disk enchanted to hover a few feet off the ground. This was the same repulsion
effect I’d used to float a stone in my hand the day before, and it looked like it
had just the properties I needed. The repulsion fell off sharply with distance,
so the stone floated gently a few feet off the ground. Pushing down met with a
springy resistance, as the stone was forced closer to the ground and the
repulsion strengthened.
I let go, and it bobbed up and down for a few moments before coming to
rest at the same height as before. Push down an edge, and it tried to right itself.
Push sideways, and it glided silently across the ground like a hovercraft.
Perfect.
“So, you’re making floating disk things for the baggage?” Cerise frowned
thoughtfully.
“Nope. Wouldn’t be good enough,” I pointed out. “We’d still be walking,
and even if I made enough disks for all the old and wounded the rest of us
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would be slowed down pushing them. But you’re getting there.”
I concentrated, and the disk grew. This was a tricky bit of work, conjuring
more stone and extending the enchantment to cover it, but as long as I took it
slow I could do it. I made it self-powered so it wouldn’t be a drain on my
amulet’s energy, and slowly expanded the disk into a rectangular shape about
the size of a bus. Then I added a stone lip two feet high and a couple of inches
thick around the edges, just to make sure no one would fall off. The floor of the
thing was nearly four feet off the ground, so I shaped some dirt into an earth
ramp leading up to one side of it.
“Neat. Ok, I can see it’s big enough to hold everyone if we’re friendly,”
Cerise commented. “But how does it move?”
“Magic,” I replied. She rolled her eyes, and I grinned. Being mysterious
was turning out to be fun.
Looking around, I spotted Sergeant Thomas. I’d been working for about
an hour, and I suppose he was getting a little anxious.
“All ready, Sergeant,” I told him. “Get everyone organized, and bring
them over here. We’re going to ride into town in style.”
I climbed up the ramp and stepped into the floating vehicle. Considering
the thickness of the stone the thing had to weigh tons, and my own weight
barely affected it. Cerise ran lightly up after me, and eagerly jumped in.
“Are we going to fly?” She asked eagerly.
I chuckled. “No, this is as high as it goes. Free fight is way too tricky for
me to try it with this many people involved.”
Her eyes gleamed. “Does that mean you can do it by yourself? Or maybe,
with one person?”
“Yeah, if I ever get a few days to work on it I’m pretty sure I can build a
flight spell. Are you volunteering to try it out?”
She nodded, and leaned in to whisper in my ear. “A lot of demons can fly.
I have dreams about it sometimes, and it’s awesome. If you can give me that
kind of magic I’ll owe you some serious ‘thank you’ time.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Why don’t you see if Avilla needs any help?”
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The refugees were a bit dubious about boarding a floating rock with no
visible means of support, but a few brave souls crept up the ramp and
cautiously took seats. Then Avilla trooped up with the maids in tow, and a
couple of the soldiers followed her in, and we hit some sort of critical mass.
Ten minutes later I had a fully loaded hover-barge.
“Everyone, get settled in as best you can,” I directed. “You’re going to be
here awhile. This thing is more stable than a boat, but it’s still a good idea not
to move around too much. We’re going to be going pretty fast, and I don’t want
anyone to fall off. Gronir, I want you up near the front where you can help with
directions if we need it. Is everyone here?”
Nods, whispers and speculative looks. I glanced at Thomas, and he
nodded.
“Took a head count, sir. No one’s missing.”
“Good. Let’s see what kind of time we can make.”
I pushed off with a bit of force magic, and the floating barge drifted
slowly forward. I steered carefully, mindful of the substantial mass of the
vehicle. It was like guiding a boat, only worse. With no water to sink a rudder
into the only way to change direction was to shift the vector of the thrust I was
applying, and even with my new amulet pushing this many tons of vehicle and
refugees around took time. So I kept our speed down to a slow walk as I
maneuvered us down the river bank.
After the first couple of bends I was starting to get a feel for it, and eased
our pace up a little. Then we reached a spot where the ravine narrowed, and I
had to steer us over the frozen river.
The thin ice beneath us shattered almost instantly, producing an alarming
racket, and a spray of water sheeted out in all directions. The passengers
murmured uneasily as the vehicle sank a few inches, and began to bob slightly.
But the repulsion field worked on water as well as dirt, and the spray of
displaced water was all moving away from us. Good thing, since getting wet in
freezing temperatures is dangerous.
“We’re fine,” I announced loudly. “The noise is just the weight of the
barge crushing the ice under us.”
The passengers settled down in a few minutes, although the noise was
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still a bit unnerving. I pushed our speed up a little more, wanting to make sure
we wouldn’t be in one place long enough for anything to hear us and come
investigate. We were up to running speed now, which was fast enough that I
had to pay close attention to steer us around the tighter bends.
A thought struck me.
“Gronir, there aren’t any falls on this river, are there?”
“Waterfalls, milord? Ain’t heard of none. Don’t reckon there could be.
There’s boatmen on the river, in summer at least.”
“Good.” The thought of taking this thing over a sudden drop of any size
was enough to give me chills. If it flipped over anyone it landed on would be
crushed, and it certainly wasn’t going to float. I resolved to keep a close eye
on where we were going.
Avilla and Cerise were settled in just behind me, wrapped in their
warmth cloaks and chatting amiably. An occasional glance back revealed that
the rest of the group was huddled under blankets in clumps of two or three, but
they seemed to be holding up alright. The sky was still overcast, and I hoped
we could finish this run before it started snowing again.
Then we passed around another bend in the river, and found ourselves
face to face with a band of goblins who were camped out on the bank.
A hue and cry arose, but fortunately they were as surprised as we were. A
couple of goblins with bows to hand let fly in our general direction, but one hit
the parapet and the other somehow managed to miss us entirely. Several
wolves howled, and a troll scrambled to its feet and stared stupidly at us. I
threw up a force dome to protect us from further arrows, and gave the barge an
extra push.
“Ready spears!” Sergeant Thomas bellowed, and the men scrambled for
their weapons. A few more arrows bounced off my shield as we began to pass
the camp, and for a moment I thought that would be it.
Then the troll suddenly realized there were humans on the strange floating
object, and lumbered out over the ice to intercept us. Stupid thing. I attached an