Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (20 page)

the High Priest of the temple here in Lanrest.”

Sadly there was no time for further questions.

“Ho there, wizard! I’d like a word with you.”

Well, that was different. What was the proper form of address for a

high priest, anyway? Heck if I know, and guessing wrong would look pretty

strange. I’d have to wing it.

“Ho yourself, priest! I suppose I can spare a few minutes from the wall.

What brings you all the way out here?”

He pulled up in surprise, and for a moment I thought he was going to

take offense. But then he laughed.

“‘Priest’, indeed! That’ll show me. Holger is the name. I understand

you go by Daniel the Black?”

“Close enough,” I replied. “Black is actually just my family name, but

people keep trying to make it into a title. What can I do for you?”

“It’s more a matter of what will you do, and whether you ought to. I’ve

been hearing some disturbing rumors about your apprentices, and the scale of

this wall project is a bit disquieting as well. But perhaps we should discuss

this privately? I know how you wizards are about protecting your secrets.”

“Good idea. How about the top of the wall, then?”

“That would work”, he nodded.

I’d been keeping the face of the wall where I was doing construction

pretty vertical, since it was a lot easier to start a new section and just stand on

it as I grew it to full height than it would be to walk back and forth along an

incline. That meant there was no easy way for anyone else to reach the top

unless they wanted to go all the way down to the gatehouse and climb the stairs

there. So I led Holger over to the workface and conjured stone under both our

feet, sending us smoothly up the side like a slow-moving elevator. In a matter

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of minutes we were halfway up.

“An interesting technique,” Holger observed mildly. “I don’t sense any

elementals at work, but no human could power spells on this scale for any

length of time. That would require a pact with demons, or worse. But drawing

so heavily on such bargains always gives them away.”

I shook my head. “Bargaining with anything that doesn’t like humans is

a fool’s game. Everyone makes mistakes, and the first one will kill you. No, I

found an entirely novel source of power for my magic. Without giving too

much away, you might say that I’m tapping into the substance of the world itself

to power my spells.”

He frowned. “That seems phenomenally dangerous.”

“There’s a reason I haven’t revealed the technique to anyone. The

world is far too big to be harmed by a single wizard doing this, but if it

became commonplace there could be problems. Normally I’d have spent a lot

longer studying things before putting it to any large-scale use, but events have

forced my hand.”

“None of us expected Ragnarok to come so soon,” he agreed. “Loki has

barely been free for a year, and the sages all expected he would spend

generations preparing his forces. But that’s neither here nor there. Will this

technique of yours affect the fertility of the earth? Could it disturb the dead, or

make crops unwholesome?”

“No, it doesn’t operate on that level. It affects the actual substance of

the stone under our feet, not the spiritual aspects of the land. I can’t even begin

to deplete the amount of energy available - what I’m doing here is like dipping

a cup in the ocean. The main hazard would be if something goes wrong with

my energy tap. In that case it could release a huge amount of uncontrolled

magic, probably manifesting as intense heat and invisible destructive forces.

Obviously I’m confident I’ve solved those issues or I wouldn’t be risking

myself, but it’s one of the reasons I try not to have too many people nearby

when I’m working large-scale magic.”

All of which was more or less true. I was pretty sure my amulet was

safe as long as it was intact, but if the enchantment were damaged somehow it

could easily start leaking radiation or even explode. At some point I needed to

find a way to lock my power source inside an armored box to protect it, but

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until then I was trying not to expose any more people to such possibilities than

I had to.

“I see,” he mused. “Well, desperate times call for desperate measures,

and you seem to have it in hand. But that wasn’t my major concern. Your

apprentices have been telling some disturbing tales about their situation, and

it’s causing talk.”

I sighed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I let them spread a few rumors to

encourage random armsmen to keep their hands to themselves, but Cerise gets

carried away with it. That girl loves to make it sound like she’s a demon bound

to a dark wizard or something.”

“Not surprising, considering her nature,” he observed. “I can smell the

taint of darkness on her soul from halfway across town. She’s a witch, isn’t

she?”

Crap.

I turned to look out over the frozen fields surrounding the town. “She’s

a teenage girl who’s willing to risking her life to protect innocent civilians

from monsters. Isn’t that what matters now?”

“That’s a valid point,” he conceded. “One could even argue it fits with

Odin’s command for all men to set aside their grievances and fight together

against the traitor’s hordes. But at the same time you can’t expect a leopard to

change its spots. Given half a chance she’ll be sacrificing young men to her fell

goddess, and enchanting innocent maidens into submitting to her cult’s

perversions. I suppose binding a pretty young witch might seem less dangerous

than trapping a demon or elemental, but I assure you that is not the case. How

confident are you that whatever leash you have her on will hold?”

That was not exactly the tack I was expecting him to take. Apparently

he believed Cerise’s little story about being bound? I’d thought they just killed

witches here, but it sounded like maybe slavery was considered a viable

option too.

What lovely people.

“Sure enough that I let her out of my sight,” I said slowly. “Did you

have some specific recommendation?”

“To be honest, I’d like to recommend handing her over to the church for

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a proper execution,” he replied grimly. “Whatever power she wields is born of

blood sacrifice, Daniel. Can you let her claim more victims in good

conscience?”

“She’s under my protection,” I said stiffly. “Also, it turns out that

monsters are valid sacrifices.”

That surprised him. His brow furrowed in thought.

“I see,” he said slowly. “Turning darkness against darkness? That’s

more devious of you than I’d expected. But with time she will become what

she preys on, and no simple binding will be reliable on such a protean

creature. If you insist on taking the chance, you should at least impose the

Riven Covenants on her.”

“Hmm. You’re really concerned about this?”

He nodded firmly. “Yes. I can’t stress this enough. Witches who

practice freely are inevitably consumed by their own power, Daniel. I can see

that the girl has some affection for you, but you can’t expect that to hold when

tested. She might turn on you last, but she will turn.”

“Well, I suppose that isn’t exactly my field of expertise,” I allowed.

Did I dare admit that I didn’t know what this covenant thing was?

“Indeed. The Church, however, has considerable experience in these

matters. I’m told you arrived with little baggage, so I assume you don’t have a

proper library?”

“Unfortunately no,” I admitted.

“Well, I have a copy of
In Tauro de Maleficis
I can loan you, for

reference purposes. It’s a translation into the vernacular, but it should still

work well enough. Can I have your assurance you’ll take action quickly?”

I nodded reluctantly. “Yes, I do see your point. But I’m going to have to

brush up on a few things before I move on this. I assume you can have it

delivered discretely?”

“Of course. No need to forewarn the witch. Well, I’m glad we have an

agreement. If you’ll excuse me I have another appointment soon.”

He headed off down the wall rather than asking for a lift to ground

level. A sign he wasn’t as comfortable with magic as he acted? Or perhaps just

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a reluctance to put himself in someone else’s power after making demands?

I watched him go thoughtfully. For obvious reasons my knee-jerk

reaction to priests who wanted to persecute witches wasn’t very favorable, but

in this world magic was actually real. For all I knew Hecate really was an evil

goddess, and based on her own comments Cerise had a habit of playing with

fire. I didn’t think I’d actually use whatever spells were in this book, but it

could be informative reading.

Besides, pretending to cooperate for a week seemed less likely to make

me a new enemy than just refusing outright.

I worked until nearly sunset, finishing another tower and a good stretch

of curtain wall beyond it. My guard squad changed shifts sometime during the

afternoon, and one of the men in the new squad did a fairly neat job of

manufacturing an opportunity to pass me a small book bound in worn leather.

Which meant my guard detail was infiltrated with people willing to do

favors for Holger. One more thing to worry about, as if there wasn’t enough on

my plate already. I made a note to check with Avilla about how the recruiting

was going, and switch to having my own people watch my back as soon as

possible.

By the time I started to make my way back to my temporary home my

brain was aching from channeling magic all day. I trudged wearily down the

length of the wall I’d built, my cloak pulled tight against the wind. My face

was a bit numb despite the warmth of the enchanted garment, and I can only

imagine how frozen my escorts must have been. Maybe I should put in some

kind of overhead cover, or a passageway through the wall itself?

I was still turning over possibilities in my mind when I opened the door

to my tower, and was interrupted by shouting from below.

“Now what?

I shook my head and hurried down the stairs with the six men of my

escort trailing along behind me. I noted in passing that no one had been

guarding the door, which didn’t do much to allay my growing concern. Had a

monster gotten in somehow? I could make out Avilla’s voice now, along with a

bunch of angry men.

I reached the bottom floor, and circled around to the storage area that

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took up a quarter of the floor to find it was full of shouting people. There was a

small pile of sacks and boxes against a wall, which Cerise was standing over

with her knives out. A rotund and rather foppish-looking young man surrounded

by four guards was shouting at Avilla, who glared back at him murderously.

Gronir and another man I vaguely remembered as one of the refugees were

standing beside her clutching their spears, obviously ready to defend her if the

interlopers made a move. A couple of Captain Rain’s men stood back from the

whole mess, looking like they had no idea what to do.

“Hey!”

No one heard my shout. Damn it. I made a tiny bubble of force

overhead, and grew it into a thick disk that covered half the room’s ceiling.

Then I canceled the spell. The thunderclap of displaced air shook the room,

and shut everyone up momentarily.

“Everyone, shut up! Avilla, what’s going on here?”

As I’d suspected, she recovered from her shock faster than the men at

arms. “We caught these people trying to steal our supplies, Master Black.”

The fop flushed. “Now see here, wench! I’m Lanrest’s duly appointed

tax farmer, and you’d better adjust your tone if you expect to live in this town.

My uncle doesn’t suffer rebels in his lands.”

“She’s not a subject of your Baron,” I said firmly, striding into the

room to put my hand on Avilla’s shoulder. “She’s the apprentice and personal

retainer of a traveling wizard who happens to be saving your sorry asses from

the giants right now. Do you have any proof of who you are?”

I glanced around the room, and found that my escorts had joined the

spectators by the door instead of moving to back me up. One of them nodded.

“That’s him, sir,” he confirmed. “Squire Cezary, the Baron’s nephew.”

“There, you see?” The idiot said self-importantly. “Now get your

people out of my way. My uncle has declared an emergency tax of a thousand

silver pennies on the town, and after this fiasco I’m taking a hefty share of it

right here.”

He stepped forward confidently, and ran face-first into the invisible