servants surrounded them, rushing here and there on various errands or just
standing ready near their masters.
There was a stir as we entered, and our escort took us right up to the
throne as the men eyed us curiously.
“Milord Baron? This here’s Daniel the Black, a wandering adept. He’s
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responsible for the commotion down at the docks. Rode in on some kinda giant
stone horse with a bunch of refugees, and some more of those cowards from
the 5th Margold.”
Baron Stein was a heavyset man of middle age, with the look of a former
athlete starting to go soft around the middle. He scowled at me like he’d caught
me pissing in his cereal. Then his gaze wandered to the girls, and fixed
covetously on Avilla.
“Damned wizards, always causing trouble,” he growled. “As if we don’t
have enough mouths to feed already. I suppose you think I’m going to hire
you?”
I hid my annoyance, and just raised an eyebrow. “I can do any number of
useful-”
“Spare me the sales pitch. We’ll find a cot for you, but there’s no room
for the baggage. Get rid of the peasants, and keep that witchy-looking bitch on
a tight leash or I’ll hang you both. Erica, take the blonde upstairs and get her
cleaned up. I’ll see if she’s a decent fuck tonight.”
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Chapter 7
“Like hell you will,” I growled. “Avilla is mine, and I’ll kill any man
who touches her. If this is how you do things in this shithole we’re leaving.”
I threw up a force wall around my whole party, not trusting these damned
savages not to rush us. But the Baron just laughed.
“Finally, a man with some balls! What can you do that isn’t a parlor trick,
then?”
I considered him for a long moment before answering.
“I can make heat without fuel, heal mortal wounds, raise fortifications and
kill giants in single combat,” I said evenly. “What does your settlement have to
offer me?”
“Food, gold and someone to stand guard while you sleep,” he answered
immediately. “How long to raise the town wall enough to stand off giants?”
“Frost giants? That would take a forty foot curtain wall, minimum, with a
thick earth fill or enough buttressing so they can’t just knock it over. About a
week for that, and then we’d need to come up with something to kill them
with.”
He nodded sternly. “That’ll do. I’ll pay twenty crowns for the wall, and
find a room for you in the keep until it’s done. Deal?”
“Make it twenty-five. You won’t find another wizard who can do that.”
“Done. Someone find this man a room. Get started today on it – I don’t
like the reports I’m getting from my scouts.”
I held my silence as we were led upstairs, and servants hurriedly
removed someone’s belongings from a modest third-floor room with an arrow
slit for a window. As they left I turned to the girls, noting their shocked and
strained expressions.
Then I shut the heavy wooden door, and barred it.
“Avilla-” I began, only to be interrupted when she threw herself into my
arms.
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“Thank you, Daniel!”
Well, no need to apologize for talking about her like that, apparently. I’d
been a little shocked at the surge of possessiveness the Baron’s pronouncement
had evoked, but if she didn’t object I wasn’t going to worry about it right now.
“No problem, Avilla. I’m not going to let some random asshole kidnap
and rape you no matter how important he thinks he is.”
She hid her face against my chest and nodded. “Thank you. What are we
going to do?”
“We’re not staying here, that’s for damned sure. I don’t care if he was
serious or just testing me, anyone who thinks like that can’t be trusted to lead a
settlement in a crisis. But we can’t leave right away. We need money and
supplies before we can move on, and I need to do a lot more enchantment
work.”
“I’ll go ahead and give him his wall,” I decided. “That gives us a week to
get ready, and then we can move on after I get paid. Or after I take it out of his
hide if he tries to cheat me.”
Cerise nodded. “That works. But I don’t trust this place.”
“Neither do I,” I agreed. “Alright, from now on no one goes anywhere
alone. Look out for each other, and get my attention if there’s a problem.
Cerise, honest evaluation. How well can you fight soldiers?”
The young witch considered that. “I’m not completely sure. I can move
faster than normal people, and my curses go right through armor. But those guys
are a lot stronger than I am, and I don’t have anything like your wards. Best
guess? As long as I take them off guard I can probably handle two or three
soldiers at once, but that’s about my limit.”
“Alright, we can work with that. Beri, you said you have an uncle in the
town guard? I need you to get in touch with him, find out his impression of the
Baron and get an idea what’s been going on lately in town, and let him know
I’m looking to hire a half-dozen good fighters. Find out where Captain Rain is
set up too. It doesn’t sound like he’s going to get a good reception, so we may
be able to work with him. Cerise, can you go with her?”
She looked at Avilla, who nodded. “I’ll be fine, love. I’m upset, but not
hurt.”
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“Alright, then. Um, Daniel, soldiers usually aren’t shy about throwing
their weight around and knights are worse. If something happens, how much do
I need to let them get away with?”
I sighed. This was probably inevitable.
“Handle it like you did with the deserters. Try to keep your head down
and avoid trouble, and if that doesn’t work tell them you belong to a scary
wizard who’ll torture them to death in front of their families and sell their
souls to dark powers if they touch you. If that still isn’t enough, do whatever it
takes to get yourself and Beri back to me in one piece. I’ll back you up.”
“Got it. Thanks, Daniel.”
They left.
I went to the window, and spent a few minutes gazing out over the town as
I tried to organize my thoughts. I’d been hoping to take refuge here, but that
didn’t seem like a good idea now. The more I learned about this society, the
less impressed I was. Maybe if we found a bigger settlement, with several
different factions of nobles? Then they’d have to have some basic rules of
civilized behavior, at least when it came to dealing with each other. If we
could dress like nobles, and throw around some casual displays of magic…
yeah, that might work.
A disgusted sound from Avilla drew my attention.
“Ew. There are lice in this bed, and bedbugs too. Don’t these people
know how to wash their blankets?”
“Um, that’s a lot of work, Miss Avilla,” Tina said tentatively. “Especially
in winter, when you have to build a fire and heat the water first. Besides,
they’ll just hide in the mattress and come back out when we’re done.”
Right. The joys of medieval life. Though it was interesting that Avilla felt
the same way I did about it. I suppose being a hearth witch living in a magic
house made it easy to have higher standards.
“Hmph. I can drive them out, but they’ll just go into the walls if I can’t get