Comet Fall (Wine of the Gods)

by Pam Uphoff

  "So, have you adjusted to the changes? You've only been back for, what? Three days?" He refused to be drawn into a fight, especially if he was going to have to explain the difference between 'being polite' and 'making a pass.'

  "This place is appalling. Karista is worse, I couldn't spend more than an hour there." She glowered. "So, tell me about the other nations and governments."

  Pixie delivered pot and cups without a peep.

  "Verona, south-east of here is fairly similar to us, main difference is that it has an emperor instead of a king, and the main holiday is a nationwide orgy. Scoone, on the northern half of the East Coast has gone democratic in an odd fashion, but seems to be recovering. You might actually like them, if they didn't burn you at the stake right off. Auralia to the South of all of us is a bit nasty . . . although, your old friend Pax seems to think it has potential. He's working with their Amma to grab a chunk of the New Lands. In fact he's out there now."

  "Paxal?" She sat up attentively. "Where is he exactly."

  "Be careful, it's a gold rush boom town," the Auld Wulf warned her, then sent the feel and direction and distance to Lucky Strike. Maybe she won't come back. I'd managed to forget what a pain in the ass she was. Is. And distract Pax from whatever he's plotting.

  She stood up and looked down her nose at him. "I forgive you for what you did to that little girl. It's not really your fault. You can't help being male." She stalked out.

  The Auld Wulf thought it over, and decided she probably meant getting Rustle pregnant.

  Pixie came back, juggling plates of pancakes, with and without butter, and a warm pitcher of syrup. She looked out the door uncertainly as she divested her load to the table.

  "Tell you what, Pixie. Why don't you bring me a whole crock of butter, and about half a pound of bacon to go with this. I'm feeling carnivorous all of a sudden."

  Chapter Twenty-four

  1374 Spring

  The New Lands

  Mercy made an entrance.

  The flash of light against the dark mountains to the west, bright morning light to gleam off the polished marble, all aimed to draw people out to see what had caused the flash. The rumble of thunder, the quiver in the ground to convince people of one's power. And of course, up on the hill, or in this case, the crest of the ridge west of the town proper.

  Ordinarily Mercy would have avoided marring the natural beauty of the ridge, but she needed to impress this boom town from the start, so she didn't get any arguments. She strode down to the town, formed a graceful series of sweeping flights of steps ahead of her, until she arrived at the base of the ridge at the end of a filthy alley. She flipped the top two meters over, so the voluminous biological material could continue composting out of sight and especially, smell.

  She flash melted the surface and walked out to the main street.

  It was deserted except for a drunk unconscious outside an establishment called the Miner's Bust, a shack with a, no-doubt amusing-to-small-minds, picture of very large and improbably pink breasts on the sign.

  Apparently gold rush boom towns tended to stay up late and sleep in.

  "So much for your grand entry." Paxal Gould stepped out of the shadows behind her.

  "Goodness, Pax, are you lurking?"

  "I've learned to be careful. That damned old man."

  "Wolfgang?" She sniffed. "Nothing but violence and disrespect in that man. He's a user. He won't get any respect from me."

  "Well." He strolled up and smiled down at her. "You can get away with it. Me, he tries to kill."

  Mercy sighed in shear aesthetic appreciation. This is what a man should look like. And how a man should behave. You wouldn't catch him taking advantage of a sixteen year old who'd just been raped. And such a pity the girl hadn't killed him instead of her other attackers.

  "Well, he's a primitive," Mercy pointed out. "He can only deal with other people on a simplistic basis. Dominance with men, sex with women. You are wise to not lower yourself to his level, and we both know he is incapable of rising to ours."

  Paxal's smile widened. "Oh, Goddess of Mercy, now I remember why you are one of my favorite people. Do you by any chance have any chamomile tea? I will worship at your feet forever for a single cup."

  "Come up the hill, Pax, and you shall have any sort of tea you wish. You know I can't resist you."

  ***

  Jin didn't move until they were out of sight.

  The Goddess of Mercy? She certain hadn't sounded charitable. In fact, if he was reading between the lines correctly, she did not like the God of War at all. This did not seem to be a good development.

  He kept an eye on the big mansion or small palace up on the ridge as the sky brightened and people gradually dragged themselves back to consciousness or a workable substitute. The smells from the kitchen were not encouraging, so he finally gave up watching and walked back to check on his other responsibilities. They were all eating breakfast at the Gold Nugget. Jin eyed the amount of food on the table.

  "Well, I see you lot are basically healthy."

  Deni snickered. "Hey Luz, are you . . . healthy?"

  Luz looked like he wanted to pound the other boy.

  Card, the easiest going of the three, a copy of his dad, just kept eating.

  "We're bored. Can we just walk home?" Luz said.

  Deni denied it firmly. "Are not. I'm staying. This place is so alive, compared to home!"

  Deni had just turned seventeen, Luz was younger by about a month. Deni hadn't taken to farming or mining, didn't like the bit of drill with weapons Jin made everyone do. Maybe he needed a place like this to fire him up for something. So many of the Gemstone babies his age had been sired by the goats that his blond hair and blue eyes were a startling contrast to the other kids' black hair and honey colored eyes.

  Luz ran an angry hand through his black hair, and glared at Deni with his honey brown eyes. "There is nothing to do unless you've got as much money as one of these miners. You spent every penny we all had on that . . . " he shut his mouth abruptly.

  "You could have enjoyed it, if you could have." Deni looked smug.

  Jin sighed. "If any of you walk home, do please let each other and me know, all right?"

  "Right, Dad." Luz poked dubiously at the runny eggs on his plate. "I'll leave a note in the room, should you ever show up again."

  Jin flagged down a waitress, and ordered bacon and eggs. Time to change the subject. "The horse market here is tight. I've only bought one so far, and she's half wild and green broke. I ought to have had my head examined."

  Half a hour later he wished he'd found something else to talk about, because all three boys wanted to see the horse.

  They hung over the stall and commented knowledgably, and of course spotted the palomino.

  "Mr. Genero, this is the sort of horse you should buy." Card sounded breathless.

  "There's no way I could ever afford a horse like that," Jin said.

  "And you'd better be careful, he's been trained to fight." The golden youth strolled down the barn aisle. He looked the boys over, curling a lip at their sturdily made clothing. His eyes hung up on the boys for a moment, then swung to Jin and narrowed. "So you know what they are?"

  Jin nodded.

  The god eyed the boys and shrugged. He glanced back over his shoulder at the hostler bringing his tack, and stepped toward the stall. The horse was quivering, ears pricked with all of his attention focused on the god and teeth bared. His teeth opened in anticipation of a lunge. Then the quivering stopped. The horse stood frozen as the Hostler saddled and bridled the beast.

  Jin looked carefully and could see the animal breathe, very slowly.

  The god strode in then and mounted. The Hostler leapt away and Jin shoved the boys out of the middle of the aisle as the horse leapt out of the stall and charged out of the barn.

  "Dad, what was that?"

  "Magic. The man must be a wizard."

  Deni snorted. "Yeah, right, another no-balls." He swaggered out. Card followed,
and Jin walked out beside Luz.

  "Son, we all grow up at our own pace. Deni is an indifferent farmer, too lazy to mine, barely average in school. All he's got to brag about is his personal parts, and that's not going to take him far in life. You, on the other hand, are smart as a whip, and a hard worker. You'll do fine, whatever you want to be in life."

  "Dad . . . " Luz trailed off, stared off and away. "You remember all the stories about wizards? About what they had to do to gain their powers?"

  "Yes?" Jin had a serious sinking feeling in his gut.

  "There was this girl, two years ago, two and a half now, I guess. She said it was true, but that there was a way to delay puberty without castration that ought to have the same effect. She talked about the brain having a last growth spurt in the late teens and early twenties, and how male chemicals in the blood interfered with it, so it didn't develop wizard abilities. I wanted . . . I had her do that thing to me."

  The words of the god came back to him. So you know what the boys are.

  "Well, maybe it is time we went to Ash. See your grandfather, and you could talk to the wizards there."

  Luz spun around and grabbed his arm "You know where there are wizards?"

  "Yes. There may be some in Rip Crossing, too."

  "You never told me! You knew where there were wizards and you never told me?" Luz's eyes were hot golden pools, and Jin remembered the corrupt wizard that had fathered the boy on his unwilling mother.

  "I didn't actually realize . . . well. We'll go right after harvest."

  Luz stomped away, and Jin followed more slowly. He spotted the golden horse tied outside the 'mayor's' house and strolled that direction. His eyes automatically categorized what he saw, and his gaze hung up on the men and horses outside the dry goods store. The riding horses were good looking animals, light weight and long legged enough to have some speed and endurance. The pack horses were much the same, a bit sturdier, but still finer than most of the horses in town. The four men who were taking their time loading the horses carried swords naturally, and stood in such a way that the mayor's house fell under their gaze without them looking as if they were watching it.

  Deni, Card and Luz walked by them, giving the horses admiring looks and the men not even a glance. They stopped and stared at the palomino, then slowly strolled on. Jin stepped into the dry goods store and found a spot where he could see the men. They were finishing packing the light load on the horses and tying the animals together in a string. Jin wondered if they had brought in a heavier load and were now over-supplied with pack animals, or if they were planning on moving fast.

  Jin spotted a pair of tin canteens with about a gallon capacity and promptly bought them. Walking back out he turned away from the men now mounting their horses, glancing back he saw the god mounting a very still palomino, beyond him the boys turning down a side road. Good. Out of sight. He strode back to the barn, and managed to saddle and bridle the mare with minimal problems. He tied the canteens onto the saddle, empty. She could get used to things bumping and flopping a bit . . . Once out of the confines of the barn she bucked, but he pulled her head around and circled her until she gave up. He looked both ways and couldn't see either Pax or the four men with their under-loaded high-quality pack horses. The mare walked nervously down the street past the dry goods store and the mayor's house, with Jin taking a good look down each cross street. They were all pretty short, most of them dwindling away into the desert. The third street had several people standing in the middle gesturing. Jin turned the mare who perked her ears at the sight of open spaces beyond the last building.

  One of the men in the street glanced at him. "Careful mister, there's some bad actors gone ahead of you. Grabbed some boys right off the street."

  "Boys? Three of them? Blond, brown and black hair, eighteen, nineteen years old?"

  "Yeah, they yours?"

  "One of them." Jin reached for his new canteens. "Have you got water? I think I'm going to be going a bit further than I'd planned today."

  ***

  The mare was happy to gallop out for a bit, but he pulled her up after about three miles. They weren't more than an hour ahead of him, and would have slowed when there was no immediate pursuit from town.

  Lucky Strike was twenty miles south of the southern boundary of his land grant, so he was not familiar with the region. But it would have the same north-south faults, some with lava filling gaps, the same strips of Ashstone, with varying degrees of weathering and breaking down into soil. The ridge ahead would probably be a strip of ashstone standing a bit higher than the lava he was on now. The people in town had described both Pax on the palomino and the four men with the pack horses as the people who had grabbed the boys. A woman had been with them, they'd said. He had no idea where they were going, or if they were meeting other people. He needed to find them before that. So he made the mare walk decorously up the slope, scanning as he could see over the slope. The terrain was rough, with columns of harder ashstone standing randomly around the gullied and broken land. Pockets of soil hosted brush and stunted trees, grass. He leaned forward and studied the unmarred ground. The mare was leaving tracks, so with a mental coin flip he turned south along the edge, looking for tracks.

  Half a mile south he found a regularly traveled path. Jin wasn't an expert tracker, but he could read the sharp clear edges of the recent hoof prints, and the multiple overlapping hoof prints well enough to turn and follow them. He kept the mare slow, but saw no sign of his prey. A God, a goddess and four other men. I'm going to need to split them, tackle them one or two at a time . . . Ambush them. Wish I had my bow.

  And about a dozen men.

  The path dropped off the far side of the ashstone strip, down to a lava strip only a hundred feet across. There was no path on the far side, but horse droppings to the south. He turned and followed the faint occasional clues down the boulder and sand filled strip, which obvious served as drainage during the winter storms.

  The clink of a shod hoof was his only warning. The rear guard charged down on him. The mare spooked as he ducked the first sword swing, bucked and dumped him neatly over a rock that knocked his breath out. He rolled off and managed to grab his sword as the guard spurred around for another pass. The mare gave a last buck and bolted back north. The guard's horse jumped to avoid the last kick, and the rider raised his sword arm for balance. Jin lunged and slid his blade in between his ribs. As the man collapsed, Jin made a grab for the reins, missed and the horse galloped after his wild mare. Jin cursed under his breath, and turned quickly south. How far behind had the rear guard been? Had the fracas been heard? The guard had been mounted, so was probably not guarding a camp. Wheezing a bit and rubbing his ribs, Jin hustled to the nearest large boulder, looked around it, trotted down to the next. Damn it, he wasn't going to be able to do this. He needed the canteens on the mare's saddle. Had she divested herself of the saddle? Could he find it?

  He trotted across a wide open stretch. The riders emerged from the rocks when he was halfway across. He scanned them quickly. Three men and a god on horse back. The woman, the Goddess of Mercy on a small horse. The boys, astride three of the pack horses, their hands tied to the front cross posts. The man with the pack string wrapped his lead line around a knob on a boulder and advanced with the rest. Jin saw Luz raise a foot and get his fingers down his boot to extract a knife. Ata boy!

  The god stopped his horse beside the goddess, and waved his men forward. "I suppose I should have expected you to follow. Pity the boy has to see his father killed, though."

  "Goddess of Mercy," Jin raised his voice. "Why have you kidnapped these children?"

  "They are young men, and they were not getting their proper training." She answered.

  "And why do you think they will get it from this sadist who abuses horses?"

  The palomino bounded forward, ears pinned, as he was spurred. "I do not abuse this horse. He was rescued from certain death, and I have had trouble befriending him."

  "Befriending? Old Go
ds! You should at least get a saddle that doesn't rub his withers, and loosen the nose band." Jin scowled. "Why are you even here? I thought you were cozy with the Amma?"

  Pax stiffened. "I do not get cozy with anyone. I am here to acquire gold, which is quite valuable where I am going, hire some swords who are loyal to me, not the Amma, and recruit a few young magicians to offset some other allies of mine. I appreciate your providing the last. I thought I'd need to travel up to Gemstone to find some of the Scoone Wizards' spawn."

  "You were talking politics, in town."

  Pax snorted. "A reflex I have. Handy, if the comet misses. But enough talk." Peace waved his men forward.

  Three men acting together. Not a good place to be. "Peace, my ass. You're nothing but a warmonger and a kidnapper."

  The spurs drove home and the horse squealed as it jumped forward. The guards' formation fell apart as their horses shied away from the palomino.

  Jin dodged the palomino, reversed his direction suddenly and lunged at the nearest guard. His sword was battered down, but slid between the saddle and leg to stab deep into the man's thigh. Blood spurted, and Jin threw himself backwards to avoid the man's return thrust. He dodged behind the horse as the string of pack animals crashed into the fray, still tied together, barely steered, as Luz had only the lead line and his heels. Jin ran up behind a guard that turned to strike the boy, and slid his sword under his backplate and up. He withdrew the sword and was knocked spinning to the ground. The palomino reared, and he tried to bring his sword around. Hooves crashed to the ground on either side of his head, and he stabbed the sword up between the horse's front legs and back to cut the girth. The horse reared, and he rolled frantically out of the way as the horse threw his rider, and in a tangle of rear girth and breast straps and dangling saddle, turned to savage the god. A hoof sent the man flying and the palomino pounced. Jin had one glimpse of the bloodied god staring at the descending hooves, then the god disappeared. Jin ran around the crazed animal and found himself facing the last guard. Card, with a manic grin, drove his mount forward to crash into the ridden horse's hind quarters. The horse scrambled to stay on his feet and Jin jumped in and grabbed the guard's sword arm and dragged him off the horse as he slashed his sword across his neck. A quick scan showed the other two men he'd stabbed both down on the ground. The first was still conscious, hands clamped to his thigh to stop the bleeding, desperation in his eyes.