Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (8 page)

times faster. Every muscle in my body twitched violently, vibrating with

energy as a dull burn suffused them. I added a secondary flow to keep the

fatigue under control, grimacing as the diversion of energy slowed the

transformation. But it was just as well, as a ripple of growth forced me to

juggle a dozen more complexities all at once.

Where was the extra mass coming from, anyway? I had a dim sense that it

was being conjured from some external source, just like with the hammer I’d

made in my first battle. But beyond that I had no idea, and I certainly didn’t

have time to worry about it now.

My muscles grew in slow fits and starts, as I struggled to counteract all

the unpleasant side effects a too-fast change created in the rest of my body. But

gradually I got the hang of it, and the process began to smooth out. A constant

rate of change made everything easier, and for the better part of an hour I sat

and coaxed the transformation along.

I wasn’t going for the huge bulging muscles of a weightlifter, of course.

Aside from being too obvious a change, it wasn’t optimal for my situation. I

needed the strong legs and aerobic endurance of a marathon runner, in case we

needed to outrun danger. The rock-hard physique of a serious martial artist, to

protect my internal organs from blows I didn’t see coming. The strong arms

and back of a laborer, in case I needed to carry an injured civilian while my

limited supply of magic was in use. Conditioning, and more conditioning, and

yet more conditioning.

Finally I reached the limits of what I could do. I opened my eyes to find

that the camp was still and quiet, and the snow was falling harder now. A

wave of exhaustion washed over me, and suddenly finding my own wagon

again seemed like an enormous undertaking. I was too tired to stand up, let

alone walk anywhere.

I pulled the hood of my cloak down over my face, and let my eyes drift

closed again. The magical warmth would protect me from the snow, and the

girls would probably enjoy their privacy anyway. I was asleep in moments.

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Some time later a small but very strong hand shook me awake. I blinked

my eyes open to find Avilla’s face inches from my nose.

“Daniel? Are you alright?” She asked worriedly.

“Yeah. Just tired. Rough casting.” I mumbled.

Her expression firmed. “Right. Let’s get you to bed before you catch your

death of cold.”

She slipped under my arm and lifted me to my feet despite my feeble

protests, and dragged me off across the camp. I was still so tired the world

seemed to sway like the deck of a ship, and I found myself leaning heavily on

her. She took my weight without protest, though at one point she paused to

wrap my cloak around us both.

Then she gasped softly. “It’s so warm! How did you... fire magic?”

“Mmm hmmm.” Her hair smelled nice. Like baking cookies on a warm

spring day.

“I suppose you weren’t going to freeze, then,” she observed. “But I still

can’t have my heroic protector sleeping alone on the hard ground. Come on,

almost there.”

Soon I was foggily clambering into the back of a wagon. Avilla stopped

us when we were half inside, and I frowned in confusion as she bent over me.

But she was just taking off my shoes. She left them next to her own just inside

the covered space, and deftly laced the canvas flaps shut again.

“Avilla?” Cerise asked sleepily.

“I’m here, kitten,” Avilla replied softly. “Go back to sleep.”

“M‘kay. C’mere.”

A slender hand snaked out from the pile of blankets to grab my arm, and

pulled me down. A moment later I found myself on my side half under the

blankets, with the little witch curled up against my chest.

“Mmm, muscles. Yum.”

She was a very naked little witch. I froze, my sleep-addled mind having

no idea how to react.

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Avilla giggled softly, and slipped in behind me. Oh, my. She’d been

naked under her cloak?

“Um,” I said intelligently.

“Put your arm around her,” Avilla advised quietly. “She doesn’t have so

many nightmares if she’s being held.”

I obediently let my arm fall to encircle the sleeping girl. She gave a little

sigh, and buried her face in my chest.

“There you go. Goodnight, Daniel.” Avilla reached around me to stroke

Cerise’s hair, and then left it there as she relaxed against my back.

I decided I’d leave the thinking for later. “Goodnight, Avilla.”

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Chapter 4

I woke to the crack of splintering timber, and an ear-splitting howl right

above my head.

A massive weight landed on my chest as my eyes flew open. Avilla’s

startled yelp in my ear reminded me where I was, but my face was covered

with canvas and it was too dark to see.

The weight shifted, and I felt my ribs creak. I pushed, blindly but with the

full power of my force element, and it lifted. The canvas flew away from my

face, and I found myself looking up at a giant wolf.

It had a man in its jaws, and as I pushed myself upright I saw it shake him

like a dog with a rabbit. Then it dropped him, and turned its gaze on me.

Avilla scrambled behind me with a whimper, and I knew I had to hold its

attention. I threw a ball of fire at its face, and jumped off the wagon.

Sure enough it followed, spinning in place to snap at me with teeth the

size of swords. I gathered a burst of force magic and jumped, pushing off to

send myself sailing high over the beast’s head. The long seconds of hang time

gave me a chance to send a flurry of force blades raining down on it, but they

didn’t penetrate deep enough to have much effect. The beast was easily the size

of an elephant, and I was going to need something with more punch than that to

deal with it.

The rest of the camp was in complete confusion. More giant wolves were

rampaging among the refugees, killing men and panicking the livestock. On the

other side of the camp a giant who must have been twenty feet tall stood

laughing and laying about with an enormous spear.

After that I was too busy for sightseeing. The damned wolf was smart

enough to see where I was going to land, and coming down without going splat

was tricky enough that I barely managed to fend it off. Its jaws closed on the

force bubble protecting me and began to squeeze, sending blue sparks dancing

through the air around me as the spell threatened to collapse.

Then it yelped in surprise and jumped back. Cerise rolled out from under

it with a bloody dagger in each hand, still as naked as when I’d come to bed.

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The wolf lashed out at her with a paw, and she nimbly ducked under the blow.

I dove forward while it was distracted. Its chin flashed by above me, and

then my line of sight was clear. I conjured another force blade, this one six feet

long instead of my usual two or three, and slashed it across the wolf’s throat.

It cut deep into the monster’s flesh with only a faint tug of resistance. A

torrent of steaming blood gushed out of the wound, drenching me thoroughly.

The wolf abruptly stopped trying to kill us in favor of getting away, but it only

made it three steps before collapsing in a heap. The snow around it rapidly

began to turn red.

I rushed over to Cerise. “Are you alright?”

She licked the blood dripping from her dagger. “Hell, yeah. That was

awesome, Daniel. Let’s kill some more of these guys.”

“Look out!”

The panicked cry from one of the cowering villagers warned me that our

victory hadn’t gone unnoticed. Two more wolves were headed our way, and

the giant had drawn a hand axe from his belt. I turned around just in time to see

him throw it at me.

Time seemed to stand still as the glittering mass of steel spun through the

air towards me, the complex interplay of forces that guided its path announcing

that the giant’s aim was true. It would spin three more times as it sailed through

the air, then smash edge-on into my chest. With the force of a hundred pounds

or so of flying steel concentrated on the tiny surface area of its edge it would

cut through my shield like tissue paper.

I stepped into the spot my sorcerous instincts pointed to, two feet forward

and a foot to the left, and held out a hand bolstered by telekinetic strength. The

shaft of the axe slammed into my palm, and my hand closed around it. I let the

impact of the blow spin me around in nearly a full circle, adding my own

power to the movement. Then I released it again, and watched it sail through

the darkness to sink into the chest of the wolf on the left. The beast went down

with a howl of agony.

The wolf on the right checked, and eyed me warily.

“Come on then, monsters!” I shouted. “Who dies next?”

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The giant roared, and charged me. The wolf circled right, watching for an

opening.

“Oh, crap,” Cerise muttered behind me.

“Take cover,” I advised her, and counter-charged.

It was insane, but I figured being unpredictable was my best shot at

surviving this. I let my force bubble drop, knowing it wouldn’t do any good

against a weapon the size of the giant’s spear anyway, and desperately

wracked my brain. Jump? No, he’d probably seen me do it to the wolf, and

he’d just stab me in mid-air. The force spike trick? No, he was wearing chain

mail, and steel links that size would be stronger than my force constructs. Earth

trickery?

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

He was almost close enough to stab me now, so I turned the ground

around us into a quagmire of mud. The first few inches came out frozen, which

was a pleasant surprise since it meant I didn’t immediately sink.

The giant wasn’t so lucky. His tremendous weight cracked the frozen

surface instantly, and he plunged knee-deep before he knew what was

happening. I jumped away with a burst of force magic as he started to struggle,

and rapidly circled around the trap.

The giant shouted something in what I assumed must be his own language,

but he couldn’t turn fast enough with the goop impeding his movements. I laid a

horizontal force wall over the muck to use as a path, circling quickly to get

behind him, and then ran in close to ram a slender lance of force between the

links of his armor and into his right kidney.

He howled in pain. I made the end of the lance grow into a spinning blade

for an instant, thoroughly mangling the tissue inside. Then I released the spell,

and a spray of searing blue blood gushed from the wound.

I staggered back, gasping at the sudden cold, and nearly got eaten by

another wolf. I barely evaded its snapping jaws, and rolled under it. From that

position making a sharp spire of stone erupt from the ground to impale it

seemed like the logical course.

The wolf’s blood was hot, and I found myself almost grateful for the

dousing I got. Unfortunately one of its paws caught me as I was trying to get out

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from under it. I went flying, and struck something that was harder than my skull.

For a few minutes all I could do was lie there in a daze, but eventually I

managed to get my eyes to focus. I found myself lying in the smashed remains

of a wagon, with what felt like half a dozen broken bones. Avilla was

crouched over me wrapped in a blanket, with a concerned look in her eyes.

“Can you hear me, Daniel?”

“Yeah,” I grated. “Crap. That one hurt. Gonna need a few minutes to fix

everything.”

She gave a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness. I was afraid they’d killed

you.”

Cerise appeared next to her, and crouched to stab her daggers into the

ground before wrapping herself in a blood-stained blanket. “Nah, Daniel’s

tougher than that. The frost giant died, and the wolves that can still move ran

off. Go ahead and fix yourself up, we’ll keep an eye on things.”

“Thanks.”

I turned my attention inward. Three broken ribs took some effort to knit

back together, and then I had a crushed shoulder to deal with. Fortunately the

bones hadn’t severed any arteries when they broke, or I might not have lived

long enough to wake up.

I made a mental note to come up with better defensive measures soon, and

focused on the task at hand. Eventually I got the shoulder put back together,

although I’d have to be careful with it for a few days. Then the frostbite where

the giant’s blood had struck me, and a nasty laceration along my chest where

one of the wolf’s claws had apparently caught me.

Too bad I couldn’t repair my shirt as easily. I only had one spare, and I

had a feeling it was only going to get colder.

Finally I opened my eyes again. Apparently it had been a while, because