Flying

by Pam Uphoff

  Flying

  Pam Uphoff

  Copyright © 2017 Pamela Uphoff

  All Rights Reserved

  ISBN

  978-1-939746-31-3

  This is a work of fiction.

  All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional.

  Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  A stray scene . . .

  An Excerpt from an upcoming story:

  What I'm Reading Now

  About the Author

  Other Titles by Pam Uphoff

  Prologue

  Rael stretched and snuggled deep under the fluffy quilt.

  Xen's still asleep. So I can just lay here and admire his profile.

  Nose not arched enough to be called a beak, but definitely a strong nose. And chin. Cheekbones. Damn that man is yummy. Sort of a dark tan complexion, hair medium brown, with a hint of curl, even cut short now. Business-like, not the longer, styled cut of his spy days.

  I was attracted to him even when I actually thought he was a Halfer professional rider. Lusted after him even when he was getting too close to the President. We all wondered which of the other political parties he was spying for. It never occurred to us that he could be from the cross-dimensional world we're were planning to invade.

  A real, honest-to-One spy.

  Who saved the President's life from a full-blown organized coup.

  Oh Dear One I love this man.

  And I tried to kill him.

  Rael eased out of bed and into the chilly thin mountain air. She stepped out to the balcony and leaned on the balustrade. A few lights out almost on the horizon to mark the city down there, where so many worlds met to solve their differences peacefully.

  He made all this. Dragged us out of our fortress walls and forced us to . . . treat other people like people. Trade, permanent cross-dimensional gates, dimensional corridors between places on every world . . . I nearly don't recognize the multiverse any longer.

  And I nearly killed him.

  And I'm so tired.

  I need to get back to work.

  Maybe take a few more vitamins.

  She shook herself and walked back . . . not really inside since there was no wall, but under the roof and into the tiny kitchen. The coffee maker was a common One World brand, already loaded. She pushed the button and headed for the shower.

  No fluffy robes, but a quiet search through a small bureau produced thick wool socks and a Xen sized t-shirt. She'd nearly finished her first cup of coffee before he stirred, dropping a kiss on the top of her head on his way to the bathroom.

  He returned, a bit damp and smelling of soap, carrying the quilt from the bed to wrap around her. Then he returned with his own cup and the coffee pot. Snuggled up and propped his feet on the balustrade.

  She leaned her head on him. "I didn't mean to destroy your trust."

  A faint snort. "Don't be silly. I've always known you were an enemy agent. I'm just delighted we both survived our first clash. You didn't destroy my trust. You damaged your trust in yourself, and that's much harder to mend."

  "Oh."

  Chapter One

  15 Rajab 1404

  Paris, One World

  Rael kicked back in her office chair. "It's weird being an agent instead of a guard. I guess I've officially graduated. Without a long tedious ceremony like Paer had to survive. Mind you she looked all bright and eager. I kind of wish she wasn't posted to Exterior, though. Hard to say whether she needs to be guarded against outside threats or her fellow agents."

  A growl from Fool. "And she doesn't think she ought to be guarded at all, any more."

  Urfa grinned. "Exterior is changing. And it'll change a lot faster, from here on out. Xen's kids are seven . . . give them another decade and things could get interesting . . . " He paused, eyeing her thoughtfully.

  "What?" Does he know about my niece and nephew?

  Instead of answering, he looked at Fool. "Could you step out for a moment? I need to ask Rael something personal."

  Fool raised her eyebrows and stepped out, closing the door behind her.

  Rael swallowed. "What, umm . . . "

  "Do you know who your father is?"

  "Oh. Well, according to my birth certificate . . . But my mother's been to Comet Fall. Do I need to get my genetics tested?"

  "Already done. Let me send you a few things. Then I swear I'm going to collect everyone who might possibly be part Fallen, and get them tested genetically, and trained and tested magically."

  "How many . . . ?"

  "Other than Endi . . . Xen's twenty-five children? Only two others, that I know of. "

  Rael nodded. "Imde and Deim?"

  "Yes." He eyed her, clearly trying to decide what, if anything, to say to her.

  "My biomother's girlfriend's twins. Just please tell me I'm not Xen's sister."

  That made him laugh. "No, no. I was a bit worried that you might not realize . . . well . . . "

  "I never really wondered who my father was. I mean, I knew it was unlikely my rather intimidating 216 biomom could have had a child with this Egto Neartuone whose name is on my birth records. I . . . had a bad moment a couple of years ago when she glared at me and said she'd always rather admired Agni."

  Urfa choked, snickered.

  "Learning she'd been to Comet Fall was actually a relief. That wine of Xen's . . . I figured maybe this Egto really was my biofather . . . except, well, I checked his official records. He's got brown hair and brown eyes. I was expecting a redhead."

  Snort. "Between Kael's report on a rather nasty mission there and Ambassador Never giving us a copy of the Fallen's report on the same incident . . . I asked Xen if their agents were anyone we knew, and he said no . . . then he said they'd gone missing in that mess when we'd hijacked the Earther's gate anchor. He sent me a picture and asked if we ever spotted them anywhere to send them home please."

  He tapped at his comp then turned it to show a picture. Two men in uniform, blue and gold, grinning out of the screen. A sharp-faced man with very red hair and a handsome fellow with thick golden blond hair.

  "Right. I've seen pictures of those two. Frequently in the background of their General Rufi Negue. I figured bodyguards, and their pix are all from before we attacked Earth through their gate." Rael put a hand to her spiked red hair. "Imde and Deim have this gorgeous, thick, wavy, golden blonde hair."

  "The redhead's Bran Butcher, the blond is Oscar Harryson."

  "Bran. Butcher."

  "A very strong Mage, from a family of strong mages. Born, raised, and trained in Ash. The other one we know less about. 'Harryson' apparently denotes an orphan adopted by the God of Travelers, one of the original thirteen Old Gods."

  "Bran. Sounds like something I'd name a dog." Rael looked at the picture and suppressed a whimper. Or possibly hysteria.

  Those green eyes. Oh. One. Damn.

  "It's not actually so simple. As we've learned from Xen's children, that Wine of the Gods of his does some switching around of chromosomes to get the most powerful child possible. Your two X chromosomes are one from Kael and one from Egto. Apparently Bran has an ordinary X, so it got swapped out."

  Rael pinched the bridge of her nose. "Just had to have some weirdness, right?"

  "Your twin friends, because their mother is just a Servaone, got major three way mixes. Deim got a
lmost half from Oscar Harryson, just Idre Withione's X substituted for his ordinary one, plus four of Idre's insertion bearing chromosomes, where Mead had no insertions.

  "The brother's count is half Harryson's including the Y with the Comet Fall mage gene in the same place as our Priest gene. The other half is a mix of Mead's and Idro's chromosomes."

  "Yikes!"

  "Indeed. So think about how to inveigle Xen into talking about their training methods, and how do they recognize and train the dimensional talent anyway?" Urfa grinned. "Then come home and we'll see if any of you three have any dimensional talent."

  "Yikes!"

  "And we really ought to test your magical limits. What you managed down in Montevideo was extraordinary."

  She swallowed. "I thought it was the Dream OD."

  "Only one way to find out. And about time, too. Let's go out to the junkyard."

  Which wasn't really a junkyard. But they did keep a lot of big solid items around to practice on. One of which was an engine block. It had a few surface scratches on it.

  Fool eyed it, then her. "Several of us tried to duplicate your . . . slice." She touched a shiny triangle where a corner had been lopped off. "Qayg did this from a few centimeters away."

  Urfa grinned. "And you sliced one completely through from about three meters. So let's just see what you can do, stone cold sober." He paced off the distance. "Twenty meters."

  A low whistle from one of the people who'd followed them. Curious, or have they started betting already?

  "Urfa . . . that's impossible." Rael swallowed. Slice. Just an ultra thin physical shield that extends out from your body . . . She raised her left hand and pointed, pushed her shield out in a long thin blade, pulled power and poured it into as long a reach as she could and swung it back and forth.

  The engine block sat there. She waved her hand around. Nothing.

  "Well." She shrugged and walked back to the engine block. "Did I at least mark it?"

  She gave it a kick. It fell apart in chunks with a metallic crash.

  "Oh my."

  Urfa grinned and walked around behind the heap of former engine.

  The neat stack of logs looked solid, but when he shoved, it gave slightly . . . enough to show new cuts.

  They were collecting a crowd, and Fool led the way around to look at the far side of the stack.

  Except Isakson, who stalked further, to the low hill behind the junkyard.

  "Look at the cuts in the grass. The two horizontal cuts, the swoops as you let your disbelief loose and just swung your hand around." He frowned down on her. "You will have to be very careful of who and what is in the background until you learn how to gauge your range. And control it."

  He looked around. "Have you trained to use push in a small diameter?"

  Rael nodded. Oh One! "I can do ten meters."

  "Down there. The dead tree across the fence. Hit it."

  That's . . . She shut down her calculation of distance, and called up the spell, narrowed it down. Focused on the tree a few meters from the top and poured power into the spell. A snap. The tree swayed, crackled . . . the top section leaned, broke loose and fell.

  Wsca lowered the rifle in his hands. "Range finder says ninety-two meters."

  Isakson grunted. "I will start testing people and develop a training program. I had thought the power of the Warriors diluted and nearly lost. Obviously I was wrong."

  Rael put her fingers to her throbbing temples. "Can I faint now?"

  A snort from Isakson. "Warriors do not faint. You will run back to the barracks."

  She turned and started running. He did not say that! It didn't mean that! And I don't think there were any female Warriors, anyway.

  ***

  "While Isakson thinks about how to reconstitute his warriors, let's talk about a couple of things we've got on our plates.

  "First, I'm glad you're . . . in solid with Xen. It'll look like he's the reason you're spending some time on Embassy, while you look over the personnel there and . . . recommend changes that will reduce some problems we're having with snotty Oner attitudes there.

  "Second, or actually, time-wise, first. What I'd like you to do is take some of your accumulated leave and go home." Urfa eyed her. "The switchboard is still being inundated by your fans. Half from Montevideo. You could relax, give a vid interview or two . . . Get them off our backs . . . "

  Rael giggled. "And I suspect you have something you want me to say?"

  "Yes, Orde and I have gamed it. You can say things that neither of us ought to say."

  "Something about the Helios?"

  "Not yet, but speaking of them, Q has a project, and she's taking a bunch of her students with her. Since I offered all possible help, Xen suggested some guards to make sure they didn't get eaten by dinosaurs. If you think Q would accept you, I may put you in charge of that. I'd like to get some more people working with them, and you understand them well enough to get their relations off without a cultural clash."

  "Right. I'll get the intros down and everything running, and then if my being there is a problem, I'll step out."

  "Good. Xen was saying roughly a month before they leave. So have a nice vacation, and while you're there . . ."

  Chapter Two

  17 Rajab 1404 yp

  Montevideo Enclave, Uruguay

  "Honestly Rael! That was the worst yet!"

  Rael Withione Al Media Montevideo giggled and hugged her sister. "Oh, you're just jealous because they aren't selling posters of you."

  "Yes?" A skeptical masculine drawl from her brother-in-law. "Frozen in the act of stalking your prey?"

  Fortunately her niece and nephew arrived at speed, aborting a snarky answer.

  "Aunt Rael, Aunt Rael!" a chorus of young voices, and a double zap of magical relationship as they ran up and hugged her.

  Rael straightened. "My, you two are getting tall. Seven years old, One, it seems like just last year you were grubby little babies."

  Ryol sniffed. "Razz is the grubby baby. But I don't change her diapers very often."

  Rael giggled, and looked around for the missing niece . . . who was staggering through the door with the nanny hovering.

  "Walking already! Razz! Come to Auntie Rael!" Rael went to one knee and held her hands out. The little girl stopped and eyed her, then made a staggering run for the safety of her mother's arms.

  "Oh dear. I think I haven't been visiting often enough."

  Damn my career. I could have kids like these. And not have the time to really raise them myself. Unless I quit. And then what the hell would I do?

  "Six months is a long time when you're only thirteen months old." Ox—Ahxe Withione Timber Black Point—was the head administrator of the Montevideo District law enforcement establishment. "But don't worry, everyone knows all about you, and will tell everyone everything, especially all of your relatives. As soon as Razz is old enough to understand . . . "

  "Oh. Dear." Rael made herself giggle. I suppose I could top off my career with a major scandal. Marry Xen Wolfson. Not only not a High Withione, but a powerful and influential foreigner.

  Blink.

  Oh. My. One! I did not just think about marrying Xen Wolfson! I did not!

  Raod snickered, and stood up. The arm not holding Razz went around Rael's shoulders. "It's all right. We'll love you, no matter how bad your reputation gets."

  Ha! I've never really tried for a reputation. And certainly not for the one I've acquired.

  Arno bounced on his toes, eyes bright. "Were you really going to kill him?"

  "Well . . . I was trying. And I'm really glad he didn't let me."

  Ryol grinned. "Do you love Xen? Everyone says it's so romantic! The Bad Guy! He's so handsome! Is he really bad? Does he kill people?"

  Romantic? Oh Dear One!

  "Umm . . . " Rael caught glares from both parents. "It's not that he's bad. He's the enemy. Well, a soldier in the army of our enemy. He follows orders like I follow orders. But President Orde is trying to mak
e peace with them. So maybe Xen won't be an enemy forever."

  Rael glared at Ox, who was stifling laughter. "What?"

  "Like you follow orders? You mean, poorly?"

  Rael sighed. "Is it worse to be suspected of being an assassin, or to be known as the Multiverse's most incompetent assassin? All right. Fine. I have twice been ordered to kill someone. But both men are still alive. But those are the only two I've ever been ordered to kill. It's not like it's a career."

  Ox choked.

  "So I really don't think I count as an assassin."

  Then her parents arrived.

  Her mother with a resigned sigh, her father with a censorious glower.

  "Sorry."

  "For trying to kill someone? For trying to start a war? For failing? For making a spectacle of yourself?" Her dad's eyebrows lowered.

  Rael thought that over. "Yes . . . that pretty much covers the whole thing, doesn't it?" Except the self-knowledge that I really would have killed him. Betrayed him. Xen's right. I have shaken my trust in me.

  Her mother sighed. "I saw the pictures Raod took of Ebsa's graduation. That young man is certainly traveling in high company! You were in several, and I suddenly had high hopes that some form of fashion sense had suddenly kicked in."

  Rael snickered. "I borrowed that outfit. Kept those wonderful boots, because Q said they were a bit tight on her."

  "Q." Ox pinched his nose.

  "Surely you don't mean . . . Dr. Quicksilver? I mean, you just tried to kill her brother!" Her father looked boggled.

  "Much though I hate to admit it, she was amused that I thought I could possibly succeed. 'We've been out on night patrol for months,' she said. 'He's worried about you,' she said." Rael threw her hands in the air. "Then she said he wouldn't love me if I was a traitor to my own people! Honestly! I think I'm the worst agent ever!"

  Which raised a few snickers, but at least no one actually, verbally, agreed with her.

  But it was a beautiful day, late fall, down here in the southern hemisphere. Sunny and pleasantly warm. "Perfect beach weather!"