by Pam Uphoff
They all landed a good way downstream. Then they caught the loose horses, and moved to a better campsite as the sun set. They started early in the next day and made good mileage before the temperatures climbed in the afternoon. They relaxed in the scant shade until the sun was low then rode on into the evening.
They were relaxed, just walking and chatting as the miles faded behind them. And they kept going.
Why the rush? Not that we're rushing, but . . . we're not stopping either.
They did stop and camp for the night. But they saddled up early and pushed the pace in the early morning hours.
It got them to the Crossroads in two and a half days.
Chapter Forty
Late Spring 1392
Karista, Kingdom of the West
"What can we do to eavesdrop?" Janic leaned back and eyed them.
"Hmm, we've been staying on our side of the gate to avoid walking straight into the scientists camping there." Wacolm frowned at Xen. "The observers stake out the gate every night, watching from the back, so they can't see us. It's amazingly boring. Didn't see them all winter. Earlier this spring, two of those scientists came through. They took some equipment in and out of the four northern gates that don't have guards, then went back to Two East. Not a peep since."
Xen stifled a sigh of relief. If we spotted their scientists, then they probably weren't making regular trips through the gate without being seen. "With a light warp, I could keep track of what they are doing on the other side of the gate. The question is, how far do you want me to follow them? It's an empty world, they must have a gate of their own. Somewhere." Xen scratched his chin. Never did get back to finding it. Damn Rebo. I've lost more than six months.
Janic nodded. "Locate it. In case we have need of it. To use, or disable."
Xen nodded. "They took the stage to Bridgeton, so they could reach the Crossroads as early as, well, if they had a carriage in Bridgeton, and pushed their horses, as soon as tomorrow."
Janic nodded. "I'm going to add Easterly and Parsons to your party. You can all be bucolic together in this tavern of yours when the One Worlders get there."
"Righto." Wacolm waved them all out.
Assuming the Oners wouldn't need the carriage again, Mister and Missus Mackey and his son Jud and Jud's girlfriend Dee drove a sturdy wagon through the corridor, and parked it in the stable yard the next evening. Xen led the way on Pyrite, and promptly turned him loose to visit his old buddies.
Xen led the harness horses off to stalls, explaining that he used to be the stable boy. They all snickered and walked around to the front door like paying guests. The current "stable boy" eyed Xen disapprovingly and took over. Xen gathered that he didn't appreciate the assignment.
This late in the year there were no other travelers. A dozen soldiers stopped by for dinner, several of them doing double takes when they spotted Wacolm, in worn farmer's clothes. Wacolm dryly informed them that no they didn't know him, and they should go eat their excellent dinners, and then inform everyone else that they also didn't know him.
Lily Parsons was average, invisible and fortyish. She and Deena kept up a parody of a Mother-examining-son's-date-and-finding-her-lacking conversation. That had the soldiers' attention riveted, with much subdued mirth. Deena, at least, was well known enough to be widely recognized.
Xen ate with them, after he popped into the kitchen to talk to everyone. Flare was having trouble not laughing at Lily and Deena. Nighthawk and Ladybug shrugged with girlish indifference and helped Kipp serve.
After the dinner bunch had left, Xen introduced the various residents of the tavern around. Lily lowered her eyebrows in disapproval at Harry. Xen instantly pegged her as a Traveler, disapproving of the casual use of The Name. Then she started studying the old man. Finally she ended up somewhere between embarrassed for her first reaction and white with excitement.
Wacolm was watching her, puzzled.
Easterly was chatting up Flare and either didn't notice a thing, or didn't show it. Xen suspected the latter.
Deena was studying the lot of them. "Xen, who are these people?"
"Flare is a wizardry student, whom I mostly neglect. Nighthawk is a young witch who is having problems with her mother. Ladybug and Nick are strays, Kipp is . . . " Xen pondered how to categorize the man.
"I'm a stray too." Kipp spoke for himself. "All of us washed up on Harry's doorstep."
Nick and Ladybug nodded.
"I don't know how it happened. I was running from the most ghastly collection of women you've ever seen, and well, I just looked around, and here I was, getting dragged into the kitchen and fed like a lost puppy." He paused for a moment. "Xen, why is your mouth hanging open."
"Hoon."
Kipp went white.
"I'll be damned. You are the disappeared musician, the one Hoon says she killed."
Kipp nodded jerkily. "Dare I ask how you know her?"
"You know I'm a member of the King's Own Intelligence division. Hoon will be here in two days. Tell all and then go to Ash for a week or so." He reached out mentally for his sister and asked her to come. "Quicksilver says she'll take you to the Wizard's School. You might as well take advantage of needing to hide. So, what's Hoon like, when she isn't charming customers?"
"Oh, you want to know how I spent ten months in a complete daze, doing really disgusting things, then almost escaped? She took off all the spells, so I had a long moment to remember doing everything she'd ever ordered me to do, then I passed out. I haven't got a clue why I didn't die. I think I hit my head, maybe she thought I was dead. But I woke up with a headache and an utter conviction that I needed to get as far away from her as possible, as fast as possible."
"That I'll believe. I'm more surprised that one of her captives could even conceive of a need to escape."
Kipp sighed. "It was really one of the kids. Rufi. They named him after the old General. When I was holding him I could think of practically anything. They were damn nice kids, all of them. Two of them, their fathers' took away, the other four were still there when I ran off. I shouldn't have taken Rufi. She probably wouldn't have cared what I did then."
"You grabbed her kid?" Deena gawped at him.
Kipp shrugged. "Seemed like I ought to try and save one of them."
"You must have been there practically from the beginning."
"No, they'd been there oh, three or four months. Two of the babies were already born, and the rest getting close. They used to hide me in this . . . dungeon they were putting together. Hell, once they had me, I did half the work. And changed diapers and watched the babies. Which I really didn't mind, the kids were just great, and I always felt better around Rufi.
"Anyway, after they had their babies, their men were sent off somewhere for six months, and they started entertaining a couple of times a week. I played and sang." Kipp's fingernails went white on the table's edge, but he continued steadily. "Occasionally I got roped into the orgies. Or the dungeon ordeals. Do you have any idea how much money they were raking in?"
They all nodded.
"Anyway, their men came back and they cut down the frequency with which they entertained outsiders, and I was always locked in the dungeon when their owners came by. Until they got careless. I snuck upstairs and picked up Rufi, and snuck back out. Headed for who knows where. Away, was the main thing."
He stared down at the table. "Did she kill him? I looked. I couldn't find a body."
"No. He's fine. Three years old, almost four." Deena told him.
"Oh." He was shivering slightly. "Thank you. I thought I'd gotten him killed. Xen, you need to get those kids out of there. Those Auralian women were always talking about how old the kids should be before they started using them in the entertainment."
Xen nodded.
"What's going on this week may change everything." Wacolm rubbed his nose. "We really don't know."
Kipp, still pale, packed and left immediately.
Quicksilver was back in a few minutes.
"Granddad was in the village. He hauled Kipp off to the tower, so he'll be fine. I wondered if you needed someone with trained magical talent to watch you coming and going from a gate to see if you could figure out how best to sneak through." She grinned. "Notice how polite I'm being in front of your colleagues, and not saying that my big brother needs all the help he can get."
Deena looked at her sharply. "I thought you said your name was Quicksilver Rustledaut. How come your brother is Wolfson?"
"Witches track their lineages through their mothers' side. The fathers don't count, and in fact until the last two generations it used to be disgraceful to even mention a specific man as being someone's father. We're getting more cosmopolitan all the time."
Easterly choked faintly. Flare grinned.
Wacolm shook his head, smiling faintly. "You're just too sweet and innocent to understand. What are you? Fourteen?"
"Sixteen." She grinned cheerfully. "I thought you city types married your daughters off at sixteen?"
"That's for nobles. Everybody else has to work a bit longer to put aside enough money and goods to form their own household." Wacolm told her. "Please tell me you don't have children."
"It's really inconvenient that our powers grow the way they do, but you just can't fight reality." She grinned at their expression. "No. I don't have any children yet."
"Hmm, way behind your Big Bad Brother, aren't you?" Deena curled a lip.
Nighthawk, approaching with a teapot, clearly contemplated dumping it on her. Xen grabbed it hastily.
Deena raised an amused eyebrow. "Surely this one is too young for . . . "
"Deena." Xen interrupted loudly. "Did I mention that Nighthawk is my daughter?"
Deena flushed. "Oh." She looked the girl in the eye. "I apologize for a very rude comment I was about to make."
Nighthawk sniffed. "You are speaking from profound ignorance. It shows." She stalked back to the kitchen.
Easterly put his elbows on the table. "Xen, how old are you and how old is she?"
"Twenty-two, ten. There's a reason I have a bad attitude about sexually aggressive witches. You are probably unfamiliar with the term birding?" Xen turned his head suddenly. "I hear something. Horses, a carriage is coming."
Xen hopped up and stuck his head out the front door. "Damn it's them. How'd they get here so fast? Flare, Gypsum, kids, kitchen please, and damn . . . " he bolted for his saddlebags in the barn, and then hustled back with charms and traps for them all, then hustled back out of sight . . . as the carriage and hot, blowing horses drove right past and headed for the gate.
"Bloody. Hell." Wacolm was looking out the window. Figures dismounted from the carriage and walked through the gate. They were back in moments, uniformed figures following them.
:: Pyrite, will you carry Nighthawk to the Fort really fast? ::
:: Yes. We're all coming. ::
"There's more coming out of the gate. A dozen, twenty, still coming."
"Nighthawk, I need you to take a message to the Fort. All the soldiers there know who you are. Tell them there are soldiers coming through gate Two East, and that they need to get up here, and that we'll hold them north of the Tavern for as long as we can." He'd been leading her out the back door as he spoke, and Pyrite slid to a halt in front of them. Xen tossed her up on his back. "Take to the hills, until you're out of sight."
Pyrite nodded, and trotted out, cantering as he hit the grass and stretching out into a flat run. The other horses were headed for the Tavern. The "stable boy" was looking from horses to Wacolm, baffled. Xen ignored him, trotted to the stable for bridles.
"Lily, go warn Janic, tell him I'll leave my Corridor open for as long as I dare." Stripes was the first horse to reach him, and he slipped her bridle on and handed her the reins.
"Bloody Hell!"
"That's an order, Parsons." Wacolm snapped. She vaulted up on the mare's back and aimed her at the barn wall, disappeared.
"Flare, kids, you're out of here." Xen scooped up Nick and put him on the old Dun, handed Flare Cat's bridle. He slipped Spooky's on. And looked mentally. "No time for saddles." He boosted Ladybug aboard. "Stay off the road and hill tops."
"We should get Harry out of here." Wacolm said.
Xen laughed. "Just wait and see."
"And where the hell is your sister?"
Xen ran back to the front of the Tavern. About a hundred troops were spreading out, a quarter of them blocking the alarmed troops at the Arrival gate, preventing them from sending a messenger to the fort. The rest of the Oner soldiers were headed toward the tavern. Harry was standing in the middle of the road frowning. His back was straight, the spear was in his right hand, always a bad sign.
It left his left hand free for spell casting.
Easterly and Wacolm joined them.
"Time to yell for help?" Xen asked.
Harry nodded. "I already told them we were being invaded. Quicksilver's out there, they can't see her."
"Good plan, I'll slide out there too." Xen trotted back inside, warped the light around himself and walked back out.
"Err, Captain Wacolm?"
Wacolm's eyes searched for the source of the voice. "Yes, and walking out there invisible is a great idea. Consider it an order. Information, please, no bloodshed unless necessary or until we start shedding it up here."
"Right." He loped forward, watching for any indication that anyone could see him. There was a . . . mental presence. But not over the whole spectrum.
The soldiers looked very confident, carrying laser pistols similar to the captured ones he'd seen years before. Cables ran from their pistols to large power packs on their belts.
Xen squeezed his mental voice up into the high area. :: Any wizards around who want to try that battery draining trick? ::
Nil answered, instantly adopting his high range. :: We're on our way, can you give us an update? ::
Xen took a slow rotation around, so Nil could see everything.
More soldiers were coming through the gate . . . We need to shut that down, somehow.
:: Right. Go over there and be our recognition point. ::
Xen trotted over to stand appallingly close to the soldiers forming up to hit the Arrival gate guards. He felt the area, the road, the two nearest gates, the Tavern all clear in his head and sent it to Nil.
Air swirled as a dozen wizards popped into existence, then disappeared behind light warps.
Xen threw up a shield a hair from his skin as the soldiers started shooting. He absorbed the light, channeling what he couldn't handle. Alarm rose among the soldiers as their lasers started failing.
:: Drat, spells are bouncing. They've got shield charms by the bushel, this is going to get messy . . . :: Dydit sounded irritated.
Xen caught the sound of sliding steel as he loped back toward the gate. Swords. Yes, very messy. What was that shield piercing spell? And will it work on a shield from another world, made, probably, a bit differently than ours?
:: I checked through the gate:: Quicksilver sent. :: They are ready to roll more troops through as soon as these guys secure the immediate area. They've got some of those 'tank' things like in your history books, Dad. ::
:: Can you make a corridor from there to over the edge of that gully? At least hurt them, :: their father said.
:: I never have figured out how to destroy a gate. :: Her mother sounded rueful. :: But what if we made another, face to face with that one and very close? Where could we send them? ::
:: I know just the place. :: Quicksilver sent a complicated picture of a crystal with large fractures and breaks in it. :: Here, if we can. Or just to another empty one, like here. :: the crystal shifted, and Xen could see all the beautiful little universes layered in there, and one much closer to theirs. He wondered a bit how he could be so sure which one was theirs.
:: Because it's home, silly. :: Quicksilver said.
The soldiers were pulling back a bit, checking their weapons. They must have good communications, as all of them seeme
d to be doing the same. Xen loped toward the gate, wanting to get as close to Quicksilver as possible. If she didn't stay hidden . . .
:: Got one, Mom. ::
Xen could see that she had something vaguely like a bubble, but top shaped and spinning rapidly. Half of what was needed to build a bridge between universes. She was bumping it with a bubble, slowing it down and hauling it far away. As it stopped spinning, she stuck it to another universe. Xen spotted another top, and used a bubble to slow it and push it around to meet hers, tail to tail. The tails tangled, merged, and Xen pulled his top, felt Quicksilver joining him. It wanted to stick on right where it was, and resisted as he dragged it closer to Two East.
Quicksilver was there, pushing while he pulled. Without their light wraps it would have looked like nothing so much as two people frantically trying to move nothing at all.
Soldiers were jumping in and out of the gate with small thin packets in their hands. Orders and reports? More soldiers were coming through, armed with a different type of weapon. No feel of electricity about them. Hoon was on this side, by the carriage, arguing with Esna and some other man.
"They are valuable research subjects. To destroy them is to remain ignorant of the Natives' abilities."
"They have no abilities, and I question yours, that you allowed not one, but two of them to get you with child. There must be a flaw in your genetics, that it was even possible." The uniformed officer gave a dismissive wave.
:: Crap. What will they do to Hoon's children? :: Xen dug his heels in and shoved the opening of the hole a bit closer to the force that repelled it—the other gate.
He could hear screams and yells, clashing metal. The fight had gone hot somewhere.
:: It's like trying to get two strong magnets to go together, like pole to like pole.:: Quicksilver sounded pissed.
Xen sent a mental laugh. :: Shall we rotate them?:: He lifted up on the edge of the one he was holding. Quicksilver snorted and pushed her side down. It actually seem to help. She abandoned it and trotted to the old gate and started tugging, rotating it. The next man through staggered a bit sideways and fell through the new gate. That caught everyone's attention, and more when he scrambled back through, wide eyed and shooting at a hopping lizardy thing the size of a big dog.