Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) (6 page)

Messengers were dispatched, and horns blew. In a matter of minutes there were griffons flying overhead, and the gates of the Military District opened to allow a stream of cavalry to emerge.

“A wise decision, Prince,” Brand said. “But today is only the first battle, and they won’t all be so easy. How many of those spells do the wizards have to unleash? Three? Four? Perhaps half a dozen, if they’ve hoarded their power tightly this past generation?”

Prince Caspar’s eyes narrowed. “You’re saying there are more of them, Exalted One?”

“Gaea has opened nine passages from her hidden realm into the lands of men, and an army like that marched out of each of them. Your father is fighting off an assault on Wiersberg as we speak, and other cities will soon be under attack. Their plan is to kill every man in Europe, starting with the cities where the High Temples stand.”

Caspar clenched his fists. “It would take weeks to march an army to reinforce them in this snow, and we’d lose half our men to weather and monster attacks. Is that why they called down the Fimbulwinter? To pin us in place, and cut us off from our allies?”

“In part,” Brand answered. “Although you’d get little help from the southern kingdoms regardless. The Franks have three of Gaea’s armies to deal with, and there are Great Beasts rampaging through Greece and Italy. Naples fell to a devourer just last night, and the army of demons it breeds will be a lot harder to stop than these monkeys.”

Brand turned, and waved towards the Iron Citadel. “But Gaea has made a fatal miscalculation. Your wizards have all the greatest works of the Bloody Archmage locked safely away in their citadel, and I believe one of them is the perfect solution for our little mobility problem. Come, let us speak with them.”

He strode off towards the Iron Citadel, the prince and his retinue trailing along behind him like flotsam caught in a tidal wave. Leo went with them, and after a moment of hesitation I decided to follow along. But I let them get a bit ahead of us.

“Bloody Archmage?” I asked Cerise quietly.

“Benito Runesage,” she clarified. “The guy that built the Iron Citadel. They say he was the greatest wizard since Aristotle. He invented a lot of modern wizardry, although some people think he was just rediscovering lost Atlantean magic. He was also a real bastard. No friend to any of the gods, and the Conclave started out as his bound slaves. He carved out a kingdom and ruled with an iron fist for about two hundred years, until one of his enemies finally managed to assassinate him and make it stick.”

“Hmm. Any chance of him coming back? Guys like that tend not to let a little thing like death keep them down.”

She smiled. “I love it when you talk like that. No, he died hundreds of years ago. If he had a way to come back from it he would have used it by now.”

“I suppose that’s probably a good thing. Why don’t you head home and let everyone know what’s going on? It looks like the fighting is over for now, and you don’t want to hang around these guys any more than you have to.”

“I guess. I feel like I’m about to pass out on my feet, anyway. But we need to see about getting you a real honor guard, okay? I don’t like leaving you alone with these people. You should have a team that goes with you to these things, in case someone tries to stab you in the back one day. Maybe a couple of wolfen and some of Corinna’s girls.”

“They’d draw attention,” I objected.

“That’s kind of the point,” she countered. “Nothing says badass wizard like a bunch of magical minions. We just need to set it up right, so people make the assumptions we want them to.”

In other words, make it look like I’d enslaved them. I really wasn’t happy with doing that kind of thing, and not just because I don’t like slavery. It would be just my luck if we made the act good enough to fool magical beings that otherwise might have become allies, but not good enough to convince the Conclave. Besides, I’d rather not make a habit of doing things that would make people lump me in with them.

But she had a point. Even Steelbinder made a habit of taking an escort whenever he left the Iron Citadel, and my defenses were a lot less thorough than his. I needed some bodyguards whose presence would actually matter if things unexpectedly went south someday. For that matter, just presenting an appearance of having powerful servants would make trouble a lot less likely.

“I’ll think about it,” I told her. “Actually, we need to get with the girls and have a strategy meeting sometime soon anyway. We’ll make that one of our topics, alright?”

“That, and moving them somewhere safer,” she said firmly. “Alright, then I’m out of here. Be safe, Daniel.”

She kissed me on the cheek, and slipped away.

Someone must have raced ahead with news, because High Adept Steelbinder was waiting for us in the entrance hall of the Iron Citadel. The hulking forms of war golems lined the walls of the chamber, and four Adepts stood with him. Three hard-faced men I vaguely remembered from the one council meeting I’d attended, and one woman I wasn’t likely to forget. Tova, the wizardess who had offered to sell me her daughters for the secret of my unlimited magical power supply.

Interestingly, High Adept Ward wasn’t present.

“Welcome to the Iron Citadel, Exalted One,” Steelbinder said. “What business does a son of Vali have with the Red Conclave?”

If Brand was put off by the cold reception he didn’t show it, but I didn’t miss the way his men and Steelbinder’s wizards were sizing each other up. Tova’s gaze skimmed over the crowd of officers and military staff behind him, and came to rest on me. One eyebrow rose fractionally.

I deliberately stepped to one side, out of the line of fire. If this came to blows for some reason I wasn’t getting involved.

But Brand just smiled. “The Allfather has need of your services, wizards. Gaea’s children have returned to bring an end to the age of man, and the works of the Runesage are the key to stopping them.”

Steelbinder frowned. “No living man can command the Skyhammer, Exalted One, and the Sleeping Giant is as dormant as ever.”

“I know. But someone here can operate the Dark Portal. You used it to send scouts into Tartarus not long ago.”

“Yes,” Steelbinder admitted reluctantly.

“Well, then. There’s your answer, Prince Caspar,” Brand said. “The portal can deliver an army anywhere in Midgard in the blink of an eye. We can use it to send reinforcements to cities that need them, and evacuate hopeless positions. More importantly, we can gather the best warriors in the realm and harry the enemy wherever they are.”

The prince scowled at Steelbinder. “You had something like this all along, and kept it secret?”

“The Dark Portal runs on souls, Caspar,” Steelbinder explained. “One death for every ten minutes of operation, more or less. How many condemned men do you have in your dungeons? Not enough to supply the city, I think.”

“Then we’ll capture our enemies, and feed them to it,” the prince declared.

“That’s the spirit,” Brand said. “This is Ragnarok, men. The time for caution and long-term planning is past. The doors of Valhalla stand open, and the Valkyrie fly in search of heroes! Those who stand with me will fight at the Allfather’s side in the final battle, and that day is fast approaching.”

The nobles looked ready to march off to battle right then and there, but not the wizards.

“I’m afraid it isn’t that easy, Caspar. We’ve tried goblins, trolls, faerie folk, even demons. The portal will only run on human souls.”

The prince hesitated. But then his gaze turned to Brand, and his expression firmed.

“Dozens of folk die every day in this city, and any man who doesn’t fall in battle simply adds to Hel’s forces,” he said. “Their deaths may as well serve some purpose.”

“Very well,” Steelbinder said gravely. “Bring us the fuel the portal needs, and we will send you wherever you wish to go. If you intend to campaign against Gaea’s children I’m sure some of our war wizards will be eager to accompany you. But the portal is only eight feet wide, and the chamber around it will only hold so many men. You’ll have to limit yourself to moving a company or two at a time, if you want to keep the option of a quick retreat open.”

Brand clapped the prince on the shoulder. “We’ll have to plan out a campaign, but I suggest we see to Wiersberg first. Two companies of heroes and wizards should be more than enough to turn the tide there. Muster your best men, Caspar, and we’ll be off to rescue your father.”

“We need to maintain a strong defense here as well,” Steelbinder pointed out. “Especially if we’re going to invite the enemy to target Kozalin like this. But the Conclave can send a squadron of war golems and six adepts to assist the King.”

“A good start,” Brand boomed. “What about you, Daniel? Those ancient magics of yours will make short work of the enemy.”

I shook my head slowly. “No. I’ll be one of the ones who stays here, to make sure the city is still standing when you return.”

Prince Caspar scowled at me. “That’s just like a wizard, turning coward at the moment of truth. You won’t be seeing Valhalla’s halls with that attitude.”

“My soul is already spoken for, Your Highness,” I told him. “I’m not going to see Valhalla regardless. But that’s beside the point. I am not going to use an artifact that’s powered by human sacrifice. I don’t care what the justification is, that would be a betrayal of my own honor.”

Caspar started to turn red. But Brand gave me a shrewd look. “So, you consider yourself a guardian of all men, do you?” He asked.

“Yes.” And women. And children, and dryads and nymphs and satyrs and anyone else who was willing to work together like sane sentient beings. But there was no way these people would get that.

Brand nodded. “I thought so. I’ve seen magic like yours a time or two, and it explains a great deal. We’ll leave you to consider Kozalin’s defense, then.”

Prince Caspar gave him an astonished look. “But, Exalted One, why…”

“Some explanations are best left unspoken, young Prince,” Brand interrupted. “Come, we have an operation to plan. Let’s have a look at this mustering chamber, and consider which of your men to bring.”

Steelbinder nodded to one of his men, who led them away into the bowels of the Citadel. Most of the crowd went with them, leaving only a handful of Steelbinder’s people behind. The canny old wizard caught my eye, and nodded me into a side chamber where we could speak for a moment without an audience.

“He thinks you’re one of those reincarnating wizards from the Atlantean age,” he told me.

“Is that what he was getting at?” I replied, trying to pretend I had some idea what he was talking about.

He nodded. “I know better. But far be it from me to instruct a godling in his mistakes. Do you have something for me?”

“Ah, the power sources. Yeah, I thought I might run into you. Here.”

I pulled a simple disk of copper out of my pocket, and handed it over. He examined it closely, and frowned.

“This isn’t a self-contained enchantment,” he pointed out.

Well, I figured he’d probably notice that. I’d wrapped it in a concealment effect to make it harder to analyze, but Steelbinder had a lot more experience than I did.

“Yeah, the more I look at the actual power source enchantment the more ways I find to make it go horribly wrong. If you want a completely self-contained version for your own use I can do that, but this is the version I’d offer to the rest of the Conclave. Obviously they only work within a few miles of the power source, but that way the dangerous part of the system can stay locked in a secure vault. It also means that if an amulet falls into enemy hands we can turn it off.”

He frowned thoughtfully. “The power source is really that dangerous?”

I shrugged. “As long as the enchantment is intact it’s perfectly safe. But if it gets damaged it’s likely to start emitting energy other than raw mana, and the output governor is one of the more fragile parts of the thing. Best case it just melts itself and stops working, but it’s more likely to start leaking deadly energies this language doesn’t have words for. Same thing if someone who doesn’t understand how it works makes an imperfect copy of one, and you know that’s going to happen if more than a handful of adepts get access to them.”

“Obscure energies, eh? Would this be one of the sorts that you can stop with a sheet of metal?” He asked.

I considered that. Did he mean radio waves, or alpha particles, or what?

I shook my head. “No, it takes several feet of dense material to stop it reliably. Stone and metal both work, and metal is actually a bit better, but a thin sheet will actually make it worse.”

“How can a thin layer of protection make an attack worse? Unless the metal actually attracts it?”

“Imagine an incredibly tiny ray of energy, with so much power behind it that it will burn right through a person and leave an invisibly small path of destroyed flesh in its wake. If one of these rays hits a sheet of metal it gets broken into multiple rays, each of which is weaker but still powerful enough to penetrate a human body. So instead of one line of damaged tissue you get several of them.”

The alpha and beta particles would be a lot easier to stop than that, of course. But I had a feeling that a damaged enchantment would spew out a lot of really energetic particles, and I wasn’t enough of an expert to figure out exactly what form they’d take. We might get beta particles and gamma rays, or it might be something more like cosmic rays. Better safe than sorry.