around here, say, an hour before sunset? Gronir too it that’s possible, but if you
can’t find a way to get word to him we’ll cope. I don’t want anyone to get
killed trying to play messenger.”
“Also, see if you can find someone who knows the layout of the keep. If
I’m going to pull off a rescue I need to be able to find the girls before someone
thinks to use them as hostages.”
“Got it,” Beri said. “I’ll just let Oskar think you’re resting until then, so
he doesn’t bother you. Do you need to be alone to work your magic?”
“No, I just need to concentrate. You and Tina can watch if you’re
curious, just don’t try to talk to me while I’m working. Although there might not
be much to see.”
Tina settled her arms around me, and rested her cheek against my back.
“You can hardly sit up without help, milord. I’ll just stay like this until you’re
healed.”
Beri smiled. “You do that. I’ll go get things organized.”
Weak as I was, my first priority was fixing myself. My amulet was
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mindlessly trying to heal everything that was wrong with me at once, and being
absurdly inefficient about it. It would eventually get the job done, but I couldn’t
afford to spend half a day in bed while it wasted most of its energy repeatedly
fixing symptoms instead of the real problems.
I focused my concentration, and delicately disconnected the healing
function from the power tap. A wave of weakness passed through me as I lost
the artificial boost to my vitality, but now I could actually use the amulet’s
energy output again. So, priorities.
I replaced my burned-off skin first, and then turned my attention to the
considerable damage my internal organs had suffered. It was slow going at
first, and I kept having to divert energy to keep my abused body from going into
shock and dying.
It was disturbing to realize how close I’d come. If my amulet had fallen
off, or been damaged by the fire, or if they’d piled a bit more wood on that
troll, I probably wouldn’t be here. I resolved not to make that mistake again. I
couldn’t afford to get myself killed in a vain attempt to save everyone. I had
too many people depending on me.
My weakness ebbed as I worked through the more critical repairs, and
soon I began to feel like I’d survive even without additional magic. I was still
emaciated, most of my body mass presumably burned away while I was
unconscious, and I had far too many fractured bones to do anything but lean
into Tina’s warm embrace and be thankful for the pain block. But it was a start.
I tackled those fractures next, carefully fusing the bones back together
one at a time. Another pass, replacing scars with healthy tissue and washing
away the poisons flooding my bloodstream. Then I was free to tackle
rebuilding my muscles, replaying the same shaping I’d done in the refugee
camp just a few days ago.
That extra durability had probably saved my life. But even a sturdy
human was still pretty fragile against the threats I faced, and it almost hadn’t
been enough. Could I do better?
Well, I could make my bones stronger. Not invulnerable, but strong
enough that they wouldn’t keep breaking so easily.
My flesh sorcery held other options as well, but nothing that suited my
circumstances. Trying to magically enhance my strength or durability would
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take days, and was tricky enough I was leery about trying it out for the first
time on myself. If I made a mistake there I might not get a chance to fix it.
Besides, my other sorceries were a lot more suited to direct combat.
I’d made a serious mistake with my amulet, but I had time to fix that now. Split
the energy feed so half of it went directly to me for spellcasting, and the other
half went first to maintaining my shield with only the remainder used for
healing. It was more complicated than the original design, but easily doable.
There, that would give me the power and heavy shielding I’d meant to
have, and as long as I wasn’t stupid enough to cripple myself at the start of a
big fight the reduction in healing wasn’t likely to ever matter.
What else could I learn from my last fight?
I needed a defense against non-physical attacks. Some kind of meta-
magical ward or barrier to block curses like those shamans had been throwing
at me. Well, that was complicated. Trying to block every possible kind of spell
would be a big project, especially if I got into esoteric stuff like sympathetic
magic or Avilla’s enchanted food. But a shield against simple projectile
spells? That was doable. A moderately complex barrier effect anchored to a
ring would work well enough in a fight, although there were several obvious
ways around it.
Of course, the biggest lesson was that I was focusing too much on
defense. If I’d been able to hit the goblin army with a decent area-effect attack
while I was in flight the whole battle would have gone differently. But I was
still relying on my ability to put attack spells together on the fly for all my
offensive power, and that took too much concentration. In a real fight I never
had time to put together anything fancy.
So do it in advance.
Fire was highly effective against most targets, but I didn’t have enough
fire sorcery to do anything more complicated than creating heat within a few
feet of my hands. Force was lethal at melee ranges, but their lack of inertia
meant that thrown force blades had limited penetration. Earth magic was nice
for battlefield control, but not so good at doing direct damage. But if I
combined all three there were a lot of possibilities.
Conjuring pebbles was easy. Throwing them was easy. Instant gun,
except that the accuracy would be terrible. I wasn’t exactly doing precision
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machining with my spells, and I wasn’t much of a marksman to start with.
Besides, a bullet wouldn’t stop a troll.
A hot enough bullet might set it on fire, and I could make things very
hot indeed. But the collateral damage from using a weapon like that in town
would be huge.
I really needed two different weapons, one for close quarters like
inside the keep and another for open-field engagements. Something highly
lethal but tightly controlled, and something else that could hit a large area. But
I really only had time to build one weapon this afternoon, so I’d have to go
with close quarters.
I was still working on refinements when Beri returned, but the
prototype would probably get the job done.
“What’s that?” she asked curiously, eying the oddly shaped chunk of
stone in my hand.
I smiled grimly. “A very nasty surprise for anyone who gets in my way.
How are things going?”
“We got a message to Hrodir,” she said. “There are some groups on the
streets again, trading supplies and the like. One of them was happy enough to
carry a message for a bit of silver. Oh, I don’t know if I mentioned? I’ve got
Miss Avilla’s coin purse on me, so we’ve a good bit of silver if we need it.
Miss Cerise was doing a good business selling those cloaks.”
“Good, we’ll probably need it. Let’s get this meeting organized, then.”
We gathered in Oskar’s cellar, which was surprisingly empty since the