Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (17 page)

space and provide extra bracing.

When I’d thrown up three floors like that I went back down to the bottom,

and put in a stairway on the side of the wall facing the town that led up to a

stone door on the first floor. It was heavy stone, and its position well off the

ground would make it hard to bring any sort of siege engine to bear on it.

Then I led the girls in. Tina stared at everything with wide eyes, and

looked at me like she thought I might be a god in disguise or something. But

Avilla got the idea.

“Is this for us?” She asked eagerly.

“That’s right. I’ll put a cistern on the roof and drop a couple of pipes to

the kitchen and bath, maybe put in a magic stove and some eternal torches for

light. Look around and think about how to arrange things, would you? I want to

finish the tower before dark, but then I can come back and spend an hour or

two making the place comfortable before bed.”

“This is wonderful, Daniel!” She smiled. “Thank you! Could you make us

a stove first, and put a warmth spell on Tina’s cloak? Then we can make some

progress on settling in while you work.”

I blinked, and noticed for the first time the way Tina was huddling against

Avilla and shivering. Poor girl.

“Oh, damn. Sorry about that, Tina. It’s easy to forget how cold it is out

here when I don’t feel most of it myself. Come here.”

She obediently hurried over, and I threw my cloak open and wrapped it

around her. She stiffened for a moment, and then relaxed against me.

“Warm. Thank you, sir.”

“No problem. Hold still for a few minutes, and I’ll make yours do the

same thing.”

It was getting easier with practice, but it still took a good fifteen minutes

of intense concentration to set the enchantment. When I finished I found that

101

Tina had her face buried against my chest, and my shirt was a little damp.

“Tina? You alright?”

She shook herself. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, I’m just so scared all the time.

This is the first time I’ve felt safe in days.”

I hugged her gently. “I can imagine. This is hard enough for me, and I can

fight.”

Avilla moved in to pat her on the back. “It’s alright, Tina. Did you see

how thick the walls on this tower are? Even a giant couldn’t break in.”

“Yeah, and that’s just the start,” I said reassuringly. “When we leave

we’re going to be a lot better protected than before. But I need to get back to

work now.”

Tina reluctantly let me go, and wiped her face. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry,

sir. I’m ready to work now.”

It was another hour or so before Cerise and Beri showed up. By then I’d

put in a little stub of curtain wall, a mass of packed earth faced with stone

twenty feet thick and twice that high, and was working on finishing up the

tower roof. Being a bit of a military history buff I was tempted to get elaborate

there, but since we were mainly worried about giants an overhanging

battlement with murder holes would probably just be a liability. Instead I

settled for simple crenellations, the classic pattern you see on most pictures of

European castles, but about a foot thicker than normal. I was putting in the last

stretch when Cerise popped her head out of the stairwell.

“Daniel? Wow, this place is huge. Did you decide to stay in Lanrest after

all?”

I shook my head. “No, this is just what it takes to stand up to twenty-foot

giants. It’s actually a little on the small side still, but I think it’ll get the job

done. How did things go?”

She grimaced. “This place really is a shithole. The Baron lets his knights

do whatever they want to people, and there’s no town watch or anything.

Warning them off is working so far, but I swear if one more guy grabs my ass

I’m going to knife him.”

I could imagine. From what I’d seen the local women tended to be

102

stooped and worn-looking, and covered themselves from head to toe in

shapeless dresses and shawls of rough cloth. Cerise was pretty enough to be a

model back home, and the way she carried herself screamed ‘hot babe on the

prowl’. She’d stand out like a beacon here.

“I couldn’t blame you,” I replied. “Maybe having an armed escort will

convince people to keep their distance?”

“I hope so. Anyway, recruiting here should be easy. They closed the

granary this morning, and there’s a group of knights shutting down food

vendors in the market and taking their stock right now. The smart people are all

worried about what they’re going to eat once their pantries run bare.”

“Typical,” I sighed. “At this rate they’ll be going house to house taking

people’s food and hanging ‘hoarders’ soon. Well, we’d be better off traveling

with a decent-size party anyway. You know anything about being a merchant?”

She gave me a puzzled look. “Not much. Mom used to send me to market

sometimes when I was a kid, so I’m not hopeless at bargaining. But I don’t

know anything about taxes or trade routes, and the one time someone tried to

explain investment loans to me I was totally lost. Compound interest is about

my limit when it comes to figures, and that’s pushing it.”

I chuckled. “I’m pretty sure just knowing that there is such a thing puts you

ahead of most people. Anyway, I just need you to figure out a way to sell some

magic to whoever has money around here. Warmth cloaks, magic stoves,

maybe some ever-burning torches. We need to raise money so we can buy

supplies before we have to leave again, not to mention paying all these people

we’re trying to hire.”

“Do retainers get money where you’re from? Weird. It doesn’t work that

way here.”

Oh, right. Medieval economies used a lot of barter, didn’t they? “Oh?”

“Yeah, usually servants just get upkeep. That means food, shelter, clothing

and whatever tools they need to do their work, plus a few pennies at the end of

the year if you feel generous. Soldiers get a little money, maybe a few pennies

a month, and a rich lord might pay his favorite servants a little, but mostly it’s

just upkeep.”

“I see. Ok, I can work with that. What about apprentices?”

103

She grinned. “Same deal, but how you keep them reflects on you even

more than with personal retainers. Sexy sorceress apprentices should

definitely rate nice dresses and spending money, and a good boning a couple of

times a day.”

I laughed. “Oh, is that part of your daily essentials? Three meals, a warm

bed and an orgasm?”

“More like five or six with me,” she admitted cheerfully. “Because I’m

such a slut. Avilla would probably be happy with fresh ‘cream’ every morning,

but you know how obsessed with food she is.”

“Heh. I can live with that. Though honestly, you don’t strike me as a

‘fancy dresses’ kind of girl. More like tight leather and lots of bare skin, with a

bloody dagger in each hand.”

She twined her arms around my neck, and went up on tiptoes to kiss me.

“Aw, you say the sweetest things.”

“No doubt. Can you handle the bartering, then? Get with Avilla about

what we need, and get whatever use you can out of Beri’s contacts?”

She rubbed her nose against my chin like an affectionate cat. “Sure. I’m

not a professional, but I shouldn’t get robbed too badly. One cloak would

probably cover the essentials, so it shouldn’t be hard. Do I get some extra

‘upkeep’ out of it?”

“Hmm. Tempting.” I kissed her, letting my hands fall to her tight behind

and pull her close. She practically purred, rubbing her lithe body against me. I

could feel the heat blossom inside her, just like last night. But this time the

effect was less overwhelming, and I retained enough wits to wonder what

caused it. Some interaction of my flesh sorcery and her own magic? That was

an aspect of my new powers I hadn’t explored much yet.

Experimentally, I reached out with the magical senses I’d gained in my

journey to this world. Her body pulsed with life, a warm glowing weave of

magic in a dizzying array of flavors. Most of it was tightly contained within a

shroud of concealment, but other parts were reaching out to touch my own aura.

A warm mist of trust and affection, surrounding a dozen sharp-tipped tendrils

carrying stronger emotions….

Wait a minute. Was she casting a love spell on me?

104

I reached out with my flesh magic, and lit up every pleasure sensor in her

body at once. She yelped, and collapsed against me as her legs gave out.

“Minx,” I teased her. “If you play like that, I’m going to play back. I bet I

can make it so you get wet every time you look at me.”

“Okay,” she panted. “Fuck, that was intense. Do me again?”

I chuckled. “Maybe later. But no using mind control spells on me, or I’m

going to get pissed off.”

She pouted. “I was only playing, Daniel. Like I told you this morning,

sometimes I can’t help it. Besides, you have magic like that too. Don’t you

want to play with me?”

“Mind control isn’t a game,” I frowned.

She rolled her eyes. “When did you turn into such a grouch? I thought we

were going to have fun together?”

I sighed. “I’m not rejecting you, Cerise. Just… look, I need to finish this

while there’s still enough light to see. Can we talk about it later?”

She frowned at me. “I’m not sure what talking has to do with anything, but

I guess I should let you work. After dinner?”

“After dinner,” I agreed.

She stepped back, gave me an oddly confused look, and then went back

inside.

I finished up the tower roof with a heavy door to block access to the

stairwell, and a large water tank with a warmth enchantment. It would be nice

to make that fill itself somehow, but for now I walked down to the river on a

stairway made of force walls and collected a few hundred pounds of ice. It

would take a while to melt, but that gave me time to run a pipe down the

central column with an outlet in the second-floor room where Avilla had set up

her kitchen.

She gave me a brilliant smile when I showed her the water tap.

“That’s amazing, Daniel! Did you think of this just for me?”

I shrugged. “It’s a common setup back home. Besides, it’s entirely selfish.

A smart man keeps the cook happy, after all.”

105

“Oh, you!” She giggled happily. “Thank you. Um, I told Captain Rain our

guard detail could set up in the room with the door, downstairs. Is that alright?

I was thinking we’d sleep in the room next to the kitchen, here.”

“That’s fine,” I agreed. “I’ve got a little surprise planned for the back

room on the bottom floor, unless you need it for something?”

She shook her head. “No, not really. With no windows it’s too dark in

there for anything but storage, and you said we won’t be here long. That

reminds me, dinner will be ready soon.”

“Alright, let me just finish up here.”

I ran the pipe down another floor, and split it to provide water for a crude

shower and a large bathtub. Drains were easy, since I could just shape the

stone to form small pipes leading outside. They were only a couple of inches

across, but I put in nice thick stone grates just to make sure we wouldn’t get

snake monsters crawling in through them or something. Then I washed my

hands, and headed upstairs for dinner.

It was a pasta dish this time, with a nice cream sauce and side of steamed

vegetables. I wasn’t going to ask how Avilla had managed that with nothing but

a magic hot plate and the utensils in her backpack. Tina went on for a bit about

what an amazing cook Avilla was, while Beri was more subdued.

“My uncle offered to arrange a marriage for me,” she explained when I

asked if something was wrong. “Apparently one of the Baron’s knights is

looking for a young wife, and they know each other. I wasn’t sure what to tell

him.”

“We’ll discuss it,” Avilla put in before I could reply. “He isn’t pushing

for an immediate ceremony, is he?”

Beri shook her head. “No, I explained the situation. But the offer won’t be

good for long. I don’t mean to presume, Miss Avilla.”

“We’ll discuss it,” she repeated. “So, Daniel, I believe you said

something about another surprise? Maybe we could have a look while the girls

clean up here?”

“Sure.”

Whatever Avilla actually wanted to get me alone for, the bath completely

106

derailed her train of thought.

“The water’s warm!” She exclaimed, holding a hand under the stream

from the shower. “And, you just turn the knob and wait for the tub to fill? No

carrying buckets of water back and forth? Marry me, Daniel!”

“The tub’s big enough to share,” Cerise observed eagerly. “Start it filling,