Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (2 page)

as breathing, and it grew rapidly as I concentrated. Crystallizing around the

concept of ‘Earth’ as I understood it, manifesting new applications as they

flickered through my subconscious.

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But a mighty earth mage with no other abilities would be a tad limited,

and I didn’t know how long I had to do this. I couldn’t even think about

anything else for more than a split second without risking diverting the process

to some other element that might prove useless. Fortunately I’ve played more

than my share of fantasy role-playing games, so I wasn't starting from scratch

figuring this out. If this was the character creation screen of a new computer

game, what would I look for?

Flesh.

Because I wasn’t about to get stuck in a fantasy world without some kind

of magical healing, and that was the best way I could see to conceptualize it as

an element. I was afraid for a moment that it wouldn’t work, but whatever

force was behind this process was happy to reduce the dizzying complexity of

living organisms to an elemental representation just as it had the quantum-

mechanical complexity of solid matter a moment ago. Viewed as an element

flesh could be created or shaped just like stone, but it was transformations I

was really after. Dying to healthy, poisoned to purified, diseased to... well,

minus one type of microorganism, since removing them all would be bad.

The fact that I know a bit about biology seemed to help the process along,

forming a scaffolding on which magic-born abilities and senses could anchor

themselves. There was no time to be methodical about it, so I frantically

wracked my brain for every type of physical affliction, enhancement or

transformation I’d ever heard of. A lot of the crazy stuff didn’t stick, but I

could feel all sorts of odd bits and pieces accreting here and there.

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

No more of that, then. What next?

Force. A wonderfully flexible concept, if you think of it as a way of

controlling kinetic energy. Force fields and force blades. Telekinesis fields.

Levitation and flight. A solid basis for battle magic, with endless utility

applications.

Fire. Just for a moment, because I’ve read enough Norse mythology to

know that Ragnarok is supposed to be preceded by Fimbulwinter, and I’d feel

really stupid if I ended up freezing to death. Enough to ignite flammables and

conjure balls of fire, maybe a few other minor tricks. Good enough.

Then it was time for a real exploit.

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My last element was mana. The stuff magic is made of. A fundamental

force of nature, obviously unknown to modern physics, but there must be some

relationship to the Standard Model there or I wouldn’t be able to exist in the

same universe as Hecate. Understanding blossomed as I focused on the

concept. The nature of magic, its relationship to the other fundamental forces,

how spells work, why they wear off, how to embed them permanently into

objects. More insights and abilities coalesced faster than I could pay attention

to them, just like with the other elements.

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

“Thank you, Lady Hecate!” A female voice said excitedly. “I hope you're

ready for a fight, Champion. I don’t think Avilla can hold off the goblins much

longer, let alone the troll.”

I picked myself up and looked around, to find that I was apparently in a

cellar. There was a stone altar covered with candles and mystic bric-a-brac

next to me, and an elaborate pentagram inscribed in the floor not far away. But

a good third of the room was taken up by a pile of boxes, a row of shelves

covered with jars, and a forest of strange objects hanging from the ceiling that I

realized after a moment were mostly strings of vegetables.

I was being addressed by a slender teenage girl with a long mane of coal-

black hair, and a face that could easily have graced the cover of a fashion

magazine. She wore a simple wool dress that was stained liberally with blood,

and held a long silver knife in her left hand.

“You must be Cerise,” I said, realizing as I did that I wasn’t speaking

English. Well, I’d think about that later.

“That’s me. Wait, why are you naked?”

I looked down and confirmed that, yes, apparently my hospital gown

hadn’t made the trip. On the good side, at least my injuries seem to be gone as

well. Even the cast and bandages had disappeared.

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

She nodded impatiently. “Yes, but please save my coven-sister too. She’s

been upstairs trying to distract them while I did the summoning ritual.”

There was an amazing commotion going on overhead. I could hear high-

pitched voices screaming and shouting, heavy thumps and the sound of

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breaking wood, a bewildering array of footsteps running around the wooden

floor above us, and a roar from something big and angry.

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

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

I rushed up the narrow wooden stairs, fumbling for my magic. Fortunately

using it was as easy as I’d hoped, taking no more effort than moving an arm I

hadn’t had before. I threw a force shield around myself just in time, as I found

myself entering the kitchen of a cozy little house that was rapidly being

reduced to broken debris.

There were ugly little green guys that had to be goblins everywhere,

fighting a pitched battle against an army of animated kitchen utensils and

furnishings that obviously didn’t appreciate their presence. The window over

the sink, which I was surprised to see was glass, had been smashed open to

admit a steady stream of the creatures Their entry was contested by a platoon

of gingerbread men armed with knives and forks, but the goblins seemed to be

getting the better of their opponents.

A huge hole had been smashed in the inner wall of the kitchen, revealing a

living room where an animated couch and several armchairs were gamely

trying to prevent a hulking mass of green muscle from cornering a buxom young

blonde who I assumed must be the other witch. Another swarm of gingerbread

men ran around the troll’s shoulders, stabbing and hacking at it to little effect.

Oh, and half of the kitchen was on fire. Apparently the troll had gotten

angry at the oven at some point, and there’d been a fire lit at the time. The

flames had already spread to both the floor and ceiling, so the whole house

would probably go soon.

One of the goblins stabbed me with its spear while I was still taking in the

scene, so it was a good thing I’d put up that force field. Its weapon just slid off

the barrier, although a slight tug at my magic told me there was a limit to how

many attacks I could repel like that. Better make sure they didn’t get the chance

to find a way past my defenses.

I projected an invisible blade of force from one outstretched finger, and

flicked it down to cut the goblin in half. The result was every bit as gory as a

hardcore slasher movie, and my stomach clenched. I did my best to ignore it as

I strode into the room.

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Two more goblins met their end in quick succession, before they realized

I had an invisible weapon. After that they switched to dodging, although the

constant interference from the house’s enchanted defenders hampered their

movements badly. Several arrows bounced off my shield, and I grabbed one

goblin who stayed still for too long and tossed him into the fire.

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

here!”

The goblins bounced around the room like green monkeys, and one of

them tried to dart around me to get at her. But I threw up a barrier to halt its

progress in midair, and then Cerise flicked something that looked like a

writhing blob of shadows at it. It went down screaming and clutching itself.

Avilla stumbled, and an overstuffed chair leaped over her to intercept a

blow from the troll’s massive club. The impact reduced the chair to kindling,

but it gave her a moment to scramble across the room and get behind me. Then

I was face to face with the troll.

The thing was built like a tank, its hunched back brushing the ceiling two

feet above my head. Judging from the hole in the side of the house behind it and

the general devastation around me I had no doubt it could crack my shield in

short order if I gave it the chance.

I threw a force blade at it as it raised its club, but the invisible projectile

just left a shallow gash across its chest. I dodged left as the club came down,

and slashed awkwardly at its arm with another force blade.

It roared, and brought the club around in a lightning-fast blow that sent me

careening through an end table and into the wall. Wood and brick crumbled

around me, and my mana level sank alarmingly.

Ok, so it wasn’t clumsy. I threw a spray of pointed force bolts at it as I

stumbled back to my feet, hoping to keep it at bay while I figured out how to

kill it. But the thing just bared its teeth and charged at me.

I jumped this time, flinging myself against the ceiling with a burst of force

magic in the hope that it wouldn’t expect such a maneuver. Sure enough the

club smashed into the wall instead of me, but then I found my face inches away

from a mouth big enough to bite off my whole head in one gulp.

I breathed fire into the troll’s face.

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That actually discouraged it. It stumbled back, dropping the club to claw

at its face. I hit it with another ball of fire, and dropped to the floor just in time

to avoid a blind swing of its clawed fists. That put me at eye level with

something that might actually be vulnerable, so I stabbed a blade of force into

its oversized privates.

This time its roar was more in pain than rage. The hand over its face came

down to clutch at the wound, and for a few seconds it actually stood still.

Unfortunately three goblins chose that moment to jump me all at once, beating

wildly at my shield with little swords and axes as they clung to me. I tripped

and went down in a heap, and more goblins piled on.

Something struck the magic of my shield, clawing at it and trying to pull it

apart. It wasn’t terribly strong, but it was yet another distraction I didn’t have

time for. I reached for fire again, surrounding both hands in balls of flame that I

waved frantically at my attackers. Several of them caught fire, which sent them

running around the room in a panic. But there were too many of them, and I

could feel my shield wavering as the attacking magic ate away at it.

Fuck this. Time to kick it up a notch.

I let go of the shield, knowing it would take a few seconds to dissolve,

and focused all my concentrating on forming a ball of whirling saw blades just

outside of it. The elaborate force construct took far more effort than a simple

blade, and was slower to form.

But I was rewarded by a chorus of shrieks and screams, and a shower of

blood raining through the gaps in my failing shield. In a matter of seconds the

goblins who’d been trying to dogpile me were reduced to shredded meat. The

wooden floor beneath me and the post behind me came apart as well, and the

house groaned ominously.

I levitated myself before I could fall through to the cellar, and looked

around. Most of the room was ablaze now, and the troll was staggering

towards the hole it had made coming in.

“Oh, no you don’t.”

I launched myself towards it, hoping my sphere of blades would deal with

it as effectively as the goblins. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite that easy, as the

troll’s flesh proved considerably tougher than wood. Instead the thing’s right

shoulder and part of its back were badly shredded, but my spell collapsed as

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the unexpected resistance drained it of power faster than I could supply more.

I lurched away, noting that it was damned cold outside the house. The

night was lit by the glow of burning timber, and there were more goblins

lurking about the yard and garden. Beyond that the plot was surrounded on all

sides by dense forest, which could easily be hiding hundreds of the little

buggers.

An arrow grazed my side, and I threw up another shield with a curse. At

least now I had some room to work with, but how was I going to take out that

many goblins?

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

I dropped back to the ground in front of the troll, and saw that just as I’d

feared its wounds were already closing. It had left its club back inside, but