Black Coven (Daniel Black Book 2) (13 page)

“I’ll be alright, Avilla,” I told her. “Really, I’ve already healed the worst of it. The arm might take some time to replace, but I can do it.”

“It was worse than this?” She asked worriedly. “How bad was it?”

She was already pulling away the ragged remnants of my clothes, and frowned at the pink new skin that covered most of my left side.

“Pretty bad,” I admitted reluctantly. “I got caught in a sea serpent’s mouth, and had to try something new to get out. Conjured a bunch of molten metal in its mouth, and we were underwater at the time. The explosion blew its jaw off, but it was also enough to take my shield down.”

“Why would a conjuration like that make an explosion?” Cerise asked curiously. “It seems like the water would just dampen the flame aspect of the spell.”

Avilla carefully inspected my injuries while I tried to explain the physics of extreme pressures and temperatures to Cerise. At some point Tina showed up to assist her, and the two fussed over me while Beri fetched things for them. They cleaned and dressed my remaining wounds, and carefully bandaged the stump of my arm.

“Sorry, Daniel,” Cerise finally said. “I think this is getting a little too esoteric for me. I sort of get the part about turning water into steam too fast, and how it has to go somewhere. But all this stuff about atoms and the heart of the world and unleashing the weight of continents is just going over my head. I’ve heard of atoms, but I thought that theory was disproved? Anyway, maybe we could try again when you’ve got time for a long conversation, and start at the beginning?”

“Sure,” I agreed. “I’m probably not explaining it well anyway. I’m exhausted, and I’ve got a splitting headache.”

“You’ve been channeling too much magic,” Avilla said with a frown. “Are you healed enough to take off this amulet safely?”

“I think so. Avilla? Why do you look so upset?”

She bit her lip, and lifted the amulet off my neck. Then she turned it to show where the braided copper strands it hung from had been half-melted in the blast. Only a single strand was intact.

“If that had broken…”

She sniffed, and I suddenly realized she was holding back tears.

“Daniel, we almost lost you. You can’t heal yourself if you’re unconscious, and there’s no one else who can… who can… Daniel, you’ve got to stop doing this! Please.”

I pulled her close, and hugged her as best I could with only one arm. She choked, buried her head in my chest, and started to cry.

Cerise took a close look at the amulet, and frowned. “She’s got a point, Daniel. Did you have a backup plan?”

I patted Avilla on the back, and shook my head with a sigh. “No. I wasn’t expecting to run into anything like that. If we’d been on land I probably would have just run, to be honest. But we were stuck in the middle of the river, and it was just too fast. I was thinking I’d keep it busy long enough for Gronir’s crew to disengage, and then pull out myself if I needed to. But it smashed up the ice and trapped me underwater, and my shield wasn’t going to hold up for long against blows from something that big.”

“Milord? Is the tower safe?” Tina asked diffidently.

“Well, stone is at least an order of magnitude harder to break than ice, and even the thinnest parts of the outer wall are ten feet thick. Plus the structural enchantment holding it all together, and that’s got a hell of an energy pool behind it given the size of this place. So breaching the walls would be quite a trick, and all that stone on the lower floors means it’s too stable to topple and too heavy to move.”

She looked at me blankly.

“Yes, Tina, we’re safe. A sea serpent big enough to attack the tower would be so huge it wouldn’t fit in the river.”

She smiled in relief. “Oh, okay. See, Miss Avilla? We’ll be alright.”

“Will we? Daniel, you’ve got to stop being so reckless. Please? I can’t stand seeing you come home so badly hurt all the time. What will we do if… if one day you don’t…”

Cerise nodded gravely. “We’re all counting on you here, Daniel. We won’t last long without you.”

“I know,” I admitted. “You’re right, I need to start being more careful. Especially given this business about the Unraveler coming to town.”

“Who?”

So I explained what the sea serpent had told me. Needless to say, this didn’t reassure anyone.

“Should we be getting ready to move on?” Avilla asked worriedly. “I started working on claiming the kitchen today, but it isn’t too late to back out.”

“That depends. Do any of you know what happened to the Conclave earlier today?”

“Word is the weather working was sabotaged,” Cerise informed me. “The spell went haywire and knocked out most of the circle that was working on it, and then some kind of magical beast got into the ritual chamber and killed a bunch of them. It sounds like they lost five or six wizards, and they’re really pissed about it. I don’t think we’re under suspicion, since you were out of town at the time. But tomorrow’s meeting is supposed to be a council of war now, and they sent a message telling us to make sure and be there.”

“So the Conclave is going to be hunting for enemy agents? That makes sense. Anything else happen while I was gone?”

“Carl and Mara came by to visit,” Avilla said. “Cerise wants to recruit her for the coven.”

“Don’t you? She’s a real hottie,” Cerise responded.

Avilla gave her a weak smile. “Lech. Yes, she could be a good candidate if we’re staying. She’s powerful, and a lot more hot-blooded than she wants to admit. I want to feel her out some more before we tell her anything, and maybe see if we can seduce her. That’s always a good test of open-mindedness.”

Tina blushed, and looked away.

“I got Carl talking about who’s in the Conclave,” Cerise added. “There’s a couple of other options worth looking into when we have the chance.”

“So you two are still set on expanding to five members?” I asked.

Cerise nodded. “Yeah. Three just isn’t enough for the kind of world we’re living in now. We need access to the high rituals, and that means at least four elements and a warder. But thanks to you we don’t need to pad out our numbers with extra people just to be able to raise more power. So we can stick with five, instead of going to seven or thirteen.”

“Well, I’ve got some more news there,” I told her. Then I turned to Tina.

“Tina, I need to talk about secret things now. You can stay if you want, but you can’t tell anyone about what you hear if you do. Alright?”

The shy girl clasped her hands beneath her massive bosom, and turned her wide eyes on me. “You trust me to hear your secrets, milord? But you haven’t even bound me yet.”

I chuckled. “Tina, Cerise made up that story about magic sex bindings to sound scary. It isn’t true.”

“Oh,” she said disappointedly. “Darn. I was looking forward to that.”

Beri chuckled, and hugged her friend. “I’m sure the master can put some kind of sexy dark magic on you if you really want him to, Tina.”

She blushed. “You think so? I don’t want to be any trouble.”

I mussed her hair. “Silly girl. It’s cute the way you start squirming in your seat whenever the subject comes up. Tell you what. Think about what excites you about it, and let me know. Or if that’s too embarrassing, talk to Beri or Cerise about it. I’ve been promising you a special day anyway, so we can make that part of it.”

Her blush turned bright red, and she stared at the floor. “T-thank you, milord.”

“Sure. Now, do you want to stay?”

She nodded firmly. “If it pleases you, milord. I probably won’t understand everything, but… well, everyone I have left is in this room. I don’t want to be left out.”

“Fair enough.”

“Ah, and me, milord?” Beri asked delicately.

“You would be Hecate’s newest acolyte, right?”

Her mouth opened and closed soundlessly.

Cerise chuckled. “You’ll have to do better than that if you want to hide it, Beri. What gave it away, Daniel?”

“Hecate visited me while I was away,” I announced.

That got everyone’s attention in a hurry.

“We had a long conversation,” I went on. “I’ve agreed to work with her, to try to save what we can from Fimbulwinter. She isn’t going to abandon Europe to the monsters, so neither are we.”

“So we’re staying?” Avilla asked.

“Yes. Kozalin is the best place we’re going to find to make a stand. The plan is for me to turn this keep into a fortress nothing short of a god could break into, and then offer refuge to groups that she wants to make deals with. Not just humans, either. Depending on how things go we could get faerie, dwarves, nature spirits, maybe even a minor demigod or two. I told her I’ll take in anyone who’s willing to accept my leadership and cooperate with humans.”

“I wonder what the prince will think of that?” Cerise mused.

“We aren’t necessarily going to tell him,” I pointed out. “The bigger I make this place the harder it’s going to get for outsiders to keep track of what’s going on inside. But I’ve got plans for much better weapons, for our troops and the keep as well as ourselves, so if we do this right it won’t matter. By the time anyone has a chance to find out and get upset about it we’ll be in a position to hold off any attack.”

“Does that mean you’re going to stay home for a while?” Avilla asked hopefully.

“Yes. I hate to admit it, but you’re right. I’ve come close to dying way too many times in the last few weeks, and I need to make sure that stops happening. I can’t spend all my time hiding indoors, but I don’t plan to leave the city again until I’m prepared to fight a dragon if necessary.”

“You can do that?” Beri asked wonderingly.

“Not easily, but I’ve got some ideas. We’ll have to see if they work out.”

Avilla hugged me. “Thank you, Daniel. You have no idea how worried I’ve been.”

To my surprise, Cerise joined the hug. “Yeah, me too. You’ve kind of been growing on me, you know?”

“Thanks, girls. I know what you mean.”

They held the pose for a long moment, and I found myself wondering at how lucky I was. How did I end up with two beautiful, smart, powerful, sensuous young women? Granted, they were in love with each other, not me. But the longer we spent together, the more convinced I was that they weren’t just vamping me to make sure I’d take care of them. There were too many little gestures of real affection for that.

Good thing, too. It was really hard not to fall for a woman like Avilla when she was waking me up with a blowjob before breakfast. Or Cerise, when she was carving a bloody path through a horde of goblins to stand at my side. It was a good thing they were a package deal, because I’d have a hell of a time picking one of them over the other.

“Are there any other shocking revelations?” Avilla asked.

I shook my head.

“Good. It’s time for bed.”

“Yeah,” Cerise agreed. “Hey, Daniel, you’re going to like our new bed. It has plenty of room for everyone. Honeydew even spelled the mattress and pillows to be all soft, like the ones at her granny’s house.”

Avilla smiled gently. “I was getting tired of sleeping on straw. Tina, go ahead and bar the door again, will you? Then you and Beri can turn in for the night. Beri, at first light I want you to warn Oskar and Marcus about the threat to the town. They can take what precautions seem sensible, but the wizard is not to be disturbed until midmorning. He’s overdue for a good rest.”

The two of them helped me off to the master bedroom. There was now a huge four-poster bed there, even bigger than the king-size bed I’d had back home. A wardrobe and nightstand had also appeared from somewhere, although the room was big enough that there was still quite a bit of empty space. Presumably Avilla had plans for that, but I didn’t have the energy to wonder about it. My head barely touched the pillow before I was asleep.

              I was surprised what a relief it was to spend a day taking it easy.

              The keep wasn’t exactly quiet, with the distant sound of quite a few carpenters starting up not long after dawn. But the delightful bundle of warm curves in my arms made it all too easy ignore it and go back to sleep.

              When I finally decided I couldn’t sleep any longer Tina happily fetched me breakfast, and followed up with an enthusiastic demonstration of her considerable oral skills. Then she cuddled up against me, still naked, to ‘keep me company’ while I worked on my foot.

              That was a complicated job, thanks to all the joints I had to replace. It didn’t help that I was barely half done when I was distracted by a sensation of wet heat down below again. I looked down to find Tina kneeling between my legs with my dick in her mouth.

              “What do you think you’re doing, missy?” I asked with a smile.

              She popped my tool out of her mouth, and tucked it between her breasts.

              “Oh, don’t mind me, milord,” she said innocently. “I just noticed he was getting hard again. We can’t have you getting pent up, now can we?”

              “No, we wouldn’t want that. But you do realize it isn’t going to stop happening?”

              She smiled playfully. “Then it’s a good thing you gave me such nice boobies, milord. If my mouth gets too tired to suck you off you can just give them a good fucking instead.”

              “Oh, would you like that?” I shifted a bit, lifting my knees and reaching down to take her breasts in my hands. I had to admit, they were a spectacular pair. She’d been a bit on the busty side when we first met, but once she found out about my flesh magic the little minx had made sure to ask for bigger ones in the middle of giving me a blowjob. Now she had a rack that would make a porn star jealous, especially since the firm orbs were entirely flesh and blood.

              I’d managed to make them pretty damn sensitive, too. I’d made her orgasm just from playing with them once, and I had to admit that the prospect of doing it again sounded like just what the doctor ordered. Hmm. Could I make her cleavage even more sensitive? Maybe dial up the intensity of her orgasms a bit?

              By the time I was done experimenting with that Tina was a quivering puddle of bliss, and I was feeling almost relaxed enough to go back to sleep. But I did have things to do today. So instead I focused on the healing, and finished putting my foot back together.

              I was tempted to do the arm next, but it occurred to me that having a crippling injury to show off at the Conclave’s meeting might be useful. So instead I took advantage of my restored mobility to bathe and get dressed, with Tina’s happy assistance. Then I went looking for my witches.

              I found Avilla in the atrium, overseeing things. A team of carpenters was putting together furniture there, while a constant stream of people came and went. Half of them seemed to stop to talk to her on their way, and as I got closer I realized that Daria of all people was acting as her assistant.

              “Daniel!”

              Avilla’s whole face lit up when she saw me, and she rushed to envelop me in a warm hug. “How are you feeling today? I see your foot is better. Did you enjoy your present?”

              “You mean Tina? Yeah, she’s a sweetie. I’m on the mend, but I’m still going to take it easy until the meeting. What about you? Looks like you’re getting better.”

              “I’m still not quite at full strength,” she admitted. “But I think I’ll be back to normal in another day or two as long as I take it easy. Oh, but I had no idea how much work it takes to run a castle. I don’t know what I’d do if we didn’t have Daria here. She’s been telling me all about how they did things when she worked for the Baron.”

              I nodded. “Sounds useful. Well, as long as you stick to supervising I suppose that counts as rest. Got anything I need to take care of?”

              “Marcus wants to meet with you over lunch to talk about military things. He called it a staff meeting? With all the officers, and maybe Cerise?”

              “Alright, we can do that.”

              “Great, I’ll send word. Oh, are you up to putting in a few more walls? We’ve made a lot of progress on what to do with all this space, if you have time.”

              “That’s my plan for today,” I agreed. “I want to get things squared away here before I get pulled into another big project.”

              “Wonderful!”

              That led to an hour or so of building interior walls and putting in plumbing lines before lunch, but it was more enjoyable than I would have expected. It was easy work compared to the heavy conjuration I’d been doing, and it gave me a chance to find out where everything was and see how people were settling in.

              I was forced to conclude once again that Avilla was a miracle worker.

              There were lengths of twine laid out all over the keep, showing where walls needed to go. The few bits of furniture the carpenters had already finished were carefully arranged with the future layout in mind, and rarely got in my way as I turned the open expanses of the balcony levels into actual rooms. Barracks for the soldiers, dormitories for the unmarried civilians, tiny private rooms and communal living spaces for the families. Kitchens and dining rooms and bathrooms, and other spaces whose purpose wasn’t immediately obvious to me.

              I was relieved to find that my people seemed to be in good spirits, and recovering well from the ordeal of the journey to Kozalin. Most everyone had decent clothes now, and they were all busy.

              The division of labor was about what I would have expected. The women washed, cleaned, cooked, organized and took care of the few children who’d survived the trip, while the men did the heavy lifting and pretty much anything that involved leaving the keep. Even indoors they all kept a weapon of some sort at hand, men and women both. But I heard more than one relieved comment about the stoutness of the fortification, and I must have been stopped half a dozen times by grateful civilians wanting to thank me for letting them live here.

              I also noticed that my livery was spreading. There was a workroom set up on the second floor where a group of women were diligently sewing new clothes under the supervision of a couple of refugee seamstresses Avilla had managed to recruit. There were half a dozen maids running around trying to keep the public areas of the keep clean, and a group of craftsmen laying out a smithy and forge area down on the vehicle park level. That last project called for some work on my part, since they needed a chimney and a lot more airflow than would normally be possible in such an enclosed location.

              “Actually, it would probably make more sense to set this up on the top floor,” I pointed out. “That way I can give you enough open air to have a normal chimney and bellows arrangement instead of trying to invent something we can bury down here without suffocating you.”

              The leader of the group, one of Oskar’s sons, scratched his beard thoughtfully.

              “I see yer point, milord,” he admitted. “But haulin charcoal and bar stock up all them stairs don’t seem too practical.”

              “That’s what the elevator is for,” I pointed out. “It can lift a cartload of goods all at once. I know no one wants to ride on it right now, but I’m planning to put walls around the sides so you don’t have to worry about falling out of it.”

              “That’d be a relief, milord,” he agreed. “Well, then we can plan on that. Should I get with Miss Avilla about setting aside the space?”

              I nodded. “Yeah, she’s managing that for me.”

              I was interrupted once by the Harbormaster, who came by to make inquiries about the results of my expedition. He was surprisingly sanguine about the loss of his pilot, but as I’d noted before life was pretty cheap in Varmland even before Fimbulwinter. The sea serpent concerned him, but after hearing the story his worry cleared.

              “Sounds like you sent it packing, milord,” he said. “Even if it lives somehow, it isn’t likely to be lurking about looking for ships to prey on with that sort of injury. But with the goblins about any ships that set sail will need guards, and I pity the fisherman who tries to make that trip.”

              “Yeah, that would be a bad idea,” I agreed. “The channel is narrow enough that the goblins can easily cover it with their bows. Maybe the garrison can arrange to patrol it, or put a squad of archers on each merchant ship?”

              “I’ll have to consult with the Mayor, and see what we can come up with. I take it the work on the rest of the harbor will be delayed?” He asked, eying my missing arm.

              “Not for long,” I assured him. “I’ll be able to start work on it again tomorrow.”

              “Ah, well, you should be careful with an injury like that. I’m sure supervising your work crews here in the keep must eat into your time as well. Maybe just do three or four docks a day?”

              I chuckled. “The prince will get impatient if I take too long. But I can give you a few days of that, before I finish the job.”

              “Fair enough, milord. Good recovery, then. I’ll come around tomorrow to show you around. Say, midmorning?”

              We shook on it, and then it was back to plumbing construction until the staff meeting. That ended up happening in my private dining room upstairs, since it was one of the few rooms in the keep that was actually fully furnished. Avilla bustled about in the kitchen next door, preparing sandwiches and soup for lunch, and Cerise conspicuously claimed the seat immediately to my right. Captain Rain, Oskar and Gronir all took seats further down, leaving the one to my left empty.

              “I’ve found two experienced sergeants willing to sign on with us, in exchange for quartering their families in the keep,” Captain Rain reported. “They had a few contacts, of course, and I’ve lined up five veteran soldiers as well. Two of them have injuries that will need healing before they’re fit for duty, if you have time for that?”

              I nodded. “Sure. Have you made any progress on the training program?”

              He grimaced. “Some. Gods know there are plenty of refugees in this city, so we won’t be hurting for prospects. I’m thinking we set up a recruiting station down at the end of the dock, and tell people we’re taking only the best candidates. Big men in good health, with experience in a militia.”

              “Hunters, too,” Gronir suggested. “Some woodscraft will be handy if you get sent out on a mission without my pack.”

              “I suppose,” Marcus conceded. “But the actual training will be a problem. There isn’t enough space in the keep to do mass drills with more than a couple of squads, and the city is too crowded. We’d have to use the killing ground outside the walls, and then we’d end up losing half the men to monsters and pneumonia. Unless you’re somehow going to make enough warmth cloaks for everyone, sir?”

I shook my head. “Not for a couple of weeks, at least. I need to finish the keep and upgrade our weapons first, and then probably build an expansion.”

Avilla and a couple of the new maids emerged from the kitchen at that point to lay out lunch. I caught her wrist when she started to leave again.

              “Have a seat, Avilla. You’re part of the staff here.”

              “I am? But I don’t know anything about fighting.”

              “An army marches on its stomach, and you’re an expert on those. You’ve been doing an amazing job organizing the keep, so I’m officially appointing you castellan.”

              “Castellan?!” She squeaked. “But I’m a woman!”

              I shrugged. “I don’t care. Leave the military affairs to the officers, of course. But assigning space, managing provisions and making good use of our civilians is your responsibility. If you find that you really can’t keep up with it all let me know, and I’ll figure something out. But so far I think you’ve been doing an excellent job.”

              “Thank you,” she said breathlessly.

              “You’re welcome. So, I’m thinking we’re going to have to outfit our new recruits, since refugees mostly won’t have weapons or even decent clothes. Ideally I’d like to provide each man with a uniform suitable for cold weather, good boots, some kind of light armor, and a sword and dagger to supplement the magical weapons I’m going to be making. Comments?”

              Marcus shook his head. “It takes months to learn any real swordsmanship, even with intensive training. Short spears would be a better choice, or maybe clubs.”

              “What about shorts swords?” Oskar suggested. “One edge, no point, basically just a big meat cleaver. Not so good against a man with a broadsword, but it’ll get the job done against goblins or wolves.”

              “Yeah, keep in mind this is just a backup weapon,” I pointed out. “The real killing is all going to be done with magical weapons, like the flamers. I just want the men to have something to fall back on if something gets in close.”

              “I suppose that will work, then,” Marcus admitted.