“Hmm. Let me take a look at it.”
I leaned over and put my hand over the wound, reaching out with new
senses. Yes, I could shape the wound closed easily enough. That didn’t
completely repair the damage, but with proper encouragement it would be
good as new in a few hours. Interestingly I noted that there was already some
16
sort of innate magic working to heal the girl’s wounds, or at least... hmmm...
was it just making sure they wouldn’t scar? Interesting.
“Your magic is warm,” Cerise murmured. “Kind of naughty, running all
through me like that. Feel anything you like?”
“Ahem. Yes, I think you’ll be fine now. Avilla, how about you?”
“I’ll be alright,” she said a little nervously. “Anyway, don’t we have
other things to worry about? What are we going to do?”
Was she worried about me discovering some secret if I used healing on
her? Well, whatever. She was right, so I could let her keep her secrets for the
moment.
“Well, I promised Hecate I’d protect Cerise here for a year and a day,
and that covers starving and freezing to death as well as monster attacks. She
also told me this is the beginning of Ragnarok, so I think we’d better assume
the goblins will be back with friends.”
They both grimaced. “I was afraid it was something like that,” Avilla
commented. “It never snows this early in the year, and it’s been coming down
for a week now.”
I frowned. “Do you two have anywhere to go?
“My mentor died of old age three years ago,” Cerise said. “She and
Avilla’s granny were good friends, so I’ve been staying here ever since. I
don’t really know anyone else. Witches aren’t exactly popular with the
mundanes, you know.”
“I’ve never even left the woods,” Avilla admitted. “Granny wouldn’t let
me go past the yard unless I was running errands with her, and after... after she
died, we’ve just been trying to avoid notice. I know there’s a village a few
miles down the path, but I don’t know if it would be any safer than here.”
Cerise snorted. “Hah. Tyler’s Grove doesn’t even have a palisade, let
alone a real wall, and the sheriff and a few retired armsmen are the only
people there who can fight worth a damn. Besides, I saw smoke from that
direction yesterday. They probably got hit before we did.”
I sighed. “Well, we need information at the very least, and big guys with
swords are always handy to have around when something is trying to eat you.
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Is there a castle or walled settlement anywhere in the area?”
“Lanrest has a wall,” she said after a moment’s thought. “That’s about
thirty miles down the road from Tyler’s Grove, though. It could be a rough trip,
especially if the weather keeps getting worse.”
“Will we be any safer with people than monsters?” Avilla asked
doubtfully. “Worshipping the old gods will get us burned alive if anyone finds
out.”
“Well, obviously we won’t tell anyone you two are witches,” I pointed
out. “But I assume you have wizards or sorcerers or something like that here?”
“A few sorcerers, and every kingdom has at least one guild for wizards,”
Cerise nodded.
“Ok. How about we say I’m a traveling wizard, and you two are my
apprentices? Any leader with a brain is going to want all the magical help he
can get in a situation like this. With any luck we can find a tough group to join
up with or a castle that wants a healer on hand.”
“I like that idea,” Cerise agreed. “No one is going to wonder why a
wizard your age has a couple of sexy young girls with him, and then they’ll
ignore us completely.”
Avilla brightened. “Good point. Oh, and if people notice anything strange
about us we’ll just imply that our ‘master’ uses us for experiments.”
“Hey now, don’t go making me out to be an evil nutjob,” I put in.
“Desperate people will overlook a lot, but if they think I’m a danger to their
own daughters they’re liable to do something about it.”
They two witches shared a look at that, and broke into giggles.
“If they only knew,” Cerise chuckled, slipping her good arm around
Avilla’s waist. “We’re the ones their daughters are in danger from.”
“Better they don’t find out,” Avilla chided, leaning into her. “At least, not
until after we’ve infected them with our wicked ways.”
Ah, so that’s how it was. Well, they were certainly cute together.
“Heh. Well, it sounds like we have a plan. So we need gear for hiking in
snow and camping in the open, enough food to last a week or so, and whatever
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supplies you two need for your magic. Plus any portable valuables you can lay
hands on, of course.
The both nodded, and rose to their feet.
“Right. Come on Cerise, our brave protector can keep watch while we
pack.”
19
Chapter 2
The shakes hit me right after the girls went inside.
I sat down gingerly on the front steps of the ruined house, and put my head
between my knees. I’d been in fights before, but not like this. Growing up in
the bad part of town will teach you to look out for yourself, but there’s a big
different between a couple of bored gang members looking for someone to beat
up and a pack of goblins trying to carve you up with swords. Not to mention
the troll.
I’d almost died. Damn it, what was I thinking when I said yes?
I forced down a wave of nausea, and focused on breathing evenly.
Yeah, I almost died. I gave in to a momentary impulse to go play hero,
and now I was stuck with the job. Like it or not, this was my life now.
The nausea passed, leaving me weak and tired.
I sat up, and looked out into the darkness. A few flakes of snow were
falling from the dark sky, and the cold was beginning to seep through my
borrowed cloak. My feet were going numb. The shadows under the trees were
impenetrable, and I wondered what was out there watching me. Goblins?
Trolls? Worse? I didn’t even know what the possibilities were.
Avilla and Cerise were working some kind of magic, calling a stiff wind
that blew through the house and carried the worst of the smoke away.
Right. You’re a wizard now, Daniel. You got awesome magical powers
to go with the deadly danger. Better make the most of them, or you won’t live
long.
A life spent hunched over a keyboard in a cubicle had left me badly out of
shape for adventuring, and somehow I suspected reality wasn’t going to work
like the computer RPGs I’d played. But I was good at being a power-gaming
munchkin, so it was worth a shot.
It took about ten minutes of sorting through the new instincts I’d gained to
confirm that my first idea for improving the situation was possible, and another
hour of fumbling about to actually make it work. It was easy enough to conjure
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up a little disk of obsidian and hang it on a length of twine to create a makeshift
amulet, but after that it got tricky. I wanted a solution to the mana supply
problem first, but it seemed that my spiffy new abilities didn’t come with an
index.
So instead of just knowing what options were at my disposal, I had to
come up with an idea and then see if I could do it. Tapping ley lines wasn’t an