The warmth field certainly made being outdoors a lot more pleasant. My first step sank into snow that must have been waist deep, but I had an easy fix for that. I pulled back, and laid down a force wall for my group to walk on. That spread our weight out enough that the wall barely made an impression on the frozen surface of the snow as we walked.
Wispy, translucent blue shapes closed in around us, but Embla and Daria made short work of the first few that tried to approach. After that they kept their distance. But there were hundreds of them. Maybe thousands. Watching our every move. Waiting for us to make a mistake.
I resolved to make sure my island was thoroughly warded against these things as soon as we got home.
Halfway across the field Irithil stopped to study the buildings above us for a moment, and led us sharply off to the right of our original course. He paused again, studying the cliff face intently, and then crouched to do something to a stone that was nearly submerged in the snow.
A crack appeared in the rock, and then widened as a panel opened. A dark elf peered out at him, and there was a rapid-fire exchange in what I assumed must be elvish. Then the panel closed again.
“They’re reinforcing the spirit wards across the doors,” Irithil explained apologetically. “The wraiths have been quite energetic about pressing any opening.”
“Fair enough.”
It was a short wait. A minute later there were faint mechanical sounds from the cliff face, and then a section eight feet wide swung silently inwards. Beyond the double doors was a hallway lit by a cheery yellow glow, and a group of elves waiting to meet us.
The snow was a good four feet deep, and part of it immediately collapsed into the mouth of the tunnel. I laid a force ramp across the treacherous mass of tumbled snow, and slid down it to meet the reception committee.
“Hello, folks. I hear you need a ride?”
There were six elves waiting in the hallway. Two of them were dressed much like Irithil’s guards, in elaborately designed armor of soft leather that covered them from head to toe. If anything the designs were even fancier here, with lots of brightly colored ribbons and embroidery. They carried large, oval shields in addition to the light swords and compound bows I was familiar with.
Two more members of the group carried staves instead of swords, although they wore the same sort of armor. Obviously wizards, but I noted that their personal wards didn’t seem that much better than those of the warriors. Curious, but maybe they focused more on subtlety than raw power? Or maybe they just spent all their time enchanting gear. It certainly seemed like everything any of the elves wore or carried was magical in some way.
The leader of the group was obvious. He stood a couple of inches taller than the others, and held a rune-carved spear with some formidable enchantments on it. His personal magic was noticeably stronger than the others as well, and he wore a simple circlet of silver. Where the other elves wore their waist-length hair in a single long braid woven with ribbons and little metal ornaments, his was gathered into a loose ponytail instead.
The last member of the group was also the only female. She looked much younger that the rest, maybe sixteen or seventeen, although since she was an elf that was probably deceptive. Like the other dark elves I’d seen she was beautiful, with an impressive chest and a face that wouldn’t have been out of place on the cover of a fashion magazine. She wore her long, red hair in twin ponytails, an oddity that immediately had me wondering.
“A means of escape would be most welcome,” the leader answered. “I am Tavrin Nethwillin, Head of Clan Nethwillin and Chief Executive of the Nethwillin Trading Company. This is my daughter Sefwin, the heir to the clan. You must be Dark Hecate’s Champion, Daniel the Black.”
“That’s me,” I agreed. “She tells me you’re ready to make a deal?”
He nodded gravely. “We are. I understand that you can offer us both an evacuation and a place of refuge, but the price is our fealty?”
Part of me really wanted to offer him another option. But Hecate wanted me to trust her, and I already knew these guys played hardball in negotiations. There was probably a good reason why she’d told them that.
“Yes. But you’ll find I’m not the micromanaging type. I’ve already got three groves of dryads on the island, and I’ve set them up with their own homes where they can live however they want as long as it doesn’t affect anyone else. I’ll be happy to give you a space the size of this village where you can do the same. The fealty mostly comes in when it’s time to contribute to the common defense, or resolve a dispute between different groups.”
“That is generous of you. Irithil, you’ve seen this stronghold yourself?”
The diplomat stepped forward. “I have, my lord. An island of solid stone rising from a river kept from freezing through fire magic, ringed by walls of solid iron-reinforced stone sixty feet thick and over a hundred tall. The interior construction is still underway, but I gather the plan is to cover the entire island with an elentere two hundred feet tall. The two blocks that have been completed are fully enclosed, and solid enough to withstand a dragon attack. Enchantments provide fresh air, water and light to the interior, and Adept Black’s coven has been laying wards at a phenomenal rate. The rumors about unlimited mana are clearly true.”
“I don’t suppose that’s a secret you share with your vassals?” Sefwin asked. Her tone was casual, but the intensity in her gaze said that the question was anything but.
“I don’t intend to explain how it works to anyone until Ragnarok is over,” I said carefully. “But sharing the benefits is another matter. I’ve just finished enchanting personal mana sources for my coven, and coming up with something for my retainers is next on the list.”
She smiled hungrily. “Then I shall prove myself a worthy retainer.”
Irithil resumed his report. “I should also mention that one of the dryad groves Adept Black mentioned is the Grove of Red Thorns, and the others are the Fangs of the Black Wood and Clan Demetrios. I’ve spoken with all of their leadership, and they seem quite satisfied with their arrangement. One notable detail that was not in my initial report is that each group retains the right to withdraw from their service and leave the island at any time.”
Tavrin raised an eyebrow at that. “Really? Why not bind them more permanently, Adept Black?”
“I’m not interested in having anyone on my island who doesn’t want to be there,” I told him. “It also lets me avoid having to negotiate a lot of complex terms and conditions. As long as you’re living on my island what I say goes, but if I’m too demanding you can always leave.”
“A simple solution, but one that demands a certain degree of trust. Can we agree that any order that would negate our freedom to withdraw from your service is null and void? And that if we do exercise our right to leave the entire clan shall be free to depart with all of our belongings?”
“Yes,” I agreed. “Anything else you want to clarify?”
Tavrin was a lot more cautious than Demetrios and Pelagia had been. We spent another fifteen minutes hashing out details, most of which were things I would have thought were obvious. No, I wasn’t going to confiscate all the clan’s belongings or turn all the women into my personal concubines. No, I wasn’t going to sacrifice them to dark gods. Yes, when I called them up for service I’d let them leave enough of the adults behind to care for their children. Yes, I’d be careful not to get his clan members needlessly killed.
Honestly, it made me wonder what kind of people they’d negotiated with in the past. Not to mention making me a little nervous about the dark elves themselves. People tend to expect others to do what they’d do themselves, after all. If Hecate hadn’t sent me here herself I might well have pulled out of the negotiation and just dropped them off at the nearest settlement instead.
Finally they ran out of paranoid objections, and Tavrin agreed to the deal. Then I suddenly realized why he’d been so careful about it, because he and his heir had just given me a magically binding oath. Just
like Demetrios and Pelagia, come to think of it. Did all the magical creatures in this world do that?
“I assume you must have a plan for getting our people to your ship?” Tavrin asked.
“The beginnings of one. First off, I brought presents.”
I showed him the box full of flamers, and had Embla step back outside to demonstrate. She’d been getting restless anyway with all the talking, and the wraiths were starting to close in around the open doorway.
“That will be very helpful,” Tavrin said. “But the wraiths will try to ambush us by coming up through the snow. They can’t travel long distances through the earth, but ice is another matter. We could lay out a spirit ward along the path to your ship, but that would take hours.”
Crap. I was glad he’d thought of that, because it would have been a nasty surprise.
“Alright, I can fix that. Irithil, why don’t you stay here and help plan the loading while I set this up. Girls, I’ll need you two to cover me while I work.”
Daria hefted her flamer eagerly. “We’re on it, boss. What are you going to do?”
I drew Grinder. “A little improvisation.”
Grinder’s plasma beam could melt stone, let alone snow. But clearing a path through the deep drifts raised an enormous cloud of steam, which was pretty dangerous to anyone near me. I had the wolfen girls stay well back while I cut a path a little ways out from the cliff, figuring the steam would keep wraiths at bay as well.
Then I had them follow me out to the airship, and told Cerise to engage the hover field. The Intrepid rose six feet off the snow, and with the vessel floating on an invisible cloud of magic I was able to slowly push it to where I wanted it. I ignored the occasional roar of flamers at my back, figuring Daria would let me know if a problem developed that they couldn’t handle.
Once I had the airship positioned directly in front of the tunnel I had Cerise land it again, and used earth magic to conjure a stone ramp up to the top of the snow. We dropped the Intrepid’s boarding ramp right on top of that, giving the elves an easy climb into the cargo bay. They’d only have to cross about thirty feet of open ground to get there, and I spent a few minutes widening the path I’d cut through the snow to make it harder for the wraiths to pull off an ambush.
By then the sun was nearing the horizon, and I was getting anxious about the time. Twilight would probably last a couple of hours this far north, but if we were still sitting on the ground after dark some of those giants might just come sneaking back in for a little payback.
Fortunately the elves hadn’t been idle. As soon as I was ready for them a party of warriors carrying flamers swung into action, taking up positions along the path and hosing down both snowbanks with flame. A larger party of human women and children followed along behind them, all of them wearing bulging backpacks and carrying neat bundles of belongings. Tavrin was at their lead, and waved them all to the back of the hold as he boarded the ship.
“Irithil tells me we can safely pack the hold with goods, as long as the load is evenly distributed?” He asked, looking around.
“Yes, the Intrepid can easily lift fifty tons. But we need to be loaded and out of here before the giants come back, or some irritated god drops a blizzard on our heads.”
“That won’t be a problem. Sefwin, you’re loadmaster. The mothers and older children can help you distribute the load.”
The young elf stepped out of the crowd, with a boy and girl who seemed about the same age at her sides.
“Yes, father,” she said confidently.
He nodded, and hurried back towards the tunnel. Sefwin turned to me. “Milord, can we rely on your men and that demoness to guard the doors?”
Cerise had most of the ship’s crew positioned there with flamers ready, while she came over to meet the newcomers.
“Yes. Cerise, this is Sefwin, the heir to clan Nethwillin. Sefwin, this is my coven-mate Cerise, Hecate’s High Priestess. Any problems with the ship, Cerise?”
“They keep trying to break the spells on the hull, but that’s hopeless,” Cerise informed me with a wide grin. “They might as well try to put out a bonfire with a thimble.”
“Glad to hear it. I’m going to go lay down some warmth fields along the path, and keep an eye on the wraiths.”
By the time I got back outside a party of elves was already carrying boxes out to the ship. Again, the contrast with Varo was striking. Here everything was already neatly packed into lightweight wooden boxes with labels carved into their sides, which even seemed to have standardized sizes so they’d fit neatly together in the hold. The work parties moved like they’d done this a hundred times before, using little carts to move their loads out to the ship. Six men formed a line to pass boxes up the ramp, and somehow the carts arrived at just the right interval to keep them busy without backing up.
I spent fifteen minutes laying warmth fields over the path to keep out wraiths, and the moment I’d finished that a party of hard-eyed elven women appeared to relieve the original guards. They stood watch with flamers at the ready while the men hauled cargo.
The wraiths made one serious attempt to attack the operation, a large mass of them flowing over the Intrepid and descending on the workers from above. But they had to pause for several seconds to break the warmth spell I’d thrown up, and the elves spotted their approach immediately. Two of them turned their flamers on the horde while the others kept watch, which drew my attention. I threw a wall of fire up to block their advance while I fixed the warmth spell, and the wolfen girls quickly arrived and opened up with their own flamers.
The wraiths had woven some kind of frost aura around themselves as a protection from the flames, but it couldn’t stand up to that much heat. They retreated rather than press the attack, and I considered just letting them go.
Nah, better to discourage them. I jumped to the top of the airship, and opened fire with my revolver as soon as they were a safe distance from the ship. Explosive rounds proved quite effective, the droplets of superheated nickel-iron they threw out tearing through the insubstantial wraiths even better than they did normal targets. The monsters quickly fled, spreading out as they went until they were far enough away that I decided to let them think they were out of range.
In less than an hour the elves filled the cargo bay with an even layer of boxes three feet deep. Then they laid mattresses over that, leaving a bit under six feet of headroom. Groups of humans in livery began arriving, arranging themselves in neat rows along the sides of the cargo bay. Then came the elven women, and then the men. The sun was barely halfway down when Tavrin stepped out of the hold, and waved the last of the guards inside.
“Clan Nethwillin is ready to depart, my lord,” he said formally.
I shook my head. “Damn, that was fast.”
“Nethwillin believes in being prepared,” he said. “Most of us are at least a few centuries old, so we’ve had ample time to master every skill we’re likely to need in an emergency. We started planning the evacuation as soon as Hecate told us you’d be arriving in a flying ship.”
“Well, I’m impressed,” I admitted. “I think you guys are going to be a huge asset. Cerise! We’re closing the doors now. Get ready to lift.”
Chapter 12
Sure enough, we barely made fifty miles from Yinthalos before dark clouds started to form on the horizon behind us. When the aft lookout reported them I had Cerise turn the ship so we could get a look, and frowned.
“What did you guys do to get Loki so pissed off with you?” I asked Tavrin.
“I doubt he cared about us one way or the other. Those giants were after our treasury. But they were from the Skyorn clan, which makes them distant kin of Loki’s giantess wife Angrboda. No doubt they petitioned him for aid.”
“I’m sure he’d like to smack us down after our fight with Hel’s army back in Kozalin,” Cerise commented.
“Perhaps,” Elin said diffidently. “I believe that would depend on how much Mara has told him about her adventures there. Hel only sent
her forces to Kozalin to aid her half-sister, and I doubt she actually has much care for their fate. But Mara must stand quite high in her father’s favor after freeing him from his torment, and I doubt that she would want to see any of us dead.”
Cerise sighed. “I really wish I’d been able to seduce that girl when she was still undercover. Can you imagine having her in the coven?”
Tavrin choked. “You’ve met the Unraveller?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. She was in Kozalin, pretending to be a human mage while she worked out how to destroy the veil anchor there. We actually parted on decent terms, I think.”
The question was, what did she tell her father about the whole thing? Was he really trying to kill us, or just putting on a show to placate his worshippers? Or was it more complicated than that? Loki was famous for his clever plans, after all, and the fact that the ones in the myths tended to backfire on him was probably propaganda.
Well, it didn’t really matter for now. Our response would be the same regardless.
“Can you muster enough weather magic to protect the ship from that storm?” I asked Tavrin.
He gave the dark clouds another look. “Not reliably enough to make me feel confident about the safety of the children. We aren’t attuned to the airship, so we’d have to rely on air spirits to maintain a sphere of calm around it. That storm is carrying enough hostile spirits to easily break such a defense if they concentrate their efforts on it.”
“What’s involved in attuning to the airship?”
“It would require landing,” he told me. “Then we’d need four hours or so to engrave runes on the outside of the hull to guide our magic, and use those guides to establish a weather ward. With that done we could reliably protect the airship from high winds, but visibility would still be a problem.”
Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) Page 18