Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods)

by Pam Uphoff

  "Get the horses, get the horses!" a man yelled. Excellent idea.

  Phantom squealed and men cursed. Xen had been dropped and lay limp on the ground. Rustle laid a partial shield over him, and turned to the horse lines. The camp was bigger than she had realized, voices called from beyond the trees, the alarm was spreading. She threw another fireball at the man leading a string of horses away. At this distance it only scorched his hair. He dropped the rope and ran.

  She called Phantom and grabbed Xen. Phantom and Junk dragged the string of horses to her, and she untied them and released the rest. They were still saddled—their own saddles—and Rustle tightened the cinches.

  "Mom?"

  "Hi, Xen," Rustle looked around. "Oh, dear."

  The God of Peace walked across the camp, straight at them. She popped Xen on Phantom. Leapt to Junk's back and reached across for contact, and a location. The Temple in Cadent.

  The horses' hooves clattered on the marble floor of the kitchen. She ducked and steered Junk through the apartment and out into the Plaza. Orgy in progress.

  "What are they doing Mom?"

  "Being very silly and getting into lots of trouble." Xen had a tendency to slide, and Rustle stopped to tie the saddle strings around him. Better than nothing. Even Phantom had trouble not spooking as the dancers danced through the crowd, grabbed men here and there to have sex with on the spot. A clatter behind her, as of more hooves on marble. She urged Junk through the crowd, and Phantom followed on her heels.

  "Can we play wrestle too?"

  "No, this kind of wrestling is only for grownups." With a bit of ruthlessness they made progress. She glanced back and saw that Peace and his men were stalled. She hoped the God of Peace remembered his name . . .

  The god was attracting dancing virgins and a crowd of men after the virgins. Junk found some clear space and trotted forward eagerly and made it to an alley Rustle turned corners, moved as fast as she dared.

  She pulled all her shields up and tight and circled half the city before she was sure she'd lost the God of Peace.

  Xen moaned, and then barfed all down Phantom's side.

  Rustle reached for him and held him close. And hurried home.

  Farli and Marisha clucked over the state of the boy. Rustle checked his pupils anxiously and gave him a tiny sip of that wine, just in case. Faro gave her a lecture about taking a valuable stallion out for a fun ride.

  "Faro, that's the good news. The bad news is that we are leaving in the morning. I'm sorry I can't stay longer, it has been a pleasure knowing you all. But if you have any more mares to breed, you have until sunrise."

  In fact, Xen was so pale that she let him sleep, and the City gates had been open for two hours when they passed through. The horses were under illusions, her papers in order and they followed all the rest of the departing holidayers.

  She just hoped that she'd gotten control of any power flares and didn't stand out like a bonfire to an angry god's search. She let the illusions trickle away.

  "This man woke me up and made me drink something nasty." Xen looked upset. "I didn't mean to get kidnapped."

  "Kidnappers rarely stick to kidnapping only children who want to get stolen."

  Xen scowled at her. "I won't laugh about it."

  She leaned and hugged him. "I am very glad that I could hear you and get you back. I may be a little silly about it, for awhile. Silly, now, because I was so frightened then."

  For three days they ambled northward. She used no magic at all. In the first big town to the north she bought a few extra supplies, and special items. Chalk dust turned Phantom into a messy sort of gray. That and a return to their colorful Traveler's clothing was all the disguise they used as Rustle zig zagged through the countryside.

  On the fourth day the Valasiks caught up with them. "It finally happened." Faro shrugged. "I bought a horse from the knackers, and healed it. And tried to sell it back to the man it had previously belonged to. A very important man, I regret to say."

  "Well, it doesn't seem fair that you had to leave town!"

  "Ah, once a Traveler, always a Traveler. We have more money than we ever dreamed of, and Mos and Seff have found wives."

  "Really? Congratulations." Rustle turned and looked at the second wagon. Thunder and Lightning poked their heads out and waved.

  "We need to buy two new wagons, fix up them up properly." Degan grinned. "Ah, I'd forgotten what it was like to be young and in love!"

  The wagons they bought were serviceable, the two teams of horses utter wrecks. All mares, of course.

  Rustle bought Thunder and Lightning clothes for a wedding present. Moss and Seff had thought the veils quite sufficient.

  Rustle got the first itch of followers about the time they hit the Old South Road.

  "The Auralians may still be raiding the Road." Faro pointed out. "I have no desire to follow it. We can lose your admirer in the New Lands."

  "Umm, how about going back to where we met? I left a line of road markers all the way to Gemstone."

  Faro rolled his eyes. But turned to take a rough track that headed northward. Black volcanic sand blew in from the New Lands, fault lines and the ruins of old cities marked the start of the lands once settled by man and surrendered during the Dark Ages.

  "And no doubt your good friend the God of Roads will be looking there." The Traveler snickered. "It is a good route, though, to stay out of trouble." He pulled out a roll of paper. "This is a map of the wastes, or at least the edges. It will help us find water, there is good detail in the east and south. After that we may have difficulties."

  "If they come too close, I can summon help. Or get help with water."

  The itch woke her at midnight.

  Faro eyed her, then rousted his brothers for a very early start.

  They passed through a village at dawn, and then two more increasingly small villages. At noon, they filled their water barrels and skins at the last village and headed across a stretch of the wastes toward a more distant village marked on Faro's map.

  They took a break in the scant shade at noon, then pushed on until sunset. Phantom heaved a sigh of relief as she unsaddled him, and watered him and poured oats on the solid rock.

  She slept until the itch flared again. Two hours past midnight, if the stars were to be believed. She fed and watered all the horses. Started a tiny fire, and breakfast. The other's roused and joined her. They were underway well before dawn. Stiff from the ground, she started out leading Phantom to loosen them both for a long day's ride. The itch persisted, then worsened. She tightened the cinch and mounted as the dawn light showed enough detail for speed. Looking back she could see nothing.

  When they found the lava strip, they turned and headed straight north. They made good speed on the hard rock. Whoever was after her had better be on a fast horse, or he wasn't going to catch them.

  She alternated walking and trotting, a relaxed lope occasionally, up a hill to take a look back. Behind her there was movement at the limits of the horizon.

  Faro watered the horses, gave them half a feed of oats and walked the teams for an hour. "Mounted men cannot carry water, as we can. They will give up soon, and go raid elsewhere."

  Rustle remounted, and looked behind. Whoever was back there was catching up. Slowly. They stopped again at noon, for an hour's rest. Then Rustle saddled up Junk and let Phantom roam freely. They walked onward, not trotting in the heat.

  Rustle noticed a familiar hill, veered a bit to get onto the trail of her plinths.

  Degan, driving the lead wagon grinned. "So, you think you can call the God of the Roads, now?"

  "I'm hoping that the people back there will change their minds about attacking us, without my actually having to disturb Harry. And . . . I think I'll call the God of War, first."

  Degan laughed. "Oh, yet another god who is a personal friend?"

  Rustle swallowed a grin and didn't mention Xen's parentage.

  The road signs didn't slow pursuit.

  They walked thro
ugh the twilight, and the thin light of the crescent moon. They traded off the watch, got some sleep. The itch got no worse over night, and in the pre-dawn she fed and watered horses. They were running out of hay fast. They should be grazing the horses every night on the dry grasses of the ashstone ridges.

  She wondered if the God of Peace could travel water to and from other places, or if they had a true advantage over him.

  Mid-day, the itch increased.

  Faro brought out his glass and peered back. "They are galloping. There are three of them. We can run as well. The hard ground will be rough on the horse's legs, but the wagons will travel well."

  Rustle dismounted. "I think it's time to ask for help." She raised her voice. "God of War!"

  And a wave of magic poured over the desert like thick syrup. A breeze lifted dust into a whirlwind, into a rearing black horse, rider armored and helmeted, sword raised. The War Horse touched down.

  "Who summons the . . . Rustle!" The deep voice brightened, and the horse swung in a quick circle to survey the situation.

  The Auld Wulf lowered his sword arm, swept his helmet off with his other hand. He tossed her a grin, but his gaze returned to the distant riders.

  "I'm afraid that Xen and I attracted the attention of the God of Peace. I think that's him following us."

  "Indeed." He stared southward.

  Rustle glanced at the Valasik's. They were staring at the god. Frozen in place. Xen wiggled past Marisa, but was snatched back. "Shh! Don't interrupt a god, it's not safe."

  Xen wiggled indignantly. "That's my Dad."

  Wolf shot a grin his direction, then looked back south. The three horses, slowed, stopped. They came together into a compact group and disappeared. Traveled.

  He cocked his head as if listening. "They're nowhere near, but Pax will be able to travel back to that point, should he want to continue pursuit. Don't dawdle here." He faded, the weight of magic poured away, and they were left standing in the perfectly ordinary desert.

  "Well." Rustle cleared her throat. "Perhaps we ought to move on. We can make a longer stop, in a couple of hours."

  Faro, who had been bringing up the rear, shook up his reins and drove around to her. Glanced at Xen. "Is he really . . . ?"

  "Yes. I think that was why Pax pursued. He must have suddenly realized that Xen was a possible hold on an old enemy."

  Faro nodded. "Well. Perhaps we ought to take the god's advice and move."

  They pushed for two days, cutting across two ashstone ridges in hopes of being slightly harder to find.

  Then they took their time, travelling northward. With no pursuers, there was no point in risking the horses, working them in the heat of the day. And they staked them out to graze most nights.

  No matter how often they found a stack of hay bales and sacks of grain in their path.

  The slow trip gave Rustle lots of time to practice. The first stack of supplies had included a note from her mother. Never told her that all the witches were practicing long distance levitation, with the eventual goal of being able to levitate rocks on the Moon. Rustle calculated quickly . . . That will give us six hours to affect the Comet. Not that anyone has managed to reach the Moon yet. But we have over two years to learn. To develop the strength.

  She started Xen on the charms again, but the burst of magic he'd shown when panicked didn't resurface. He had kept up with Fermi's growth rate. The boys and Megan, now two years old, were nearly inseparable. She let him go. The magic would return in time.

  As fall deepened, she watched the parade of the River Comets. They were too distant to pose a threat, too distant for her to touch, or even view magically. The Equinox passed, and the days shortened. She sat outside during the long nights, and watched falling stars, tried to see them before they hit the atmosphere. No luck. They were so fast. She gave up and sought her bedroll.

  She jolted awake in the pre-dawn; someone had tried to talk to her. She reached a hand out to bare rock, to pull power, and opened her mind just a crack.

  :: Mom! All the horses are having babies! ::

  :: Xen!:: Rustle blinked and sank into a proper trance. Her mind floated, or maybe inflated. :: Xen, I think four of them are going to have babies, soon. ::

  :: Two of them are having babies right now. ::

  She could feel his excitement and joy, and sent a wave of love back. She hadn't been able to hear her mother till she was six, and hadn't been able to talk back until after she had grasped power. "Oh. My. It is very definitely time to get home."

  She grabbed a piece of paper and pen. Our four year old son has informed me mentally, over a distance of about a hundred feet that some mares are foaling. She charmed it, and put it in the pouch. She couldn't decide whether she hoped receiving messages woke gods, or not.

  :: It's a girl! She's all black, with big white socks and a blaze. :: The child's joy was incandescent and glowed in her mind. ::Bye Mom. I'm going to go pet her. :: Blank and empty. It didn't even trail off.

  "Old Gods! I didn't expect that!"

  :: He's sending already?:: the Auld Wulf warm voice echoed in her head.

  :: Loudly. Clearly. :: she could read his delight, as clearly as she knew he could read hers.

  He sent a mental . . . more than a kiss and less than sex, although not by much. And then he was gone too.

  She smiled slowly. That hungry mental cuddle. Oh yes. I have not ruined all possibilities of a future with him.

  The waning crescent moon was high and she reached out and used up her elation making lunar dust twitch as she tried to spread and thin gravity that far away. The gravity she could do . . . but adding a push or pull . . . was going to take more work.

  Then she got up and went to see the foals.

  Chapter Twenty

  1373 Late Summer

  Rip Crossing

  Rustle halted and eyed the riders coming from the north.

  Faro got out his glass. "A man with black hair and beard . . . and three women?"

  Rustle concentrated a moment, remembered an old spell that involved focusing light.

  "Old Gods! Havi's grown a beard! And that's Ask!" She sent Phantom galloping forward.

  They wound up in a big tangle of horse-back hugs.

  Verse and Whoop hung back a bit, grinning.

  "Hey Ask! Tell her she has to stick around long enough to train us!"

  Ask laughed. "Yes. Whoop and I both grasped power, and told Answer to get lost. Honestly. She's just like all the wicked old witches from the storybooks!"

  "So you guys are a triad, all by yourselves? And your own pyramid, for that matter."

  Ask beamed. "Yep. C'mon, two miles and we'll be at the Summer Camp."

  "Come and meet my friends, the very large and growing Valasik clan."

  Havi scooped up a delighted Xen, then shook hands all around. "Welcome to Rip Crossing. Any friend of the family and so on. Come and meet everyone." He did a double take at Thunder and Lightning. Mos and Seff bristled jealously.

  "Yep. They're the Children of the Virgins of Love. Dad's kids. Our half sisters."

  The Valasik's eyed Havi's black hair and golden eyed and nodded. "The Goat of Love must be a Traveler."

  Havi just snickered.

  Rip Crossing looked prosperous, for a settlement just two years old. The "Summer Camp" had a whole lot of solid walls, obviously new buildings, and a bunch of very young children.

  They parked the wagons beside a corral and turned out the horses, with a bit of work to get all four foals through the gate. Rustle eyed the fences. Posts and rails were a single piece of rock, anchored to the rock beneath the thin soil.

  Havi grinned. "Remember Mom and Dad's rock forming trick? Verse and I are pretty good at it, and since Whoop and Ask grasped power, we've been trading off, building things." He glanced over at the nearest house. Solid rock walls, the roof wood framed, shingled. "We can't do the kind of fancy work they do, though. And we wear out a heck of a lot faster."

  "But it beats hauling rocks and maki
ng mortar and stuff." Cor beamed at her. "About time you showed up. We talked about rescinding your membership as an honorary goat boy, but Havi threatened to beat us up."

  The rest of the goat boys (half female, despite the name) piled in to hug her and fuss over Xen.

  "We decided we ought to just dive in and start a school for the kids." Kett dragged all the women over to show them. "All of ours are just over a year old—we had a party to celebrate getting here, and, well. Nine months later, ten babies. And the few women who didn't have babies then, had them about six months ago. We all trade off so we can get some work done in the fields, or whatever. When they were babies, it wasn't so bad, but wow, once they're mobile they can really get into trouble fast!"

  The school was empty now, the kids all in the process of being put to bed.

  "You'll be needing slates and chalk, and the works, real soon," Marisha said. "We've got some, I think . . . "

  The four brothers got into a deep discussion with the farmers and maps were drawn and lists made. Rustle grinned, as she realized that Rip Crossing was in the process of creating a regular traders' route. Possibly multiple routes, as Gemstone came up in the conversation.

  She retreated to meditate and was close enough to feel her mother also meditating, at the witches' hot springs in Ash. Or perhaps it was an effect of Xen's grasping power consciously. I'm a Full Moon witch, now.

  Never was relieved she'd gotten back to what passed for civilization in the New Lands.

  :: Really dear, those Travelers. I worried about you. ::

  :: Mother! They're friends. Anyway, please let Dad know that Xen and I are safely here. ::

  :: We miss you. Can you be in the Rip in two days? Answer has had to admit that she needs to train you four. That she, we, will need you, when the comets come around. ::

  Rustle winced. :: No, there are some things I need to help Havi with. I'll be along in a few weeks. ::

  :: You could come home for the Fall Equinox. :: Never seemed wistful.

  :: I'll come in two weeks. No point in pushing the matter with Answer. :: She broke off the communications before her emotions broke through. She huffed out an angry breath. If they still reject Xen, it'll be the last time I go there.