Besides, there was a better way for my power to increase.
“Tell Hegmun that I greatly appreciate his offer,” I told Rollar, “but I do not need his warriors to accompany me. However, I do need his warriors to do some fighting on my behalf. I will give each of them a Death Coin to carry. Every kill they make will give me power. Ask him if there are any assholes nearby. A few hundred fuckers that deserve to die should suffice.”
Rollar relayed this question to Hegmun, who grinned and nodded. He answered me in his barbarian tongue. As he did, Drok’s expression hardened, and he growled.
“He says,” Rollar said, “that there is indeed a blood feud that has gone unresolved for too long. Those undead troops of yours, the raiders we fought on the way here—they are members of a rival band who have raided Hothgrum many times. Drok knows this well, after the raiders… well, you heard what they did to his wife. They last passed a few months ago and captured many young women from Hothgrum as slaves. What kind of slaves, I’m sure you can also imagine. Heavy snows have prevented the Hothgrumian warriors from mounting a counter attack to get the girls back, but much of it has melted this last week. The passage to the rival tribe is now open again. Hegmun will send the warriors out on a rescue mission for the girls.”
“Excellent,” I said. “Tell him that his warriors’ kills will aid me greatly. Ask them to kill as many of the enemy tribe as possible. No prisoners.”
“They will be more than happy to do that; it sounds like many of the warriors lost daughters, sisters, and lovers to the raiders. They are hungry for vengeance.”
“Well, let ‘em loose then.”
Hegmun agreed to send his warriors out after dark. Perfect. Friya would be working with the blacksmith to add the froststone to my armor and imbue it with Cold magic tonight too. After that, there would be no reason to linger here in Hothgrum, as hospitable as Hegmun was and as transcendentally enriching as the Wise Woman’s solemn ceremonies in honor of the Death God were.
“We will leave tomorrow morning,” I said to my inner circle. “Make sure your weapons are sharp and your magic sharper.”
Chapter Fourteen
As the feast proceeded, talk descended to lighter subjects. I had a good few tankards of mead and was able to forget the darkness of the situation for a while, though thoughts of my uncle and the Blood God always lingered somewhere at the back of my mind.
That night, I wandered around Hothgrum. It was pretty awesome not to need sleep, but it could also be something of a curse. Being alone with my thoughts for too long, while everyone else slept, could take me to some dark places.
I considered what would happen if my uncle succeeded in sacrificing Lucielle to the Blood God, how powerless I would be to stop him if he made it that far. I thought about how my quest had started with the now-suddenly innocuous-seeming desire to become Fated, to get vengeance against my uncle, to take back what was rightfully mine—and how it had turned into a mission to stop the entire fucking world becoming a literal bloodbath. Things worked out strangely sometimes. Thinking about the change also made me look upon Anna and Friya’s no-longer-secret hopes with more sympathy, like I recognized some of my younger self in them. There was also Rollar’s desire to become Fated, one that I considered more with every passing day.
My walk and ruminations ended at Friya’s cabin outside Hothgrum, where I had a short rest before dawn. When I woke, she was there, holding my gleaming black breastplate, in which the cold-steaming froststone had now been set.
Friya smiled. “Your new item of Cold-enchanted armor, Vance.”
“Excellent,” I said, getting up. “What can it do?”
“Because it is armor, its magic is mainly defensive.”
“Good. My weapons up until now have leaned toward the offensive side.”
“You will be able to call up an ice wall as a shield for you and your party members. It will be particularly effective in draining Blood magic’s potency. It will be of little use against Fire magic, however, as you can imagine. Another perk is the Freezing Touch effect. Enemies who touch this breastplate with their hands or handheld weapons will be turned to ice if they have no resistance to magic. And if they do have resistance, they will sustain significant Cold damage.”
“I like the sound of that. Thank you for doing this, Friya.”
Her eyes drifted down to my crotch, and her lips curved into a sultry smile.
“There are many ways you can thank me, Vance,” she purred, her nipples stiffening and pushing against the fabric of her robe.
“Ways that we would both enjoy, yes,” I said with a grin. “But before we have some fun, you need to give me the part of a secret weapon you promised me. We’re leaving in a few short hours. How about we start with you telling me exactly what it is.”
“Of course. Come, it is buried a mile away from here.”
“Buried?”
“It is an object of great power, Vance. It radiates so much power that it interferes with my own sources and channels. Also, it acts like a beacon, and there are many who would do anything to get their hands on something so powerful. I had to bury it deep in an abandoned mine, within a number of chests, all enchanted with concealment spells. But I must warn you, once I take it out of these chests and give it to you, all the concealment spells will fall away, and the item will draw the power-hungry to you like moths to a flame in the night.”
“If this will help me kill the Blood God, I’ll take any risks.”
We walked out of her cabin and traveled up the hill through the woods until we reached the entrance to
