Extermination (Daniel Black Book 3) (33 page)

Were the rest of them off somewhere? No, they’d have taken the felwolves with them. Probably sleeping, then. That would make sense if they were making their attacks at night.

The guard didn’t seem to be looking up. Convenient. Shouting might draw his attention, but we didn’t need an elaborate plan for this. I pointed at Cerise, and then at a group of felwolves sleeping in a pile.

She nodded, and drew that long blade again. I took up a position directly above the camp, and waited. Cerise gave me a savage little grin, and folded her wings.

She hit hard, slamming her blade into a sleeping felwolf’s eye with all the momentum of her dive behind it. The monster let out a howl of shocked agony, but before its fellows could do more than open their eyes I heard Grinder ignite with a shriek of tortured air.

I shot the sentry in the back with an explosive round.

The explosion shredded the back of his chainmail hauberk, and sent lumps of superheated metal tearing through his body. He staggered forward one step, and then collapsed with a scream. I shot him again to make sure he wasn’t getting up, and then turned my attention to the tents.

Lacking any specific targets I just held the trigger down, and walked my fire back and forth over the shelters. The explosions blew them apart easily. Burning fragments of wood and leather flew through the air, and shouts of alarm rose all over the camp. In moments the tents were all down and on fire, except for the area where Cerise was fighting.

She didn’t need my help. She tore through the felwolves with savage glee, hacking and stabbing at their massive bodies with Grinder. Her enemies were the size of elephants, but she was too fast for them. She dodged around their blows, carving off paws and cutting great wounds into faces.

A giant throwing axe smashed into my shield. With my original amulet such a concentrated blow would have gone right through the barrier, and probably cut me in half. But the shield I was using now was designed with giants in mind, and it handled the stress just fine. The axe bounced off the invisible wall, expending barely five percent of the energy reserve behind it.

I laid down another barrage of explosive rounds.

A giant dove out of one of the burning tents to roll in the snow, extinguishing his flaming cloak. Then he stood and began bellowing orders to the other survivors.

I shot him in the face. His head blew apart in a spray of gore and blue blood, showering down on the nearest giants. His headless body stood there for a moment, and slowly crumpled to the ground.

That was too much for them. Giants fled in all directions, leaving most of their gear behind. But they were too big to vanish into the woods very easily. I gunned down three more of them from behind, and then turned my attention back to Cerise.

Half the wolves were dead or dying, and the survivors were trying to run. It wasn’t doing them any good, though. Most of them were already injured, and Cerise was too fast to escape. She finished off a pair that had tried to flee together, while I turned and shot one that was limping off in the opposite direction.

The whole fight had barely lasted a minute. I took one last look around, and holstered my revolver. Grinder’s howl died, and Cerise flew up to me.

“Didn’t I see a couple more giants run off?” She asked. “We should hunt them down before they get away.”

“No, I want them to escape. Let them carry word of this attack back to their buddies. For the rest of the war they’ll all be keeping an eye on the sky, wondering if they’re next.”

“Oh. Yeah, good idea. Teach these bastards what it’s like to be afraid. I like it.”

She flew up to hand Grinder back to me. “I’ve really improved a lot, haven’t I? A month ago I would have been useless in this fight, and now look at me.”

I wanted to hug her, but she was covered in blood. Why did she look so damned sexy with splashes of red all over her face and horns?

I settled for a smile. “Yeah, look at you, kicking felwolves around like puppies. Now we just need to get you a force field, so you don’t end up taking a bath in your enemies.”

She actually pouted at that. “Aw, but I like the blood spray. I even get a regeneration boost from it. Not that I need one anymore.”

“You worry me sometimes, you know that?”

“I know, Daniel. I worry me sometimes, too. But it’s the price I pay for the power I have. As long as I don’t start going berserk I think I can handle it, and if I do mess up I trust you to reign me in. Why do you think it was so important to me, to make sure you know how to handle me?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I get it. I’m not thrilled about it, but I do understand. I’m just afraid we’ll manage to survive Ragnarok, and then find out you can’t stand to go more than a few days without killing something.”

She smiled. “Sex does it for me too, stud. If I get like that, just tie me to the bed and fuck me senseless.”

I mussed her hair. “Nut.”

She snickered. “You bet. Hey, if I have to, I can sacrifice some of my power to become more human again. But that kind of worry is for after Ragnarok.”

“I guess so. I take it you got the sample?”

She held up the bloody spike. “Right here.”

“Good. Let’s get home, then, and I’ll take a look at it.”

The flight back was surprisingly short, although it was a good thing we’d decided to end our trip when we did. There were darker clouds rolling in from the north now, and a hint of snow in the air. As we landed I made a mental note to stick close to home for now, until I came up with some way to deal with the enemy’s habit of turning the weather against us.

We ran into Tina at the entrance to the residence area, where she was having a conversation with Sefwin while a mixed group of dryads and dark elves stood around listening. They both greeted us warmly, although Tina was a bit nonplussed by Cerise’s gory appearance.

“It’s straight to the bath for you,” she announced firmly. “What did you do, go swimming in monster blood?”

“This is what happens when you stab a felwolf in the heart,” Cerise explained with a laugh.

Tina wrinkled her nose. “Well, it’s gross. Come on, let’s get you cleaned up before you start to smell.”

Sefwin watched them go with a smile.

“I have to admit, I’m a little jealous of you,” she said conversationally. “Where did you find such an amazing collection of magical beauties?”

“Hecate works in mysterious ways. I take it you’re going over security?”

“Yes. If you don’t mind, I’d like to set up this barracks area off the palace entrance as the headquarters for the Secret Service. That way we’ll be conveniently close to hand if something ever goes wrong here. I assume that was the purpose of the layout?”

“Yes, that’s fine. Are you going to have enough space, though? I wasn’t thinking about putting in training areas or an administrative office when I laid out this area.”

“I have some ideas on that, if you can spare me a few minutes,” Sefwin replied.

“Sure.”

She led me back through the heavy iron door to one side of the entrance hall, and into the open space beyond.

“Obviously the ready room should remain as it is,” she began. “But I’d like to subdivide the barracks halls into smaller rooms, with each one set up to accommodate a team of four to six. For an elite force such as you proposed I think small, close-knit teams are the best organizing principle. The storeroom at the end of the hall could be turned into a reasonable office for me, and the mess hall can double as an assembly area.

“For training areas, I was actually hoping to make use of your palace. Some of our training will need to be in emulating servants, which will mean working closely with Avilla. For sparring practice, well, I assume you’re going to want a suitable area somewhere in your palace anyway. Your children will need to be taught one day, yes? So perhaps we could work out what your needs will be in that area, and my people can staff the facility?”

“That makes sense,” I began, only to be interrupted by a faint sense of unease. I stopped, frowning.

The floor was vibrating. What could make a mass of stone and iron three feet thick vibrate?

My question was quickly answered. In a matter of seconds the vibration grew into a violent shaking, and a tremendous roar filled my ears.

“An earthquake!” Sefwin shouted incredulously. “What do we do?”

The shaking was so violent I had to take to the air to avoid being knocked off my feet. Sefwin handled it better, balancing lightly on the balls of her feet with her knees slightly bent.

I put my hand on the wall, and felt the island’s magic. There was a drain on the structural reinforcement spells, but it was minimal.

“The citadel will stand,” I assured her. “Check your people.”

“Yes, milord.” She glided across the trembling floor as easily as if it were standing still, and opened the door.

There was a final heave, bigger than the ones before, and then the earthquake ended.

I followed Sefwin out the door, and found her elves helping the dryads back to their feet. I saw a couple of bruises here and there, but no real injuries. That probably shouldn’t be a surprise, considering how tough they were.

“Stay on alert,” I told Sefwin. “Get in touch with the sentries and find out if the enemy is doing anything. I’m going to check on the girls.”

I found them all in the breakfast room. Tina and Cerise were wrapped in towels, looking quite put out as a couple of maids dried their hair. Elin had a big bruise on the side of her face, and Avilla was fussing over her. The rest of the maids were all huddled in the kitchen, looking scared.

“Are you alright, Elin? What happened?”

“My new bookshelf fell on me,” she complained. “It was rather painful, but I shall be fully healed in another minute or two. Really, there’s no need to fuss.”

I checked her anyway, of course. Yeah, massive bruising that was already mostly healed. No other injuries.

“I’m just glad you’re alright,” I said. “Is anyone else hurt?”

“I was in my kitchen,” Avilla said. “My wards handled it fine.”

“We’re okay,” Tina said. “We were in the shower, and Cerise almost fell. But I caught her before she could break the tiles.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Miss death and destruction can’t keep her balance during an earthquake?”

“Hey, I was surprised,” Cerise exclaimed. “It could happen to anyone. That was weird, though. I didn’t think they had earthquakes down in this part of the country.”

“We don’t,” Elin agreed. “I doubt that it was a natural occurrence.”

Gaea was an earth goddess, and in Norse legends Loki was supposed to be responsible for earthquakes. Enemy action was all too possible.

“Cerise, you’d better get dressed for another fight,” I decided. “Elin, we’re going to have injured people. Can you set up a healing station and take care of them?”

“Of course.”

Tina bit her lip. She was trying to put up a brave front, but she was obviously frightened. So was Avilla, for that matter.

“Are we in danger, Daniel?” Avilla asked. “Will the Black Citadel stand, if that happens again?”

Apparently I was stuck with that name now. Ah, well.

“You’ll be fine, sweetie. I built this place tougher than that. The earthquake didn’t do any damage at all to the citadel. It barely even put any strain on the reinforcement spells.”

“The palace won’t fall down?” Tina asked.

“No, sweetie. No matter how bad the ground shakes, the palace won’t fall down. But Kozalin is another story, so I’d better see what’s happening there. Cerise, why don’t you stay here and keep an eye on the girls for now?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that,” she said. “Come on, Tina. We’d better get dressed.”

I found Demetrios in the bunker on top of the arcology tower, peering out over Kozalin with Marcus and Gronir. There was a light snow falling now, and a lot of smoke rising from various points in the city.

“What do we know?” I asked as I stepped to another window.

Demetrios glanced up at me, and grimaced.

“Less than I’d prefer. It sounds like we came through with just a few injuries, nothing Elin can’t heal. Kozalin didn’t get off so easily, though. There are collapsed buildings all over the city, and several long stretches of the city wall are down.”

“We can’t see it from here, but judging from the signals we’re hearing it sounds like the apes are massing for an assault,” Marcus added.

I frowned. “It’s going to be dark in an hour. Damn, a night battle is going to be complete chaos.”

“I think that’s what they’re counting on,” Demetrios said. “They’re camped in the open, so if they knew the earthquake was coming it wouldn’t have done much damage to them. With the city defenses in disarray they don’t need an elaborate plan of attack, so they called up a light snow to hide their movements from us. Next they’ll send a large force to flood in through the breaches in the wall and do as much indiscriminate damage as they can.”

“They won’t beat the wizards just running around in a mob like that,” Gronir observed.

“No, they won’t,” Demetrios agreed. “Brand won’t fall to anything short of a well-coordinated assault, either. But they could easily occupy the Trade District, and a confused battle in the streets will bleed the garrison white. We need to do what we can to mitigate the damage, or the city’s defenses will fold completely over the next few attacks. Daniel, will the mortars work in this weather?”