Hero's Curse (27 page)

Ben spoke first, “What’s going on?”

“Samson wants to use us as bait. We’re supposed to lure the Jotunn into this church, and when they all get inside, he and his men are going to attack.”

Ben asked like he already knew the answer. “There’s a way out of here, a secret passage, right?”

“No, the assumption is we’re all going to die.”

Andi broke in, “It’s going to be okay, my angel will protect us.”

I had to laugh. “That’ll be our backup plan.”

Mina put her hand on my shoulder, “Victor, you’re not going to let us be bait.”

“No.”

She asked, “So, what’s Samson going to do?”

“Nothing, we’re on our own.”

I put my hand up to cover my mouth when I heard her say, “Asshole.” Mina hadn’t meant to be overheard. I hadn’t told her about my super sense. It was a half-assed version of reading her mind but if we survived the night, I could see how it could be useful in a relationship.

Andi’s eyes got big. She tilted her head back, closed her eyes, threw her arms up, and with open hands raised to the vaulted ceilings, called out to her angel. “SAMAEL! SAMAEL! We need you.” Her screams got my mind back on track. Mina rushed to her sister’s side. Ben stared at Andi like she was going insane. I saw curiosity in Aidan’s and Tim’s eyes. They were wondering if he would show up, too.

“SAMAEL!” Andi now had tears in her eyes. “I need you!”

We waited. Seconds turned to minutes. When Mina wrapped her arms around her, Andi collapsed. “He’s my angel. I did what he asked. Why isn’t he coming?”

“It’s okay, Baby Sis. It’s going to be okay.”

Ben moved toward his two sisters and awkwardly starting patting Andi on the back.

I made eye contact with Tim and Aidan and gestured with my head for them to follow me. Once we got out of easy hearing distance, Tim quietly said, “I was really hoping Samael would show up.”

“So was I. It would have been nice, but we need to focus on the here and now. What do you guys know about paladin compulsions?”

Tim shrugged, “Not much, I always assumed they were pretty much the same as the ones Oath Brothers have—the basic Ten Commandments and laws listed in Leviticus minus brit milah and the dietary restrictions.” He must have misread my expression because he continued, “Brit milah is Hebrew; bris is Yiddish for the Jewish ceremony where a boy is circumcised eight days after he’s born.” He gave an amazingly goofy giggle which even for him took some doing. “Victor, you’re a little past the due date of eight days if you know what I mean. The dietary restrictions got revoked when Christ died for us. Jesus not only saved our souls, he gave us pork and lobster.”

Aidan affectionately put his hand on his apprentice’s shoulder, “Tim, that’s not what Victor wants to know.” He turned to me. “I can only tell you what I’ve observed over the last few hundred years, which is not much. None of the paladins I have worked with ever talked about their rules. A compulsion is often a weakness. Why would they want their weakness publicized? A paladin’s highest priority is to defend his territory. His second is to protect Jehovah’s gifts; the weapons and armor given to him by God. The first priority often places the second in danger. That’s how paladins lose their lives and their gifts. I’ve gathered from your half of the conversation with Bill Samson that paladins also need permission to enter each other’s territories. I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know.”

“We don’t have the obligation to help each other?”

The leprechaun shook his head, “I don’t know if it is policy or pride, but until you did it today, I have never known a paladin to ask for or receive help from another paladin. Victor, what are we going to do?”

“I’ll tell you after I call Samson again.”

The Boise Paladin picked up on the first ring. “You change your mind?”

“Depends on how you answer my questions.”

Samson’s grunt sounded amused. “Ask away.”

“I’m going to make the Jotunn an offer they can’t refuse.” I watched Tim and Aidan’s expressions as I talked to the Boise Paladin. Tim got the reference; I saw blank incomprehension in Aidan’s eyes. “Here’s what I’ll offer. In return for leaving the rest my people alone, I will fight them, one-by-one in single combat, until I kill them all or until I’m defeated. If they kill me outright, they get the gifts anyway. If I’m too wounded to fight, I won’t send God’s gifts to safety. I’ll put myself to sleep and let them take my gifts.”

“WHAT!”

Samson’s response was my answer. When Samson and I earlier had discussed the two paladins who had lost their gifts, I’d felt sick to my stomach. Just now, when I had threatened to bargain away my gifts, it took everything I had to prevent myself from puking. Every gift was Jehovah’s will manifested; all paladins were compelled to protect them. I could force Samson to help us by putting my gifts at risk.

“Did you know I have four gifts? I’ve regained…” Crap, what his name? Oh yeah, “I recaptured Roland Fare’s gifts from a Red Cap. I’m wondering if you’re going to sit all safe and comfy in Boise while I hand four of Jehovah’s gifts to the Jotunn.”

For the first time I heard anger in Samson’s voice. He wasn’t the kind that got hot. His voice was stone cold. “I won’t be coming for the Jotunn. I’ll be coming for you.”

I carefully covered the phone’s mouth piece and vomited on the floor beside me; it was possible Samson hadn’t heard me. I spit to clear my mouth. “Whatever gets your ass moving. You can come up now and try to deal with me before the Jotunn get here, or you can wait until all the Jotunn are focused on me and try to ambush them. Last we talked, you were all about not wasting opportunities.” I hung up and puked up everything I had left in my stomach.

Aidan looked stunned. Tim stuttered, “Victor…”

I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. “Save the condolences. I’m not planning on dying. We have a few hours until darkness. I need you guys to help me prepare some surprises for the Jotunn.”

Aidan put his hand on my arm. “Victor, there has to be another way.”

I knew he meant well, but I didn’t have time to try to convince him. Running wasn’t an option; where would we run to? Having the Swensons drive us from city to city while we were asleep wasn’t a long term proposition. If I was going to die, I would die on my terms—a wolf at bay, not a rabbit on the run. “How’s this work, our relationship as paladin and Oath Brother? Are we friends, colleagues, or is this like the army where one has rank over the other?”

Aidan let his hand drop from my arm. He looked hurt. His brogue was strong when he replied, “It is a feudal based system. Tis yourself who is my liege; I am compelled to follow your orders.”

“I’ve made my decision. I need you to support me.” I stared into his eyes until he nodded his head. “Back when I was a kid, I read a book about Norse Myths. They used magic offensively but mostly in terms of curses that took affect slowly over time. In those myths, when the Norse fought, even gods like Loki used weapons. There was nothing about them throwing fireballs or lightning bolts. They had magic weapons like Thor’s hammer, but they didn’t actually cast spells in combat. Were those stories accurate? Will the Jotunn use magic in a fight?”

“Lightning bolts and fireballs take awful amounts of energy and are fairly easy to defend against; I doubt if they’d try those kinds of spells. You can expect the Jotunn to cast healing spells and if things go badly for them, they will likely change shape to escape.”

“If I’m going to fight them, I’m going to need every advantage I can get.” I went over to my gear bag and pulled out a Taser C2. I pointed at the canister attached to the Taser. “This is pepper spray. I know from experience it will blind a Jotunn, and the Taser is effective against them too. I can use the Taser as is, but it’d be helpful if it could be hidden in my armor until I needed it.” I handed the Taser to Aidan. “I’ve got another in my bag.”

I grabbed my bang stick next. Tim almost bounced with excitement. “I know what that is. It’s a bang stick! It’s a pressure activated shotgun shell used by divers to kill sharks. They push the stick onto the shark and ‘boom,’ it blows a two foot hole into the shark”

I nodded my head. “I’m planning on strapping it to my left forearm, under my jacket. It’s well hidden as is. I’m not sure it can be improved on, but if you have ideas, let me know.”

I pulled out my last trick. It looked like the letter H and it was made out of two inch long, half inch diameter, stainless steel tubing. I gripped the vertical parts of the H so the horizontal part projected out between my middle and ring fingers, twisted one hundred and eighty degrees and pulled the two pieces apart to reveal two feet of the thinnest gauge piano wire made. “A human hair is .004 inches in diameter. The wire between these two handles is .006 inches in diameter and has a tensile strength of a little over three hundred pounds. This garrote will easily cut through arms and necks. I need an easy, quick way to access this weapon in a fight. It’d be helpful if you could increase how well the wire cuts and increase the breaking strength.”

Tim asked, “Did you have the wire specially made? How could you get it so thin and strong without magic?”

I grinned. “It’s standard piano wire. The average grand piano is strung with two hundred and fifty pounds of tension. It’s made out of high carbon spring steel through a process called cold drawing. The only downside of using piano wire is that any moisture—even just the touch of a finger—will cause the wire to rust. I have to replace the wire every time I use it. What can you guys get done in the next few hours?”

Aidan was in his designing mode. I couldn’t tell if he’d even heard my last question. He carefully studied the Taser in his hands murmuring, “This weapon can be used from a distance and also as a contact weapon.”

I explained, “It can be used once as a distance weapon before it needs to be reloaded and multiple times as a contact weapon.”

My armorer absent mindedly tugged at his hair and thought out loud. “Most electronic devices don’t take up much room.” Tools flickered in and out of his hands so quickly it was difficult to see what he was doing. Within seconds, he’d disassembled the Taser. He smiled. “Just as I thought, the working parts of this Taser are small enough to fit inside your jacket sleeve. We can make a bang stick for each forearm and attach the working parts of the Taser next to the shotgun barrel.” He looked up at me. “What do you think about attaching the garrote to the tip of the bang stick, just at the edge of your sleeve? Say the magic trigger and a two foot wire will appear between the two bang sticks. You’d lose the ability to manipulate the garrote with your fingers, but it would be much easier to build this way.”

“That’ll work. How fast can you get all the work done?”

“No more than two hours.”

It was now my turn to be shocked. I’d expected him to get one or two of my requests done in time, not all of them. “How is that possible? How could you get all that done so fast?”

It had been awhile since Aidan looked so happy. “Every weaponsmith has a need for thin strong wire and metal tubes. I never travel anywhere without basic tools and supplies. I have mithril tubes that should work as barrels for your bang sticks.” He grinned. “My boy, you may be a great paladin but you have a ways to go before you become a good armorer. I can make you a much better bang stick than the one you made yourself. It’s just a matter of capping one end of a metal tube, making a pressure activated firing pin, and then attaching it to a forearm brace that can handle the recoil of a 12 gauge shotgun shell. The forearm brace will actually take the longest to make.

“I have a small spool of platinum alloy wire in my tool box. It is .001 inches in diameter. I don’t know the breaking strength of the wire because I’ve never had one break before. It has to be over a thousand pounds. I’ve always looked at the wire’s ability to cut as a problem—a necessary danger worth tolerating when fabricating because it was so useful.” He shook his head. “I would never have thought of using it as a weapon. It doesn’t take much power to attach the wire to the two mithril tubes. I’ll weld a platinum ring around the tubes and run the wire between the rings. I’ll then sever the end of the wire that’s attached to one ring, and use the principle of contagion to cause the wire to instantaneously reattach itself when you utter the trigger word. You will just have to make sure there’s nothing but air between the two platinum rings. Every time you say the trigger word, you’ll have to expend energy but it won’t be much because you’ll only be moving and attaching a miniscule amount of metal.

Aidan started speaking faster. I got the impression he was impatient to get working on the weapon modifications. “As for the Tasers, it’s just a matter of removing them from their casings and adding a magical trigger. I recommend attaching your pepper spray to your helmet. We’ll keep the canisters inside the helmet above and to the right of your eyes, with a small nozzle pointing in the direction you’re facing.”

Tim broke in, “Just in case you’re wondering, mithril is the traditional name for titanium—you know, silver-gray metal, lighter than steel, and almost as strong. If you’re willing to spend a little time to magically increase the number of delocalized valence shell electrons between titanium molecules, you end up with metal that won’t corrode, and is stronger and more resilient than steel. Increasing a metal’s strength is easy; it’s just a matter of reinforcing intermolecular forces in the metal. A little bit of energy in exactly the right place goes a long way. We use platinum for thin wires because it doesn’t corrode and it’s almost as malleable as gold. Simple jeweler’s tools are all that’s needed to shape it. We can’t use gold even though it costs less than platinum and is just as malleable because…”