by Pam Uphoff
"Elegant told you it was a bad match. I told you it was a bad match." Answer gestured to Furious to get out the deep pot to scald the birds for plucking. "You should have listened."
Justice nodded. "I'll give her six more months to come into power, then I'm afraid I'll have to try again."
Never shivered at the thought. Bearing a daughter might lift a woman from Crescent to Half, but the next stage couldn't be reached without the joy of feeling one’s own child reaching out and seizing her own power. Question had been having her moon times for over a year now, with no stirring of power at all. All that work, and the little wretch just wanted to run the hills with Harry's orphaned wild boys. The other two girls of the Triad of the New Moon had just had their first moon times, so it was nothing unusual that they hadn't yet grasped the power.
Well, Grandmother was the oldest member of the Dark Crescent, and she thought this pretty noble would be a good match, so hopefully Never wouldn't find herself in such an awkward position.
Abandoning her worries, she took the basket of bread and a bowl of creamy fresh-churned butter out into the tap room.
***
Bail resisted looking at the voluptuous bar maid, suspecting the mayor had fetched the prettiest girl in town to distract him from the negotiations. He needed all his wits about him, no doubt about that! The mutton turning on the spit in the public square might be a free feast for his men, but it was clearly going to be the last free anything he got from this mayor.
"So, if we provide eight sheep and one fatted ox and a hundredweight each of flour and potatoes per month, we'll get one hundred royals of tax credit. Now, what about hay and grain?" The mayor had beautiful, perfect, white teeth. She apparently used them to eat army captains.
Who'd have thought I'd need an accountant and a negotiator out here? I don't even have a quartermaster up here yet. "At this point I don't know how large a garrison the king will post out here, so I'll just purchase what we need for the animals we have now, for the summer. Our survey should be done by then, and construction won't start until next year after the thaw." Old gods, that bar maid was spectacular! Deep honey-tanned skin and bright blonde hair. Striking blue eyes . . . And clearly set on the lieutenant. Bail ruefully admitted that he was more than a bit lacking in the sort of looks that attracted the ladies. Maybe there were some plain girls about, that wouldn't mind . . . "Sorry, what was that?" He flushed, realizing that he had indeed been distracted.
"You've got six heavy harness horses, and three riding horses." The tavern owner had rolled up his shirtsleeves and made himself comfortable.
The number and pattern of scars on his forearms confirmed his past as a soldier. But there weren't any of the tattoos that were ubiquitous in the ranks, so he'd been an officer, possibly well-born. What was he doing up here in a tiny village?
"So, then, grain and hay for the summer. Shall we say another hundred royals?"
"For hay, oh surely not." Bail pulled his mind back to the finances. "We'll graze the beasts when we're not using them. We'll want ten hundred weights of oats and twice that of barley . . . "
***
"You're supposed to be seducing the lieutenant, not the captain!” Happy snapped.
"A bit of competition is supposed to help,” Never sniffed. "Besides, I think he's being a bit tight with his tax certificates. So I was helping the mayor, too."
Old Blissful cackled. "The mayor can take care of herself, girl. You stick to what's best for the Pyramid of the Moon. I don't like it, that neither Likely or Mostly conceived. We're counting on you to keep it from being three in a row. There's whole Pyramids that have collapsed, when the children stopped being able to grasp power." She glanced at the back door, but said nothing about Question.
"Yes, Blissful." Never picked up another bottle of the Auld Wulf's red wine and twisted in the cork screw. A vineyard shouldn't have been able to survive in the mountains, but he'd planted along the outlet of the southern hot springs, and hadn't lost a crop to a freeze that she'd ever heard.
The northern hot springs belonged to the Sisters of the Moon. No one in the valley went up there but the Sisters.
The lieutenant leered at her when she poured his wine, but with a quick glance at his superior officer, refrained from pinching her bottom. Just as well. She was too excited to do a good job of looking indignant, and if he got lazy and took her availability for granted she'd get very little boost out of loosing her virginity. Really, she couldn't just leap on him, she had to make him work to get her. He had to yearn. Maybe even ache or burn.
She poured for the captain, Harry and Mayor Accure, cast a glance through her eyelashes at the lieutenant, and headed back toward the kitchen.
The lieutenant rose and stepped after her. She turned back in surprise, and he took her hand. And put a coin in it. "My room, as soon as you can."
She stared at him, shocked as he dropped a kiss on her gaping mouth, then lifted her knee as hard as she could.
***
"Well, wasn't that clever, Lieutenant Trehem." Bail looked down at the hunched figure in exasperation. "You really do need to learn the difference between a woman who's swooning over your good looks, and a cheap whore."
Byson stiffened indignantly. Sergeant Gruff had stopped in at an opportune time, and been available to cart Byson upstairs while Bail finished being skinned by the mayor. Gruff had given him an update on the men—well fed and all bedded down in the Grange barn, no problems.
Bail continued. “You should have been paying attention to the meeting with the village elders. Thank the old gods that young woman isn't related to either of them. For some strange reason they did not seem inclined to invite us back, or mention that the men coming to town to spend their hard-earned money would be welcome. Even if the woman had been a whore, leaving the table during negotiations to pick her up was hardly impressive." Bail shook his head in despair. "Have a good night's sleep, Lieutenant."
He stalked out and sought his own bed. Old gods! It was clean. No fleas, no bed bugs. The water in the pitcher was hot. There was even a little lump of soap. A soft towel.
He recalled Gruff's words. "All the pretty women are in here. Lefty says he scouted out six young'uns and three that were close enough to still be damned good lookin', all back there in the kitchen. And you say you never saw but the one?" He'd glanced up the stairs and nearly lost control of his lips. "And she kicked his lordship in the nads?" he'd shaken his head. "This one I want to meet."
Bail dried his face on the towel, and crawled into bed. He gave up and let the smile out. That gorgeous woman had kneed Byson. Maybe she'd like an ugly man with good manners.
***
"I don't believe I did that." Never thumped her head on the wall behind her chair. "I can't believe I was that stupid."
"Well, dear, you were a bit obvious." Happy was placing exact stitches in a pieced bodice. All her extra money came from selling her exquisite embroidery down in the capital city of Karista. She had a single client, a duchess, who paid extraordinary amounts of money to ensure she remained Happy's only client. "Or are you trying for a rape? I've always considered that such a cheap way to increase the man's psychic energy. One worries about the violence bleeding over, you know?"
"No, Mother, I am not going to drive him to rape me." Never hesitated over the thought, then blew out her breath. "Maybe I should turn him over to Mostly or Likely."
"Don't you dare!" Happy's eyes sparked. "I want to see those beautiful blue eyes in a granddaughter of mine. He reminds me of my first." She sighed at the memory. "And only. I caught right away."
Never laughed and stepped over to hug her mother. "Don't worry! I'll get you up to the Waning Half Moon Level before Glorious or Furious."
"Hmph! I certainly hope so! With all these new men around though, all three of you may increase all at once."
"That would upset the Pyramid, wouldn't it! Only Curious is showing signs of darkening."
"I'm sure we'd survive, dear. I rather suspect Delight's
and Elegant's moon cycles are limping a bit, too." She bit her lip, uncertainly. "We need one of them to advance soon. The Triad of the Dark Crescent is broken, and that's dangerous. The Dark Crescent is the strongest of the Triads."
And Blissful and Answer are both so old. Never didn't say it out loud. Losing the whole of the Dark Crescent would mean loosing not just power, but knowledge. The Sisters of the Waning Half were taught most of the spells of the Dark Crescent, but not all, and they couldn't try out that academic knowledge until the menopause was complete. Granny Zero had died over the winter. The knowledge rested only in the minds of two elderly women. It was time for an advancement.
She hesitated, then brought up something she'd wondered about. "Mother, why is there such a gap between the ages of the Dark Crescent and the ages of the Waning Half? How old were . . . who were their mothers'?"
"Oh dear. Well, you've heard about the Auralian War?"
"When King Haro, the father of King Rebo, fought off the Auralian invasion?"
"Yes. There was a lot of power expended in that war. The last of the wizards died in the battle and the mages lost a lot, too. The witches, the Sisters of the Moon, lost nearly everything. Zero was a Sister of the Full Moon, Answer and Blissful were just Sisters of the Half Moon, and survivors of two different pyramids. A single Sister of the Dark Crescent survived. Tragedy, her name was. She died when I was just a little girl. We think there were other survivors, but we've never found them. There is so little magic around now, we just sort of keep quiet about it."
"So they all lost their first daughters?"
"Yes. But however bitter, they knew they had to carry on the Pyramid. Zero gave birth to Curious before they even arrived here, and Answer and Blissful were pregnant when they arrived. Then they waited ten years to have Furious, Glorious and me. So the timing would work out for rebuilding the Pyramid.”
Never knitted her brows. "I guess I knew the Waning Halves and the Full Moons were sisters in fact as well as Sisters of the Moon. I just, I thought we could only have one child. I never worked it out. Silly of me."
"We usually do just have one. It's deadly to our powers to actually fall in love with a man and dedicate ourselves to him, so it's best this way." She shuffled a bit. "And children take up a huge amount of time as well. But we need to have them to advance our ability to manipulate power, we have to have them for the next generation of witches . . . and we love them. We need them for our humanness."
"I don't see why you can't care for a man and still dedicate yourself to the Moon."
Happy chuckled. "Ah, the innocence of youth. Men have expectations. Not of sex." She held up a hand to forestall comment. "Or, not only of sex. They expect their wife to cook and keep house, to sew and mend and wash. To be with them on social occasions, whether high or low. Bit by bit, like water on rock, they will wear a woman away with their expectations, until the moon is forgotten."
"But we already keep house and mend and sew for ourselves, for our children and mothers and grandmothers." Never considered the women of the village, but that didn't help. The mayor had no husband. Old Lady Gisele lived alone . . . "Harry, the Auld Wulf, and Beck Butcher are the only men in the village. And only Beck is married. But he's a mage, like the farmers and Coo Miller, so they swap wives around all the time, don't they? Oh, and the Sheep Man, but nobody would marry him."
Happy opened her mouth then shut it firmly.
Never wondered what she hadn't said, and resolved to look into the situation. "I never thought about how different from the rest of the world we are. How different from everything in the books."
"It's the power, dear. Women are at a serious disadvantage without it, and that has shaped the greater society. By and large their society is shaped to protect women and children."
"Huh. Well, shouldn't we try to have more children and form a second pyramid?"
"Oh, no, dear. That's not how it's done." Happy faltered. “Well, that's not how it used to happen. You see, If Curious, Delight and Elegant were to all pass the menopause while Answer and Blissful yet live, we'd have too many Sisters of the Dark Crescent. Or if Opinion, Particular and Question all grasped power this year we'd have too many Sisters of the Crescent Moon. When there were several pyramids in communication with each other, they could combine their extras into a new pyramid that is close enough to full strength to protect itself. Of course, advancement isn't that simple. Our Elder Sisters are all very powerful, among the most powerful women in the world. That's why they survived. We children and grandchildren need to remember that not all witches will advance to the Dark Crescent. Some women simply aren't powerful enough, and no matter their time of life, simply don't advance past a certain point."
"I see. But that doesn't answer the problem of expansion. Trading extras won't work anymore. We simply need more daughters."
Happy sighed. "Well, yes, dear. We may well have to consider having more daughters." She stared her daughter straight in the eye with sudden sternness. "But no husbands."
***
Bail got them out of town the next morning. "Bit of time in the saddle will loosen you up,” he told Byson.
The young noble glowered at him. "I am not suffering from stiff muscles." He eased himself down into the saddle, carefully.
"And something else ain't stiff either." The whisper was quiet enough that Bail decided he could ignore it.
"Let's move out."
Sergeant Gruff, no fool, had already sent the wagons on, and had the men in marching order.
The road was drier, this side of town, rising toward a pair of smallish mountains. Small compared to the cloud-piercing giants to their right, at any rate. Harry had told him that the road would take them between the two mountains, and down to the Old Road. Fort Stag would be just a few miles east.
Bail ran an experienced eye over the lines of soldiers and found it light. "Scouts out, sergeant?”
"Yep. It's good for them."
Bail nodded. Gruff had saved his neck too many times for him to not pay attention to his hunches. "Expecting anything in particular?"
"Nope, this valley just gives me the willies. It just ain't natural."
"What do you mean?"
Gruff waved at the fields showing the tender shoots of some grain crop. "Where are the farmers? I asked, and there's all these women who do most of the farming. There's not hardly any men around here, maybe six of the farm families actually have a man there. The butcher, the miller, some madman with sheep and goats, the tavern owner, a fellow up in the hills that brews that wine you were appreciating last night. That's it. Eleven men. Some orphan boys that Harry looks after, but he had them out running messages to the sheep man and the miller and the butcher, and starting some sheep and cattle moving toward Fort Stag. There's twenty-four women. Even if you figured all the men were married, and they aren't, that'd be thirteen maidens in a little bitty village."
"Something happened to the men? Bandits?"
The lieutenant sneered. "More like the men are the bandits. That'd explain why the village is so prosperous-looking.”
"I never did see this group of women Lefty thinks was in the tavern kitchen."
"All banded together to watch out for each other." The sergeant glanced back at the lieutenant. "You'd almost think they were afraid to risk their reputations. Sounds like some nasty characters to me."
"And the children." Bail frowned, searching his memory. "There were teenagers, but I don't think I saw a single child under ten or any babies. The young woman was past twenty. Surely she's married, had a child or two by now?"
Byson shuddered. "Plague, d'ya think?"
"Actually I was wondering about hostages. Plague? There hasn't been one for decades, but now that you mention it, I'd prefer hostages. We'll have to keep an eye on the situation. When I send the first dispatch to General Baring, I'll mention it; ask specifically about bandits possibly based up here. And any reports of sicknesses."
Chapter Three
Early Spring 1352
Village of Ash
Never paused on the crest of a hill, checking the locations of the cattle, sheep and goats grazing on the high pastures. The Sheep Man had his huge flock spread out to the north, all the cattle were well south. Everything peaceful. They cut straight across the meadows to the forest before turning north. No reason to walk through the sheep. They certainly were not avoiding the Sheep Man's black goats. Even if they were the nastiest creatures in all creation. Rumors that he'd lost a lamb to wolves five years previously were generally considered gross exaggerations.
"And then they left. Pulled out first thing in the morning." Kindly pressed her lips together. "I can't imagine you'll get another shot at the man, even if he comes back."
Kindly was a Sister of the Half Moon. As soon as her daughter Particular grasped power, Kindly would advance to the Triad of the Full Moon. And, of course, those Sisters were waiting to hold their granddaughters and advance in joy to the Triad of the Waning Half. Which explained her exasperation with a Crescent who couldn't even manage to lose her virginity.
"I think it was great." Question had sneaked up unheard. "I wish I'd have seen it."
Kindly shook her head. "It was painful to watch. The man deserved it, but honestly, Never should have seduced him first."
Never winced. Their group of women, seventeen total, seemed so tiny against the spread of the valley, the hundreds of sheep. She turned and followed her grandmother, a hundred-and-twenty-year-old repository of academic knowledge and the traditions of a witches' pyramid. Blissful was not much younger. They were two deaths away from losing incredible powers and abilities.
I can throw rocks around.
The forest trail was shaded and cold; patches of snow lingered to the north of the large trees. The trail wound about, turned east to reach the hard black rock of the mountains, and finally dropped down into the gully. Mist rose from the trickle of water, and the temperature of the air rose, along with the faint odor of the hot springs. But the slight wind flowing through the gully cleared the air above the springs themselves. The arc of a low cliff sheltered the three springs, and the pools that gathered their water. There was no vegetation here, just the clean dark rock and the water. A stream of cold water, snow melt, poured over the cliff to the left, and splashed into the first pool, cooling it. The overflow cascaded into the second pool, and then the third.