Black Harvest

by M. C. Planck

  Christopher had more immediate concerns. “Did they give you any nice toys?” He still hadn’t recovered the magical gear that had been looted from Trewayn’s vault.

  Richard shook his head. “I manufactured the apparatus necessary to my rank, but I turned down everything else. We can do better.”

  “I must also say that you have been offered better than myself,” Alaine said. “We have a few champions of higher rank; any of them would be willing to take my place at your side.”

  “I turned them down, too,” Richard said. “This mission depends on discretion as much as force, and I am concerned that any entity more significant than Lady Alaine would set off warning bells. As the local Field Officer, her presence is explicable; you, of course, are expected, the bard isn’t high enough rank to matter, and I am too new to have a reputation.”

  “You seem to have taken it all well in hand,” Christopher said.

  Richard looked at him with a piercing gaze. “You called for my help and staked my life. I intend to succeed.”

  Chastised, Christopher bit his lip.

  “To wit,” Richard continued, “I need your assistance. If one of us opens a gate to Earth the other can cross over for almost three hours. I would like to acquire a few of our own toys.”

  “We already have the best from Christopher’s forges,” Lalania said, her hand going to the revolver she wore.

  “No offense,” Richard said to her with a fetching smile, “but I had more in mind.”

  Christopher could not take offense. It was objectively true that Earth had better firearms. It was also likely true that Richard would have advanced technology further in five years than he had. And the physicist probably wouldn’t have a wife to be rescued, requiring him to run off and abandon his kingdom.

  “Um,” Christopher said, realizing he had not even considered the issue until now, “do you need to call home and tell someone where you are?”

  Richard laughed, genuinely enough, but his eyes were still on Lalania. “What could I possibly say? I got up and walked away from my wheelchair to play with the fairies? People disappear all the time on Earth, for all sorts of reasons, but world-famous cripples don’t just vanish without leaving so much as a fingernail. You should have prepared a corpse and set my bedroom on fire. If no one had looked too closely, it might have worked. Now the British tabloids will be exploding. Yes, I have family who must now be agonizing over my fate, but the daily medicine that kept me alive is not easily obtained. By now logic and reason will have confirmed my death in absentia. To disturb them with an incoherent phone call would seem the better part of cruelty.”

  He shrugged his shoulders disarmingly. “Scotland Yard is no doubt in a tizzy as well, but I doubt your mercies extend to them, nor could they be assuaged with a mere phone call either. Unless you were placing a ransom demand. That, at least, would make sense.”

  “You see what I mean,” Alaine said ruefully.

  Christopher did see. He should have made that phone call on Maggie’s behalf, but he hadn’t, for the same reason. What could he possibly say? To hear his voice when he was supposed to have been long dead assuring that his now missing wife was perfectly fine would only make her family crazy.

  Especially since he could not force such a lie through his lips. Maggie was lost, and he did not know where or how. He stood up, driven by the same whip that had lashed him since that moment.

  “Where do you want the gate?” His hand was already trying to trace out the spell.

  “On this side, in your stable. Sympathetic foci can only increase the chance of success. As for that side, I have an address.”

  “You intend to steal horses from Earth?” Lalania asked. Apparently she understood him when he spoke of arcana.

  Christopher had not understood it, but he had not asked because he didn’t care. He started walking down the long hall, heading for the courtyard.

  “Of sorts,” Richard said to Lalania as they followed him out. “But why don’t you come along and see? I’m sure you could make yourself useful.”

  Lalania blushed. “I know nothing of the situation you are entering. I would only be a liability.”

  Richard shook his head, although his eyes did not move. He stared at the bard like a man in a desert staring at a waterfall. “Nothing I can plan is beyond your improvisational skill.”

  Christopher exchanged a glance with Alaine. The elf looked back coolly, unconcerned with the little drama. He decided not to worry about it. Lalania had been dealing with this for her whole life; she had literally been trained for it.

  “Give me the address,” he said, interrupting some inconsequential flattery.

  Richard handed him a slip of paper. While Christopher read it, his eyes having to refocus on the unfamiliar English lettering, Richard cast his own spell, summoning the white mist that Lalania’s lyre produced. In its wake, his and Lalania’s clothes were transformed into military uniforms.

  “I liked that blouse,” Lalania complained.

  “Trust me, this suits you better, Colonel.” Richard saluted her crisply, still managing to imbue every word and act with salacious intent. “I am your driver, ma’am. We are to collect a Wolf for Home Duty.”

  “Snap to it, soldier,” she barked, throwing herself into the role.

  Richard grinned, his eyes making a double-entendre out of her remarks, but what he said was, “That was perfect, but unfortunately it needs to be in English.”

  Christopher turned away from the gaping hole that opened into a paved alleyway in another world and cast the translation spell on Lalania.

  “What am I supposed to say to anyone who comes wandering through here?” he asked.

  “That’s your problem,” Richard said. “Go ahead and tell them the truth for all I care. You can hardly make a worse mess of it than you already have. Just keep it open until we get back. I don’t fancy having to answer MI6’s questions without magic on my side.”

  He raised his eyebrows at Christopher’s obvious question, answering it before it could be asked. “You didn’t know? Magic works as long as you hold the gate open. I will still be a legendary wizard over there for the next three hours. Why didn’t you research this? I mean, I know you’re an engineer, but this is at least technical.”

  “I had other things on my mind,” Christopher answered testily.

  Richard gave Lalania an appreciative glance. “I understand. No, wait, I don’t.” Before Christopher had to respond, Richard took Lalania’s hand and led her down the alleyway.

  Alaine stood at his side. “My experience of Earth natives is woefully small, yet I find myself drawing broad conclusions. Please tell me I am wrong.”

  “They’re not all like us,” Christopher said. “Most of them are normal.”

  She gazed through the gap. Christopher realized she might have wanted to go along. For that matter, there were things he would have liked to have asked for. A bar of chocolate, for instance. He began hatching a plan to send Alaine across to look for a corner shop, but it fell apart when he came to the part where she paid for it.

  “Hang on,” Christopher said. “How is he going to buy an army jeep?”

  “It seems obvious that he intends to steal whatever he requires. He cleverly kept you distracted, precisely so you would not ask that very question. Although his affiliation is technically White, he is not quite as circumscribed as you are.”

  Christopher looked at her, remembering her promise to murder him and everyone he knew if he went astray. “And you?”

  “No,” she confessed. “We do not bind ourselves to gods. If I should fall and abuse my office, it is upon myself and my fellows to correct it. We will not lose our powers merely because we lose our way.”

  “That isn’t necessarily a good thing,” Christopher said, thinking of the value of a fail-safe. It was nice to know that if he went for Team Evil, he would at least be denied the spells he wielded in Marcius’s name.

  “It depends on whether or not you trust the gods.�
�

  He started to object, but his long-ago argument with Lalania came back to him. Instead, he asked, “Do you have reasons I should doubt Marcius?”

  “Not at all,” she said. “Yet that does not mean such reasons do not exist. It just means I do not know them.”

  He was glad that Richard was absent for this conversation. Gods were another thing he had not researched. In sheer point of fact, he had told Marcius to his face that he did not believe the god was being upfront and honest and yet continued to trust him completely.

  “Wheels within wheels,” he muttered.

  “We have ridden the Great Wheel for longer than you can imagine,” Alaine said. “In all that time, we have seen things that would beggar your dreams and terrify your nightmares. Yet I can tell you this: never before has the Directorate offered such rank to a mortal. He is truly a remarkable specimen.”

  With a flash, Christopher realized he had been rendered entirely obsolete. Richard had made it clear he could open gates too. And because he was from Earth, he could take over the role of guardian of the gate. Or target of the hjerne-spica. Whichever it was, this world no longer needed Christopher. He could go home now.

  Except that he couldn’t. There was no home left to go to.

  He stood in his stable, stewing in anger.

  Richard timed it close. Alaine had started to frown, meaning that her internal clock was running out. Christopher had found a hay bale to sit on, tired of standing after the first two hours. Servants had brought them wine and cheese, and a squad of soldiers waited just outside the stable doors with rifles and a cannon.

  At least no one wandered by the rip in the world. Christopher wondered at the luck of that until he realized Richard must have done something to hide it.

  Shortly after night began falling on the alleyway, he saw headlights. An open-topped jeep zipped around the corner and confidently drove through the gate, coming to a stop between Christopher and Alaine.

  Richard saluted from the driver’s seat. “Reporting for duty, General.”

  Lalania was sitting in the passenger seat, flushed with excitement. Christopher smiled to see her reaction to automobiles.

  “Was it an eventful trip?” Alaine asked the bard, more archly than Christopher thought necessary.

  “You’re not one to talk,” Lalania replied, before turning and pointing at the heavy machine gun mounted in the back. “Richard says this is for you.”

  “A bit of an upgrade over your bow,” the man said, winking at her. He seemed far more relaxed than he had been several hours ago. Apparently action was good for the soul. Christopher itched to join them. Every moment of delay felt like nails being driven into his spine.

  “When can we go?” Christopher asked.

  “A few more details,” Richard answered. “I need to show Alaine how to use the gun, which I imagine won’t take long. And I need to teach Ell to drive, although she’s already pretty handy with a stick shift. You and I will have our hands full with spells, and in any case, I bet your license has elapsed.”

  He had a pet nickname for her now. Lalania didn’t flinch at the familiarity, so Christopher let it pass. There would be a time when he would have to account for all the wizards he expected her to keep on side. Not now.

  24

  ROAD TRIP FROM HELL

  Richard had loaded the jeep with supplies before returning. Extra fuel, boxes of ammunition, several assault rifles, half a dozen large automatic pistols, and a grenade launcher.

  “For the small stuff,” he explained as he showed Christopher and the women how to load and charge the rifles. He had spent a day teaching Lalania to drive the jeep. Alaine had only needed a quarter of an hour to master the machine gun. Christopher had watched it destroying a stand of trees and frowned at the inadequacy of his own armaments. His artillerymen had stared in slack-jawed lust.

  “How do you know how to do all this?” Christopher asked.

  “The internet,” Richard replied. “You can look up manuals. Ell borrowed a phone while we were over there. The question you should be asking is how did these girls master these skills so quickly? You think it took you only a day to learn how to operate a motorcar?”

  At least he knew the answer to this one. “Rank. It makes everything easier.”

  “Only to a limit,” Richard said. “But yes. It does something to your mind. This truly fascinating phenomenon calls into question everything we think we know about consciousness. You’d think you’d be more curious.”

  “I saw a dragon turn into an elf,” Christopher said. “That made me curious.”

  Richard shrugged. “The least interesting event I have witnessed. It’s just energy. A staggering amount, but just energy. This . . . this is how our brains work. This is complex.”

  Christopher had finally had enough. “Look. While you were lounging around in an elven academy, I was fighting for my life. I didn’t have time for abstract questions.”

  “As I understand it, you’ve been on that throne for a few years now.” Christopher sighed, all of the fight taken out of him when he realized how little he had changed the justice system of this world. “It had its own distractions.”

  “That at least I can believe.” Richard was apparently trying to make peace in his own insufferable way. “But surely you noticed that people here, even people without powers, have tael.”

  “Yes,” Christopher said. “I did notice that.”

  “Didn’t you wonder what it is for? I mean, if tael lets you cast spells, Ell learn to drive a car, and Alaine jump out of a ten-story window, then what does it do for ordinary people? Why is it there at all?”

  Christopher shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a feature of this world.”

  “Yes: a feature of this world, and no other. Which explains why you summoned me instead of Ramanujan.”

  “Who?”

  Richard frowned at him. “Srinivasa Ramanujan. The mathematician. He died in 1920. You really don’t know who he was?” He shook his head in dismay. “If you wanted the smartest man in the world, you should have revived him. I assumed you augured for a name, rather than simply relying on popular press reports. I had, until now, assumed my status as the greatest living intellect had been established by divine authority, not merely your stray recollections. But no matter. You cannot revive Srini despite the fact that he died young. Because he died without tael. There is no record of him in the cosmic database.”

  Christopher felt his blood turn to ice. “Is that why I can’t reach Maggie?”

  “Not at all. She died here. The instant she stepped across the threshold, she was infected. Should you open a permanent gate to Earth, everyone there will be infected within a heartbeat. Only the temporary nature of your gates so far has prevented it.”

  “That’s an ugly word,” Christopher said.

  “Yet appropriate. Like a virus, it sits in our heads, doing nothing for us. A benign infection, if you will, but we did not ask for it, and it gains us naught. You and I only profit because we have other people’s tael, as well as our own. As far as I can tell, our native quantity of tael only serves to register us with the magic system. We can be scried on, spied on, revived, and a select number of other effects less immediate than simple directed energy. For instance, no one without tael can be shape-shifted.”

  “You understand,” Christopher said, scratching his chin, “that I had no un-taeled subjects to study.”

  “Another reason I took Ell to Earth. That sympathy spell she does, where she makes you think you’re her best friend? That doesn’t work. But she could still disguise herself. It’s a bloody mess, it is. Like it’s completely arbitrary.”

  That was something they could agree on. Christopher nodded his head in sympathy, but Richard shook his head.

  “It only seems that way. There has to be an underlying principle, a purpose. If all that was necessary was cosmic tagging, that could be accomplished with a fraction of the standard amount. This is wasteful, and nature is not profligate wi
thout reason. Eventually I will figure it out.”

  “Great. That’s great. I’m happy for you. Can we get back to the problem at hand?”

  The man stared at him curiously. “What makes you think this isn’t?”

  Their conversation was interrupted by an explosion. Alaine had figured out how to work the grenade launcher.

  “Not as effective as one of your fire strikes,” she said with a frown aimed downrange where the logs they had set up as targets were lying in disarray from the blast.

  “Except it works from within an anti-magic sphere. Which will prove useful, I think,” Richard said. “Christopher and I will both prepare that particular effect.”

  “Is that where we’re at?” Christopher asked. “Preparing spells?”

  “We are,” Richard confirmed. “We can leave in the morning.”

  The words did not comfort Christopher. He had already fought and won against impossible odds and lost anyway. Nothing had convinced him that this time would be different.

  Karl shook his head sadly. “I cannot decide which I regret the most: letting you leave or letting you take that vehicle away. Why didn’t you make any of those machine guns for us?”

  They were standing in the courtyard while Richard checked over the preparations. He had made a list, although Christopher suspected it was merely a prop he could wave at people who weren’t moving fast enough to suit him. The man did not seem like the kind of person who forgot things.

  “They’re hard. Also, you need smokeless powder or they get fouled and jam.” Christopher sighed. “And don’t even ask about the jeep. I bet it has electronic fuel injection. I can’t even guess how to manage that.”

  “I can’t believe you’re going without me. Again.” Gregor was trying to make a joke of it, but the truth hurt nonetheless. Disa clung to the blue knight’s arm with a look of gratitude that took the pain away.

  “I also feel the sting of rejection,” Torme said. “Though I know I have no reason to be anything but grateful. Still, it is the adventure of a lifetime and hard to miss out on.”