Young Warriors (Wine of the Gods Book 10)

by Pam Uphoff

  "Oh!" She looked startled, and a little nervous.

  "Let's head back up." Damn all nice girls and virgins!

  She blushed in the candlelight. "Sorry, my mother harps on not trusting men." She put a restraining hand on his arm and raised her face again.

  Your mother knows what she is talking about. He kissed her again, standing close enough to feel her body heat. She leaned just a little closer, making actual contact.

  It was with great difficulty that he forced himself to stop.

  Back in the main room, Prince Garit and Remi were both missing; three irritated women were trying to not look like they were focused on the back door.

  The other two curbs were playing cards with the drovers. The merchants approached the women's table, and from their expressions got a pretty cold reception. One of them looked inclined to be pushy, but the old innkeeper popped out and took him by the arm, steering him away.

  Tanner caught a bit of what he was saying. ". . . their father. You do not want to offend him."

  Late in the day the storm moved off to the east, and the temperatures rose. Stepping out onto the front porch, the crisp air was nearly pleasant.

  The merchants stumped out as well, and grunted satisfaction.

  "We'll be able to get out of here in the morning. You lot are headed into the mountains?" the most richly dressed of them looked Tanner over. "You may want to give it an extra day, they're still getting, well, possibly snow at that elevation."

  Tanner looked at the line of deep purple clouds hiding the mountains and nodded. "Probably."

  He walked back inside, then out the back and tracked down the Prince and Remi in the barn. It was stuffed; their seven horses and the merchants' eight left the inn's milk cow and two geldings lounging in the wide aisle.

  He blinked at the chestnut and barely registered the prince stepping out of a tack room next to him. There wasn't enough room to see the horse properly, but what he could see was magnificent. Tall, with a beautiful head, the arched neck was long, flexible and set high on a long sloped shoulder. His legs were straight and strong, with enough length in the pastern for a comfortable ride. The long legged light riding horse build, but with a well defined musculature that probably would have the Army Horsemasters drooling.

  The prince chuckled. "He's something, isn't he?"

  "Damn. And I thought your gelding was good." The decrepit dun behind him was some draft breed, and loomed placidly. Rather nice head on the old boy.

  Remi and the stable boy followed them out of the barn and into the chilly light of the setting sun. The stable boy was as tall as Remi had mentioned, well built and muscular. His eyes were so dark Tanner was surprised to realize they were blue. He looked peaceful and relaxed and stayed in the barn when they walked back across the yard.

  Inside, he was startled to find a stranger talking to the ladies. He was tall, very tall, with blonde hair so pale it was nearly colorless. His bright blue eyes turned their way as they entered.

  "Ah. And this will no doubt be part of why you want to stay another day."

  "Well, yes, Daddy."

  Tanner blinked. The man didn't look old enough to be their father. Prince Garit sauntered over. "Lord Hell, this is Colonel Tanner Trick who's taking command at Fort Stag."

  "As soon as you can get there through the ice, eh?" The man nodded politely and turned back to the ladies. "Very well, but you'd best remember your mother's lessons."

  The merchants came thumping down the stairs and the drovers headed for the barn. Apparently they'd decided the weather was good enough to use the afternoon for traveling.

  Lord Hell ran his eye over the officers and shook his head. "I'll come fetch you tomorrow, around noon then." He nodded politely to the men. "Officers." He walked out the front door, closing it behind him.

  "So, you have a country home near here, then?" Tanner asked them, catching Azure's eyes.

  They all giggled, and Azure murmured, "Well, the way Daddy travels . . ." which brought on more giggles.

  So they had the inn to themselves for a long slow dinner, and he sat alone with Azure and they chatted about politics, of all things, especially the international situation. All this and brains as well. The musician played softly in the background, taking an occasional break to assist in serving, or making the rounds with water pitcher and wine bottle.

  Prince Garit stepped out, and again failed to step back in. Ladies Beige, Scarlet and Inky pouted. He overheard a bit of their conversation in a musical lull. ". . . was going to give him a bit of this, but it looks like I won't have the opportunity."

  He glanced over and saw Inky set down a wine bottle.

  "Inky, you are so bad! If Mother finds out you took any of that . . ."

  Tanner shrugged and turned his attention back to Azure.

  The musician came around and refilled wine glasses, then brought cherry pie for everyone.

  "Damn that's good!"

  Tanner glanced across the room to see Remi admiring a glass of wine. The other two curbs looked skeptical but gave it a try. Tanner took a sip and agreed. Extraordinary stuff.

  "Oh my." Azure blushed. "I think I drank a bit too much. Is it too cold to step out on the porch for some fresh air?"

  She was dressed much less elaborately than the night before, a simple shift of that incredibly expensive cotton cloth, and an over gown of golden yellow silk embroidered in bright colors.

  "I would be delighted to loan you my coat." He wrapped it lovingly around her, and wished he could wrap himself around her. The air was crisp and cold, but it was well above freezing.

  She walked down the steps to the road and stared up at the stars. "Oh, it's a beautiful night."

  He wrapped himself around her and kissed her.

  They strolled and admired the night, and found more privacy and kissed again, and cuddled a bit. And at some point, leaning against a tall oak his hands got into all sorts of interesting places, and then his fly seemed to have gotten open and her skirt quite high and he was rocking softly in her and kissing her and came in a marvelous surge of physical sensation and emotional entanglements. And she was gasping in pleasure in his arms, cuddling close, content. They strolled back even more slowly, with stops on the way for more kissing.

  The main room was nearly empty when they returned; the musician was clearing dishes and wiping tables. Tanner walked her to her room, kissed her gently. "I suppose I should regret that, I but don't. Not one single marvelous second of it."

  She smiled brilliantly. "No, not one single marvelous second of it." She stood on tip toes and kissed him, then slipped into her room and closed the door.

  Tanner bounced back to his room, and slept like the dead.

  ***

  Flare washed and Harry dried, with Kipp bringing the dishes in from the main room. The musician tsked over the remains of wine in so many glasses and poured them all in one and drank it himself, as he trundled back and forth.

  "The love birds are back inside, shall I throw the bolt? How about the fire? It's kind of warm."

  "Let the fire die, throw the bolt, and get yourself a good night's sleep." Harry told him.

  After they'd heard him walk upstairs, Harry sighed. "I wonder what that lad's running from? He was on the road away not toward."

  Faint rattle of footsteps, and Xen came in the back door, trailed by the youngest officer. "Any more pie left?"

  Harry snorted. "You're going to eat me out of house and home, boy."

  "Yeah, well, we worked up quite an appetite hiding from those women. And I promise to go hunting tomorrow." Xen parked himself at the table. "Flare, this is Garit, he's a cousin of some sort of mine, except I've got about three illegitimacies on my mother's side of things."

  "Flare, pleased to meet you." Garit looked a bit shy, but tackled the pie with as good an appetite as Xen, and Harry admitted he could do with another piece as well. So she got one herself to finish off the last pie and they settled down to quiet munching, punctuated by a fair amount of ru
nning about upstairs.

  Flare looked up puzzled, as there seemed to be rather a lot of moving about up there. Xen and Garit nodded to each other. "Not safe, anyway you look at it." Xen said. Garit sighed and looked a little wishful. But he didn't budge.

  Flare finished her pie while the men were still speculating on the weather, then put the dough to rise and closed down her kitchen, chasing all the men out.

  She heard Xen and Garit making bets about who was running to whose room as she closed her own door and yawned her way into bed.

  Everyone but the kids were late for breakfast in the morning. Xen was on time with the milk, as cows didn't like delay, but dawdled over the stall cleaning, and finally wandered in about the time the first guests started stirring.

  The colonel and Lady Azure ate their sausage, eggs, and fried potatoes with many blushes and a bit of hand holding.

  The two Captains came down a bit later, looking smug. Their curbs dragged down very late, very tired and very smug. Two of the ladies came down next, the other three slept in until Azure roused them. Flare could hear her from the kitchen.

  "What will Dad say, when he gets here?" That got shrieks, and Harry carting hot water, and they were all down in the main room when the pale haired gentleman reappeared and ushered them all out. The officers sighed, and followed to check the weather. The warm night had finished melting the small amount of ice, and Xen saddled their mounts and sent them on their way.

  Flare blinked at the suddenly empty, quiet inn, then looked abruptly up the stairs. Kipp was sitting huddled on the stairs.

  "What's wrong, are you all right?" She sat down beside him.

  He blinked away tears. Looked away, flushing. "I haven't been all right since my mother sold me to an Auralian slaver thirty-three years ago. But last night, for one lousy night . . . "

  "Oh." Right. The high soft beautiful voice.

  "I felt . . . something I'd never expected to feel, I tried to do things I'd never even wanted to do. They really are witches, aren't they? They'd have to be, to make me feel like a man."

  Flare blinked. "I'm not used to dealing with people who don't believe in magic. Let me go check with Harry on something."

  She found Harry out in the stable, talking apparently to the horses. ". . . hope you're right about that. I could do with a couple of weeks of good weather. Which of us are you looking for, Flare?"

  "You. Umm, my mom has this, umm, special wine, that she uses to fix all ills. Was there anything like that last night? Kipp's in a bit of a tangle this morning."

  Harry harrumphed. "I started wondering, quite a bit too late. I really thought I'd seen the last of that stuff."

  "Want me to go talk to him?" Xen's head popped up from behind Cat. "I mean, geeze, Granddad and Uncle Havi joke about all that, now."

  Flare straightened. "Wait a minute! Xen? Are you the Xenotine who is Lady Rustle's son? Quail Quicksilver's brother?"

  "Ha! No wonder you've been treating me with such disrespect. Yep. That's me. I haven't spent much time in Rip Crossing since I was a little kid. I suppose I was off to high school in Ash before you were old enough to notice me. I do know who Vala is. The lady with the wagon? Team of black mares? Hangs out with the God of Eternal Youth?"

  "Well, the team changes all the time. She got a potion from Lady Gisele so that her mares have mostly fillies, and she rotates who's pregnant and who's working." She dragged her mind back on track. "And, yes. Please go talk to Kipp."

  "Yes, Ma'am. Cat, I'll finish brushing you when I get back. If the weather stays nice, would you like to go for a ride? Anybody coming, Harry?"

  "Probably some of the troops as they come off duty. They kinda got stuck in those little huts for a couple of days."

  Flare nodded. "I'll have everything ready, in case they come before we get back."

  The kids were definitely looking better, but Nick was still limping. She put them to work scrubbing vegetables, basted yesterday's left over roast and left it to warm in a slow oven.

  Xen had Pyrite and Cat saddled, and led her up onto the crest of a hill to point out the local landmarks. They galloped and raced; Pyrite was faster than Cat, and at the end of the day he was fresh where the mare was ready for home. Xen showed her through two of the unguarded gates.

  Cat leapt through the first one, ready for anything, except a peaceful oak forest. "It's no different than the Rip Crossing gate, silly."

  The mare snorted and shook her head.

  "There's not many people on this side." Xen said. "So we do have to watch out for predators, no fear of man, you see. Humans never evolved, nor moved here until a few, recently. If we needed space, people would flock to this one. And they may yet. It's actually easier to come and go from here than sailing around to one of the Old World colonies."

  "It's beautiful." Flare tipped her head back to stare at what ought to have been empty sky. "What is that."

  "Have you ever looked through a telescope and seen the rings of Saturn?"

  "Our planet does not have rings."

  "This one does. The astronomers love this place. They keep looking for excuses to put an observatory here, but the rings block so much of the sky they just can't justify it."

  Cat followed Pyrite up a hill to a bald rocky top that gave a panoramic view. The pale arc was almost like a sweep of high clouds. Almost. "What does it look like at night?"

  "In the summer it's bright, then the World's shadow cuts across it and it's an arc of nothingness, no stars, no nothing. Right now it'll sort of glow. In mid-winter it's backlit, but there's still enough light scatter to see it.

  "You can come back anytime you want. Four of the gates are completely open, the King is trying to encourage people to come and go. He wants everyone to see these Worlds as extensions of the Kingdom of the West, not something separate."

  "We're the only people on this whole World?" Flare tried to grasp the enormity of an entire World, and her mind boggled. "I live three-fourths of the year on another world, but somehow growing up there, it doesn't strike me like this."

  "Actually I think there are fifteen people here. You Rippers are so, umm, blatantly there, you make the world seem occupied. Which is pretty impressive with a population of, what, two thousand?"

  "I think it's almost three, now." She hesitated. "How's Kipp?"

  "Thoughtful. Whatever else, he has to consider that his voice is going to change. I told him he's got the wizard and mage genes. I figured he might as well get all the shocks at once and get over them all. He's pretty old to be starting magic lessons. C'mon."

  Pyrite turned and they trotted, the horses in perfect synchrony. Flare found herself sinking into it, and slowed Cat a hair to break it up.

  "Have you ever had magic lessons?"

  "Oh, the basics, but I quit years ago, I've only the one wizard gene after all."

  "Umm, you were building up power a few minutes ago." Xen was eyeing her thoughtfully. "What's your other X?"

  "Just ordinary . . . I think. Mother said our father was a mage." Flare looked straight ahead, blushing furiously. "My brother grasped power last year, and the next set of twins when they were eleven. Six months ago."

  "Really? Err, you're what, fourteen? Half of the witches don't grasp power before then. May I?" He held out his hand.

  This is Lady Rustle's son, sired by a god. He's probably very powerful. She held out her hand. He gripped it briefly, then released it.

  "You've got two wizard genes."

  "What? But, but . . . "

  "If your father didn't have that hormone repression spell, he probably only pulls power like a mage. You know about the, umm, hormone repression?"

  "Of course. Wait, do girls need it?"

  "Nope. All you need is a bit of time and training."

  "Education. I sort of ignored stuff about magic, because I didn't think I'd have any, and I was a bit put out about it. I did meditations and stuff, all the kids have to, at the Rip schools. My brothers always teased me about wasting my time. I learned
what they call the new history, about all the magical people being exiled. And all I thought was, where can I exile my brothers?"

  Xen laughed.

  Pyrite trotted through the gate, and with a snort, Cat followed.

  "That gate over there is really interesting. It's got the weirdest animals imaginable. The King wants to start a zoo and bring in a bunch of the mammoths and sabertooth tigers and things. Have you seen pictures? The mammoths are the weirdest creatures I've ever seen. I don't even know where to begin to describe them. That's the gate to Arrival, where they import that cotton from. Nice people, but practically no magic users. And that one on the other side is empty, too. A lot like Rip, it doesn't even have any small animals. No mosquitoes, which is kind of nice. Dad's introducing animals gradually."

  Flare jerked Cat to an abrupt halt. "Wait a minute. What was that you said? I was gathering power? I can't. I've tried."

  Pyrite circled back. "Well, I could feel something." He bit his lip and the corners of his dark eyes crinkled. "Would you take it wrongly if I suggested . . . err, yes, you probably would. You're way too young for those sorts of jokes, even if you are from Rip." He glanced up at the Arrival gate. "They're changing guards, shall we head back to the Tavern?"

  "Yes, before Harry does something awful to my roasts." Power? Me?

  She pondered it all through dinner, and watched as Xen sat cross-legged on the floor, his hands running over Nick's ankle, talking to him while he did something. He wrapped the ankle up and gave Nick stern orders to not jump out of any more second floor windows, unless he had to. But the boy was running on it five minutes later.

  "I couldn't feel a thing." Flare eyed the number of diners and started assembling cherry cobbler.

  "I had a itch." Kipp said. "Is that good?" He scooped up the plates she had ready and disappeared without waiting for an answer.

  When he swooped back in Xen nodded. "Very good. Depending of course on what was itching."

  Flare giggled and Kipp blushed.

  "I'll give magic lessons all winter long. I promise."

  Chapter Eleven