outside of prophecy.”
A murmur went around the room at that, and Holger smiled grimly.
“Indeed. So don’t give up hope, men. The rise of mortal magic was
never predicted in the old sagas, and with this alliance there’s every chance
we can break this unnatural winter before the Traitor God’s forces can unveil
the path to the Bifrost. We need but hold fast for a few weeks, and then the
tables will be turned.”
Yeah, like it was going to be that easy to stop an alliance of evil gods.
But I kept my mouth shut, because it was obvious the men needed something to
hope for. It was amazing how much the moon of the room lifted at that simple
pronouncement.
“That’s good to hear,” Baron Stein put in. “Can we expect
reinforcements?”
The priest shook his head. “Not quickly. The Griffon Knights are going
to be scouting and lending aid to key points, but I think we’re a bit too far north
for them to reach us. The king is urging all fortified settlements to simply hold
out for now, and give the wizards time to do their work.”
133
“That we can do,” Stein nodded. “My town isn’t going to fall to a
bunch of Odin-cursed monsters. Greger, you’ve been at loose ends since you
got into town. I want you to open up the west barracks and recruit yourself an
oversized company of militia from the refugees. Make sure you get the young
ones, and issue them spears from the war stock.”
An older knight with a touch of grey at his temples blinked in surprise.
“I can do that, milord. But militia won’t be worth much against trolls or giants,
even if I mix in my men to stiffen them a bit.”
“Ah, that’s not the point. It’ll keep them out of mischief, and if the best
of the refugees are all in the militia the rest won’t be able to cause so much
trouble. When we do get a real attack we can throw them into the worst of it as
a distraction, and then we’ll have that many less troublemakers to worry
about.”
Greger nodded in understanding. A younger man leaned in to ask,
“Have you made a decision about the camp wench question, milord?”
“Yes. I’ll allow it, but I want all of you to enforce strict limits. Only
one girl per five men, and they can draft refugees but not townsfolk. Sergeants
can keep one of their own, and they’re in charge of settling disputes if the men
can’t agree on who they want. I suppose we’ll have to let them keep their
wenches in the barracks or they’ll freeze to death, but no sweet-talking the men
into letting anyone else in. We’re crowded enough as it is.”
My, what classy people. I tried to keep my expression blank as I
listened, but it wasn’t easy. I was seriously tempted to just kill everyone in the
room and take over the town.
But that wouldn’t work. Their men wouldn’t follow me, especially
after something like that, and it’s not like I had any idea how to run a medieval
town anyway. All I could do at this point was make the place defensible
enough that the giants couldn’t just kill them all.
That, and take a few of the refugees with me when I left this madhouse.
On the good side, at least the meeting didn’t last much longer. Unlike
pretty much every modern manager I’d ever worked with Baron Stein had no
hesitation about making decisions, and his men didn’t feel the need to have an
extended discussion about every little detail. The whole thing probably didn’t
last more than half an hour from the point I walked in the room.
134
The Baron gestured for me to stay as his men began clearing out. I
suppressed a sigh, and remained standing until the door closed. He spent a
moment looking over a list of stores one of the men had left him, and then
looked up at me coldly.
“You’re not staying here.”
I shrugged. “I wasn’t planning on it.”
He nodded. “Next time you have a problem with one of my men, bring
it to me.”
“Fair enough,” I agreed.
“Then go finish that wall. Time is getting short.”
I left, a bit relieved that the matter had been laid to rest so easily. I
suppose when you live in a place where life is cheap and brutality is
commonplace that sort of thing doesn’t seem so bad.
Or maybe he was planning to kill me after the wall was done. Better
make sure he didn’t get the chance.
I’d intended to intercept Captain Rain after the meeting, but instead
found that the High Priest was waiting for me on the balcony.
“Good morning, Magus Black. May I trouble you for a few moments of
your time?”
I nodded, grateful I’d remembered to quiz Cerise about forms of
address last night. “Certainly, your Reverence. What can I do for you?”
“Well, first I wanted to make sure you received my package?”
He stated towards the stairs, and I followed. There were servants
scurrying about everywhere, but they practically threw themselves out of the
way as we passed by.
“Yes, I did,” I confirmed. “Although if I’m pushing to finish the wall
quickly it will probably be a couple of days before I can put it to use.”
“Hmm. What do you plan to do once the wall is finished?”
I sighed. “I don’t think the Baron and I are going to get along in the long
run. I expect I’ll move on to another settlement. Maybe I’ll see if there’s
anything I can do to assist the Red Conclave.”
135
He gave me a tight-lipped smile. “Indeed, that very topic has been
discussed. I’m sure you guessed that my presentation was… shall we say,
presenting the news in the most favorable possible light? There have been
weather-workings before, but nothing on this scale.”
“I did wonder about that,” I agreed.
“Well, obviously no one expects you to share your secrets. But I sent of
a summary of our conversation last night, and this morning I received an
inquiry about whether your method could supply power to a circle.”
I frowned. “That was fast. Well, in theory I probably could. But I
haven’t actually tested that kind of application yet, and a mistake could be
disastrous. I’d need to spend at least a few days working through the issues
with someone who’s willing to play test subject.”
I also wasn’t eager to trust a bunch of strangers with an unrestricted
power tap, especially after the last few days. Considering how much energy is
involved in large-scale weather I wasn’t optimistic about them accomplishing
anything with it anyway. Nothing I could build was going to have the energy
output to warm up an entire country.
“That’s unfortunate. Still, if you choose to move on to Kozalin I expect
you’ll have a friendly reception from the Conclave. Once you’ve taken care of
that other issue we discussed I’ll also pass word on that to my superiors, so
you’ll have no trouble from the Church.”
Yeah, and if I didn’t he’d tell everyone Cerise was a witch. Damn it, I
hadn’t counted on the priests here having some kind of magical communication
system. Now I was going to need a new disguise, or a way to fool him into
thinking I’d done a binding.
Well, one problem at a time.
“I’ll think about it,” I told him. “I’ll help to the extent I can, but
conditions right now don’t make travel easy.”