Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (28 page)

me with its club raised to smash me into the pavement. No momentum from

either of us to carry a thrust into its vitals.

I dropped the lance, and tried to dive between the thing’s legs. But I

was too slow, or the troll was too fast. It smashed me back with a knee to the

face, and then brought the club down.

I threw myself aside with a burst of force magic, and hacked at its arm

with a blade of force. The blade cut deep into the tendons of its forearm, and it

dropped the club. I followed up with a little ball of fire thrown at its face. But

it blocked the flame, and kicked me away. My shield flickered, and an arrow

sank into my shoulder before I could throw it back up. Damn, I wasn’t going to

last long at this rate.

The troll bent to pick up its club with its good hand, but one of the

soldiers rushed up behind it and sank his axe into its calf. It stumbled, tried to

kick him with its other foot and fell flat on its face.

I rushed in with a fresh force blade and hacked at the monster’s neck.

More soldiers jumped in to attack it as well, and for a moment it seemed that

would be it.

The troll rose to its knees with a roar, and batted me away to land in

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the broken wagon. This time I didn’t bother restoring my shield, I just grabbed

up a chunk of wood and stumbled back into the fray.

The axeman had gotten both of the troll’s Achilles tendons, and it was

too stupid to realize why it couldn’t stand anymore. It fell to its knees again as

I reached it, and I plunged the length of wood into a wound in its side. It went

in nearly a foot, and then I set it blazing and stumbled back.

The other troll smashed me into the street.

Only the fact that it had lost its club saved me from a shattered skull. It

loomed over me, back still smoldering, and bared its teeth at me.

“Hrug eat puny wizard,” it growled. It picked me up by my broken

arm, and opened its mouth.

I formed a force lance, rammed it through the roof of the thing’s

mouth, and sent fire rushing into the wound.

For a second it just froze, and I wondered if the lance had gone deep

enough to do any damage. Then the troll’s eyes exploded, and jets of flame

burst from its eye sockets. Hah, let’s see it survive that.

Its hand went slack, and I fell back onto the cobblestone. Then the

troll’s burning corpse fell on me.

I must have blacked out for a moment. When consciousness returned I

was still buried under the hulking brute, but I could hear movement all around

me.

“Weigh them down with those timbers. Quickly now! You, and you,

light the torches from that building. All of them! We’ve got to burn them to ash

or they’ll be back at us in an hour.”

I tried to groan, but all that escaped was a weak gurgle. Too much

weight on me. My ribs had broken again. I tried to push the body off, but I

didn’t have the strength to do more than shift it. Not enough magic left.

“It moved!” Someone shouted.

“Impossible!” Another voice argued. “Look, it ain’t got no brains right

now.”

“Wait, the wizard!” Someone else put in. “I think he was under it.”

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“Gotta be dead,” the second voice countered.

“I’ll check,” said the main who’d been giving orders. “You men, get

that timber under its shoulder and lift.”

There were a few moments of cursing and straining, and the weight on

my chest moved. One side of the troll’s body lifted a few inches off the

pavement, giving me a view of booted feet and a burning building in the

background.

“Hold it steady, boys,” the commander ordered. Then a face appeared.

One of the knights I’d seen with the Baron when I first arrived in Lanrest.

I tried to talk, but all I could do was gurgle. There was blood on my

lips, and more in my lungs. I needed to get out from under this thing, and let my

amulet work for an hour or two.

He smiled grimly.

“You look like shit, wizard,” he said quietly. “You going to magic your

way out of this one?”

I shook my head weakly. “G… ouw… hlll…”

He drew a dagger from a sheath on his forearm, and laid it against my

throat.

“Nah, see, I’m Sir Zenon Broz. Cezary is my cousin, and I’m not real

happy about you kicking his ass and humiliating him in front of his men. So you

know what?”

He drew the blade across my throat.

“Fuck you, wizard. You’re freaky magic isn’t getting you out of this

one. Maybe you can heal like a troll, but I bet you’ll burn like one too.”

He backed away.

I clutched weakly at my magic, trying desperately to close the gaping

wound in my throat. My blood ran out over the cobblestones, fast, too fast…

“He’s gone,” I heard Zenon say. “Died right in front of me. Put it down,

boys, and let’s get these things burning.”

Too fast. The last dregs of strength fled from my battered body, and

everything went dark.

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Chapter 12

Someone was crying.

My head rested on something warm and soft. Every now and then a

teardrop hit my cheek. But the rest of me was cold, so cold. I was numb to the

bone.

I tried to open my eyes, but nothing happened.

“We have to go, Tina.”

It was Beri’s voice. Low and full of worry.

“She’s right, girl. There’s nothing we can do now. Our getting eaten

won’t help him.”

A male voice, vaguely familiar. The blacksmith?

Tina sniffed. “We’re all gonna die without him, Oskar. He was our

only hope.”

“Maybe,” Beri admitted. “But we have to try. Come on, now.”

I tried to speak, but nothing worked. Not the faintest twitch from my

limbs. What happened?

A muffled gasp drew my attention.

“Beri! He’s breathing!”

“What? But, that’s impossible Tina. No one could survive that.

Besides, I checked.”

“Put your hand here!” Tina insisted. “Feel that? He… oh, gods. His

heart just started beating.”

I couldn’t feel anything below my neck but the cold. But I heard Beri’s

gasp.

“You’re right. I… I don’t understand. Oh, I wish Miss Avilla was

here! She’d know what to do.”

“We take him with us,” Tina said fiercely. “He’s gonna get better, just

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like he always does. Come on…”

Something jostled me, and darkness descended again.

The next time I woke I was lying under a thin blanket, with a warm

body pressing against my side. Soft, generous curves, and a small but

calloused hand resting on my chest. Tina?

“I’m not taking any chances, Beri,” Tina was saying urgently. “I was

touching him when he started getting better. What if that’s how his magic

works?”

Beri sighed. “I still say that’s silly, Tina. How would touching you

make him heal from… from
that
. Besides, you need to eat.”

“Take my place, then,” Tina said stubbornly.

Hey, I could feel my body again. I tried to open my eyes, but still got

nothing. Was it that dark, or was I blind? I shifted, and opened my mouth.

“Guuuh.” Well, that didn’t work out like I intended.

“He’s awake!” Tina gasped.

“I can hardly believe it. Milord, we’re safe for now. What can we do

to help?”

“Wa’er,” I managed.

“Of course. Tina, prop him up a little. Gods, those burns must hurt

terribly. Here you go, milord. Drink slow, now, so you don’t choke.”

I managed a few sips of water, feeling absurdly clumsy as I managed

to dribble half of it down my chin. Beri just wiped it away and tried again. The

water seemed to help, and the clumsiness quickly passed.

“Thanks,” I said. “No pain. Got it blocked.”

“That’s a mercy,” Beri told me. “You were burned nearly to a crisp

when we found you, and then mostly frozen. I thought for sure you were dead.

That was just after dawn, and you’ve been healing all morning.”

“It’s kind of neat to watch,” Tina put in. “Are you gonna get all

better?”

I felt terribly weak, but my amulet was still tirelessly working away.

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“Should,” I answered. “Few hours? Where are we?”

Because I could hear the distinctive sound of people walking on

wooden floors somewhere nearby, and that didn’t make sense. If the girls had

decided to hole up shouldn’t we be in the tower?

“We’re hiding at Oskar’s place,” Beri explained. “The blacksmith

you recruited? It’s a good thing you did, because we never would have made it

this far without him.”

I was getting a bad feeling about this.

“Avilla? Cerise?”

Beri sighed.

“Cerise led Oskar’s group back to the tower around midnight. We’d

been up with Miss Avilla watching from the windows, and things were looking

pretty bad by then. A lot of the town was on fire, and the Baron’s men mostly

pulled back into the keep. They both got pretty worried when they found out no

one knew where you were.”

“They argued a bit,” she went on. “Miss Cerise was looking really

scary, all covered in blood with her shadow moving on its own. She wanted to

summon a demon to drive the goblins out of town, but Miss Avilla talked her

down. Told her she was being reckless, and… um… distracted her.”

Tina giggled. “She kissed her senseless, and dragged her down to the

bath to get clean. They were in there for an hour.”

Beri sighed. “Yeah. That. Anyway, they talked for a while, and when

you still didn’t come back they decided to do something to find you. Some kind

of ritual. Miss Avilla said it wasn’t too dangerous, but we mustn’t interrupt

them.”

“But the Baron’s men interrupted them,” Tina said.

“They came in through the door up on the wall,” Beri explained.

“Some of Captain Rain’s men were supposed to be guarding it, but they let

them in. That priest was leading them. I was guarding the door, but I couldn’t

stop a whole troop of soldiers. They burst in and caught your apprentices in the

middle of their ritual, and the priest did something that made it go wild on

them. Then the soldiers rushed them.”

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She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. He had them in chains

before any of the men came upstairs. Gronir and a couple of the others wanted

to fight them anyway, but there were too many of them. It would have been

suicide.”

“They took them to the keep,” Tina said. “But you’ll rescue them,

right? You won’t let that evil baron have Miss Avilla?”

Damn it. Not again. Was there anyone in this town I could safely turn

my back on? Avilla being in the Baron’s hands was bad enough, but Holger

already knew Cerise was a witch. If Avilla used magic to defend herself

they’d realize what she was, assuming they hadn’t already figured it out. And

that meant…

“Hell, no,” I said. “Um, book?”

“The one you had on you?” Beri asked. “It didn’t burn, somehow. I

suppose that must be more magic? The cover is a little singed, but that’s all.

I’ve got it right here.”

She paused.

“Um, I’m sorry if this is out of line, milord. But, Miss Avilla and

Miss Cerise, is that really how you bound them?”

I tried shaking my head, and found that I had just enough strength to

manage it. “No. That’s what the priest will do to them.”

“Oh.”

Her tone of voice made it pretty clear that she’d read the last few

chapters. I almost wished I hadn’t.

“How long have they been in the keep?” I asked.

“Maybe half a day? We were just having a late lunch, milord. Shall I

bring you some?”

My stomach growled loudly.

“Yeah,” I said.

It was a somber meal. I could feel my strength returning, but it was a

slow process. Far too slow. I had no idea what was happening to my girls, and

all I could do was lie here and worry.

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But I was already paying the price for rushing in too fast once. I

couldn’t afford to make that mistake again. Getting myself killed in a reckless

rescue attempt wasn’t going to help anyone.

The maids helped me to sit up, and Tina positioned herself behind me

to help keep me propped up while Beri fed me.

“So, why are my eyes bandaged?” I asked as we ate.

“They were burned off,” Tina told me. “I figured we’d best keep them

clean. Was that right?”

Okay then. Apparently Tina had a stronger stomach than I’d thought.

“Can’t hurt. This amulet I’m wearing will heal just about anything, but

I’m not sure it can handle removing debris from a wound.”

Tina hesitated. “Um… debwhat?”

“I mean, if I got something stuck in a wound it might not heal right. So

yeah, bandages are probably a good idea until everything grows back.”

She sighed in relief. “Good. Ma taught me what to do about cuts and

bruises, but I never saw anything like this.”

“You did good, Tina,” I reassured her. “Really, both of you did. I

think my magic was just barely keeping me alive, and if you hadn’t come along

the cold would have finished me off eventually.”

“Thank you, milord,” Beri said.