Children of a Foreign God

by Pam Uphoff

  One of the taller boys looked around, squinted at the sun. “That way’s North?”

  “Yep. Jay, is it?”

  “Yes. My mom—Poppy—said she would have sent a message, but she didn’t want me using language like that.”

  “Indeed.” Xen started pointing as he strolled. “The theater there is run by a Oner Company, although I suspect you’ve seen everything they’re showing. They use it for education and propaganda. The pastry shop across the street is owned by some Comet Fall Witches. I’ll dole out local coinage so you all have pocket money—is that term in use? Anyhow, the nightclub is also run by Oners, and won’t serve anyone under twenty-two.”

  No one asked anything. Stop feeling insecure. Of course they aren’t going to chat with you. Yet. He crossed the street and into the plaza before he turned around.

  “So the street grid has half mile spacing—about 800 meters—running north-south and east-west. Then the diagonal roads off three of the four corners.

  “Our first thought was that embassies would need a quarter of every block. Forty acres, or—do you use Hectares? About sixteen. Of course Earth and the Empire immediately decided they needed a lot more and took four lots each.” He waved at the east side of the square. “That’s why Arrival—one of the other Exile Worlds—and the Kingdom of the West on Comet Fall share that side of the plaza. The Empire of the One, is there. The Earth is opposite them.

  “Excellent symbolism.” Xen eyed the kids. Closed up. Bored? Hostile? Rejecting? I can’t tell. But I’ll wrap this up quickly.

  “On the west side, the Arbolian Empire also decided to grab four squares and did a fair job of using it all. Down the Southwest Diagonal . . . the wooden fort is the Purple Embassy. That’s not a good indication of their tech level—it’s from a period in their early history that they are quite proud of.

  “The building with arms going all over is the library. And if you go another ten miles, you’ll find the beach. There’s a . . . passenger thing, tram is what most people call it, that goes back and forth, so you don’t have to walk it. It’s a different beach from the one we use for training exercises, that the corridor leads to.

  “Northwest Diagonal . . . the pink granite building is the Comet Fall Hospital. If you have a problem, you can go there, or to the clinic in the Oner Embassy.

  “So . . . let me show you Disco.”

  Well, at least they’re a little wide-eyed. I’d hate to not get any reaction out of the whole batch of them. From here on out, I need to take them in smaller groups.

  “The frame of the building was built by a compass of Mages . . . who I’ve invited back to put in a sewer system and expand the water supply system.” Xen glanced back at the big black cubist heap. “I hope I don’t come to regret it, they sort of get drunk on magic and get a little out of control. But what can go wrong with sewers?”

  That got a few snickers from the boys. The girls mostly looked appalled. Xen turned and trotted up the steps. The big double doors swung open and he led the way through and into the much less threatening sandstone walled reception area.

  Nighthawk was bent over the receptionist’s desk, a finger on something there. She straightened and studied the kids. A fit young woman, dark honey complexion and long black hair, wearing the Disco gray uniform.

  “Ah, and my oldest child. Nighthawk, these are your half siblings.”

  And there was his fierce girl starting to laugh. “All twenty-seven of them, all at once! Oh, this is going to be fun!”

  And another laugh, as his sister trotted down the stairs to join them.

  “And this is Doctor Quail Quicksilver, also known as Quicksilver Rustledaut in the proper witch matriarchal naming scheme. Who is your aunt. Of every single one of you.”

  “Nighthawk, Q, this is Yrno, and Laar. Let’s see, Jay with the unpronounceable name. There are two Arno’s . . . there and there. Ryol and Rain, Voyr , Voih, Voan, and Viin.”

  “We’re never going to remember all of them. Stop showing off your memory.” Q shook her head, laughing.

  “Orny, Ogri, Orry, and Orty. Zyop, Zyot. Avro, Anro, Utry, and Yrbo finishes off the guys. Gior, Nyok, Foyh, Noop, Poan, and Toyz.” Xen took a deep breath . . . “Did I get you all?”

  Nods, a few giggles.

  “And did I point to the right people at the right time?”

  More giggles. Even the boys looked pleased to be recognized.

  “Good. I’ll try to keep it up. In the meantime, this is the main assembly room, that shows up on so many news reports. C’mon down. I think the mix of magical effects and tech are interesting. Inso and Jiol put most of it together, so no doubt you’ll recognized the electronic components.”

  And then, since they were at the bottom, he showed them the jail. “It’s empty. We really don’t catch all that many criminals. And up here the smaller meeting rooms, and the top floor is offices, records, and libraries.

  Q showed off her multiverse models, enlarging them so the kids could walk around inside them, and trace the permanent gates to all their colonies, to Earth, Comet Fall . . .

  And finally, he herded them all off to The Kitchen for a late lunch.

  And yeah, the witches laughed at him too.

  “Sit anywhere.” Redheaded Kyle waved them in. “You’re late so you have the place to yourself.”

  Gior eyed the young woman. “Are you a Witch?”

  “Yep.” She nodded at the other girl working the tables. “Vero and I both have the witch gene and the wizard gene, so eventually we can probably do dimensional stuff.”

  Vero nodded. “We’re here to get trained, now that we’re out of school.”

  Q nodded. “We have a nasty tendency to make our youngsters work, even the ones who are in college. Umm, on Comet Fall. There’s not a college here, yet. But some of the kids take remote classes the first year or two.”

  “And we have money!” Vero added.

  “Until we’re good enough at magic to hunt for gold. Then we’ll be rich!”

  “And bored!” Came a voice from the kitchen, and a pretty brunette stuck her head out. “Hi. I’m Wren, me and Swallow are running the kitchen at the moment. Welcome. Ask us any time you need anything food oriented.”

  She ducked back into the kitchen.

  “The witches have a tradition of cooking contests.” Xen waved at the younger girls. “No doubt the brats here will be showing off their cooking skills in a few more years.” Xen grabbed a table against the kitchen wall and sat looking out at the room. “Iced tea for me, Vero.”

  Jolted back to duty, Vero and Kyle ushered the kids in and reeled off the drink selections and then the menu.

  “We do soup and sandwiches for lunches. Today’s soups are vegetable, tomato, and chicken noodle. Sandwiches . . . pick a bread—sourdough white, hard French rolls, whole wheat, and pumpernickel rye. Then we’ll load them with your choice . . .”

  Xen took a deep breath and tried to make himself relax. It’s going all right. After lunch I’ll show them the exercise ground, the running track, the horses, and then let them unpack and just putz around until dinner.

  Then a history lesson . . . unless they’re looking tired. More than half of them are here from Paris and the seven hour time difference will be catching up to them.

  He turned to the adults joining him at the table.

  Three Princess-Priests and three Eunuch-Priests.

  “So . . . you six are in charge of this training project?”

  Six cautious nods.

  “Any time I use terms you don’t understand, or otherwise confuse you, please interrupt and ask for clarification. I’m as ignorant of your usual training procedures as you are of mine. But given the similarities in our engineering, I hope that sheer practicality has produced similarities in training.”

  Diuc, a black haired woman that he’d guess at fifty years of age—plus or minus twenty years—was alluring physically. But it was the devastating glow she was aiming his direction that had him hardening his shields.
She leaned closer. “Yes, we want to see how your training differs from ours, and whether that’s a matter of the slight differences in those genes, or simply due to different needs in both our early years.”

  One of the Eunuchs grinned. “Academic curiosity, Diuc? I want to try some of those house remodeling techniques we’ve heard about. That sort of brute force molding of materials is unheard of . . . but is it impossible, or did we just never develop the techniques?”

  “You’re Ytry, right?”

  “Right. This is Unvu, and you’ve met Izmo. Diuc, Teal, and Jaum are both Princesses and Priests. We’ll be trying to learn, and then disseminate your techniques.”

  Xen nodded. Just so we all know where we stand.

  “And keeping an eye on the kids.” Izmo added.

  I was planning on teaching the kids, not the chaperones. This could be interesting.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Maze

  “While most worlds use vehicles of various sorts, we’re more likely to ride horses. These horses, specifically, are the descendants of the horses in the genetic engineering labs. They have a high number of human genes and . . .”

  Arno lost track of the lecture as he stared at the horses.

  The horses could talk!

  Arno looked from horse to horse as words and mental impressions of ear twitches, head tosses, tail swishes, and words flowed past.

  :: A whole herd of Xen’s foals! ::

  :: Well of course, he’s very good breeding material. ::

  :: I’m surprised there haven’t been a lot more. ::

  :: He’s not stallion stupid. Human mares try to manipulate men. HE won’t allow that. ::

  :: Snort. Just like you, Pyrite? ::

  An amused whicker, aloud this time. :: No. HE has a favorite lead mare. Two of the foals are hers. I’m surprised they haven’t had more. But little humans are so slow growing that, for them, it is sensible to spread them out. ::

  More snorts. :: Well, this is a nice little herd of them. Maybe we can keep some of them. ::

  Arno stumbled over his big feet as he tried to stay with the group, while looking back and trying to figure out which horse was saying what.

  And organize his thoughts.

  Morning exercises, starting with a long run.

  Long for me. Aunt Rael could do it easy, I’ll bet.

  Then breakfast, and off he goes to keep peace in the Multiverse, with help from talking horses.

  Well, Dad goes to the gym after work, not before, but he does keep the peace.

  Arno snickered at the thought of his dad’s underlings in the role of talking horses . . .

  But it’s not that different a lifestyle, just sort of “Cop’s Life” with a weird twist to it.

  And he didn’t try to get any of us to call him dad or anything, so that’s a relief. I guess this week won’t be too bad.

  He looked back at the horses. Did one of them say they wanted to keep us? Does . . . Master Xen want to keep us? Any of us? I may be Aunt Rael’s biokid, but I’m hardly outstanding in this crowd. Heck, with no power I’m probably one of the culls.

  But back in the school, or training center or whatever, Master Xen just disbursed piles of coins and turned them loose.

  “Unpack, look around, whatever. Just pop into the restaurant whenever you’re hungry, they’ll put everything on my tab.

  “And since there’s a five hour time difference between here and Paris, I won’t get you up too early in the morning.” A flash of teeth in a quick grin. “The day-after-tomorrow, on the other hand, I’ll roust you out for some exercise at dawn.”

  Universal groans, then the man went away and left them looking around at each other.

  Ryol trotted off down the right corridor. “I’m going to unpack, and change clothes.” A bunch of girls followed her.

  Arno rolled his eyes. “Girls!”

  Yrno laughed. “Sisters! Yeah, I’ve got some back home. I’m going to go see if I can meet any women who aren’t related to me! Or some form of entertainment.”

  Most of the guys drifted back out the doors after him.

  Arno looked east, but the horses had all moved off. I’ll try to talk to them later.

  He followed the other guys as they headed for the plaza . . . or knowing Yrno, for those girls sitting on the patio of the pastry shop.

  ***

  Ryol swapped to a prettier blouse, and decided to take a jacket along. It is winter here, and the air’s dry, so the temps may drop if we stay out past sunset.

  Some of the girls—her sisters—were sitting at the tables, heads together, giggling. No welcome signs out, so Ryol walked past them and out the door. She spotted Arno in the group around the pastry shop, and walked that way.

  It’s weird, not being around people who know me. She squirmed a bit. People who know I’m one of the cool kids, one of the in-group. And I’d better get used to it. Dad’s new job is just temporary . . . for now. He’s got a small apartment in Gate City, and comes home every Friday and leaves again Monday morning. But what if that changes in the next few months? If the External Relation Directorate hires him full time, we’ll move. We’ll go to high school there, with complete strangers.

  Not that we wouldn’t be among mostly strangers at La Playa, but all the kids, all our friends, would be there too. But Gate City would be like this.

  So, get used to introducing yourself and finding new friends, Girl!

  Starting here. There’re some strangers in the bunch.

  She straightened her shoulders and sashayed up to thump her twin on the shoulder. “Hey Arno.”

  A few heads turned her way, and a couple of the new guys’ eyes widened.

  Arno grinned at her. He’d always kidded her about her looks. “The boggling guys are Epic and Irwun—Irwun and Zodiac are cross-dimensional traders. Epic and Arwen are in college—in fact they were trying to write a joint research paper, when all of us showed up, and everyone else is in high school. Mostly inside their embassies here. Right?”

  One of the other kids grinned. “It’ll be cool if they build some public high school soon enough for us to all get together”

  Is it just the light, or does he have purple hair? And that other boy, and those three girls”

  Ryol switched her attention back to the older boys. “Cross-dimensional traders?” Irwun was a drop dead gorgeous blond.

  Not a Oner, but the glow! She tried to not drool. Zodiac and Epic aren’t bad, either. The girl, Arwen, did he say? Definitely a Oner, and Epic’s a Oner as well.

  “Just what it sounds like.” Irwun flashed beautiful straight teeth. “We trade with several worlds that connect to the Maze. It’s great fun, and we make a ton of money.”

  “The Maze?” Must not drool!

  “A bunch of worlds, some that Xen and Q discovered, and used to set up a way to keep you Oners from following them home when they spied on you—that was before they figured out how to take down the permanent gates.” Beautiful smile, fantastic glow. Down girl! He must be a Fallen wizard, or mage. And damn being fourteen! All the lectures from everyone about waiting . . .

  “Ooolala.” A whisper from behind her. Gior, with Foyh.

  Ryol ignored them. “Do you need a permit to use the Maze?”

  Irwun and Zodiac both laughed.

  Zodiac shook his shiny black hair out of his eyes. “Nope. It’s wide-open. Lots of people camp back there.”

  Irwun grinned, showing a lot of big teeth. “Want to see it?” He hopped off the porch and headed up the diagonal road, away from the plaza.

  The boys all chorused a yes! Ryol nodded. After all, I’m with my twelve brothers. What could possibly go wrong?

  Epic and Arwen exchanged glances. “Should we adults go along?”

  That got a raspberry from a girl who was probably around sixteen. “You’re only nineteen, Arwen. At least Epic’s over twenty.”

  “I’m twenty-one punk. And since I see my sisters following the pied pipers, I’m going too.” Apparently
their group hadn’t gotten far enough along to order anything, but the other people were paying up and following Irwun.

  Zodiac slapped down money and collected a bagful of who knows what, and trotted to catch up with them. Ryol trailed a bit uncertainly and found Zodiac walking beside her. “Don’t look so worried. They’re pranksters, not rapists or whatever . . . Whoa! There’s more of you?”

  Ryol followed his gaze. The rest of the girls were leaving the school.

  “Ryol? What’s going on?” Voyr looked back and forth at the horde.

  “We’re going to explore the Maze, c’mon!” Oooo, shoes with heels! This could be funny!

  Zodiac grinned, and speaking softly, “Is that nice?”

  Ryol grinned back. Unfortunately when the paving turned into doubled tire tracks, packed dirt through the unmown grass, the girls in good shoes stopped and only six of them kept going. Well, and all the boys, of course, turning off into a meadow and leaping through a white whirlpool and out of sight.

  “I hate not being able to see what’s on the other side.” Lala whispered.

  Ryol nodded. “Yeah.”

  Foyh sniffed. “Oh, it’s just a little foggy.”

  “It’s a lot foggy.” Gior stopped. “Those stupid boys are in the way . . . that’s better.” She jumped through.

  Ryol swapped glances with Lala, swallowed, walked up to the whirlpool, and jumped.

  Spun, stretched, compacted and stepped out onto another double tire track. She staggered a couple of meters and looked back. Lala leaped gracefully out of the whirlpool, tripped and fell flat. Zodiac stepped out nonchalantly and reached down to give her a hand.

  Lala blushed as she accepted the help and scrambled up. “Sorry, I didn’t think about the ground being rough over . . . here?”

  Reminded, Ryol looked around at the third world she’s ever been on. Another grassy meadow, surrounded by trees, but with spectacular tall mountains on three sides.

  “Wow. We don’t have anything like that in Montevideo.”

  Zodiac frowned at her. “Doesn’t Montevideo mean mountain view or something like that?”