was damned effective. The warmth of her lips on mine lingered for long
moments, and the memory of her generous bust pressed against my chest kept
replaying itself over and over in my mind’s eye.
Cerise gave me an amused look over her girlfriend’s shoulder. I shrugged,
and smiled back. What was I going to do, pretend it hadn’t happened? Besides,
I was pretty sure it didn’t mean anything. Avilla was just a touchy-feely sort of
person.
The sun was fully up when we finally set out, but not by much. It was
shaping up to be a clear day, with a cold wind blowing out of the north and the
temperature hovering somewhere just below freezing. Not the best weather for
travel, and all of us were a bit beat up from the fight. But I was determined to
put some miles behind us before the goblins tried again. With any luck they’d
give up on us once we left the area.
“We’ll see what state the village is in, and then decide how hard we need
to push,” I told the girls. “It would be nice to stop early and get some rest, but
the important thing is making sure we move far enough to break contact. If we
have to we can find a spot to hole up and recover tomorrow, but that won’t
work if the goblins are tracking us.”
Cerise eyed me speculatively. “You sound like you’ve done this before.”
24
Sure, kid. Twenty years of computer games, mostly RPGs but some RTS
and first-person shooters for variety. Give me a controller and I’ll be right at
home. Only this was real life, not a game.
But she didn’t need to hear that. She had to be terrified enough already. I
certainly was, and I had a lot more magic to work with than she seemed to.
I shrugged as nonchalantly as I could manage. “This isn’t my first rodeo.
I’ve spent the last few years doing academic work, and I’m having to adapt to
some big changes in the power set I’ve got access to, but I can manage.”
She and Avilla exchanged a look. “That explains it. You seemed a little
out of shape for a guy with the skills Lady Hecate mentioned.”
“Oh? What did she say about me, anyway? I never had a chance to ask her
why she picked me.”
Cerise gave me a look like I’d just asked why water was wet. “Who else
would she pick? I mean, she said her divinations didn’t get all the details, but
how many guys can say they’ve slain... oh, what was that list again? A few
dozen dragons, a bunch of demon lords, the King of Liches, the Riftlords, the
Blade Queen of the Devouring Swarm - not that I know what half of that even
means, but it sure sounds impressive. I’ve never heard of a hero who made
such a career out of traveling to distant worlds to save them.”
I stopped in mid-stride, staring off into the distance. Good god. She
thought my video game exploits were real?
No. Hecate had known perfectly well I didn’t have magical powers. She
must have had a reason for talking me up to Cerise, then.
“Daniel? Is everything alright?” Avilla asked in concern.
“Yeah. Sure. I was just surprised, that’s all.”
“The Goddess has that effect on people,” Cerise smirked. “So, think you
can stop Ragnarok?”
“Ahem. Let’s not get carried away there, Cerise. Judging from last night
the monsters here are pretty tough, and I don’t have a boatload of mystic
artifacts or an army of heroes at my back. Which reminds me, if I’m going to
pull off this ‘traveling wizard’ act there are a few things I need to know...”
That diverted them from my supposed accomplishments for a bit, at least.
25
Cerise chatted amiably about her land’s society and local customs, filling in
the details I’d need for my charade with a skill that spoke of formal training. I
tried to focus on memorizing her lessons, and building up a plausible
backstory.
But inside I was sweating bullets. Talk about having high expectations to
meet!
Several hours passed, and we made decent progress as the sun rose
higher. Then around mid-morning it was Avilla’s turn to suddenly stop for no
apparent reason.
Cerise immediately froze, and began scanning the trees around us. We
were on a little game trail with a thicket on one side and a dense stand of trees
on the other, and about a million places for enemies to hide all around us.
“Avilla?” Cerise asked. “What is it, sweetie?”
“The woods,” she replied, her eyes still out of focus. “It’s the goblin
shamans. They’re doing something to the spirit of the wood. I can feel the
blood of their sacrifices seeping through the trees...” She trailed off, and stood
there swaying for a moment. Then she snapped back to herself.
“We have to go,” she said urgently. “Now! They’re waking the trees.”
Cerise went wide-eyed, and turned to plunge on down the trail briskly.
We both moved to follow. But it was already too late.
Twenty yards down the trail Cerise ducked under a low-hanging branch,
and it whipped down to flail at her. She stumbled back, clutching her head, and
a bush beside the path grabbed her.
“Cerise!” Avilla’s butcher knife was back in her hand, but I doubted that
would get the job done.
“Stand back,” I told her, and formed a three-foot force blade extending
from my fingertip. I hacked the bush apart with a few quick strokes, and Cerise
tore herself free. But by then Avilla was struggling with a clump of vines that
dropped from the tree over her head.
I cut her free too, and we ran.
From there every step was a battle. The branches flailed at us, leaving us
battered and bruised before we’d gone half a mile. Vines and bushes grabbed
26
at us, and I found myself constantly hacking away with the force blade. Roots
shifted underfoot, rising up to trip us whenever we were distracted by another
assailant.
Then the path vanished entirely, and we realized the trees themselves
were moving to block our flight. I pulled the girls close and shredded
everything around us in a whirlwind of spinning blades, and looked up to take
a bearing on the sun.
“That way!” I pointed. An ancient-looking oak stood directly in our path.
“How are we going to get through?” Cerise panted.
“Like this,” I said grimly. I pulled deep on my magic, and the ground
beneath the oak moved to shove it aside. It fell with a tremendous crash of
breaking wood, and the rest of the trees seemed to draw back. But Cerise
looked skeptical.
“You can’t possibly do that to every tree that gets in our way,” she
objected.
“Watch me,” I growled, and stalked forward. “Stay behind me, and stick
close.”
I hacked and smashed a path straight through the forest, leaving a trail
wide enough to protect my charges from the hostile plant life. My amulet
replenished my mana almost as fast as I was using it, and for a few minutes I
thought I’d beaten the trap. It might be a little slow, and I’d need a rest break at
some point, but we could get through like this.
Then a flight of goblin arrows came hissing out of the woods behind us.
The girls were both hit, Avilla in a leg and Cerise in the side, and several
arrows planted themselves in our packs.
“Damn it!”
I threw a storm of force blades into the undergrowth behind us, and a
high-pitched scream said I’d hit something. But I couldn’t see the little
nuisances at any distance, not with all this cover to hide behind.