Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2) (33 page)

              My eyes met Elin’s across the table, and I could see that she’d had the same thought as me. It was awfully convenient, and I wasn’t sure I believed it. I wasn’t sure I could believe it.

              “A plot to put a woman on a throne?” Elin said slowly. “Wouldn’t the logical first step in such a plan be-”

              A panting messenger flew into the room, interrupting her. “Milord! You’re needed... the gate, milord!”

              Damn it, were we under attack already? But there was no alarm being raised.

              I rushed to the balcony overlooking the atrium, and found Cerise at my heels.

              “You with me?”

              “Yes, Daniel. I’ll help if I can.”

              “Then hold on.”

              I picked her up, and jumped off the balcony.

              The fall was just long enough for her initial shock to fade into excitement. Then the soft landing enchantment on my amulet caught us, and deposited us gently on the floor of the atrium. From there it only took seconds to reach the front gate.

              The postern gate was open, allowing a cold breeze laden with snow to enter. A squad of soldiers armed with guns and force blades were gathered around it, and Gronir was just arriving with half the wolfen in tow. But the figure in the doorway wasn’t exactly hostile.

              “Daniel!” Carl Stenberg boomed. “You look like hell, man. What happened?”

              “Hello, Carl. Come on in. What have you heard?”

              The troops backed away, and he stepped in out of the cold. “Heard? Nothing, actually. I just noticed how jumpy your men are this morning. Was there another attack? Is everyone alright?”

              “No, we’re fine. Just a little disagreement with the prince.”

              “Ah. Well, if you’re having political troubles you might want to talk to Steelbinder about joining the Conclave. Protecting mages from the nobility is half the reason the order exists, and I’m sure he’d love to have a man of your caliber on board.”

              “I’m considering it,” I admitted. “But what brings you out here so early in this weather?”

              A look out the door confirmed that there was still a light snow falling, and heavy winds blowing the powder around. Not the sort of weather anyone would travel in if they had a choice.

I also spotted the looming bulk of a pair of golems standing on the causeway. The things were ten feet tall, robot-like machines assembled from huge blocks of nickel-iron. They had long legs, squat bodies and a hunchbacked posture that gave them a menacing appearance, which was only amplified by the long blades mounted on the ends of their arms instead of hands. There also seemed to be a seat on top of each of the magical machines.

              Well, that would certainly explain the messenger’s concern. They wouldn’t be nearly strong enough to knock my gates down, but he probably didn’t know that.

              “There’s a council of war this morning. Sounds like the big shots think there’s an attack coming, and they want to figure out what to do about it right away. Every military force in the city is going to have someone there, and the High Adept wants a chance to coordinate with you before people start asking us to solve all their problems with magic.”

              Oh. Damn it, that wasn’t something I could afford to blow off.

              “Well, I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who can see the writing on the wall,” I said. “Alright, just give me a chance to get ready. How long do we have?”

              “Better hurry,” he replied. “The meeting starts in an hour, and we need to go to the Iron Citadel first so we can all head for the war room together. You can bring bodyguards if you want, but the war room gets crowded so you can only bring two attendants in with you.”

              Well, that was going to take some doing. No time for breakfast, but an affair like this would probably have refreshments or something. Who to bring? Normally I’d want Cerise at my back, but all things considered…

              No. I wasn’t going to blame her for this mess. But she might not want to go.

              I invited Carl in, of course, although there wasn’t much hospitality to offer at the moment. Then I drew Cerise off by the elevator.

              “You’re the one I most want at my back,” I told her. “But I’ll understand if you need to stay here.”

              She choked. “Me? Even after…?”

              “It isn’t your fault, Cerise. I love you, damn it. I’m not giving up on you so easily.”

              She smiled weakly. “I love you too, Daniel. Come back in one piece, alright?”

              Well, it was probably best to have her stay and ride herd on her crazy girlfriend. Damn it, Avilla was supposed to be the sane one. Why?

              I fought back the storm of emotion that threatened to erupt again. I didn’t have the luxury of throwing another fit right now.

              Well, I’d probably make a better impression in the war room if my companions fit in, anyway. So I sent word for Gronir and Marcus to get ready to come with me. If we took one of the new armored skimmers we could keep up with Carl’s golems easily, and avoid the worst of the weather as well.

              What to wear? This sounded like a working meeting, so I went with my new coat and armor instead of the fancy suit I’d worn to the Conclave meeting. I grabbed the ornamental staff I’d made just so I’d look like a wizard, but I also took Grinder and the new gun I’d made myself. Just in case.

              Marcus wasn’t thrilled with the idea of taking my best military leaders into the city right now, but he agreed with my reasoning. The prince probably wasn’t going to start a fight in the middle of the war council, especially with the Conclave wizards present. But the more we contributed to the defense of the city, the more likely he was to decide he needed to let the incident with Avilla go. That meant we needed our best minds at this meeting, looking for ways to make ourselves look as impressive as possible.

              Unfortunately it also left me with only Oskar to leave in charge of my stronghold, which made me a little nervous. But who else did I have, without my witches? Elin was smart, but she was no leader. Our new arrivals seemed capable, but they were still settling in. Not to mention I wasn’t sure if it was wise to have too much contact between them and the troops.

              As if summoned by the thought, Pelagia intercepted me on my way back to the atrium. She was wearing her dryad armor again, but she’d also picked up a warmth cloak from somewhere.

              “How can I help?” She asked.

              I stopped, and regarded her for a moment. “You can start by telling me how you knew to be here.”

              She smiled faintly. “My morning divinations told me I should come to the keep. I get the feeling something happened last night, but I shouldn’t pry?”

              “You’re good,” I conceded. “Oh, what the hell. I’m short-handed enough, I guess I’ll just have to try trusting you. The girls are indisposed, and I have to go out. I’m leaving Oskar here in charge, but he’s no expert on magic or monsters. I need someone who is to be ready to give advice if something goes wrong.”

              “I can easily do that,” she replied confidently. “If you need an honor guard, I know Corinna would be happy to serve.”

              “No. She’d draw entirely too much attention in a room full of nobles and priests. I have to go now, but we’ll need to talk more when I get back. Elin can fill you in on anything you might need to know. I’m not sure what other kinds of magic you’re skilled at, but please give her a hand if you can.”

              Then we were off, rushing across the city in a slowly worsening snowstorm. The alleys and side streets were choked with snow by now, only the main avenues having been shoveled clear in the last few hours. Not that snow would have been an obstacle to my skimmer anyway, or to Carl’s golems either for that matter.

              To my private amusement Carl opted to ride in the skimmer with me, and order his golems to follow it. We chatted a bit during the trip, and I reflected that it was nice to have a fellow wizard I could talk to about magic. He was suitably impressed by my work on the transport, especially when I told him I had two more of them back on the island. In turn he told me a bit about the golem force he’d been given command of, and the progress of the spy hunt.

              “There haven’t been any announcements,” he told me. “But everyone thinks the High Adepts are hot on the trail, and it’s only a matter of time. Ward might not look like much, but that man is a master of divination.”

              We pulled up in front of the Iron Citadel just in time to meet a party of men and golems gathered in the entry hall, with High Adept Steelbinder obviously in charge. He took in our arrival with a nod.

              “Adept Black, glad you could make it. We’re running late, but I see you’ve brought your armored carriage. I suggest we have this conversation there, so our party can get moving.”

              “Of course,” I agreed. Captain Rain had only brought a three-man crew for the vehicle, so there was plenty of room in the back. Especially since Steelbinder sent Carl back to his golems like the rest of our escort. That left just High Adepts Steelbinder and Ward riding with me, along with a pair of assistants they introduced as Adepts Leo and Elof.

              I was interested to see that all of them were protected from the weather, but each in his own fashion. Leo was wearing a suit of heavily enchanted plate armor that included temperature regulation among its many features. Elof wore much lighter armor, but his body was enchanted with some kind of instant healing ability that kept him from even feeling the cold. Ward was surrounded by a bubble of warm air that the snow never entered, a sophisticated application of blended air and fire magic that I suspected involved bound elementals. Steelbinder’s personal wards were such a complex mass of layered enchantments that I couldn’t begin to sort out what they were doing, but he certainly didn’t seem to notice the temperature.

              It was a good reminder that I wasn’t the only powerful wizard in the world, and the Conclave was far from incompetent. Of course, these were also the guys who were going to kick Elin out to die in a barn somewhere, so they didn’t score very high on my personal trustworthiness index.

              “So, what’s the situation?” I asked once we were underway.

              Steelbinder frowned slightly, and I realized that he’d probably expected a little more deference than that. Oops.

              “We have reason to think that the enemy is planning an attack on the city,” he announced.

              “The storm is being aimed at Kozalin,” Ward put in. “They probably didn’t think we’d notice, with the weather circle all dead or in the infirmary. But we have resources that aren’t common knowledge.”

              Steelbinder nodded. “Indeed. The last scouting report had over a thousand ape men with that army we’ve seen assembling, and our own divinations indicate that there is a portal to Gaea’s hidden world somewhere in the vicinity of the encampment. This storm is obviously meant to prevent the Griffon Knights from spotting them as they bring a larger force over and march on Kozalin. They’ve already had a day to bring reinforcements through the portal, so we can expect them to arrive in three or four days.”

“Wonderful. I don’t suppose we know anything about how many of them there might be, or what magic they have?”

“Nothing that tells us anything,” Steelbinder grumbled.

Ward grinned. “What do you expect, Lukas? Gaea took them into exile three thousand years ago, and what man would survive venturing into their realm? All we have to go on is legends, and what little second-hand information the dwarves and the dark elves have been willing to part with.”

“What we do know is that Gaea made them to exterminate men, in the days after Prometheus gave us fire,” he went on. “They’re stronger than men, smarter than goblins, and steeped in the bloodiest sort of nature magic. Commanding and binding beasts, blood sacrifices, that sort of thing. Personally I’m expecting cavalry mounted on giant bears, some giant beasts covered in enhancement enchantments, and lots of berserkers. Oh, and some of the texts refer to their prowess at scaling cliffs, so they may be able to climb the wall.”

Steelbinder shook his head. “We don’t even know what creatures live in the world Gaea gave them. It’s described as a subterranean realm full of lush jungles, which makes no sense at all. In any event, we need to make preparations quickly. Have you made any progress on your work with power sources, Adept Black?”

Well, time to make a call. I’d been intending to put them off as long as possible, to give me a chance to build up my own position before I had to worry about an experienced wizard potentially using my own innovations against me. But I suddenly found myself with a pressing need for a political alliance with at least one of the city’s major factions.

“Yes, Your Wisdom,” I answered. “I’ve had Cerise testing a prototype for a few days now, and it seems to be working reliably. If we’re about to be attacked then every hour is precious, but I could make time to enchant an amulet or two for the Conclave.”