Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) (11 page)

gave us a heater and cooking surface, with no light or oxygen consumption.

At the opposite end from the entrance I narrowed the hall to form a

doorway, with a little eight by eight room on the other side. If we were going

to be sitting in place for a day I needed to see what else I could magic up to

improve our odds of survival, and I’d need a little space for that.

I emerged to find that the wind had picked up, and snow was starting to

fall. Avilla was standing just outside the entrance, chatting amiably with a

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clump of peasant girls who had blankets over their heads and piles of bundled

goods at their feet. As usual Cerise was standing guard, although she seemed to

be amused by the conversation.

“Alright, girls, everyone can come on in. Watch out for the hot stone on

the platform, don’t want anyone burning themselves.”

“Good timing, Master Black,” Avilla commented. “We’ve just enough

time to get settled before the storm gets bad. Come on, girls, let’s see what we

have to work with.”

They all swept by in a cloud of smiles and giggles, and I turned a

bemused look on Cerise.

“Honeydew’s taking charge,” she grinned back. “She started talking

recipes and sewing on the walk over, and now these village girls all think

she’s the goddess of domestic perfection.”

“Huh. Well, it’s a big improvement on huddling in a clearing waiting to

die. Keep an eye on them while I get the rest of the group moving, will you?”

“Sure. Better hurry, though.”

A flurry of snow descended on us, briefly turning the world white before

clearing again.

“Yeah, I think you’re right.” I turned and hurried up the path, calling for

Thomas.

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Chapter 5

It took some time to check on the wounded and get everyone settled in,

and more to figure out a viable design for a stone door. By the time I was done

with that the snow was coming down in dense flurries, and visibility was just

about zero.

“Good thing you have earth magic,” Avilla observed. “I’d hate to be out

in that.”

“That’s why I picked it,” I answered. I took one last look at the storm, and

pushed the heavy door closed.

“You had a choice? Someday I’m going to have to get the whole story on

that.” Avilla grinned, and grabbed my hand. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned

up.”

She dragged me down the hall to the private room I’d made at the end,

where a couple of men were just setting down a pot full of steaming water

under the supervision of Cerise and a couple of the village girls.

“Hot water?” I asked.

“We melted snow on that magic stove thing,” she explained with a smile,

and shooed the men out before closing the door. “Now, strip.”

I shrugged off my bloodstained cloak, and started unbuttoning my shirt.

“Bit of an audience, don’t you think?”

“We’re auditioning, milord,” one of the girls said as she took my

bloodstained cloak. “Miss Avilla said you might like a maid or two. I- oh,

my!”

She stared at the cloak in her hand with wide eyes. Avilla chuckled.

“It’s enchanted,” she explained. “Very cozy.”

The other girl eyed my bare chest, and licked her lips. “I bet.”

At that point I realized that the girls Avilla had picked, a redhead and a

brunette, were both rather attractive. They were also just old enough not to

make me feel too guilty for noticing that fact, and the way they were eying me

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made it clear that the feeling was mutual. Was she trying to set me up?

I directed a raised eyebrow at Avilla. “Auditions?”

“Mmm hmmm. Trust me, master. Finding the right people for your

household could be tricky, but it’s important. You’ll need someone to handle

all the ordinary details so you can concentrate on your magic.”

Avilla fetched a bowl of hot water and a handful of wet rags, and set to

work cleaning the dried blood and gore off my chest. I noticed that it was

coming off a lot easier than I would have expected, but that was probably just

another aspect of her magic.

“Hard-working maids who won’t blabber about your business would be a

good start,” Cerise put it. “Might want to recruit some guards, too.”

“I have an uncle in the Lanrest garrison, milord” the brunette offered. “I’m

sure he could suggest some good men there.”

They had my shoes off by then, and were working on my pants. I tried

very hard to concentrate on the conversation, and not the feel of Avilla’s soft

hands on my skin.

“What are your names, girls?”

“I’m Beri, milord,” the brunette answered. “She’s Tina.”

The redhead nodded shyly, not meeting my eyes.

“Hmm. Avilla has a valid point, but have you two thought this through?

Working for a wizard isn’t going to be easy. You’ll be constantly surrounded

by all sorts of strange magic, and wizards always have secrets. After a certain

point you won’t be able to back out.”

They finished pulling my pants down, and turned away. Tina busied

herself arranging the soiled clothing in a pile next to the pot. Beri turned back

to me, carefully keeping her eyes on my face.

“We know, sir,” she said hesitantly. “Tina heard what Cerise said to

those deserters, and we figure you’ll do the same to us sooner or later. But

we’ve seen you fight, and heal people, and... please forgive me if this is

impertinent, milord, but you seem like a man who takes care of what’s his.”

“He is,” Avilla said firmly. “I’d be dead three times over if he didn’t

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keep risking his life to protect me.

Beri nodded. “Exactly. Milord, in the last week Tina and I have lost

everything we had, and the rumors say this is only the beginning. I’m sure when

we get to Lanrest every girl with an ounce of sense will be trying to get your

attention, but please, give us a chance. We’ll work hard, and keep our mouths

shut, and do whatever else you might require of us.”

Her gaze flicked to Avilla and then Cerise as she said the last part, and I

wondered how much she’d put together. The witches certainly weren’t

advertising their relationship, but that kind of thing can be surprisingly hard to

hide. Had she guessed?

I tried to keep my face impassive as I thought that one through. I wasn’t

actually going to make the pair of them run some gauntlet of obscure

perversions to earn their keep, of course. But the fact that Beri was willing to

go that far actually said good things about her. She was perceptive enough to

realize just how bad her situation was, smart enough to recognize potential

salvation, and practical enough to do whatever it took to convince a powerful

stranger to save her. A girl like that could be handy to have around, as long as

she was on our side.

By then they were both helping Avilla with the cleaning, which only

added to my distraction. A guy could get used to that kind of thing.

“I notice Tina hasn’t said anything,” I commented. “Why is that?”

“She’s just shy,” Beri began, but Tina put a hand on her arm.

“I’m not all smart and stuff like Beri, milord,” Tina said hesitantly. “I

asked her to talk for me. We’ve been friends forever, y’see. But I listen good,

and I can work really hard. Um, an my boobs are still growing, an the sheriff

always said my blow jobs were the best in the village?”

I sighed, and patted her on the head. “I can make a girl’s boobs grow as

big as I want, Tina. I‘m good with that kind of thing. Ah, is it common for local

sheriffs to expect that kind of service form village girls around here?”

“Of course,” Beri replied matter-of-factly. “Why wouldn’t they?”

“Lovely. Alright, girls, I’ll go along with Avilla’s audition idea. Do a

good job between here and Lanrest, and I’ll consider keeping you on

permanently.

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“Thank you, milord!” They both curtsied enthusiastically.

I chuckled. “You’re welcome, girls. But I’m not actually a lord, so you’re

going to have to stop calling me that. Just ‘sir’ will do.”

Really, I was tempted to tell them to call me by name in private. But just

because Americans have a pathological aversion to class distinctions doesn’t

mean the rest of the universe agrees, and I was pretty sure violating the local

customs that much would just cause trouble. They were probably going to be

confused enough when I didn’t beat them or force them to have sex with me.

“Done!” Avilla announced happily.

I looked down to discover she was kneeling at my feet, having just

finished washing the blood off of them. The top two buttons of her dress had

come undone at some point, and the position afforded me a breathtaking view

of her cleavage. I looked away quickly.

“Great. Where’s that other change of clothes, then?”

Cerise chuckled, and pulled a bundle of cloth out of one of the bags.

“Here you go. Still worried about an attack?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I suppose I could fight naked if I had to, but it would be

rather embarrassing.”

Well, it was a better excuse that ‘I’m trying really hard not to get an

erection while your girlfriend is sitting at eye level with my dick’. That would

really be embarrassing. Not to mention hazardous, if Cerise decided to get

jealous and backstabby with those knives of hers.

I looked up from pulling a fresh pair of pants on to find Avilla pouting at

me.

“What?”

But she just sighed, and turned to the pot of water. “Nothing, master. I’d

better get these clean before the water cools.”

“You’re the expert. Alright, time to get some work done. As often as you

girls end up in nothing else I’d better put warmth enchantments on your cloaks

first.”

Neither had complained much about the cold, but their eyes lit up at that.

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I spent the rest of the afternoon on little projects like that, while the storm

raged on outside. After the girls were taken care of I made a few extra warmth

cloaks to share among the wounded, and did another round of healing. Then I

sat down to do some more experimenting.

It was easy enough to levitate a little disk of stone above my hand, but

enchanting it to fly around was surprisingly tricky. After some experimentation

I realized that the control problems were basically the same as trying to make

an aircraft fly solely on vectored thrust, which is the kind of complicated

problem I could easily spend days or even weeks trying to solve. Since I was

looking for a faster way to transport the refugees that didn’t seem very

practical, although I resolved to come back the problem in the future. Being

able to fly would be amazingly useful.

I played around with other ideas for a bit, looking for one that might

work. Stone golems pulling stone wagons? Amulets enchanted to ‘heal’ fatigue

continuously? Levitation spells on the baggage? Most approaches turned out to

be impractical on examination, either because they’d require too much

enchantment time or because they needed an effect my sorcery didn’t want to

provide.

Eventually I decided to let that problem stew for a bit, and turned my

thoughts to weapons and armor. So far I’d been pushed way too hard in all of

our fights, and I could easily have lost one. Any real power gamer will tell you

that if the outcome of a fight is in doubt when it starts you’ve already screwed

up, so I was determined to find a better way to deal with giant monsters.

Force fields had proved invaluable so far, but keeping one running often

took more concentration or mana than I could spare. Force blades were

devastating at close range, but their lack of mass made them a lot less useful at

a distance. I needed substantial improvements on both, and a bigger mana

supply, and a way to make myself more durable, and some defenses against

being surprised, and...

I reigned myself in before the list could get too long. One problem at a

time, Daniel.

Some experimenting with the power tap enchantment I’d come up with

revealed that the rate it generated mana was determined by the size of the

object it was tied to. So my tiny little amulet might last for centuries, but its

energy output was relatively modest. If I wanted a real power source I’d need

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something bigger.

Fortunately that was an easy problem to fix. I could conjure stone easily,

and with a constant power source metals were possible as well. So my new

amulet was a thick bronze disk about three inches in diameter, suspended from

a braided rope of copper threads. I took the time to work out a proper on/off

switch for this one, as well as a remote cutoff just in case an enemy got hold of

it one day. It weighed a couple of pounds, enough to be a bit uncomfortable,