Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black)

by Brown, E. William

  “Damn it,” I muttered. “I need these guys alive. Back into the fight, I guess.”

  There was a wrecked wagon partly blocking my approach, apparently smashed by one of the trolls. I cut off a hefty sliver of wood and set the same fire and force spells on it I’d used a few minutes ago. Unfortunately I didn’t have a clear line of fire through the confused melee, and if I waited for a clear shot we were going to be down half a dozen men first.

  So I checked my shield strength, and jumped over the mass of swordsmen around the troll. It was facing away from me, and I landed in the middle of its broad back with a thump that made my knees ache.

  I rammed the wooden spike home, and jumped away as it caught fire. The troll roared in pain, and a guy with an axe ducked under its club and laid its belly open. Good, a couple of seconds of distraction and it would be too late to pull the spike out. But where was I going to land?

  I almost came down in the middle of a clump of swordsmen and goblins, but threw myself back up and sideways at the last second. Where? Ah, a clear spot on the edge of the fight. I pushed again, angling towards my chosen landing spot with half my attention while the rest was focused on burning that troll.

  The other troll’s club swatted me out of the air, and through a brick wall.

  Fresh pain flared up, and my shield collapsed. I sat up with a groan, seeing double for a moment before my vision cleared. Crap, that was a bad sign.

  I was lying on the floor of some kind of shop, half-buried in broken bricks and smashed wood. A couple of goblins peeked through the hole in the wall in front of me with wide eyes. One of them saw me, and snickered. The other raised his bow with a nasty grin.

  I threw a force blade at them, and the snickering one lost his head. But the one with the bow ducked aside.

  Damn it, I’d lost focus on that fire spell.

  I threw up a fresh shield spell using my personal reserves, and hobbled back out of the building. As expected a goblin arrow hit me the instant I exposed myself, but I just tossed a flurry of force blades back and headed for the fight.

  If I thought things were confused before, now they were a dozen times worse. The troll I’d hit was running around in circles with half its back on fire, randomly stepping on goblins and knocking men down. Several goblins were trying to smother the fire with their cloaks, jabbering furiously in their native tongue.

  The other troll was storming towards me with blood in its eye. One of the soldiers took advantage of its distraction to ram his spear into its side, but the troll just batted him away with a sweep of its club and lumbered on.

  Well, at least it gave me a clear line of fire. I conjured a force lance, and rushed it.

  A couple of arrows rattled off my shield, draining a little mana but doing no damage. Then something less tangible hit me, and a moment of intense vertigo made me stumble.

  It was a spell. Some kind of goblin curse. I could see the magic of it, and hurriedly tore it away. But I was on my knees now, the troll towering over me with its club raised to smash me into the pavement. No momentum from either of us to carry a thrust into its vitals.

  I dropped the lance, and tried to dive between the thing’s legs. But I was too slow, or the troll was too fast. It smashed me back with a knee to the face, and then brought the club down.

  I threw myself aside with a burst of force magic, and hacked at its arm with a blade of force. The blade cut deep into the tendons of its forearm, and it dropped the club. I followed up with a little ball of fire thrown at its face. But it blocked the flame, and kicked me away. My shield flickered, and an arrow sank into my shoulder before I could throw it back up. Damn, I wasn’t going to last long at this rate.

  The troll bent to pick up its club with its good hand, but one of the soldiers rushed up behind it and sank his axe into its calf. It stumbled, tried to kick him with its other foot and fell flat on its face.

  I rushed in with a fresh force blade and hacked at the monster’s neck. More soldiers jumped in to attack it as well, and for a moment it seemed that would be it.

  The troll rose to its knees with a roar, and batted me away to land in the broken wagon. This time I didn’t bother restoring my shield, I just grabbed up a chunk of wood and stumbled back into the fray.

  The axeman had gotten both of the troll’s Achilles tendons, and it was too stupid to realize why it couldn’t stand anymore. It fell to its knees again as I reached it, and I plunged the length of wood into a wound in its side. It went in nearly a foot, and then I set it blazing and stumbled back.

  The other troll smashed me into the street.

  Only the fact that it had lost its club saved me from a shattered skull. It loomed over me, back still smoldering, and bared its teeth at me.

  “Hrug eat puny wizard,” it growled. It picked me up by my broken arm, and opened its mouth.

  I formed a force lance, rammed it through the roof of the thing’s mouth, and sent fire rushing into the wound.

  For a second it just froze, and I wondered if the lance had gone deep enough to do any damage. Then the troll’s eyes exploded, and jets of flame burst from its eye sockets. Hah, let’s see it survive that.

  Its hand went slack, and I fell back onto the cobblestone. Then the troll’s burning corpse fell on me.

  I must have blacked out for a moment. When consciousness returned I was still buried under the hulking brute, but I could hear movement all around me.

  “Weigh them down with those timbers. Quickly now! You, and you, light the torches from that building. All of them! We’ve got to burn them to ash or they’ll be back at us in an hour.”

  I tried to groan, but all that escaped was a weak gurgle. Too much weight on me. My ribs had broken again. I tried to push the body off, but I didn’t have the strength to do more than shift it. Not enough magic left.

  “It moved!” Someone shouted.

  “Impossible!” Another voice argued. “Look, it ain’t got no brains right now.”

  “Wait, the wizard!” Someone else put in. “I think he was under it.”

  “Gotta be dead,” the second voice countered.

  “I’ll check,” said the main who’d been giving orders. “You men, get that timber under its shoulder and lift.”

  There were a few moments of cursing and straining, and the weight on my chest moved. One side of the troll’s body lifted a few inches off the pavement, giving me a view of booted feet and a burning building in the background.

  “Hold it steady, boys,” the commander ordered. Then a face appeared. One of the knights I’d seen with the Baron when I first arrived in Lanrest.

  I tried to talk, but all I could do was gurgle. There was blood on my lips, and more in my lungs. I needed to get out from under this thing, and let my amulet work for an hour or two.

  He smiled grimly.

  “You look like shit, wizard,” he said quietly. “You going to magic your way out of this one?”

  I shook my head weakly. “G… ouw… hlll…”

  He drew a dagger from a sheath on his forearm, and laid it against my throat.

  “Nah, see, I’m Sir Zenon Broz. Cezary is my cousin, and I’m not real happy about you kicking his ass and humiliating him in front of his men. So you know what?”

  He drew the blade across my throat.

  “Fuck you, wizard. You’re freaky magic isn’t getting you out of this one. Maybe you can heal like a troll, but I bet you’ll burn like one too.”

  He backed away.

  I clutched weakly at my magic, trying desperately to close the gaping wound in my throat. My blood ran out over the cobblestones, fast, too fast…

  “He’s gone,” I heard Zenon say. “Died right in front of me. Put it down, boys, and let’s get these things burning.”

  Too fast. The last dregs of strength fled from my battered body, and everything went dark.

  Chapter 12

  Someone was crying.

  My head rested on something warm and soft. Every now and then a teardrop hit my cheek.
But the rest of me was cold, so cold. I was numb to the bone.

  I tried to open my eyes, but nothing happened.

  “We have to go, Tina.”

  It was Beri’s voice. Low and full of worry.

  “She’s right, girl. There’s nothing we can do now. Our getting eaten won’t help him.”

  A male voice, vaguely familiar. The blacksmith?

  Tina sniffed. “We’re all gonna die without him, Oskar. He was our only hope.”

  “Maybe,” Beri admitted. “But we have to try. Come on, now.”

  I tried to speak, but nothing worked. Not the faintest twitch from my limbs. What happened?

  A muffled gasp drew my attention.

  “Beri! He’s breathing!”

  “What? But, that’s impossible Tina. No one could survive that. Besides, I checked.”

  “Put your hand here!” Tina insisted. “Feel that? He… oh, gods. His heart just started beating.”

  I couldn’t feel anything below my neck but the cold. But I heard Beri’s gasp.

  “You’re right. I… I don’t understand. Oh, I wish Miss Avilla was here! She’d know what to do.”

  “We take him with us,” Tina said fiercely. “He’s gonna get better, just like he always does. Come on…”

  Something jostled me, and darkness descended again.

  The next time I woke I was lying under a thin blanket, with a warm body pressing against my side. Soft, generous curves, and a small but calloused hand resting on my chest. Tina?

  “I’m not taking any chances, Beri,” Tina was saying urgently. “I was touching him when he started getting better. What if that’s how his magic works?”

  Beri sighed. “I still say that’s silly, Tina. How would touching you make him heal from… from that. Besides, you need to eat.”

  “Take my place, then,” Tina said stubbornly.

  Hey, I could feel my body again. I tried to open my eyes, but still got nothing. Was it that dark, or was I blind? I shifted, and opened my mouth.

  “Guuuh.” Well, that didn’t work out like I intended.

  “He’s awake!” Tina gasped.

  “I can hardly believe it. Milord, we’re safe for now. What can we do to help?”

  “Wa’er,” I managed.

  “Of course. Tina, prop him up a little. Gods, those burns must hurt terribly. Here you go, milord. Drink slow, now, so you don’t choke.”

  I managed a few sips of water, feeling absurdly clumsy as I managed to dribble half of it down my chin. Beri just wiped it away and tried again. The water seemed to help, and the clumsiness quickly passed.

  “Thanks,” I said. “No pain. Got it blocked.”

  “That’s a mercy,” Beri told me. “You were burned nearly to a crisp when we found you, and then mostly frozen. I thought for sure you were dead. That was just after dawn, and you’ve been healing all morning.”

  “It’s kind of neat to watch,” Tina put in. “Are you gonna get all better?”

  I felt terribly weak, but my amulet was still tirelessly working away. “Should,” I answered. “Few hours? Where are we?”

  Because I could hear the distinctive sound of people walking on wooden floors somewhere nearby, and that didn’t make sense. If the girls had decided to hole up shouldn’t we be in the tower?

  “We’re hiding at Oskar’s place,” Beri explained. “The blacksmith you recruited? It’s a good thing you did, because we never would have made it this far without him.”

  I was getting a bad feeling about this.

  “Avilla? Cerise?”

  Beri sighed.

  “Cerise led Oskar’s group back to the tower around midnight. We’d been up with Miss Avilla watching from the windows, and things were looking pretty bad by then. A lot of the town was on fire, and the Baron’s men mostly pulled back into the keep. They both got pretty worried when they found out no one knew where you were.”

  “They argued a bit,” she went on. “Miss Cerise was looking really scary, all covered in blood with her shadow moving on its own. She wanted to summon a demon to drive the goblins out of town, but Miss Avilla talked her down. Told her she was being reckless, and… um… distracted her.”

  Tina giggled. “She kissed her senseless, and dragged her down to the bath to get clean. They were in there for an hour.”

  Beri sighed. “Yeah. That. Anyway, they talked for a while, and when you still didn’t come back they decided to do something to find you. Some kind of ritual. Miss Avilla said it wasn’t too dangerous, but we mustn’t interrupt them.”

  “But the Baron’s men interrupted them,” Tina said.

  “They came in through the door up on the wall,” Beri explained. “Some of Captain Rain’s men were supposed to be guarding it, but they let them in. That priest was leading them. I was guarding the door, but I couldn’t stop a whole troop of soldiers. They burst in and caught your apprentices in the middle of their ritual, and the priest did something that made it go wild on them. Then the soldiers rushed them.”

  She shook her head. “It all happened so fast. He had them in chains before any of the men came upstairs. Gronir and a couple of the others wanted to fight them anyway, but there were too many of them. It would have been suicide.”

  “They took them to the keep,” Tina said. “But you’ll rescue them, right? You won’t let that evil baron have Miss Avilla?”

  Damn it. Not again. Was there anyone in this town I could safely turn my back on? Avilla being in the Baron’s hands was bad enough, but Holger already knew Cerise was a witch. If Avilla used magic to defend herself they’d realize what she was, assuming they hadn’t already figured it out. And that meant…

  “Hell, no,” I said. “Um, book?”

  “The one you had on you?” Beri asked. “It didn’t burn, somehow. I suppose that must be more magic? The cover is a little singed, but that’s all. I’ve got it right here.”

  She paused.

  “Um, I’m sorry if this is out of line, milord. But, Miss Avilla and Miss Cerise, is that really how you bound them?”

  I tried shaking my head, and found that I had just enough strength to manage it. “No. That’s what the priest will do to them.”

  “Oh.”

  Her tone of voice made it pretty clear that she’d read the last few chapters. I almost wished I hadn’t.

  “How long have they been in the keep?” I asked.

  “Maybe half a day? We were just having a late lunch, milord. Shall I bring you some?”

  My stomach growled loudly.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  It was a somber meal. I could feel my strength returning, but it was a slow process. Far too slow. I had no idea what was happening to my girls, and all I could do was lie here and worry.

  But I was already paying the price for rushing in too fast once. I couldn’t afford to make that mistake again. Getting myself killed in a reckless rescue attempt wasn’t going to help anyone.

  The maids helped me to sit up, and Tina positioned herself behind me to help keep me propped up while Beri fed me.

  “So, why are my eyes bandaged?” I asked as we ate.

  “They were burned off,” Tina told me. “I figured we’d best keep them clean. Was that right?”

  Okay then. Apparently Tina had a stronger stomach than I’d thought.

  “Can’t hurt. This amulet I’m wearing will heal just about anything, but I’m not sure it can handle removing debris from a wound.”

  Tina hesitated. “Um… debwhat?”

  “I mean, if I got something stuck in a wound it might not heal right. So yeah, bandages are probably a good idea until everything grows back.”

  She sighed in relief. “Good. Ma taught me what to do about cuts and bruises, but I never saw anything like this.”

  “You did good, Tina,” I reassured her. “Really, both of you did. I think my magic was just barely keeping me alive, and if you hadn’t come along the cold would have finished me off eventually.”

  “Thank you, milord,” Beri
said.

  “Beri, you saved my life. You can call me Daniel if you want. You too, Tina.”

  Tina gasped. “Really? For really real? I’ve never said a lord’s name before.”

  I patted her knee. “Really, Tina. We’re not as formal back where I’m from.”

  “Does this mean I get to stay on, Daniel?” Beri asked cautiously. “Because I got the feeling Miss Avilla was easing me out.”

  “Yes, Beri. You save my life, you get my protection. For what it’s worth.”

  “It’s worth a lot, sir. You just push too hard, trying to save everyone. If you’d just picked a spot to fort up nothing would ever break in.”

  “I can’t conjure up food out of nothing, so we’d eventually have to come out. But I think you’re right about one thing. I’ve been working too hard to save everyone in sight, instead of concentrating on my own people first. I need to start making sure we’re secure before I go trying to save a whole town.”

  “Maybe you should save a town where the Lord doesn’t want to steal Miss Avilla?” Tina offered diffidently.

  I sighed. “Out of the mouths of babes. Yeah, I probably should. But first I have to figure out how we’re going to get out of here. Who’s still with us?”

  “The Baron’s men kicked everyone out of the tower,” Beri answered. “Hrodir and Gronir took most of your people and blended in with one of the refugee groups, just in case. Oskar has a big mob of people here manning the barricades, but I’m not sure how many of them would help.”

  “Barricades?” I asked.

  “Oh, the town is in bad shape, Daniel. The goblin are holding three or four blocks near the hole in the wall, but that’s not the worst of it. Something killed the watch on the river gate last night, and smashed the gate to bits. There’s monsters roaming the streets eating people, and even the Baron’s men only come out in force.”

  “I see. So basically, the only reason the town is still here is that there are too many people for the monsters to eat in one day?”