Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2)

by E. William Brown

  “Indeed.” She gave up looming over me, and relaxed to sprawl across my chest with a pleased smile. The fact that she was doing so with Tina’s body was more than a little distracting, but I tried to stay focused.

  “But what’s an Egyptian goddess doing possessing girls in Varmland?”

  “Say rather, why does the spirit of a long-dead goddess cling to the only trace in the world of her most precious anchor? But then the question answers itself, if one is wise in the ways of the gods.”

  “Someone tried to kill you?” I asked.

  “Ra,” she answered. “That greedy tyrant. Always grasping for more power. Grinding us down step by step, century after dreary century. Finally he began to extinguish our cults one by one, and I was never popular with his kin. They made me a goddess of pets and concubines at the end, but even that wasn’t enough for them. Ra killed me, and there was no beacon my soul could follow to return to this world.”

  “Catgirls are one of your anchors?”

  She smiled. “The fusion of woman and cat. I often granted feline features to my priestesses, and to my most favored I gave the power to become cats. But I always worked with whole body parts, usually the head or a tail. This subtle blend of woman and cat you’ve created is quite intriguing. On reflection, I think I approve.”

  “Not that it means much, in my current state. My grasp on the world is so weak I doubt I could even best your girl in a battle of will if she were awake.”

  Well, that was somewhat reassuring. But I was sensing an opportunity here.

  “What would it take to make it so you can come back?”

  “Hmm.” She rubbed Tina’s chest against me, and her eyes slitted. “Very nice. It’s been so long since I could feel such things, and this body is wonderfully sensitive. I used to bestow blessings like that, as well. But why would you help me come back, Daniel? Surely your own gods would disapprove?”

  Focus, Daniel. Focus.

  “I don’t worship anyone, Bast. There aren’t any gods in my world, and most of the ones here seem to be busy destroying each other. Things are looking pretty bad right now. The Aesir sacked Olympus several centuries ago, and now they’re fighting a war among themselves that’s depopulating Europe. They’ve already opened the gates of Tartarus and started a new ice age, and the war is just beginning. Hecate is trying to make alliances and save people, and I imagine she’d welcome help from a goddess who isn’t part of the current order.”

  She cocked her head. “Hecate? The Titaness who threw in with Zeus? Yes, she was always a dangerous opponent. Strong in magic, clever and ruthless. I can work with her, especially if matters are as dire as you say.”

  “Yes, there is a way you can help me return to life. It may seem strange to you, and in truth it will give you more influence over me than I am comfortable with. But I think I have your measure now. Will you help me honestly, with no hidden schemes to lay chains upon me in my time of vulnerability? I have nothing to offer in return but the gratitude and friendship of a goddess, but those are not gifts to be scorned.”

  “Very true,” I agreed. “I’d be honored to be your friend, Bast. I’m not the kind of guy who’d sneak around trying subtle mind control ploys even if I thought they’d work, and to be honest trying something like that on a goddess sounds like a profoundly stupid idea anyway. How do we do this?”

  She shifted her hips, captured me inside her, and slid down my length in one smooth motion. Her eyes rolled back, and she gave a ragged moan.

  “Fucking hell, Daniel,” she gasped. “Tina is one lucky bitch.”

  “I like to think so. But I’m not sure I want you doing that with her body while she’s asleep.”

  “That definitely woke her up,” Bast assured me. “I’m explaining things to her now. Oh, I see why you like her! She’s such a sweetheart. She’s embarrassed, but she professes willingness so long as you approve of the plan.”

  She rolled her hips, and I couldn’t help but gasp. “You still haven’t said what the plan is,” I managed to say.

  “Isn’t that obvious?”

  She leaned down until her eyes were inches from mine. “I am but a spirit, Daniel. To truly enter the world of the living again I need to be reborn. Get your woman with child, and that child will be me. I won’t know myself at first, but I shall grow to adulthood in but a year and a day. Raise me. Teach me. Help me to break the strictures that the Sun Tyrant laid on me, and rediscover my true self. Protect me from those who would take advantage of my weakness, and when I am myself again my gratitude will know no bounds.”

  “That is profoundly fucked up,” I observed.

  She sat up, and favored me with a crooked grin. “The affairs of the gods often are. Are we agreed?”

  “I want to actually talk to Tina before I get her pregnant,” I told her. “I guess this will sound strange to you, but in my land we’ve been able to control conception long enough that it’s considered normal for a woman to be able to choose when and whether to have children. But if she’s game, then yes. It’s weird, but it’s for a good cause.”

  She pouted. “I’d hoped to know the pleasures of a man again before giving up awareness, but I don’t think I have the strength to take back this body once I give it up. Oh, well. I’ve waited a thousand years, at least. I suppose I can survive one more.”

  “Oh, that’s not a problem,” I assured her. I pulled her down against my chest, and rolled us both over.

  “I can perform as often as I want, so you just relax and enjoy yourself. Once you’ve had your fun you can switch with Tina, and then we’ll get this done.”

  If Tina had been enthusiastic, Bast damned near killed me. She had the same hair trigger, since she was inhabiting Tina’s body, and maybe she was a little out of practice from being dead for who knows how long, but if so that’s the only thing that saved me.

  I was used to being in control with women since I’d become a sorcerer, but Bast turned the tables on me whenever she wanted to. She could do things with Tina’s lush body that I hadn’t thought were possible, and once she realized I really could keep going indefinitely she was like a kid with a new toy. She could make me go off whenever she wanted to, and she wanted a lot.

  Finally I resorted to using flesh magic to ramp one of her frequent orgasms up to absolute screaming, gut-wrenching, mind-wrecking intensity, and held it at full power for ten minutes. She probably would have had a stroke or something if she’d been a normal person, but Tina’s physical enhancements were enough to protect her from harm. When it finally ended she collapsed, panting and trembling helplessly.

  I laid down on top of her, still inside her, and she purred.

  “Now that… is more…. like it,” she gasped out between breaths.

  “Enough to tide you over?” I asked.

  She hugged me. “Enough to sate even me, for now. But I fear Tina caught the edges of that, and she’s becoming a bit frantic. I leave you to her tender mercies for now, Daniel. I’ll see you in two months.”

  “Two?”

  She smiled. “Sixty-six days. As is proper, for a cat.”

  Then her expression changed, vast experience fading into relative innocence, and it was Tina looking up at me again.

  “Daniel? I get to be a mother already?”

  “To the spirit of an ancient goddess,” I confirmed. “If that isn’t too strange for you.”

  She twined her arms around my neck. “It’s an honor, Daniel. Besides, I’m so horny I could scream right now. But I’m a little sore after all that. Be gentle? Please?”

  I was.

  As we lay together afterwards I could see the magic gathering in her womb. Something vast and ancient was growing there already, wreathed in primal magic beyond my understanding. It was only then that I realized I only had the spirit’s word about who she was, and what her intentions might be. For all I knew we might have just been played by some exotic escapee from Tartarus, or something stranger that I didn’t even know enough to suspect.

  Wel
l, crap. It was always something, wasn’t it?

  But it was too late now for second thoughts. All I could was follow through on the bargain I’d made, and hope for the best.

  Chapter 15

  I woke the next morning to the crackle of distant gunfire.

  Tina stirred next to me, and raised her head sleepily. “Hwa?”

  Another ragged volley went off, and I realized that’s exactly what it was. Marcus and I had discussed the importance of volley fire at the last staff meeting, and he’d mentioned wanting to drill the troops. I sighed in relief.

  “It’s alright, Tina. It’s just the troops practicing with their new weapons.”

  “Oh. Okay.” She laid her head on my chest, and relaxed.

  Then she suddenly shot upright. “Oh, no! I overslept! Miss Avilla will be so cross with… with…”

  She looked down at me, and I could practically see her remembering everything that had happened last night. I sat up, and hugged her.

  “Good morning, Tina.”

  “I’m not dreaming, am I?”

  “Nope. Come on, let’s get cleaned up before breakfast.”

  Her smile was so bright I swear it lit up the room. “Yes, sir! Can I scrub your back?”

  I chuckled, and palmed her breasts. “Sure, but I get to clean these beauties in return.”

  The bathhouse downstairs was still the talk of the tower, but the private one I’d built near my bedroom was even better as far as my girls were concerned. The whole room was done in marble, shaped to resemble tiles even though it was actually one big seamless mass of stone. Magical lighting and large mirrors on the walls gave an impression of openness despite the fact that it was actually an interior room. The entrance was through a changing area with a vanity, shelves and a linen closet, which was separated from the bathing area by a sliding door of translucent rose quartz.

  The bathing area proper had two roomy shower stalls and a heated bath the size of a hot tub, as well as a couple of benches near the tub for lounging around. The girls had been positively gleeful about the idea of running water with an adjustable temperature, and that was before I showed them how to turn on the water jets in the tub. They’d been spending a lot of time there since I finished it, and sure enough the air was already thick with steam when we entered.

  Cerise was lounging in the tub with the jets on, her head lolling on the rim and her eyes half closed. I waved Tina towards the showers, and walked over to surprise her with a kiss.

  “Mmmm. Hey, stud,” she purred. “You have a good night? You’re looking kinda worn out there.””

  “So are you, Cerise.”

  “Yeah, my girl was a little needy last night,” she agreed. “But I took care of her. Oh, shit! Tina, is that you?”

  “That’s right, Cerise. Daniel marked me good, didn’t he?” She pranced over to the tub, and twirled to show off her new additions.

  “Guess you got promoted too, if you’re in here and using first names. So are you the big lug’s mistress now, or did he get kinky and go for harem girl?”

  “Mistress!” She beamed. “It’s like a dream come true, Cerise. I never imagined I’d be lucky enough to have a great wizard’s babies.”

  “Babies? You lucky girl! Hey Daniel, what do I have to do to get you to knock me up too?”

  “Ahem. I, uh, didn’t realize that was something you wanted, Cerise.”

  Tina giggled. “Silly man. What woman doesn’t want babies?”

  “Pretty much,” Cerise agreed. “I thought I was going to have to wait until after the war, though. Are you really pregnant already?”

  “Yes!” Tina squeaked.

  “Yeah, but it was a special circumstance.”

  I explained the night’s unexpected encounter while Tina and I showered together, and then slipped into the tub. Cerise was alternately incredulous and fascinated.

  “I can’t believe you just lucked into a chance like that,” she exclaimed.

  “It may not have been luck,” I pointed out. “Hecate was with me when I gained my sorceries, and she may well have influenced what I got. I wouldn’t put it past her to nudge a few things in hopes that something like this might happen.”

  “That does sound like her style,” Cerise agreed. Then she sidled up to Tina. “So, how was your first time? Pretty amazing, huh?”

  Tina smiled dreamily. “Oh, yes. Just thinking about it makes me all gooey inside. But I’m pretty sore this morning, so please give me a chance to recover before you work your wicked magic on me.”

  “Aww, you’re too easy.” Cerise kissed her on the cheek. “Not going to protest about how unnatural I am?”

  “I’m an unnatural creature too, now. I may as well try out all the sins, and see which ones I enjoy.”

  There was a knock at the door. “Breakfast time,” one of the new maids called.

  “Time to face the day, I guess,” Cerise said. “Someone help me up? I was in here so long I think my bones all melted.”

  Avilla wasn’t quite as unfazed as Cerise. But then again, she hadn’t sacrificed her ability to feel jealousy in some dark ritual either. She was directing a couple of maids to set the table when the three of us arrived arm in arm, and her smile seemed a little forced.

  “I was right,” Cerise announced obliviously. “Check out mistress number one. Isn’t the cat thing just adorable?”

  “Congratulations, Tina,” Avilla said stiffly.

  I wracked my brain for something to say, but Tina beat me to it. She stepped forward and curtsied deeply, as if Avilla were a noble lady.

  “Thank you, Miss Avilla. I’ll try hard to be a good addition to the family. But I’m not sure how this is all supposed to work, so please correct me if I get something wrong.”

  “Correct you?” Avilla stammered in astonishment.

  Tina nodded. “I don’t know much, but even I can see who the head wife is here. I promise, I’ll be a good girl. I just want everyone to be happy.”

  Avilla’s expression softened. She looked up at me uncertainly.

  “Sounds about right,” I said.

  “Well, duh,” Cerise agreed.

  “Oh, come here you!” Avilla smiled, and pulled Tina into a hug. “It’s alright, sweetie. This is what I wanted. It just took me a little by surprise, that’s all.”

  After that breakfast was a lot more congenial than expected. I was pretty sure Avilla had been aiming for this outcome ever since she’d talked me into hiring Tina and Beri back before Lanrest. I could even see the logic in it. As much as she might enjoy our time together it was Cerise that she was in love with, and she’d naturally want to have her lover to herself some nights. But if they started leaving me to sleep alone on a regular basis half the unattached women in the keep would try to seduce their way into my bed, and that was asking for trouble. So it made sense to set me up with someone who wasn’t a threat to her position.

  Of course, with most people that kind of resolution would fall apart in a firestorm of anger and jealousy the moment they were faced with the reality of the situation. But Avilla had seemed perfectly happy with sending Tina to warm my bed whenever it was convenient for her, so I’d hoped this wouldn’t be too much.

  When I saw that she’d already set a place at the table for Tina I knew that I’d been right. In a few minutes the three young women were smiling and chatting merrily, like that moment of tension had never happened. Maybe this would actually work out.

  After breakfast I went down to the training grounds to see how Captain Rain’s improvised boot camp was going. There were thirty or so new recruits running laps around the island under the watchful gaze of the sergeants we’d hired, and another dozen on the firing range learning to use their new weapons.

  The guns I was making were technically single-shot weapons, but they had a massively higher rate of fire than crossbows or early firearms. There was still a considerable advantage to volley fire, of course, but the lack of a reloading procedure meant we’d been able to adopt an amazingly simple
drill.

  “Ready… fire!” Called the instructor, and eleven guns fired as one. Recoil knocked the barrels up, but the men brought them back down again and aimed as the next “ready…” was called.

  “Fire!” Another volley. Still slightly ragged, but the instructors were working to iron that out. About one volley every three seconds, and that would improve with practice. The guns could theoretically fire a little faster than once per second, and of course they could keep that up indefinitely. A devastating level of firepower for a medieval battlefield, especially considering the stopping power of the weapons.

  I noted a few of the 5th Margold veterans over on the hundred yard range, and Sergeant Thomas caught my eye. I ambled over to see what he was up to.

  “Morning, milord,” he greeted me. “Any advice for us on long-range shooting?”

  The three men with him were all trying different positions. One was standing sideways to the targets, like an archer would. Another was crouching behind a tower shield he’d braced his gun on, and the third was in an awkward-looking kneeling position. They all looked up with relief at the sergeant’s words.

  “I’m not really a marksman myself,” I told him. “But I can offer a few tips. We use weapons like this instead of bows back home, and I’ve watched some good shooting competitions. Here, let me borrow that.”

  He handed me his gun, and I turned towards the targets.

  “For easy targets you can just do it like the recruits are drilling. Stand square facing the target, and snug the butt of the gun into your shoulder like this. That gives you good control of the recoil, so you don’t have to waste much time getting your weapon back under control after every shot. Use the sights to line up your shot, and squeeze the trigger nice and easy. If you jerk it too hard you can throw off your aim.”

  “Having something to brace your weapon against helps a lot at longer ranges, but you really want it to be something solid like a parapet. I’ve actually seen a lot of troops carry shovels in the field, so if they’re going to defend a position they can dig a shallow ditch to crouch in and pile the dirt in front of them to brace their weapons. In this weather the ground is probably too hard for that, but snow will work if you pack it down. If you do it right the enemy doesn’t have anything to aim at but your helmet, and they’ll shed a lot of blood trying to get close enough to do any damage.”