by Pam Uphoff
She sighed to see her former bedroom occupied. Blinked back sudden tears at the sight of the solid table. Surely that isn't Kendra Star's worktable. The door to the patio now led to a natural pool of steaming water. Outside, the sulfur odor was strong. Inside it was absent. "Good spell, for the sulfur." Guess I'll get a room at the Inn.
"Oh, don't be silly. This just the stuff I didn't take away to the university with me. I'll haul it upstairs and sleep in Xen's bed until I head back to college."
Then River did sit down and cry. For what was gone, and what was still here.
***
She stayed for two months. Learned and taught. Met a cheerful Simon several times.
"Damn, they've learned a bunch in a thousand years. And forgotten a bunch. I need to get to Karista to check on the state of normal physics, but there's no hurry. This magic stuff is fascinating."
She'd been relieved, and taken her time. Gotten to know Rustle. Very smart, very talented. Nice, actually. Not possessive of the winery. She'd laughed at their expectations of Rip Crossing, and invited River and Grace to visit the Rip Crossing Pyramid. They'd mostly gawped at the Rip itself. Simon needs to see this!
There were only fourteen witches in the whole pyramid, six of them Crescent Moons, and the oldest of the children were only four years old.
"I know. We're horribly lopsided. And no Dark Crescents at all. But Answer managed to insult enough of us enough times that we aren't going back. Any way, I'm forty, and so are Ash, Whoop and Verse. So another decade we might start looking like a decent pyramid." Rustle made a throwing away gesture. "If anything about Rip Crossing can be said to be decent."
Instead of a mountain, they had a tremendous hole in the ground. A mid continent spreading ridge, complete with fumaroles, hotsprings, volcanoes and earthquakes.
"Don't look so apprehensive. The volcanoes are all well north of here. A pity, really. Before the comet hit and shook things up a bit, the canyon went clear across the arctic to Asia. We explored it with a wagon and a team of horses." She grinned. "Mind you, I was only seven at the time, so claiming it a personal accomplishment might be a bit of an exaggeration."
They stayed two weeks, fleeing when a score of the colonists from Rip World popped through to the Inn for a party.
They caught Simon on one of his infrequent trips into Ash.
"Honestly." Grace rolled her eyes. "I've almost gotten used to getting naked in the hotsprings with the witches. A mixed group of . . . of . . . it was an Orgy! A real one!"
Simon's eyes crinkled. "Invite you in, did they?"
"Yes! I said no and left immediately. So did River."
River nodded. "Now I understand why Answer mentioned 'these decadent times.' Obviously a reference to Rip Crossing."
Chapter Eleven
Spring 1393
Ash, Foothills Province
"You've been a very bad daughter."
Her father's voice.
Eden snatched the boys up and backed uphill.
"Oh, how precious. A peasant woman, ungroomed, falling out of her clothing, with her little bastards clutched to her breast."
Eden couldn't see him anywhere in the bright late morning light. "They aren't bastards, even though the king is trying to annul the wedding."
"Oh? You actually married Rebo?"
The voice was so close. Were there impressions in the grass? Coming closer?
She backed away. "Yes. In Rip Crossing. The way they do marriages, there." If she called for help, mentally, would he be able to block her?
"Hmmm. Perhaps I can salvage something here, after all. Let's discuss this in a more civilized environment."
"No."
He laughed.
And everything went black.
Chapter Twelve
Spring 1393
King's Palace, Karista
"All right." Staven scowled at his grandfather, great uncle, father, and uncle. "College isn't actually dire. I will get a degree in either Law or Political Sciences. But I will not stop working, so the studies are going to proceed at half speed until I feel a lot better."
His father sighed. "We're are worried that you are pushing yourself to hard. I think you should take a leave of absence from the army and concentrate on college."
"No. I . . . " Do not want to talk about this. I am not going to talk about how I feel about being a dependent. Physically is bad enough. I will not emote all over and be an emotional leech. Financial . . . at least I'm only half a financial parasite. "Take pity on my left hand. I'm having trouble taking three classes worth of notes."
"Colonel Wacolm is concerned for your health."
Peached on me, did he? And after I promised to do practically nothing all weekend. I'm not that tired.
The king scowled. "And I understand that you are splitting your free time between two witches. Get rid of both of them."
"Two . . . ? Oh, you mean Lady Eden. No. I am keeping in touch with my nephews. Irwin and Alin may, depending on the ruling of the Council, be legitimately born. I will be a familiar figure in their lives and hopefully a good example."
"Staven!" Uncle Fossi sounded exasperated. "That joke of a ceremony . . ."
"Is pretty standard for the Land Grant, and in fact all of the New Lands. It's a frontier." Staven looked over at his Grandfather. "When you jumped the flame with Fossi's mother, were you aware that that was a Traveler's marriage ceremony? Had you proposed to her?"
"Yes and yes. But the Council ruled that it occurred within Havwee city limits, even though outside the city walls, and it was thus not valid."
"Really?" Staven looked over at Rufi. "So why is there a decree of divorce in the Council Records, with you as a witness?"
"Staven . . . " A warning tone in his great uncle's voice.
"Or perhaps it's simply a fluke that this one single 'bastard,' in four hundred years of royal misbehavior, was an acceptable spear heir to everyone who didn't have a personal iron in the fire? Because the collective subconscious damn well knew there was a legitimate prince out there?"
"Staven!" A chorus of voices.
Staven shifted ground slightly. "We need to not . . . leap to conclusions about the twins. But we need to make damn sure these boys are . . . well educated at the least. Well raised, with both love and discipline, and perhaps some feeling of duty to the Kingdom."
The king drummed his fingers. "Very well. Perhaps we should . . . no. Not until the council declares Rebo and Eden's marriage valid will I invite them here."
Rufi leaned forward. "Do not become fond of the girl. And mind how a council decree—one way or the other—will affect you."
"I will, sir. There is no fondness. And frankly, I've been too busy to visit for the last month. Oh, and while on the subject of children, can you get someone to tactfully suggest to Princess Marie that she could redecorate to her own tastes and perhaps even wall off the children's area into a separate apartment so they didn't bother her? I'm trying to keep in touch with Mirk's kids as well, but I'm not going to get my name attached to the harridan's. A separate apartment." Staven glowered at all of his male relatives. "Would allow the family to assure the kids that they aren't abandoned."
The older men swapped looks all around.
His father snorted. "You're going to make a good lawyer. You diverted us very neatly. Stay in school. I will not insist that you give up your City Guard job. Just . . . do not over do it. Please. Or we will make that an order."
"Yes, sir." Staven didn't relax until the king waved a casual dismissal. Then he headed straight home. I'm going to have to rest more, or I'll lose the few things I really value. At least they didn't order me to drop Mihaela. Exactly.
He headed for the barn, and let himself into Devil's stall. "How you doing, buddy?" He shucked his jacket to minimize the accumulation of horsehair and ran his hand down the horse's neck. Nasty scars where the water lizard's teeth had ripped. But the main damage had been to the near hind. Dislocated joints, ripped muscles, severed hamstring . . . they
had so nearly taken his leg off. "It's looking better."
Devil lifted the leg, let him flex it.
"I'll talk to Wolfson. See if there's any reason I can't take you down to the royal stud." He hugged the horse. "You deserve a big green pasture." And maybe some mares . . . I ought to look for some really nice mares. Except I won't be allowed to live far enough out of town for the sort of horse farm I'm thinking of. Damn. How did I get stuck in this spot? And Devil's only eleven years old, and look at Solstice, going strong at twenty something. Devil's too young to retire. He gave his right arm a dubious look, and imagined bending his elbow. The blob of meat shifted in his sleeve. He pulled it up and tried to remember what wiggling his fingers had felt like. Slight twitches of the little bumps on the larger bump. I can just about imagine that there's a wrist joint developing in there, and . . . the part that might be a hand someday is small now, but perhaps it will grow into a normal hand. "Hey, if I can recover, you ought to be back to normal in another six months, right?" He gave the horse a last rub under his eye then stepped back out to where a groom was holding Solstice. A mere two guards—so far as he could see—followed him home. They veered off once he was inside the courtyard of his mother's home.
A groom trotted out to collect Solstice, the butler swung the door open before he could even reach for the knob. He could hear voices from the front parlor.
" . . . only people I know who could ask if she . . . if they . . . "
"Mihaela!" Staven practically bounced across the room to hug her, as she stood up. "Who do you need to ask about whom?"
Her grip around his ribs slackened and she stepped back, blushing. "Oh. It's Lady Eden. She's disappeared. And the boys too."
Oh. Shit.
"And you think she might have come here? Or been brought here?" Staven looked around for the butler. "Send a messenger to Colonel Janic . . . That if he doesn't know where Lady Eden is, perhaps he ought to send Lieutenant Wolfson to check on the God of Art." Wolfson was in class this morning, ought to still be around somewhere. But I sort of know where to look . . . On Ring World, not far from the gate.
Mihaela's eyes widened. "I didn't think about Art!"
"When did she leave? Or rather, when did you see her last?"
"At the morning practice, two days ago. Her boys got fussy and Answer said something nasty about boys being so inferior, and Eden picked them up and walked out early, and didn't come yesterday. This morning I realized she wasn't there again today, so a couple of us walked over to her house to see if she was all right. And . . . the house wasn't messy like there'd been a fight, but it didn't look like she'd prepared for a trip. There was food that had spoiled, bread dough left to rise that was . . . umm, nasty after two days of sitting there. So I came here."
Staven nodded, and grabbed a page. "Tell the grooms I need Solstice again. Mihaela . . ." I should leave her here, safe. No. I should take her with me. Magic could come in handy . . . or at least I could hide behind her when Answer gets angry. "Do you know a fast route to the Crossroads? Right, have them saddle Black Magic, too." Rebo's horse, that Amalie gave to me. "Stop looking so worried, Mom. We'll just take a look to see if Art is where he belongs. Unless, of course, Janic's got them."
***
Xen looked up from his text as Lefty stuck his head in the door.
"There's a report that Lady Eden is missing. Pop out to Ring World and make sure Art is still where you left him. Then go to Ash and find out what's going on."
"Yes, sir." He abandoned the textbook without a qualm and headed for the stairs.
Pyrite was delighted to get out of the city, and once through the corridor to the crossroads, he stretched out and ran the five miles up to the furthest gate. And barely slowed down until they reached an area of disturbed ground.
With people standing around. He recognized Prince Staven and Mihaela . . . didn't know the woman or the dwarf who was trying to pull her away, his eyes, locked on Xen, leaking magical aura and panic in all directions.
"Good grief. Well, Eternal told me there were some Arbolian little gods here."
"We escaped from the priests. We live here. It's our home now, you can't make us go back. We won't go back." His voice was breathless with terror.
"Good plan. I'm not from Arbolia at all, let alone one of those sick priests. So calm down and tell me what happened?"
He didn't seem inclined to answer, but the woman raised her chin and faced him. "They thought something was buried here, and dug to see what it was. We made them rebury the nasty one, but it came to life, so we all ran away."
Veronian accent. No doubt one of the ladies who came with the Church of Love, and sensibly split . . . for some definitions of sensibly.
The short mage swallowed. "I watched. He went through the gate, back to your world."
"And the other statue?"
"It's in the cave. The women worship it."
"Do not. It's just pretty."
Xen pinched the bridge of his nose. "If you don't touch it, it will probably be safe enough to have around. The Goddess of Mercy operates by a very brutal and cold-blooded definition of mercy. Do not test it."
Staven cleared his throat. "They said it happened months ago. Where's Art been, since then?"
"Probably in his museum. Except when he went out to collect information. I wonder if he's moved the museum? It was just across the mountains, in the New Lands." Xen bit his lip. "Let's get to Ash. That'll reduce the jump by a third, if we teleport from there."
Mihaela looked worried. "And we should warn them, although it sounds like he's already got what he wanted."
Chapter Thirteen
Spring 1393
Ash, Foothills Province
There were a lot of people out on the streets of Ash. Xen spotted the best person to warn and swung down from Pyrite's back to face Answer.
"Art's escaped. I'm going to see if I can find his museum. And I suspect I'll find Eden and her children there as well."
The old witch's eyes narrowed. "This time, kill him. Stop being so nice. And call for help if you need it." She turned away and stalked over to the other Dark Crescent witches as they gathered, curious, no doubt, about the cause of Answer's mood.
"Take me with you!"
Hands grabbed him from behind. Grace. Wide-eyed and practically trembling. "I need to search his museum."
"Not alone!" Simon was there, with River right behind him. "And I'm damn good at breaking and entering. Yes, even the gods' homes."
Xen looked at them, crowding around him. "I'm just going to see if it's still where it was."
Grace shook her head. "He could move it at any moment. If it's there, we need to get in immediately."
Xen opened his mouth to argue . . . shut it.
Staven snickered. "She's right, and you know it."
"Yeah. And all of you have pretty good mental shields, tighten them up and Art won't notice we're on his doorstep . . . " He frowned a bit at Staven.
Staven had learned how to shield fifteen years ago. It was second nature. He thought about it now, and pictured, not the fine mesh but a solid barrier.
"Nice. Well, we're heading for the desert, and there's no way to hide the horses. And we need to go from the hotsprings. C'mon."
Chapter Fourteen
Spring 1393
Desolation Province
"It's still there."
Staven frowned out at the barren rugged ground. "Oh? How do you see an invisible museum?"
"The windows have a reflective coating on them, so he's got the bubble sealed around them. For the view or ventilation or something. See the rectangles of sky that don't quite match the color of the sky they're silhouetted against?"
Staven squinted. A long rectangle of slightly deeper blue against the cloudless sky . . . "Yeah. And there's a hint of the frame there, too. Some vertical spacers between panes."
"How do we get in?" Grace was fairly quivering with eagerness. "I've been in before, I've felt him unlock the door . . . "
&nb
sp; Staven looked at the group, appalled that Xen had brought so many people along.
"Let's go this way."
The older man, Staven thought his name was Simon, sounded a bit vague and started off, ducking behind rocks as he started circling the invisible building. The rest crouched down and followed him. Xen cursed faintly under his breath and made movements with his left hand. Hopefully doing something that would keep a god from noticing a pack of inept burglars.
At least Simon had sense enough to stay low and behind what few sizable rocks and brush were available as he spiraled in on . . . nothing what-so-ever, as far as Staven could see. Then the old wizard stood up and trotted right up to absolutely nothing, one hand out to feel the invisible.
Staven cursed and followed.
"Don't look so worried. Natural wizards are good at just happening to do the right thing at the right time." Xen stopped just behind him.
Simon looked around, wide-eyed in disbelief. "It doesn't work like that! As it happens, I've been in the museum several times. This side doesn't have any windows. The front doors—the only ones I've ever spotted—are right around the corner."
Xen snorted. "Brains win again. All right. This is an ordinary dimensional bubble. There's no flex to it, so I think it must be tight to the wall. I think I can pull it out . . . " He made grabbing motions, and pinched, like he was trying to grab something slippery. "Enough to open a hole and we can slide in without popping it. Which I suspect Art would notice."
He pulled his hands apart revealing a patch of marble wall. He pulled one side of the bubble outward and stepped in. "I'll just . . . " He broke off as Staven stepped in and the rest shoved in behind him.
Staven wiggled and shoved between the bubble—which was bronze colored on the inside—and the cold marble of the wall. It pressed down relentlessly, smothering them like a pillow. But he could see the others by their glow. In the faint sunlight that penetrated the bubble they were obvious . . . except for Xen. If he hadn't been bumping him regularly, he would have thought the man was gone. All us Royals learn how to shield, but it just dims the glow, it doesn't hide it entirely. So . . . the more powerful you are the better your shields? Makes sense. He followed Xen around a corner, into an inset entry with double doors of thick glass.