by Pam Uphoff
"You're so lucky. You grew up with all this. I'm still trying to memorize the basic charms."
Eden had two boys about the age of Zodiac, so Crimson brought her nephew along whenever they planned to meet. They wound up spending a lot of time watching the boys run, while Crimson showed Eden all the silly games they'd played as children, which made the memorization so easy for children. Crimson had to admit that it was a good review for herself, and fun when they added the magic to the silly songs. The boys chased rings of roses all over the meadow, with the bright-eyed Ocelot watching every step and gurgling and waving and kicking. Milk curdled quickly into cheese, standing all alone (how had that mnemonic ever been discovered?) Little Bo Peep's sheep became a bit of a nuisance, with the poor overworked sheep dogs trying to shift them back where they belonged.
"Bo Peep?"
"Goddess of Sheep Herders or something. Umm, I don't think she ever really existed. Not like our gods."
"Yikes! I should hope not. She'd be pulled everywhere, every spring, with the distressed sheep bleating for her to come rescue them from the clippers." They laughed about that until they cried.
Chapter Twenty-six
22 June 3512 ce
First day of Summer 1395 px
Crossroads, Kingdom of the West
Bach and Coolie gave verbal directions, and Jaime drove the horses into a slab of rock and out of the side of a barn.
He halted the horses and looked around. Wheatfield straight ahead, road to the left. Huge mountains to the right.
Bach walked up beside them, pulling out a compass. "We're west of the mountains. Now we just need to figure out how to get the rest of the way."
Jaime drove down to the road. And halted for a long look. There were some houses to the left, more to the right. Brocks Dry Goods. A tavern. Three little girls.
"You look lost." The little blonde on the left commented. They all looked maybe eight years old. And enough alike to be triplets.
Hamza stuck his head out the carriage door. "We're trying to get to the Crossroads."
The little blonde in the middle had some faint streaking in her ponytail, and was a touch taller than the others. She pointed south. "That corridor is on the other side." Jaime took a good look behind them at this side of the barn. Nothing to see but wood. Crushed grass trails led from their wheels to a stretch at the east end. Was there perhaps a bit of . . . he rubbed his eyes. Wood. No arch, no . . . anything. He loosened the reins and clicked his tongue at the horses. The carriage lurched into motion, and the giggling trio ran ahead to help the poor lost ordinary folk. Jaime had his hands full getting the horses to ram the barn where the kids were pointing. When the lead pair finally did, their heads disappeared and they walked happily ahead, half dragging the wheel pair through with them. Jaime watched resolutely as the barn wood wafted past his face and a bricked tavern yard formed up behind it. The sun was lower, it was only mid-morning, not close to noon . . . We've traveled three or four thousand kilometers in five minutes.
Jaime turned toward the stable behind what looked like a cross between a rustic motel and a swiss chalet. A boy trotted out, looking surprised. "Wow, you're here early. Did you drive all night? Or are you just stopping for breakfast?"
Hamza stepped out and stretched. "Breakfast. We got a really early start. Then we'll decide if we want to take a break here."
"Righto. I'll water them, but leave them hitched up."
***
Flare whipped up breakfast for the rather befuddled and lost looking family. Nighthawk yawned in a short while after, and jumped to help with the cleanup.
"How'd you make those pastries so fast?" The youngest member of the family, a girl in her late teens, or possibly a bit more, was peeking through the door.
"C'mon in, if you parents won't mind." Flare said. "I put the dough out to rise last night. It's warm, so the yeast is pretty active. I punch it down when I fire up the ovens about three in the morning. Then I just need to form it however I want and bake it."
"Three in the morning?" The girl looked aghast. "You do get to go back to bed, don't you?"
"Certainly. But not for long, else you lot wouldn't have had pastries."
Nighthawk peered around the girl. "The overnighters are up. I'll go see what they'd like."
The girl scooted in to get out of Nighthawk's way.
The witch was back in moments. "Tea and pastries for four, to start. Bacon and eggs for two. I'm Nighthawk, Flare is the master of the kitchen."
"I'm Zuni. Shouldn't that be Mistress?"
Flare boggled for a moment, then realization sank in. "Oh, you're not from around here. No, umm, Mistress implies that one is a kept woman. A Master is someone who is an expert."
Zuni turned beet red and started stammering apologies.
Nighthawk giggled. "You must be from Cadent. Absolutely the worst of the Veronians." Then it was her turn to blush. "Sorry, that wasn't nice of me."
Flare sent her off with a tray of cups and pastries, and poured steaming water over tea leaves already in the pots.
"Are you here to see the gates? I didn't know we were becoming a tourist's stop."
"All the stories are so weird, we just begged Daddy to bring us up here." Zuni was still red, and looking down guiltily.
Flare wondered what she was hiding; she rather brought Flare's perennially-in-trouble twin brothers to mind. If it was Val or Drei, I'd ask who he was chasing. In this case, I'll bet she met a soldier in Karista, who was posted up here.
"Well, it's summer, and getting hot, but better than later in the summer, when everything gets so dry. I suppose you'll have a nice enough time walking around. In fact Charliesville is a couple of months out of sync. It should have nice early fall weather over there. That's the first gate to the north. And make sure you see the fourth gate northwest, that's the planet with the rings." Flare loaded Nighthawk's tray with the teapots and turned to the stove. Bacon and eggs next.
Ladybug skittered through on her way to the privvy. Nick would be coming in, soon enough. And hungry as always. She sliced more bacon and added it to the pan. Zuni glanced out the door. "Gotta go." She trotted back to her parents.
The other guests started appearing, and a couple of troops going off duty stopped in for pastries.
The next time Flare checked, Zuni and family were gone. Nick popped in and reported that he'd stabled their horses, so they must be staying.
***
Devvy kept an eye on the guards around the first hill, as the 'family' took a stroll after breakfast. As far as she could see, they were guarding a barren hill. Three other hills west of the road had slight trails leading up them. To the left, a flat area, perhaps three hectares in size had three long mounds, obviously artificial.
This is where the battle was fought. Those are the burial mounds of the Oner soldiers.
A trail similar to the others led to the middle of another flat area. With a very sturdy building with heavy barred and locked doors.
"So . . . where are these gates?" Captain Furnace squinted up the last path to the west. "Let's go take a closer look, shall we?" He led the way up the path, frowning as he approached what looked like a tree stump. No. The trunk of a living tree, through a perfectly clear circle. "It must just be one of those corridors, without any illusions, and not even a frame around it." He crossed the threshold confidently, and the rest of them followed.
Devvy looked around at the huge old oak trees. A winding dirt road led off and quickly out of sight. It ended abruptly at the circular view of the grassy slope they'd just climbed. "No equipment. No sign of power input. This is really weird."
"Yeah, I figured there was . . . stuff in that big barn, back at that village." Zuni looked a bit spooked.
Jaime Felis was rubbing his arms and looking nervously back at the gate. "Not as rough as our powered gates, but I still hate them."
Furnace had walked out of sight, down the path, and called back to them. "You want weird? Come see this."
Devvy di
sliked leaving sight of the corridor . . . until she walked out into a more open area. In the bright morning light, the sweeping arc across the sky was dim. "It could be a cloud formation." Her voice sounded weak.
Zuni shaded her eyes. "The cook said there was a planet with rings . . . that wasn't another corridor, that really was a gate."
Paul nodded. "We need to get back here with some radio equipment, see if there's any Earthers' here. Or on any of those other worlds through those other gates."
Devvy shivered as realization hit. "This is why we need to get their gate tech. Call it magic, if you want to. But think about how easy gate travel would be, if you could put up dedicated gates to, say, mining worlds. Just truck the ore through, no million dollars a minute connections. These are going to change the economy all over again."
Andy looked around. "And they're going to make invasions simple."
***
Devvy joined Zuni in the kitchen chatting with the cook before dinner.
"What about the gate that's all locked up?"
"Oh, there are some really strange animals over there. Some of them very large and very dangerous." The cook, Flare, was chopping carrots.
Devvy bit her lip, and refrained from asking. Dinosaurs? Mammoths? Kangaroos?
They lingered over dinner, and in the twilight, strolled out casually, and collected all their radio equipment from the concealed cabinets in the carriage. They started out to the south and slipped uphill to the southernmost gate. The hills on the far side were a bit steeper, with more trees.
Captain Furnace took a slow look around at the absolute lack of unique characteristics and stationed Andy and Zuni on either side of the gate. "Don't move. I really don't want to be stumbling around in the dark trying to find it by trial and error."
Felis unshipped his gear, shook his head and carried it further from the gate. At half a mile, he was satisfied. He inflated a helium balloon and let it carry his antenna up a hundred feet, then settled down to search the frequencies. After an hour he packed up, reeled in the antenna and carried the balloon back to the gate.
"I don't have enough helium to do this too many times. But there's no reason we can't carry it along."
Furnace nodded, and they trooped out and down the hill. The sudden chirping of crickets startled Devvy. There weren't any over there. I didn't even notice. What else isn't there? She swatted her neck. Mosquitoes?
Only two of the gates had guards. They checked the unguarded gates with a similar lack of results. The barricaded gate they left alone. The field with the mounds . . . ground penetrating radar confirmed that they were mass graves. Other instruments picked up faint power sources. They matched a distinct profile. "Oners. Holy cow. They buried them with their stunners, lasers, communicators . . . Not very many of them. And ten years ago max, for me to be getting any readings. If they'd drained their batteries in the battle, these could be as recent as two years ago."
"Huh. Confirmation of the moles' video. Not that I doubted Malder, but High Command always likes confirmation. At least we weren't the only ones to get our butts kicked by these people."
Felis looked around. "I'll bet one of their gates connected to the Oners' network. Worse than opening up to a dinosaur world."
Captain Furnace hunkered down beside the equipment. "Let's just have a chat with the General, shall we? In theory, we could snatch someone here, drive through two corridors and up that ramp, and be off with the transports. They'd never catch us."
"But who do we snatch?" Felis glanced back at the inn. "I wondered about those old men . . . they didn't seem to be traveling anywhere, and they were talking about magnetic fields.
***
"You drank the wine!" Nighthawk was halfway between envious and alarmed. "I mean, us witches, it doesn't matter much, we aren't stupid enough to get married and depend on men, so we have babies whenever we want to. But you City folk are different. Or . . . maybe you could say it's an orgy baby. That's all right in Verona, isn't it?"
An old man two tables away looked around and shook his head. He eyed Devvy, Rose and Zuni with disapproval. "In Verona, only single men and loose women . . . celebrate. Married women stay with their husbands that night, and unmarried women lock their doors and stay off the streets. This is just a disaster for your daughters, madam."
Devvy glared. "Sorry. I thought we were out of everyone else's hearing range. Are you passing through?"
"Certainly not. There's no place to pass through to. We are studying the gates." The old man looked offended. The other old man looked condescending.
The youngest man at the table—he was probably close to fifty years old—grinned at them. "Fascinating, aren't they? Have you explored them?"
Devvy nodded. "Yesterday. Goodness, that ring! But I suppose you're used to it. Do you make gates? Did you make these gates?"
"No, these are all Rustle's. We're not making any more, too much danger of dinosaurs and such. Or hostile civilizations. We're working on mapping the various worlds, looking for patterns, so we can avoid the problem areas."
"That, umm, sounds like a good idea. Avoiding problems." She hoped she sounded baffled, and must have done fairly well, as the old men smirked and turned back to their discussion over dessert. Rustle's gates? What is Rustle? Government project? Maybe a company? Or is Rustle a who? Owner of the company, perhaps?
The 'hired help' was all ears from a table beyond the three scientists. 'Daddy' got up and walked out to check on the horses. <
Nighthawk hovered, lowering her voice. "Did you . . . I mean were the men there . . . well, Orion's always there, but . . . Old Gods! They ought to know better . . . some people have gotten into trouble over those orgies! Orion had better watch out." She bit her lip and hustled out.
Rose gritted her teeth. "I certainly hope they get into trouble. Thankfully, I have an implant to stop my menses, so I don't have to worry about getting pregnant."
Nighthawk delivered three slices of killer chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. "Oh yes you do. Especially if any wine got into the pool, and of course it always does."
Devvy glowered at her. "Go to many, yourself?"
The girl looked shocked. "Oh no! I'm much too young." She trotted off at a wave from some merchants.
Rose sniffed. "All gossip and hear-say. Unless you two are unprotected, and wanted to collect genetic samples the old fashioned way."
Devvy suppressed a sigh. "A few women had their implants removed and started families. I'm not one of them. And now I'm too old. Well, once we go home, there are advanced methods. If I get a permit."
Zuni bit her lip. "My boyfriend is going to have a cow over this. We've been talking about getting married . . . having a child . . . I do not believe I did that." She buried her face in her hands.
Rose snickered. "Was that Nick person better in bed than your boyfriend?"
Zuni glared. "Were any of the five men you fucked better than your shower massage?"
Devvy intervened hastily. "Eat your dessert, girls. Then perhaps we'll take a walk."
The old scientists were looking scandalized, the middle-aged one amused.
The oldest cleared his throat. "We should get out and lay out our instruments before dark. We can get readings all through the night."
They rose and headed for the stairs. Rose dropped her voice to a low growl. "How do they get readings without electricity? What sort of instruments do they use . . . are they the tech types we want?"
Devvy stepped over to the captain and bent to speak. She refused to notice his gaze drifting toward her breasts. "They're going to lay out instruments. Sounds like they . . . "
"Are the ones we want. Stunners only, split up, front and back doors. I'll take the back you three the front. Andy, go check on the horses. Felis, roam a bit, we don't want this to be seen. Hamza, come with me."
Devvy summoned Rose and Zuni with a gesture and headed upstairs. They slipped into her room. "Get your stunne
rs, we've got the front door."
She grabbed hers and led the way out.
"Goodness look at that beautiful Moon." Devvy dodged aside as the trio of scientists pushed through the door laden with boxes and sacks. Felis was down on the road and gave them a thumbs up. No one else coming; the door swung closed, and the stunners hummed.
Devvy leaped to grab the falling boxes—the man would just bruise, after all. She set them quickly down in a neat pile and pulled the old man to the bench and sat him down. Zuni hauled the other old one up and they propped them together. Rose hauled the third man to the other bench.
"I'll get the carriage." Devvy said. "Chat to the gentlemen."
She tried to stroll casually across the dining room and out the other door. The men looked around. The stable boy was coming across the yard, looking a bit alarmed. Had he seen something? Or was it just the . . . positioning and alertness of the men that was bothering him?
"Paul, those men were rude to the girls, and I won't repeat what they called me!" She turned to the boy. "Get our horses hitched right now! We're leaving!" She kept her voice shrill as Paul pretended to comfort her. Andy hustled to assist the harnessing. Captain Furnace faded back, circling the inn.
"I'm going to go pack!"
Paul was headed for the barn as she slipped inside. They hadn't brought much luggage inside, for just this reason, and she whipped through the rooms quickly. Probably there wouldn't be an alarm, but leaving everything behind looked too much like fleeing.
She hustled it all out the back door and into the carriage as they were backing the horses into the traces. Paul handed her in and Andy climbed up to the driver's perch. They pulled around to the front door.
Zuni was waving her hands, as she nattered to her indifferent audience. Rose was sitting beside the middle-aged one, with one of his arms pulled around her waist. They stayed there while the instruments were loaded into the boot. Then the carriage door was opened and the limp bodies slung quickly in.