Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) (26 page)

“They sure are determined to get my ship,” I commented.

Tavrin raised an eyebrow. “Daniel, do you realize how much an ounce of mithril is worth? Your ship is probably the single greatest treasure in Europe.”

I sighed. “I should have painted it, or something. Well, if it takes them that long to get a gate open we’ve got a shot at this. Elin, how are you doing?”

“Better. The bleeding is stopped, and I don’t feel so weak. But I need to get to shelter soon. My water wasn’t enough of a barrier against the cold.”

“Right. The gas cloud in the ship has pretty well dissipated, so we’ll set up a healing station there. Tavrin, gather the wounded. We can save anyone who still has a heartbeat, if we can get to them in time. Probably some of the dead ones too, if their spirits haven’t departed yet. I get the worst cases, Elin gets the easier ones. Cerise, go up to the hold and help Daria get Embla back here. She got smashed up pretty bad by a golem, and we’ll need to stabilize her again. Sefwin, come with me.”

That got everyone moving.

I helped Elin into the hold, and fetched the power stone from where I’d stored it.

“Sefwin, can you pull mana from large power sources safely?”

She nodded wearily. “Of course. That’s part of my basic training. I’m fairly versed in magic, I’m just not old enough to have a deep well of power yet. It takes a century or so for an elf’s magic to fully mature.”

“Great. Draw on this to get your strength back, and then show your father so he can get everyone else to do the same.”

I was starting to get used to that astonished look.

By then Cerise was back with Embla, and then the wounded elves and humans started arriving. Elin and I worked frantically for several long minutes, trying to stabilize the critical cases so we wouldn’t lose anyone else. I restarted two hearts, dealt with severed limbs and shattered bones, and conjured gallons of blood. There was even one elven warrior who’d been beheaded in the last frantic fight, but I managed to reattach his head and get blood circulating again before he suffered more brain damage than I could fix.

There were some I couldn’t save. An elf with a crushed skull. One of my crewmen who’d had his head split open by an axe. A few Nethwillin retainers who’d been hacked apart by axemen and then trampled in the fighting. Still, that was a lot fewer deaths than I’d expected. Only five fatalities in all, compared to seventeen we were able to save.

Like I’d told Embla, it takes a lot longer than you’d think for people with fatal injuries to actually finish dying. Elin’s magic was better than a modern emergency room for dealing with trauma patients, and my flesh magic was even stronger. It was less than ten minutes before we had the last patient stabilized.

Well, for generous versions of the term. They probably wouldn’t drop dead if we left them unattended for a few minutes, but they certainly weren’t going to get better on their own. It would take at least another hour to get them all completely out of danger, but we didn’t have that much time.

I looked up to find that the elves had already gotten another sheet hung to help trap warm air in the hold. It still wasn’t exactly comfortable, but between that and the warmth spell on the hull the temperature was hovering a bit above freezing. Much better than the subzero conditions outside, and the blankets Daria and Sefwin were laying over the wounded would hopefully be enough to protect them from hypothermia.

Tavrin and the other elves who’d made it through the battle were all gathered around the power stone, drawing energy from it to replenish their reserves and prepare spells. Cerise was sitting with one arm around Elin, watching everyone else.

I noticed Sefwin was trying not to use her injured arm.

“Sefwin? Come here for a sec.”

She hurried over. “Yes? Do you need something?”

I ran my finger down her arm, and smoothed the cut away. Hmm. Exhaustion that needed fixing, and some assorted scrapes and bruises. Nothing serious enough to take any real time, though.

“Better?” I asked.

“Much better. Thank you, Daniel.”

“You’re welcome, Sefwin. Alright, planning time everyone.”

That brought Cerise and Tavrin over. I noticed Cerise was mostly healed from the fight already, and Tavrin had found time to bandage his wounds.

“Do we know where the dwarves took the prisoners?” I asked.

Tavrin nodded. “I had them followed. There’s a hidden entrance to the west, about forty yards away.”

I shook my head. “Loki played us perfectly with that second storm, didn’t he? How did they end up with so many prisoners, anyway? The gas?”

“Yes. Between the wind and snow they were able to get close enough for their geomancers to collapse the fort you raised without being observed. Then they threw gas grenades into the hold, and subdued my people as they ran out of the cloud. The humans were easy prey, and even a lot of my clansmen didn’t have the proper counterspells ready. It takes a great deal of skill to fight back when you can’t see or breathe properly, and a pair of dwarves are trying to knock you down and put shackles on your wrists.”

“I see. Well, I can’t criticize you for that. I got caught petty badly off guard too, and a golem knocked me right off the hill. By the time I climbed back up and found the ship again you were having that standoff with the dwarf.”

“That reminds me,” Sefwin interjected. “We don’t have time for ceremony, but I fully acknowledge my debt to you. You saved my life tonight, Daniel.”

I waved her off. “I think you returned the favor not five minutes later, Sefwin. Don’t worry about it.”

She smiled. “I did, didn’t I? I can’t believe you got back up after being hit with a wizard slayer bolt. Do you think we might be fatebound?”

Elin sniffed. “He saved you once, Sefwin, not three times. Let’s not get carried away here.”

“Twice,” Sefwin disagreed. “Yinthalos wasn’t going to hold out much longer. And it hasn’t even been a day yet.”

Tavrin frowned at the exchange, but didn’t say anything. I had no idea what they were talking about, of course. But Cerise seemed to be puzzled too, so for once I didn’t have to hide my ignorance.

“Someone want to fill me in on what you’re talking about?”

“Oh, it’s a tradition among some of the elder races,” Elin said. “Everyone’s destiny is a thread on the loom of fate, but sometimes two threads will be intertwined.”

“Some people are fated to do great things together,” Sefwin interjected. “Blood brothers. Lifemates. A general and his trusted lieutenant.”

“Also bitter rivals and deadly enemies,” Elin added sarcastically. “It doesn’t have to be a good destiny. The story is that you can recognize a fatebonded pair by the outlandish things that happen when they first meet. There’s a whole list of signs that are supposed to mean different things, but I wouldn’t put much stock in that. It’s not as if the Norns need to advertise their work.”

Sefwin frowned, and looked like she was about to argue.

“I guess that’s interesting,” I interrupted. “But let’s focus on the problem at hand, shall we? Elin, I think you’re going to have to stay here to take care of the patients. We’ve got an awful lot of people here who’ll die if they’re left alone for long. Any objections?”

She shook her head. “I have no desire whatsoever to see another battle tonight, Daniel.”

“Alright. Daria, I want you to stay here and watch her back. Someone needs to be on guard, and you’ve got good ears. Sefwin, you back her up. Hopefully you won’t have any more trouble.”

“You might need me to find the prisoners quickly,” she objected. “I have active blood bonds with Amiya and Lashkin right now, and that’s the only sort of link that you’ll be able to follow through dwarven wards. Father, does anyone else have a bond to follow?”

Tavrin looked like he’d just bitten into an apple, and found half a worm. He glanced at the other elves, but they all shook their heads.

“Why in the Nine Worlds do you three have blood bonds?” he asked.

She studied the floor, looking very much like a teenager caught doing something stupid. “We were simply working on our mental defenses, father.”

That didn’t reassure him. “You aren’t ready for soul magic yet, Sefwin. You’re only forty, and your partners are both a decade younger. You could lose yourself if you’re not careful.”

“Drama later,” I interrupted. “Is she right, Tavrin?”

He reluctantly nodded. “Yes. I hate to take a child into danger again…”

Sefwin’s chin came up. “I killed three dwarves tonight, father. Like it or not I’m a blooded warrior now. I won’t fail the clan.”

He sighed. “Alright.”

“Fine. Tavrin, detail one of your people to help guard the injured. The rest of us are going hunting. Can you do anything interesting with the power source?”

“Yes. We’ve already started preparing battle spells.”

“Good. You’ve got a few minutes to work on that while Cerise and I get dressed, and then we’re going to get moving.”

Cerise looked down at herself, and smirked. “Oh, yeah. Forgot I was just wearing shadows.”

I snorted, and headed for the loft. “Nut. Why aren’t you freezing?”

“Witch,” she pointed out. “Frost resistance spell, on top of magical vitality. It would have to get a lot colder than this to hurt me.”

“If it got much colder the air would freeze,” I grumbled.

I pulled on my boots, and donned the padding and breastplate that would have protected me from those damned axes. The belt with sheaths for Grinder and my revolver, and a pouch for my earth talisman. Then I could shrug the coat back on, and a warmth cloak over that.

Cerise managed to wiggle into her leather catsuit, through some process that had to involve witchcraft considering how form-fitting the thing was. I’m not sure why she bothered with the low-cut boots that went with it, considering that the soles of her feet were tougher than leather. Probably just a fashion statement.

“Ready?” I asked.

She hesitated, and gave me an uncertain look.

“I guess. We can really do this, right? Get our people back from those greedy bastards? I feel like I really fucked up tonight, letting so many of them get captured. We didn’t even manage to keep Elin out of the fight, and she’s counting on us to protect her. She’s trying to hide it, but I can tell she’s kind of freaked out about that.”

I sighed, and pulled her into a hug. She laid her head against my chest.

“I know, Cerise. I feel the same way. We weren’t careful enough, and we got caught with our pants down. But what’s done is done. All we can do now is try to fix it, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Is Elin alright?”

“Yeah, she’ll be okay. She’s just really afraid that she’ll lose control of herself and turn into a monster if she starts getting into fights. I think it’s kind of silly, considering she didn’t hurt anyone the last time she went grendelkin. But you know how she is. We just need to let her ease into things a little bit at a time, until she finally figures out that she can trust herself.”

“That’s what I thought. Well, if we do this right the dwarves will be too busy to try another raid until we’re gone, and once we get home she can stay in the palace where it’s safe for as long as she wants. To be honest I’d rather not expose her to danger anyway.”

“Me neither,” Cerise said. “She’s not really cut out for battle. I guess I’m the only girl in the coven who is, and half of that’s from eating so many demons.”

“Well, whatever the reason I’m glad you’re here. Right now we have to get our people back, and I need my badass babe at my side to pull this off. Are you with me?”

“Always,” she assured me. “Okay, Daniel. If you say we can attack a dwarf fortress with a handful of elves and get away with it, I believe you. We killed a dragon together. How hard could this be?”

“That’s the spirit.”

She pulled away, and picked up the dwarven war axe she’d acquired during the fight. The giant, double-bladed weapon must have weighed fifteen pounds, but she handled it like it was weightless. She twirled it in one hand, and rested it on her shoulder.

“Let’s do this thing.”

Tavrin’s crew were still casting spells when we came down, so I took the power stone with us. The storm was still blowing, but it was simple enough to throw a force dome over our party to keep the wind and snow off. I stepped into the darkness beyond the little glowlights that decorated the ship’s hold, and turned to Sefwin.

“Alright, you’re up. Which way to your partners?”

She closed her eyes in concentration, and raised her hands. A faint hint of green foxfire flickered between her palms, forming a ball with two wisps of smoky green energy trailing down and to one side.

“That way.”

“Alright. Tell me when we’re directly over them.” I set out into the snow, with Cerise at my side and everyone else trailing along behind me.

Tavrin frowned. “We aren’t going to use the entrance? I’ll grant that their defenses are bound to be formidable, but surely tunneling in will be worse? Their settlement will be solidly warded.”

I gave him a grim smile. “Yeah, that’s not going to do them any good. You guys just sit back and get ready for a fight. I’ll take care of getting us in.”

This was almost like those fantasy role-playing games I used to play back in college. Fight your way down through a vast underground maze of monsters and traps to find the lost treasure, or rescue the fair princess. I always thought it was stupid to play it straight with that kind of scenario. I used to drive Dungeon Masters nuts with my penchant for lateral solutions. Why fight the monsters when we could just scry the princess’s location and teleport in to get her? Or divert a river to drown the orc horde, or undermine the caldera of the volcano that overlooked the Evil Overlord’s tower, or… well, there was always something. Those games usually have so much magic available that it’s impossible to defend against every possibility.

I might not have a huge laundry list of poorly thought out spells to choose from here, but I had the options I really needed. When we finally reached a spot where Sefwin’s tracking spell pointed straight down, I backed off a little and conjured a big iron disk for us all to stand on. That got a levitation spell, and a force field tied to the power stone.

“Alright, everyone stand on the disk. We’re going to ride it down, so don’t be surprised when it starts moving.”

As the elves cautiously boarded the floating construct I conjured a long iron rod, and laid a hasty version of the wizard staff spell on it. Then I tapped it against the ground, and focused my earth sorcery.

In a thirty-foot circle around us the ground began to vanish, the earth and stone banished by my magic. I struggled to keep the effect even, giving my disk a relatively flat surface to hover over as we sank quickly into the hill. Twenty feet. Forty. Sixty. Eighty.

A hundred feet down we hit a ward that blocked my spell. Our descent stopped momentarily, and Tavrin nodded.

“You see? The dwarves are adept at earth magic. They wouldn’t overlook such an obvious method of assault.”

The magic was more like the enchantments I’d woven into some of my earth magic than the wards over Kozalin. Instead of a thin shell of defensive magic the protection was actually infused into the stone.

“Think they’re ready for this?” I asked. I pulled deep on my amulet’s power, and slammed a dispelling into the ward.

It was a tough enchantment, but I had a lot of power at my disposal. The spell shattered the protections over several cubic feet of stone, and then I banished it. Interesting. Unlike my island there was no giant energy reserve behind the protections, and no regrowth function trying to repair the damage. There was bound to be some kind of alarm, though.

Tavrin looked at the crater I’d made in the stone, and back at the power stone. “I see. Yes, I suppose having such an enormous energy source frees you from many of the usual constraints. I take it you’re going to set up some kind of continuous attack?”

“Exactly.”

I only needed to do this once, so I didn’t bother with making a permanent enchantment. I just conjured up a stone disk, with long iron bars extending out from it towards the edges of the shaft, and started slapping spells on it. A link to the power stone to run it. A high-powered directional dispelling and a cheap stone banishment. Wait, no, the dispelling would interfere with the banishment too. Alright, make them alternate. A few seconds of dispelling, then a second of banishment, and so on. Both fields would be about the size of the shaft I’d started digging.

Having that thing below us would break the disk’s levitation field, too. Alright, add on another bit of force magic that would grip the sides of the shaft to hold the disk in place, and move it up or down. I’d have to manage that manually, but no big deal.

I anchored the disk in place, and triggered the digging device.

The dispel blew away the wards on several feet of stone, which the device immediately banished. It fell, rattling against the new floor of the shaft, but its shape ensured that it couldn’t flip over or otherwise shift around much. Dispel, banish, fall. The whole cycle only took a few seconds, and burrowed through several feet of stone.

“Impressive,” Tavrin said.

Cerise leaned into me. “He’s always doing stuff like this. Hold on to your hats, everyone. The elevator to Tartarus is going down!”

I lowered the disk.

A hundred feet further down the wards grew noticeably stronger, and the digger’s progress slowed a bit. Then it broke through into a passage full of water, which immediately rushed out to cover the bottom of the shaft. That would have been a nasty trap if we were normal miners. I halted our descent, and watched until the water level started to fall. That took longer than I’d expected, so there must have been a pretty substantial network of water-filled tunnels.

“Are the prisoners still in the same spot?” I asked.

Sefwin checked, and shook her head. “They must know we’re coming. They’ve started moving them away, but they aren’t traveling very fast.”

“Perfect. We’ll just give them their own defense back as a little present, then.”

There was a muffled ‘whump!’ from somewhere below, and the water roiled violently. But it kept descending.

“Looks like this is getting the job done,” Sefwin observed.

“Yeah, I guess that was some kind of mine. These guys are pretty thorough about their defenses, aren’t they?”

“They are,” Tavrin agreed. “But they’ve still been found wanting tonight. Not much further, I think.”

There was another muffled thump from below, and a darker liquid began to mix with the water. Noxious fumes rose up where it reached the surface of the pool, and I threw an air purification spell over the disk. The stuff mixed quickly with the water, though, and in a minute there was no visible trace of it.

Then the water suddenly fell away below us.

“Looks like we broke through,” I said. “Let’s say hello to the welcome party.”

I dropped us quickly down the shaft, and then my spells lost their grip as it broke out into a larger space. We dropped into a grand chamber the size of a cathedral, falling freely. I caught a glimpse of dozens of armored dwarves being inundated by rushing water. A long coffle of captives in chains wound out an open door at the far end of the hall, in the direction Sefwin had pointed earlier.

Excellent. I gave the disk a good shove in that direction as we fell. We landed hard on a group of armored dwarves, smashing them down into knee-deep water. The levitation field mostly protected us from the impact, although we were all splashed a little. My skin stung where the droplets hit, but whatever caustic agent was dissolved in it was too diluted to do much damage.

Well, a few drops didn’t do much. Being immersed in it, like a lot of the dwarves had been, was another story. I sent the disk skidding across the water towards the captives, noting with relief that most of the dwarves were too busy screaming and clawing at their eyes to do anything about us.

I was a little concerned for the captives, but they were far enough away to be relatively safe. The water level fell rapidly as it spread across the giant room, and then abruptly drained away when my digging implement cut through the floor into another level below. By the time we were halfway across the room the water was only a few inches deep. Now all we had to do was deal with the group of dwarves that were actually guarding the prisoners.

Not one of Tavrin’s elves had panicked or fallen down during our wild ride, and they launched a coordinated barrage of magic the instant I grounded the disk. A wave of shimmering light rushed out from Tavrin to wash over the prisoners and their guards, while the other elves threw balls of darkness that expanded to cover most of the hall.

Between the water and the sudden loss of visibility the dwarves were thrown completely into confusion. I opened up with my revolver, lobbing explosive rounds blindly into the darkness to maximize the chaos, and several of the elves did the same with a variety of conjuration spells I didn’t recognize.

Tavrin led the rest of his elves in a charge towards the prisoners, following behind their fast-moving wall of light. Cerise seemed uncertain for a moment, and I pointed her in that direction.

“Back them up,” I told her. “They’ll need help getting the prisoners free quickly. I’ll defend the disk, and keep these guys from getting organized.”

“You got it,” she called, and trotted after the elves.

A golem started across the hall towards us, its head rising above the darkness. I sent my earth talisman flying up to the ceiling, where it grew into a giant mass of stone and iron that strained the limits of its levitation magic. I brought it down on the golem’s head just as it emerged from the darkness. It struck with a deafening crash, reducing the construct to a pile of rubble.

The elves who’d stayed with me were still casting. Two of them were conjuring balls of acid out of thin air, and lobbing them at any dwarf that showed his face. The third called up some kind of air spirit, and sent it into the darkness to find victims to suffocate.

I glanced at Sefwin to make sure she was alright, and found that she was using some kind of telekinetic spell to hastily lay out a magic circle drawn in her own blood. Well, that was ominous.

“What’s that for?” I asked.

“The dwarves are regrouping too fast,” Sefwin replied, eyes darting around the room for a moment before returning to her work. “We’re going to need another distraction to get everyone to safety.”

I frowned, and took another look around.

Tavrin’s spell had apparently blinded the dwarves nearest the prisoners, and his group was moving with the same supernatural speed as Cerise now. They cut through the guards in a flurry of spells and flashing blades, but it was taking time.

The prisoners were all wearing wrist manacles, which were each attached to a much longer chain. Cerise’s axe would make short work of that, though, and their feet were unencumbered. They’d be ready to run for it in three or four minutes, tops.

But the flood had already drained away, and most of the dwarves I could see were picking themselves up and trying to get organized again. Two more golems were looming out of the darkness, too. Sefwin might be right.

“Don’t do anything reckless unless you have to,” I admonished her, and got back to work.

I sent the giant hammer my talisman had become back up towards the ceiling, ready to come smashing down again. Then I held the trigger down on my revolver and waved it back and forth in the general direction of the dwarven troops, while I turned my attention to the disk we’d rode down on. I expanded it, making it big enough for our whole group to stand on, and reinforced the levitation spell. Better add a parapet around the edges this time, too. Our exit would be a little tricky, but I could make it work.

Sefwin started casting something, but a fresh commotion distracted me from wondering what she was up to. One of the darkness fields went down, and a knot of chanting dwarves in gilded armor strode into the great hall surrounded by a fog of magic. I opened fire on them, but the explosive rounds failed to detonate. Damn it, I was not set up to fight guys with this much defense against magic. I could bring the hammer down on them, but what if that field around them killed its enchantment?

I switched to normal ammo, and shot the lead dwarf in the head. He fall over backwards, and I laughed. Hah. Even dwarven plate won’t stop a bullet.

His buddies all went to one knee and changed their chant. Another squad with tower shields started running up from behind, and the golems began to lumber forward. I hesitated, trying to decide which target to hit first, and a crossbow bolt from another direction punched through my force field to lodge in my breastplate.

I returned fire with a volley of explosive rounds, and brought the hammer down on the nearest golem. Once again the construct I’d targeted was reduced to rubble with a single blow, but it would take a minute to get the ponderous weapon back in position for another blow.

The elves to either side of me continued lobbing acid balls to good effect, but more and more dwarves with those tower shields were pouring into the room now. The chanting dwarves started to move forward again, under cover this time.

Sefwin finished her spell, and something terrifying erupted into being within the circle she’d drawn. A mass of flame and gleaming bone twice the height of a man, with six limbs that ended in flaming scythes and three heads with balls of fire for eyes.