by Pam Uphoff
Ask waved her over as she passed her house. "Are you going to do it right now?"
"I'm going to try. I don't know if I can even open a gate without Wolf."
Ask grinned. "What did I just hear a witch say?"
Rustle laughed. The beauty of riding Phantom was that she didn't need to find any of the clumsy stone gates, they just jumped the fence. A small herd of bison shifted away. They hadn't been hunted enough to be truly afraid of people. I'll have to take some of them through as well, start building up a good selection of wildlife. She dismounted and wiggled her toes into the gritty soil.
She closed her eyes and looked for bubbles, and then hunted through them for the spinning tops. Grabbed one and slowed it. Stuck it onto that strange World that had no animals. Then she caught another and twisted them together, and pulled the flat top toward her.
"There's the gate. Now who's going to volunteer a tree?" She turned around and raised her eyebrows as the size of her audience sank in.
Nil looked disgusted. "I can't see what she's doing."
Romeau frowned. "I can't duplicate it. I think this may take the Wizard X with the Witch X."
Richie nodded. "We need to find more people with that combo."
"Do you think you could do it in pairs?" Rustle waved at the people coming and going through the gate. "All the Goat Boys have the Wizard genes. In fact Havi's got the Wizard X and the Mage Y. Where is he?" Oh crap. Now I'm in trouble.
"On the other side laughing his head off." Dydit's gaze was unfocused. "Once she had that spinning thing, I could see it. But I can't see well enough to spot any more."
Justice was cross-legged on the ground. "I can't either. I tried to follow the gate, but all I got was a head ache."
"How about catching bubbles and scooping up houses and trees and so forth?" Rustle looked around hopefully.
Dydit, Justice . . . Old Gods! Lots of them. Gisele and Logic, as well as Harry, Richie and Romeau. The goat boys all joined in, and the mage boys. The witches and the farmer girls pointed out the trees to use for the first test, and no one commented on the unexpected powers of the formerly unpowered. Answer is going to find out! Maybe I'll just avoid Ash for the rest of my life.
The first trees had no problem crossing the gate. The houses followed quickly. Hell and the Auld Wulf showed up. A complete stranger—who looked a bit like her father—came a sat with an absent expression for a long time.
He blinked up at Hell. "Well, what were the odds of that!" He stood up and disappeared.
"The God of Chance. Chauncy . . . something or other." Romeau walked through the gate, dozens of bubbles stuck all over himself.
Eventually the baffled Gods went away. Her dad hugged her, hugged Xen, gawped at Xen's horse . . .
Rustle staggered over to the goat boys. "Listen up. I'm too tired to do anything else right now, but I could shove the gate around, slowly, with much effort. I ought to have thought and put the end down in the Rip, so you could be close to the Inn and hot springs and all. If you lot can do it, just work away at it. It's only thirty miles or so."
She yawned. "I need to sleep for about three days. Somebody take me home."
"May I?"
She turned and grinned. "Just the man I had in mind."
"Hey, Wolf? How far, how fast do you have to run when she loses her temper?"
Richie received a rude gesture and Wolf scooped her up and dropped her on his bed. "Little Rustle, I really hadn't thought about moving a village piece by piece, orchards, gardens, houses, and all like that. What will you do tomorrow, to top it?"
"Figure out how to disassemble a gate." She yawned and snuggled into the bed. "Try to make one to a different World . . . "
"Then the diplomats can try to get the other countries to try it as well." The Auld Wulf sighed, and she heard the weariness in his voice. Or perhaps it was resignation.
We'll save more people this time than last, but it still won't be everyone. Unless we can make that comet miss.
Chapter Thirty-four
1375 Fall Equinox
Ash
The Auld Wulf looked around the tavern.
The meeting was more or less planned. Everyone knew about it. A couple of young mages lurked in a corner but Beck hadn't come. Lefty and Question were back, with old Selano and the three Army Mages. A wide variety of witches. Richie, Logic and Hell had joined their usual four Gods. Chance had wandered in late and sat down like he belonged.
"Rustle, I don't remember really clearly, but I do remember that some Worlds are dangerous." Harry frowned, and the other gods looked suddenly thoughtful. "I think you need to experiment at enough distance that we have time to deal with problems before they start eating people."
"Dinosaurs." Romeau scowled. "I think we opened some gates . . . didn't we?"
"Reggie, the camera tech." Giselle shivered. "Yes, a small—for a dinosaur—predator or some such, wasn't it? Raptor? I think it had feathers."
Harry frowned. "I don't remember specifics. But I think maybe you should make your experimental gates . . . well, how about a couple of hundred miles to the west? There's some spring grazing out there, but the ranchers have all moved their herds to the river or up into the mountains. You've got enough power to travel from there to here, and I'll get you a strong location there that you can use."
The Auld Wolf shifted uncertainly. "It's a long way from Karista, if we were to try to evacuate. But we could stretch corridors."
Rustle nodded. "I didn't think about dangerous animals, just about the people that might be on the other side. I still haven't figured out how to make the gates let go, which could be awkward, if I did find a world full of . . . dino-whatevers. Perhaps I ought to do it in the New Lands."
The Auld Wulf shook his head. "We're running out of time to stretch corridors. If we need to evacuate whole cities, we'll need to start laying the routes now. I'll get together with Rufi and organize that."
Answer ran a finger along the polished wood of the table. "All the strongest witches will be needed to try and divert the Comet. We can assemble very close to two triads at every level. The youngsters . . . Rustle, when you find a safe World, may we get a gate to it here in the Village? All the youngsters and the mage families can take refuge there, so we don't have to worry about them." She eyed Rustle's growing girth. "That was bad timing, hopefully you'll deliver before the Comet arrives, a bad power drain could be dangerous for the child. Keep that in mind while you're making gates, too."
The Auld Wulf shifted guiltily. What was I thinking of? But aloud he avoided the subject. "I have corridors now from here to three places in southern Auralia, all along the track the astronomers have plotted. We can get down there quickly and easily, without any of us expending energy teleporting."
Logic was taking notes. "So, we try to divert the comet. We evacuate some people through gates. Are we also going to try to shield some cities? Here in the northern hemisphere we'll need mainly a stabilization spell, against earthquakes and a physical shield for the blast. Long term—Gisele, you said the atmosphere was barely breathable?"
"Yes. Nasty but breathable. Many wild animals survived. I think a single one of us could hold a city sized shield for a few hours. So the problem would be getting people to evacuate through a corridor to a gate before we collapsed from exhaustion. Umm, it was a near thing, that first year. We'd trade off, the witches for a third of the day, then the one mage and one wizard we had, and then I'd hold it until the witches could pick it up again. Once the winter rains returned they washed most of the worst out of the air, and we could release the shield for days at a time. We had to make lights for the plants to grow, for years after that. Umm, yes. Logic, if you could shield Karista, Harry Havewee, and Richie Farofo. I'll suggest to Mercy that she abandon Scoone and help us, so no doubt she'll stay there and protect them."
"Last time I stayed away, to not ruin anything." Hell's dogs whined uneasily, at his worried voice tones.
The Auld Wulf eyed him. "You seemed to have
gotten control of your worst effects, and you . . . weren't you good at telekinesis?"
Hell's lips twitched. "Yes, not that my use of it made me very popular."
"So. Here's a proper challenge, save the World and impress Trump. For that matter save her and that herd of little girls."
The God of Just Deserts nodded. "She's already told me she'll be down there with everyone. So I will be too. But if you think I'm interfering, send me away."
Trump poked him. "Stop being so pessimistic. Sometimes just deserts are good things. After all I got you. So you will help them."
The corners of the god's eyes crinkled and all four dogs wagged their tails and tried to squeeze in closer to the pair of them.
"Roses are Red, violets are blue
Tromp and Hell. What! Who?"
Romeau winced at the glares. "Sorry, best I could come up with at the moment."
"I thought it was one of your better ones, dear." Gisele patted his arm. "Are you going to shield Cadent?"
"I suppose I'd better. But this time you had better be able to talk to me afterwards."
She sniffed. "You gave up too quickly. Remember that we will all be very, very tired."
"We have two months to work out details." The Auld Wulf refused to let his fear show. "We'll do it."
Chapter Thirty-five
1375 Late Fall
Gate Camp, Asia
Opinion felt the shield snap into place. "Who did that? Damn those Old Gods! Somebody needs to warn us before they do things!" She threw up a block to limit the effects in the Bank.
Particular gulped, "I don't think this is the Auld Wulf. It's got a nasty feel to it."
"Ambassador, get out the back door!" Lefty yelled. "All staff, run for it!"
Catti stood up, "I think it's time to go."
Opinion and Particular stood up and they edged over to where they could look out the front doors. The Earth people were all laying on the ground, and a very tall thin man with golden hair was strolling toward the gate.
"Are they dead? Maybe that was just an area-wide sleep or stun spell." Catti's voice had an edge of panic.
Opinion raised her voice. "We've got a block up, but it's not holding, get everyone out."
The two triads of witches backed away carefully.
"What sort of spell is this, it's really complex." Particular frowned as she slowly backed away, expertly managing the power of the triad.
"I think it's a travel spell. I've seen Rustle do it." Opinion reached back and started physically pushing people toward the back door. "Move!"
"What the hell is happening?" Brad yelled running in from the men's quarters.
Oscar bolted in the front doors. "The Golden Boy appears to be trying to travel the whole Gate Camp. We're right on the boundary."
Marble buildings were not supposed to creak.
Lefty shoved the Ambassador, grabbed Question and yanked her through the door. She dragged a protesting Jek. "I want to watch!"
"Not from inside!" Lefty started grabbing people and hauling them out. "Stop looking and run! Ambassador, keep going and get a head count of your people."
"Opinion, keep moving!" He backed away, giving them room to exit as a group. "Who's left inside?"
Opinion backed up faster, to not jamb up in a doorway. "It's those stupid mages! Those pregnant women can't run and I think one of them is in labor.
"Hurry!" She led the witches out the door, leaned hard mentally, trying to block a god. "He's doing it right now."
The second triad leaped out the door, scrambled backwards as the building disappeared.
Catti gulped. "The Mages?"
"They're wherever the God of Peace dumped them." Lefty frowned at the hole the bank building used to fill, then over at the . . . odd ground where the Earth people's camp and gate had been. "Or maybe not, they seem to have broken out of the area-for-area part of the spell."
Benri limped over to them. "That was just a bit spectacular. Do you know where they went?"
"Probably Auralia, Pax has been tight with them for years." The Auld Wulf stepped out of nowhere, and frowned at the hole. "Oscar and Bran really need to stop doing things like this." He looked around the other way. "Yhou moigh as will cumb in. We dent dew it, and yhou are gone toe be marooned intull yer peoples dew sumthin."
After a moment, Earth soldiers in their strange splotchy uniforms eased up out of the grass.
Catti tilted her head. "You sure do blend in, but gosh those uniforms are ugly."
The Auld Wulf disappeared suddenly.
The Earth soldiers stared, then circled the group to approach the dry, hard packed ground where their camp had stood. The witches walked down as well, and a couple of Benri's staff. One of them crouched and crumbled the dry dirt in his hands. "Full of sand. Must be Auralia, the soil is just like this all around their capital."
The Auld Wulf popped back in, and addressed the soldiers. "De Astronomer's argh okay. De Science Camp argh okay. Dey come in floater."
The default leader edged forward. "Thanks, um, we all speak pretty good Western by now."
"Glad to hear it. My Merican is badly out of date, and nearly forgotten." The Auld Wulf scratched his jaw. "Do you know if your people can re-establish a gate without the locator . . . or if the Auralian's keep the locator running, will the gate automatically open wherever it is? Crap! Are those idiots going to invade Earth?"
"What? You weirdos? Invade, with magic and swords? What a joke!" The soldier crossed his arms and glowered.
"Hope I'm wrong. The Amma's tight with that One World you people are throwing fits about." The Auld Wulf sighed. "What a cluster fuck."
"I think I'd better report this." Benri said.
"Of course. I'll take everyone back to Karista and Ash." The god looked at the soldiers. "I expect you'll want to stay here, or with the Science Camp. I'll see about food and so on."
The soldier nodded warily.
Opinion held out her hands, but Catti shook her head. "I'll stay and watch. In case they do something else."
The rest of them joined up and Karista formed around them. As usual a carriage waited to take people from Ba'al's temple to the Royal Palace.
"Home, or here, Ladies?"
"Here," Opinion sighed. "We'd best report in as well."
"Rufi and the King will appreciate it." Lefty sighed. "I'll bet I wind up going to Fascia to find out if that is where Pax took the gate anchor."
Benri and the Auld Wulf both nodded.
"Come to Ash. I'll teleport you down there and back."
"Thanks. Otherwise the news will be stale, and probably too late to matter."
"I'll let everyone in Ash know what's going on, then feed the troops." The Auld Wulf said, and disappeared again.
"Does he ever get tired?" Benri asked.
"Oh yes, and then he sleeps for a year and wakes up younger than ever. Gods may claim they're just people, but most of us know better."
"Sleeps for a year?" Benri said.
"Rumor has it that the last time he did that, a witch slipped into his bed and seduced him. By the time he woke up he was a father and thought it was all a dream."
"You witches are pretty scary too."
***
The Auld Wulf walked back into Harry's and found a reception committee.
"In case that person thought he could take us." Answer nodded decisively.
"I think he wanted the gate anchor. If he can compel the Earthers to keep it working until the gate opens again, then go through and compel those people to keep the gate open, he can move troops through until someone realizes there is a problem and shuts down the power from outside Pax's area of influence."
"Wolf, they can't fight a modern army!" Harry protested.
"Depends on how much help they're getting from the One World, doesn't it? If Pax's been across, seen what Never and Question saw, will he think he can take it and hold it?"
"The Earth's Gate Complex is over twenty miles from anything, and any larger cities are fu
rther. It is located in a very remote area." Never said.
Dydit nodded. "The soldiers refer to it as Nowhereistan."
Wolf snorted. "Actually, why would Pax or the Amma want the Earth? He may just hold it long enough to get all of his group through, then switch the gate to somewhere else, and leave."
Nil gave a narrow smile. "Good thought. Sabotage the gate, and or wipe the memories of the people who know where they went. Very handy. Better let the King know something is going to happen in Auralia. Not that this is a good time to take advantage of it and start a war. I wonder how many people the Amma's taking with him?"
The Auld Wulf cocked his head. "I wonder how much of his army those One Worlders have trained and equipped? It could get really interesting, if you find the opening shots of a cross-dimensional war interesting."
Harry snorted. "Only if we wind up in the middle of it."
Chapter Thirty-six
1375 Late Fall
Fascia, Auralia
Lefty eyed the main street of Fascia. "Hard to believe the Amma, the king of a huge empire, would just abandon it, like this."
"Pax saw what the comet fall did to the world last time. Finding a new world, without that threat always hanging overhead is certainly attractive. Whether he used magic to influence the Amma, or just laid out the facts, we'll probably never know." The big man frowned at the road. "More soldiers leaving the palace."
"They're escorting carriages. The Amma's family?"
"Yes, they're packed with women and children."
"Let's follow them." Lefty turned and started walking.
Out of the city of Fascia, west out onto the flat plains, where a camp was in the process of being abandoned. The Earther's camp. The narrow gate anchor building was open, the gate active, soldiers marching through. The mounted troops and carriages rolled straight through the captured gate, interrupting the marching soldiers.
"No sign of the Earthers." Lefty gnawed his lip. "Poor damn fools, captured in this poisonous society." He flicked a glance back at the city. "I hate this place. Even invading soldiers deserve better."