Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (29 page)

“Beri, you saved my life. You can call me Daniel if you want. You

too, Tina.”

Tina gasped. “Really? For really real? I’ve never said a lord’s name

before.”

I patted her knee. “Really, Tina. We’re not as formal back where I’m

from.”

“Does this mean I get to stay on, Daniel?” Beri asked cautiously.

“Because I got the feeling Miss Avilla was easing me out.”

“Yes, Beri. You save my life, you get my protection. For what it’s

worth.”

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“It’s worth a lot, sir. You just push too hard, trying to save everyone.

If you’d just picked a spot to fort up nothing would ever break in.”

“I can’t conjure up food out of nothing, so we’d eventually have to

come out. But I think you’re right about one thing. I’ve been working too hard

to save everyone in sight, instead of concentrating on my own people first. I

need to start making sure we’re secure before I go trying to save a whole

town.”

“Maybe you should save a town where the Lord doesn’t want to steal

Miss Avilla?” Tina offered diffidently.

I sighed. “Out of the mouths of babes. Yeah, I probably should. But

first I have to figure out how we’re going to get out of here. Who’s still with

us?”

“The Baron’s men kicked everyone out of the tower,” Beri answered.

“Hrodir and Gronir took most of your people and blended in with one of the

refugee groups, just in case. Oskar has a big mob of people here manning the

barricades, but I’m not sure how many of them would help.”

“Barricades?” I asked.

“Oh, the town is in bad shape, Daniel. The goblin are holding three or

four blocks near the hole in the wall, but that’s not the worst of it. Something

killed the watch on the river gate last night, and smashed the gate to bits.

There’s monsters roaming the streets eating people, and even the Baron’s men

only come out in force.”

“I see. So basically, the only reason the town is still here is that there

are too many people for the monsters to eat in one day?”

“I’m afraid so,” Beri agreed. “I think we’re more or less safe for

now. Oskar’s people have the street barricaded in both directions, and there’s

a hundred men here ready to fight. But not many of them have real weapons,

and we’ll run out of food in a few days.”

“One way or another, it won’t be that long. Do you think he’ll help

us?”

“Yes. He’s worried about his family, and no one has much loyalty for

the Baron after the coward decided to spend the day hiding in his keep instead

of fighting to save the town. If he thinks you can protect his people he’ll fight

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for you.”

“Alright, that’s something. I’m starting to feel vaguely human again, so

let’s get this bandage off and see how my eyes are.”

“Right away, milord Daniel,” Tina said eagerly.

The two of them unwound a length of cloth from around my head, and I

blinked at the sudden light. Everything was a bright blur, but that was better

than nothing. One of them examined my face closely, while the other looked

away.

“How do I look?”

“This is neat!” Tina said. “I can see the burns shrinking. You look kind

of funny with no hair, though.”

“It’s pretty bad,” Beri told me. “Most of your skin is still missing.

Sorry, it’s just… really disturbing.”

“I understand. Alright, I need to get myself fixed before I can do

anything else. Beri, I’ll need to meet with Oskar and whoever else is in charge

around here, say, an hour before sunset? Gronir too it that’s possible, but if you

can’t find a way to get word to him we’ll cope. I don’t want anyone to get

killed trying to play messenger.”

“Also, see if you can find someone who knows the layout of the keep. If

I’m going to pull off a rescue I need to be able to find the girls before someone

thinks to use them as hostages.”

“Got it,” Beri said. “I’ll just let Oskar think you’re resting until then, so

he doesn’t bother you. Do you need to be alone to work your magic?”

“No, I just need to concentrate. You and Tina can watch if you’re

curious, just don’t try to talk to me while I’m working. Although there might not

be much to see.”

Tina settled her arms around me, and rested her cheek against my back.

“You can hardly sit up without help, milord. I’ll just stay like this until you’re

healed.”

Beri smiled. “You do that. I’ll go get things organized.”

Weak as I was, my first priority was fixing myself. My amulet was

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mindlessly trying to heal everything that was wrong with me at once, and being

absurdly inefficient about it. It would eventually get the job done, but I couldn’t

afford to spend half a day in bed while it wasted most of its energy repeatedly

fixing symptoms instead of the real problems.

I focused my concentration, and delicately disconnected the healing

function from the power tap. A wave of weakness passed through me as I lost

the artificial boost to my vitality, but now I could actually use the amulet’s

energy output again. So, priorities.

I replaced my burned-off skin first, and then turned my attention to the

considerable damage my internal organs had suffered. It was slow going at

first, and I kept having to divert energy to keep my abused body from going into

shock and dying.

It was disturbing to realize how close I’d come. If my amulet had fallen

off, or been damaged by the fire, or if they’d piled a bit more wood on that

troll, I probably wouldn’t be here. I resolved not to make that mistake again. I

couldn’t afford to get myself killed in a vain attempt to save everyone. I had

too many people depending on me.

My weakness ebbed as I worked through the more critical repairs, and

soon I began to feel like I’d survive even without additional magic. I was still

emaciated, most of my body mass presumably burned away while I was

unconscious, and I had far too many fractured bones to do anything but lean

into Tina’s warm embrace and be thankful for the pain block. But it was a start.

I tackled those fractures next, carefully fusing the bones back together

one at a time. Another pass, replacing scars with healthy tissue and washing

away the poisons flooding my bloodstream. Then I was free to tackle

rebuilding my muscles, replaying the same shaping I’d done in the refugee

camp just a few days ago.

That extra durability had probably saved my life. But even a sturdy

human was still pretty fragile against the threats I faced, and it almost hadn’t

been enough. Could I do better?

Well, I could make my bones stronger. Not invulnerable, but strong

enough that they wouldn’t keep breaking so easily.

My flesh sorcery held other options as well, but nothing that suited my

circumstances. Trying to magically enhance my strength or durability would

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take days, and was tricky enough I was leery about trying it out for the first

time on myself. If I made a mistake there I might not get a chance to fix it.

Besides, my other sorceries were a lot more suited to direct combat.

I’d made a serious mistake with my amulet, but I had time to fix that now. Split

the energy feed so half of it went directly to me for spellcasting, and the other

half went first to maintaining my shield with only the remainder used for

healing. It was more complicated than the original design, but easily doable.

There, that would give me the power and heavy shielding I’d meant to

have, and as long as I wasn’t stupid enough to cripple myself at the start of a

big fight the reduction in healing wasn’t likely to ever matter.

What else could I learn from my last fight?

I needed a defense against non-physical attacks. Some kind of meta-

magical ward or barrier to block curses like those shamans had been throwing

at me. Well, that was complicated. Trying to block every possible kind of spell

would be a big project, especially if I got into esoteric stuff like sympathetic

magic or Avilla’s enchanted food. But a shield against simple projectile

spells? That was doable. A moderately complex barrier effect anchored to a

ring would work well enough in a fight, although there were several obvious

ways around it.

Of course, the biggest lesson was that I was focusing too much on

defense. If I’d been able to hit the goblin army with a decent area-effect attack

while I was in flight the whole battle would have gone differently. But I was

still relying on my ability to put attack spells together on the fly for all my

offensive power, and that took too much concentration. In a real fight I never

had time to put together anything fancy.

So do it in advance.

Fire was highly effective against most targets, but I didn’t have enough

fire sorcery to do anything more complicated than creating heat within a few

feet of my hands. Force was lethal at melee ranges, but their lack of inertia

meant that thrown force blades had limited penetration. Earth magic was nice

for battlefield control, but not so good at doing direct damage. But if I

combined all three there were a lot of possibilities.

Conjuring pebbles was easy. Throwing them was easy. Instant gun,

except that the accuracy would be terrible. I wasn’t exactly doing precision

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machining with my spells, and I wasn’t much of a marksman to start with.

Besides, a bullet wouldn’t stop a troll.

A hot enough bullet might set it on fire, and I could make things very

hot indeed. But the collateral damage from using a weapon like that in town

would be huge.

I really needed two different weapons, one for close quarters like

inside the keep and another for open-field engagements. Something highly

lethal but tightly controlled, and something else that could hit a large area. But

I really only had time to build one weapon this afternoon, so I’d have to go

with close quarters.

I was still working on refinements when Beri returned, but the

prototype would probably get the job done.

“What’s that?” she asked curiously, eying the oddly shaped chunk of

stone in my hand.

I smiled grimly. “A very nasty surprise for anyone who gets in my way.

How are things going?”

“We got a message to Hrodir,” she said. “There are some groups on the

streets again, trading supplies and the like. One of them was happy enough to

carry a message for a bit of silver. Oh, I don’t know if I mentioned? I’ve got

Miss Avilla’s coin purse on me, so we’ve a good bit of silver if we need it.

Miss Cerise was doing a good business selling those cloaks.”

“Good, we’ll probably need it. Let’s get this meeting organized, then.”

We gathered in Oskar’s cellar, which was surprisingly empty since the

Baron’s men had confiscated his stores a couple of days ago. It was surprising

how many familiar faces there were in the group of desperate men and women.

Oskar and his sons, Hrodir, Gronir, even Vasha.

I blinked in surprise at Captain Rain’s… mistress? Head concubine? I

wasn’t even sure what to call the man’s arrangement.

“How did you end up here?” I asked her.

“No one who saw you fight the giant believes that you’re really dead,

lord wizard,” she answered. “Marcus sent me to try to find you, and make

peace.”

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I frowned at her. “Captain Rain isn’t exactly in my good books right

now.”

“Would you have him betray his employer, lord wizard? Could you

ever trust a man who was capable of such treachery? The company is under

contract with the Baron for another month, and so far he’s upheld his end of the

agreement.”

“But the contract ends if the Baron dies,” she added suggestively.

I raised an eyebrow. “Does it? Is Captain Rain offering to help with

that?”

She shook her head. “No treachery, lord wizard. But Baron Stein

doesn’t trust the company, so he’s assigned us to guard the granary down near

the waterfront instead of helping to man the keep. If things work out the way

Marcus expects, we’ll be well supplied and ready to accept a new contract.”

I paused to study her for a moment. She’d been an attractive woman

when she was younger, although age was beginning to wear on her now. Her

dress was simple but clean, she’d found time to put her hair up in a fairly

elaborate arrangement held together by hairpins, and her manner seemed

confident at first glance.

But her dress was the same one she’d worn the day of the giant attack.

The hem was short where she’d ripped off a length to try to bandage her man’s

wounds, and one sleeve had a hole in it just the size a goblin arrow would