by Pam Uphoff
"Lose y'bridle?"
A calm, deep voice with farm boy accents, somehow sounding dull and stupid. Poor Easterly, even his voice . . .
Xen shook his head. "Someone didn't like the idea of him running around bare headed. I took Prince Staven to the Goddess of Health. He looked bad." Everyone within hearing turned to look at him. "Looked like loss of blood and shock. I didn't see Rebo."
Deena Janic, the Colonel's daughter, urged her horse through the corridor and picked up a trot joining the column of troops.
They pushed the horses and made it to the Edge in half an hour. Xen followed his nerves around to the left, in between the inn and their barn. Many of the troops had torches, in their light the path down was obvious. And blocked by a horse. Half collapsed, on his knees, bloody rips where he'd nearly had his throat torn out by a water lizard. No doubt other injuries as well.
"That's Staven's horse!" Easterly sounded shocked. Xen eased around him and the other troops to the horse, grabbing a drifting bubble no one else could see. He looped it over the desperate animal and closed it. The natural time dilation would keep the horse as he was, until Xen had time to help him.
Two ledges down, Mihaela was shining a light over at a pool of water. Janic was looking over the edge, his body tense. Fortunately too sensible to go further. He glanced up at the troops. "Get spears or something. I think we're going to have to find out if Rebo was here the hard way."
Easterly nodded and headed up. "Xen stay and don't let anything eat the colonel. Deena, check the barn for Rebo's horse. Keller, go find someone who has experience hunting those things and bring him and spears or whatever he recommends. You five go with him. You five get down there . . . "
Xen turned his attention to the pool. Grabbed a torch and tossed it to a patch of dry ground near the pool.
The surface was roiled by movement below in the cloudy water. Occasional scaly backs rose to the surface, tails whipped and drove them under.
"If we've got to kill all the lizards in there . . ." Xen rubbed his arms despite the steamy damp warmth. "Perhaps I should ask for some help from Rip Crossing."
Janic shook his head. "No. Rebo got into trouble there—or with people from there—too often. They'll all be suspects. Especially Ricardo."
Easterly joined them, torch in one hand, a long spear in the other.
They all looked at the roiling water.
"They've got something in there." Janic's fists clenched. "Staven's arm?"
A hairy torso rose briefly above the surface before the lizards pulled their meal back under.
Chapter Two
Winter 1393, day 2
Gold Rush Territory, Kingdom of the West
The faint light of predawn shown through the windows looking out over the Rip. The sounds of the men still hunting through lizard guts for body parts was mercifully muffled. The voices of the troops searching the Inn, talking to people to eliminate those uninvolved in Rebo's death were loud. Xen raised a slight muffling spell, and concentrated on Indigo, around his too-much-magic headache. I can rest later.
"I want you to try and see around all the illusions in your memory. If it's too embarrassing to do it with a guy, I can get my mom or my sister . . . "
Indigo shook her head. "No, you'll do fine. I just don't know if it will work. Are we talking about hypnotism here?"
"Yeah. We need to go through, step by step and really look at everything." His deep dark blue eyes were intent on her. "Think about walking down to the big pool."
And she could see it clearly, every little nook and corner, all the things she hadn't noticed consciously. It was all there. The Triad walking down the path cut into the cliffs, down into the steamy fog, the sulfur smells that she had always associated with Ash. Prissy city girl Mihaela taking one look at the naked men and fleeing. The handsome Donner, pouring wine for Dusty and her. Then all the men and women in the pool. Three pools on a broad shelf, the depths of the canyon still hidden in the thick mists. A small waterfall cooled the center pool, the other two steamed. Most of the men and all but two of the women were glowing, that subtle brightness of the magically able. Brac and the other man who had joined them, now she could see that both men had had illusions over their faces. At the time, she hadn't looked. But she remembered 'Bero's' manicured nails and a pale oval birthmark on his shoulder, the pattern of his chest hair, the three small moles to the left of his right nipple . . . She blushed and stuttered, jumped past her deflowering . . . remembered the incredible whoosh of power as she was suddenly channeling, the power flows . . .
"Okay." Xen took her hands. "He left quickly, where did he go?" He took her through the whole orgy, looking at the people in the background she hadn't even noticed. She even remembered the order in which everyone went down to the next, cooler, pool, remembered the oval birthmark on a shoulder during invisible tag, on Zapi who caught her, and again during Blindman, she'd caught Soho and . . . the face had been different, but the three moles, the birthmark . . . They had shifted down to the third pool, warmer than the waterfall pool, but not so enervating as the first. She remembered two guys and a girl wandering off into the mist and wondering if there was a fourth pool further along . . . didn't remember them coming back. Didn't see the birthmark during Guess Who or Simon Says, or anytime after.
"Think about the Moon, where was it?"
"Right overhead, it was a few days past half-full, when we first walked down. It set, well, dropped behind the cliff top, while we were still playing Blindman. That's when Donner and Sunset got out the oil lamps and set them around."
"Now think about when you were playing Blindman. You saw the birthmark . . ."
"By the last of the moonlight. Then it was Soho's turn . . . he caught Dawn, and she decided to try and catch Nor, who'd been good at dodging . . . Then the pool was nearly empty for a few minutes, Donner and Sunset were setting up the lanterns, that was when I was goofing off with Dawn, Soho and Zapi, and I sort of saw those guys that were over to the right. I don't know what girl they were following, though. Dusty and Smokey and Frost were gang tickling Nor, and He was kidding them about their 'cute little accents.' Kessi came over to steal Zapi. Del and Skori were fooling around. By the time the lamps were lit, the three were gone." She was shivering a bit. "I don't remember Brac, Bero or Kevin being there. Was that them that walked off? I really thought there was a woman."
"Okay, one last thing. I want you to close your eyes and picture Donner. Now Brac. Soho. Zapi. Nor. Del. Excellent. Now the women. Sunset. Dawn. Frost. Smokey. Kessi and Skori. There. That's enough detailed remembering. If Colonel Janic or General Rufi ask you to remember in detail, you'll remember it all. Otherwise, you'll remember however much you want to remember." He snapped his fingers in front of her face and she jumped a bit.
And gulped, feeling sick. "That was very strange. And I take it that Prince Rebo had an oval birthmark on his shoulder?"
Xen nodded. "Come on. I'll get someone to take you home. I've got to go . . . see my boss."
***
"One fellow had such a hard illusion, she couldn't see through it. The other men were Heso and Zap—that we have previously had trouble with. They're wizards, quite strong. I think Del is actually Eldon Kissison from Gemstone who I met at the Wizard School. I haven't seen him for years, so I may be wrong. Four of the women are complete unknowns. Two, Kessi and Skori, are two of the Auralian whores my rotation group picked up, who were involved in the One World infiltration. They were using their real names."
Janic was standing beside the body of a ten foot long lizard. Belly up, sliced open.
"We've got all the body parts. If there are any more lizards left in there, they can live." He cast an agonized look toward a tarp off to the side. "Rebo, Lord Keith Rivolti, and Staven's arm. I sent Easterly to Ash and that wizard school, to arrest Heso, Zap, and Ricardo, if they went home."
Xen winced, and hoped Easterly had survived . . . "The most obvious suspects, and I'm sure they were here. But where would they run to
, once they realized the alarm had been sounded? Rip Crossing, or the world beyond, might be more likely than the wizard school—none of them have relatives in Ash. Unless they are really confident they couldn't have been recognized. I'll . . . " he broke off at Janic's glower. "Wait for my superior officer to order me to do something."
"Yes." Janic looked beyond him.
Xen looked over his shoulder. Easterly had survived his first trip, and Deena was walking up behind him.
"This was a pretty elaborate and expensive setup. It looks . . . experienced. Heso and Zap are, what, about twenty? And Ricardo's younger. Keep your eyes open for someone older, more experienced and richer leading them directly, or pulling their strings from out of sight."
Xen blinked. But they're powerful . . . No. Just being magic doesn't instantly confer the ability to organize and coordinate something like this. The Auralian whores? Hoon was the only leader type among them. The unknown witches? Oh. "The unknown women . . . Indigo said they glowed. They have some magical ability, and she said they had accents. Their names are, well, the names they were using were Smokey, Frost, Sunset and Dawn. Those are the sorts of names the Virgins of Love in Cadent used. Could a Veronian Agent have picked up some talented women and . . . " Xen broke off as Janic pinched the bridge of his nose in pain.
"I'll sic my Veronian experts on it. Do I need to know how you know this?"
"My mom did some research there, when I was, umm, about three years old." Xen sighed. Poor man. I know all the wrong people.
"You three, go check all the magic places. We need answers, so try to bring me some live suspects."
Excellent! All I need now is a good night's sleep. Which I'll probably get in three or four days . . .
***
"We ought to start in Rip Crossing." Xen yawned. "I know practically everyone there, including Ricardo. Then Gemstone to see if any of the other men were friends of Jeri's. Ash to see if any of the women have ever been there for witch lessons, then Prairie Coast. Well, the order doesn't really matter."
"I took a quick trip to Ash, and Prairie Coast." Easterly shrugged. "No sign of Heso, Zap, Ricardo or Eternal. The usual suspects. Captain Wacolm is checking up on all of those whores your buddies adopted. And those lords as well. So let's go do our part."
They mounted up and Xen led the way. Unlike the public corridors, the magicians' private routes were locked. A simple mental touch was all it took to open the corridors; the lock was just to keep out the curious, the outsiders. The normal people. Xen rode to the abandoned Temple of Ba'al, to take the corridor to Ash. They emerged from the side of the Grange barn, and turned around to ride back into another spot on the barn, and emerged down in the deep canyon, on a shelf of rock perhaps twenty feet above the river. At least here the Sun was well up in the sky.
"Let's see who's here, first." Xen opened up and listened mentally while Pyrite walked over to the Inn. "No sign of our suspects. Orion is usually somewhere about . . . Oh. Dear. If you two are going to get embarrassed, you can wait out here."
"Don't tell me they've got an orgy going on." Deena glanced up at the sun, and followed him inside. "It's barely after lunch time."
"Rippers don't let mere daylight stop them." Xen turned down the hall to the main pool. "Maybe we should split up, you guys could ask . . . "
"Xen!" Orion spotted him, and surged out of the pool. Stark naked, of course. "With a gorgeous woman, I might have known. C'mon in."
"Nah, we're just passing through, so I figured I'd bring them by to shock them, get them over it, you know? They'll think the rest of the Rippers are totally normal after meeting you lot."
"Nonsense. We're actually pretty typical." He flashed a toothy grin at Deena. "Hi, Orion Valason."
"Vala . . . Flare's brother?" Deena blinked at him in surprise.
"Twin, actually."
"This is Lieutenant Easterly and Lieutenant Deena Janic of the King's Own."
Yellow splashed out of the pool swiping her long red hair behind her. "Hi. We'd probably be more impressed if we didn't already know and love our Xen." She leaned forward and gave Xen a damp hug and kiss. With plenty of body contact over an obviously pregnant belly. "Are you really here to shock people?"
"No, we're investigating a murder that involved a bunch of illusions and stuff. Have you seen Ricardo, Heso or Zap lately?"
"No . . . I can see that chilly manipulator Ricardo killing someone. But Heso and Zap are just . . . well . . . "
"Aww, C'mon, Xen." Korbin sloshed up to the group. "Those two idiots might kill someone accidentally, but murder? No way."
"Yeah, I think they got roped into playing a joke on someone, and got left holding the bag. And how about Eternal?"
"Haven't seen Eternal since last fall. He came and got his stuff and just picked up and left. With both babies." Ultramarine pouted. "I miss him!" She gave Easterly a friendly hug. "What did you say your name was?" Zebra leaned in from the other side and Taupe sidled up behind him.
"Ricardo was through here, umm, maybe a month ago? Hanging with Teri, poor little sop. Haven't seen him since. Not that he isn't good at sneaking back and forth. I thought he was over on Rip World, and avoiding the Wizards." Orion broke off when Ultramarine shook her head.
"I saw him this morning. He came out of the gate, riding, with a couple of pack horses. He waved and headed up the east side. Didn't stop or talk."
"That's the way we go to hunt bison. Or just about anything else, for that matter." Orion looked worried. "Heso and Zap have defected to our arch rivals, someplace called The Edge of the World, south of here. Is that where the murder happened?"
"Yep."
Orion whistled. "Tell us all about it. C'mon, Xen!"
Xen managed to not tell much while getting all possible details about Heso and Zap. All present being magic users, he was able to pass on the images he'd gotten from Dusty and Indigo. They thought a couple of the guys were from Gemstone, the women were all strangers.
They thanked them all and sent them back to their orgy, and walked back through the Inn.
Easterly loosened his collar and felt his damp jacket. "Xen . . . How have you managed to have so few children, growing up around people like that? Are any of them yours?"
"Nope. And it's not my fault . . . last spring, after the battle at the Crossroads, the injured troopers all got dosed with the wine of the gods, and there were plenty of witches injured as well, plus the ones acting as nurses sort of got overwhelmed by the group lust and . . . well. I understand it was a very, um, fun field hospital. Lots of witches are expecting babies in another month or so."
"And being already pregnant, why not play around even more?" Easterly shook his head.
Deena snickered. "At least the guys were polite, and only kissed my hand. Old Gods! They glow in the dark worse than you do, Xen."
"Umm, Deena, do you mean glow worse, or glow better?" Xen looked around innocently.
"More brightly, Buster. How come you and Easterly don't glow like that?"
"Because he's a nice, straightforward wizard, with a reasonable load of engineered genes, and a natural shield that boggles the mind. My shield is deliberate."
Easterly mounted his horse and looked around. "Nil and Dydit argue constantly about how important all the other genes are, beside the outside sourcing genes. Is that what you are talking about?"
"Yep. There are two hundred and ten engineered genes. And millions natural, unchanged, as far as we know, genes, that interact with the engineered genes. The mix of the whole, engineered and plain, change what a person is capable of, magically. The gods have a complete double set of the engineered genes, plus two power source genes. The wine does such a good job selecting for the engineered genes that a whole bunch of us are nearing their levels. Nobody knows what will happen. Whether the Collective Subconscious will affect us the way it affects the gods, or if that was a one time thing at the time of the Exile."
Easterly frowned at him. "What do you think?"
"I try not to.
There doesn't seem to be a damn thing I can do to stop it." He jumped to get a foot in the stirrup and Pyrite turned toward the gate. "I don't think I want to be the God of Spies."
He stopped and looked back. They were standing still, looking at each other.
"Be kind and don't tell Janic that. He might hurt himself laughing."
"More likely, he'd just change the way he uses you." Easterly looked around. "Poor sod."
"Yeah. He doesn't really approve of magic, especially attached to one of his command." Xen snorted.
Deena and Easterly swapped glances again. Deena visibly braced herself. "Years ago. Six years ago. Umm, Easterly and I chased a pair of wizards through what looked like a solid stone wall, out of the side of a barn, across a sheep pasture and up into a forest where we got totally and completely lost. I suppose it was Easterly's wizard talents that finally made him stop and start thinking, and I said something sarcastic about if I believed in magic I'd pray to the God of Spies."
Xen stopped. "Six years ago? I was sixteen, I had this odd dream. It really was . . . I woke up back in bed. Thought it had to be a dream. And, anyway, it was in the summer."
"Yeah. Whoever that was said we had a lost spell on us, led us back to the barn and pointed at the side of it." Easterly hunched his shoulders a bit. "I could sort of see there was something there."
"Yeah. I remember that. I'd let the hormone block go and was doing puberty so everyone would stop teasing me. I put it back on as soon as my voice finished changing. I don't think anything else has ever happened without my recognizing it." Oh, fuck a skunk! Other than witnessing a crucial meeting thousands of miles away. He shifted his weight and Pyrite trotted through the gate.