eagerly, greedily searching for more of the energy I was providing. Thinking
that perhaps she’d been running low for some reason I expanded the flow,
letting the fringes of it wash across her whole upper torso as I concentrated the
majority of the energy on the wound.
An odd sound from Avilla almost distracted me, but I managed to keep
most of my attention on what I was doing.
“You alright?” I asked.
“Oh, yes,” she sighed breathlessly. “That feels so nice. The pain is almost
gone. Please, don’t stop.”
Cerise chuckled indulgently. “Mana slut. You can’t get enough of it, can
you?”
“I can’t help it, Cerise,” Avilla replied defensively. “You know I have
trouble... keeping... charged... oh please, Daniel, tell me you can do this
again?”
34
Her body was soaking up my magic like a sponge now, and I could feel
her arousal blossoming into full force.
“I can,” I told her. “But I’m starting to think you should be asking your
girlfriend’s permission. This is like a drug for you, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“Yeah, she gets totally stoned if you feed her too much at once,” Cerise
put in. “You’d better ease off until you get the other arrows out.”
“Meanie,” Avilla pouted. “I never get to have all the magic I can hold.”
“That’s because you can hold enough magic to levitate a mountain,
honeydew,” Cerise replied proudly. “No matter how much I stuff you you’re
still going to want more, and you get so silly you can’t hold up your end of a
power tap before long.”
I smiled at their familiar bickering, and busied myself extracting the rest
of the arrows. By the time I was finished Avilla was comically tipsy, and was
sloppily trying to make out with Cerise. I calmed her down a little by having
the two switch places, and spent another twenty minutes or so healing Cerise.
“So, what’s your secret?” I asked as I worked. “You started out human,
but I can feel you’ve done something odd to yourself.”
“Um.... it shouldn’t interfere with healing,” she said hesitantly.
“She steals power from demons,” Avilla explained conspiratorially.
“Hey!” Cerise cried indignantly. “Avilla! Don’t give away my
mysteries!”
“You did it to me,” the buxom blonde replied, sounding a little put out
about it. “Besides, it’s kind of cool. Ever since she got a piece of that succubus
she’s been insatiable.”
I laughed. “Alright, Avilla, that’s enough of that. I don’t need to hear
details about your sex life.”
“Thank you!” Cerise snapped.
“I can imagine it just fine,” I went on cheerfully.
Avilla giggled. Cerise sputtered. It kept them both distracted enough for
me to finally finish.
35
Alas, then I had to earn my keep. Wounded soldiers and sick villagers
weren’t nearly as much fun to work on as my witches, but it was just as well.
Another hour or two of that teasing banter and I was liable to do something that
would get me knifed in the dark by one or the other of the adorable little
psychos.
36
Chapter 3
The caravan set out not long after I finished healing Cerise, but I was far
too busy to spare any attention for the scenery.
A lot of the soldiers were injured to a greater or lesser degree, and they
lined up to see what the mysterious wizard could do for them. The first few
were cautious enough to make me wonder how many charlatans there were in
this field, but after I healed a cracked rib and a couple of infected arrow
wounds word got around that I was the real deal. After that I had to recruit the
girls’ help to screen them and keep the line organized, or I wouldn’t have been
able to get anything done.
“First priority is anyone who looks like they might die if they have to
wait,” I told them. “Then soldiers who can walk on their own, but are hurt bad
enough to keep them from fighting properly. After that I’ll take serious injuries,
but minor ones will have to wait for tomorrow.”
“So, keep them alive, keep us all defended, and then go from most serious
to least? Got it,” Cerise said confidently. “Better let me handle that, though.
Avilla’s a sucker for a sob story.”
Avilla pouted at that.
“I’ll take your word for it,” I replied diplomatically. “Avilla, can you
scrounge up a knife and see if you can find some rags and a source of water? I
can heat it myself, but a lot of these old injuries are going to need cleaning.”
“Oh!, Yes, I can do that,” she chirped happily, and ran off to take care of
it.
My next patient had a nasty compound fracture of the upper arm and
shoulder, courtesy of a troll’s club. I coaxed the shattered bones back together,
stamped out the infection, closed up the wounds where broken bones had
punctured skin and reconnected severed tendons. I let him go with a caution
that the bones would remain delicate for several days, and advised the sergeant
who’d shown up to observe to keep him on light duty if it was possible.
On close inspection the soldiers were a bit of a historical anomaly. Most
of them wore chain hauberks of a standardized design, and much of their other
37
equipment was also identical. Heavy black boots, dark green cloaks and pot
helms were standard, while the sergeants had more elaborate helms with nose
and cheek guards. A lot of them carried long spears with narrow points that
were obviously designed for piercing armor, while the rest bore a mix of
swords, axes and what I was pretty sure were compound bows.
That was odd. In feudal societies fighting men usually had to supply their
own equipment, so that level of standardization was rare. But then, so was the
fact that the unit was called the ‘5 Margold’ and not ‘Rain’s Company’, or
something like that. Somehow this world had apparently evolved relatively
modern military organizations without abandoning feudalism.
I resolved to keep my eyes open and try not to make assumptions until I
knew more about this strange society.
My next patient was a peasant farmer who’d come down with the flue,
which was potentially lethal under these conditions. Then an assortment of
wounded soldiers - cracked bones, nasty gashes and puncture wounds, and a
paralyzed arm that turned out to be the result of some goblin shaman’s curse
rather than a physical injury. The spell was easily removed, which seemed to
particularly impress the men.
I was starting to wonder if any of the troops guarding the caravan were
actually healthy. The sergeant nodded when I commented on it.
“It’s been tough fighting, sir wizard,” the grizzled veteran said. “The
worst I’ve ever seen. We were near two hundred when we set out, but not a
day’s gone by when we didn’t lose a man or six. Three times we’ve had a
whole patrol, a dozen or more men, just vanish with no survivors.”
I frowned. “I wouldn’t think goblins would be that effective against
trained soldiers, unless you were chasing them through the woods. Those little
bows of theirs can’t be much use against armor, and their marksmanship isn’t
that great.”
“Not your first campaign, is it sir? No, the goblins can’t stand against us