Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) (10 page)

“Careful!” Avilla said. “I’m trying to hold everything in place in here, but I’m not sure how much this spell can handle.”

I took another careful step, and frowned. “You have a spell to keep things from spilling off of shelves if the room tilts?”

“It’s for earthquakes,” she explained with a smile. “It tries to hold everything in place, and keep the roof from falling in. But I’ve never used it before, so I’m not sure what the limits are.”

I took a few more steps. The strain on the bridge rose slightly, but it stabilized at a level the reinforcement spell could handle. Good. As long as the wind didn’t get worse this should work.

“Is that why you wanted to be in there?” I asked as I carefully moved my burden along the bridge. “I’d feel a lot better about this if you were someplace safe.”

“You aren’t going to drop me, Daniel,” she said confidently.

“That’s easy for you to say. I’m the one trying to balance a giant block of stone on a windy bridge,” I grumbled.

“You’ve never failed when it counts, my love. I know you can do this.”

Well, I couldn’t very well screw it up after a line like that.

The whole trip was only a few hundred feet, but it felt like miles. The wind at this height was like a wall of icy knives, shifting unpredictably as it eddied around the towers I’d built. The bridge I walked on was uncomfortably narrow, and flexed unsettlingly as I moved my heavy load down its length.

But eventually I reached the opening I’d left in the side of the new building, and the wind died as I maneuvered my burden inside. I crossed the garden and set it carefully into place, then spent a few minutes reconnecting the plumbing lines. At least I’d gotten the measurements right on that, so there weren’t any problems.

When I finished I found Avilla standing in the empty dining room next to where her kitchen now sat. I’d put in a pair of big glass doors there, which she’d thrown open so she could look around at the bare field surrounded by incomplete construction.

“It’s very big,” she said contemplatively. “I have to admit, I’m going to feel very safe here once you close that hole. I don’t think even a dragon could break into this place.”

“That’s the idea,” I confirmed. “I’m going to have some areas on the upper floors with balconies and windows that actually lead outside, in case you get claustrophobic. But I want the place where we live and sleep to be safe from anything that could happen.”

She smiled gently. “Thank you for taking such good care of us, Daniel. It’s going to feel good to put down some roots again. Can I use part of this field for an herb garden?”

I chuckled. “Avilla, everything you’re looking at now is our coven’s private residence. You can use the whole thing for whatever you want.”

“W-what?” She looked around again, her eyes going wide. “All of this?”

“Yup. Welcome home, Avilla.”

Her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment.

“My home is a palace? I’m going to be the strongest hearth witch ever!” She exclaimed.

I laughed. “That’s the idea, sweetie.”

“Thank you thank you thank you!”

She threw her arms around me, and kissed me soundly. She might not have stopped there, except that we were interrupted.

“Hey, Daniel! Where are our new bedrooms?” Cerise called.

I looked up to find her leading a party of pale-faced laborers carrying various items of furniture, with Tina and Elin trailing along curiously behind them.

“You know, I wasn’t planning to use the bridge for that,” I said mildly.

She waved off my concern. “If it can handle the weight of a kitchen then beds and wardrobes are nothing, right? If we’re moving we might as well get it all done at once, and this is a lot easier than messing with elevators.”

“I suppose you have a point,” I admitted. The bridge had guard rails, so I wasn’t really worried about someone falling off it. It was just a scary trip for anyone who wasn’t used to heights.

“This way, then,” I said, and led them up the broad marble staircase that led to the second floor of the residence. I’d copied the arrangement Avilla had come up with in the keep, only on a larger scale. There was a large room that was intended as a lounge area at the entrance to our private wing, and then a long hall with doors along one side. Four of those led to private suites for the girls, each of which had a balcony overlooking the garden along with a bathroom and about a thousand square feet of floor space. The big glass windows and sliding glass doors on the balconies seemed to impress them, as did the sheer roominess.

“What am I going to do with all this space?” Elin exclaimed.

“Whatever you want,” I told her. “Fill it with books, set up a private workshop, whatever catches your fancy.”

“A workshop?” She gave the space another look. “I suppose that could work.”

“If you want. I’ve got another huge space set aside for a ritual chamber and whatever other magical facilities we need, mind you. There’s room there for each of us to have several spacious workrooms.”

There were a couple of extra suites, just in case we ever added more members to our coven. Then came the private bathing chamber. The girls had fallen in love with the concept of hot baths, so I’d gone all out on that. At the entrance was a changing area with a mirror and some shelves for towels and clothes. A sliding door of frosted glass led from there into a spacious shower, with enough high-volume shower heads that using it was almost like stepping into a heated waterfall. Then came the inner room, dominated by a hot tub big enough to hold all of us and more. The whole thing was done in fancy white marble, with mirrors and a glass block window on one wall to give the room an airy feel. I’d even put in an enchantment to keep the temperature warm enough for lounging around naked.

At the end of the hall another door led into my own suite, which was laid out like the others but slightly larger. Not that I had any need for more space, but I figured Avilla had her reasons for setting things up that way in the keep. She was the one with the magical household management powers, so I wasn’t going to second-guess her.

Besides, I could guess at some of it. Medieval societies put a huge emphasis on status distinctions, to the point where a man who didn’t claim as many of them as he could would generally be looked down on as some kind of spineless weakling. Cerise was independent enough not to pay much attention to that kind of social conditioning, but if I tried to dispense with these little signs of deference it would probably make the rest of the girls worry that I was losing my nerve or something. Considering how dangerous our world was the last thing I wanted to do was give them another reason to feel insecure.

The girls quickly settled on their room selections, and Avilla stepped in to help Cerise direct the workmen on where to put the furniture they were carrying. We hadn’t accumulated all that much of it yet, and with a dozen men on the job I could see the move wasn’t going to take very long.

Tina emerged from the bathing chamber, and enveloped me in an enthusiastic hug.

“I’m the luckiest girl in the world,” she declared. “When Avilla gave me a chance to be your maid, I never dreamed I’d end up living in a palace.”

“It’s quite extravagant,” Elin observed. “Not that I don’t appreciate being pampered, but don’t you think it’s a bit much? I can’t imagine what we’re going to do with so much space. You could have made it a fourth as big and it would still be far more than we can use.”

“I want to make sure we never need to move again,” I explained. “That’s really important for Avilla. I thought about being more restrained so we could use the space for other things, but when I got going I realized that my ability to build more living space is never going to be a constraint on our projects anyway. I built this arcology block in a couple of days, and it’s going to take us weeks to recruit enough people to fill it. Maybe months, and when we do fill it up there’s room on the island for another half-dozen blocks the same size.”

“I suppose you have a point,” she conceded. “But still, three huge wings around that giant garden space? There are only five of us, plus however many maids Avilla eventually acquires.”

“Ah, but you’re forgetting Tina and Avilla’s ambitions.” I gestured to the empty wing across the field. “That, my dear, is enough space for a couple dozen rebellious teenagers and all their personal hobbies. I have to admit I’m afraid those two are going to get into a contest over who can have the most children, but if they do we’ll be ready for it.”

Tina beamed up at me. “Thank you, Daniel. That’s perfect.”

Elin’s expression turned wistful “I see. Yes, that probably is a wise decision on your part. Even Cerise has expressed a certain eagerness in that regard, despite the fact that it would mean an absence from the battlefield. If they have the longevity I expect, the three of them could eventually produce quite a large family.”

Tina’s brow furrowed in concern. “Just the three of us? What about you, Elin?”

“There are already enough monsters in this world, Tina,” Elin said, sounded a bit dejected. “I see no reason why I should add to their numbers.”

Tina blinked at her uncertainly for a moment, obviously struggling to figure out what she meant. Then she got it, and frowned.

“Oh, stop it,” she said crossly. “Elin, you’re smarter than that. Cerise is more of a monster than you’ll ever be, and you don’t hear her moping around feeling sorry for herself.”

“Cerise doesn’t get hungry when she looks at children,” Elin objected.

Tina was completely unfazed. “No, she just hungers for souls. Is that supposed to be better? What have you done that’s so terrible?”

“I ate people!” Elin snapped.

Tina shrank back. “W-what?”

Elin huddled in on herself. “Father kept us in a pen together, in the swamp. Threw in things he’d caught to feed us. Animals. People. Children, sometimes. When we were hungry we’d eat anything, even each other. I remember loving the taste of living flesh, ripped straight from their struggling limbs. The little ones were the best, but usually he’d keep those for himself.”

Tina stared at her in horror.

“What changed?” I asked gently.

Elin stared at the floor, miserably hugging herself. “When the faerie lords found us they worked some sort of enchantment, to try to bring us to our senses. I was the only one they could reach. My brothers, and my sister… they were animals. Just crazed beasts, endlessly hungering. I… I don’t know what they did with them, but… the faerie have so few children, each one is a treasure beyond price, but… I think they had to put them down.”

“That’s why I can’t risk it,” she went on. “I know that if we had children they’d be more than half human, but they’d still be tainted by… that. I still don’t dare assume a grendelkin form, for fear of degenerating once more into a ravening beast. I can’t believe that a child could overcome such urges.”

“You’re afraid they’d hurt the other children,” I realized.

“Yes,” she sobbed. “I’m sorry, Daniel. But I don’t dare take the chance.”

I gathered her gently into my arms. She resisted at first, but then Tina got a determined look and joined in. Finally she gave in, and let us hug her.

“We’re not going to blame you for things that happened when you were an abused child being raised by a monster, Elin,” I reassured her.

“No!” Tina agreed. “We all love you, Elin. I’m sorry I pressed you.”

“Yeah. If you don’t want to take the chance that’s your decision. But there are a couple of things you might want to think about.”

“What? Don’t tell me your magic can fix even this,” Elin said.

“No, I’m not that good. But Bast is a mother goddess, and I bet she’d be happy to help.”

“Oh! That’s a great idea!” Tina exclaimed. “You’re right, Daniel. Only, I guess we won’t be able to ask her about it for another year.”

“Well, my second point is that we might not need magic anyway. Elin, if you did have children would you keep them locked up in a pen and throw in people for them to eat?”

“No!” She protested. “Of course not! I’d… I’d feed them, and give them clothes, and hug them, and take them hunting… no, maybe not that… play with them? Teach them magic? I… I suppose I don’t really know what to do with a child.”

“We can teach you,” Tina offered. “Avilla has magic perfect mother powers, you know. Maybe I do too now? I think that’s something Bast is giving me, and anyway I’ve helped with lots of babies.”

“There, you see? If you don’t want your children to be monsters, don’t abuse them and make them monstrous. We might need to be extra careful about supervising them and keeping them out of mischief, but that’s nothing new. Tina’s daughter is bound to be a handful, and I’m pretty sure that when Cerise gets around to having kids they’ll end up being half demon. Actually, it might be good for them to have some playmates that aren’t fragile.”

“Do you really think it could be that easy?” Elin asked uncertainly.

“It wouldn’t surprise me. Look, Elin, if you don’t want children that’s fine. I’m not going to push you to do anything you don’t want to. But it seems like you actually do, and if that’s the case I think we can make it happen. It might take some time to make sure we have everything figured out, but it’s not like we need to rush. Faerie are basically immortal, right?”