“Want to get in a little quickie before breakfast?”
She smiled. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m fucked out. Tonight,
maybe? If I can feel my legs by then?”
“Deal,” I chuckled.
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I listened to the sounds of cooking for a few minutes. It sounded like the
camp was starting to wake up, although it felt like it was still pretty early. Oh
yeah, peasants. They were probably used to rising with the sun.
Still, this might be a chance to get some answers. I reached out with my
force magic, and pushed the door closed.
“So, last night Avilla said something about cravings?” I began.
Cerise glanced at the door, and then nodded.
“Yeah, that’s probably the essence of Aphrodite talking. Avilla only has a
few drops of it in her, but having your soul made from even a tiny fraction of a
sex goddess’ slut-bomb aspect will have a big effect on you. Ever since our
first time together Avilla can’t stand to go more than a few days without going
down on me, and I guess she’s going to be the same with guys now that she’s
had a taste.”
She shook her head. “Granny Havsen was a real piece of work, let me tell
you. Spent half her life figuring out how to make an immortal body for herself,
and didn’t care how many of them she killed in the process. Avilla was her big
success, but she still has a lot of weird quirks we’ve had to figure out.”
“Sounds like a classic fairy tale evil witch,” I said. “I take it she didn’t
die of natural causes?”
“Nope. She was getting ready to put her big plan into effect, and that was
going to end with her pulling a body switch on Avilla. So I locked the crazy
bitch in her own oven and roasted her.” Cerise paused, and gave me a nasty
grin. “She screamed for a long time, but I just piled more wood on the fire. No
one hurts my girl and gets away with it.”
I imagined the scene, and suppressed a shudder. “She had an oven big
enough to hold a person?”
Cerise nodded. “She used to catch travelers and bake out their essences
for her spellwork.”
“Nasty. Do you two do anything like that?”
She hesitated.
“I kill things for power,” she admitted. “But only monsters. I could do it
to people too, but to be honest I’ve always been afraid I’d turn into a monster
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myself if I went down that road.”
“Hmm. How about Avilla?”
Cerise raised an eyebrow. “Can you really see that?”
“I’ve seen the way she holds that meat cleaver,” I pointed out. “I think
she’s perfectly capable of killing someone if she thinks it needs to be done.”
“Oh. Guess we didn’t fool you as much as I though, huh? But no, she
doesn’t do that. Doesn’t want to be like her granny.”
“Fair enough. So, does she have any other special needs I should know
about?”
“Mana,” Cerise answered. “We’ve been doing rituals every couple of
weeks to keep her power up, but if it gets too low she gets wicked horny and
starts draining it through sex just like a succubus. She needs some weird stuff
in her food, too. Sugar, honey, some particular spices. Obviously she takes
care of that part herself, but it could be a problem if this winter really lasts for
years. I don’t think she can survive on just meat like we can.”
“Oh, and we should both keep a close eye on her for a few days.
Sometimes when we figure out how to satisfy one of these cravings there are
side effects. Nothing dangerous, but she might get weird mood swings or start
stalking you looking for more or something.”
I chuckled. “I think I could handle that one. But yeah, I’ll keep an eye
out.”
We lay there in silence for a moment.
“Thank you,” she said softly. “For being so decent about all this. When I
called on the goddess I was afraid she’d end up tying me to some demon or
monster or something. But you’ve been really good to us both.”
“You make that pretty easy,” I pointed out.
“I guess. You know, Avilla’s really worried about convincing you to keep
protecting her. But you’ve already decided to do that, haven’t you?”
I nodded. “I like Avilla. I’m not going to let anything happen to her.”
“Good. It’s been really hard, being responsible for protecting her. Not
that she’s as helpless as she acts, but her magic isn’t much use in a fight. I’ve
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pushed myself pretty hard trying to get stronger. A lot harder than I should
have, really. But I was stuck being the man for her.”
She sighed, and hugged me again. “You have no idea how good it feels to
have someone to rely on.”
I brushed my fingers through her hair, and she rubbed her cheek against
my hand.
“I won’t let anything happen to you, either,” I told her. “You’re a little
nuts, but it’s a fun kind of crazy. I like having you watching my back.”
“Really? Most guys would be afraid I’d stab them.”
“Are you going to?” I asked her seriously.
She blinked. “I don’t want to,” she said hesitantly. “But some of the stuff
I’ve picked up… don’t trust me too much, Daniel. Not until we can figure out
how to get it back under control, anyway.”
“Fair enough. I’ll put ‘make Cerise’s secret dark side my bitch’ on the to-
do list.”
She gave me a wide-eyed stare, and then broke down into giggles.
“Make… your bitch… thank you, goddess! Fuck, nothing fazes you, does
it? You get a blowjob for that one.” She pushed the sheet down, her hand
fumbling for me.
Sadly, someone chose that moment to interrupt us. The heavy door shifted
slightly, and Beri peeked around the edge.
She got an eyeful, and blushed.
“Eep!” She ducked back around the door. “Sorry! I’m sorry! Miss Avilla
wanted me to tell you breakfast is ready, and the sergeant is waiting to speak
to you.”
Cerise sighed. “Maybe having servants isn’t such a good idea.”
“I don’t know, Miss Cerise. It sounded to me like you and Miss Avilla
need reinforcements, or soon you won’t be able to walk.”
I chuckled, and sat up. “Well, that’s one way to inflate my ego. Where’d
my clothes end up?”
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Breakfast was strips of wolf meat wrapped in hotcakes, with cheese and a
touch of butter. It was mouthwatering as usual, and I reflected that I was going
to get seriously spoiled if Avilla ever got a real kitchen to work with.
The snow had stopped some hours before, so once I was fed I headed
outside to work a little miracle. Cerise followed me curiously, and Thomas
detailed a couple of men to stand watch for me while I worked. I made my way
down the bank of the frozen river until I found a decent stretch of flat ground to
work on. There was now a good eight or ten inches of snow on the ground,
enough to be a noticeable impediment to travel on foot.
“So what are you going to do, master?” Cerise asked eagerly. “Bind a
troop of elementals to carry us all to Lanrest? Summon a dragon, and fly us
there?”
“You’ll see,” I answered. “Gronir, I remember someone mentioning that
Lanrest is on a river. Is this it?”
“No, milord,” the hunter answered. “But the Babbleflow runs into the
Summerfall a few miles down. I guess we could follow that to Lanrest, but the
way the river bends all around it’s a lot longer trip than the road.”
“Hmm. Let me check a few things.”
I called up my magic, blending three elements to create a simple stone