Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2)

by E. William Brown

  “Of course. Once you’re done testing it I’ll make high-powered versions for both of you, and probably a weaker one for Elin. She seems pretty reliable, and healing that doesn’t run out would be a good resource to have.”

  “I guess so. You really like Elin, huh?” She seemed a little bemused at that.

  “I do. She’s a lot more intellectual than you’d expect from her ancestry. Smart as hell, and I think she spent half her time holed up in the Conclave library reading. It makes her interesting to talk to.”

  “Huh. She’s got a good reason to be loyal, too,” Cerise mused. “Too bad she’s butt-ugly.”

  “Still scouting for a fifth coven member?” I asked.

  “Of course. Mara’s playing hard to get, but she was all happy to see me when I ran into her in town yesterday. We’ll tempt her into it, but that still leaves us one short.”

  I sighed. “You know, I’ll grant you that Mara’s smoking hot. But she’s also pretty high strung, and she can be a complete bitch sometimes. She’s going to be a lot of hassle to deal with, and I’m really not sure it would be worth it.”

  “Hence the need for a well-designed coven bond,” Cerise grinned. “Honestly, Daniel, witches have been doing this for centuries. We’ve figured out how to get it right. Besides, I’m a complete psycho bitch and look how easy you handle me. Just fuck her blind a couple of times a week, and that fire nature of hers will have her going all doe-eyed for you even if she won’t admit to it. Can you imagine how hot that would be?”

  Mara, acting like a tsundere anime character? Yeah, no thanks. She’d incinerate half the staff the first time she threw a temper tantrum. Besides, I still wasn’t buying this whole ‘fire mages are repressed nymphos’ thing. It sounded too much like wishful thinking.

  “Anyway, we’re going to have to meet some more of the Conclave women to pick out another prospect. I got an invite from Mara to a get-together for apprentices tomorrow night, so I’ll let you know what I find. Tova’s girls are supposed to be there, and I hear they’re not the only hot young babes in the Citadel.”

  “You have a seriously one-track mind, Cerise. Well, have fun. But I’m probably going to be too busy to give much attention to this girl hunt of yours for a few days. We’ve got a possible army on the way, remember?”

  Yes, getting access to the royal war room had paid off. The Gryphon Knights were making good use of their flight time to maintain a watch on the area, and track the movements of any group of monsters big enough to be visible from the air. Their coverage was a bit spotty after the attack on the stables, but they could hardly miss an army of goblins assembling barely three days’ march from Kozalin.

  So far there were a couple thousand goblins and a few dozen trolls in the encampment, which wasn’t nearly enough to threaten the city. But the force was growing quickly as raiding bands streamed in from all over the area, and there were reports of other creatures joining them in the last few days. Hairy things a little bigger than men, who wore strange red armor and carried huge axes.

  Prince Caspar’s advisors had tentatively identified them as the semi-mythical andregi, a race of savage ape-men descended from Gaea herself who supposedly lived in some remote underground realm plotting the destruction of human civilization. No one seemed to know much about them, aside from the fact that they were bigger than humans and tended to have supernatural powers. Joy.

  But if they were still gathering their forces I had some time to work.

  My own equipment was next in line for an upgrade. I definitely wanted something to keep my own amulet from getting knocked off me if I got caught in another big explosion, but I wasn’t happy with the obvious solution of just wearing a steel breastplate. The weight and restriction of my movement were both annoying, and I’d run into all too many monsters who could shred steel. With my luck the first time I went out in armor something would put a big dent in it, and then the deformed metal would prevent me from healing the wound.

  My second thought was to simply enchant my clothes with a spell to dissipate the kinetic energy of anything that struck them. But that was essentially what my force field did, and I’d already seen that one of the standard ways to penetrate warding spells in this world was to enchant your weapon to resist magic. A sword like the one Baron Stein had used was pretty much immune to magic, so my kinetic redirection effects wouldn’t be able to touch it.

  So what if the magic was affecting my armor instead of the projectile?

  A little experimentation showed that I could easily put a spell on a piece of cloth that pushed back with equal force against any impact. That readily prevented anything from penetrating it, and rendered explosions and blunt weapons completely ineffective. Edged weapons still did damage to the cloth itself, as it was sandwiched between the conflicting forces. But a good defense should have multiple layers anyway, so I decided that would make a good incremental improvement.

  I had Avilla procure a long coat made of leather, and enchanted it with the kinetic resistance effect along with fire resistance and a nice big energy reserve. Under that I’d wear a breastplate with a decent structural reinforcement enchantment like the one I’d put on my fortifications, although its small size meant the enchantment’s power would be a lot easier to deplete. Still, the combination would easily protect me from attacks that would have knocked me out of the fight before.

  For a bit of improved battlefield control, I enchanted another chunk of nickel-iron with the earth-conjuring spells I’d used to raise my fortifications. But this time I also added spells for banishing earth and stone, plus the levitation and force push effects I’d used on the skimmers. I set up a control link between that and a ring, and suddenly I had a tool that could fly around a battlefield at high speeds throwing up barriers wherever I wanted them. It took a few seconds to make anything especially durable, but I could work with that.

  What about offense? Being hard to kill is nice, but a key part of any defense is killing your attacker before he has time to puzzle out how to hurt you. Grinder was a good close-in weapon and an awesome intimidation tool, but I desperately needed a decent way to kill things at a distance.

  That was deceptively hard to do with my sorcery, since working magic became exponentially harder at any distance. I pretty much had to create an offensive effect and then throw it at my target, and so far my attempts to duplicate the sort of attack spells you see in computer games hadn’t worked out very well.

  But it occurred to me that a gun is a highly effective means of delivering a package to a distant target. Maybe I’d been letting the fact that I was using magic influence my thinking a bit too much?

  Thus was born my second personal weapon.

  I’d been having some success with simplifying complex enchantments by building them in pieces, so this weapon was assembled out of distinct components. A power source enchantment on a slug of nickel-iron that fit into the hilt. A frame the general size and shape of a sawed-off shotgun, with a tricky bit of force magic to help stabilize its aim on whatever target I designated. A six-chambered cylinder like the one from a revolver only shorter, intended to hold thick metal disks instead of bullets. A prototype disk with a basic bullet-conjuration enchantment, and the standard bullet-launching enchantment on the weapon. Making it so I could have a different bullet-conjuring slug in each chamber and only the one that was currently lined up would activate when I pulled the trigger was a little tricky, but worth it.

  The prototype disk just gave me a gun that fired 0.50 rounds, in a form factor that was a bit handier than what I was giving my men. But making the ammunition factory removable meant I could experiment with different ammunition types, and I had lots of ideas.

  My second ammo type was based on that bouncing force grenade I’d improvised back in the temple at Lanrest. The bullet was enchanted with a little force spike on the front and a strong repulsive effect along the sides, and would sprout a set of foot-long force blades while in flight. These were very thin, almost one-dimensional, to mi
nimize the air resistance they created. But between the spin of the bullet and the tendency to bounce around after hitting a target the net result was an unpredictable whirlwind of destruction that would run for several seconds before its power ran out.

  That should do gruesome things to goblins, or massed troops. But I knew from experience that the force blades wouldn’t work well against really tough monsters. So for more armored targets I added a third ammo type, which would conjure several pounds of pressurized liquid nickel-iron when it struck a target. That produced an impressive explosion and a high-velocity spray of molten metal that left deep gouges in stone, so I expected it would get the job done against anything short of Narfing.

  Then I had to stop and curse myself. Why had I spent all that time dicking around with explosive flame and force spells, when I could conjure up a dandy explosive material almost trivially using earth magic?

  At that realization I broke off the work on personal weapons to take another shot at artillery. Well, no, artillery was overkill. It didn’t matter how big the projectile was, and since we didn’t have radios or forward observers there was no point in making a high-velocity weapon that could lob shells over the horizon. A couple of miles would be more than enough range to give anyone attacking my island a really bad day.

  Mortars, then. A relatively light one, maybe two hundred pounds of tube and base plate, launching a two-pound shell at less than half the velocity our rifles produced. A little experimenting confirmed that it would lob a shell far enough for my needs. No need to make it conjure the shells, either. Make an enchantment factory that would create mortar rounds with the magma-conjuring spell on them, and we could just let it run and store them.

  I played around with the conjuration effect a bit, and settled on a design that conjured five times as much molten nickel-iron as the bullets from my gun. In my testing that produced a nice, big blast suitable for tearing holes in an approaching army, while still being small enough that we could direct fire near the base of the city wall without killing friendly troops. Assuming I could make the mortar accurate enough to reliably hit a reasonable-size target zone.

  I’ve never fired a mortar myself, but I’ve read enough military fiction to know how that’s supposed to work. Just build a couple of screws into the mortar that you can use to make small adjustments to the angle of the tube, and then you can walk your fire over the enemy until you get it where you want it. Easy, right?

  Three hours later I was seriously wondering how the fuck Renaissance-era clock makers made stuff like that by hand. Conjuring a screw with earth magic was tricky. Making a screw where the threads were a consistent size, to within a fraction of a millimeter, was damned near impossible. Making that, and then perfectly matching the threads on the hole it was supposed to go into… ugh! I was about ready to tear my hair out.

  That was when I was interrupted by a messenger. One of Oskar’s men, and panting like he’d just had a good run.

  “Milord! Visitors at the water gate!”

  “What? The water gate?” I said in surprise.

  He nodded. “Yes, milord. A boat from the other side of the river, with a man and three women aboard. The sergeant of the watch wants to know if we should let them in?”

  Chapter 17

  The water gate was a massive portcullis of nickel-iron that could be laboriously raised using a winch in the gatehouse above it. When I’d thrown it together I’d noted that I really ought to come back and put some kind of motive enchantment on it eventually, or maybe redesign it entirely. I wasn’t sure how long the metal gate would survive being half-immersed in water before it rusted through, after all.

  But the gaps in the bars allowed me to get a good look at our visitors, especially after I threw a force wall over the surface of the water and walked out to them. A man and three women in a little wooden boat, just like the messenger had said. But the description didn’t capture the sheer strangeness of their appearance.

  The man was a little taller than average for this world, maybe five foot eight, and tremendously hairy. He wore a cloak that appeared to be woven from leaves stitched together with small vines, although that the fact that it was all green made me suspect it was actually alive. Beneath that he wore a breastplate of smooth, dark wood, along with leather greaves and a sort of skirt made of thick leather strips. The outfit reminded me of the armor ancient Greek warriors wore, aside from the complete lack of metal.

  The three women were similarly equipped, although the generous proportions of their breastplates left absolutely no doubt as to their gender. All three were gorgeous, a wild beauty unmarred by any hint of artifice, and for a moment I wondered if this guy was a traveling wizard. All three of the women carried short spears and seemed to know how to use them, but the man was unarmed.

  When I arrived they were having a rather heated discussion among themselves, which seemed to involve a lot of arm waving and finger pointing. But they composed themselves as they noted my approach.

  “Hello, travelers,” I said as I got within easy talking distance. “I’m Daniel Black. Who are you, and what brings you to my stronghold?”

  “See, Corinna, I told you we were in the right place. I’m Demetrios, of the line of Pan. This is my head girl Zoe, and our temporary allies Pelagia and Corinna. Obviously they’re all elder nymphs with their own circles and retinues, but if you’re willing to extend guest rights we’ll all vow to cause you no trouble in return. I was told to mention Dark Hecate’s name?”

  Zoe had long, curly hair in a chestnut brown, while Pelagia’s was lighter brown and Corinna’s was midnight black. Aside from that they were similar enough to be cousins, if not sisters.

  “Ah. That explains a few things. Come on it, then.”

  There was nothing holding the portcullis down except gravity, and this seemed like a good time to show off a little. So I pulled deep on the power of my amulet, and levitated the whole thing with a gesture. It rose eight feet with a rattle of chains and a rumble of metal against stone, and hung there dripping with river water.

  Zoe and Demetrios were only surprised for a moment. Then Demetrios grinned and said something to Zoe in another language. She punched his shoulder and smiled, and they chatted for a moment while Zoe fetched an oar from somewhere and started paddling the boat through. But Pelagia and Corinna both stared in astonishment for long moments, before Zoe nudged them into action. Then Corinna shook herself, muttered something about wizards and their tricks, and glared sullenly at me as she reluctantly took up an oar.

  Pelagia kept glancing up anxiously at the portcullis as they passed under it, and then back at me with an increasingly awed expression. Ah, someone was calculating how much magic I was burning to hold up that multi-ton weight.

  I lowered it gently back into place once they were through, and jumped across the little inlet to the dock. Cerise had shown up while I was out on the water, and was leaning against the wall waiting for me.

  “This looks like an interesting crew,” she commented. “Nymphs, dryads and a satyr who knows how to change his shape? Should I tell Avilla we’ve got company for dinner?”

  I checked the sky, and realized it was about that time. “Could you? Give her a little warning, before we spring unexpected guests on her?”

  “Sure. Just don’t let the hot nymph babes seduce you while that guy’s around, or you might get a little more action than you were counting on. You know what they say about Greeks, right?”

  I laughed, and gave her a swat on the butt to get her going. She took off with a giggle, and was on her bike and flying back to the keep before our guests reached the dock.

  It was pretty obvious Demetrios was the only one in the group who had any experience with boats. The other three were clumsy with their oars, and Corinna tried to stand up as they came alongside the dock and nearly capsized the boat. They didn’t seem to have a rope to tie up with, either. With some coaching from Demetrios the three nymphs managed to scramble up onto the dock, although at one point I had t
o grab Pelagia’s arm to keep her from falling in.

  She flushed in embarrassment. “Thank you, Daniel. Will you keep hold of me for a moment, in case I need saving again? This is going to be tricky, and I can’t trust Demetrios to keep his hands from roaming.”

  “It’s your fault for having such a spectacular ass,” Demetrios teased. “My hand just moved on its own.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t your own grove enough for you, lech?”

  “Enough? There’s no such thing, milady!”

  “What are you doing?” I asked, interrupting their banter. Pelagia was kneeling on the dock, and reaching down for the boat. Which, I noted, was just as odd as the rest of their equipment. The whole thing seemed to be a single piece of wood, with no seams or nails anywhere.

  The reason for this became apparent when a brown-skinned arm reached out of the wood to take Pelagia’s hand. She pulled, and a naked girl emerged from the boat to tumble onto the dock with her. The boat itself seemed to shrink as the girl emerged, the last of it vanishing into her feet a moment before they would have lost contact.

  The girl clung to Pelagia, shivering violently in the cold. “M-mistress? T-that was s-s-scary!”

  Brown skin, green hair, and came out of a piece of wood? Probably a dryad, then, although her powers didn’t quite seem to match the legends I was familiar with. She looked more like a teenage athlete than the giggling sex objects dryads are usually depicted as, although I suppose she’d be cute enough if she wasn’t turning blue.

  “Is she going to be alright?” I asked.

  Pelagia nodded. “Yes. We’re on land now, and my little shield is a strong one. Aren’t you, pet? Come, your sister is inviting you into her heart. Rest, and recover your strength.

  The dryad nodded, and hugged Pelagia. Then she sank into the nymph’s wooden breastplate, and vanished.

  Pelagia stood, and shook her head. “Thank you for your concern, Daniel. The winter has been hard on my girls, and I fear holding such an unfamiliar shape over water took a harsh toll on her. She’ll recover, but we’ll need to find another way to make the return trip.”