Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) (21 page)

“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.

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.