Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black)

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Fimbulwinter (Daniel Black) Page 21

by Brown, E. William


  She took a step back, her mouth opening to deny the charge, but something in my expression stopped her. She studied me thoughtfully for a long moment, and hung her head.

  “Truly, lord wizard?” she said softly. “I’ve never heard of a place like that.”

  “Truly,” I said.

  “I’ve never had a family, not since I was a little girl. Or a lord who bothered to notice my existence, or anything else to belong to. But they say a man will march into hell and back for the respect of his brothers. I figure a woman is no different. I can be the second kind for you, milord.”

  “Then we have a deal, and I’ll trust you until you give me a reason not to. Assuming you have good information for me.”

  “The fourth floor,” she replied. “On the north face of the keep. That’s where he keeps his little conquests…”

  Chapter 13

  The sun was nearing the horizon as I made my way through the empty streets of Lanrest towards Baron Stein’s keep. The three-story buildings that crowded the town cast the narrow streets into shadow, and the gloom in the alleyways was already near-impenetrable. Here and there a furtive band of townspeople scurried for shelter, clutching at improvised weapons and eying the shadows nervously.

  It was snowing again, in sporadic flurries that presaged the impending arrival of another snowstorm. The cold pierced the rough homespun weave of my borrowed clothes easily, and I found myself wishing I’d taken the time to spin warmth enchantments on everything instead of just my cloak. But I was on a deadline.

  Twice now I’d come across huge bloody stains in the snow that covered the street. A third of the town had been reduced to a maze of smashed and burned-out buildings in the goblin raid, and now everything was falling apart. My route took me across half the town, but not once did I see a soldier.

  Even the plaza around the Baron’s keep was largely deserted. A group of refugees huddled miserably among the stalls of what had once been a small open-air market, tending fires that burned scavenged wood. But the keep was buttoned up tight, with no sign of guards or sentries outside.

  That would make my job easier. No doubt there were men peering out arrow slits somewhere up there, but they wouldn’t have a very clear view. One more peasant wandering through the snow wasn’t likely to draw much attention.

  I started across the plaza as if I were simply headed for one of the streets on the opposite side, and waited for a snow flurry. One came as I was passing fairly near to the keep, reducing visibility to a few dozen feet. I turned and sprinted for it.

  I fetched up against the grey stone of the fort’s wall just as the snow cleared again. Naturally there weren’t any ground-floor windows or arrow slits, so no one inside would be able to see me now. I glanced around to get my bearings, and began to circle the keep.

  According to Daria the baron had a habit of kidnapping pretty commoners to serve in his bedchambers, but he tended to follow a regular pattern with them. A normal girl would spend the afternoon being prettied up by his servants while they talked up his amazing sexual prowess and fed her a line about how she’d inevitably submit eventually so she might as well not resist at all. It sounded hackneyed to me, but I suppose that would actually work with a lot of impressionable young peasant girls.

  Avilla’s treatment had likely been a lot harsher. They had to suspect that she was more dangerous than she looked, considering her association with me and Cerise. But the Baron must be busy as hell trying to salvage something from his disintegrating fief, so with any luck he hadn’t had time to get down to business yet. Daria said he normally retired around sunset, so I might still be in time to stop the inevitable.

  I paused to lean against the wall and wrestle my emotions back under control. Knowing that Avilla of all people was going to be raped by some medieval asshole because I was too fucking careless to protect her properly…

  But an enraged rampage would probably get her killed. I had to play this smart. For Avilla, and Cerise, and all the other people who were counting on me. No more mistakes.

  Another flurry of snow hit, along with a sudden blast of wind. I negated half my weight with a careful, continuous application of force magic, and started up the side of the tower.

  The keep was generations old, and the primitive mortar holding the weathered stones together was badly eroded. There were plenty of handholds, and I’d done a bit of recreational rock climbing in my day. Nothing serious, but the weight reduction made it a lot easier.

  The cold stone soon had me wishing for gloves. But my healing amulet would protect me from frostbite, and a little numbness was nothing. I pushed on until I reached the fourth floor, counted three arrow slits over from the east corner, and cautiously eased over for a look inside.

  I found a small room, dimly lit by a couple of candles. Most of the space was filled by a pair of beds, a wardrobe and a little table with a couple of chairs around it. The walls directly ahead of me and to my right were wood, but to the left was just a heavy curtain. According to Daria the Baron’s bedchambers would be on the other side.

  In the soft light I could make out three unhappy-looking girls huddling together on one of the beds. But no sign of Avilla, damn it.

  A loud smack of leather against flesh echoed through the curtain, and all three girls flinched. A male voice on the other side of the curtain was saying something, but I couldn’t make it out over the wind. Never mind, I got the picture.

  I reached into the stonework with my earth sorcery, and shaped the arrow slit into a doorway.

  It took the Baron’s mistresses a few seconds to notice, and they just gaped in astonishment for several more. By the time they came to their senses I was already stepping into the room.

  One of them screamed. The second one immediately joined in. The third clawed her way out from under the blankets and ran for the door, heedless of the fact that all she had on was a thin shift.

  I ignored them in favor of ripping the curtain away.

  The Baron’s bedchamber was considerably larger than the one his mistresses shared. A large four-poster bed stood in the middle of the room, with an overhead canopy and curtains that were currently drawn back. There was other furniture – a writing desk, a couple of wardrobes, an armor stand supporting a suit of plate mail, a small fireplace with a fire going – but I dismissed it all as unimportant.

  In a broad empty space at the foot of the bed Avilla hung from a set of iron shackles, with a cloth gag in her mouth. The chain had been pulled up so she had to stand on tiptoe, and she was naked despite the coolness of the room. Her back and butt were covered by a mass of angry red marks, and there were tears running down her cheeks.

  Baron Stein stood behind her, still fully clothed, with a heavy leather belt in his hand. His eyes went wide when he saw me, and he dropped the belt to reach for his sword.

  I strode forward and punched him in the face.

  He staggered back, with blood spurting from his nose.

  “You’re supposed to be dead!” He protested.

  “No real wizard ever let that stop him,” I growled. “Draw your sword, little man. We’ll see how it does against mine.”

  The door to the mistress’ chamber flew open, and a pair of armored men stormed in. But I was ready for this fight. I pulled out the stone handle I’d spent half the afternoon enchanting, and activated it.

  A bar of tightly contained flame three feet long shot out from the hilt, so hot that it burned violet instead of orange. Hidden within the glow more than a hundred little force constructs materialized, each shaped like a miniature buzz saw and spinning so fast the teeth broke the sound barrier. The high-pitched howl of the counter-rotating blades filled the room, and I stepped forward to swing at them.

  Their blades bounced harmlessly off my shield. But my weapon chewed through swords, armor and men with equal ease, spraying fragments of hot steel and shattered bone everywhere. With one blow I cut the closer guard nearly in half, reducing his chest to a ruin of smoking meat, and destroyed the o
ther one’s sword. He’d barely managed to check his headlong run into the room when my second swing took off his head.

  I felt a sharp pain, and looked down to find the Baron’s sword protruding from my chest. But, my shield had been up?

  “Damned wizard. You think I wouldn’t be ready to deal with your kind?”

  Stein stepped back, pulling his sword free. Now that I was paying attention, I could see the hard shell of enchantment that protected his blade from all other magical effects. The spell that formed my shield couldn’t affect it, and I didn’t have any other defense against a physical attack.

  I swayed, and everything went fuzzy. I could hear more screams and shouting nearby. The Baron wouldn’t be alone for long, damn it. But I kept my grip on my weapon, and somewhat to my surprise I wasn’t passing out. Guess there’s an advantage to a healing item that continuously cures all the symptoms caused by your injuries.

  “You’ll have to do better than that,” I said grimly.

  Stein’s eyes narrowed. “Cut off the head, then. Or just hack off your limbs, and burn the body. That’s an impressive weapon, but I can see you’re no swordsman. Tell me how to command your pretty little golem, and I’ll let you walk away.”

  “Golem?” I asked in astonishment.

  He nodded at Avilla. “No wizard would build a masterpiece like that thing just to fuck it, though I don’t doubt it’s a hell of a lay. It’s an assassin, isn’t it? Send it to smile and flirt and look innocent until a man drops his guard, and then it turns into a monster and kills him. It doesn’t even know, does it? Tell me the command words.”

  There were booted feet pounding across the floor, along with a jingle of mail and more shouting. No time to play games.

  “Idiot,” I snorted. I raised my weapon as if I were about to attack, and then send a wave of force out to slam into Stein.

  It parted around his sword, but the fringes of it caught him anyway and bounced him off the wall. Another telekinetic blow caught him in mid-air and slammed him into the ceiling. He lost his grip on the magic sword, and it went clattering across the floor. I released him, and turned to throw a flurry of force blades at the men trying to enter the room.

  That sent them stumbling back, which gave me a moment to seal the doorway with a mass of stone. The floor creaked a bit at the addition of what was probably a couple of tons of weight, but it held.

  I turned back to find Stein diving for his sword. I knocked him across the room again, and then slammed him into the room’s outer wall and made the stone grow bands around his wrists and ankles.

  Then I turned to Avilla.

  She stared at me in shock. I’d been standing between her and the guardsmen when I’d tried out my new weapon, protecting her from the spray of fragments with my shield. But she’d gotten a good look at everything.

  I wrapped her in a protective shield, and severed the chain holding up her shackles. Glowing bits of iron sprayed the room, and the bed began to smolder.

  I dropped both shields, and caught Avilla as she started to fall. She collapsed against me with a muffled sob. I held her awkwardly with one arm for a moment, trying not to touch the marks where she’d been beaten. Finally I decided I’d better turn off my fancy new weapon, so I could have a hand free to remove her gag.

  “I’m sorry,” she gasped as soon as it was off. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, oh Daniel I’m such a useless slut. You should just leave me behind.”

  “What? Oh, hell no. What do you have to apologize for, Avilla? I’m the one who screwed up and let you get captured.”

  “I’m so weak,” she sobbed. “I should have been strong, like you or Cerise, but I just gave up. I was ready to do anything if he’d just stop beating me.”

  I soothed away her pain in a wash of magic, and held her close.

  “Shhh, it’s alright, Avilla. It’s ok. You thought I was dead, and everything was hopeless. Didn’t you?”

  She nodded, her face buried against my chest.

  “Where were you? I thought… did I do something…?”

  She sounded so lost.

  “One of this asshole’s men stabbed me in the back and left me under a burning troll.”

  “What?!” She pulled away, suddenly furious. “They betrayed you?”

  I nodded. “Some knight who was a relative of that tax farmer. I don’t know if the Baron put him up to it or not, and right now I don’t really care.”

  There was a muffled thump at the doorway, and the stone shook slightly. Avilla glanced at it, and back to me.

  “You’re really not mad at me?” She asked meekly.

  I shook my head. “Of course not. I’ll never abandon you, Avilla. You’re safe with me.”

  “Hah!” Baron Stein barked. “Uppity book-sniffer. The might of the gods is more than your unnatural magic can match. We’ll see how high and mighty you are when Holger sends your other bitch to kill you.”

  “Will we, now?”

  I plucked the dagger from his belt and pulled it across the room to slap into my palm. Then I handed it to Avilla.

  “Here’s your chance at payback, if you want it.”

  A louder thump shook my improvised barricade. They’d found something solid to use as a battering ram.

  “But you’d better hurry,” I went on.

  Avilla looked down at the dagger in her hand, and up at the Baron. For a moment she hesitated, and I thought she was going to pass. But then her eyes went dark, and her grip tightened.

  “Beat me, will you? You think you can steal me and break me and make me yours? I don’t belong to you, you bastard.”

  She stepped close, and ran the blade along his cheek.

  “My love binds demons and eats their hearts, Baron. You’re lucky she isn’t here, or she’d sacrifice you to one. All I can do is this.”

  She brought the knife down his other cheek, leaving another shallow cut.

  “Oh, and I’m not some stupid assassin golem. The most powerful hearth witch in the north created me, and she wanted me to seduce a prince. She made me soft and sweet and beautiful, so I could win his heart and bind it with true love. Then she was going to take over my body, and enjoy an endless life of luxury.”

  She leaned in to whisper in his ear. “All you had to do was make me think Daniel was dead, and treat me decently. I was made to fall in love. But instead you tried to beat me into submission.”

  She lowered the knife, and stabbed him in the belly. He grunted.

  “Gut wounds are nasty, aren’t they?” She said conversationally. “Sometimes they’re clean, but sometimes they fester. Especially when a hearth witch wants them too. Nasty things gather, burrow and breed. So mote it be.”

  She stepped back and smiled at him. “There now. You could take weeks to die, but it’ll get you in the end. Should I leave him like this, Daniel?”

  “Wait!” Stein gasped. “I… I can pay you! Thirty crowns, and weapons for your men.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Never leave an enemy alive. That one’s on the Evil Overlord list.”

  “You keep a list, Daniel?” She turned back to her victim with gleaming eyes. “That’s my man. That’s who I belong to. Not some ignorant noble who thinks he can steal me away with treachery and pain.”

  “Forty crowns!” He pleaded. “Please! You won’t get far without money.”

  She stabbed him again, lower this time. He groaned, and struggled uselessly against his bonds.

  “Keep your money, pig. You’ll never touch me again.”

  The knife fell again, this time into his thigh. A red stain began to spread rapidly down his leg. She stepped back.

  “I just wish I had more time to pay you back. But this will have to do.”

  She plunged the dagger into his eye. He screamed, thrashing and twitching for a long moment, and then went still.

  A crack appeared in my barricade, but I repaired it with a wave of my hand. I dissolved the stone manacles, letting the Baron’s body fall to the floor, and hugged Avilla from behind.
>
  “Better?”

  She sagged against me. “I think so. Can we go now?”

  “Sure. One last thing.”

  I pulled out a heavy chest of iron-bound wood I’d noticed in the corner, and cut the lock off with my new weapon. Avilla huddled behind me and stared at it.

  “What is that thing?” She asked. “I’ve never seen such a powerful weapon.”

  “I haven’t decided what to call it yet,” I told her. “I just finished making it an hour ago.”

  “An implement like that deserves a proper name. Storm-Biter? Thunder-tooth? No, those are too fancy. He wants something simple and brutal. Grinder. That’s it.”

  I chuckled. “Grinder, huh? Sounds about right. Oh, good.”

  Sure enough, the chest was full of little bags of money. I grabbed a sheet from the bed to make an improvised sack, and dumped it all in. Then I handed it to Avilla.

  “Here, you keep track of that.”

  “Alright,” she agreed. “Um, I don’t suppose you brought me clothes?”

  “Nope. Couldn’t get my hands on a backpack in time, and the way I got in I didn’t have a free hand to carry anything. Hold still.”

  I pulled the blanket off the bed, and wrapped it around her. Then I swept her up in a bridal carry.

  “There. Milady witch need not walk to her wardrobe, for I shall gallantly carry her to safety.”

  Avilla blushed prettily.

  “Why thank you, my noble lord. Please, let us away.”

  “At once, milady.”

  I gathered a burst of magic, and blew out the side of the tower.

  The hole was only seven or eight feet across, but the stone and timber around us groaned ominously. Before anything could decide to collapse I stepped to the opening and leaped out into empty space.

  Avilla shrieked and buried her face against me. But I’d reworked my amulet’s force shield to handle falls more intelligently, and it cushioned our impact easily before shrinking back to let my feet touch the pavement. A moment later I was off and running.

  Sure enough, several arrows landed around us as I crossed the plaza. One even hit, smacking into my shield with far more force than the little goblin arrows I was used to dealing with. But one arrow was nowhere near enough to penetrate, and in moments I was out of the plaza and pelting down a dark street.

 

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