does it draw on?”
“Itself.”
I grinned at their puzzled looks, and went on. “One of the most
important discoveries that we’ve made back on my home world is that mater
and energy are different forms of the same thing, and if you understand them
well enough you can change things from one form to another. Some
transformations are a lot harder than others, but stuff like turning motion into
lightning or lightning into heat and light is easy.”
“But turning matter into energy is where things get interesting, because
transforming a grain of sand directly into heat would reduce this whole town to
a puddle of molten rock. Anything solid has fantastic amounts of power bound
up in its structure. So when I used my metamagic sorcery to create an
enchantment that gradually transforms solid matter into raw magic…”
“An unlimited source of power?” Avilla breathed.
“Effectively,” I agreed. “It’ll eventually eat itself, but that will take a
few centuries. There’s also a limit on how fast it can generate magic, but with
this amulet that’s high enough that it usually isn’t an issue. Other than that,
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yeah.”
“I want one,” Cerise pleaded. “Please, Daniel? I’ll be really grateful.”
I chuckled, and mussed her hair. “It’s on my list. I have to work out
how to make it so you can control the power feed, or it’ll force-feed you
power until you explode or something. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned
from this fiasco, it’s that I need to stop trying to do everything myself. The first
chance I get I’m going to gear you two up.”
That got excited smiles from both of them.
“Just remember to keep this a secret,” I warned them. “We don’t need
every wizard within a thousand miles converging on us to find out how it
works.”
“Of course,” Avilla said seriously.
“This is the kind of thing you take to your grave,” Cerise agreed. “Not a
word to anyone, unless we talk it through and agree.”
“Good. Now why don’t you find some clothes to steal while Avilla
works her magic? I expect the guards have all fled by now, but from what I
remember of that fight I don’t think you’d have any trouble with a straggler.”
“You got that right,” she grinned.
“Come to think of it, weren’t you supposed to be bound not to attack
them? How did you get around that one?”
“That half-assed thing? A binding I didn’t agree to can’t hold me for
long, Daniel. I was already wiggling out of it, but when the circle went down
my girl here popped it off me easy as pie.”
Avilla leaned against her affectionately. “It wasn’t that easy. But we’ve
put a lot of work into being able to free each other from hostile magic, and I
still had a lot of the power you gave me. I even managed to charm a guard, and
I didn’t think I was anywhere near being able to pull that off.”
“Makes sense. Well, good work, both of you. We make a good team.”
“We do, don’t we?” Cerise agreed. “Alright, quick looting run. Be
back soon.”
Sure enough, we found that Avilla could handle a constant power feed
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just fine as long as I didn’t get carried away with it. We found a basin and
washed away the blood, and then she produced a needle and thread and sewed
my clothes back together so finely they looked like new when she was done.
It was odd watching her work. At first glance it looked like she wasn’t
even using magic, but somehow everything went far faster than normal. Rips
that should have taken an hour of painstaking work to repair were closed in
moments, and everything fit back together perfectly despite the fact that I knew
there should have been missing pieces.
But I didn’t have time to just sit and watch. I didn’t know when the
next time we’d have a moment of peace might be, so I took the time to lay a
warmth enchantment on Avilla’s dress. Cerise returned around then, and I
repeated the process on one of the cloaks she’d found while Avilla altered a
shirt and a pair of pants to fit her.
I noted that she somehow managed to make the stolen clothes fit
Cerise like a second skin, but I wasn’t complaining.
Aside from books there wasn’t much of interest in the temple. A few
coins on the bodies and in the priests’ rooms, and a small chest in what I
presumed was Holger’s office that held a few bags full of copper and silver
coins. It was small potatoes compared to what we’d taken from the Baron’s
keep, but we took it all regardless. No telling when we might find ourselves
needing it.
Then we set out into the snow.
The storm had blown over while we were otherwise occupied. A
steady sprinkle of snow was still falling, but the wind had died down
considerably and I could actually see the whole plaza in front of the church.
Unfortunately, that was partly because of the burning buildings.
Distant shouts and screams rose up all around us. Less than a block
away one of the streets was blocked by a knot of townsmen fighting a group of
goblins on wolf-back next to a pair of burning buildings. Further away I heard
the roar of a troll, and the sound of something being smashed.
“Damn. Cerise, are you up for a real fight?”
“My legs are a little wobbly,” she admitted. “But I can manage, as
long as it doesn’t last too long.”
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“Alright. I’ll take point. You watch my back, and keep Avilla safe.
But if we run into ungols I’ll probably need your help. The damned things are
so fast I have trouble landing a hit on them, but I think you can match them
now.”
“Ungols? Fuck. I’ll do what I can.”
The new goblin attack seemed to be centered on the breech in the
wall, but the river side of the town was far from untouched. We passed one
house after another with doors and windows smashed open, and bloodstains
scattered at random. The ungols had been busy.
How many people had died while I was under Cerise’s spell?
I shook my head. I couldn’t save them all regardless. There were too
many monsters, too much ground to cover, too many targets who couldn’t fight
back effectively if I was busy somewhere else. Maybe if I’d gotten here a few
days earlier, or if things had gone differently during the first goblin attack.
Or maybe not. I still didn’t know how the goblins had punched that
hole in the town wall. For all I knew the same method would have worked on
the new wall I’d been building. There were far too few people in Lanrest who
could fight at all, and none who could stand up to the real threats.
The sound of battle somewhere ahead of us drew my attention. We
were almost there, but someone was having a hell of a fight.
I turned a corner, and my fears were confirmed.
The granary was a cluster of two-story buildings surrounded by a low
wall, and someone had blocked the entrance with a pair of overturned wagons.
But there was a desperate battle taking place in the courtyard beyond. A few
dozen soldiers and armed townsmen, against at least two ungols.
I checked, and glanced at my companions. How to do this?
“Get me to the crowd,” Avilla suggested. “I can use them for cover,
and then you two can concentrate on the monsters.”
“Good idea,” I agreed. “Full speed, then. Ready, Cerise?”