Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2)

by E. William Brown

  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.”

  “Heh. Told you the kid would come around,” Ward said.

  “In this case I’m glad you were right,” Steelbinder replied. “These devices will provide enough power for heavy enchantment work, or decent battle magic?”

  I nodded. “Yes, easily. I can also limit the amount of power any particular device will deliver, in case you want someone who isn’t experienced enough to handle heavy energy flows safely to have one. Unfortunately making them weaker doesn’t actually simplify the enchantment, so it won’t make them cheaper.”

  “That’s a good start,” Steelbinder said. “We can negotiate prices after the meeting.”

  “Don’t be surprised if some of the junior adepts offer their souls,” Ward joked.

  Steelbinder smiled thinly. “Indeed. Adept Stenberg indicated that you’re open to the idea of joining the Conclave?”

  “In principle,” I said slowly. “I’d need to take a look at your bylaws, make sure there isn’t anything that conflicts with any oaths I’ve taken, that
kind of thing.”

  Ward laughed. “Son, at the rate you’re going you’ll make High Adept in a couple of months. We don’t play by the rules, we make them.”

  “It’s a valid point,” Steelbinder objected. “It takes time to line up the proper endorsements and ensure there are no objectors, and none of us will have much time for playing politics. But adding another famous war wizard to our ranks would go a long way towards shoring up the Conclave’s credibility, not to mention filling the hole left by Thunderbolt’s death.”

  “But we’re short on time, so the details of that will also have to wait. I understand you’ve been building some impressive defensive works on your island. Will your defenses hold if the invaders target you?”

  I considered that for a moment. “I’d been hoping for another week before the first serious attack, so I’ll have to push to finish some preparations. But yes, they should hold off even a serious assault. I’ve melted enough of the river to serve as a moat, and I’ve got nearly two hundred men with magical weapons. Basically lots of devices for throwing chunks of iron at very high speeds. We can easily shoot holes in any boats that try to approach, and I’ve got a few heavier weapons that have the range to fire on any enemy attacking the river side of the city.”

  “That will shore up the harbor defenses nicely,” Steelbinder commented. “What about personal combat? We’re expecting this goddess to show herself at some point, and there’s no telling what sort of fell beasts she’ll have with her. There aren’t any epic heroes in Kozalin and the priests will be guarding their temple, so stopping her is going to fall to us wizards. Can I count on you to help put her in the ground?”

  “Absolutely,” I said. “I had the same thought, so I’ve been preparing for that.”

  I would have said more, but I was interrupted by a shout from the skimmer’s driver. The ponderous vehicle lurched to a stop, and something bounced off the side with a clang of metal on metal.

  I leaned over to look out the skimmer’s armored windshield, and found the street ahead of us in utter chaos. Screaming people running haphazardly through the snow, pursued by dark shapes like something out of a horror movie.

  The smaller ones were the size of a large dog. Quadrupeds, with long legs and huge mouths, their heads and bodies covered in plates of dark armor. Their long, sinewy tails were tipped with round knobs that they used like maces against the armored soldiers in the crowd, while their claws and teeth made short work of any civilian they could catch.

  I spotted at least a dozen of those in moments, along with a few larger specimens and one giant the size of a horse. Some of the soldiers were trying to fight them, but swords and spears just glanced off the armored hides of the beasts. Then the big one turned towards the skimmer with a roar, its huge mouth gaping open.

  The skimmer’s cannon fired with an ear-splitting crack, and the beast’s head blew apart in a fountain of black ichor.

  “What the hell?” I gasped.

  “The war room is in the middle of that,” Steelbinder said. “But what are those things? They don’t look like any breed of demon I’ve seen.”

  “A devourer,” Ward breathed. “Gods preserve us, they’ve loosed a devourer on the city.”

  Chapter 20

  “It looks like a whole pack of them,” I pointed out.

  “They’re all connected,” Ward explained urgently. “Somewhere there’s a heart that births these roaming mouths. Everything they eat goes back to the heart, and gives it more substance to make monsters with. We have to kill it before it eats too many people, or it will birth an unstoppable army.”

  A couple of the smaller ones were eying the skimmer now. The Conclave’s golems formed up around us, and bolts of lightning flashed out from their riders to strike the nearest monsters. They fell back in the face of this new threat, and the street in front of us quickly cleared.

  “These creatures are too agile for golems to face,” Steelbinder decided. “They’ll quickly realize they can climb them to get at their riders, and most of our men won’t fare well in melee with demonic beasts. We’ll have to fight our way to the heart on foot. Boris, the devourers were bound in Tartarus, weren’t they? There should be more than enough etheric residue to betray the heart’s location.”

  “Yes, yes, that should work,” the elderly High Adept agreed. “But I’m too old to go traipsing across a battlefield on foot. I’ll stay here, and help our escorts block the road.”

  “The skimmer should make a decently secure command post for you,” I said. “Captain Rain, stay here and provide fire support with the cannon. If you get overrun you can seal the hatches and fall back to the island or the Iron Citadel. Gronir, you’re with me.”

  Gronir hefted his flamer with a predatory grin. “Ready, milord.”

  I noticed that he’d tied the hilt of a force blade to the end of the barrel, and had to grin back. It was one of the newer type that didn’t have a physical blade, just a hilt with a switch that turned the force blade on and off. So effectively he’d added a magical bayonet to the flamethrower. I’d have to remember to add that feature to the next batch I made.

  Steelbinder hesitated for a moment, but nodded. “Very well. I’ll take point, you and Leo can guard our flanks while your man brings up the rear. Elof, you stay on bodyguard detail. Don’t take any chances here, the Conclave can’t afford more losses. Let’s go.”

  It felt a little odd, not being in charge of the situation for once. But Steelbinder seemed to know what he was doing, so I wasn’t going to argue with him. We disembarked into the blowing snow, and fell into a rough diamond formation as we started down the street.

  It was an eerie scene. Mangled bodies littered the street, their blood still steaming in the snow. Some were partially eaten, missing limbs or faces, their bodies ripped open to expose organs and viscera. There was a weak moan from somewhere nearby, and I realized that some of the victims weren’t dead yet.

  I was debating whether there was time to stop and save them when a fresh pack of monsters came around a corner ahead of us and charged. At the same time more of them descended from the rooftops on our flanks, howling for our blood.

  I threw a flurry of force blades at the monsters descending on my flank, and drew Grinder. The first few monsters fell onto the blades and were cut to pieces, coming apart in a shower of gore and severed body parts that bounced off my shield. The others landed around us as Grinder’s shriek filled the air, and I swept a jet of violet flame across them.

  I couldn’t hit all the monsters at once, but those that evaded Grinder’s plasma jet just clawed uselessly at my shield. I carved through them with wide sweeps of Grinder’s blade, interspersed with jets of plasma at the ones that were smart enough to dodge instead of trying to parry. Well now, these guys weren’t so tough.

  Gronir’s flamer roared. I glanced back to see that Leo was cutting his opponents apart with a sword covered in dull purple runes, that seemed to disintegrate anything it touched. A few of the monsters had apparently decided Gronir was an easier target, but he’d lit them up with the flamer and was gleefully carving up the ones that weren’t dead from the flames yet.

  I glanced back towards our front, but High Adept Steelbinder had things well in hand there. Gleaming steel shapes danced through the ranks of the onrushing horde, moving so fast I could barely tell what they were. They constantly changed their shape, sprouting blades and barbed spikes and vicious-looking hooks, buzzing through the mob to strike again and again. They didn’t penetrate the armored hides of the monsters as easily as my own force blades, but they got the job done well enough.

  When they ran out of monsters to dice the objects reformed into spheres the size of baseballs, and flew back to orbit over Steelbinder’s head. The wizard fished a small object out of a pouch, and consulted it briefly.

  “That way,” he pointed, and set out again.

  A moment later we turned the corner, and came out into the plaza in front of Kozalin’s city hall. It was a rather grand build
ing, with marble steps out front leading up to an ornate entryway decorated with statues of heroes. The windows overlooking the plaza had actually been glass instead of just wooden shutters, and a tower with a massive clock face near the top rose from one corner of the building. But it had seen better days.

  Pools of half-frozen blood stained the thin layer of snow on the plaza, along with piles of rags and the occasional bit of metal gear. But there were no bodies. Several of the building’s windows were broken, and the ornately carved doors of the grand entryway had been ripped off their hinges and thrown down across the steps. The corner opposite the clock tower seemed to be on fire, and there were faint roars and screams rising from somewhere deep inside.

  “These things work fast,” I noted.

  Steelbinder checked his device again. “Indeed. It seems the beast is in one of the basements. Can you give us a direct route?”

  “Not a problem.”

  He pointed, and I ripped through the cobblestone of the plaza to open a sloping tunnel in that direction. I took the lead as we went in, trying to look ahead with my earth sense to make sure I didn’t tunnel into a sewer line. Sure enough there were several buried pipes in our path, but I was able to go under them easily enough. Once we got a few feet down there didn’t seem to be any more of them, and I got us across the plaza almost as quickly as we could have walked on the surface.

  Then I broke out into a hollow space, and something with far too many teeth lunged for my face. My shield failed in a shower of blue sparks, torn apart by some kind of spell-destruction effect the thing radiated, and I barely got an arm up in time to intercept its mouth.

  Teeth the size of daggers closed on my arm, but failed to penetrate the sleeve of my enchanted coat. Gronir’s flamer stabbed over my shoulder, but his improvised force bayonet made only a shallow gash before the blade unravelled. I fumbled under my coat, my hands closing on the hilt of my gun.