down from the walls to get in, through multiple checkpoints and armored doors. No surprise attack would have a chance to get that far before we could respond.
The floor and roof of the area were even more heavily armored than the rest, just to make sure no enemy would be able to break in by tunneling through them, and the elevator stop on the fifth floor was a killing field. To get into the living area you had to pass through two sets of heavy iron doors, and the passage between them had walls lined with arrow slits and murder holes in the ceiling. The barracks and guard posts surrounding that had room for a platoon of troops to live in full time, with their own mess area and rec room, although I doubted we’d actually have that kind of manpower available anytime soon.
Inside this protected space I laid out a large garden area three floors high, with artificial sunlight and a sprinkler system just like the farming areas. The rooms of our living quarters would surround that, so they could have windows and balconies facing the garden to give them a pleasant outdoor feel. That filled about half the space, and I figured we could use the other half as our coven’s official workspace and a secure storage area for dangerous magical projects.
But first I had to move Avilla’s kitchen. That was how I found myself standing on a narrow iron bridge entirely too many floors above the ground, trying to levitate a whole frickin’ room.
It had seemed like such a clever idea three days ago. The old keep was a single huge mass of stone, with thick floors and fairly solid interior walls. So why not just cut Avilla’s kitchen free of the surrounding stonework, and move it? It was probably solid enough to survive being picked up and moved around, but I could wrap some iron bands around it to make sure. Shaping a hole in the side of the keep big enough to get it out would be a pain, but I could do it.
I’d neglected to consider how heavy the damned thing would be. Not to mention that it was a long way off the ground, and so was the spot I was trying to move it to. I’d turned my earth talisman into an iron bridge between the two points, but it was a long way down.
The worst of it was that Avilla had insisted that she needed to be inside her kitchen when it was moved, to stabilize the enchantments. So there she was inside the giant stone box that was floating along next to me, leaning over the breakfast bar to watch me with wide eyes.
“I still can’t believe you can lift my whole kitchen,” she said excitedly. “It must weigh a ton.”
“Closer to… ten,” I replied through clenched teeth. I took another step, and the bridge creaked ominously beneath me. Was it thick enough to handle this much weight? A foot of solid iron supported by narrowly-spaced pillars had seemed like plenty when I was planning this, especially since my force magic spread the weight out quite a bit. But I wasn’t a civil engineer. I checked the structural reinforcement spell, to make sure it wasn’t drawing mana. Crap, it was. Not much, but apparently I’d been a little too optimistic with the bridge design. I’d better get this done quick, then.
“Ten tons? Oh, my! I knew you were strong, Daniel, but I didn’t know you were that strong.”
I took a few more steps. The wind caught the big, flat side of the stone box and tried to push it off the bridge, but fortunately it was too heavy to move very fast. It tilted and swayed sideways a few inches, before I shifted my force magic’s grip and got it back under control.
“Careful!” Avilla said. “I’m trying to hold everything in place in here, but I’m not sure how much this spell can handle.”
I took another careful step, and frowned. “You have a spell to keep things from spilling off of shelves if the room tilts?”
“It’s for earthquakes,” she explained with a smile. “It tries to hold everything in place, and keep the roof from falling in. But I’ve never used it before, so
The floor and roof of the area were even more heavily armored than the rest, just to make sure no enemy would be able to break in by tunneling through them, and the elevator stop on the fifth floor was a killing field. To get into the living area you had to pass through two sets of heavy iron doors, and the passage between them had walls lined with arrow slits and murder holes in the ceiling. The barracks and guard posts surrounding that had room for a platoon of troops to live in full time, with their own mess area and rec room, although I doubted we’d actually have that kind of manpower available anytime soon.
Inside this protected space I laid out a large garden area three floors high, with artificial sunlight and a sprinkler system just like the farming areas. The rooms of our living quarters would surround that, so they could have windows and balconies facing the garden to give them a pleasant outdoor feel. That filled about half the space, and I figured we could use the other half as our coven’s official workspace and a secure storage area for dangerous magical projects.
But first I had to move Avilla’s kitchen. That was how I found myself standing on a narrow iron bridge entirely too many floors above the ground, trying to levitate a whole frickin’ room.
It had seemed like such a clever idea three days ago. The old keep was a single huge mass of stone, with thick floors and fairly solid interior walls. So why not just cut Avilla’s kitchen free of the surrounding stonework, and move it? It was probably solid enough to survive being picked up and moved around, but I could wrap some iron bands around it to make sure. Shaping a hole in the side of the keep big enough to get it out would be a pain, but I could do it.
I’d neglected to consider how heavy the damned thing would be. Not to mention that it was a long way off the ground, and so was the spot I was trying to move it to. I’d turned my earth talisman into an iron bridge between the two points, but it was a long way down.
The worst of it was that Avilla had insisted that she needed to be inside her kitchen when it was moved, to stabilize the enchantments. So there she was inside the giant stone box that was floating along next to me, leaning over the breakfast bar to watch me with wide eyes.
“I still can’t believe you can lift my whole kitchen,” she said excitedly. “It must weigh a ton.”
“Closer to… ten,” I replied through clenched teeth. I took another step, and the bridge creaked ominously beneath me. Was it thick enough to handle this much weight? A foot of solid iron supported by narrowly-spaced pillars had seemed like plenty when I was planning this, especially since my force magic spread the weight out quite a bit. But I wasn’t a civil engineer. I checked the structural reinforcement spell, to make sure it wasn’t drawing mana. Crap, it was. Not much, but apparently I’d been a little too optimistic with the bridge design. I’d better get this done quick, then.
“Ten tons? Oh, my! I knew you were strong, Daniel, but I didn’t know you were that strong.”
I took a few more steps. The wind caught the big, flat side of the stone box and tried to push it off the bridge, but fortunately it was too heavy to move very fast. It tilted and swayed sideways a few inches, before I shifted my force magic’s grip and got it back under control.
“Careful!” Avilla said. “I’m trying to hold everything in place in here, but I’m not sure how much this spell can handle.”
I took another careful step, and frowned. “You have a spell to keep things from spilling off of shelves if the room tilts?”
“It’s for earthquakes,” she explained with a smile. “It tries to hold everything in place, and keep the roof from falling in. But I’ve never used it before, so
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