed, her back arched, and a little moan of appreciation escaped her lips.

Avilla paused for a moment to watch, with an indulgent smile on her lips. “You like the chocolate?”

“Itsh sho good!” Elin groaned, her mouth full of sugary goodness. She swallowed, and squirmed in her seat.

I could help but smile. It wasn’t often that I got to see all of my girls in one place, smiling and relaxed and happy with each other. I’d never realized how much it was affecting the rest of us to have Avilla so stressed out all the time. Was she going to engineer scenes like this on a regular basis now?

My gaze fell to Tina’s baby bump, growing more obvious by the day now. Having a reborn goddess as a daughter was an intimidating prospect. But still, a daughter.

A family.

I had a lot to protect in this world. Somehow, I had to keep them safe. I’d tried to do that with conventional measures. Strong walls, heavily armed soldiers, the mortars. I’d hoped that would be enough.

Now the enemy was using earthquakes against us. Well, fine. If they wanted to escalate, I’d just have to return the favor. I’d get as crazy as I had to, to keep my girls safe.

I spent the rest of the morning working out a new fuse enchantment for the mortars. Making shells actually detonate when they hit the wards over an andregi encampment was a deceptively tricky problem, just because of the velocities involved. Even the simplest of spells take a few milliseconds to activate, and those shells were probably pushing a thousand meters per second when they came down. So I couldn’t literally set the shell off when it struck a ward, because the thing would move several more meters in the time it took for the fuse to activate.

Instead, I had to make the shell radiate a detection spell that would pick up the obstacle in its path a good distance away. Testing that little enchantment took quite a bit of equipment, and I had to warn everyone to stay out of my test chamber while I was firing experimental rounds at a target. Good thing my shield was strong enough to deflect the inevitable shrapnel.

Then, of course, I had to try out my designs against different types of wards. If I made the detector too specific the andregi would be able to fool it just by layering the spells that made up their ward in a different order, or slapping a little illusion magic on the outside. I was still running trials when it came time for the meeting I’d called.

It wasn’t a full staff meeting, since a lot of my people wouldn’t be much help with the special project I had in mind. Just Demetrios, Pelagia, Tavrin, Elin and Cerise.

“So what are we planning here?” Cerise asked curiously after we’d all taken our seats.

“I don’t know yet,” I replied. “I’ve asked you all here because we’re facing a tough problem that doesn’t have an obvious solution. Demetrios, am I right in thinking that at this rate Kozalin is going to be more or less wiped out over the next few weeks?”

“Wait, what? What do you mean? We kicked their asses last night,” Cerise protested.

“No, he’s right,” Demetrios said, his face grim. “I was just going over our latest reports with Captain Rain. The garrison is down to about twelve thousand men who are fit enough to fight, and another thousand or so casualties who might recover enough to contribute in the next two weeks. With the damage to the city walls that’s not enough to reliably throw back another assault like the ones they’ve been using, and the Red Conclave can’t cover for the lack of troops for very long.”

“The amulets Daniel sold them aren’t enough?” Cerise asked. But then she stopped, and sighed. “No, of course not. They need fancy group rituals to set up the big spells, and it takes a lot of work to redesign those. Maybe they can recharge one in a week instead of a couple of months, but that’s not good enough.”

“Exactly. No one seems to know how many civilians died, but between the earthquake and the fighting I’m guessing somewhere in the vicinity of thirty thousand. So it was a grievous blow to the city, and one that they can now repeat at will.”

Tavrin leaned forward. “The Red Conclave has summoned several earth elementals to assist with building barricades, and strengthening towers that are in danger of collapsing. But they don’t seem to have any earth mages who can rebuild the city wall quickly. I estimate the Wizard’s Quarter will have an intact wall again in a week, but extending repairs to the rest of the city would require at least another month.”

This was apparently news to Pelagia, who was looking worried now. “How long do we have?”

“If we do nothing? Ten days. Maybe two weeks if we’re lucky,” Demetrios replied. “The andregi lost most of their force in the attack, but they’re receiving additional reinforcements to make up for it. They can continue launching assaults every day or two, and whatever measures the Red Conclave has ready will be exhausted quickly. I expect Brand will have a trick or two up his sleeve as well, but one more expensive battle will break the garrison. Then the enemy will capture the Trade District, and they’ll be able to approach the walls of the other districts under cover. After that most of the city will fall quickly, leaving only Brokefang Keep and the Iron Citadel to hold out.”

“If they take the city, can they take the island?” Elin asked quietly.

“Possibly,” he replied. “This island is the strongest fortification I’ve ever seen, and the killing power of the weapons Daniel has made is immense. But we have barely four hundred combatants to defend the walls, and the enemy has a great variety of magic to call on. It would be a long siege, but I think simple attrition might doom us in the end.”

“We can have more men by then,” Pelagia observed. “I’ve already had some luck with hiring in mercenaries and survivors of broken units from the city, and the infirmary is another recruiting opportunity. In a week we’ll have the farms fully staffed, and I can add two or three hundred more fighting men to our ranks. Plus as many women and children as we care to take in, of course.”

I decided that was a good point to break in, before things got too negative.

“Good. I’m glad to hear you’re making progress on our staffing problem, Pelagia. But what I really want is a way to keep things from getting to that point.

“The first step of that is the new mortar rounds I’m working on. The day after tomorrow we’re going to obliterate those enemy camps with a bombardment their wards won’t stop. That will force them to back off a few miles, which will make it a lot more complicated for them to launch attacks on the city. I figure that will buy us a week or two to come up with a permanent solution.”

“What do you mean, a permanent solution?” Cerise asked. “Are you going to make bigger guns or something?”

“That wouldn’t be enough,” Demetrios pointed out. “It might work for protecting the island, but not the city. There’s too much ground to cover, and the garrison is already too weak.”

“I know,” I said. “What we need is some way to cut the problem off at its source. Destroy the gate they’re using to get here, or take out the suspended animation complex their reinforcements are coming from, or cause them some kind of problem that forces them to pull their army away from here. Some kind of game changer.”

Everyone looked a little dubious at that. Then Cerise suddenly grinned.

“Typical Daniel. Okay, I’ll go first. How big can you make that lava conjuring spell? Maybe we could take the Intrepid out over the cave these guys are marching out of, and drop a bomb that floods it with lava?”

“If I make the explosion too big it’ll destroy the bomb. I guess I could make something that conjures a low-pressure stream of lava, and hovers above the pool so it doesn’t melt itself. Anyone know how deep those caves are?”

“The gate will be hundreds of feet down,” Elin said. “Also, shutting it down is a temporary solution. Locations with a strong earth resonance are commonplace, so Gaea would simply open another gate elsewhere. If we repeat the stratagem she’s likely to become personally annoyed with us, and take direct measures to stop us.”

Cerise shrugged. “She’s already trying to kill us. What else is she going to do?”

Pelagia coughed. “Ah, Cerise, I don’t believe we’re prepared to deal with a Great Beast. I’m told that many of them are following her advice on where to find prey, at least for now.”

“Clever sabotage might be a wiser strategy,” Tavrin agreed. “My people can reach Skogheim, and pass as traveling merchants from another clan. Unfortunately Gaea would likely sense any artifact powerful enough to destroy the Halls of Slumber, but perhaps there’s something else we could accomplish?”

“I might be able to come up with something if I could get a look at this place,” I mused.

“Daniel, are you insane?” Elin protested.

“Gaea would definitely notice the presence of a human,” Tavrin agreed.

“Yeah, she hates us,” Cerise agreed. “She’d make the tunnel walls crush you, or something.”

“Alright, so that’s a bad idea. Do they have enemies who might attack Skogheim?” I asked.

“Aside from the Aesir? They have little contact with any of the Nine Worlds, and an army trying to reach them would face the same challenges as a human. The entrances to the realm are all underground, and firmly under Gaea’s control. Artifacts like the Dark Portal are the only feasible invasion route, and such things are normally under the control of gods.”

“What about the disease idea?” Cerise asked.

Pelagia shrugged. “Get me some andregi prisoners, and I’ll see what I can do. But it sounds like they’re well versed in pestilence magic, and plagues take time to do their killing. At best we might wipe out a few settlements before they catch on and come up with a cure. Skogheim is fairly large, is it not?”

Tavrin nodded. “A bit less than two thousand miles in diameter. The poles are too cold to inhabit, of course, and there are some deserts and seas. Still, I’d say the area the andregi inhabit is as large as Europe.”

“Wait, hold on a minute,” I said. “Diameter? I thought Skogheim was like a giant cave with some kind of magical sun in the roof.”

“No, it’s an inversion of Midgard. There’s a spherical hollow space with a magical sun in the middle, and the andregi live on the inner surface of the sphere.”

“What happens if you dig into the ground?” I asked.

“You dig through a few miles of rock, and find yourself on the other side of the sphere,” Tavrin replied.

“What? No way!” Cerise exclaimed. “That’s impossible.”

“The topology is unconventional, but not particularly complex,” Elin replied, with a hint of amusement in her voice.

I leaned back in my chair, trying to figure out what was bothering me about that setup. It was a typical hollow world, right? There shouldn’t be any gravity on the inside of a sphere, but that was probably just magical bullshit.

But why would it be cold at the poles?

It shouldn’t be. Every point on the surface would be the same distance from the sun, receiving light from directly overhead. So it should all be the same temperature. For that matter, it shouldn’t even have poles. It’s not like it was spinning. Even if it was, you wouldn’t be able to tell.

Wait, if this thing was topologically closed, where did the heat from the sun go?

“Tavrin, do you know how Skogheim’s sun works? Is it some kind of giant fire spell, or what?”

“I haven’t studied it myself, but I imagine it must be a convergence zone with the realm of elemental fire,” he replied.

“Yes,” Pelagia agreed. “All the hidden worlds were built using convergences, in the days when the Titans were young.”

“Ah. So the poles must be heat sinks, then. Otherwise everything in Skogheim would be the same temperature as its sun by now.”

There were blank looks all the way around the table. Then Elin blinked, and frowned thoughtfully.

“The surface of Skogheim is more than a thousand miles from its sun, Daniel,” Tavrin said. “Simple distance is more than enough to keep it cool.”

I chuckled. “If you’re trapped in a cave that’s slowly filling up with water, will standing on the opposite side from the leak keep you from eventually drowning? Hmm, but if you guys don’t know thermodynamics there’s no way Gaea is going to get it either. How big are the frozen areas?”

Tavrin was frowning uncertainly now. “Perhaps two hundred miles across? I’m not exactly sure. The andregi don’t sell maps, or allow strangers to wander far from the trading posts.”

Damn. Too big for me to realistically sabotage, then. Too bad, the image of Gaea frantically trying to puzzle out why her toy world kept getting hotter and hotter was kind of amusing. I could imagine her trying to turn down the sun to cool things off, and throwing a fit when it just slowed down the heating.

Ah, well. I didn’t really want to kill off the dinosaurs, anyway. What else could I try?

We talked long into the afternoon, throwing ideas back and forth until our collective creativity was completely exhausted. We came up with lots of plans that could buy us a few days or weeks, although a lot of them would take days to set up. We also came up with a lot of really terrible ideas, and a few long shots that might theoretically get the andregi off our backs.

Form an alliance with the faerie courts, and get them to attack our enemies. Talk one of the Great Beasts into eating them next. Trick the dwarves into thinking the andregi were the ones crashing the mithril market, and get them to fight with Gaea for control of the earth gates.

Yeah, I wasn’t going to bet on that kind of craziness. Most of those ideas would take too long to do Kozalin any good, and none of them had great odds of even working. More and more, it was looking like I was going to have to play a card I really didn’t want to. The gods were doing a great job of wrecking the world already, without me showing them fun new ways to make things even worse.

But the Aesir weren’t going to save Kozalin. In the final analysis Brand didn’t care about the fate of the city. He just wanted the garrison to sell their lives dearly, and then ascend to Valhalla and get ready to do it again. If I wanted the city to stand, I was going to have to make it happen myself.

Good thing I can heal radiation sickness.

Chapter 21

I spent the rest of the afternoon finalizing the design of the new mortar rounds, and making a factory for them. There were a lot of subtle details I had to work through on that, like marking the shells for easy identification and making sure they’d still detonate if they didn’t hit a ward.

When I was done I took the new factory over to the military tower. Captain Rain had set up the 8th floor as a manufacturing area for military equipment, with the flamer and gun factories as well as the original mortar bomb factory. The first two saw only intermittent use, but there were crews working shifts around the clock to collect the mortar rounds as they came out of the factory and haul them off to magazines near the mortar bunkers.

I set up the new factory next to the existing one, and started it running. It was a little slower than the original, since it was making a more complicated enchantment. I figured we’d need to let it run for a day to build up our ammo reserves before we tried an attack, which was why I’d told Brand I needed two days to prepare. That meant I had a whole day to work on another project, and hopefully several more after that while the enemy was reorganizing and coming up with a new plan of attack.

What was I going to build?

After thinking it through I reluctantly concluded that making a conventional nuke wasn’t actually feasible. My earth magic couldn’t distinguish different isotopes of the same element, so conjuring enriched uranium wasn’t possible. In theory I might be able to conjure plutonium, but that stuff is so rare it makes gold look commonplace. If it worked at all a plutonium factory probably wouldn’t produce more than a few micrograms per day, and it would come out as dust. Poisonous, radioactive dust with a long litany of weird physical properties that made it even harder to work with.

Yeah, that sounded like a terrible idea. I’m a smart guy, but the group that built the first atomic bombs was the most amazing assembly of geniuses in history. I wasn’t going to be replicating their efforts on my own anytime soon. I might have a rough idea of how atomic bombs work, but I didn’t know anywhere near enough about nuclear physics to get all the math right. I could spend years working on that problem, and I’d probably just end up blowing myself up by accident.

In theory I could just take the governor off of my matter to mana spell, and modify it to convert most of an object’s mass to a mix of heat and radiation. If I remember the conversion right forty grams of matter turns into about a megaton of energy, so if I could do that to even a small object the results would be impressive.

Unfortunately the slow operation of magical effects made it impossible in practice. A matter to energy enchantment takes about a second to spin up to full power when you turn it on. A few hundred milliseconds into that startup process it would start releasing a tiny trickle of energy, which would grow exponentially until it finished activating. A device with a total conversion enchantment would release enough energy to blow itself up just a few milliseconds into that process, long before it could take full effect. It would make a nice little bomb, but I couldn’t see a way to make it hold together long enough to get a blast bigger than the lava summoning devices I was already playing with.

On reflection, that might be just as well. A nuclear explosion is pretty damned spectacular, and it would attract a lot of divine attention. Even if I could figure out a way to blow up the Halls of Slumber, that would only give me bigger problems to worry about.

What I really needed was something more subtle. A way to make all the ape men mysteriously die, in a way that Gaea wouldn’t immediately connect to me. Like, say, a radiation weapon.

I could intentionally design a matter to mana enchantment to spew lots of radiation. But my sorcery didn’t really tell me what kind of energy it was emitting, or how much. There would be a lot of guesswork involved in trying to make something that would be effective, and how would I deliver it? I certainly didn’t want to get caught trying to sneak into Skogheim, or leave a mysterious magic item behind for Gaea to potentially find and investigate. Or worse, Loki.

For that matter, was I right in assuming the gods here didn’t know about nuclear physics? Or would I be violating some divine arms control agreement if I went down this road? I decided I’d better think this through carefully, while I spent the day dealing with more immediate problems.

Hecate had chided me about trusting the people she sent me, and the way things were going I didn’t have the luxury of continuing to be paranoid about them in any event. So I spent most of the morning building a power amulet factory.

Like the gun factory it had a slot to insert the power stone the amulets would draw on, and the amulets it made were simple models like the ones I’d sold the Red Conclave. Their maximum power draw would barely be a tenth of what the ones I’d made for my coven could provide, and they didn’t have any other enchantments. That was still far more power than most mages could muster, so I figured they’d be well received.

Since I wasn’t planning to make huge numbers of these things I decided to experiment a little with alternate materials, and made the factory conjure silver amulets instead of the cheap nickel-iron all my military equipment used. That took a lot of power, but I found that the metal held the enchantment a lot better. As a result the amulets ended up being tiny little things, and I suspected the magic on them would last far longer than the power stones they were tied to. I made a note to remember that if I ever found myself working on something where size and longevity were going to be important issues.

That tied up my last unused power stone, so I left it running while I sat down to make another one. None of the power stones I’d made were running at anywhere near maximum load, of course. But I felt it was important to keep different functions segregated. One stone to run all the weapons used by the island’s garrison. Another for the expeditionary force, so they could take it with them if I sent them somewhere. A third for my coven’s private use, and a fourth one for the amulets I was about to give out. That way if I had to I could turn off one group without affecting the others.

The factory only took ten minutes to make an amulet, so I had a dozen of them to hand out at the staff meeting that day.

“Distribute them to whoever you think can make the best use of them,” I told Tavrin as I handed them over. “They’ll stop working if you take them more than a few miles from the island, but I’m sure you can still find a lot of uses for them.”

He looked pretty impressed. “Nethwillin’s mages will put them to good use, my lord. One power source of this magnitude would be a priceless treasure. Twelve of them will allow us to work major enchantments with ease. Although there’s going to be quite an argument between the different teams as to who has the greatest need for them.”

I shrugged. “How many do you want? I can give you one for every elf in the clan, if that’s useful.”

He stared at me in shock for a moment, before he got his features back under control. “So many? Well, yes, every member of my clan is versed in some sort of magic. But how?”

“You made one of those factory things, didn’t you?” Cerise asked.

“Yes. I know a technique for duplicating magic items, Tavrin. It doesn’t work on everything, but these amulets aren’t too hard to do.”

“Will anyone else be receiving a share of these wonders?” Pelagia asked hopefully.

“Sure, I’ll make you one,” I told her. “But I had another idea for empowering your grove. Your nymphs and dryads all draw strength from the earth, right? So what if I enchanted the land your trees are on to hold a pool of mana you can all draw on, and set up a link to keep it filled from one of the power stones? That would make all your members stronger, wouldn’t it?”

“Not the naiads,” Elin pointed out. “We would have to work a similar enchantment on their pool, but I believe I see how to make that work.”

Pelagia smiled. “So you’ve finally relented, and decided to stop keeping us at arm’s length? I’m glad to hear it. Yes, that sounds like a marvelous plan. It would almost be like becoming part of a divine court again. Perhaps even better, depending on how much power you intend to give us.”

“Well, it’s not like I have a shortage of mana. Is there anything interesting you could do with a big feed?”

Pelagia gave me a heated look.

“Many things, my lord. The Bloody Thorns have wielded power before, in the old days when we served in the courts of the gods. But the ages of exile since Olympus fell have sapped our strength, and most of us still bear wounds from the loss of our old masters. Giving us a true place of power will allow us to finally heal, and we shall become again what we once were. My dryads will be strong enough to battle felwolves. My nymphs will have such beauty as to strike blind any enemy who gazes upon them. We shall make of our refuge a little faerie realm sculpted to serve our will.”

“That does sound useful,” I allowed.

“To us, and to you,” she agreed. “Restore us to our full power, and we shall happily share our strength with you. Your raw power may be limitless, but there are many subtle ways in which we can help you surpass mortal frailties.”

“She’s right about that,” Demetrios said. “I know I was practically a demigod back when my girls lived in one of Pan’s sacred groves. That was a hint, by the way.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, okay, I’ll set it up for your grove too. If it’s going to give you a power up that’s a good thing. What about Corinna, though?”

“I’ve been working things out with her,” Cerise said. “She wasn’t sure at first, but I’ve grown a lot in power since you gave me my amulet. We’re kind of working in the direction of the Fangs of the Forest becoming my personal minions. I’m all in favor of making them stronger, but maybe we can do their setup together?”

“Sure.”

“Oh, except Alanna is hoping you’ll decide you want a familiar.”

I snorted. “We’ll see what she thinks once she’s back to being herself. Next order of business?”

Pelagia’s suggestion did sound promising, and it was a relatively easy way to get another benefit out of one of the innovations I’d already developed. So I ended up spending most of the afternoon building the necessary enchantments, with Elin and Cerise both helping at various points. Designing the energy pool so that it would actually become part of the earth and available for the grove’s use turned out to be more complicated than I’d expected, but fortunately Pelagia knew how to do it.

She also kept her girls at bay so I could actually work, which would otherwise have been quite a problem. I’d thought they’d been grateful before, when I’d given them shelter from Fimbulwinter. When Pelagia explained what I was working on now Xenia actually broke down in tears. Half the dryads decided I must secretly be a god, which would have been funny except that they started puzzling over what kind of sacrifices they should offer in my name.

There was another andregi attack that day, but I didn’t even hear about it until I returned home after setting up the grove enchantments. The Conclave’s defensive spells handled it well enough, but Brand wanted confirmation that I’d be ready for a mortar attack in the morning.

That meant I had to show up for that damned planning meeting at the crack of dawn. Seriously, wouldn’t it make more sense to do the planning in the evening so people could make preparations overnight, and sleep in if they weren’t needed for anything? Stupid primitive people and their stupid habit of rising with the sun.

Alright, I was a little grouchy when I showed up at the meeting room. I wasn’t the only one, though. Brand seemed to be in good spirits, but Prince Caspar was sniping at everyone again and the wizards were looking pretty worn down.

“We’re ready to hit the camps whenever you want,” I reported. “Just let me know what order you want to target them in. I think I’ve got enough ammunition ready to wreck them all pretty thoroughly, but we’ll need to hit them one at a time to break through their wards quickly.”

“We’ll start with the main camp,” Brand decided. “If we get lucky we might catch their general napping, and take him out with an explosion. More likely he’ll escape, but it will at least make it hard for him to give orders. After that just work your way around the city clockwise, and then harry any large groups of survivors you see. How long will the bombardment last?”

Four tubes, at about fifteen rounds a minute each during sustained fire, with occasional stops to change targets. How many rounds would it take to wreck one of those encampments? Each one was basically a five hundred pound bomb with enhanced incendiary effects, and the camps weren’t all that spread out. Call it a hundred rounds each, and there were currently four camps. Plus whatever it took to bring down the wards, of course.

“Assuming the wards go down as expected, about twenty minutes. That should be enough to flatten all four camps and kill most of the enemy, although there are bound to be survivors. I’ve got spare ammunition in case the wards are tougher than expected, so if they try to regroup and come back we can just hit them again.

“That won’t be an issue,” Prince Caspar said. “Our cavalry will harry the survivors from the walls, and when the day’s reinforcements march close I shall lead a raid through the Dark Portal to scatter them. It will be days before they can assemble enough troops to invest the city again.”

“Yes, and by then we’ll have another surprise ready for them,” Brand announced. “But one step at a time. Daniel, prepare to launch your attack at the ninth bell. Our men will stand ready within the walls until the bombardment stops, and then sally forth to slaughter the survivors. Lukas, once the bombardment has come off successfully you can have your wizards stand down, but I want three squadrons of golems to remain on alert just in case.”

It was a simple plan, but it worked out beautifully.

Since I still didn’t have a good internal communication system on the island, we’d decided to direct our fire from the eastern mortar bunker and have the other team just aim at the same target. Demetrios commanded the bombardment from the bunker, and I was there as well to observe the operation. Cerise tagged along just for the chance to watch things explode.

When the bells tolled nine o’clock Demetrios gave the order to begin, and the mortar crews each fired off a round of regular ammunition to check their aim. A series of bright flashes erupted from the snow around the enemy camp, and they began the laborious process of walking their fire onto the target. They had to take turns firing to avoid confusion about which tube had fired which shot, and of course the other position had to wait their turn to go through the same evolution.

It was so aggravating at times, how primitive everything here was. We weren’t going to have decent fire control unless I could figure out how the militaries of my own world did it, and then find time to train my people. We wouldn’t have the communications to properly coordinate multiple batteries unless I invented something we could use as a radio. Indirect fire was a pipe dream, unless I wanted to spend a few weeks personally developing all the tools and techniques a forward observer would need. Even something as simple as giving each battery ranging shells that burst in a different color would take a day or two of work to set up, time that was already needed for a million other projects.

Well, at least the mortar crews could hear each other talk. Unlike real mortars, my weapons launched their projectiles with a soft whoosh rather than a bone-rattling thump. Although it gave the scene a surreal air, since I kept subconsciously expecting the smoke and thunder of my home world’s weapons.

“On target,” one of the crews announced. They paused their efforts, while the other crew continued to work. They fired off a couple more shells, before announcing that they too were on target.

“Load penetrator rounds,” Demetrios ordered. “Fire for effect.”

He’d had fun picking my brains about the proper way to operate all my weapons, and my rambling lecture on what I knew of American military procedures seemed to have given him a lot of ideas.

The crews immediately began dropping a flurry of rounds into their tubes. They quickly ate through the stacked ammunition, but laborers were already rolling in handcarts loaded with more rounds. They got in each other’s way a bit, but the evolution seemed to be going as smoothly as one could hope without extensive drills. I turned to observe the enemy camp.

A brilliant flash erupted in the sky, followed a moment later by a thunderous crash. The wards over the camp flared into visibility, a translucent dome of crimson light. When the flash faded I saw a visible dent, where a glowing mass of molten iron was running down the side of the barrier.

Then there was a second explosion, and a third. Another shell landed every couple of seconds, and after half a dozen hits the crimson dome abruptly collapsed. The wards against spells and scrying and other non-physical threats were unaffected, of course, and the shells continued to detonate outside the ward instead of sailing through it and possibly getting their enchantments broken.

But with the physical barrier gone, each blast now sent five hundred pounds of high-velocity liquid iron raining down on the encampment. Tents and awnings were blown down by the blast, and flames leaped up from where they had stood. Dinosaurs roared in pain, and tried to stampede in all directions. Soldiers milled around in panicked confusion, and while I couldn’t quite make out individual people at this distance it sure looked like some of them were on fire.

The dome reformed, and promptly collapsed again as the second mortar battery got its fire on target. Flames spread across the camp, and the few wooden structures the andregi had erected went down one by one. Then the remaining wards died.

With that barrier out of the way the falling rounds went off when their proximity fuse detected the ground. The result was a series of airbursts around forty yards up, with a weapon that had an effective blast radius of about two hundred yards. Dirt, snow and bodies flew through the air with every explosion, and all other movement quickly ceased. But I’d wanted to make sure we got the job done, so the mortars continued to pound the spot where the encampment had stood for another minute.

“Check fire,” Demetrios finally ordered.

The mortar crews stopped their frantic loading. A few moments later the volume of fire hitting the camp abruptly dropped, but it took another thirty seconds or so for the crews in the other position to notice and check their own fire.

Where the enemy camp had once stood, there was now a wide swath of blackened dirt dotted with fires. I knew there were bound to be survivors, but I couldn’t see any sign of them from here.

Good.

“Target destroyed,” I said. “Keep up the good work.”

“Will do, milord,” Demetrios replied. “Battery A, new target, next encampment to the right of previous target. Load normal rounds. Commence ranging fire.”

I kept expecting the enemy to pull out some countermeasure, but they never did. In a matter of minutes we destroyed a second encampment, and then the third and fourth.

By then ape men were boiling out of the last encampment. Squadrons of dinosaur riders went lumbering back towards the road to the east, while a few companies of infantry formed up around the perimeter. But organizing large bodies of troops takes time, and the andregi weren’t an especially disciplined army. Most of them were still milling around inside the camp when our ranging shots closed in on it.

When the first air burst went off atop the warding dome half the mustered infantry broke and ran. The rest took heavy casualties from the liquid shrapnel that sprayed off the dome, and their formations quickly dissolved into chaos. Two minutes after that there was nothing left of them.

“That will do,” I told Demetrios.

“Cease fire!” He ordered. The mortar crew stopped loading shells, and we waited for the bombs to stop falling. The other battery was a little quicker on the uptake this time, but it still took a good while.

“We need to work on our coordination,” I observed.

“Yes. I’ll have to set up training, once we have enough ammunition that we can afford to expend some. Assuming I can find a way to do it without sending half the city into a panic.”

“If nothing else, I’m sure the enemy will volunteer to give us plenty of targets,” I said.

Down in the city horns blew. One of the surviving gates in the Military District opened, and cavalry began to ride out. At the same time a flight of griffons rose from the middle of the district, and soared towards the fleeing survivors.

“Think it’s okay for me to go out and do some hunting?” Cerise asked.

“Better not,” Demetrios advised. “The way you look when you fly, someone is bound to mistake you for an enemy.”

She gave a put-upon sigh. “Seriously?”

“He’s right,” I said. “Besides, didn’t you want to visit the Fangs this morning? Something about checking out how the extra mana is affecting them?”

“Oh, yeah. Dryads are supposed to be pretty malleable, so I tried to bleed lots of shadow and succubus magic into their power source. I bet they turn into a real hot bunch of murder sluts. Want to come see?”

“Nut. Are you ever going to stop trying to seduce every girl you see?”

“Fuck, no. What’s the point of being a badass bitch if I don’t get to bang all the hot chicks? But seriously, it’s not like I haven’t already had all of the Fangs. Dryads aren’t exactly hard to crack, and Corinna’s girls are big believers in the whole ‘fight hard, play hard’ thing. I just want them to be strong enough to survive the life they’ve chosen.”

I gave her a skeptical look.

She huffed. “Okay, so maybe I’m trying to get them all bigger boobs too. Honeydew kinda spoils me in that department, you know? Anyway, we’re all having fun so don’t worry about it. I guess you’re going to be locked in the lab all day again?”

“Yeah, once I’m sure nothing is going to go wrong out here. I can’t afford to slack off until I figure out a way to get rid of these guys for good.”

“If I could offer a suggestion?” Demetrios said. “Unless you’re confident of pulling off some kind of miracle in the next two days, you might want to go ahead and rework the keep before the andregi come back. That’s the biggest weakness in our defenses right now, and if you rebuild it as a gatehouse on the same scale as the rest of the Black Citadel I’ll be a lot more confident of holding out if the worst happens.”

Damn it, I didn’t need any more items on my list. But he was probably right. I sighed.

“I suppose you’re right. It isn’t part of the same enchantment as the rest of the island, though. I’ll have to pull down the keep and grow the island out to cover that space, and then we’ll have a giant hole in our defenses for most of the day while I rebuild.”

“I’ll have Captain Rain set up his force to guard the entrance to the causeway, and station a Nethwillin war band with you to guard the breach while you work,” he suggested.

I took another look out over the city. The surviving andregi were still in full retreat, and the Griffon Knights were harrying those dinosaur cavalry with firebombs. Not much chance of an enemy attack today, and Prince Caspar would be marching through the Dark Portal any minute now. This was the best opportunity I was likely to get.

“Alright,” I decided. “Get that organized, and check with Tavrin to make sure there’s nothing left in the keep that we’ll need to move. If we start in the next couple of hours I can have this done by sundown. Cerise, warn the coven we’re going to need to re-check the wards and make sure everything is still solid tonight.”

She grinned. “Sweet. It’s about time we got this shit locked down.”

Luckily Avilla had pulled everyone out of the keep a week ago, so it wasn’t hard to verify that it was clear. Turning off the building’s power source took only a minute. Draining the power reserve was more work, but it had to be done before I could accomplish anything else. The enchantments on the old keep didn’t include any way to modify the structure, so I’d have to tear it down with brute force.

The fact that it was even possible for me to do that was a good indication of why it was necessary, of course. I’d built the keep before I figured out how to properly ward an enchantment against tampering, and the simple curse barrier it relied on couldn’t stop me from crippling it. With the power cut off and the energy reserve drained there was nothing to stop me from blasting away the curse ward with dispels, and then I could banish the underlying stone.

I started at the top and worked my way down, trying to make sure I didn’t destabilize the structure or drop chunks of stone on anyone. It was kind of sad to take down my own work like this. Sadder that it went so fast. In a couple of hours most of the keep was down, and that was with several pauses to have laborers haul off various forgotten items of furniture that had been left behind.

It was in one of those breaks that I received an unexpected visitor. I’d just sent a crew off with a stack of cloth that had turned up in an otherwise empty storeroom, when a towering figure stepped out of the stairwell.

“Making holes in your own walls, Daniel? Most men would leave that for the enemy,” Brand said.

He was here alone. That seemed a little odd.

“This is probably the best chance I’m going to get to put in a gatehouse that’s actually built to the same scale as the rest of the defenses,” I pointed out.

He looked up at the walls towering high above us. I saw the moment when he realized how thick they were.

“You know, Daniel, your walls may not be as high as the ones around the Golden City but I think they may actually be thicker. What kind of weapons are you expecting to get attacked by?”

“Earthquakes. Tidal Waves. Great Beasts. This is Ragnarok. Anything could happen.”

He gazed up at the walls in silence for a long moment.

“So you truly intend for your fortress to stand through the Twilight of the Gods?” He asked. “You will hide behind your walls, rather than fight on the Golden Field?”

I shrugged. “It’s not my war, Brand. I’m just here to save as many people as I can. Besides, I’ve got a family to take care of. Is that what you came out here for? To ask if I’d take the field?”

“No, I didn’t expect that you would. I just wanted a private word. I’ve been hearing stories about your supposed harem of nymphs and dryads, and of course the way Pelagia is recruiting fighting men hasn’t escaped my notice. The nobles are scandalized, but I see a different pattern. You’ve found some way to grow food in there, haven’t you?”

“Yes,” I said carefully. “The dryads are for fertility blessings. I can’t feed the whole city, though.”

“Of course not. We both know Kozalin is doomed, Daniel. The only question is how much we can make the enemy bleed before they take it. I’ve irons in the fire that may drag things out longer than you’d expect, but whether we slaughter five more armies or fifty won’t change the outcome in the end. The Iron Citadel will hold out a little longer than the rest of the city, but the Conclave doesn’t have the manpower or the depth of magic to defend its walls against a serious assault. You, on the other hand…”

He walked over to the exposed face of the wall, and laid his hand on it. His eyes closed in concentration for a moment. Then he nodded approvingly, and turned to face me.

“That enchantment would resist even the greatest of blows. No beast is going to break those walls, and every time I look you’ve raised another ward. You’ve clearly been planning this move for a long time, Daniel. I think your citadel will actually stand, as long as the enemy makes no great effort to strike at you.”

“That’s my intention,” I replied. “Where are you going with this?”

“I’m just letting you know I’m not going to stop you, Daniel. Recruit a few hundred men, if you need them. We can spare that many from Valhalla, and the ones who would join you won’t be the best warriors anyway. Take what farmers and craftsmen you need, and complete your citadel. The prince is already loath to ask you for more miracles, so I expect you’ll have a week or more to work undisturbed.”

“I’m sensing a ‘but’ here.”

He smiled. “Yes, but it isn’t an onerous one. Take in more women. At least two for every man. Three or four if you can feed them. By the time we kill the mad god and his allies there will be few men left in Europe. Repopulating will be an enormous project, and saving a few thousand extra women could make a difference.”

“Do you really think there will be enough Aesir left to end the ice age?” I asked.

“Who can say? Perhaps we are all doomed, and the monsters will be cracking our bones one day soon. Perhaps the prophecy will not be denied, and all the gods and monsters will fall. Or perhaps our victory will be a pyrrhic one, leaving a scant few survivors to eke out a pathetic existence among the ruins of a lost world.

“But I chose to have faith in the Allfather’s wisdom, and in the strong sword arms of my brothers. I believe we will overcome this trial, put down the monsters that howl for our blood, and go on to build a new age of glory for Asgard.

“And if I am wrong? Well, what does it matter? There will be no one left to tell me so.”

Chapter 22

Gates are traditionally a weak spot in the defenses of a castle. Good designs compensate for that with various defensive measures, and if you have enough of them the gates can actually become harder to attack than the walls. I had no intention of leaving weak spots in the defenses that were going to protect my family, so of course I set out to achieve that.

The gatehouse that replaced the old keep was a blocky structure a hundred and forty feet on a side, and the whole thing was a solid mass of iron beams and stone up to the level above the gates. The entryway was a tunnel through that mass, twenty feet wide and twenty feet tall. I figured that was big enough for anything we were ever likely to move, and small enough that the really huge monsters wouldn’t fit through it.

When we were under serious attack the mouth of the tunnel would be filled by a block of conjured stone twenty feet thick. The enchantment that conjured and banished the plug was on an iron spike driven into the roof of the tunnel, where it was unlikely to be noticed by anyone passing by. The plug would just be normal stone, of course, so it wouldn’t be terribly resistant to magic. But it only took a few minutes to banish and re-conjure it, so trying to break through with siege engines would be an exercise in futility.

Behind that was a portcullis made of heavy nickel-iron bars, with a good structural reinforcement spell and an enchantment that would form a force field to protect it when it was down. The whole thing weighed several tons, enough that I had to add an enchantment to raise it out of the way instead of relying on the usual winch arrangement. But the purpose of a portcullis is to give you a solid barrier you can close quickly to block a surprise attack, and I figured it would serve that purpose admirably.

Behind the portcullis was the actual gate. That was even more of an engineering challenge, since there are serious mechanical problems with trying to make a door more than a few inches thick. I wanted something that could stand up to serious attack spells, and the more massive it was the easier that would be. So I ended up going with a sliding door design, instead of traditional hinges.

Of course, in this case each of the two panels was a wall of solid nickel-iron three feet thick. I made them five feet taller than the passage they blocked, set into deep grooves in the floor and ceiling. An extra ten feet of width ensured that the passage would be solidly blocked when they closed, and the edges where they met were designed to mesh together. Three giant steel latches mounted on the inner face of the left door would drop into sockets on the right door when the gates were locked, just to ensure no one could pry them apart.

With structural reinforcement spells, a force field protecting the outer surface and various wards to protect against the obvious forms of magical attack the gates were just about indestructible. Unfortunately they were also immensely heavy, to the point where moving them without magic would probably have been impossible. I had to add in a powerful force enchantment to levitate them a hair’s breadth above the surface of the stone they rested on, and move them back and forth. Even then they moved pretty slowly, and it took several minutes to open or close them.

On the good side, any attacker who got caught between the leaves of the gate when it closed was going to be crushed by four hundred tons of moving metal.

The whole set of defensive layers only took up forty feet of tunnel, which left plenty of room for the other traditional functions of a gatehouse. Twenty feet back from the gates I put in a large mustering hall, forty feet wide and sixty feet deep, which I figured was big enough to hold any sortie force we might want to send out during a siege. Then came another thirty-foot tunnel, with another portcullis and conjured stone block setup.

There was a little control room off of the mustering chamber, with a set of controls to operate the gates and a panic button that would drop the outer portcullis. With a heavy iron door and thick fused quartz windows looking out on the mustering area it was reasonably secure, but it would be pretty silly to make things so an attacker who managed to storm the gate could keep us from closing it. So the master controls were on the next floor up.

Traditionally the second floor of a gatehouse would have lots of murder holes positioned to let defenders drop nasty stuff on enemies attacking the gate. I put in a fair number of those looking down on the mustering chamber, but I didn’t want any openings connecting to the outer defensive layers. Too much chance of an enemy sending spells or insect swarms through them. Instead I put in a few viewports made of fused quartz, a few inches across and a couple of feet thick. Then I installed some more iron spikes in the ceiling of the entrance tunnel, bearing enchantments that would conjure lava on command.

That was a minor variation on the technique I’d already developed for summoning molten nickel-iron from the Earth’s core. I didn’t want explosions powerful enough to damage the stonework, but molten rock from the upper mantle was a lot less energetic. A little testing confirmed that I could get it to come out as a high-velocity spray rather than an explosion, and while it would thoroughly wreck anything caught in the tunnel it didn’t strike the walls with enough force to damage them. There was only a slight drain on the structural reinforcement spells, not nearly enough to create a vulnerability an enemy could exploit. Not that many enemies would be casting spells while they were being sprayed with molten lava anyway.

No army of ape men was going to fight through that to get at my girls. Even if there was a major attack while I was away, they’d be safe.

Now I just needed a way to take the fight to the enemy. But I still didn’t know if my idea would even work.

“Cerise, do you have a way to contact Hecate?” I asked over dinner that night.

“Well, duh. Of course I do, and so do you. You do remember she made you her champion, right? We just need to go over to the chapel and do a little sacrifice.”

“Hey, she didn’t exactly give me a long explanation of how she does things, remember? I figured it was something like that, I just don’t know the specifics. I’ve got some crazy ideas for what to do about the ape men, but I need to check with her before I do something this drastic.”

“This ought to be interesting,” Cerise chuckled. “Well, I guess we can do a midnight communion tonight and try to get her attention. She doesn’t always answer, but if it’s both of us… oh. Fuck, that’s kind of… uh, I guess we’re really at the top of her list right now. She says she’ll be there.”

“You are her high priestess,” Tina said knowingly. “Of course she keeps an eye on you. Daniel? Bast wants you to try not to kill all the dinosaurs.”

“I wasn’t planning on it,” I assured her. “Dinosaurs are cool. Say, what’s it like talking to a goddess like that? Do you hear her voice in your head, or what?”

Tina shrugged. “It’s not like talking. I just know what she wants me to know, sometimes.”

“Same here,” Cerise confirmed. “I can’t just talk to her, and I don’t hear her voice. But she can see through my eyes and hear through my ears, and if she wants me to know something I just do.”

So, divine stalkers? That was actually kind of creepy. Not that I was going to come out and say that, of course.

Cerise insisted on actually teaching me the communication ritual instead of just casting it for me. I suppose that made sense, although the fact that it involved a blood sacrifice was a little off-putting. As usual, she was unfazed by that part.

“The amulets make this so much easier,” she confided. “Usually a priestess can’t do this very often, because if you don’t have an enemy to sacrifice you have to use enough blood to be dangerous. But now I can bleed forever without any risk, and the blood still carries just as much power as normal.”

“Just don’t let that lure you into getting carried away, Cerise,” Hecate said. “You know I don’t have time to chat about every little thing.”

There were no special effects. Just one moment Cerise and I were alone in the chapel, and the next there was a goddess standing next to us. Cerise started, and took a step back.

“I, um, fuck that was fast. Welcome to the Black Island shrine, my goddess. Thank you for answering our call.”

“Yeah, thanks for sparing us a few minutes, ma’am,” I said. “We know better than to bother you over little stuff.”

She sat on the altar, looking faintly amused. “What, no kneeling abasement and declarations of abject devotion? I believe my little Cerise has finally discovered her own worth.”

Cerise flushed. “T-thank you, my goddess. Daniel kind of inspired me.”

“Then my choice is vindicated. Well met, Daniel. What question did you have that requires my counsel?”

“I need to know if the gods have banned radiological weapons,” I told her. “Or, for that matter, if a certain earth goddess is likely to recognize one for what it is.”

Hecate frowned. “Radiological? More translation, please.”

That was promising. I considered where to begin with my explanation, when I noticed the bandages on her left arm. It was partly concealed by the sleeve of her jacket, but something had chewed her arm up pretty badly.

“You’re hurt?” I said in surprise. “Um, can we help you with that?”

One eyebrow rose fractionally. “I don’t know, Daniel. Can you help me with this?”

She offered her arm. I touched it, and tried to evaluate the wound.

The intensity of the magic at work there was blinding. Healing magic of fantastic power was pouring into the wound, fighting against a malignant curse that lurked within. It was like that mage-killer bolt the dwarves had hit me with, only a thousand times more powerful. Whatever had inflicted that wound would have killed me with a scratch, amulet or no amulet.

But it was only a thousand times more powerful. Not a million, or a billion. Hecate’s magic was a vast bonfire compared to the spark of my own sorcery, but it was only a bonfire. Not a star, or some incomprehensible vastness.

She was old, and strong. But she was desperately weary, and not far from the limits of her strength.

“Well?” She asked. “Do you have a miracle for me, or are such matters beyond even a wizard such as yourself?”

“Yes,” I replied. “Cerise, bring me the spare power stone from my lab. I’ve just found a use for it.”

“If you say so, Daniel.”

Her tone said she thought I was nuts, but she hurried off to fetch it anyway. Hecate watched her go, and then turned a questioning look my way.

“You’re right, I can’t channel enough mana to make any real headway against something like this. Honestly, I’m a little afraid that if I made contact with it that curse would just eat me. But my big power stones can put out about a third as much magic as you’ve got going into that healing effect, and they never get tired. That’s enough of an advantage to let you heal yourself in an hour or two instead of having the wound linger for days, right?”

“It can produce that much power?”

Cerise hurried back in at that point, with the sixty pound rock in her hands. Hecate took it from her, and contemplated the device for a moment.

“This is a very odd enchantment, Daniel. Am I seeing this correctly? It eats the substance of the stone, and somehow turns it into magic?”

“That’s right,” I confirmed. “It should be good for something like a century or two, depending on how heavily you use it.”

“How remarkable.”

She drew on the power stone, and deftly spun together a fantastic weave of complex spells that enveloped her arm. They sank into the wound, pushing back the curse that lurked there and soothing her injured flesh.

Hecate gave a soft sigh, and some of the tension slowly bled out of her.

“Much better,” she said. “Thank you, Daniel. This will be quite useful. By the standards of the gods it is only a minor artifact, of course. But it has been more than a century since I had any tools beyond my own weapons and raiment to work with, let alone a source of power not rooted in myself. I don’t suppose you could make a greater one than this?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “I could scale it up maybe another thirty percent before I hit the limits of what I can enchant with my own sorcery. In theory I could spend a few weeks making a device that enchants bigger power stones, but the slightest imperfection in the enchantment would probably destroy the whole city. Which actually leads back to my original question.”

“Ah, yes. Radiological? The translation I’m getting simply raises more questions.”

I gestured to the stone. “I can tinker with that enchantment to change what kind of energy it emits, and whether it eats complete atoms of the stone or just individual subatomic particles. I figure with a little experimentation I could find a version that emits lots of neutrons, which will tend to convert whatever they hit into radioactive isotopes. Use that to make a supply of radioactive dust, spread it around the Halls of Slumber, and the andregi all die of radiation poisoning.”

Cerise frowned in confusion. “You lost me completely there, Daniel.”

Hecate, however, looked impressed.

“The wisdom of philosophers,” she breathed. “What a startling vision of hidden secrets. You are certain that this actually works, Daniel? This is knowledge from your world, and not some phantasm of sorcery?”

“Yes, we have all kinds of technology based on nuclear physics. Coming up with an effective weapon is going to be tricky, but I’m sure of the underlying principles.”

“Marvelous. That venomous bitch will never know what happened. Hah! She’ll probably blame it on old One Eye. Only, how will you reach Skogheim undetected?”

“There’s an interesting story to that,” I replied. “When I gained my flesh sorcery I had a few thoughts about expanding it into shapeshifting. I didn’t have time to take it that far, but I did get two specific transformations out of it. One was the catgirl shape I used on Tina, which is what drew Bast’s attention. The other shape I can do is a dark elf.”

I watched her face carefully as I spoke, and I’m pretty sure the surprise that momentarily showed there was real. That was followed a moment later by realization.

“That can’t be an accident,” Cerise commented.

“I suspect we have Prometheus to thank,” Hecate said. “I have followed certain advice of his in recent years, and he has always seen further than anyone else. Still, that changes nothing. If you can make this work, Daniel, then you have my approval to do it.”

“Thank you, ma’am. I’ll give it a shot.”

I hesitated.

“Is Prometheus still imprisoned?”

Hecate’s mood fell a bit. “Sadly, yes. The chains Zeus forged were mighty indeed, and since the fall of Olympus there has been no one who could free him.”

“Mara could,” I mused.

“Do you think to lure her away from her kin?” Hecate asked. “It’s a pretty thought, but an idle one. I feel certain the Titan of Forethought has already arranged his freedom somehow, though it may be long ages in coming. Better to focus on your own struggles, and leave the affairs of the gods to the gods.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. “I’ll do that.”

“Good. I shall take my leave then. Be well, my disciples, and take care of one another.”

I glanced at Cerise for just a moment, and when I looked back Hecate was gone.

“So, your plan is to sneak into Skogheim and kill the ape men with some kind of weird magic poison?” Cerise asked.

“More or less.”

“You get to be the one who explains it to Avilla.”

“Joy. I’ll talk to her in the morning.”

I was expecting her to throw a fit. Instead she just listened intently to my explanation. When I was done she took my hand, and looked into my eyes.

“Promise me that you won’t go until you’re confident you can make this work,” she said.

“Done.”

“And that if you aren’t sure, you’ll try a different plan instead?”

“Sure. I’m not interested in getting killed, Avilla. I just don’t think we can afford to sit here and let the enemy keep attacking us until they find a plan that works.”

She took a deep breath, and let it out slowly.

“Alright. I trust you, Daniel. If you say this is our best hope, then I’ll believe in you.”

Wow. She said that so earnestly. There was a reason I’d fallen for this girl, and it wasn’t just her beauty.

“How can we help?” She went on.

“Well, if you know any blessings of good luck or general sneakiness this would be a good time to try them out.”

“I can do luck,” Avilla offered. “Enough that you won’t be found out over some silly little random accident, anyway.”

“Thanks, sweetie. That’s a big help. Beyond that, just be really careful about safety. I’m going to have to set up a special lab for this project, and take a lot of precautions to make sure the energies I’m working with stay isolated there. We need to make sure no one except me ever goes in there, or even opens the door.”

“This sounds quite dangerous,” Elin observed.

“It is. The forces I’m going to be working with will kill anyone without a healing amulet in short order, and normal healing won’t do much to help. What’s worse is that there are several ways it can cling to an intruder and be carried out of the lab. It would be very easy for a servant to catch a dose of radiation, and then carry it around the palace for a few hours exposing everyone else before they die. Avilla, I think you might actually be immune because of your nature. But pregnant women are especially vulnerable, so I don’t want to take any chances.”

“I’ll have Sefwin post guards,” Cerise said firmly. “You’re sure you can keep this contained?”

“I’m not going to take any chances with it,” I assured her.

Which was easier said than done, since I didn’t even have a Geiger counter. I’d wracked my brains trying to remember how those things work, to no avail. The frustrating thing was I could clearly remember having read about that way back in college, and thinking it was one of those clever solutions that’s really obvious in retrospect. But no matter how I cudgeled my brain I couldn’t remember the actual design.

Sometimes I really miss the internet.

Instead, my standard radiation detector ended up being a rat in a cage, wearing a collar enchanted to heal radiation sickness. The enchantment was linked to a dial mounted on top of the cage, which would show how much load it was under. A crude system, and there was no way to relate it to the measurements I was familiar with. But it was what I had.

To make sure I maintained good containment of everything I worked with I turned one of the larger unfinished spaces into a new lab. There were two small airlock-style rooms that one had to pass through before reaching the main work space, and all the doors were stone. The first room was a changing area where I’d leave my normal clothes and equipment when entering, and the second had a shower and a wardrobe for storing cheap robes I could wear while I worked. I put a rat cage in each of these rooms, so I could confirm that I wasn’t accidentally tracking out radioactive dust or something.

The actual lab had fairly thick stone walls, which I covered with an inch of iron for extra strength and to ensure they remained airtight. Since it was three stories tall there was plenty of space to work with, so I also laid down a layer of water two feet thick across the floor to act as radiation shielding. Good thing I’d learned how to do a basic water conjuration and banishment from working with Elin, because I wasn’t about to have her come in here every time I needed to rework things.

A judicious application of force magic allowed me to cover the walls and ceiling the same way, and even the door when it was closed. That should be more than enough to stop any neutrons or gamma radiation from reaching the stone of the walls, and unlike a lot of materials induced radiation isn’t a serious problem with water.

Unlike, say, stone. I was pretty sure that if I started playing around with big neutron sources the walls would quickly become radioactive without that layer of protection. So would my own body, for that matter. Keeping a thick wall of water between myself and my experiments should prevent that sort of problem, but I set up a third rat cage to keep next to myself as a way of monitoring my potential dosage.

As a final isolation step I redesigned my personal force field to have an airtight mode, with a variant of Elin’s air freshening spell to allow me to breathe when it was sealed. As long as that was active I’d have to move by flying, and rely entirely on force magic to manipulate objects. Inconvenient, but worth it to ensure I was completely isolated from the environment of the lab. I didn’t need to accidentally inhale a lungful of radioactive dust, or carelessly track it out when I left.

With my protective measures in place I could get to the fun part of this little project. Intentionally breaking my matter to mana spell in different ways, so I could see what kind of random destruction spilled out as a result.

In my first day of experimenting I found no less than six different ways to blow up my test pieces, and managed to blind myself twice. Not fun, but at least the experience was starting to give me a handle on how much energy I was unleashing. I strengthened the force fields I was working with, and dialed down the energy levels considerably.

As expected, it was quite easy to make an enchantment that didn’t cleanly convert whole atoms to mana. This tended to produce a lot of waste heat, hence the explosion problem. It also produced a truly hair-raising level of radiation, since subtracting three or four neutrons from an atom tends to produce highly unstable isotopes.

I was setting up all my experiments inside a big ball of water that floated in the air in the middle of the room, to further shield both myself and the environment from any nastiness they might produce. Once I solved the explosion problem I started putting a rat cage inside the water ball, with a thin sheet of iron attached to the side of the cage facing the experiment to block any alpha or beta particles it might emit.

I was a little surprised at how low the critter’s exposure readings were, and tried several variations looking for one that had more radiation output. Then I got a version that produced visible Cherenkov radiation, and realized the needle was still barely moving.

“I really wish I had a few reference books,” I muttered to myself as I watched the ghostly blue glow. “That’s got to be a lethal level of radiation, though. It’s clearly visible even in a brightly lit room. Do I need to switch to a weaker healing spell for the detectors?”

It took a fresh supply of rats and a day of experiments to get a handle on that. Apparently my healing was amazingly effective against radiation sickness, because an environment hot enough to kill an unprotected rat in a matter of minutes would barely move the needle on my detectors. I reworked them with a much weaker spell, and re-tested until they were sensitive enough to react to my latest test piece even when it was turned off.

Then I banished the test device, and noticed that they were still picking up a significant level of radiation. What the hell was left to be radioactive? The air? Impurities in the water? The cages?

I ended up spending several hours setting up spells to recycle the air and water in the lab, banishing the stuff and conjuring a fresh supply. The radiation levels quickly fell to zero once that was running, but the thought of airborne contaminants motivated me to add a positive overpressure system in the airlock rooms. The higher air pressure there would ensure that anything floating around in the lab’s air supply stayed trapped there, instead of drifting out.

The guards outside the door were bemused when I set up a little table in the hall with another detector on it.

“See that dial?” I said. “If you ever see it move, evacuate the hall and make sure no one comes near here until I say it’s safe.”

They were both elven women, a brunette and a redhead, both wearing the typical tight leather armor that showed off their impressive figures. The brunette frowned at the cage.

“Of course, my lord. Are you working with some sort of death magic?”

“Close enough. I think I have enough precautions set up to keep anything from leaking out, but this stuff is insidious enough that I don’t want to take any chances. In the same vein, let me know immediately if either of you develops any strange health problems. Low-level exposure can cause fatigue, nausea and general sickness long before it does any serious harm, but the effects tend to build up over time if it isn’t properly treated.”

They obviously weren’t thrilled to hear about that. But elves are made of stern stuff.

“We shall remain alert, my lord,” the redhead said.

I went back inside, making a mental note that I really needed to start learning the names of Sefwin’s staff. The maids too, for that matter. I’ve never been good with names, though, so that was going to take work. One thing at a time.

Now, how was I going to do this? Make a neutron source, and expose various materials to it until I found something that turned highly radioactive? That was a common enough effect that if I tried a dozen different materials I’d probably find something workable. But then how would I transport the dust? Maybe I could make a force wall strong enough to keep radiation from escaping a container?

I stopped.

Force constructs don’t destroy matter, they just push things around. Affecting light was hard enough that I had serious doubts about the feasibility of blocking x-rays, let alone gamma. Neutrons, on the other hand, shouldn’t be especially hard to stop. My normal personal shield probably had enough energy to bounce them.

What happens when you surround a sample of radioactive material with a field that reflects neutrons instead of absorbing them?

I was pretty sure anything fissionable would go prompt critical. Were any of the exotic isotopes I was playing with theoretically fissionable? I had no idea.

Well, important safety tip. No putting radioactive materials inside high-intensity force bubbles. Also, if I ever decided I absolutely had to make a nuke it just might be feasible after all. Although I didn’t see a good way to test that theory without potentially blowing myself up. That was definitely a final desperation move.

So, where was I? Induced radiation, right. What I really wanted was dust that could be spread around the target zone inconspicuously. Maybe I could find an element that works well, and then make a device that would conjure and irradiate it on the spot? It would take a hell of a neutron source to do that quickly, but I could make a big power source. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near this thing while it was running, but there were ways around that. I could even make the device banish itself when I was done, to remove the evidence.

I started laying out the enchantment, already considering what materials to try it on. Sand, dirt and flour were all easy to get in powdered form. I could conjure metals in the form of grains or flakes, and the same was true of many types of stone…

Chapter 23

Turning myself into an elf took about an hour. My flesh sorcery made the whole process rather easy, which really made me wish I’d held onto that element long enough to get a few more transformation options. It would be insanely useful to be able to do customized shapeshifting. Of course, that would have meant giving up something else, and I’m not sure I’d be alive today if I’d made that trade.

Being an elf was weird. Apparently svartalfar have amazingly acute senses, which took some getting used to. Not to mention perfect balance, improved reaction times and a surprising amount of strength. I’d definitely have to figure out a way to keep some of those benefits when I turned back.

Probably the most disconcerting change was the one I discovered when I went to take a leak. I don’t know why I assumed elves would be put together just like humans down there, but they aren’t. I’m sure an expert could have deduced all sorts of interesting things about elven mating customs from the subtle differences in morphology, but I couldn’t get past the fact that it was bright pink.

Yeah, okay, switching that back to normal right now. It’s not like the ape men were going to be checking out my junk.

Tavrin was momentarily flabbergasted when I showed him the transformation, especially when he realized that it wasn’t an illusion. But once I explained my plan he adapted, and organized everything with his usual brisk efficiency.

“A typical trading expedition would move too slowly, and risk too many assets,” he explained. “But there are other options. Clan Vinyathos occasionally buys exotic drugs from the andregi, and pays with gems. So we can impersonate one of their parties without needing pack animals or golems.”

“Your rivals are into drug trading?” I asked.

“Not for their own use, of course. Decadent as they are, Vinyathos isn’t that foolish. But they like to dabble in human politics, and introducing powerful drugs to a population that isn’t familiar with them is an effective way to weaken rivals without risking a war. Personally I think it’s a foolish policy, since it also creates enemies and fosters an unsavory reputation.”

“Yeah, I have to agree with you there. How would you do it?”

He shrugged. “Nethwillin generally avoids being drawn into human politics. It takes a great deal of effort to control events, and the rewards are seldom worth it. All too often you spend a decade trying to engineer the ascendancy of your chosen faction, only to see the whole scheme unravel with the death of a key human. I’ve always preferred simple assassination as a means of removing obstacles and punishing treachery.”

That did sound like their style.

“Alright, so we’re drug traders. I guess that means the group needs a skilled merchant, a couple of guys to carry the goods, and some guards?”

“Almost right. Vinyathos uses expanding bags for smuggling, so you won’t need any porters. Let’s see, we want to keep this deal small so it doesn’t take too long. I’ll have Othvin lead the group, he has a couple of small pouches with illusion wards that would be suitable. A trip like this only calls for a few hundred pounds of carrying capacity.”

“Wait, hold on a minute. You guys have bags of holding? With, what, illusions to make them look normal if someone else opens them?”

Tavrin smiled. “Yes. Space expansion is a rare art, but the clan strives to cultivate it. We actually have three mages who can cast such enchantments right now, although only one is here. Did you have something in mind?”

If they had artifacts like that, why hadn’t they used them in the evacuation of Yinthalos? Well, obviously they had. If a couple of ‘small’ pouches could hold a few hundred pounds of material, that implied there were ‘large’ ones that could hold a lot more. They’d probably smuggled tons of hidden treasure out of their settlement, in addition to the cargo that I’d seen.

I shook my head. “I’ll have to think about that one. You guys certainly have a lot of interesting resources. How long will it take to set this up?”

“When do you need to leave?”

It turned out that he could throw the whole thing together overnight, which impressed me even more. My own preparations took longer, and I made a point of reserving an afternoon and evening to properly say goodbye to my ladies this time. But we ended up leaving just four days after the destruction of the andregi encampments.

“I wish I could go with you,” Cerise said regretfully as we prepared to depart.

“I don’t think trying to turn you into an elf would be a good idea,” I pointed out. “Besides, as much as I’d love to have you at my back I’ll sleep better knowing you’re here to keep an eye on things. We’ve probably got some time yet before the andregi come back, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they try an assassination mission next.”

She grinned. “That would be fun. Don’t worry, big guy, I’ll keep our girls safe. You’d better not be gone too long, though, or I might convince them that tail is better than dick.”

She waved her tail in the air for emphasis. I laughed, and pulled her into a kiss.

“You do that, imp. Maybe you can get your little dryad minions in on it, and keep them too distracted to worry. I’ll be back in a few days, promise.”

This was obviously a case where stealth was more important than firepower, so there were only five elves in the group. As planned, we were all carefully disguised as members of clan Vinyathos. I found it interesting that Tavrin had been able to procure all the necessary props for that disguise so quickly, especially the rather intricate custom-fitted armor.

“Nethwillin does have some experience with espionage,” he’d said blandly when I asked. “The andregi are not likely to spot minor inconsistencies, but it would be unwise to make assumptions.”

I was starting to wonder if I’d taken in some kind of elven ninja clan, to be honest. Except that they were just as good at trading and working a ship as they were at the sneaky stuff. If the whole merchant clan thing was just a cover they certainly put in the work to make it convincing.

My companions for this trip were all male, which surprised me a little since the elves had struck me as pretty egalitarian so far. Othvin, the leader of the group, had an interesting explanation for that one.

“We actually try to spare our women the more dangerous duties when we have the luxury of choice, my lord. Unlike humans our women are just as capable as our men, but there will be even fewer children if any of them die in battle.”

“Unlike humans, huh?” I asked.

“Well, obviously. Human males are easily twice as strong as females, not to mention considerably larger and more robust. Those are vital considerations in a race that doesn’t live long enough to learn true skill in battle. Among the svartalfar these differences are much less pronounced, and in any event our prowess rests on skill rather than brute force.”

“I’d wondered about that,” I admitted. “Although your women are all so well-endowed I’m amazed they can move so gracefully.”

He grinned. “I’m told that the exuberant womanhood of the svartalfar is an impediment to many physical pursuits, but a blessing in more psychological contests. It’s amazing how easily outsiders are distracted by a little bounce and fluff. Most of our better agents of influence are women, because their wiles are so effective on the races of men.”

I chuckled. “Oh, so that’s why Sefwin seems to be recruiting only women for the Secret Service. Well, I suppose it’s a job that plays to their strengths. But what if the andregi realize why there aren’t any women with our group?”

“Ah, but there’s more to it than that, my lord. In her hatred of civilization Gaea made her children a race of animals, with little control over their natural instincts. In particular, their females have a cycle that sends them into heat for several days every three months or so. When that happens they mate indiscriminately with any male they encounter, and the males are quite inflamed by their scent. The males thus have no concept of courtship or even consent, and to their noses the women of other races are always in season.”

I had to stop and think about that one. “So if they meet a human or elven woman they’ll think she’s in heat, and try to rape her? Yeah, that would be a good reason to only send men to trade with them. But I’m surprised a goddess would set up such a male dominated society.”

“Oh, the andregi are very much ruled by their women, my lord. They have no concept of true land ownership, instead seeing the right to hunt or cultivate a plot as a divine blessing passed down from mother to daughter. Their females are also the priestesses of Gaea, and the judges of all disputes. The males hunt and farm at the direction of their women, when they aren’t beating each other up as a mating display.

“As for their cycles, an andregi female generally knows when her time is approaching and sequesters herself with a group of males that she finds appealing. The chosen males fight among themselves over mating order, but they’ll also unite to keep others away from their temporary mate. When she comes into season both sexes become quite senseless in their lust, and rut constantly until her time ends.”

“Sounds brutal,” I said.

He shrugged. “The andregi are a brutal people, but Gaea was wise enough to make their bodies suited to their needs. They consider their regular bouts of irrepressible passion a divine blessing, actually. The custom also ensures that no male will ever be certain who his children are, which I’m sure helps to cement female control of their society.”

I frowned. “I suppose I can see how that would work. It’s odd that they react to females of a different species, though.”

“I rather imagine that was intentional, my lord,” Othvin pointed out. “Gaea made them to enact her vengeance against the men that Zeus so favored, and what better way to get revenge than by raping their women to death?”

I was sorely tempted to find Gaea’s palace and try out some of my new weapon ideas there. But no, she was a goddess. It probably wouldn’t kill her, and even if it did she wouldn’t stay dead for long. In the end I’d just piss her off, and I couldn’t survive that kind of attention. The plan here was to arrange a mysterious disaster that would get her minions off my back, and erase some of the advantage that she’d brought to Loki’s side when she decided to fight with him.

If I was lucky these divine assholes would all kill each other off when they finally started fighting each other. If I was really lucky, maybe I’d get to help Hecate finish off the survivors someday.

We left the citadel on board the Intrepid, to minimize the chance that anyone would be aware of our departure. The airship had been making constant voyages ever since Irithil had taken command, evacuating Nethwillin’s various settlements and trading outposts. So no one was likely to wonder why it was leaving again, especially since it would be returning with another load of elves and cargo in a few days.

My borrowed gear was unfamiliar, and I felt a little naked without my enchanted armor. There hadn’t been any real choice about it, though. The elves were quite good at anti-divination spells, and I was confident the wards on the leather armor I wore would hide the enchantments of my amulet and talisman from any prying eyes. But human-style armor would have made me stand out, and my long coat was distinctive enough that someone might recognize it. I was nervous enough about the fact that my face was still recognizably me.

I’d thought about changing that, and then realized that my sorcery didn’t provide any convenient method of undoing such a cosmetic change. I’d have to rely on my own memory to figure out what I’d changed, and given that I didn’t have any particular talent in that direction I had a feeling I’d never get my face back the way it had started. So I’d just have to rely on the fact that they don’t have photographs in this world, and there weren’t a lot of enemies who’d seen me and gotten away afterwards.

I realized I was fidgeting again, and stopped. Elves don’t fidget. I tried to imitate the relaxed demeanor of the rest of the team, but it wasn’t easy. I needed a distraction.

Well, studying the translation ring Tavrin had given me would do. I’d had no idea such a thing was even possible, but as he’d pointed out an elf who didn’t speak elvish would stand out. Not to mention that the andregi spoke their own language, a tongue distantly related to Ancient Greek. Fortunately Nethwillin had several translation devices in their treasury, including one that ‘knew’ both of those languages as well as the Varmlander tongue.

It was a fantastically complex enchantment. I was quickly coming to the conclusion that it actually had whole languages encoded in the structure of the magic somehow, and the interface that made that information accessible to the wearer’s mind was a work of art. Someone had spent decades crafting this thing, and it showed.

“Clear visibility,” Othvin commented, looking out the windows around one of the gunnery positions. “When we set down the ship will be visible for miles. I hope the enemy isn’t watching us closely enough to connect the Intrepid’s movements with our arrival in Skogheim.”

“It can’t be helped,” one of the other elves said. Withril, that was his name.

Another one, Leskin, nodded in agreement. “Conjuring weather to hide us would only draw more attention. So unless you want to just jump out I think we’re stuck with making a landing.”

Heh. That gave me an idea.

“Well, jumping is an option. I’ve got a spell for arresting falls, and it will work from any altitude. Might be a little hair-raising when you suddenly bounce to a stop a few feet off the ground, but what’s life without a little excitement?”

“Says the wizard who can fly,” Nalvin said dryly.

I could see Othvin was thinking about it, though. “You’ve tested this spell? You’re sure it will work?”

“Oh, you can not be serious,” Withril complained. “Riding in a flying ship is crazy enough. Now you want us to jump out of it?”

“Never assume that your enemy is incompetent,” Othvin replied, sounding like he was quoting something. “It would be perfectly feasible for the andregi to have scouts keeping a watch on our movements, and Gaea knows how the hidden ways run. But individual elves aren’t nearly as visible as the ship, and a simple color illusion would make us almost impossible to spot. You have to admit, it’s a gambit no one would expect.”

The other elves stared at him in stunned silence for a moment. Then Withril groaned, and hung his head.

“Great buggering centaurs, we’re about to jump out of a perfectly good airship.”

“Look on the bright side,” Nalvin said. “At least it will be a new experience.”

I spent the next fifteen minutes putting a single-use safe fall enchantment on each of them. Unlike the version on my amulet this one also projected a small x-shaped force field above the subject’s head, to provide a little drag to keep them from tumbling. While I did that the elves brainstormed the exercise with surprising creativity, sounding almost like a group of gamers back home. They quickly deduced that scattering and tumbling were likely problems, so I explained what I was doing about that.

“Using ropes to stay together is a bad idea,” I went on, addressing an idea they’d been discussing. “Groups that try that kind of thing usually end up with someone getting badly injured by the rope. Strangling, broken limbs and snapped ropes are all serious issues, and for a short drop like this it’s not that big a deal anyway. The ship is only half a mile up and it doesn’t move that fast, so as long as we jump at short intervals we probably won’t land more than a few hundred feet apart.”

Telvaris, the one elf who hadn’t spoken up before, eyed me suspiciously. “You’ve done this before.”

“Not with this exact spell. But yes, my people had elite military units that used to do this. It was a way to get raiding forces deep into enemy territory.”

A little misleading, but as close to the truth as I was willing to get. I wasn’t going to go around telling people that Hecate had violated some divine treaty to bring an outsider into this world.

They took me at my word, and went on to do a little more last-minute contingency planning. I have to admit, I was pretty damned impressed that they were willing to play magical paratrooper out of the blue like this. I was even more impressed when it came time to jump, and all of them actually did it.

I’m not sure if elves are just inherently more together than humans, or if it’s a side effect of being hundreds of years old. Either way, I was glad Hecate had sent them my way.

I was also glad I could fly. I was the first one out the door, but I flew along next to the ship for a minute while the elves filed out the bridge hatch one by one. Then I dropped into a power dive to catch up, and made it to the ground just as the first man bounced to a stop. It looked like a pretty rough landing, as the giant ball of force magic around him absorbed the impact and bounced him back ten feet into the air. It came down again, only bouncing a few inches this time, and then shrank to deposit him on the snow.

The others landed moments later, all without incident. Well, Withril spent a couple of minutes kissing the ground when he was down, and Leskin threw up. But there were no injuries, which was pretty good for a first drop. We regrouped under an isolated clump of trees, where Othvin pulled out a map and cast some kind of divination.

“Looks like we’re only a mile from the earth nexus we were aiming for,” he said. “We’ll start building our walk along the way, so we have a good charge going by the time we get there. Telvaris will act as pathfinder, with Nalvin sealing the way behind us.”

“So I’m finally going to get to see how this mysterious ‘hidden ways’ business works,” I observed.

Othvin grimaced. “Yes, there’s no avoiding that. But from now on you’re Vinyil, a junior mage working to master earth lore. You look young enough for the part, and that should be easy to fake. Try to copy the rest of us, and don’t talk to anyone if you can help it.”

“Alright,” I agreed. The less I interacted with anyone, the fewer chances I’d have to slip up and give myself away.

It was a cold, cloudy day, and out here on the plains there was a good three feet of snow on the ground. The elves walked lightly over the top of the stuff, leaving footprints barely deeper than the ones a human would leave in dirt. I practiced duplicating the effect using my flight magic, which was trickier than it sounded. Just making myself super-light made it impossible to get any traction, and slipping around like a dog running on ice wasn’t going to help my cover. I played with different ideas as we moved, and eventually figured out how to wrap my feet in a force spell that would support my weight without doing anything else.

Once I was finally satisfied with that, I looked around and discovered that our party was now enveloped in a field of some subtle form of magic I wasn’t familiar with. At first glance it didn’t seem to be doing anything, but as I watched I realized that something strange was happening to the landscape around us. Terrain features that had been well ahead of us would suddenly jump closer when I took my eye off them, and places we’d just passed would suddenly be twenty or thirty yards behind us.

“Don’t study it,” Withril said. “Attention makes things a lot harder to shift.”

“Noted.”

I closed my eyes for a moment, and then went back to watching my step.

“Better,” Othvin said. “Here’s the convergence.”

We came around a snow-choked clump of bushes, and our path descended suddenly into a shallow depression. Once we were in it the hollow turned out to be much deeper than it looked from the outside. The shallow slope to my left quickly turned into a steep rise. I focused on watching Othvin’s back in front of me, and tried to ignore the feeling that the terrain was somehow warping around us.

We rounded a large boulder, and came upon a cave mouth. Telvaris went right in, even though it was so small we had to crouch to enter it in single file. Inside was a dry, winding little cave that descended quickly into the earth. In the space of maybe a hundred feet it expanded to a size that allowed us to walk comfortably again, and then more until we could have gone two abreast.

The interior was lightless, of course. But a dim, phosphorescent glow rose up around us as we walked into the gloom. The bracers and headbands we all wore glowed in various shades of blue and green, individually no brighter than a candle, but collectively more than enough to light our path. The light gradually dimmed as our eyes adjusted, which I thought was a particularly nice touch.

“Welcome to the Underways,” Othvin said quietly. “From here any member of our clan can find a path to any place that knows the touch of earth. Some journeys are longer than others, but this one will only take a day or so. Any sign of other travelers, Telvaris?”

“Just the andregi army. The Earth Mother punched a giant hole in the Ways for them, just like we expected.”

“Let’s avoid meeting them, then. A horde of males out for human blood is more likely to take what they want than pay for it, and they won’t be carrying much of what we’re after in any event. We’ll have better luck talking to the matriarchs in Skogheim. Vinyil, from here on in anything you say might be overheard by some power of the earth or the underworld, so do take care to be polite.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I replied. Message received. From here on we were in enemy territory, and the closer we got to Skogheim the worse it would get.

The elves traveled in silence for the most part, either concentrating on their magic or keeping an eye out for trouble. The way the caves kept twisting and mutating around us made it clear that their travel magic was still running, so I tried not to watch the scenery too closely. That left me alone with my own thoughts.

Was this crazy expedition really a good idea? What if Gaea had some way to track my movements? Would we have any chance at all of escaping if we got caught? Or would the tunnel walls just suddenly close in around us, crushing the elves and leaving me entombed far underground until my air supply ran out?

Dwelling on that was a bad idea. I went back to studying the translation ring for a while, contemplating other uses for the design. Was it possible to encode arbitrary skills in an enchantment? Could I build something like that quickly enough to matter, or would it be a multi-year project? What if the enchantment held only a small amount of information, like a secret message?

When I got tired of chewing on that I took a few peeks at the travel magic, trying to understand those weird magical fields. For once my metamagic sorcery didn’t tell me much about what they were doing, although it laid out the structure of the spell easily enough. Did that mean the effect was something I didn’t have a good frame of reference for? Probably. Some kind of reality manipulation effect, to cross space and alternate dimensions in a way that was lot less straightforward than opening a wormhole?

There was so much I didn’t know about the magic of this world. I really needed to spend a few months learning what my witches could tell me about that, and reading the Conclave’s library.

I snorted. Yeah, fat chance of that happening anytime soon.

It was hard to keep track of time in the caves. It felt like we’d been marching forever when we finally came to a cave that showed signs of life. It was big, probably hundreds of feet across, and lit by a faint green glow emanating from patches of giant toadstools growing here and there. Most of the cave’s center was occupied by a small lake, fed by a stream cascading down one wall.

Most of the floor was steeply sloped and terraced, like a lot of natural caverns I’d seen back home. Telvaris led us along a narrow trail to a relatively flat terrace several feet above water level, and stopped. Othvin looked over the spot approvingly.

“Yes, this will do for a campsite. Cold camp, obviously, and we’ll post watches. There’s not enough flora here to support large predators, but there’s always a risk of something wandering in from elsewhere.”

I did my best to copy the others as I laid out the thin bedroll Tavrin had given me. There wasn’t much conversation among the others, probably because of where we were. We ate a light meal of elven trail rations, which rather reminded me of granola bars, and then laid down to sleep.

My bedroll was surprisingly comfortable, which I really should have expected by this point. But I still found myself tossing and turning. Worrying about all the things that could go wrong on this mission. All the things that could go wrong back home, when I wasn’t there to defend the island. All the problems I was putting off dealing with, in hopes of removing the andregi as a threat.

Sleep was a long time coming.

Chapter 24

Unlike the road from Midgard, the path into Skogheim was not unguarded. A few hours into our march the next day we encountered our first patrol, a rather ragtag band of ape men carrying javelins and stone axes. They were accompanied by a pair of dog-sized dinosaurs, bipedal things with long legs and oversized mouths. Their handler led them up and down our column, where they sniffed all of us suspiciously while Othvin answered their questions.

Apparently dark elf traders weren’t entirely unexpected, because they eventually let us pass. We encountered a second party an hour later, and not long after that we came to the gates.

When Tavrin had mentioned the gates of Skogheim I’d pictured some giant stone fortification, but the reality was rather different. As we approached Skogheim the tunnel opened out into a huge underground chamber, probably a quarter of a mile across. What looked like a giant tree trunk, gnarled and twisted with age, rose from the center of the cavern to stretch all the way through the roof. It must have been a hundred feet thick, and its roots turned much of the cavern floor into an uneven obstacle course.

A wide opening in one side of the trunk was obscured by a shimmering veil of magic, from which an army of ape men marched forth. Infantry, triceratops cavalry, stegosauruses with rows of huge sacks hung along their sides. There must have been a thousand andregi in the cavern, but they paid us no mind. The whole column marched along a path between the roots, and vanished into a tunnel mouth on the other side of the cavern.

I could see all of this because there were bamboo poles supporting glowing orange balls set up all over the cavern. Winding trails of them marked the routes to several other tunnels, and a double circle lit the area immediately around the tree. There were clusters of them at various points around the edge of the cave as well, including our own position.

The army might be ignoring us, but there were a hundred or so guards that didn’t. These ape men were armed and armored a lot like the ones I’d fought in Kozalin, and a squad was immediately sent out across the cave to challenge us.

“Halt! Who comes to the Hidden Land?” their leader called once we were within shouting distance.

“Traders from Clan Vinyathos,” Othvin replied. “We come to do business with the matriarchs.”

The ape man spat in disgust. “Money grubbing elves. Can’t you see that the Great Mother’s holy crusade has finally begun? Do you think we want our moment of triumph sullied with your greed?”

“On the contrary, I think this would be an excellent time to introduce certain human kings to the wonders of cocaine. Perhaps immediately before they meet to make battle plans? But in any event, wouldn’t that be a decision for the matriarchs?”

The patrol leader eyed him uncertainly for a moment. Then he gave a snort. “Treacherous elves. Fine. Plead your case in the market, for all the good it will do you. Don’t cause any trouble, or none of you will be going home.”

He spat again, and I realized he had a wad of something in his mouth. Chewing tobacco? Something like that, at any rate.

As we passed on into the lighted area I saw that the glowing balls were actually some kind of gourd. Weird, but I suppose it was in line with the rest of the andregi magic I’d seen. Their version of ‘nature magic’ seemed to involve a lot of magical mutations, and glowing vegetables were probably easier to make than giant dinosaurs with extra horns everywhere.

We had to wait at the gate for a few minutes, as the soldiers continued to march out. There were already a couple of andregi that looked like messengers waiting, as well as some laborers hauling two-wheeled carts full of… was that dinosaur dung? Lovely. I guess someone had to clean up after the armies, or they’d be knee-deep in the stuff after a week or two.

About fifteen minutes after our arrival the flow of troops finally stopped. A harried-looking andregi with patches of gray in his fur stepped through, and waved us forward.

“Move it, you sad sacks. I don’t have all day. Wait, elves? Hah! Better move those skinny asses, before you get trampled!”

We hurried forward as he stepped back through the gate, and found ourselves blinking in bright sunlight. I was glad the light in the cave had been relatively bright, or I would have been completely blinded. As it was I squinted against the glare, and followed Othvin in a hasty move to our right.

The reason for that became apparent a few seconds later, when a troop of triceratops cavalry started through the gate. If we’d moved a little slower they would have walked right over us.

“Friendly, aren’t they?” I muttered.

“For them, this is friendly,” Othvin replied.

As my eyes adjusted I saw that we were standing in a wide field of hard-packed dirt. Behind us was a vast tree, apparently a continuation of the trunk we’d seen in the Underways, that rose hundreds of feet into the air and shaded the whole field. The gate looked pretty much the same on this side, but there were thousands of andregi moving around in the field. Companies of troops waiting for their turn at the gate, older andregi directing traffic, vendors hawking their wares to the troops, even a small crowd of what seemed to be spectators.

It was blazing hot, a shocking contrast to the bitter cold of Kozalin. An immense stench of sweat, dung and rotting meat filled the humid air, along with the din of thousands of people crammed far too close together. Trees surrounded the field on every side, but we were clearly in the middle of a settlement.

Perhaps the most disorienting thing, though, was the sky. Or rather, the lack of one. Instead of a featureless blue dome overhead, I could make out the shapes of seas and land masses far away on the opposite side of Skogheim. Almost like those pictures of the Earth from space, except that there was a faintly bluish haze that obscured the smaller details.

Othvin looked around for a moment to get his bearings, and then led us off towards one edge of the clearing. We fought our way through the crowd of pushy, smelly giants, and finally made it onto a wide path winding through a stand of banana trees. Things were a lot less crowded there, although the smell wasn’t much better. Swarms of insects filled the air, and I was sure at least half of them wanted to suck my blood.

Oddly enough, none of the bugs actually settled on me for long. Oh, yeah, one of those bangles in my hair was an insect repelling charm, wasn’t it? Now if only I had one that turned off my sense of smell.

“The market is this way,” Othvin announced. “For those of you who haven’t been here before, this is the town of Ugrot. It’s spread out over several square miles of jungle, and the permanent population is around thirty thousand. But don’t ever make the mistake of referring to it as a city. The andregi would consider that a mortal insult.”

I noticed then that there were buildings placed here and there among the trees. Most of them looked like someone had warped a stand of trees into a crude approximation of a building, and then finished it off with bamboo walls and grass roofs. Between these large edifices stood clumps of smaller huts, built from various combinations of wood, bamboo and woven grass. They all seemed to be residential structures, rather than shops or other businesses.

I didn’t even want to think about how many bugs had to be living in those buildings. Especially the roofs. Ugh. Kozalin was bad enough, but at least they had some concept of basic sanitation there. The andregi were clearly still at the ‘throw your shit in the street and let the rain wash it away’ level of urban development.

“Do they have inns here?” Withril asked, sounding about as enthused by the prospect as I was.

“Thankfully, no,” Othvin said. “There is a campsite at the market reserved for visiting traders. We’ll set up there, and wait for a matriarch to contact us. No wandering around to explore, though. There’s no law enforcement in Ugrot, and as you may have noticed we aren’t especially well liked here. Most likely no one will bother us as long as we’re in a group, but going off alone would make you a target. Oh, and no killing, no matter what happens. If someone does attack you you’ll have to beat him up with your fists, or else we’ll end up having to deal with all his friends and relatives too.”

“Lovely,” Withril muttered.

“Any other dangers to be aware of?” Telvaris asked. Considering how rarely he spoke that caught my attention, and I realized he was probably asking for my benefit.

“Ah, yes, I almost forgot. This is a rather important area to the andregi, and not just because of the gate. The Halls of Slumber are only forty miles that way, and the residence of the Great Earth Mother is not far beyond. Those of her children who live there actually visit Ugrot sometimes, so it’s possible we might encounter one.

“Most of her sons here had andregi fathers, so they look like the locals only bigger and meaner. If you encounter one, your best hope of survival is to give him whatever he wants while seeming as boring as possible. Don’t bow and scrape too much, or he’s likely to become disgusted and kill you out of hand. Just act like a junior warrior in the presence of a general.

“As for her daughter, well, the Unraveller probably has greater concerns on her mind than an elven trading party. But in the unlikely event that you meet a beautiful woman with long red hair, be polite and entertaining and give her whatever she wants. Do not, under any circumstances, flirt with her. Either she’ll take offense and incinerate you, or she’ll drag you back to the palace and fuck you to death.”

“Wait, seriously?” I broke in. “Why? Is that even possible?”

“We’re talking about someone with divine strength, Vinyil. Of course it’s possible. As for the rest, I wouldn’t dare speculate about the motives of a daughter of Loki. Just hope we don’t meet her, and if we do, try not to irritate her.”

“Understood.”

Mara had never struck me as the type to do something like that. Granted, she’d also been undercover, and she was a pretty decent actress. But I still couldn’t see it. What kind of insanity would drive a woman to act that way?

I was struck by a sudden, terrible thought. Mara had no andregi blood. Her half-brothers did, and all of them were older and probably more powerful than she was.

“Othvin? That bit you explained about andregi mating customs. Is there anything that prevents them from reacting to-”

“Drop it, Vinyil,” he said gruffly. “Some subjects aren’t fit for conversation, especially here.”

Well, fuck. That pretty much answered the question, didn’t it?

Was that why she’d been so desperate to keep the amulet she’d stolen from me? At the time I’d thought she just wanted to use it against the Aesir. But what had she actually said?

‘As long as I have it they’ll never… well, it would be really useful.’

Yeah. Maybe I’d just irradiate Gaea’s palace too, as long as I was here. No, damn it, they were all demigods. Death wasn’t necessarily permanent for them, and besides for all I knew Mara might be there.

I brooded the rest of the way to the market.

This time we set up tents as part of our camp. They were clever folding things that I didn’t dare touch, for fear of making it obvious I had no idea how they worked. The guys got them unfolded into a trio of good-sized domes in no time, of course. They even had a magical heating stone, so we could theoretically cook without violating Gaea’s ban on fires.

After that there was nothing to do but sit back and wait.

It didn’t take five minutes for the first female andregi to wander over for a chat. Given the character of this place I’d half expected her to be covered up like a nun, but the reality was a lot more National Geographic than that. Most of the male andregi in the market didn’t wear more than a loincloth unless they were soldiers, and the women weren’t much different. Not that I particularly wanted to see what they were showing off. Ugh. Hair. Hair everywhere. Not to mention the big, square jaws and brow ridges.

I retreated into one of the tents, trusting Othvin to handle our cover mission. I was going to be busy this evening, but right now I needed to think. Or maybe work. Could I put up a divination ward tight enough to hide enchanting work? Yes, with the tent to anchor the ward it would be easy.

I spent some hours engrossed in an interesting bit of enchantment. Maybe not the most productive thing I could have done, but it distracted me from my worries. I probably would have spent all afternoon at that, if I hadn’t been distracted by Nalvin frantically shaking my shoulder.

“Vinyil,” he hissed. “Come, quickly.”

I followed him out of the tent, and found Othvin trying to pacify a disgruntled andregi who made Brand look puny in comparison. He had to be nine feet tall, with a chest so broad he must have to turn sideways to fit through doors. Damn, his biceps were bigger around than my torso. The tusks protruding from his mouth didn’t fit the rest of the picture, though, and his skin had an odd gray tone to it.

“-don’t care about your excuses!” He was shouting. “You little cocksuckers promised me a ring that can stop dragon fire, and you’re not going to weasel out of the deal.”

“If you’ll just give me a moment,” Othvin temporized.

“I’ve waited two years for this!” the ape man roared. “I’m not waiting any longer. Now cough up my ring before I start cracking skulls.”

Othvin’s gaze fell on me. “Vinyil! There you are. It seems that someone has been bargaining in bad faith with the mighty Korak. Do you have anything on you that will meet his requirements?”

“A warding ring that can withstand dragon fire? Well, yes, actually. But it’s too small to fit on his fingers, so I’ll have to resize it.”

Now he was looming over me instead of Othvin. “Show me.”

I reached into my belt pouch, and made my earth talisman shape itself into a ring of polished obsidian sized to fit an elven finger. Then I took it out, and showed it to him.

He frowned at it. “It’s stone. Won’t it break?”

“It’s enchanted to be unbreakable,” I told him. “It won’t stand up to Thor’s hammer, but you could punch out a dragon while wearing it.”

He plucked it out of my hand, and tried to crush it between his fingers. The pressure put a surprisingly large load on the talisman’s structural reinforcement spell, but not nearly enough to break it.

“Huh.” He tossed the ring back to me. “Fix it.”

“Of course. Ah, it will take me a little time-”

“No tricks, you little shitstain. You sit down right there and fix it. I’ll wait.”

He folded his arms, and stood there glaring at me. Crap.

I wasn’t enthused about giving an enemy my earth talisman, even if it was replaceable. But if we wanted to avoid attention I’d have to play along for now. I took a seat next to the heating stone, and started pretending to enlarge the ring while actually putting a fire resistance spell on it. Fortunately that was a simple effect, and the talisman already had a power source and a good-size energy reserve. So it should hold up well enough to anything he might do to test it.

Then an ugly thought occurred to me. I added a little failsafe, just in case.

It was a little tricky, but I think I managed to make it look convincing. When it looked about the right size I had Korak try it on, and fiddled with minor adjustments until he was satisfied. Then he put it on, and picked up the heating stone.

“Huh. Doesn’t even feel hot,” he noted.

He looked at the stone in his hand for a moment, considering something. Then his lips slowly curled into an ugly smile.

“Finally, something that might get the job done. Rendall is going to flip his shit when he finds out he’s not the only one who can pull this off anymore. Fuck, this is gonna be great. You little fudge packers better not go anywhere, now. I’m going to go test this thing out. If it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, I’ll be back.”

He walked away. The elves all watched him nervously until he disappeared around a corner. Then they turned questioning eyes my way.

“Were you really just randomly walking around with a device that can resist dragon fire?” Othvin asked.

I shrugged. “You never know when you might have to fight a dragon. It does a lot of other things too, so I’m not real happy about letting it go. If you’ll excuse me, I need to do something about making a replacement.”

In reality I was planning to steal it back, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud in Gaea’s realm. For all I knew she might be listening.

I finished the project I’d originally been working on, and then turned my attention to making a plausible-looking copy of the ‘ring’ I’d given Korak. An obsidian ring with a good-size power battery, fed by ambient mana. A fire resistance spell, a basic structural reinforcement, and a divination ward of the same design as the one I’d added to my talisman. Korak hadn’t seemed very perceptive, so that should make it look the same to whatever magical senses he might have. But unlike my earth talisman, this ring would quickly run out of power if it was used in a serious fight. Too bad I wouldn’t be able to see the look on his face when that happened.

Of course, I still had to figure out a way to make the switch. The link between the talisman and my control ring would let me find it anywhere, but sneaking into Gaea’s palace didn’t seem like a good idea. Maybe I could catch him out carousing in town, or something?

I looked up from my work to find Telvaris calmly watching me.

“It got dark a couple of hours ago,” he said. “Town’s getting pretty quiet now.”

“Good. I suppose I’ve done all I can here for now. Let me have another look at that map.”

I’d been amused to discover that Tavrin had a detailed map of this part of Skogheim, despite the fact that the andregi had no cartographers of their own and supposedly didn’t let visitors go wandering around. I probably could have done this mission without it, but it was handy to actually be able to see how the area around the gate was laid out.

The map arbitrarily designated one of the poles as North, with the other compass directions based around that. Ugrot was located in a wide stretch of tropical jungle, bounded by a mountain range several hundred miles to the west and an inland sea eighty miles to the east. More usefully, there was a major river than ran past both the town and the Halls of Slumber. That was the landmark I’d be using to find my way on what would hopefully be a short trip. But if I got completely lost I could always go east until I hit the coast, and then follow the river back up to town.

I’d wondered at first how a place like Skogheim could even have nights, but the answer was pretty straightforward. For ten hours out of every day the sun shrank into a tiny ball of fire, shedding only a dim glow across the landscape. The yellow light was a strange contrast to normal moonlight, but with elven night vision it should be more than enough to let me find my way.

Othvin was waiting when I emerged from the tent.

“How’d we do?” I asked.

“We’ll be ready to leave by midday tomorrow,” he assured me.

“That was fast.”

“These little deals don’t take much time to arrange. There are always some matriarchs looking for new jewelry, and word gets around fast when a party of elves comes to town. The andregi don’t do any mining of their own, so we’re their only source of the gems they like. I, ah, apologize about the ring business.”

I waved off his concern. “It’s not your fault. I’ll deal with it, one way or another. So, I’ve got the location, but what exactly does this place look like?”

“Watch for the magic,” he advised. “It’s unmistakable. Good luck.”

“Thanks.”

I took another look around, verifying again that there were no andregi watching us. The trees cast deep shadows all around us, but my new eyes could pierce the darkness just fine. We were alone.

I rose silently into the air.

It was a good thing I’d taken the time to figure out how to fly, because I’d never have been able to pull this off otherwise. I threaded my way between the branches of the trees that towered overhead, until I emerged into the somewhat brighter air above the forest canopy.

From there a sea of green stretched out in all directions as far as the eye could see. There was no horizon, of course. Instead, in the far distance the ground gradually curved up until it vanished in the haze of endless miles of air. Higher up, more distant lands emerged from the haze to form walls that seemed to merge into a dome high overhead.

That told me that Skogheim’s atmosphere was just like Earth’s, thinning with altitude until it finally faded to vacuum. Air isn’t perfectly transparent, and Skogheim was nearly two thousand miles in diameter. If there was air all the way up the far side would be invisible, and even the sun would probably just be an indistinct bright patch in the sky.

Not that the local astronomy meant much to me at the moment. I scanned the sky for air cavalry, and cautiously rose a few hundred feet when I didn’t find any. From there I could see the river I meant to follow.

I paused to cast a minor enchantment on the top of the nearest tree, basically just a marker so I’d be able to pick it out with my magic sight when I returned. Then I set out for the river.

There didn’t seem to be any air patrols, which I’d hoped would be the case since flying at night is suicide unless you’ve got some amazing night vision. But there could still be watchtowers, or detection wards, or even ground patrols in the wrong place at the wrong time. So I stayed down near the treetops, and kept a sharp eye on my surroundings.

It took about an hour to find the Halls of Slumber, and just as Othvin had said it was the magic I spotted first. As I’d expected by this point it wasn’t a conventional building at all, but rather a vast expanse of strangely mutated plants.

A dense hedge two stories tall surrounded the complex, and inside were wide expanses of odd-looking dwarf trees that grew in dense tangles much shorter than the surrounding jungle. There were a lot of those glowing gourds set up around the entrances to the complex and various parts of the interior, and hundreds of andregi on guard. Not to mention an army of several thousand encamped just outside, ready to respond to any disturbance.

That was fine, though. I didn’t need to fight the army, and the fact that the guards were all standing in bright light made it easy to sneak up on them. I carefully drifted closer, using the taller trees as cover just in case, until I had a decent view of the layout.

Beneath the thin branches of the dwarf trees there were hundreds of long, wandering paths. Lining each path were endless rows of big green pods glowing with magic. I studied the magic on them for a moment, thankful that my metamagic sorcery made it so easy to figure out enchantments just by looking at them.

Yeah, just like I’d thought. They were suspended animation pods. Each one held an andregi warrior in an enchanted sleep, kept alive by the twisted life magic coursing through the trees. It was a strange form of magic, and not very tightly woven either. Wisps of magic leaked out of the trees, forming a haze of distorted enchantment that could have all sorts of unpleasant effects on visitors who were careless enough to fall asleep.

There were wards over the whole place, too. I picked a vantage point near the edge of the warding dome, and spent a few minutes studying it.

Multiple detection wards, mostly focused on spotting humans and divination magic. Barriers to keep out fire, lightning and a variety of curses and attack spells. Several curses that would attach themselves to any human who entered the area, and a holy ground effect that would suppress the magic of any mage who wasn’t properly attuned to it.

Nothing to stop physical objects from flying over the area, though, and the holy ground effect was tied to physical contact with the earth inside the protected zone. Perfect. I’d hoped that would be the case, since sealing off the plants from natural rainfall would be both a major logistical hassle and a violation of Gaea’s whole back to nature philosophy.

I dropped a perfectly normal-looking pebble on the ground a decent distance back from the edge of the wards, and then backed off and began to circle around the edge of the perimeter.

That trip really drove home how enormous this place was. The hedge just went on and on, an endless wall of green dividing the tangled maze of suspended animation trees from the jungle outside. I kept track of my pace as well as I could, and dropped another pebble every half mile or so.

I passed a section of much bigger paths lined with huge pods, each big enough to hold a dinosaur. Cavalry, apparently. The trees were bigger there as well, and the magical leakage was denser. Strong enough to be dangerous even to waking people, if they lingered too long. Was that an extra layer of defense, or was Gaea just sloppy about her spell work?

I dropped a pebble, and went on.

I passed an area where the pods had been cut down from the trees, and torn open. Thousands of withered brown husks were strewn haphazardly across the paths, and here and there I saw a body lying among the refuse. Perhaps the suspended animation process wasn’t completely reliable?

I shrugged, and went on. Flitting carefully across the treetops, and dropping a marker pebble every so often. Good thing I could fly now, because this trip would have taken all day on foot.

Maybe more. I’d started with forty of those pebbles, but I was down to less than a dozen when I finally found myself back at my starting point in front of the main entrance. That was, what, a fourteen mile perimeter? Something like ten or twelve square miles covered in mutant plants, each of them bearing dozens of those pods.

I suppressed a shiver. This had better work, or we were going to end up buried in andregi. Even with the weapons I was building, Gaea could field an army big enough to overwhelm us whenever she wanted. I was guessing that logistics were the only reason she hadn’t already done that. Her sleeping warriors had only a few weeks’ worth of rations, and her people didn’t have the infrastructure to feed millions of active fighters for very long. But if she decided to send two hundred thousand troops to attack Kozalin instead of twenty thousand, the city would fall in a day.

Well, I wasn’t going to let that happen. The pebbles would serve to mark the boundaries of the target zone. Time to set up the rest of my little surprise.

I backed off again, retreating a mile or so from the edge of the warded area, and picked out a good vantage point to set up the most complex magical device I’d created to date. It didn’t look like much, just a stone cylinder a few inches long with a couple of bumps in the middle. Those bumps grew at my direction, wrapping around the branch I’d selected and holding the device securely in place.

Aside from that, it would do nothing at all until I moved far enough away to break the link between it and my control ring. That would arm it, but even then it would remain quiescent until the next time the light sensor I’d cobbled together detected a change from daylight to darkness.

That’s when the fun would begin. I’d found a variant on my power enchantment that made a terrifyingly energetic neutron source, and after a day of working with it I’d finally realized that there were simpler ways to apply it to a target than my original concept of smuggling radioactive dust.

Instead, when it activated my little device would let go of the branch and float up to a hundred feet or so above treetop level. Then it would hover over to the target zone, and drift around at random while directing a narrow cone of neutron radiation at the ground below.

Neutrons are invisible, and the divination wards I’d worked into my device would hide it from most methods of detecting magic. There was no ward around the target to detect physical objects entering the area, most likely because the birds and bats that lived in the jungle would have set off something like that constantly. At night there was virtually no chance of such a small object being spotted, and even if someone did catch a glimpse they’d probably assume it was a bat.

So I figured their first warning of danger would come when some of the guards started feeling sick, a few hours after the attack began. After that would come confusion and suspicion, checks for poisoning and exotic diseases, and a slowly growing realization that this wasn’t just a targeted attack on a few guards. But it takes time for radiation sickness to set in, and the random movements of my drone meant that there would be a lot of variability in exposure. The andregi weren’t that organized, and it could easily take them a day to realize the scope of the problem.

By then it would be too late. The device would banish itself at daybreak, and the marker pebbles would go with it. The only thing left would be the radioactive isotopes created by the neutron beam, in the trees and soil and even the bodies of the sleeping warriors.

I could envision the effects. First the trees that had been directly struck by the neutron beam would die, marking the random wandering of my device in trails of brown foliage and failing sleep pods. Any andregi who approached the dead zones would fall sick too, dying in a few days from the high level of residual radiation.

While those unfortunates were still watching their hair fall out the dead zones would spread, as the unstable isotopes created by the neutron beam continued to emit a steady stream of radiation. Pockets of sickness would spring up randomly around the surrounding camps and settlements as well, wherever an andregi managed to accidentally spread a dangerous amount of irradiated dirt or plant matter around.

Within a week, everything in the target zone would be dead. Trees, hedge, sleep pods, waking andregi, wildlife, even most of the insects. It would take months for the radiation to die down to safe levels again. Maybe years.

It was the perfect plan, for a victory that had to remain a secret. Gaea would have no one to blame, no clues about who had destroyed her genocidal army and no real understanding of how it had been done. For the targets who woke up it would be an ugly way to die, but fuck them. After what I’d seen, I didn’t care if they suffered.

As far as I was concerned, eight million dead andregi was a good start.

I checked the enchantments on the device one last time, making sure everything was in order. No sign that I’d been detected, either. Now all I had to do was keep it that way until I got back to our camp.

A distant sound caught my ear. A shout. The distinctive boom of a heavy object striking a metal shield. A scream. What the hell?

I turned back to the Halls, and immediately spotted a brilliant spike of magic that hadn’t been there before. A malevolent spell of warping and devouring… wait, was that a gate? A gate powered by necromancy, that could open anywhere. As far as I knew there was only one of those.

Firelight sprung up among the trees, and the commotion grew. I caught a momentary glimpse of war golems moving down a path spewing streams of flame, before they were hidden behind a column of smoke.

“Fuck! Brand, what are you thinking?” I muttered under my breath. “You can’t destroy this place with a commando raid. It’s too big. It would take days to do any real damage, and you won’t have that kind of time. The wards will put the fires out before they can spread, and you’ll get mobbed by the garrison.”

I watched for another minute, and realized it was worse than I’d thought. The consecration on the Halls was massively powerful, and it was gradually crushing the enchantments on those war golems. The wizards he’d brought were already struggling to maintain their spells, and the gate itself was becoming unstable. If they didn’t pull out quick they were going to get massacred.

Horns were blowing all over the Halls now, and in the encampment as well. More lights appeared, and masses of troops scrambled to meet the threat.

How far was this alarm going to spread?

I spun, scanning the distance, and saw more lights spring up in some kind of treetop perch a couple of miles back in the direction of town. Did the andregi have a signal relay set up?

What if they decided to check up on their visitors, and found me missing?

I fled for the river, cursing under my breath. No clean, leisurely sneak for me now. I had to make it back to camp before whoever was running things in Ugrot got word of the attack.

Chapter 25

I didn’t quite beat the alarm back to Ugrot, but it was close enough. There were horns blowing at several points around the city when I dropped back into the camp, but there were no andregi in view.

Withril and Leskin were outside, peering out into the dark streets of the town.

“What happened?” Withril asked.

“Where’s Othvin?”

“Here.” The merchant stepped out of one of the tents, fully dressed and looking more irritated than nervous.

“Good. I think those idiots in Kozalin staged a raid on the Halls,” I said.

He groaned. “Freya’s tits, this is going to be a mess. Alright, we just need to keep our wits about us. They’ll have closed the gate by now, and I’m sure they’ll want to question us on general principles. But the crazy antics of desperate humans have nothing to do with us, and once they calm down a little they’ll realize that. Unless the attack did some major damage?”

I shook my head. “I doubt it. Either they pulled out quickly, or they got massacred.”

“Well, that’s bad for them, but good for us. I trust you’re prepared to explain your little excursion if questioned on it?”

I shrugged. “I climbed a tree and tried practicing my little trick for possessing wildlife? That’s not a crime here, is it? I just saw the fire from a distance, and decided to take a look.”

“There aren’t any owls in this region, so I assume it must have been a bat,” he mused. “Probably one of the big ones with the red marking around the eyes, since I doubt the smaller breeds would have useable eyesight.”

“Ah, yeah.”

“Well, don’t bring that up unless someone specifically asks about it. More generally, answer questions but volunteer nothing. Most likely we’ll be questioned by some low-ranked matriarch on general suspicion, and be released in time to finish our business.”

There was noise on the street, now. Marching feet, coming rapidly closer.

Othvin leaned closer to whisper in my ear. “If this goes bad, any one of us can get you through the Ways. You’ll just need to hide out in the jungle until they turn the gate back on.”

“Noted,” I said.

Then there was no more time for talking. Forty or so andregi soldiers burst into the market, and moved quickly to surround us.

“What are you puny creatures doing awake at this hour?” The apparent leader demanded. His men leveled their spears at us, ready to attack at the slightest provocation.

“We heard the commotion,” Othvin replied. “It’s hard to sleep through the sound of so many horns.”

How he managed to stay so cool I don’t know. His complete lack of guilt seemed to surprise the officer, but he only hesitated for a moment.

“Hah! A likely story. Hand over your weapons, all of you. The matriarchs will get to the bottom of this plot.”

They took our swords and daggers, and tied our hands behind our backs with thick lengths of rope. But they didn’t bother to search us, so I went along with it. I could get free whenever I wanted to, and I was sure the elves had tricks up their sleeves as well.

More feet approached while they were doing that, but I was too distracted to pay much attention. Until my enhanced hearing picked out a familiar voice.

“…already told you, Gorkul, I’m not going to bother with all that crap when it’s obviously a waste of time. The Red Conclave doesn’t have any svartalfar allies, and they wouldn’t need spies here to launch a raid like that anyway. Brand is the one I ought to be questioning. Those Aesir have to be up to something.”

I risked a glance, and caught a glimpse of long red hair in the middle of a group of especially burly andregi. Fuck. What were the odds?

“Elves are a lot trickier than Aesir, Exalted One,” a male I assumed must be Gorkul replied. “Rendall thinks Korak can handle beating on a prisoner, but if this group is up to something you’re the only one sly enough to see through them.”

“Great. I’m so thrilled my biggest brother thinks I’m a conniving bitch,” Mara said dryly. “Fine, let’s get this over with.”

She shouldered her way through the mob of soldiers, and put her hands on her hips. She looked very different than the last time I’d seen her, in Kozalin. She’d traded out the dress for boots, a short leather skirt and a leather halter top held together by rawhide lacing in the front. The outfit barely covered the essentials, and there was a wide gap between the two panels of her top that exposed the slopes of her breasts through the laces.

“Alright you devious fuckers, obviously something big is going down and it’s time for the obligatory questioning of foreigners. You’re going to tell me all about whatever petty smuggling and spying and shit you’re really up to here, and if none of it is what I’m checking for I’m going to shrug and say I don’t give a fuck. Then you all get to go home in one piece, got it?”

Othvin bowed. “Of course, Exalted One. We live to serve. Where should I begin?”

“Names,” Mara growled.

Crap, crap, crap. What do I do? Well, there’s always a chance she won’t recognize me with pointy ears.

“Of course. I am Othvin, the lead trader for this expedition. This is my special assistant Telvaris, my guards Withril, Leskin and Nalvin, and our mage Vinyil.”

Mara studied each elf intently as he was named, until he came to me. My heart sank as I watched the astonished shock spread across her face.

“You!”

“Hello, Mara. How are you doing? I have to say, the Amazon goddess look really works for you.”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” She shouted. “Have you completely lost your mind? Do you have any idea what… ah, fuck. Damn it! ”

Her face was turning red. Little flames sprung up in her hair, and danced along her arms. The andregi soldiers were all slowly backing away.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” I said. “I’m not here to cause trouble for you. I even brought you a present.”

“A… a present?”

Her flush deepened, and she looked adorably confused for a moment. But then the anger was back.

“You!” She shook her finger in my face. “You have a lot of explaining to do, mister. But not here. Gorkul, I’ve changed my mind. We’re taking these suspicious foreigners in for intensive questioning.”

She grabbed me by my braid, and set off across the market with me. I stumbled, and she used her handhold to shove me in front of her. Her other hand came to rest on my shoulder, and squeezed it tightly.

“Crazy man,” she grumbled under her breath. “Don’t struggle, or I’ll have to hit you.”

“I-”

“Shut up, ‘Vinyil’. Not here.”

I shut up.

We walked for some distance through the dark streets of the town, until we reached a clearing lit by more glowing gourds on sticks. There was a party of andregi on guard there, around a large stone disk set into the ground. Mara pushed me onto the disk, and directed the rest of the group to gather around us.

“Come on, come on. Guards, too. Yeah, all you limp dicks from the town guard are coming with us. I want lots of eyes on these guys. Make sure nothing is sticking out past the edge of the rock, or you’re going to lose it.

Mara fed a pulse of magic into the stone, and our surroundings changed in a flash. Now we were standing on a different stone, in the middle of a field of flowers. A gravel path led off across the field, past a stand of banana trees and up to a large passageway cut into a steep-sided hill.

“This way.”

My captor paused to pick a couple of bananas from one of the trees, and led us into the hill. The maze of passages inside was lit by windows and skylights, which let in more than enough light for elven vision even at night. It didn’t seem to bother Mara either, but our guards stumbled around running into walls and furniture until she lit up her hair again with an aggravated sigh.

We went down a flight of stairs, and then another. The skylights were replaced by glowing stones set into the walls, that shed a steady orange glow bright enough to read by. At two points we passed through heavy wooden doors guarded by groups of andregi heroes with blood weapons and armor, much like the elites I’d fought in Kozalin. Enough of them that I wasn’t at all sure I could get my people out of here if things went south.

Finally we came to a door that was made of stone, and closed. There was a little vision slit in it, and an andregi peering through from the other side.

“Open up, boys,” Mara ordered. “I’ve got some fresh customers.”

“Elves, huh? They won’t last long.”

The door swung open, and I was dismayed to find that the room on the other side was a torture chamber. A primitive one, with implements of wood and bone instead of metal, but it was still pretty obvious what they were for.

Mara shoved me roughly into the room, and the guards manhandled my companions in after us. Crap. Had I misjudged the situation? But she knew about my amulet, and she hadn’t tried to take it.

It was a big room, brightly lit by numerous glowing stones in the ceiling. One whole side opened up onto a giant pit, while a row of tiny cells lined the opposite wall. A couple of human prisoners were tied to posts around the edges of the room, and in the middle a hugely muscled form was strapped to a heavy wooden frame.

Brand looked up impassively as we entered. He looked like hell. Bruised and battered, with bloody wounds all over his arms and torso. He glared at Mara.

“You’ll get nothing from me, Unraveller.”

“I’m not here for you, dumbass. You’re my brother’s problem, and why isn’t he down here anyway? You guys should know better than to leave an Aesir this lightly guarded.”

There were a half-dozen andregi in the room, all of them pretty mean-looking customers. Still a good point, although I could see that the cords around Brand’s wrists and ankles were enchanted to sap his strength.

One of the guards shrugged. Or were they torturers?

“Lorin and Nerg had stuff to do, and Korak hasn’t shown up yet. I sent word up to Rendall, but I haven’t heard back yet.”

“What a pack of useless idiots,” Mara grumbled. “Fine, these guys are your reinforcements until someone who’s actually tough shows up. Gorkul, you’re the only guy here with any sense. Keep an eye on things, and give our guest a kick in the balls or something if he causes any trouble. Just get your ass out of here quick when Korak finally shows up. I don’t need him kicking your ass again.”

“What about the elves?” Gorkul asked.

“Put them in the cells,” she ordered. “Let them enjoy the view for a while, but nobody gets to touch them but me. I’m taking this one in the back for some personal attention.”

There was some laughter among the guards at that. Mara rolled her eyes, but another sound interrupted before she could say anything.

There was something in the pit. Something big and hideous and full of demonic magic. It was too deep to get a clear look from this angle, but I caught glimpses of an armored shell and huge crab-like claws as it shifted and hissed. And teeth. Way too many long, sharp teeth, in mouths that seemed to be mounted on the ends of thick tentacles.

“Oh, do you like our little pet?” Mara said. “He’s a god eater from the Stygian Abyss. Mom calls him Biter, because when he takes a piece out of you it’s not just your flesh he eats. Hey Brand, think you can guess what we’re going to do with you when we’re done asking questions?”

“I thought you weren’t going to bother with me, Unraveller?”

He was trying to act tough, but his eyes kept straying back to the monster as it moved. A long stalk with three eyes on the end rose up from the pit, and looked at him hungrily.

Mara turned a malicious grin on him. “Good thing he can’t climb, huh? Don’t worry, asshole, we’re not allowed to mess with each other’s prisoners. Too bad, cause I’d love to get a little payback on you for dad. Come on, elf boy. You’ve got some questions to answer.”

The elves were all securely locked into the barred cells by then. Mara pulled me across to the other side of the room, through a door I hadn’t noticed and down a short hallway into another room. There she slammed the heavy wooden door shut, and threw the bolt.

“There. Mom’s off fighting with Sigyn over who gets to fuck dad, and no one else can spy on us here. Now talk.”

“Well, okay. About what?”

She grabbed me by the front of my leather armor, and slammed me against the stone wall with an inarticulate cry of rage.

“Don’t pull that shit with me, Daniel! What the fuck are you doing here? Do you realize how dangerous this is? Yeah, mom’s kind of dumb, but if she figures out who you are you’re never getting out of here.”

Shit, she was strong. When did she get so violent? Keep it cool, Daniel, if she’s worried about you that’s actually a good sign.

“Yeah, hence the whole being an elf thing. I’m being careful, Mara. You’re the only one here who would recognize me.”

“And I’m supposed to just keep that a secret?” She shot back. “While you blow up mom’s house or something? I have to live here, Daniel.”

“I’m not planning to blow up your mother’s palace, Mara. All that would do is piss her off, and why would I go out of my way to do that? I have enough problems without having an elder goddess specifically out for my blood.”

“Then why are you here?” She growled.

“Your mother keeps sending these crazy ape men to kill me. I got tired of washing the blood off my walls, and decided to find a better way to stop them.”

“Recon?” She stared at me incredulously. She dropped me, and threw up her hands in disgust. “Recon! Don’t you have elves for that shit now? Why are you doing it yourself? Damn it, half the guards are going to think I’m fucking you now.”

“Wait, what? Why would they think that?” I asked, confused.

“Hello! You were calling me by name, and acting like you know me. Besides, this is where I take guys when I get too pent up, and can’t hold out any longer.”

I looked over what was obviously set up as a private torture chamber. There were a couple of thick wooden posts to tie prisoners to, a heavy wooden table with blood gutters around the rim, and a big x-frame in the middle of the room. A set of shelves on the wall held a variety of whips, obsidian knives, ropes and weights of various sizes, and some implements of wood and stone that I couldn’t immediately identify.

“You bring your lovers here for trysts? Kinky.”

She huffed, and sat down on the edge of the table. “I don’t have lovers, dummy. My brothers kill anyone I fuck, so I don’t do it with anyone I actually like.”

“They do? Why would they do that?”

“Because they think the guy with the biggest muscles is supposed to get the girl, and there’s no one here that can fight them? It really pisses them off when I do it with some ‘inferior’ guy instead. I only meant to do it here once. Just to make a point, and get back at the assholes. But then mom got this bright idea about ‘fixing’ me, and now I… well, I can’t hold it back forever, but I can still stick it to them in my own way.”

“Oh. Damn. What does she have against you, anyway?”

She held out her hand, and a tongue of flame sprang up from her palm. “Think about it, Daniel. Mom doesn’t even allow fires in Skogheim. She thought banging Loki would get her a daughter who was like her, only good with magic. Instead I’m practically a living embodiment of everything she hates.”

“That’s it?” I shook my head. “Don’t take this the wrong way, Mara, but your family is profoundly fucked up.”

A bitter laugh escaped her lips. “You have no idea. Why do you think I was so tempted by your crazy offer? Too bad I missed the boat on that.”

“We are kind of busy killing each other’s allies and minions, aren’t we? But you know, we don’t have to hold that against each other if we don’t want to. I mean, would it actually bother you if I blew up one of your brothers at Kozalin?”

“You already have. You should have heard Lorin ranting about that crazy shit you pulled on his army. Mom had to help him reform his body, and he’s still too fucked up to leave Skogheim.”

She was smiling now. A small one, but smiling Mara was definitely better than raging Mara.

“Well, there you go. Feel free to send them over to get blown up again whenever they piss you off. Trust me, I’ve got a plentiful supply of explosions.”

“I just might do that,” she said. She stood, and gave me a speculative look. “You’re really not afraid of my brothers, are you?”

“No, not really. Grinder doesn’t care how big their muscles are.”

“Muscles are overrated,” she agreed. “Real power is mind and magic, working together. I still can’t believe you managed to cut me with a fire weapon when I was in full monster form.”

“It didn’t slow you down much,” I pointed out.

“I healed. I always do,” she said. “But now you’re in my citadel, and you can’t just run out the door to get away. I’ve got an army here, and eight of my brothers, and mom will come right back if any of us call her. I’ve got you right where I want you.”

She took a step towards me, her hips swaying.

“You owe me big time for not ratting you out, you know,” she told me.

“Maybe I’ll have a chance to return the favor someday.”

“No, you’re going to pay me back right now,” she purred.

She pushed me back against the wall, and crushed her lips against mine. Her kiss was a hungry, demanding thing, surging with violence and raw need. Crap, this was not the reaction I was expecting. I didn’t need another complication, but my body was eagerly responding. Her lean, strong curves pressed against me, so hot it almost burned. I kissed her back.

Her hand snaked down into my pants, and roughly groped me.

“Hah! No little elven dick, huh?”

Her firm breasts were crushed against my chest, and her hungry eyes filled my vision.

“Hell, no,” I growled back. “They look stupid.”

She laughed. “Yeah. Silly little pink things. Come here, you. Make me feel good, and maybe I’ll take you for a ride.”

She grabbed me by the damned braid again, and pulled me over to kneel at her feet while she leaned back against the table. There were no panties under her skirt. Just a little tuft of red fur, and a warm center already slick with desire.

Well, hell. I wasn’t getting out of this, so I might as well do it right.

I put my tongue to work. Having my hands tied behind my back was a problem, but I had other options. I reached out through the point of contact with my sorcery, and told her sensitive flesh to become even more sensitive.

She gasped, and pulled me in with both hands in my hair. Good thing my amulet kept me from suffocating, because she didn’t let up either. I could feel the arousal coiling in her belly, already rising towards release. Had she really been that pent up?

No, it was more than that. Her body’s reactions were off, somehow. Warped. Twisted by magic and trauma into a burning knot of frustrated need that was impossible to satisfy, and that was just the physical aspects that my sorcery could read. God only knows what the more psychological effects were like.

That part was beyond my reach, but the physical side was another matter. I insinuated my magic deeper into her body, taking advantage of her growing distraction. Her power made her hard to influence, but I wasn’t trying to do anything big.

A subtle deflection postponed her impending climax, giving me more time to work. Time to ramp her pleasure higher. Wind her focus tighter. Coax her magic into the same rhythm as her body. A single, unified song of passion instead of a cacophony of discordant notes. All of it leading inexorable up, and up, and higher still.

Mara gasped, and cursed, and whined in pure animal need. Her hands clenched around my head with inhuman strength. I ignored the pain, focused on picking the perfect moment. Right… about… now.

A high-pitched shriek erupted from her lips as Mara went over the edge. Her whole body spasmed, and her feet left the floor. I caught her with my force magic before she could fall, and held her up as she convulsed in rapture.

I let her come down a little, and took her right back up to an even higher peak before she could catch her breath. This time I took advantage of her distraction to cut the rope around my wrists with a blade of force magic, so I could work two fingers inside her and stroke her g-spot. That set her off yet again, and this time I managed to turn her release into a series of rapid-fire orgasms that lasted for minutes.

When that finally faded I let her come back down a little. She sagged, panting for breath, and for a moment I worried that I’d overdone it. A normal woman would probably have been unconscious after that last part. Maybe I should be more careful not to get carried away?

Then Mara grabbed me, and threw me across the table. She paused to pull her top off while I was stunned from the impact, and went for my pants.

“Holy fuck, that was intense,” she growled. “You’d better have a big dick in here for me, because I’m going to kill your ass if I don’t get a good cock stuffing now.”

She pulled my pants out of the way, and threw one leg across my body to straddle me. I reached for her breasts, but she pinned my hands down with hers.

“Ah ah! I’ll say when you can touch them,” she said. “First you’ve got to show me what this bad boy can do.”

She sank down onto me, taking everything I had in one long stroke. Her eyes half closed, and she gave a satisfied sigh.

“Oh, yeah. That’s what I needed. Not the biggest I’ve had, but it’ll get the job done.”

“You really know how to pamper a guy’s ego, Mara,” I said dryly.

She laughed. “You’ve got to earn that shit with me, Daniel. Is this thing as magic as your tongue?”

In reply I renewed the connection, and started feeding her pleasure again. Her sudden intake of breath told me she was feeling it. Her eyes lidded, and she leaned forward to dangle her breasts above my face.

“Yeah, keep it just like that.”

Then she began to move.

I could see that she needed to feel in control, so I let her set the pace. She took full advantage of her inhuman strength to hold me down and have her way with me, but she was so damned sexy I didn’t really mind. She rode me through three more orgasms, before my control finally gave out and I emptied myself inside her.

She laid herself across my chest, and kissed me again.

“Whew. That was pretty good, Daniel. Think you can go again?”

She’d finally let go of my hands, so I was able to run them up her flanks and around to hug her.

“A real wizard can go as many times as he wants to,” I told her. “But first, let me take care of your little complaint.”

“Complaint? What complaint? Oh!”

I focused my flesh magic inward, and made myself grow. That was a relatively simple alteration, just expanding what I had without changing anything else about it, so it worked fast enough to be obvious. Mara looked down, and back up.

A huge grin split her face.

“You can make it bigger? Holy fuck, you can make it bigger. Why didn’t you do that before? How big can you make it?”

“It takes some concentration,” I told her. “You didn’t seem like you wanted to wait, earlier. And what makes you think there’s a limit?”

“Well, at some point you wouldn’t be able to walk because your giant dick would get in the way,” she pointed out.

“I can fly,” I replied.

She sat up with a laugh. “Okay, giant flying dick man, let’s see you put your magic where your mouth is. Fill me up all the way, and I’ll let you do me from behind.”

It turned out that Mara could take a hell of a lot more than any normal woman. I ended up with an organ the size of my arm. Shortly thereafter she ended up completely delirious with pleasure. I kept using my magic whenever I could muster the concentration, enhancing her sensations and working to undo the tangled mess of her body’s responses. Her immense magical power made any lasting change difficult, but as the session went on it gradually stopped resisting me. It was still like sculpting concrete compared to the clay of a normal person, but that was a hell of a lot easier than the battleship armor she’d started with.

I’d been skeptical about Cerise’s assumption that fire powers would somehow make Mara super passionate, but I discovered that she’d been right. Her erogenous zones were already flooded with her own magic, mingling with mine and amplifying both her desires and the sensations she was feeling. Every knot of damage I untangled strengthened that flow, pulling her more and more into the moment. Every climax was more intense than the one before, inexorably narrowing her focus into a private universe of ecstasy. The direct stimulation I was applying with my magic only multiplied the effect.

A normal woman would have been reduced to a puddle of helpless surrender in minutes. But Mara just rode the wave higher and higher, never completely losing herself even when she seemed oblivious to everything but her own pleasure. Just when I thought I’d finally found her limit she’d suddenly manhandle me into a new position, and I’d find that she was the one setting the pace again. Or the incredible heat of her core would rise up, seeping into my tool until my blood boiled and I couldn’t hold back any longer. Or she’d just wrap her arms around my neck and trap my gaze with eyes full of golden fire, wordlessly demanding everything I had to give.

“What are you doing to me?” She asked at one point, when we were lying beside each other panting after a shared release that I’d thought might never end. “I can feel your magic working on me.”

“Helping,” I replied. I rolled onto my side, and ran one hand down her firm belly. “Your mom screwed up all kinds of things in here. I’m working out all that frustration, and making it so it’s actually possible for you to feel satisfied again.”

She snickered. “So you’re unfucking me with fucking?”

“Yeah. You okay with that?”

She pulled me closer, and looked into my eyes.

“Yes,” she decided. “I think I am. You do realize I’m going to have to keep you chained to my bed forever now, right?”

“Sounds like fun,” I admitted. “But I think your mom might have a problem with that. Especially if I start killing your brothers whenever they hassle you, and she has to rez them all the time.”

“I guess. You know, they really aren’t that easy to beat. Otherwise I’d have been doing it myself.”

I shrugged. “You don’t seriously think I’m going to admit to being worried about that, do you? I’d have to turn in my man card. Besides, Cerise and Elin would come looking for me eventually, and the three of us make a pretty good team.”

“Elin does not need to be around my brothers,” she said severely. “I don’t think they’d touch someone who looks like she does, but you don’t take chances with that.”

“Elin has blossomed into a perfectly lovely faerie princess,” I told her. “We’ve gotten her shapeshifting mostly sorted out, and I made her an amulet. She still doesn’t like fighting, but she can be pretty badass when she wants to be. You should see her floating around in a giant ball of conjured water, ripping golems apart and drowning anyone who tries to get at her.”

“Sounds like you’ve really taken a liking to her,” Mara said wistfully.

“She’s part of my coven,” I replied.

Mara sat up abruptly. “Elin? Elin is part of your coven? You’re kidding me. You went that far? You… you must really like her.”

“Yeah. She’s pretty amazing. But I’m being a jerk, talking about another woman when you’re right here. One more round?”

She bit her lip. “Maybe two. I guess I have to let you go, but I’m going to miss this. I really wish things could be different.”

“Can’t they?” I asked. “One more task and you’re done, right?”

She hung her head. “You don’t understand. Mom and her sons have treated me like shit my whole life, but dad? He’s proud of me. Hel is all excited to have a little sister, talking about teaching me death magic and secret ways to come back from being killed. Jormungandr gets all protective, like a real big brother, and even Sigyn is kind of nice to me. They’re my family, Daniel, and they need me.”

I sighed.

“Alright, Mara. I get it. Do what you need to do then, okay? Just try not to get yourself killed when you’re storming the gates of Asgard. Oh, but that reminds me. I still have to give you your present.”

I reached out with a strand of force magic, and pulled my shirt over from where it had been discarded at some point along the way. Mara watched with an odd expression as I fished out the little loop of gold.

“Here,” I said. “I want you to have this. I figured an amulet like I use would be too easy for people to figure out, so I put the enchantments on an earring instead. It has healing and protection effects like the one you got your hands on in Kozalin, only a lot stronger and with an intent control interface. There are also some wards against mage sight and curses, which automatically adjust themselves to enclose the same area as the physical barrier. The power source on the ring is weaker than my amulets, but considering how strong you are normally that’s not the important part for you anyway.”

“You… but… why are you giving this to me?” She asked.

“Because I like you? Do I need another reason?”

Her hand was trembling slightly as she took it. “You don’t know what this means to me, Daniel. Seriously? No strings attached?”

“Seriously. I wasn’t sure if normal piercings would work for you, so it’s also got some little enchantments to make it easy to put in. Just put it where you want it, and press the ends together. It’ll use flesh magic to shape a hole, and then the ring joins together into a solid loop. There’s a mental command for taking it off.”

She examined the earring. “That’s neat. You know, mom’s going to freak out if she sees me wearing a piece of metal in my ear.”

“To be honest, I thought you might like that part.”

She chuckled. “I would, but the bitch might just rip it out of me. I think I’d better put it someplace she’ll never see.”

She held the ring next to her right nipple. My eyebrows went up at that. Then she got a mischievous look, and reached lower.

“Might have to be topless someday,” she observed. “But you said it was painless, right? So I’m putting it right… here.”

I stared.

“Even mom’s not twisted enough to go checking out her little girl’s private parts,” she joked. “How does it look?”

“Hot,” I replied. Holy crap, she really did that.

“I wonder what it’s going to feel like when you’re inside me?”

“Let’s find out.”

Chapter 26

“Sorry.”

I must have been dozing. I blinked my eyes open, and looked down at Mara in surprise. She was sprawled sideways across the hard wooden table, using my belly as a pillow. I was momentarily distracted by the view, before I realized what she’d said.

“After a performance like that, what exactly are you supposed to be sorry for?”

That got me an embarrassed smile. Much better than the shamefaced expression she’d worn a moment ago. She swatted my side.

“Hah! You’re the one who should have the big ego here. No one has ever made me feel like you do, Daniel. That’s why I wanted to apologize. I was being a complete bitch earlier, wasn’t I?”

I shrugged. “Yeah, but I can understand why. You were pretty wound up there.”

“I practically raped you.”

“Trust me, Mara, I was entirely willing. I’ve been with aggressive women before, you know. It can be fun sometimes.”

She frowned. “I thought guys hated that? Especially when I’m stronger than they are.”

“A lot of guys do. But you know, Mara, I could match your strength if I wanted to. I’ve got more than enough force magic for that. Or I could just do something like this.”

I laid my hand on her hip, and reached out with flesh magic. After the last couple of hours her magic instinctively welcomed my touch instead of trying to push me out. I sent a wave of relaxation washing through her, followed by a tide of warm euphoria. Before she even realized what was happening the euphoria was strong enough that she couldn’t bring herself to care. She went limp, a blissful sigh escaping her lips.

I pulled her up to lie next to me, laid her on her back, and leaned over to kiss her. I could feel some instinctive reflex trying to make her flinch and tense up, but it wasn’t strong enough to overcome my magic. She remained bonelessly relaxed, and kissed me back happily.

I pulled her over to cuddle against my side, and released the magic. It took a minute for her to come down from the happy place I’d sent her to, and she remained silent for several more minutes.

“You could have done that whenever you wanted?” She said quietly.

“Yes. It’s pretty hard to resist flesh magic when I’m inside you.”

She licked her lips. “Why didn’t you?”

“Because I figured you needed to be in control, and I’m okay with that. Besides, it’s not like I have all the cards here. You’re inside all my defenses right now, so you could incinerate me with a thought. Or just take my amulet, and then I don’t have enough power to affect someone as strong as you.”

“That’s true.” The thought seemed to reassure her. Her hand ran down my belly, and her gaze followed.

“That thing is stupidly huge,” she said. “Did I really have all that inside me? Or are you just messing with me?”

“No, it really took that much to fill you up. Are you sure you don’t have a pocket dimension in there or something? Because I’m not sure where you find room for your lungs.”

Actually, I was pretty sure there was shapeshifting involved. But she didn’t seem to realize she was doing it, and I wasn’t going to bring that up. I had entirely too good an idea why her body might have instinctively developed an ability like that.

She chuckled. “I’m just amazing, aren’t I? Alright you, put that thing away. I hate to let you go, but I don’t know when mom is coming back. We need to get you out of here before she shows up and sees you, or your ass is toast. But first, eat this.”

She fetched the bananas she’d picked on the way in, and handed me one. I examined it curiously. There was quite a bit of magic in the… fruit? Are bananas a fruit? Anyway, this one was overflowing with magic.

“What’s it going to do?” I asked. “Turn me into a newt?”

She laughed, and started peeling hers. “No, dummy, it’s like the apples in Asgard. Eating one will make you stronger, and get rid of some of that annoying mortal frailty crap that holds people back. If you could have one every day for a year it’d turn you into a demigod, but I don’t think there’s any way to pull that one off. Mom doesn’t exactly keep count, but she’d notice if that many went missing.”

I stared at it. She’d picked this for me before she heard my explanation.

“Thank you, Mara. I, um, why did you…?”

She rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, and looked away. “It was going to be an apology, for kind of halfway trying to kill you back in Kozalin. Sorry about that.”

“Apology accepted. I’m just glad we could come to an understanding. You know, you’re welcome to visit my island if you’re ever in the neighborhood. Just be discreet, and don’t be surprised if Cerise tries to seduce you.”

“I just might do that,” she said. “But first we have to get you out of here.”

“Right, how do we do this?”

She stood. “Nothing to it, as long as Rendall doesn’t get involved. He’s in charge here when mom’s away, and he told everyone I was going to take care of the elves. So I’ll just tell the andregi you didn’t have anything to do with the attack, and send you off. Everyone’s going to be too busy with the Aesir to really question it. Unless he’s going to say something incriminating?”

“No, I didn’t have anything to do with his crazy raid. You might want to stay away from the Halls for a while, though. I can’t believe he got himself caught in an attack that had no chance of accomplishing anything, and if Odin is involved there’s no telling what he might have done.”

Mara froze in the act of picking up her skirt. She turned, and glared at me. “I never told you what Brand was caught doing.”

“I did say I was trying to figure out a way to stop the invasion. I was in the jungle watching the place when his attack started.”

She shook her head. “You’re crazy. You know that, right? Mom has that place warded so tight even you couldn’t touch it.”

I was sorely tempted to tell her. But then she might feel obligated to do something about it, if only to keep her mother from getting too pissed off at her. My gift would protect her from radiation sickness if she got exposed somehow, so it was better to keep my mouth shut.

“So I saw. Ah, well, I’ll find another way. Maybe I can disrupt the gates whenever she opens one near Kozalin, or something along those lines. Worst case, I keep driving off armies until they’re called off to deal with a more important target.”

Mara eyed me suspiciously. “It’s not like you to give up that easily. You’re up to something, aren’t you?”

“Do you really want to know?”

She snorted. “I guess not. Just don’t make me look bad, alright?”

“Deal.”

I changed myself back to a more reasonable size and dressed, anxious to get out of this place while Mara was still feeling accommodating. Alas, my hopes for a smooth exit were dashed when we returned to the main torture chamber on my way out.

Apparently Korak had given up his search, and come down to interrogate the prisoner. Brand had even more cuts and bruises now than the last time I’d seen him, and Korak was in the process of methodically breaking every bone in the fingers of his left hand with a hammer and chisel.

The hammer came down as we entered the chamber, and there was a loud snap of breaking bone. Brand flinched, but only a grunt made it past his clenched lips. Beads of sweat ran down his face, and he glared murderously at the giant andregi.

“Still nothing?” Korak said maliciously. “We’ll see how long you can keep it up, tough guy.”

Another crack, and another grunt of pain.

“Having fun, Korak?” Mara said casually.

Korak looked up from the prisoner, and his face lit up. “Mara! Damn, girl, you smell hot today. What are you doing down here? I was looking all over for you.”

He tossed the hammer and chisel down, and walked confidently up to Mara. He ignored me completely, which I figured was just as well.

“Rendall wanted me to figure out what the elves are up to, just in case,” she explained. “Turns out they’re just setting up a scam to screw over some humans, though. Nothing to do with the Aesir thing, so I’m letting them go.”

“Whatever. Greedy little runts don’t need to be hanging around here. No reason to be in a hurry, though.”

The hulking andregi stepped into Mara’s personal space, and bent to sniff her hair. She put her hands on her hips, and glared up at him.

“Back off, Korak. You know I don’t like that shit.”

“That’s trihorn crap, Mara. We both know you want it. You’ve just been waiting for someone besides Rendall to be able to give it to you.” He grabbed her shoulder with one meaty hand, and the other one swept up to roughly grope her breast.

Mara’s eyes went wide with shock. Then she burst into flame.

“Get off me, asshole!”

Korak laughed. “See? I finally found me a way to stop that stupid fire. Now quit playing hard to get, sis. You’ve been dying for this to finally happen.”

He reached under her skirt. An incoherent cry of rage burst from her throat. She slugged him, but the blow barely had any effect. He caught her arm and lifted it above her head. Mara’s flames grew into a blazing aura, filling the room with the heat of a blast furnace, and turned from red to gold.

That was when my talisman abruptly turned itself off.

Korak roared in sudden agony. He threw Mara away, and staggered back from her with his hair on fire. Mara crashed right through one of those wooden pillars, smashing it to splinters in the process, and smacked into the stone wall with a meaty crunch. Her flame aura died, and she fell to her knees.

“Mara!”

I ran over to her, but a force field manifested to stop me from touching her. She put a hand to her head, and pulled it away to blink slowly at her bloody fingers.

“Ow.” She said.

“You!” Korak shouted.

I looked up to see that the over muscled giant had managed to put himself out, and while he was covered in burns they didn’t seem to be slowing him down much.

“You traded me a gimp ring!” He roared at me. “I’m gonna get you for that.”

I decided I’d had just about enough of this guy. I turned on my force field, and sent a mental command to the ‘ring’ he was still wearing. The inner surface of the band abruptly turned into an iron blade with a razor-sharp edge, and shrank.

Korak howled in pain. His severed finger fell to the floor, and the ring flew across the room towards me while turning back into a ball of stone.

“It would have worked fine if you hadn’t tried to rape your sister with it, asshole,” I growled. “Serves you right.”

“I’m gonna kill you, you little faggot,” he growled. He flexed his hand, and the blood spraying from the stump of his finger flowed up to form a sword.

I formed a force blade in my hand, making it shed a faint blue glow to make sure he could see it. “Come and try it, monkey boy.”

One of the half-dozen andregi in the room made a break for the door. I threw a force wall across it with a thought, and turned my attention back to Korak. This could go bad really quickly. I didn’t have Grinder or my revolver with me, or even the enchanted coat and armor I’d taken to wearing. Just my amulet, my earth talisman, and whatever spells I could come up with. Against a demigod.

He threw himself at me. I let my talisman drop to the floor, anchored my force field in place, and made it grow spikes while I feinted with my sword. Unfortunately he didn’t fall for that one, and stopped before he impaled himself. He took an experimental whack at the barrier with his sword, and the blow sucked an alarming amount of mana from the barrier. Shit, a few solid hits and he could actually collapse it.

I threw a wash of flame at him, hoping to drive him back. He just shielded his eyes, and kept swinging. Now his hair was burning again, but I knew my conjured flames were nothing compared to Mara’s. It was only an annoyance to him.

It did, however, block his vision pretty well. I kept up the barrage for a few seconds while he beat on my shield, splitting my attention between that and my talisman. Float it across the floor to a position a few feet behind him, turn it into a nice big ball of stone, raise it up to ceiling level, and finally bring it down hard.

One of the spectators shouted a warning at the last moment. Korak dodged, and the blow that should have hit the back of his head landed on his shoulder instead. As far as I could tell it didn’t even do any damage, damn it.

I threw myself away from Korak, speeding my movements with force magic. He turned to follow me, but I was already throwing out force blades. A few at him, and a lot more at the torturers. I cut a couple of them in half with the force sword in my hand, and the rest fell to flying blades in a matter of moments. There, no more interference.

“Free me!” Brand shouted eagerly. “I can help you.”

Yeah, no. Things were out of control enough as it was. If I turned this into a breakout attempt we’d have to fight our way out, and even if I made it there was no way Othvin and his men would survive.

Korak suddenly turned his sword of blood into a whip. The transformed weapon flew across the room to wrap around my force field, and pulled me in. Rather than evade I pushed myself into the movement, and managed to drive my force blade into his belly before he realized what I was doing. But instead of going down he just wrapped his hand around my sword arm, and squeezed. His grip wasn’t strong enough to crush my force field, but it was one more strain on an energy reserve that was rapidly being depleted.

I cut the whip with a force blade, which sent most of the blood falling onto the floor. Korak slammed me into the nearest wall, using his grip on my wrist to swing me around with ease.

“Fucking smartass wizard.”

Wham!

“Hurry up-”

Wham!

“-and die already.”

Wham!

“Stop it!” Mara screamed.

“No! This little shitstain’s going down, bitch.”

Wham!

I made my force field grow spikes where he was holding it.

He bellowed in pain, and tried to let go. But the spikes had already driven themselves through his hand, ripping it apart. He punched me, and my force field collapsed.

I fell to my knees, dizzy from the wild beating. But I could still feel where my talisman was. As he raised his sword to finish me two hundred pounds of spiked iron and stone slammed into his side, knocking him away.

I tried to pin him against the wall with the implement, to give myself a moment to recover. But to my amazement he was actually stronger than my talisman’s flight enchantment. He pushed it away with his one good hand, and sent a streamer of blood flying at me from the mangled wreck of the other one. The tip of it cut a long, bloody gash across my right arm and shoulder before I managed to throw a dispelling at it.

Then it collapsed onto the floor, its animating magic blown away by my spell. Well, that was a vulnerability I could use. I climbed back to my feet, and parried a spray of little blood darts with another dispelling.

“No. Damn it, no!” Mara sobbed. “Not again. Korak, you asshole.”

Great. If she’d only help me this would be easy, but I guess she wasn’t quite ready to kill her own brother for my sake. Fine, I’d do the job myself.

With a grunt of effort, Korak broke off one of the iron spikes on my talisman and threw it at me. I’d barely started to react before the heavy lump of metal smashed into my chest, breaking half my ribs. My amulet engaged its pain block and started automatically healing the damage, but I couldn’t take much more of this. Damn, this elven body was fragile.

But I’d finally figured out how to win this.

I made my talisman grow, forming thick bands of iron that tried to wrap around Korak. He struggled, bending the bars and trying to push it way, but with only one good hand he couldn’t quite manage it. In a few moments it had him tangled up, and it was growing faster than he could damage it.

Then I just had it float up a few inches, until his feet left the ground. With no leverage there was nothing he could do to stop the artifact from growing until it formed a solid mass of iron around him, and once it was a few inches thick even he wasn’t strong enough to break out.

“You… won?” Mara said incredulously.

“Told you I could handle your brothers,” I gasped out.

“You won. You won! You beat him. Hah! Take that, Korak! I found a guy who can beat your ass, and I’m letting him fuck me! How do you like that?”

“Crazy bitch!” Korak’s muffled voice came from inside the floating mass of steel. “You think this is over? You just wait till I get out of this. What do you think mom is going to say about you fucking an elf?”

Mara sagged. “Oh, crap. He’s right. Mom’s going to kill me. Worse, she’s going to find out about you.”

My eyes went to Brand, who was watching us with the air of a man just waiting for the right opportunity.

“She’s not going to find out,” I said slowly.

Mara gave me a confused look. “How will she not find out? Even if we kill Korak, she’ll just bring him back and ask him what happened. Look at this place. It’s obvious there was a real fight here.”

“Korak isn’t going to be answering any questions,” I replied.

With a though I sent the iron prison floating across the room, to hover above the pit. Mara’s eyes went wide.

“Seriously? Shit, Daniel, Biter could kill him for real. Even if some of his soul gets away, it could take mom years to pull the pieces back together. That’s hardcore.”

“No one gets to rape my friends while I’m around,” I said. “Are you going to stop me?”

“I…”

“Mara!” Korak called. “Have you lost your mind? I’m your brother! You can’t help some faggot elf wizard kill me.”

The prison creaked ominously as he struggled, but he couldn’t break free. The thing in the pit stirred, perhaps sensing a potential meal. Six mouths on the ends of thick tentacles waved in the air, and a pair of huge armored claws began to open and close.

Mara looked down at the monster in the pit, and then up at the floating prison. She hesitated for a long moment.

“Mara! We’re family!”

Her face hardened. “No, Korak. Dad and Hel and Jormungandr are family. You’re just an asshole. Do it, Daniel.”

I made the inside of the prison sprout blades.

Korak screamed, and thrashed violently. His flesh was almost as tough as the iron of my talisman, and if it wasn’t for the reinforcement spell this might not have worked. As it was it took almost a minute to sever his Achilles tendons, and cut his right arm down to the bone. I’d wanted to sever it, but his bones proved too tough for that. Crippling it would have to do.

I made the talisman shrink back into a little ball of stone, leaving Korak dangling over the pit. He struggled wildly despite his injuries, reaching out for the edge of the pit with limbs of animated blood.

I blew them apart with a dispelling, and he fell.

Biter was on him in an instant. Mouths two feet across closed on his thigh, his shoulder, one of his arms. He howled, lashing out again with streamers of animated blood. But they glanced harmlessly off the monster’s chitinous hide, and he was running out of blood.

I realized Mara was leaning against me. I wrapped my arms around her, and she pressed herself against me. But she didn’t stop watching until Korak’s struggles finally ceased, long minutes later.

“One down,” she said softly. “Twenty-three to go.”

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“I will be. I just… it’s so weird. I hated him, you know? He was always after me. Always so convinced that I was just making him work for it. He… when I was little, he hurt me so bad…”

She choked. I just held her, not saying anything. She fought back the tears that were trying to come, and went on.

“I’m sorry. I should have helped you fight. I just couldn’t do it.”

“It’s okay,” I said. “You grew up with him. You shouldn’t have to do something like that.”

“He fucked you up pretty bad,” she complained. “You could have lost that fight.”

“I didn’t.”

“Yeah, but we’re still kind of screwed. Well, I am, at least. I can still get you out, but how am I going to explain this mess?”

“Oh, that’s easy. See, you questioned the elves and figured out they had nothing to do with the Aesir attack, just like you said before. So you escorted us off to the gate, just to make sure we didn’t stick around and get up to some kind of mischief while everyone was distracted. While you were gone Korak must have fucked up somehow, because the prisoner got loose and chucked him in the pit before making a run for it.”

She gasped. “What?”

“What do you say, Brand? I’m sure you didn’t come here without some kind of alternate escape plan. Give us five minutes after I cut you lose, and then you can make a break for it.”

Brand laughed. “You are a dangerous man, Daniel Black. Or are you truly one of the svartalfar, only pretending to be a man?”

“You aren’t really expecting me to answer that, are you?”

“But, Daniel, he’s an Aesir,” Mara protested. “You can’t expect me to just let him go.”

“Your father’s imprisonment happened long before he was born,” I pointed out. “Yes, you’re enemies, and I’m sure you’ll be trying to kill each other on the battlefield at some point. But he hasn’t personally done anything to you, has he?”

“He’s an Aesir,” she repeated. But she was just complaining now.

“Do you have a better idea?” I asked.

She sighed. “Fine. But don’t get any funny ideas, Aesir. I’m not betraying my father, and we’re not friends. I’m just using you for my own convenience.”

“Agreed. I’ve no more love for you than you have for me, daughter of Loki. But I’ll aid your little scheme, if it means a chance at escape.”

“Let’s get those elves ready first,” Mara grumbled. “And I’m not giving him freedom. You’ll have to cut him lose yourself, if that’s what you want.”

The elves wisely remained silent as we freed them and prepared to go, with Mara bitching and whining the whole time. I was pretty sure she was mostly just trying to distract herself from thinking about Korak’s death, so I let her get it out of her system. When we were ready to go I walked over to the massive wooden frame that Brand was strapped to, and looked over the setup.

“If you get a hand free you can get the rest, right?”

“If I must,” Brand said carefully. “Or you could simply cut me free with those invisible blades of yours, and I could wait for a count of three hundred.”

“They’re too heavily enchanted to cut with a force blade,” I told him. “Besides, that’s a pretty distinctive kind of magic. I’m trying to make sure the wrong people never find out I was here.”

I touched him on the shoulder. Yeah, he was pretty messed up, but his right hand was functional and he had that overwhelming natural vitality that seemed to be common among demigods. A lot of his wounds had already healed, and the broken bones in his left hand were the only thing that would really slow him down.

He also had something artificial implanted in his chest, inside the rib cage. A magic item of some kind? Interesting. Well, maybe that was his alternate way home. He wasn’t likely to tell me if I asked, so I didn’t bother. I just set the bones in his hand, and left the rest to heal on its own.

“Those bones will be fragile for a few days, so don’t try punching anything with that hand,” I told him. “Now, let’s see how strong those straps really are. Give it a good heave on three. One. Two. Three.”

His own strength wasn’t enough to break the strap that held his arm to the crossbar, especially since the position didn’t give him any leverage. But I heaved on it with my own force magic as well, and it gave an ominous creak. Then the thick wood splintered, and snapped.

There was a knock at the door.

“Oh, fuck me,” Mara groaned. “Now what?”

She stalked over to the door, and flipped up the cover on the vision slit. “What?”

A male voice drifted through, saying something about a delivery. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Brand unbuckling the strap on his left wrist.

Mara rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever.”

She threw the bolt, opened the door, grabbed the hapless andregi on the other side by his weapon harness and dragged him into the room in one smooth motion. She threw him across the room before he even had a chance to process what he was seeing. He bounced off the far wall above the pit, and fell in.

There was an abortive scream, followed by the sounds of the monster in the pit feeding.

“Can we go now?” Mara said impatiently. “Before we get any more company?”

“Sure. Let’s go, Othvin. Good luck, Brand.”

“Good luck to you as well, Daniel. May we meet again in Valhalla.”

Ugh. Let’s hope not.

So much for a nice, clean covert mission. After that comedy of errors I was on tenterhooks the whole way back through the palace, waiting for something else to go wrong. We finally emerged onto the grounds, and I saw that morning had come while we were in the dungeon.

We took the teleporter back to town, where the streets were filled with morning traffic. By then Mara had stopped grumbling, and just led us in silence. The andregi all stopped and bowed as she passed, so we weren’t exactly inconspicuous.

Halfway through the town we encountered a giant figure coming the other way. But this one definitely wasn’t one of Mara’s brothers. She had to be seven feet tall, with a figure so exaggerated it was hard to believe it was real. Her only clothing was a grass skirt, and she seemed not to care about the way her swaying breasts drew every eye in the vicinity. Of course, the andregi all bowed as soon as they saw her.

“On your knees, worms,” Mara barked.

The elves were already bowing, so I imitated them. Down on both knees, bent over with my face an inch from the dirt. It meant I couldn’t see what was happening, but my ears still worked.

“Why hello, little Mara. Out for a morning walk?”

“Hello, Mother. I was just taking care of some business. You might want to talk to Rendall, though. We had some excitement last night.”

“Oh?” Gaea said curiously. “I had some rather nice excitement of my own last night. What was your excitement?”

“Some crazy young Aesir tried to attack the Halls of Slumber-” Mara began.

“What?!”

“It’s okay, the boys handled it. The wards worked just like they were supposed to. The damage wasn’t bad at all, and they even managed to catch him for you.”

“I see. Well then, it seems my morning may be almost as enjoyable as my evening. Oh, good news, Mara. You’re going to have a little sister soon.”

Mara gasped. “Sister?”

“Yes, yes, I know you’re excited. I certainly am. I think I’ve finally figured out where I went wrong the last time. She’s going to be a lovely little bundle of reckless daring and insatiable fertility. Much better than fire and freedom, don’t you think? The boys are going to be so happy to finally have a sister who loves them!”

“Oh,” Mara said faintly.

“Well, I’m off to see Rendall. Have fun with your little errand, Mara. When you get back you’ll have to tell me about this new lover of yours.”

“Right. Bye, mom.”

I waited until the elves to either side of me stirred before I stood. I found Mara staring down the street the way we had come, looking utterly lost.

“Sister?”

Her face fell. Her hands clenched, so tight the knuckles went white. Yeah, I could guess what she was thinking.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

“I can’t let this happen,” she said quietly. “But I can’t stop it. I’m going to have to watch, and… and not be able to do anything, and… dad, how could you?”

“Are you sure he did?”

She gave me a startled look. “Oooh, that bitch! You’re right, it would be just like her to try to drive a wedge between us with a lie. Or maybe he knows something. You can never tell, with him. Ah, damn it, I’m going to be worrying about this forever now. But anyway, it’s none of your business, elves. Come on, time to be rid of you.”

Oh, right. Undercover. I was starting to think I wasn’t very good at this spy stuff. That, or I was cursed to have as many things as possible go wrong on every mission. Hadn’t Avilla promised me I’d have good luck from now on?

Maybe this was good luck, actually. I was certainly learning a lot. But I would have been so much happier with a nice, clean mission.

Thankfully nothing else happened on the way back to the gate. The supervisor at the gate actually stopped the troops when Mara approached, and let us all through at her order. On the other side Mara walked with us as we crossed the cave, all the way to the tunnel mouth. Interestingly enough, she already knew which one we were taking.

“This is as far as I go,” she said. “Now, off with you all, and tell your kin not to return to Skogheim until the war is over. We have no time for your tricks and schemes now.”

Othvin bowed. “By your command, Exalted One. We go now.”

Mara nodded, and turned to go. But she brushed against me as she passed, and pressed a note into my hand. Something she didn’t want her mother to overhear? That made sense, but when had she had a chance to write it?

I waited until we were out of view of the guards in the cave before I unfolded the little slip of paper. It said:

Please, find me a way to hide her from mother. I’ll owe you any favor you want, if you’ll help me with this.

I read it twice. The third time the paper turned hazy, and dissolved into nothingness. Some kind of illusion? That explained how she’d made it, although I hadn’t known Mara had that kind of magic. But then again, there was a lot I didn’t know about Mara.

I sighed. When did life get so complicated? All I wanted to do was build a nice home for my girls, and keep them safe. Everything I knew about mythology told me that getting tangled up in the affairs of the gods was a bad idea.

But there was no avoiding it now, was there? I waved off the curious looks of my companions, and took my place in the line of march. It might not be the smart move, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn my back on Mara. One way or another I was going to end up helping her.

Hiding the kid might sound like a good idea, but Mara was kidding herself. That wouldn’t work forever. There were only so many places to look, and the longer this war dragged on the fewer of them would be left. As long as she had a whole world full of andregi worshipping her Gaea wasn’t going to die for real, and eventually she’d figure out any deception scheme we might set up. If I was going to survive getting involved in Mara’s problems I was going to have to make sure she didn’t get the chance.

Time to get back to Kozalin. I had plans to make, and miracles to invent.

I had a goddess to kill.